Weeks 5 and 6
Princess Mononoke
1) What is the ‘shojo’ and how does it often function in anime?
2) According to Lent
(2000) what place does animation occupy in Asian societies? How different is
this across Asia (i.e. comparing Japan and China)?
3)Is anime a high or low cultural genre/media, according to Napier (2005)? What are some of its subgenres?
4)Does Anime confront social issues? Gender roles in
Princess Mononoke.
*Shoujo
ReplyDeleteThe word “shojo(or shoujo)” is literally the Japanese word for “girl”. It is for young girls, especially teenage girls. Shojo is more likely to focus on romance and interpersonal relationships, which belongs to lighthearted genre. However, it’s not always talking about the love stuff. Sjojo is complex enough to be defined as “high school romance”. There are many sub genres including fantasy, historical fiction, magical girl, and harem and ladies’ comics. Shojo shows the things like active hero of the story, fighting to the death, and ultimately saving hero’s people, even if not the world.
Sjojo works almost by showing a female character who deals with problems, and gets stronger and powerful. There is one strong principle that many shojo heroine believe in, which is justice. They are fighting for the goodness of people, and that is as it should be. Heroine of shojo are depicted always pure human being, like standing up to bullying and trying to get rid of bad things. No matter how adversity it is, shojo heroine bring out the goodness and brighten up the world in the end. It seems to let us know this “Justice is always worth fight for”.
Still, Japanese women are relatively disempowered in the real world, but in the anime space, especially Shojo anime, female characters have power of breaking the stereotype of feminine submissiveness. It is clearly to say that the women’s roles are drastically transforming.
“Perhaps many of anime’s most important characters are female because it is so often the female subject who most clearly emblematizes the dizzying changes occurring in modern society.”
Shojo anime looks like a mirror conflicting attitudes of femininity in contemporary Japan. Many people hope that someday not too long from now, the world where women have same power as men will come.
Reference
Jenangel. (2015, Octo. 12). What is Shoujo (Definition, Meaning). Retrieved from http://blog.honeyfeed.fm/what-is-shoujo-definition-meaning/
Hi Faye,
DeleteNice response! Do you think that the concept of shojo is represented in the film Princess Mononoke? Since ‘shojo’ is often aimed at female demographic, would you consider Princess Mononoke as being one of the ‘shojo’ genres?
In my opinion, the film’s ability to portray strong, independent, assertive characters is a deviation from traditional stereotypes. I think, this alone integrates a sense of an alternative femininity which can appeal to younger girls and females who wants to see a diversion from the docile, naïve female stereotype which is prevalent in animes. Any thoughts?
Thanks for your question.
DeleteI think Princess Mononoke is one of the shojo genres. How can you say if you are asked what genre Princess Mononoke is. Is it romance? Fantasy? Shojo is including these as sub genres. Also, there is a shojo stereotype in Miyazaki’s film, which shows his strong-willed female characters like San, and Lady Eboshi. We can find out the romance (between Ashitaka and San) as well. The most part of this movie focused on attention of “relationships”.It could be “human- human” relationship, or “human being –nature” relationship. Whatever it is, the characters are growing up by understanding the different world. To compare other famous shojo animes, Princess Mononoke has no romance, and has more serious topic, but I’d like to say it’s also a kind of shojo genres.
Before I answer your second question, what does the traditional stereotypes mean?
DeleteFor example, the way in which Asian women have been traditionally represented as passive, obedient, helpless etc. This is a stereotype based on traditional views of a woman's role in society and culture.
Deletekeep this discussion going if you can!
DeleteI’ve watched a shoujo anime “Inuyasha” before, but I don’t think you guys know it. So, I will mention “Princess Mononoke” to explain this. Having female protagonists is the trait of the shoujo anime. Still, the female characters are not apart from the traditional stereotypes – being passive, obedient, weak women- but they are growing up, and stronger than before in the end. It’s clearly obvious that you can notice the change of the girls being more matured after they go through hard times. They aren’t weak, passive anymore. “Princess Mononke” is pretty different from the original shoujo animes (Even though I’ve said that Princess Mononke is a kind of shoujo earlier).
DeleteFirst, it barely expresses the love stuff. Love is not the most important theme in Princess Mononoke. Second, the female characters like Sam, and Lady Eboshi are portrayed as active, and tough. They are already enough strong and mature since when they come. (It’s the biggest difference between the original shoujo anime and Princess Mononoke! They don’t need any adventures to be independent women. Even though they went through a hard time, and learned something new, it didn’t give any change of their personality.)
We can easily find many female protagonists in various anime movies nowadays. Miyazaki is the one who is fighting against the traditional stereotypes of women. Many of Miyazaki's films have strong female protagonists that go against gender roles common in Japanese animation. I looked over the status of women in Japan. They have equal legal rights to men after World War II, but still Japan remains a conservative society. For example, the women have traditionally followed their husband’s family name, and 96% of women continue to do so as of 2015 (Reuters in Tokyo, 2015).
(If you are interested in Japanese women today, you can read through below the link.)
It’s hard to say that Japanese women overcome traditional stereotypes yet. Including movies, many things are trying to improve women’s right. I think movies with independent women are one of the way of showing the deviation from traditional stereotypes. Most of all, Miyazaki who is talking about the women’s social status through his films did the right thing I think.
