damsel in transition
14 Sep 2010 03:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaigou[ ETA: to clarify a term I frequently use (but may be unfamiliar to some), "animanga" is a portmanteau of "anime" and "manga", meant as a shorthand for "the Japanese illustrated-story publishing/production industries, including manga (graphic novels), illustrated 'light' novels, four-panel comics, animated television shows, animated miniseries/OVA (Original Animation Videos), and animated theatrical releases". Because there's often a great deal of cross-pollination between the two types (printed vs. moving), I tend to use "animanga" to refer to the entire ball of wax in one easy word. ]
We all know (and likely loathe, at least given the posts I see go past from most of you) the damsel in distress: she does something stupid, gets captured/hurt, has to be saved by the hero, and usually ends up clinging to him. I've been browsing some of the manga that readers have classified (on reader-tagging database sites) as "strong female lead" or "strong female character", and I think we need an intermediary.
Something like, "female character damselfied by the author", or "damsel with fighter tendencies," for a less anti-author spin on it.
The so-called "strong female characters" usually go like this: she's relatively outspoken, strong-willed, and ostensibly very good at whatever she does (even if in some stories we never see her do anything, we're at least told she's good). She's independent, and a common expression or thought among the transistional damsel is that she wants to 'stand on her own two feet'. She'll often explicitly state that she intends to fight [the big bad], alongside the hero, as his team-mate or equal. She doesn't see the hero as her rescuer, but as her mentor or her role model (and sometimes as the person she aspires to equal).
Cases in point: Tokine in Kekkaishi, Sakura, Hinato, hell just about any of the female characters in Naruto, Rukia in Bleach, Lenalee in D.Gray-Man, Marie/Soma in Gundam 00, Hilde in Gundam Wing, Kallen in Code Geass. Yet to be determined if Yura (from Nurarihyon no Mago) will fall into this category, as the fight's not done, so there's still chance for her to fall in line.
These are all combatants, btw; I don't think this transitional category applies to civilians, like Winry (of Fullmetal Alchemist) -- as a non-fighter, her most likely means of expression (in a sense, "her way of fighting") is not going to be head-on battle-mode, so it doesn't seem right to measure her by the same standards.
For each of the cases in point (and plenty others but I'm midway through drawer-building and waiting for glue to dry, so keeping this short) -- the introductory pattern, as combatant, is usually as above. Somewhere mid-battle, however, the damselfied combatant is tripped up. One of three things will happen. Either she doesn't have enough spiritual oomph, eg Tokine, Lenalee, and just about every female character in Bleach. Or she doesn't have the will-power/dedication (or alternately, can't overcome her doubt in herself), eg Kallen, Marie/Soma, and Yura (in her earliest fight-scenes). Or the author simply sets her up against fighters who just happen to out-rank her -- Hilde, and nearly every female in Naruto.
Which ultimately amounts to: she still needs to be rescued, but with a twist: she gets mad at herself for ending up in a place that requires the hero rescue her. You can see the differentiation most clearly in Nurarihyon no Mago, actually: Kana is a true damsel in distress, captured, helpless, and waiting anxiously for someone to come save her, and it doesn't even occur to her that she might've, or could've, done anything on her own behalf. Yura, in contrast, is annoyed at needing to be rescued, and determined to do her best to prevent it from happening again.
So what we get is the apparent warrior-woman, trapped in the position of damsel-in-distress (injured, incapacitated, or just plain outranked and unable to contribute to the overall fight), but also consumed by frustration at her position. She invariably rails helplessly against her, well, helplessness, and we're supposed to see this as a fighting spirit, and ignore that basically she was set up to fail. Again and again these transitional damsels throw themselves against someone far stronger, but digging into that observation means realizing that even these so-called warrior-damsels are always set up as weaker in some way, from the get-go. The story's premise either presumes the female character to be weaker (ie Tokine) or undermines the female character enough to destroy her original potential (Sakura, Lenalee).
