Complex heroines have become a popular part of top Japanese animator’s works. Examples include the heroines in Mamoru Hosoda’s “Belle”, Makoto Shinkai’s “Your Name”, Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away”, Isao Takahata’s “Only Yesterday”, and many others.
All the heroines in these animes experience complex emotions and have intricate personalities. According to an article in The New York Times, “[The characters] have faults and weaknesses and tempers as well as strengths and talents.”
Suzu, the main character in Hosoda’s “Belle”, is a world-famous singer in the digital world of U, where she is known as her username “Belle”. She reflects complicated emotions about her mother’s death, feeling both grief and anger. Her mother drowned while trying to save a child in a flooded river, and, while missing her mother, Suzu felt angry that her mother sacrificed her life for someone she didn’t even know.
Hosoda said in a video call, “When you think of animation and female leads, you always go to the fairy tale tropes. But they really broke that template: It felt very new. Similarly, what we tried to do in ‘Belle’ is not build a character, but build a person: someone who reflects the society in which we live.”
In Shinkai’s “Your Name”, the characters Mitsuha and Taki switch bodies randomly and have to adjust to life in each other’s bodies. Eventually, Taki learns that Mitsuha’s town, Itomori, was destroyed three years earlier by a meteor strike. He reaches out to Mitsuha at twilight, which is Japan’s “Magic Hour”, and warns her about it. What makes this anime truly special is the fact that Mitsuha is just an ordinary high school girl; to save Itomori, she didn’t need any special superpowers.
When speaking on this topic, Shinkai said, “Since the 2011 earthquake, Japanese people have been living with the fear that our cities may disappear. But even if that happens, even if we have to move somewhere else, we go on living. We meet someone special. That’s what I wanted Mitsuha to do, who I wanted her to be.”
Unlike many Western heroines, characters like Suzu from “Belle” and Mitsuha from “Your Name” must navigate tricky emotions and tangled personalities―just like anyone else in the world.
Link: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656284719014x984517939433084800/For%20the%20Most%20Complex%20Heroines%20in%20Animation%2C%20Look%20to%20Japan%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
All the heroines in these animes experience complex emotions and have intricate personalities. According to an article in The New York Times, “[The characters] have faults and weaknesses and tempers as well as strengths and talents.”
Suzu, the main character in Hosoda’s “Belle”, is a world-famous singer in the digital world of U, where she is known as her username “Belle”. She reflects complicated emotions about her mother’s death, feeling both grief and anger. Her mother drowned while trying to save a child in a flooded river, and, while missing her mother, Suzu felt angry that her mother sacrificed her life for someone she didn’t even know.
Hosoda said in a video call, “When you think of animation and female leads, you always go to the fairy tale tropes. But they really broke that template: It felt very new. Similarly, what we tried to do in ‘Belle’ is not build a character, but build a person: someone who reflects the society in which we live.”
In Shinkai’s “Your Name”, the characters Mitsuha and Taki switch bodies randomly and have to adjust to life in each other’s bodies. Eventually, Taki learns that Mitsuha’s town, Itomori, was destroyed three years earlier by a meteor strike. He reaches out to Mitsuha at twilight, which is Japan’s “Magic Hour”, and warns her about it. What makes this anime truly special is the fact that Mitsuha is just an ordinary high school girl; to save Itomori, she didn’t need any special superpowers.
When speaking on this topic, Shinkai said, “Since the 2011 earthquake, Japanese people have been living with the fear that our cities may disappear. But even if that happens, even if we have to move somewhere else, we go on living. We meet someone special. That’s what I wanted Mitsuha to do, who I wanted her to be.”
Unlike many Western heroines, characters like Suzu from “Belle” and Mitsuha from “Your Name” must navigate tricky emotions and tangled personalities―just like anyone else in the world.
Link: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656284719014x984517939433084800/For%20the%20Most%20Complex%20Heroines%20in%20Animation%2C%20Look%20to%20Japan%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
