Women are often degraded in anime. The solution? Just watch shows without women!
When I began watching anime, I was around 14 years old. I knew of “Cardcaptor Sakura” and some good old timey animes, but nothing that was really trending or popular. I didn’t really know what I was gravitating towards in popular anime, but I stayed far far away from the big tiddies in “One Piece” and the massively obscene muscles on Goku. As a rite of passage, I knew I had to pick one of the big three to binge — “Naruto,” “One Piece” and “Bleach” — but wasn’t sure which one was the best.
Being a dumb little child, I picked something I could relate to: “Naruto.” Let’s not get into the misogyny of that epic series (the story arcs are awesome but … yeah).
Moving forward, I watched many anime and learned about many strong types of supporting female roles. I like adventure and action popular anime, so I watched and found my idols:
1. The Lolita girl (usually 500+ years old): Tatsumaki in “One-Punch Man”, Hestia in “Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon” (don’t watch this show if you want to remain sane), Elizabeth Mildford in “Black Butler,” Shinobu in “Monogatari Series.”
2. Big titty mother role women: Tsunade in “Naruto,” Erza Scarlet in “Fairy Tail” (haven’t watched this one but the titties are massive and she’s strong apparently).
3. The hot hot hot silent and deadly female character with glasses.
4. The big titty GOTH hot crazy insane evil female villain (most female villains in anime, always skinny af): “Kill la Kill,” “Devilman.”
5. The harem of strong female characters who all bounce their young, provocative bodies around some fugly male character that looks like a standard weeaboo: “BNHA,” “SAO,” “Dungeon,” “HighSchool DxD” …
6. The cool girl but they’re still nothing in terms of power compared to the main male characters … and they wear short skirts that accentuates their ungodly thicc (for their body type) asses AND are haaaawt: “Cowboy Bebop,” “BNHA.”
7. Honorable mention: dark skinned white girls.
…with most females in outfits that realistically would have pouches for where the anime tiddies go, no matter the size.
After my first feminist class: “Introduction to Java,” I realized that I was viewing all these females through a male’s gaze and that it was a bit objectifying to ogle at these hot hot hot hot hot hot steamy oh mama mia girls in their attires. I realized this because I finally had a class where every target audience of popular anime converged. I understood why they were created so sexy and perfect, beyond the limitations of the 3D world.
I was in a bit of a pickle. Being a mostly straight female, I was not sexually empowered by seeing characters move around with their boobie physics. I wasn’t really attracted to them either, and I found them just as annoying as their male anime counterparts usually found them to be.
However, I am a feminist.
What to do … what to do …
In a bid of radical feminism, I cut all the sins from my life and decided to watch shows where the ratio of main characters of men to women was overpowering! Shows like “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure,” “Devilman Crybaby,” “One-Punch Man”, “Blue Exorcist,” “Durarara!” and “Cowboy Bebop” were tasteful classics that didn’t deal with much female representation (but when they did they were haaaaaaawt). It made me feel more comfortable and I fully enjoyed those shows.
I still struggle sometimes when a new anime makes its way into my friends circles / my social media outlets and their bondaka donkity honkers bounce vivaciously into my newsfeed, but I now view things with a clear perspective. Nothing in anime is sin free. Fight against sexism by refusing to acknowledge it – only watch anime without women, and you’re all good to go.