We're supposed to see the warrior-damsel's determination to fight "against the odds" as bravery... but I can't help but note that in nearly every bloomin' instance, the fight doesn't cause the warrior-damsel to power-up like it does for her fellow (male) character. It just beats her down, and puts her back into the box of needing to be rescued. The only real difference is that we got teased with the possibility that this time, it wouldn't be so, and we got a lot of words from the heroine about how she wants to fight and/or be acknowledged by the hero and/or be equal to the hero in strength -- but the bottom line is that the message in the actual text is that this will never happen. But that's okay! As long as she wishes it might, that makes her strong female, because at least she's not helplessly accepting her damsel position.
Or maybe it just makes her kinda stupid, for entering battles with fighters who out-rank and out-flank her. Or maybe what makes her stupid is signing up for a story with an author who give plenty of lip service among the fan service, but has no intention of actually following through.
ETA: there's another way some authors will handle the "what do I do with the extra chick in the party" question, which is to justify the sabotage as meaningful sacrifice. (The women in Naruto, and Lenalee, get set up for this repeatedly.) The method is this: by some means, the warrior-damsel does take on (and frequently then proceeds to kick serious ass of) a pretty scary big bad -- but in the course of doing so, is either: pushed past her limits and burnt out (Sakura, Tokine), if she's not injured to the point of comatose (thus rendering her not just injured but pretty much a NPC for the rest of the fight, cf Lenalee).
The storyteller's rationalization, as I see it, is thus: every fight must have both a physical climax and an emotional one. The physical, of course, is obvious; the emotional may differ each time. The latter will show up as "what are you fighting for?" or "is this really important enough reason to fight?" or even "do you really have it in you to kill someone?"
A favorite trope of Japanese animanga is the "I fight to protect those precious to me" (well, actually, this is probably a pretty common fight-justification in stories the world over, now that I think about it). If your character is going into a fight and you want emotional conflict along with physical, the lowest-hanging fruit is definitely the "why would you fight this hard?" The character, naturally, will doubt himself suddenly, but hey, look, there! His female teammate fought and gave it her all -- whether now she's injured and rooting for him, or injured and needing his protection (since the author has now rendered her not just badly hurt but also suddenly stupid in terms of any remaining self-defense skills), or just plain out cold. In short, her sacrifice inspires him while at the same time providing an object lesson in "the reason why he fights so hard" -- to protectgirls his friends from going through such pain.
Which I think can have its place in stories, and is certainly a valid point in any action-based bildungsroman, but it gets tiresome when you realize that the sacrifice-and-example is pretty much always played by the action-girl, and frequently it's the only role the action-girl can even play. For all the homoerotic subtext some fans want to see, it's actually not very common to see a male character throw himself head-first against overwhelming odds for the sake of an injured or comatose male team-mate or friend. (The various Gundam series and Naruto are major exceptions, though, which might be why they also subtextually hit a lot of buttons, too, because they capitalize on tropes that are more often male-female in other stories.)
As a footnote to all of the above, one thing I've noticed increasing is the number of mangaka who seem to try and balance "lesser physical power" with "greater ruthlessness". Tokine in Kekkaishi is an absolutely stellar example of this, with absolutely no mercy while her male counterpart is really a softie. Sakura shows major signs of ruthlessness, too, but she's not without some modicum of compassion.
The animanga I recall from the 90s and early aughts, the girl's more likely to be a blowhard about having no sympathy for the enemy, but at the last minute! she can't bring herself to fire! and the hero thus must step in. The updated version is that the girl has no qualms about going for the jugular... if only the author hadn't set up the premise or circumstances to make sure she wouldn't actually have enough muscle/power behind her punch. It's like, well, now she's given the opportunity and guts to shoot -- except the author took all her ammunition away.
All these are just more reasons on the list of why I love Balsa and Gen. Oliva Armstrong so much.
