Shonen Girls

Introduction

In anime there are many genres. Most of the genres usually cater towards a certain  group of people. One of the famous genres that exists in anime is Shonen. Shonen is a genre of anime that is specified towards a young male audience. The plots of shonen usually focus around a male protagonists that go on some sort of journey and has sort of goal they want to accomplish. I grew up watching Shonen anime's most of the time because I loved the adventures as well as the friendships that were developed in the shows.

However the thing I loved the most in the Shonen anime's was the fact that the females in the show were usually super badass characters. However, in 2016 as I look back at most of the females in the Shonen I watched, I realize most of them were in set roles that seemed to set them to a certain stigma. It is also known that most females are highly sexualized in most of the shows I have watched. In this blossay I will be analyzing the roles of female characters in Shonen anime, as well as the type of females that exist. I will also analyze the status of the primary female protagonist compared to the secondary female protagonist.

The history and roles of the Shonen Females

In the early age of shonen anime and manga, most females in the story were only given miniscule roles. The roles they were given were usually as mothers, sisters or the occasional girlfriend or love interest. One example I would use is Shiraki Yoko from the anime, Ashita no Joe. The manga was made in 1968, and the anime was produced in the 70s.

Ashita no Joe

Yoko is seen as the main protagonist's love interest as she is a wealthy woman who is belittled by the main protagonist, Joe. However he grows to love her by the end of the series. Yoko as a character honestly never did anything in the series unless we saw her by Joe's side, while she was not overly sexualized, due to the fact that it was the 60s and females were not seen that way, Yoko was always seen as that perfect beauty that Joe wanted to reject but he could not as he slowly fell for her. This showed the trend of being stuck as a love interest.

Yoko beauty and innocence

However the role of female character's began to change in the 80s, with the character of Norimaki Arale, in the anime Dr. Slump. Instead of being on the side lines; Arale was a character that was always in the action. She was a robot and was built with superhuman abilities, she would be the gag of many jokes, and while she did have the common female Shonen stereotype of being cute, she could still take care of herself in the fact of danger.


Here is a video where we see Arale in action Son Goku in a crossover:

 This was a breathe of fresh air compared to the usual female shonen characters. This continued into the 90s where we got to see female characters start taking a more important role in the shonen animes. They might still be the love interest or the sister/mother character, but they were allowed to be fleshed out and have flaws, as well as character arcs of their own. They could  be intelligent as well as kick ass if they needed to. In some rare instances they could be the main protagonists of the show instead of a male characters. Examples of animes like that would be Slayers, Dragon Ball, Cased closed( or Detective Conan), and etc.

DragonBall

Slayers

Cased Closed( Detective Conan)

The only downside is this is where the females in Shonen would start to become overly sexualized for the purpose of fan service in the show.

Now in the 2000s female characters are more commonly seen, as one of the main protagonists in the show alongside the main male character. There are even more occasions where they can be the star of their own series. However now it is a common trait that most of the females, both the main and the secondary characters, in Shonen are overly sexualized to a point where they are seen as running gags in the show or just plain old fan service. Examples of shows like this would Naruto, One piece, Bleach, Soul Eater, Fairy Tail, and etc.

The Types of female Shonen Characters

With female characters in most media there can be different types of them. The same can be said for shonen female characters. There are varieties of them that follow the same archetype for each story they exists in. However there are about a select few we see over and over again in the shonen genre:

The Tsundere

This female is usually a character who finds it hard to express feelings towards another person who they care about. It can also be a person who is fine with feelings but they just express their rage in different ways. Sadly for any male character in the vicinity it usually ends up with them being constantly targeted for a beat down. The beat down can usually range from a punch to the head, something being thrown at them, or just the female character beating the crap out of the male character.

An examples of a Tsundere character is Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy Tail. Lucy is quite a large busted girl who is a clever and kind character. However, time and time again when her best male friend Natsu does the slightest something to make her uncomfortable she will beat the honest to god crap out of him.

Another example could be Sakura Haruno from Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. Sakura while being deeply in love with the second protagonist character, Sasuke Uchiha, always ends up beating the crap out of her teammate Naruto Uzumaki. The reason she usually does this is because he just annoys her.

The shy character

This character is usually the timid character who is secretly in love with the main hero. They usually get very shy to approach the hero and the interactions they do have with the hero usually can lead to very silly misunderstandings. They usually get encouraged by the words or actions of the main male protagonist to become stronger. Usually by the end of the series the end up being emotionally stronger to stand by the main protagonists side without any problem.

An example of a shy type of character would be Hinata Hyuga from Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. Hinata is a secondary character who is in love with the main character Naruto. However she is to shy to confess her feelings to him. She also lacks the self confidence even though it is shown that she is a pretty powerful ninja. It is only by Naruto's words that she resolves to become a better character. By the end of the series she and Naruto confess their love and get married.


