Anime's Biggest Problem: Women.

Women in anime are a problem... Let me explain.
No major spoilers included :)

#ThisIsChris #Anime #SpyxFamily

Women in anime are not the best. A lot of the time they only exist as fan servce, or as an accessory to a male lead (such as Uraraka, or Mikasa). This occurs especially in Shonen Anime such as, My hero Academia, Demon Slayer, Attack on titan and more. There are a couple of decent anime with decent women- such as Jujutsu Kaizen, but they are far in few between. Today I want to talk about why that is.

Mikasa Ackerman, Nezuko, Maki Zenin and Nobara Kugisaki. I asked 100 YouTubers, Spring Anime 2022, Spy x Family, Hunter x Hunter. Japan. Women in Anime.

[randomcheeto]

As once it was said: " we don't need female strong characters, we just need strong characters who happen to be female"

[ultimatdanklin]

This is why I love Ghibli. All the characters are well written and thought out regardless of gender.

[harrisonmcglothin]

The worst part about momo's design is the fact her suit could open from the back instead and it would serve a better purpose aesthetically because she'd literally be pulling schemes from behind her back

[petscopstan]

The fact that Hange is a f*cking weirdo, and not like most female characters that are written to be attractive to some extent just makes her so much better.

[samfleming]

Fullmetal Alchemist has some really well written women too. And it was written by a woman so that’s sick

[idekwtfqqq]

I like how Anya isn’t just a plot device or a kid to act cute and precious, she feels like an actual kid a lil gremlin

[genderno]

another reason i love jjk, specifically the way that the women are portrayed, is that their uniforms look like actual japanese school uniforms. not those short plad mini skirts, a bit longer and even going past the knee.

i also think another show that does women well is aharen is incomprehensible. aharen is very funny and does strange or off things just because its her personality.

[geovannagriiettner]

one of the main things i like about jjk's women (especially the students) is that their uniform is just a uniform. They don't open their buttons to show cleavage, and their skirts are down to their knees. Like THAT is what a school uniform is. Not mini sailor skirts that shows their bum when they fall.

[gloomypup]

As a woman, I love that men are discussing this tbh. It seems like something thats always been brushed aside when I bring up my problems with certain shows, like they give me a "what did you expect" mentality. Thats why AOT is one of my all time favorites, amazing show and historia and ymir are two of my absolute favorite characters that happen to be gay for each other WITHOUT it being a male fantasy thing which OMGGG AS a gay woman that hit the SPOT. I think a lot of shows don't understand the untapped market of well written female characters.

[TheTalkedSpy]

Another thing you could say about Momo that makes her a bad female character is that it doesn't make sense for her to wear such a revealing outfit if one of her key personality traits is her LACK of self-confidence.

[zqdiitv]

In Jujutsu Kaisen Nobara is an outstanding character. It doesn’t matter what she does the animators don’t sexualize her. She actually acts like a real girl liking mall shopping and girly things while also being a strong and independent character who idolizes a women as a woman; which is a really rare thing in to see anime. She doesn’t simp for her male peers which is also rare and she is an amazing comedic relief who risked her life to safe a few bucks. Nobara also has a lot of imperfections while being rude, selfish and very prideful but she is still very likable and relatable. Gege Akutami also broke a norm of anime with her it being how every time there is a woman there is a love life but with Nobara we get to see an anime girl who is prideful, girly and independent who is neither stronger nor weaker than men.

[sydneyslaughter]

I can’t remember who said it, but “the key to writing a good female character is to create a good character and then make them female”. I feel like sometimes writers don’t realize it’s that easy

[donthaveonern]

Golden Kamuy, Jujutsu Kaisen, JoJo, Madoka Magica and Fullmetal Alchemist treat their female respectfully and they feel like human beings. They're also just incredible series in general.

[sanaixo]

I never understood the idea of sexualizing female armor. Male armor barely shows any skin, but when it comes to female armor its usually much tighter and has the iconic boob window, which doesn't really make sense and destroys the entire idea of armor since it fully exposes the heart.. They also have an obsession with adding heels to the design, which again is a horrible idea considering the fact that it would almost be impossible to fight in them.

[justsomeguywithagoatee]

1:50 thing that pisses me off was she was brimming with confidence when she was first introduced. She was the first to answer All-Might's questions and nail them. Her quirk is literally the most versatile and useful to ALL SITUATIONS in the entire series. She can make poison, bombs, projectiles, melee weapons, bandages, antidotes and any tool she needs out of thin air. She's like Sakura from Naruto. Has OP powers. Capable of healing and damage and yet manages to be useless more often than not.

[rcceguy]

Let's talk about Makima from the manga/anime Chainsaw Man though. Also a well-written woman VILLAIN character. I love how she has her own goals and manipulates and uses people to get what she wants. She even has her own personality, which is quite intimidating, although there was a little bit of fan service in Makima and in the manga/anime but at least it was necessary. There's more to her character that I can't explain but I recommend reading the manga.

[vikasjindal]

fun fact hanji was not written as a female or male character, the writer decided the gender based on the view of reader, how they see hanji, and decided to make her female in the Anime

[SnepSquad]

I’m glad people are discussing this. Personally, I’ve always found that the constant oversexualization of women and the multiple anime that depict women beating up men for no good reason other than they’re unnaturally angry all the time or won’t bother to even try to understand situations and fly off the handle randomly.
Sure, there may be some people like that, but the majority of women I know aren’t overly emotional angry physical assaulters, nor do they have 2-dimensional personalities like these shows tend to portray.

Definitely want to see more anime in the future with fleshed out female characters with realistic personalities, not sexist eye candy characters. It’s a cheap, lazy cop out that needs to stop.

[kenslycarpel]

I believe there are 3 types of female characters you can write:

FEMALE characters: A character with little to no good characterization, with their main thing being that they’re the “girl” of the group.

Female CHARACTERS: Someone with good characterization, and just happens to be a woman.

FEMALE CHARACTERS: Someone with good characterization, but part of the reason that characterization is good is because they’re specifically a woman, and if they were written as a man, it wouldn’t be the same.

[elianperezjaber]

If you really like well written female characters I would suggest The Promised Neverland (have only seen season 1), and Fullmetal Alchemist, and Norogami (both literally written by women). I'd also suggest Blue Exorcist since the female characters are very well-written but they're also hardly plot relevant and there are only like two main female characters