We all know (and likely loathe, at least given the posts I see go past from most of you) the damsel in distress: she does something stupid, gets captured/hurt, has to be saved by the hero, and usually ends up clinging to him. I've been browsing some of the manga that readers have classified (on reader-tagging database sites) as "strong female lead" or "strong female character", and I think we need an intermediary.
Something like, "female character damselfied by the author", or "damsel with fighter tendencies," for a less anti-author spin on it.
The so-called "strong female characters" usually go like this: she's relatively outspoken, strong-willed, and ostensibly very good at whatever she does (even if in some stories we never see her do anything, we're at least told she's good). She's independent, and a common expression or thought among the transistional damsel is that she wants to 'stand on her own two feet'. She'll often explicitly state that she intends to fight [the big bad], alongside the hero, as his team-mate or equal. She doesn't see the hero as her rescuer, but as her mentor or her role model (and sometimes as the person she aspires to equal).
Cases in point: Tokine in Kekkaishi, Sakura, Hinato, hell just about any of the female characters in Naruto, Rukia in Bleach, Lenalee in D.Gray-Man, Marie/Soma in Gundam 00, Hilde in Gundam Wing, Kallen in Code Geass. Yet to be determined if Yura (from Nurarihyon no Mago) will fall into this category, as the fight's not done, so there's still chance for her to fall in line.
These are all combatants, btw; I don't think this transitional category applies to civilians, like Winry (of Fullmetal Alchemist) -- as a non-fighter, her most likely means of expression (in a sense, "her way of fighting") is not going to be head-on battle-mode, so it doesn't seem right to measure her by the same standards.
For each of the cases in point (and plenty others but I'm midway through drawer-building and waiting for glue to dry, so keeping this short) -- the introductory pattern, as combatant, is usually as above. Somewhere mid-battle, however, the damselfied combatant is tripped up. One of three things will happen. Either she doesn't have enough spiritual oomph, eg Tokine, Lenalee, and just about every female character in Bleach. Or she doesn't have the will-power/dedication (or alternately, can't overcome her doubt in herself), eg Kallen, Marie/Soma, and Yura (in her earliest fight-scenes). Or the author simply sets her up against fighters who just happen to out-rank her -- Hilde, and nearly every female in Naruto.
Which ultimately amounts to: she still needs to be rescued, but with a twist: she gets mad at herself for ending up in a place that requires the hero rescue her. You can see the differentiation most clearly in Nurarihyon no Mago, actually: Kana is a true damsel in distress, captured, helpless, and waiting anxiously for someone to come save her, and it doesn't even occur to her that she might've, or could've, done anything on her own behalf. Yura, in contrast, is annoyed at needing to be rescued, and determined to do her best to prevent it from happening again.
So what we get is the apparent warrior-woman, trapped in the position of damsel-in-distress (injured, incapacitated, or just plain outranked and unable to contribute to the overall fight), but also consumed by frustration at her position. She invariably rails helplessly against her, well, helplessness, and we're supposed to see this as a fighting spirit, and ignore that basically she was set up to fail. Again and again these transitional damsels throw themselves against someone far stronger, but digging into that observation means realizing that even these so-called warrior-damsels are always set up as weaker in some way, from the get-go. The story's premise either presumes the female character to be weaker (ie Tokine) or undermines the female character enough to destroy her original potential (Sakura, Lenalee).
We're supposed to see the warrior-damsel's determination to fight "against the odds" as bravery... but I can't help but note that in nearly every bloomin' instance, the fight doesn't cause the warrior-damsel to power-up like it does for her fellow (male) character. It just beats her down, and puts her back into the box of needing to be rescued. The only real difference is that we got teased with the possibility that this time, it wouldn't be so, and we got a lot of words from the heroine about how she wants to fight and/or be acknowledged by the hero and/or be equal to the hero in strength -- but the bottom line is that the message in the actual text is that this will never happen. But that's okay! As long as she wishes it might, that makes her strong female, because at least she's not helplessly accepting her damsel position.