A scene where we see a shy Hinata in action: 

Another example of a shy character would be Christa Lenz, who is a secondary character from the more modern anime Attack on Titan. Christa is a shy and gentle girl who lives in the terrible world of the Titans, while she joins the 104th graduating class for the army to kill the Titans. Later in the series we learn that she has a mysterious past, and unhidden potential. With the help of the main character, Eren Yeager, she is able to gain the courage to face her true past, and rise up to reclaim her Identity as Historia Reiss, Queen of Sheena and the rest of the walled community.

Christa Lenz

The Mysterious/Badass one

 This female character is usually the character that has a air of mystery on them. They are usually stoic, cold, and show little emotion towards other. In most anime they are considered the most badass character due to their unwilling resolve to pursue their goal. They are also the characters that have unique fighting style, that make them the self proclaimed, ‘badass.’ However this is due to them having some of the most tragic backstories for their character. It usually takes the main character to break down her walls. An example of the would be Nico Robin from One Piece.

At first Robin was an antagonist for the main character Luffy, and his fellow crewmates, the Strawhat Pirates. She worked for a man, Crocodile, who wanted to take over the kingdom of Alabasta, that the Strawhats friend, Princess Vivi Nefertiri was apart of. She was also very ruthless as her Devil Fruit powers allowed her to sprout extra limbs of her body anywhere which made her an excellent assassin and spy. Robin  from the start of this arc had her own agenda, and at the end when it was discovered was nearly killed.


An example of Robin's power:

Luffy saves her and she decides to be apart of his crew because of this. She still has the mysterious air which makes her unpredictable, and untrustworthy for the audience, while she and the crew gained each other's trust. This ends up with her "betraying" the Strawhats, while in real life she gives herself up to the government to protect them. We then learn her tragic backstory of how her whole island was destroyed by the government and she was on the run he whole life. This made her very sympathetic. When the Strawhats come to rescue her, it is Luffy screaming at her to make her own decisions and that they would be at her side, that breaks her walls down.

The tough character

The final character trait that is noticed by most animes is the tough character. This character is the character that wants to prove herself or the character who is seen as a leader. She is not afraid to get into a fight and is willing to get her hands dirty. Whether they do this to prove themselves, or to protect their friend always expect them to be the first one to fight. An example of a tough character would be Videl Satan from Dragonball Z.

Videl is a tough fighter who is one of Gohan's classmates when he starts high school. She is a tomboyish girl, who is feisty and super stubborn. Due to her being famous she is used to using underhanded tactics to get what she wants. This could be seen when she blackmailed Gohan to teach he how to fly and for him to enter the fighting tournament with her. She does all of this due to the fact that she wants to surpass her father, Mr. Satan as a fighter. However later in the series she falls in love with Gohan. She is also willing to defend innocent people as she fights crime in the city alongside the police.


 Videl Satan

Another tough character would be Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail. Erza is a mage who has the ability to 'requip' and summon different swords and weapons. She is always willing to fight for her guild members, and is seen as an iconic role model to many of her fellow guildmates. She is also the one that disciplines them if they are acting foolish. She even wears armor which enhances her image as a protector. She can fight incredible odds as long as it is for her friends and never backs down from a challenge.

     Mixed Types of traits

Most female characters don't just have one type of character trait. There can be all sorts of mixes. A female character can be the tough and mysterious/badass character. As well as there can be the mysterious/badass with tsundere traits. There is no one definitive trait. An example would be Nami, from One Piece. Nami at first is very mysterious as she does not want to join the group, but eventually we learn about her tragic backstory with Arlong and her being kept as a slave under his reign. Luffy then frees her and she happily joins his crew. Throughout the rest of the series she is seen with Tsundere traits as she beats up Luffy when he does something idiotic to keep him in line.

 

Nami being freed from Arlong

Nami keeping Luffy in line

The difference between the primary and secondary character

With Most characters in media, there is the main protagonist of the show, and the secondary character who is important but is not really in the show 24/7, like the main protagonist. In the Shonen animes. Females who have these roles usually differentiate from each other. It can be that the main female character has a smaller breast size while the secondary character has an obnoxiously large breast size. Another example being the main female character can end up just being no one's love interest and just there to be the hero of the show, most of the time the secondary character is the one that is reduced to either the wife or love interest of the character. In all honesty there can be about one or two main characters; but a large amount of secondary character. One show example that I have is Soul Eater.

Soul Eater, a show about humans who can turn into weapons and the people who wield them, have the main protagonist Maka Albarn, and the secondary character, Tsubaki Nakatsukasa.

With Maka Albarn she is that rare character in which she is the main protagonist as the story revolves around her and her partner, Soul "Eater" Evans. She is a 13 year old meister at DWMA. Her partner Soul is a death scythe. Maka from the start is a very well rounded character, with flaws to not make her perfect. While she is intelligent, cheerful and confident; she can also be Stubborn, temperamental, and quite a stickler for the rules. We also learn that she has a disdain of most men due to her father cheating on her mother when she was a little girl. She is powerful and barely needs to be a damsel in distress. The one thing that differentiates her from all her secondary characters, is her lack of breast size and sex appeal; which can be seen as a running gag for the show.

