[4Tran]

I wonder if this thread shouldn't be merged with the sexism/feminism within anime thread. In fact, if space cowboy has no objections, I'll do just that.

Originally Posted by space cowboy

What do you think of the female roles in anime?

"Female roles in anime" is as broad a subject as "female roles in novels". Without breaking the topic further down, it's far too diverse to discuss without over-generalization. At the very least, it's necessary to differentiate between roles that are designed to appeal to men and those that are designed to appeal to women.

Originally Posted by space cowboy

Discuss both the over sexualised images of the female within anime, and whether or not this affects the roles they play.

Do female get a better deal than that of other western cartoon and films?

Broadly speaking, they do. Most Western works are male-oriented, and therefore have a predominantly male cast. Anime, both for male and female audiences, are much more likely to have more female roles. Whether these roles are treated any better is a very different question though.

Originally Posted by space cowboy

Is the female empowered because shes sexualised?

Except for a very few cases, no.

Originally Posted by space cowboy

Does anime tend to put females into more action type roles than that before seen to a western audience?

Yes. And this goes all the way back to Cutey Honey in 1973.

Originally Posted by space cowboy

Beyond Ghibli we have hundreds of anime with a female as the main character for instance the entire genre called Shojo. To be the protagonist means that you drive and propell the narrative forwards, with the choices that character makes. As an audience we are subjected to the actions that character chooses and by doing so has the attention of our active gaze. This i find is more common for women in anime than it is in western animation and i believe by giving the female the lead role in this way empowers them more often, than that in western animation.

As far as anime goes, shoujo works make up only a tiny portion of the releases. The bigger deal is that anime is much more likely to have female leads for male-oriented works.

Originally Posted by space cowboy

Secondly, i believe the image of the female in japanese animation can be both sexist but on the other hand some what empowering. The image of the female more often than not in Anime has a hold over the other male characters and weakens them to some extent. This strength is not something the female character strives to achieve but rather normally something she already has. For instance most of the Hina Girls in love hina can pretty much make kintaro do whatever they want.

This has less to do with how female characters are treated than how male characters are treated. Personally, I find that male anime characters have a high tendency of being either uninteresting or unappealing. As a result, most of my favorite anime characters are female; which is a contrast to my preferences in non-anime media.