Or maybe it just makes her kinda stupid, for entering battles with fighters who out-rank and out-flank her. Or maybe what makes her stupid is signing up for a story with an author who give plenty of lip service among the fan service, but has no intention of actually following through.
ETA: there's another way some authors will handle the "what do I do with the extra chick in the party" question, which is to justify the sabotage as meaningful sacrifice. (The women in Naruto, and Lenalee, get set up for this repeatedly.) The method is this: by some means, the warrior-damsel does take on (and frequently then proceeds to kick serious ass of) a pretty scary big bad -- but in the course of doing so, is either: pushed past her limits and burnt out (Sakura, Tokine), if she's not injured to the point of comatose (thus rendering her not just injured but pretty much a NPC for the rest of the fight, cf Lenalee).
The storyteller's rationalization, as I see it, is thus: every fight must have both a physical climax and an emotional one. The physical, of course, is obvious; the emotional may differ each time. The latter will show up as "what are you fighting for?" or "is this really important enough reason to fight?" or even "do you really have it in you to kill someone?"
A favorite trope of Japanese animanga is the "I fight to protect those precious to me" (well, actually, this is probably a pretty common fight-justification in stories the world over, now that I think about it). If your character is going into a fight and you want emotional conflict along with physical, the lowest-hanging fruit is definitely the "why would you fight this hard?" The character, naturally, will doubt himself suddenly, but hey, look, there! His female teammate fought and gave it her all -- whether now she's injured and rooting for him, or injured and needing his protection (since the author has now rendered her not just badly hurt but also suddenly stupid in terms of any remaining self-defense skills), or just plain out cold. In short, her sacrifice inspires him while at the same time providing an object lesson in "the reason why he fights so hard" -- to protect
Which I think can have its place in stories, and is certainly a valid point in any action-based bildungsroman, but it gets tiresome when you realize that the sacrifice-and-example is pretty much always played by the action-girl, and frequently it's the only role the action-girl can even play. For all the homoerotic subtext some fans want to see, it's actually not very common to see a male character throw himself head-first against overwhelming odds for the sake of an injured or comatose male team-mate or friend. (The various Gundam series and Naruto are major exceptions, though, which might be why they also subtextually hit a lot of buttons, too, because they capitalize on tropes that are more often male-female in other stories.)
As a footnote to all of the above, one thing I've noticed increasing is the number of mangaka who seem to try and balance "lesser physical power" with "greater ruthlessness". Tokine in Kekkaishi is an absolutely stellar example of this, with absolutely no mercy while her male counterpart is really a softie. Sakura shows major signs of ruthlessness, too, but she's not without some modicum of compassion.
The animanga I recall from the 90s and early aughts, the girl's more likely to be a blowhard about having no sympathy for the enemy, but at the last minute! she can't bring herself to fire! and the hero thus must step in. The updated version is that the girl has no qualms about going for the jugular... if only the author hadn't set up the premise or circumstances to make sure she wouldn't actually have enough muscle/power behind her punch. It's like, well, now she's given the opportunity and guts to shoot -- except the author took all her ammunition away.
All these are just more reasons on the list of why I love Balsa and Gen. Oliva Armstrong so much.
Here by metafandom
Date: 25 Sep 2010 10:09 pm (UTC)What drives me up a wall is, indeed, the usual derailing such criticism gets (as your posting shows, someone commented to your posting with the usual attempt at derailing). Apparently, many people in fandom see it as really mean to ask for female characters who are equally capable to male characters in series like that.
Bleach seems to be the worst offender in that regard. I can't count the number of times where a woman is set up as somewhat strong, just to get completely knocked down, needing guys to step in. And if you bring it up? People cite the one time Orihime didn't need help to somehow prove Bleach is okay and that you totally are mean because you're saying female characters need all to have combat ability!!11 (except, of course, there's not exactly a surplus of characters like that threatening to blot out those without...)
