That's a really interesting and depressingly accurate point, and explains of what really frustrates me about reading shounen. I'm trying to think back, and I can't remember offhand a single girl getting the same will-powered powerup that the guys do in a shounen series. I particularly hate this in series where the girl is about equal to the guys at the start, but then all the guys start getting power-ups and the girl's left in the dust. Which doesn't even make sense, because why would they suddenly be motivated to train hard while she isn't when she's already shown the dedication needed to train to be a good fighter in the first place and is generally in the same kinds of situations? It seems to be getting
It's kind of interesting to me thinking about how the same patterns with women play out in JRPGs. They can't be depowered as much as shounen heroines in general, because players want to be able to use their characters and because leveling up with numbers is somehow more acceptable than leveling up through manly training. But the same patterns tend to still fall out. I can't decide which is more irritating, when your level 80 mage capable of killing a dragon with one hit (much less a spell) gets kidnapped to motivate the hero, or when the girl who's been systematically prevented from getting stronger by the author gets kidnapped to motivate the hero.
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Date: 29 Sep 2010 05:13 am (UTC)It's kind of interesting to me thinking about how the same patterns with women play out in JRPGs. They can't be depowered as much as shounen heroines in general, because players want to be able to use their characters and because leveling up with numbers is somehow more acceptable than leveling up through manly training. But the same patterns tend to still fall out. I can't decide which is more irritating, when your level 80 mage capable of killing a dragon with one hit (much less a spell) gets kidnapped to motivate the hero, or when the girl who's been systematically prevented from getting stronger by the author gets kidnapped to motivate the hero.