This Lesbian's Guide
to Anime and Manga: Target Audiences & Trends
by P. Kristen Enos
(Updated January 9, 2010.)
Introduction:
The
information below is just a brief summary of points
of what I keep in mind when I look at a project to
see if it would be worth my time and money to check
it out.
One of the
most personally intriguing facets about anime and
manga is that I've found startling differences in
the Japanese concept of target audience versus the
U.S. concept. This is extremely important
because it will have a direct influence of your
enjoyment factor of a particular title if you
watched it for the "wrong" reason. I tried to put
the points below in a particular order but gave up.
Subbed vs.
Dubbed
Do you
prefer subtitled viewing or audio dubbing in your
native language? Or both? There is always the raging
debate between the purists (who want sub only and
translated as close to the original script as
possible) and the mass marketers (who realize dub
actually sells more copies.)
I've noticed
the pattern with English language dubbing tends to
be more aware of cultural sensitivities (especially
around humor and sex) and matching the mouth
movement, so you can have a completely different
version of anime dialogue depending on which version
you view. And then there's the argument of whether
or not the dubbed voices "match" the characters,
which is something I personally pay attention to
when the voice quality really irks me, like horrible
English accents.
Personally,
I'm lenient depending on my level of interest in the
project. Obviously, subtitle viewing requires more
focused attention than dubbing (meaning I can't do
laundry at the same time of viewing a subtitled
version without rewinding several times to see what
I missed.) But for the series I really like and/or
when I'm doing lesbian analysis, I do try to compare
versions just to see the dialogue and vocal
differences.
Everyone in
Japan vs. Men/Teenage boys in U.S.
As an almost
lifelong fan of comic books, I am all too aware that
the standard American opinion of comics and
animation is that it's for "kids." And even the
slightly more aware people will increase that
threshold to include the adolescent minded male.
The
Japanese, on the other hand, have an embedded market
not only spanning the genders but age ranges as
well. This in turn means that there will be a
greater range of subject matter and quality levels
explored in the Japanese anime/manga industries,
which will unfortunately never make it to the U.S.
Early on,
it seems that American companies are trying to
import "girls" (Shoujo) oriented materials with
varied levels of success, partially because we don't
have the cultural support for easy marketing to the
teenage girls. "Sailor Moon" being a classic example
of bombing on its initial release but succeeding the
second time around due to a better marketing
strategy to actually reach its intended audience. At
the same time, because of U.S. economics and
demographic concerns as well as cultural sensitivity
issues, even shoujo material comes over badly
mangled. ("Sailor Moon" suffers from this, as well
as other projects such as "Card Captor Sakura".)
However, girls oriented material has proven to have
some success. But it still takes marketing
savvy to bring over the right products.
Adult
Audiences vs. Hentai
Basically,
"hentai" is the equivalent of making sexual content
the priority of why you're viewing something.
However, because the inherent diversity in the
Japanese viewing demographics, most material created
for adults is not of a hentai nature. It's like the
difference between NC17 and X in U.S. standards.
I personally
don't have that much experience with hentai -- I'm
not against sexual content, I'm just picky about
quality and subject matter. The few titles I
do pick up are hardly perfect from a lesbian
feminist perspective.
Shounen/Shoujo
Literally
speaking, "Shounen" means boy, and "Shoujo" means
girl, (I've seen the romanized words also spelled
without the middle "u"s.) While the basic concept of
appealing to these two very different audiences
(never mind age ranges) may take similar methods,
the actual content can be drastically different. For
example, seeing a collection of beautiful teenage
girls on the cover is can be targeted for either
boys or girls, whereas this is an unheard of concept
in the U.S. It's not until you watch the series or
read the manga that you can get the creeping
suspicion that you weren't reading or viewing what
you thought you were.
The "Ai"s
Because this
is a lesbian based site, I did have to add this
special note. "Ai" is the Japanese word for love,
and you will see the genres of Shounen Ai or Shoujo
Ai show up with frequency, which naturally means
material referring to same gender romances. The
truly interesting fact is that most Shounen Ai
material (male/male love) tends to be created by
women, which in turns tend to make them more
romanticized although the graphic element could
still be there. Anyone familiar with the concept of
slash fanfic should know this well. I personally
think it's a Japanese version of men loving the idea
of two women "together", which is also very frequent
in anime -- and will naturally be commented about on
the Lesbians List Page.
Additional
note, you will also see the words "yuri" and "yaoi",
which are the more sexually explicit versions of
female/female and male/male relationships
(respectively speaking.)
Cultural
Differences
For those
who have a greater intellectual appreciation for
anime and manga, enough could not be said about
cultural differences in general (apart from the
other ones I've noted in this section.) This could
be something as simple as not understanding the
Japanese references to contemporary issues, history
and/or geography. Plus some comments, even with the
best translators for subtitled versions just won't
make sense because it could be very
Japanese-centric, especially the more humorous
remarks. Plus the things Japanese take for granted
like public bathing won't matching our cultural
list, such as Americans being more open in affection
in relationships. And there are differences in
boundaries around taboo subjects which I won't go
into detail unless needed but just you might find
something "gross" or "shocking" may not necessarily
be the case to Japanese audiences.