The sad thing is that there are some canons with really capable female characters, even leads. ...But you're not allowed to bring them up. They will be dismissed as "moe", since "cast with lots of females that do awesome stuff" = "moe crap" the moment one design could be called cute.
One of my fandoms is like that.
The main girl (and no, there's no guy who could save her. The only noticeable guy is a shopkeeper) would give most shonen heroes a run for their money. She's also a sloth, really likes getting money, and her main tactic to solve incidents is shooting down everyone who gets into her way until someone manages to direct her to the true cause of the problem - which she mostly does so she can get back home faster and sleep.
The canon? Touhou.
Despite a female main character like that, despite a chessmistress character, despite the second main heroine being a take on the "massive power bursts at once" shonen kind of hero...everyone dismisses Touhou as "Moe crap". Yeah, some designs are pretty cute, but if you go by what the characters actually do... they're pretty badass indeed, and are very varied as far as personalities go. And capable? Yes, they are, more so than most male shonen leads, even putting fighting ability aside.
Or take another anime that routinely gets blasted as moe, because it dares to have female main characters. They just happen to be a group of soldiers. Who end up stopping a war. But that doesn't matter: The main girl is cute and has a ditzy moment sometimes, and therefore it's a moeblob show that doesn't deserve consideration. Also scary non-white people around, one of which has deep subtext with another person of her gender, can't have that.
Precure? Dismissed, cutesy magical girl stuff, can't be useful. Let's ignore the heroines punching the heck out of enemies, and there even being a female-female fight with similar iconography than, say, the Naruto vs Sasuke fight in Naruto.
Canaan? Dismissed, a female villain has a fanservice scene, must be fanservice crap. The main heroine and other capable female characters don't matter. Not to mention scary non-white and middle eastern people.
El Cazador? Dismissed. One of the heroines looks moe, and a dark skinned south-american female character with an afro? The sky would fall if anyone would watch it.
Moribito? People just ignore that this series exists.
Fandom really doesn't seem to want shows with lots of female characters doing things.
Bitter? Me? Never.
Also here by metafandom
Date: 26 Sep 2010 04:18 am (UTC)Re: Also here by metafandom
Date: 26 Sep 2010 06:41 am (UTC)S-sorry to disappoint. Touhou is more a series of games and manga. I should have been more clear. It didn't help to write my posting past midnight >.
no subject
Date: 27 Sep 2010 04:54 am (UTC)The creator of it isn't really fond of anime companies and giving up his creative license, it seems.
That's one thing that fascinates me about the differences between Western entertainment production and Japanese entertainment production -- the retention of copyright. Most Western-based comics and graphic novels are done under the aegis of a comics company (ie Marvel, DC, etc) and the copyright ownership -- as I understand it -- is often corporate-owned, or is at least significantly shared, such that the original creator may not actually get much of a say. Whereas in Japanese production, I frequently read of situations where the original mangaka was not only able to pull the plug on a series or a series' adaptation, but had no problem doing so -- or where a mangaka could, and did, sue for copyright infringement for character designs. I can't think of any instance of that happening in Western comics/animation, since here, it's already all owned by the company, anyway.
Okay, totally off-topic, but still. Copyright laws, so byzantine, and yet, so fascinating. Kinda like... watching a really complex train wreck!
Re: Here by metafandom
Date: 26 Sep 2010 06:06 am (UTC)I'm intrigued. What is it? (Unless I missed the title in your post?)
no subject
Date: 26 Sep 2010 06:38 am (UTC)It's a weird little 13 episode anime involving trumpets, spider tanks, post-apocalyptical deserts, a miko-nun(seriously, she has a nun outfit with miko details), and a nice little french/spanish town in the middle of nowhere.
One episode in the middle was pretty bad, but overall it was really quite entertaining for me.
Re: Here by metafandom
Date: 26 Sep 2010 10:01 am (UTC)All of those shows you mention look interesting. Added to my "to watch" list! (except Canaan, which I've already seen.)
But basically, it seems like the best way to avoid the problem described in the OP is to have a lot of girls in leading roles.
