Week 6: What is the shōjo, and how does is often function in anime?

Anime is a term used to describe Japanese-styled animation. From my own knowledge, it’s mainly a medium nowadays used to animate manga (Japanese comics); of course, it is still used to tell original stories not taken from manga. Anime contains different categories to cater to the various demographics of the Japanese market. A small portion of international audiences are also catered to, but only after first release in Japan. Speaking of demographics, shōjo anime is targeted towards young girls between the ages 12 and 20.

To explain shōjo, I’d have to explain the kanji (Japanese-adopted Chinese characters) behind the word that it uses. It uses the kanji for “little” and “woman”. Cavallaro (2006) states that shōjo is translated to “little female”; which describes girls aged 12 to 13 years old. Majority of shōjo anime use female protagonists/leads to appeal to the younger female audience. These female protagonists are given certain qualities that viewers can relate to, and are stuck in particular situations that play on viewers’ desires; “… the worlds depicted in [shōjo] stories are serenely dreamy and bathed in an atmosphere of magic and wonder …” (Cavallaro, 2006, p.11). From my experience, a particular trend that I have seen in most shōjo anime is that the protagonist is quite passive, with the love interest being the dominant character in the relationship.

I admit, I was pretty excited we were covering anime this week, as it is something that I have absolute interest in. This week’s primary text was a screening of Princess Mononoke, directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki. Although I wasn’t able to attend the screening, I did catch the movie during this past weekend. I watched the Japanese dub with English subtitles (due to certain technical difficulties in finding the English dub online). English dub or Japanese dub certainly makes no difference to me, apart from the pronunciation of names. Before I even watched the movie, I really thought the lead of the film was this ‘Princess Mononoke’; little did I know that it was actually a male lead called Ashitaka. Although the lead was a male, I felt that San (the female protagonist known as Princess Mononoke) played as much of an important role in the movie, too.

Lackner (2009) states that a typical shōjo heroine’s physical features and mannerisms are mostly exaggerated; from round-shaped eyes to ‘gender-appropriate’ gestures. San lacks that conventional Shōjo attitude and look. Miayazaki’s drawing style is quite subtle in my opinion. San’s physical features; such as legs, hips, and chest; are not over-exaggerated. Lackner (2009) reports that shōjo heroines are depicted as “strong, within certain boundaries, and exhibit physical traits drawn to denote attractiveness and beauty” (p.128). In that sense, most of the conventional shōjo characters I’ve come across are very beautiful and quite strong-willed, but not physically. What makes San different though is that she isn’t the passive type that I’ve witnessed in a range of Shōjo anime, and she is quite physically strong. Her potential love interest, Ashitaka, isn’t exactly the dominant type in their relationship/alliance. The cutest moment between the two is when San appears before a weakened Ashitaka and the first thing he says to her is "you're beautiful". San is taken aback by this compliment (so was I), and from that moment, we see her first non-threatening reaction/emotion with a fellow human. The second time would be when Ashitaka gives San his dagger. San's "shōjo" instincts pop up at those moments, but only lasts for a little while. Their relationship from that point on is just an alliance between humans and animals/spirits. By the end of the movie, San and Ashitaka both agree to live apart but remain in contact with eachother; San goes back to the forest, and the latter stays in Irontown to help rebuild it. This part of the movie breaks the cliché endings that shōjo anime usually have; the girl and the boy both live happily ever after.

The antagonist in the film is a female character named Eboshi. A role that is usually given to males, Eboshi is depicted as an evil character, but she still has that caring nature about her; she is still a woman after all. She is another female character who, like San, is very strong; not only that, but she runs a WHOLE town called Irontown. San and Eboshi are as strong-willed as each other. San’s goal in the movie is protect the forest from destruction, and the latter’s only goal is just to survive. Both characters have a strong resolve. They've shown the will to sacrifice themselves in order to fulfill their goals. In my opinion, Eboshi isn’t exactly the ‘evil’ villain that most viewers claim her to be. She's quite a complex character. How I perceived her character was that everything she had done up until the end of the movie was all for the sake of survival in troubled times during the war. She’s like a double-edged sword. She has this caring nature, but she can also be just as cold. In her town, she is seen as a hero; she saved the women from working in brothels and gave them jobs and authority over the men in town. To San, she is the ultimate enemy who could care less about the animals and the environment that she is damaging.

So in terms of shōjo depiction in this particular anime, the physical appearance is the closest thing that both San and Eboshi have; however, Eboshi is not the typical shōjo age that San comes under, so I’d categorise her under Josei (older female demographic, and what I'd call the 'realistic' version of shōjo). Their backgrounds/upbringings, physical strength, determination, roles, and what they represent are things that lead them astray from the conventional shōjo path. It’s what also makes ‘Princess Mononoke’ that much more special and different. Indeed, all the other Miyazaki films with female leads stray from mainstream shōjo; Cavallaro (2006) reports that Miyazaki's shōjo heroines were modelled off the qualities his mother possessed.



Reference:

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Early years. In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki. (pp. 29-39). London: McFarland & Company.

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction. In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki. (pp. 5-13). London: McFarland & Company.

Lackner, E. L. (2009). Anime and manga. In Reid, R. A. (Ed.), Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy (pp. 123-134). Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.

Miyazaki, H. (Director). (2006). Princess Mononoke. Tokyo: Studio Ghibli Productions.