The Popular
Genres
As with any
entertainment, there are certain genres which tend
to stick out due to production trends. Some of the
most popular are the "Magical Girl", "Mecha"/"Giant
Robots". Some projects will naturally stand out due
to their originality even within a given genre and
other projects cross-genres or cannot be genre
defined, as is typical of any entertainment
industry.
Super
Deformed (SD)
The biggest
but most subtle thing could be the use of "Super
Deformed" characters, usually for comedic purposes.
They are like cutesy midget versions of the
characters. I know I was shocked and utterly
confused when I first saw them and didn't know what
the hell I was watching. While I have grudgingly
developed a higher tolerance for their uses, I
personally dislike them and they were one of the
major obstacles of me getting through certain series
that used them with regularity (such as the first
season of "Magic Knight Rayearth.")
And even if
the characters don't go through that instant shrink
incarnation of SD, facial expressions and body
language can be more elastic and exaggerated, again
usually for humor purposes. (Think the Warner
Brothers "Bugs Bunny" cartoons of people reacting to
pain from being hit with a mallet or an anvil.)
The Breast
Check
This is probably my biggest
and continually challenging issue in my appreciation
of anime in general. However, it’s not as clean cut
and obvious at to what the title may imply.
As a woman, I do have a
preference for watching material which shows strong,
diverse female character representation, and there
is definitely not a shortage of prominent female
representation. However there's a fine line between
a character that is likeable/respectable or just a
overindulgent male fantasy that goes well into
parodyland.
Anime or manga which have no
or suspiciously token female representation do
require a little more effort to get me interested in
checking it out. I actually can get into
“guy”-oriented material if the concept and animation
samples proves intriguing enough: for example, I got
into “Evangelion”, “Trigun” and “Gasaraki” based on
the concepts of their storyline -- not realizing
there was strong female characters representation
until after I had started watching it (much to my
pleasant surprise). I’ve found that when story and
character development is of high enough quality,
equal treatment does spread across the sexes.
The Reality of Breasts: Don’t
get me wrong, I am definitely not a prude when it
comes to the appreciation of the female anatomy. I
love breasts, but only when they’re on the right
woman (animated or otherwise). However, even in
those circumstances, I do not believe breasts
deserve their own screen time or animation based on
an independent law of physics.
Plus,
there’s a certain realism one tends to adopt in
viewing breasts when you have your own (therefore
the mystique is gone.) For example, one of the first
thoughts which cross my mind when I see an animated
female who is absurdly overly endowed is that she’s
going to have severe back problems when she gets
older, and it wouldn’t be half as sexy to animate.
The quality of the rest of the material determines
if I'm willing to turn a blind eye to the issue...so
to speak.
Personally, I do have a real peeve when there are
excessively, unrealistic jiggle factors used in
animation. For example, I was quite annoyed watching
“Amazing Nurse Nanako”, who is not only overly
endowed but who also has titillation only exercise
scenes. Apart from the fact that I was aggravated by
the visual distraction, I couldn’t help but think no
(real) woman with noticeable cleavage (never mind
being watermelon proportioned) would exercise
without bra support. In watching “Nanako”, I
immediately thought “OW! That’s got to hurt!”
Especially when there’s so much momentum in her
movements that they look like they would fly off at
any moment and be mistaken for UFOs.
To
add to my point, I probably wouldn’t like “BGC 2040”
as much if The Women were similarly endowed.
The Mixed
Blessing of Being an Anime Fan Who is Also a Lesbian
As
I go through the catalogs of older (like beyond a
year or two) U.S. releases of anime/manga, I’ve
noticed the themes (implied or explicit) of women
who have sex with each other, which is very
different than women who fall in love. The extremely
cynical side of me firmly believes that the target
audience for this material is not women but the
professed heterosexually oriented male who just gets
off on the idea. This assessment is only confirmed
when I occasionally see examples of said individuals
whose anime purchases at stores suspiciously mirror
my own for the most part. I just know we’re probably not
viewing the anime for the same reason or levels of
appreciation.
However, because I admit I do have less than
intellectual reasons on my occasional viewing items,
I am willing to check out the baser materials with
low story-telling and characterization quality
expectations and can end up being pleasantly
surprised by the result. “Ayane’s High Kick” and
“Battle Athletes” being two examples of the
packaging being far more sexually teasing than the
actual animation. [There’s a whole definite dynamic
on Japanese marketing/packaging techniques that I’ll
address on the Lesbians Analysis part of this site.]
Foreign
Influences
Because of recent market
trends, many Japanese companies need the financial
help of foreign companies/markets in order to turn a
profit. After all, it IS a business.
This has led to some awareness of what foreign fans
(especially Americans) may like. It's all in
your perspective if you think this is a good thing
or a bad thing.
[By the way, this
page is copyright 2010 to P. Kristen Enos. Don't
copy please!]
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