Re: Here by metafandom
Date: 26 Sep 2010 12:16 pm (UTC)And I definitely agree about the girls-in-leading roles part. Consequently, it's technically what I use to find new things to watch, anime wise. ^^; (that and yaoi shows, of course. Hah, Loveless, you even had nice female characters along for a change <3)
no subject
Date: 27 Sep 2010 04:58 am (UTC)I think then you'd have to define "leading roles" -- since Naruto and Bleach both have massive enough casts that there's a significant number of female characters, same as Fullmetal Alchemist, yet only the women of FMA are really shown as not just consistently strong fighters but consistently strong on a par with the men. For that matter, by the simple definition of "lots of girls in leading roles" could also include the harem genre, and frankly, I have my doubts about any story in which it's a bunch of girls all fighting for (or just trying to win the attention of) some schlumpy dweeb. If the girls are that cool, what the hell are they doing with a dork like that?
Reminds me of the old observation -- attributed to many people, natch -- that you often see a smart man with a stupid woman, but you almost never see a smart woman with a stupid man.
no subject
Date: 27 Sep 2010 05:52 am (UTC)There's really more animes that do it, not just FMA. It's pretty rare, though.
As for harems...
There's actually female-aimed yuri stories with an uninteresting female lead getting all the girls, usually in worksafe cute ways. It's probably just some kind of fantasy for both genders to be all liked by tons of pwetty people despite being a completely boring person who never puts in any work for it.
no subject
Date: 27 Sep 2010 02:55 pm (UTC)women>men x (motivation-guy) - plot-induced weakness = what we want? More or less?
no subject
Date: 27 Sep 2010 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27 Sep 2010 04:49 am (UTC)I think sometimes it's that, but sometimes it's also that one really loves the story and thus wants to see it in the best possible light. I mean, if you adore a series and you're forced to recognize all these flaws, then would that diminish the story in your eyes? Wouldn't that mean the risk of losing that love one has for the story? -- and recognizing that the author has less-than-good intentions for (or simply easily dismisses) an entire section of characters means realizing that where one enjoys/appreciate all the characters for their parts-to-play, that the author... maybe not so much. Maybe even, in cases like Bleach where objective analysis reveals an almost antagonistic sabotage on the author's part, it could even feel like betrayal on the part of the author of a story that could've been great.
So the defensiveness is understandable, but it also complicates the reaction, as I'm sure you can see from the defenders popping up in some of the replies (and elsewhere, in comments of those linking to this post, I'm finding).
Also scary non-white people around, one of which has deep subtext with another person of her gender, can't have that.
When you start getting into representations of PoC (especially in animanga), then things get really problematic, really fast -- and do deserve an entire post (or a whole bunch of posts) for that topic alone. Also, if I ran the world, I'd outlaw any comic/cartoon/animanga illustration that smacks of blackface. I loathe that way of racially-coding "black" with a freaking passion. But, that's for another post.
As for Moribito, I think I fell in love within the first few lines of dialogue, when Balsa replies to the old man's comment with the thought, "young? I'll be thirty this year..." I nearly fell off my chair -- not only is she capable, confident, she's also not sixteen! Or fourteen! She's an adult! Gives me hope for the world, it does.
no subject
Date: 27 Sep 2010 05:45 am (UTC)Yep, very understandable. Japanese mangaka seem quite ignorant about that particular fail.
She's an adult! Gives me hope for the world, it does.
Quite, Balsa is really quite awesome.
Some of the stories like that actually do involve adults. The above mentioned Nanoha fandom has a third series where the two main characters of the first two seasons are adults now, with careers and all (mind, parts of the fandom complained, but that's fandom - can't have women with careers).
Still very rare in anime. Japanese authors likes to make everything about schools for some reason.
no subject
Date: 28 Sep 2010 02:30 am (UTC)I'd say the anime world needs more adults, but that probably would sound a little peculiar without context.