Quote:
Originally Posted by Urei
I'm talking about society. The housewife in Japan is as common as rice. It's more like a character type that men prefer. It's changing though. The more Japan becomes an integral part of the world and the more young people follow other cultures the more the 'preferred' character type changes, or as seen in many harem animes, get an update in form of a tsundere or other type. The fact is that Japan grew with patriarch society system.
Also, tsundere is moe as well. It's very submissive. Dependant of the feelings her target provide them with. That's the base aspect of that archetype. Without it the character would just be considered a delinquent of some sorts. You can even look at it as a moe type with a little bit of spice just to have some variety.
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Very insightful post. The changing trend in character archetype is quite noticeable. Before in Japan the perfect submissive/kind housewife was the top model and usually was the leading female character, but with time society understanding seems to change which is reflected in Tsundere archetype popularity.
Sure tsundere has other points - are moe and so on, but you can't argue that they are more strong than housewife archetype before and arguably more independent as well.
We can see it Evangelion characters. Rei is mysterious girl but she also has the silent submissiveness in her as well which is different from Asuka's independent nature. And there was no equality between Rei's and Asuka's popularity - it was ten years ago but I still remember well how Rei dominated Asuka in Japan very clearly.
Now it is changing, Rei and Asuka are become more equal in terms of popularity, and not in western world where it almost always was this way, but in Japan as well which also in my opinion proves that stronger/modern women type becomes more and more trendy in anime.
Sheryl is also more of a modern woman type, which is independent and strong (yet has weak side too). Ranka relies mostly on Moe factor - as in terms of character itself she doesnt have much to offer, and with more modern look into females role in society in Japan it is no wonder that Sheryl dominates over Ranka (though the episodes starting from 20 did not help Ranka very much too).
To tell the truth a tsundere 'boom' which started somewhere around 2005-2006 was expected to end in two years time, but seeing how it still is going strong, we can expect even more tsundere characters pop out in the future, for better or worse.
P.S. Voted for Sheryl, naturally. Hands down the best character in Macross F.
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