Reference
Women in Japan. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Japan
Japanese Woman Today. (2005). Retrieved from http://www.chinatownconnection.com/japanese-woman-today.htm
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ReplyDeleteDoes Anime confront social issues? Gender roles in Princess Mononoke.
ReplyDeleteAnime is notorious for its stereotypical portrayal of female characters. According to Oluwu (2013), Females are generally portrayed as “naïve, wide-eyed, rushing stupidly into the trouble only for the brave hero (usually male) to pull them out of it.” Miyazaki’s animated film Princess Mononoke confront social issues in regards to stereotypical gender portrayals of females in anime by providing a unique and beautiful contrast to anime’s typical gender codes. Two of the three main characters of the film are female, Lady Eboshi and San (Princess Mononoke) break gender norms by acting as both leaders and warriors. Lady Eboshi and San both deviate from the gender stereotypes as they embody typical masculine traits such as independence, confidence, and assertiveness.
What I liked about the Lady Eboshi and San is that despite being represented as beautiful, youthful and slender (traits that would often suggest that they would play the subservient role of a distressed damsel) their characterizations clashes with the female stereotypes. Lady Eboshi innovative character embodies the concept of the leader, which is unlikely to be represented in Japanese media. San’s role, despite having some of the physical female stereotypes, manages to possess several unstereotypical traits such as her strength and her fearlessness.
Miyazaki offers alternative visions of Japanese identity. Napier (2001) states that Miyazaki uses the “fantastic and the feminine to defamiliarize and even the conventional notions of history, progress, and gender coding in Japanese culture.” Miyazaki consciously challenged female stereotypes in order to raise questions concerning the assumption that there is a categorical difference between men and women in terms of biology and behavior. By doing do, he proceeds to navigate a new direction for his films.
With anime’s fascination with gender roles and gender transgression (seen in shojo), seeing sexual and gender rules broken or reversed encourages the audience to diverge away from the traditional gender roles in our society. By being seeing strong female characters such as in animes like Princess Mononoke or Akira; females, especially young girls begin to see themselves not as accessories or a damsel but as someone in a stronger role or as the hero.
Reference:
Napier, S. J. (2001). Confronting Master Narratives: History As Vision in Miyazaki Hayao’s Cinema of De-assurance. Retrieved from http://www.willamette.edu/~rloftus/jfilm/napier.pdf
Olowu, K. (2013, January 10). Deconstructed Gender Norms in Princess Mononoke. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.imsa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=fall2013
Great answer, Karen. It is interesting to follow Miyazaaki's development from movie to movie in terms of active female figures.
Deletehi Keren,
Deletei agree with you that this film breaks gender roles in anime in a unique way by promoting female leads to the front and making them as powerful as men. We've seen a push recently to make woman the lead in more action films and i think movies like Princess Mononoke are revolutionary within the Anime genre in terms of their portrayal of woman.
What is the ‘shojo’ and how does it often function in anime?
ReplyDeleteAccording to Oxford Dictionary.com Shojo is a genre of Japanese comics or anime aimed primarily at young female audience and is typically characterized by its focus on personal and romantic relationships. I feel like this definition doesn’t do this genre of manga and anime justice. I have spent many hours of my time watching shojo anime and shojo to me is more about empowering girls and subjecting them to tasks that will change them, a good example of this is Spirited Away or even my favourite anime Madoka Magica. They show girls in a light where they are forced to make sacrifices and result in them becoming better for it. Madoka Magica is one such anime where everyone in the magical girl group are given the decision to sacrifice their normal life for another fighting witches that threaten the world. The girls are then subject to multiple hurdles, emotional and physical, that change them for the better or the worse depending on how you see it.
I believe Princess Monoke is Shojo but is more then what Oxford Dictionary.com defines it to be. I believe Princess Monoke isn’t characterised by its focus on relationships. I believe it shows girls and women that they can be more then what society expects of them. A great example of this is Lady Oboshi, she helped empower the women from the brothels and gave them jobs. She isn’t shown to be a subordinate to men, which Japan has a long history in. You can see this struggle in Japanese history with a very small mention of women warriors compared to samurai and men throughout the history of Japan.
References
Oxford Dictionary. (2016). Shojo definition. Retrieved
from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/shojo
Japan Powered. (2015). Japan's warrior women. Retrieved
from http://www.japanpowered.com/japan-culture/japans-warrior-women
Is anime a high or low cultural genre/media, according to Napier (2005)? What are some of its subgenres?
ReplyDeleteAnime is a style of cartoon animation that originated in Japan and has spread to be popular around the world. The term ‘Anime’ originated from the abbreviated pronunciation of ‘animation’ in Japan. It is very popular in Japan and increasingly more popular around the world. Napier (2005) states “Westerners raised on a culture of children’s cartoons may find anime’s global popularity surprising.”
According to Napier (2005) Anime is seen as a high culture type of art and entertainment although it can be perceived as being inbetween or middle ground status, depending on the specific text.
Anime has produced many sub genres that have become established in their own right. Some of these sub genres include ‘Cyberpunk’, which is a style of film or television show set in a dystopian future with humans are falling behind as a species against machines and robots. Another sub genre is the ‘mecha anime’ genre which is about robots and is very popular in japan.