Anime sterotypes that need to die.

[Nate]

There are plenty of strong female characters in anime.

Rukia from Bleach
Haruhi Suzumiya
Tomoyo from Clannad
Revy from Black Lagoon.

And I could name about three times as many female characters who are helpless and wimpy, which is the stereotype that was being argued against by Steena. Saying "The rest of anime girls aren't like that" makes no sense when it's the MINORITY.

That's like if someone said "I'm tired of old white men being in Congress" and you said "The rest of Congress isn't like that." Well yeah, but that's like what, ten people?

[Maokun]

I'm not sure. At the moment I have more trouble thinking of weakling female characters than strong ones. Perhaps is it's only on romance series where you get them as a majority?

Take Lucky Star: 2 out of 4 of the main characters are strong, most of the secondary characters are strong-ish. School Rumble? Besides Tenma, the other one female character with a soft personality is freakingly physically strong. Haruhi? All the females are strong except the one that is ridiculously wimpy for hilarity purposes. Most of shounen series' females are strong. Most of harem series' female characters are strong except the one or two that are blatantly stereotypically sweet.

[CrimsonRyu17]

Typical Shonen and Shoujo have weak srsly females. They can have a strong ability, but they never get anything done because they're nothing but secondary characters and/or plot devices like being damsels in distress for the main character to rescue.

If we're going to be listing real strong females, the Crim is here to save the day.

* Alphard Alshaya
* Canaan
* Liang Qi
* Revy
* Blue
* Jo

These are in more action-packed, bloody, violent anime so they're not all that well-known to the younger members.

Anyway, I totally get what Steenajack means though, there's waaaaaay too many female characters that are pathetic. Hence why I don't watch anime with main female characters that are like that. xD

[Maokun]

Again, really? How many damsels in distress have you seen in anime lately? Or while we are it, ever? Think of

Asuka Langley-Soryu
Lina Inverse
Naga, the Serpent
Akane Tendo
Shampoo
Bulma
Hikari from the Magic Knight Rayearth
Android 18

Even classic roles of damsels in distress such as Escaflowne's Hitomi and Inuyasha's Kagome, are physically skilled, thunder-tempered women. I'm going to go all the other way and offer a strong character or two for every really wimpy and helpless damsel in distress offered.

[Yamamaya]

Even in shoenun, the males may sometimes have to save the females, the females are generally strong characters who don't put up with any crap.
The girls of Azumanga Daioh are not weak characters at all.

The girl in my siggy, Neliel, can kick some serious butt.

Once again it depends on what genre you're watching.

[uc pseudonym]

Does something have to be in the majority to be a stereotype? If even 10% of some medium does exactly the same thing, that strikes me as getting old.

I think it might be helpful for us to remember that this thread isn't making the claim, "The majority of female characters in anime are weak" (individual people might, though) but more to the effect of, "It's bad that in some series all the female characters are useless."

That strikes me as fair. Yu-Gi-Oh has already been cited. Of the big three shonen titles, Naruto tends to have female characters that have exactly one battle and otherwise sit around pining for someone and doing nothing. If you look at sports series, you'll see a lot of times where its a male sports team and the females are barely characters at all.

I'd say it's established enough to be a stereotype. Of course you don't see it in some genres, just like you don't see a lot of gratuitous slow motion fights in romance movies.

[MasterDias]

If you look at sports series, you'll see a lot of times where its a male sports team and the females are barely characters at all.

Not sure if this is a completely fair comparison. Japanese high-school sports teams are usually gender-segregated, right? That's why said series tend to work in women as managers, I guess.
An action series doesn't really have this excuse, so I agree with that.

However, I do think if one looks outside the really visible and popular titles like Naruto and Dragonball, they might find more strong female characters than they would initially realize. If I named Tokiko Tsumura (Busou Renkin), Lenalee Lee (D.Gray-Man), Tokine Yukimura (Kekkaishi), Maka Albarn (Soul Eater), and Miu Fuurinji (Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple); I will have named five strong/competent female characters in shonen action series. And this isn't actually counting really female-dominated series like Claymore and Shikabane Hime.
So, series with competent females are out there if one knows where to look.

