In America, we hear all about the heroines in stories, books, or movies. Whether it’s Beauty and the Beast, or Moana setting out on the open ocean, they’ve all been a big part of American culture. But what if we went somewhere else? Would it be the same, or something entirely different? There are indeed different heroines, but for the most complexity and creativity, we can look at Japan.
In Japan, there is no such thing as a lack of online entertainment. There is just so much ANIME. Attack on Titan, Code Geass, Gintama, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, there is a lot.
The trend of liking anime has gone worldwide and has reached creators like JaidenAnimations and the Amazzing, who have created their own anime intros.
But instead of looking at it from an American standpoint, we could go more in-depth, into Japanese anime. Mamoru Hosoda’s “Belle”, and the making of it, to understand this intriguing style.
In the colorful scenes of “Belle”, we follow the adventures of a female character named Suzu. She has a life online that shadows her alter ego, Belle, who is the reigning pop diva of the cyberworld of U. Her music reflects the love and pain she has experienced, the time she lost her deceased mother, who drowned saving a child from a rushing river. Suzu misses her mother but is angry that she sacrificed herself for “a kid whose name she didn’t even know.” She even abandoned her musical gifts because her mother encouraged them.
In a video call, Hosoda admitted that he thought a major shift in animation occurred when the animators at Disney made Belle in Beauty and the Beast a more independent, intelligent, and contemporary young woman than her predecessors. She strived for a more exciting life than her “poor, provincial town” could provide.
Like in many fairy tales, Suzu encounters a beast in the cyberworld of U. However, also unlike the fairy tales, it isn’t some sort of prince in disguise, but a boy named Kei, “an abused adolescent who struggles to protect his younger brother from their brutal father.”
Another anime, Makoto Shinkai’s, “Your Name” broke box office records in Japan in 2016. Beginning as a body-swapping teen romance show, it gradually develops into a meditation on the trauma many Japanese still suffer after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
In the anime, Mitsuha is bored with her life in the rural town of Itomori, and Taki, a student in Tokyo, wants to be an architect. One day, they wake up in each other’s bodies and navigate through life not knowing where anything or anyone is.
As the body-swapped life continues, they gradually learn from each other through their perspectives. Taki later discovers that Itomori was destroyed three years earlier due to a meteor strike and warns Mitsuha with Shinto-influenced magic. They meet briefly at twilight and formulate a plan to save the people of Itomori.
Mitsuha decides to act when Taki vanishes and, defying her pompous politician father, she uses her intelligence and determination to save hundreds of lives.
The trend for new heroines doesn’t just end there, though. Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning “Spirited Away” (released in Japan in 2001 and now on HBO Max) is sprouted from his dissatisfaction with the superficial entertainment offered to adolescent girls in Japan. “I wanted the main character to be a typical girl in whom a 10-year-old could recognize herself,” he explained through a translator in an interview.
Although almost every single one of the Japanese animation directors is all-male, more women have started to join the workforce in important roles in the anime industry. These actions are affecting the way that females are appearing on screen, and lead to a generally better (and more entertaining!) anime industry.
In Japan, there is no such thing as a lack of online entertainment. There is just so much ANIME. Attack on Titan, Code Geass, Gintama, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, there is a lot.
The trend of liking anime has gone worldwide and has reached creators like JaidenAnimations and the Amazzing, who have created their own anime intros.
But instead of looking at it from an American standpoint, we could go more in-depth, into Japanese anime. Mamoru Hosoda’s “Belle”, and the making of it, to understand this intriguing style.
In the colorful scenes of “Belle”, we follow the adventures of a female character named Suzu. She has a life online that shadows her alter ego, Belle, who is the reigning pop diva of the cyberworld of U. Her music reflects the love and pain she has experienced, the time she lost her deceased mother, who drowned saving a child from a rushing river. Suzu misses her mother but is angry that she sacrificed herself for “a kid whose name she didn’t even know.” She even abandoned her musical gifts because her mother encouraged them.
In a video call, Hosoda admitted that he thought a major shift in animation occurred when the animators at Disney made Belle in Beauty and the Beast a more independent, intelligent, and contemporary young woman than her predecessors. She strived for a more exciting life than her “poor, provincial town” could provide.
Like in many fairy tales, Suzu encounters a beast in the cyberworld of U. However, also unlike the fairy tales, it isn’t some sort of prince in disguise, but a boy named Kei, “an abused adolescent who struggles to protect his younger brother from their brutal father.”
Another anime, Makoto Shinkai’s, “Your Name” broke box office records in Japan in 2016. Beginning as a body-swapping teen romance show, it gradually develops into a meditation on the trauma many Japanese still suffer after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
In the anime, Mitsuha is bored with her life in the rural town of Itomori, and Taki, a student in Tokyo, wants to be an architect. One day, they wake up in each other’s bodies and navigate through life not knowing where anything or anyone is.
As the body-swapped life continues, they gradually learn from each other through their perspectives. Taki later discovers that Itomori was destroyed three years earlier due to a meteor strike and warns Mitsuha with Shinto-influenced magic. They meet briefly at twilight and formulate a plan to save the people of Itomori.
Mitsuha decides to act when Taki vanishes and, defying her pompous politician father, she uses her intelligence and determination to save hundreds of lives.
The trend for new heroines doesn’t just end there, though. Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning “Spirited Away” (released in Japan in 2001 and now on HBO Max) is sprouted from his dissatisfaction with the superficial entertainment offered to adolescent girls in Japan. “I wanted the main character to be a typical girl in whom a 10-year-old could recognize herself,” he explained through a translator in an interview.
Although almost every single one of the Japanese animation directors is all-male, more women have started to join the workforce in important roles in the anime industry. These actions are affecting the way that females are appearing on screen, and lead to a generally better (and more entertaining!) anime industry.