 



Maka in action

With Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, she is a secondary character on the show. She is around 16 years old and has the ability to change into an assortment of ninja like weapons. She is partnered with the egotistical Black Star, but balances out all his crazy traits with her mellow ones. She is very patient, forgiving, and caring; but because of that people do tend to take advantage over her, as well as she can always apologize for things to please others and never herself. She can also be embarrassed and paranoid for certain occasions. She is a very powerful weapon, but she has to rely on her partner to get to her full potential, compared to Maka who can get to her full potential herself. Like most of the secondary characters in the show Tsubaki has a large bust size and a lot of sex appeal. While she is a little too innocent to use it herself, her partner Black Star can use it to get an advantage over their enemies.

 

Tsubaki and Black Star

The sexualization of Shonen girls

In my  final section of my blossay I will be addressing the main way that most modern Shonens use their female characters. SEX APPEAL. This has been an occurrence for most of the anime's of the 90s to modern times now. Women in Shonen have been sexualized to death, due to the fact that young men are the main demographic. This sex appeal is shown with women having large breast and voluptuous butts in anime. The way that females can be used for sex appeal can be used in a large range it can be some female having sex appeal but they are too innocent or shy to use it, and the females who know that they have sex appeal and use it to every advantage that they have.

Two examples of innocent or shy girls that have sex appeal, are Hinata Hyuga and Juvia Lockster. Hinata is seen having large breast compared to all the female characters in the show, however she is usually seen wearing modest clothing that do not show her figure, it is only in the wear occasions that they are uncovered we see her sex appeal. With Juvia Lockser even though she is crazy in love with Gray Fullbuster, she is still quite shy and modest with her clothes even embarrassed in some occasions, she is typically seen wearing clothing that cover her body but is very tightly fitted.

Juvia's form fitting clothing showing sex appeal

Hinata's modest clothing



With characters that use sex appeal to their advantage we have a wide range of characters, like Nami from One Piece and Bulma from Dragon Ball. With Nami, she uses her sex appeal to gain advantage over her enemies, she also uses it to con her way into getting more money. However, throughout the years the show steadily increases Nami's figure until she is seen as a sexual object.  Bulma also would use her sex appeal to her advantage, as we remember the Flash scene she gave master Roshi to get the Dragon Ball.

Nami's body figure throughout the years

Bulma's famous flash scene:

Takeaway

Shonen girls while being known as the typical Sex appeal have more to them that meets the eye. My only regret is that the artist like to over sexualize the character instead of giving them more character development. A lot of female girls like reading Shonen, me included. So we would love seeing more shows Like Soul Eater and less like Fairy Tail. We do not give up hope, and we hope to see change, but in the meanwhile we will survive with our diamonds in the rough.

Primary Sources

Naruto (2002) Directed by Date Hayato [Anime]. Japan: .

Soul Eater (2008) Directed by Takuya Igarashi [Anime]. USA: .

One Piece (1999) Directed by Uda Kōnosuke [Anime]. Japan: Toei Animation.

  Dragon ball Z: Battle of gods (2013) Directed by Masahiro Hosoda [Anime]. Japan: .

    Fairy Tail (2009) Directed by Shinji Ishihira [Anime]. Japan: TV Tokyo.

Secondary Sources

Maka Albarn (no date) Available at: http://souleater.wikia.com/wiki/Maka_Albarn (Accessed: 8 December 2016).

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Sakura Haruno (2016) Available at: http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Sakura_Haruno (Accessed: 8 December 2016).

Bulma (1995) Available at: http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Bulma (Accessed: 8 December 2016).

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Donovan, C. (2014b) Six leading ladies of Shonen Anime part 2: The 21st century. Available at: http://www.themarysue.com/leading-ladies-shonen-anime-part-2/ (Accessed: 8 December 2016).

Arale Norimaki (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arale_Norimaki (Accessed: 13 December 2016).

Ashita no Joe (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashita_no_Joe (Accessed: 13 December 2016).

Erza scarlet (no date) Available at: http://fairytail.wikia.com/wiki/Erza_Scarlet (Accessed: 13 December 2016).

Ferrill, C. (2013) Women in Shonen, part 1: The female audience strikes back. Available at: https://ourinkedobsession.com/2013/10/24/women-in-shonen-part-1-the-female-audience-strikes-back/ (Accessed: 13 December 2016).

Lucy Heartfilia (no date) Available at: http://fairytail.wikia.com/wiki/Lucy_Heartfilia (Accessed: 13 December 2016).

Sawano, H. (2016) ‘Attack on Titan’, in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Titan (Accessed: 13 December 2016).

The best women in the Shounen genre (2015) Available at: http://the-artifice.com/the-best-women-in-the-shounen-genre/ (Accessed: 13 December 2016).

Tsubaki Nakatsukasa (no date) Available at: http://souleater.wikia.com/wiki/Tsubaki_Nakatsukasa (Accessed: 13 December 2016).

Yoko Shiraki (2015) Available at: https://myanimelist.net/character/46051/Yoko_Shiraki (Accessed: 13 December 2016).