[steenajack]

I agree Swight. I tend to notice that kind of thing occasionaly. I never read manga or watch anime like that, so I don't see that too often (thank goodness). Oh, and to everyone who has posted before, I do know that there are strong female characters in certain anime, and I wasn't trying to say that ALL anime was like that (just to clear things up. It seemed that an argument was starting or somthing.) Anyway, I like Miyazaki films because the female characters are portrayed with realistic personalities. I have noticed that in some anime they have both wimpy and strong females. Two examples would be From Far Away and Hikaru no Go.

[Maokun]

Also, in all fairness "damsel in distress" is a classic western literary device. I think that if we compare anime/manga females with western stories ones, the comparison would be so great in favour of japanese narration that you could barely think of it as a sterotype belongig to it.

[uc pseudonym]

Not sure if this is a completely fair comparison. Japanese high-school sports teams are usually gender-segregated, right? That's why said series tend to work in women as managers, I guess.

I guess I didn't address that clearly enough. Almost all sports are gender-segregated, like you said. What I meant to say was that the female characters on the periphery of the team are almost always flat characters with little involvement with anything. Cheerleaders, sometimes literally.

Stereotype or no, I think we could all agree that there definitely are series with strong female characters. This is really a stereotype left over from a previous era as opposed to something that's all-pervasive now. However, I do think that it's still legitimate to note that it remains a stereotype.

[Yamamaya]

Of course guys are sterotyped as well in anime like the pathetic pervert character.

[rocklobster]

Yeah, that stereotype needs to go. I hate it!

[ShiroiHikari]

This thread is so stereotypical.

[Roy Mustang]

Anime is so stereotypical, it needs to die!

[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[Yamamaya]

I say let's call the Hell girl to send these sterotypes to hell.

The downside, your favorite anime series also goes to hell.

[goldenspines]

Either we hop back on the serious train or this thread goes to where you say your anime stereotypes are going.


Seriously folks, didn't I settle this thread a few pages back? Without stereotypes, there wouldn't be much or anime left and whatever was left would become a stereotype eventually, and anime would die out.
While I wish all mangaka were clever enough to put a new twist on most stereotypes, they don't, yet people still read their manga. ^_^

[Yamamaya]

Either we hop back on the serious train or this thread goes to where you say your anime stereotypes are going.


Seriously folks, didn't I settle this thread a few pages back? Without stereotypes, there wouldn't be much or anime left and whatever was left would become a stereotype eventually, and anime would die out.
While I wish all mangaka were clever enough to put a new twist on most stereotypes, they don't, yet people still read their manga. ^_^

The purpose of this thread was to speak about sterotypes that annoyed us. That's not to say that those sterotypes cannot be used correctly, also some sterotypes are enjoyable to certain people.

There's nothing wrong with calling for a little originality at times or complaining a bit about certain sterotypes that annoy you.

[goldenspines]

The purpose of this thread was to speak about sterotypes that annoyed us. That's not to say that those sterotypes cannot be used correctly, also some sterotypes are enjoyable to certain people.

There's nothing wrong with calling for a little originality at times or complaining a bit about certain sterotypes that annoy you.

To make a thread simply to complain is useless.
If you want to discuss what anime stereotypes are good or bad, that's fine. But if you want to complain, that's what blogs are for; not CAA.

[Arya Raiin]

Anime wouldn't be the same if it wasn't for the stereotypes you know!

[Yamamaya]

Well that was the original intention of my thread but saying that a certain sterotype is bad is generally considered a complaint against that sterotype.

[Makachop^^128]

I was being serious when I said the "all men are perverts" stereotype needs to go(is there any correct use?). For now I am just sticking with this one(not saying all stereotypes).Also do we want this type of stereotype to be enjoyable?

I hate that stereotype, any anime I watch with it makes me depressed and makes me feel like the world is sick lol
(which it is but anyway)

[Nate]

Yeah I'm pretty sure that the stereotypes are why people got into anime in the first place.

[The Banner]

And, maybe, it may be the stereotypes that drove people away from anime on their first sight.

Anime, being much more open in terms of violence and sexuality, has distinguished itself from Western cartoons for that reason, and I guess I would say its more controversial points. So like Nate said, it has probably made us interested in Anime in the first place.

I don't think that these should be called stereotypes anymore, looking at how the topic has gone, though. It should be called something more like "popular literary methods" or "often-used plot devices". There will be those that age and those that stay golden and hardly had rusted by the next year.

I still want the "talking in between fights" put off, though.

And I believe that sums up the whole topic.