Should women avoid anime?

[Lester C.]

I have a standing policy to only recommend anime to men, because of the depiction of women in anime and I was just wondering where you guys stood on this issue.

[Ghost]

...Um, if you feel uncomfortable recommending anime to girls "because of the depiction of women in anime," I think that says more about the kind of anime you tend to watch then anything else. o_O;

Here's a little experiment: go to DeviantArt and type "bishounen" into the search engine. Then count how many of the artists you come across from this search are actually male. Provided you can find any.

I might say something like "it depends on the anime in question" - some are made for girls in mind, like say the entire shoujo genre, and a lot are created by female mangaka- but seriously, even anime and manga made mostly with a male audience in mind has its fair share of female fans. You just can't make a generalization like that.

As a matter of fact, my own interest in manga and anime was largely ignited because a girl practically dragged me into it. I think that answers your question right there. :tongue:

[FroFroYo]

...Um, if you feel uncomfortable recommending anime to girls "because of the depiction of women in anime," I think that says more about the kind of anime you tend to watch then anything else. o_O;

Here's a little experiment: go to DeviantArt and type "bishounen" into the search engine. Then count how many of the artists you come across from this search are actually male. Provided you can find any.

I might say something like "it depends on the anime in question" - some are made for girls in mind, like say the entire shoujo genre, and a lot are created by female mangaka- but seriously, even anime and manga made mostly with a male audience in mind has its fair share of female fans. You just can't make a generalization like that.

As a matter of fact, my own interest in manga and anime was largely ignited because a girl practically dragged me into it. I think that answers your question right there. :tongue:




Same here.

xD

[rick]

At my store anime always sold much better to women then to men.

Even the smut.

[Kevinroc]

I have to agree with those that ask what kind of anime are you watching? There are plenty of series I would recommend to women. The most important thing to take into account is the individual. What one individual might find interesting, another might find boring. What one might find exciting, another might find redundant.

It's all about individual choice.

[Alex L]

+1 to everything said here, but I don't know if I would recommend much shoujo to women (adults, not kids) due to the odd Mary Sue-ism associated with many of the leads.

I know Mary Sue is not the proper term, but it still sorta fits the mold of some top characters.

[Kirayoshi]

Again, it depends on which anime. I recommended "Tokyo Godfathers" to my sister and she enjoyed it.

[The Once And Forever]

Like Ghost and FroFroYo, I was formally introduced and kept into anime by girls, and have no problem recomending it to other girls.

To me, women in anime isn't much different than women in any other form of entertainment.

Aside from the racks of course.

[Lester C.]

I happily withdraw the question in light of overwhelming evidence that women watch anime. In terms of what I watch I am the proud owner of mostly short complete series like Trigun, Matian Succesor Nadesco, Cowboy Bebop, Blue Gender, Hellsing, Trinity Blood, Berserk, Samurai Champloo, Ninja Scroll etc. I also have a few features but not too many. in fact the only movies I own are the two Vampire Hunter D flicks and Ninja Scroll. I would own more movies but I have a hard time finding out about them.

[Alex L]

I happily withdraw the question in light of overwhelming evidence that women watch anime. In terms of what I watch I am the proud owner of mostly short complete series like Trigun, Matian Succesor Nadesco, Cowboy Bebop, Blue Gender, Hellsing, Trinity Blood, Berserk, Samurai Champloo, Ninja Scroll etc. I also have a few features but not too many. in fact the only movies I own are the two Vampire Hunter D flicks and Ninja Scroll. I would own more movies but I have a hard time finding out about them.

Yeah, it doesn't seem like most of the stuff you've got applies to what's seen as a traditional female audience.

Those seem more like guy's series, though I do know quite a few girls who dig Bebop and Trigun.

Vampire Hunter D... maybe?

[Ghost]

Yeah, it doesn't seem like most of the stuff you've got applies to what's seen as a traditional female audience.

Those seem more like guy's series, though I do know quite a few girls who dig Bebop and Trigun.

Vampire Hunter D... maybe?

Actually, I'm pretty sure Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo and Hellsing have fangirls, Probably VHD as well.

Anyway, I think the safest bet when recommending anime to women is the same as when recommending them to men: find out what they are actually interested in and what they've enjoyed in the past.

[Yun Lao]

It depends on which series and the females you know; for example, my mom and sister enjoyed VHD: Bloodlust even though they've never watched anime.

[nervmeister]

At my store anime always sold much better to women then to men.

Even the smut.Yaoi shops staffed by male exotic dancers don't count. :tongue:

[arp2008]

I WISH more girls would embrace it.

[arp2008]

Those seem more like guy's series, though I do know quite a few girls who dig Bebop and Trigun.
Seriously? Where do you met those kind of women?

[Lester C.]

Seriously? Where do you met those kind of women?

My guess would be anime conventions, not that there are any to be the Chicago area that I know of.:mad:

[arp2008]

Heh. Trust me, were I able to attend one of those things I would.

[The Xenos]

Yeah. I find this funny as it seems women and girls outnumber males at most anime cons I go to. Sure, they're not all into the same ones as guys, but there is overlap. I know or have met girls who read male oriented stuff like Berserk or Hellsing. Meanwhile I've read and watched stuff like Fruits Basket or some CLAMP books.

[Gezora]

Ah.... anime cons. I've never attended one myself, but I hear there are mythical beings called Hawt-Feemail-Cozplayerz that magically appear at most of them....

I wish I could see one for myself. Unfortunately for me, my personal experience with cosplayers is that they all invariably have something dreadfully wrong with them, usually:

A.) 100+ pounds they really don't need

B.) 1 penis too many

C.) The odd smell of an anonymous luncheon meat

D.) A severe yaoi infection

E.) Any combination thereof.

[Lester C.]

Ah.... anime cons. I've never attended one myself, but I hear there are mythical beings called Hawt-Feemail-Cozplayerz that magically appear at most of them....

I wish I could see one for myself. Unfortunately for me, my personal experience with cosplayers is that they all invariably have something dreadfully wrong with them, usually:

A.) 100+ pounds they really don't need

B.) 1 penis too many

C.) The odd smell of an anonymous luncheon meat

D.) A severe yaoi infection

E.) Any combination thereof.

The bigger cons do hire models to Cosplay so they hot women dressed as anime characters do exist. Whether or not they have actually seen the anime in question is another matter.

[Gezora]

The bigger cons do hire models to Cosplay so they hot women dressed as anime characters do exist. Whether or not they have actually seen the anime in question is another matter.

So, proverbially strapping a plastic cone on a horse and calling it unicorn....

I knew it was too good to be true!

http://www.akiba-online.com/forum/images/smilies/noooo.gif

[Darth Joker]

Yeah, it doesn't seem like most of the stuff you've got applies to what's seen as a traditional female audience.

Those seem more like guy's series, though I do know quite a few girls who dig Bebop and Trigun.

Vampire Hunter D... maybe?

I agree with this. Bebop and Trigun have a fair number of female fans.

Even the gorier animes that you listed, Lester, have at least some female fans, I would think. I will say, though, that Beserk, and Ninja Scroll, are probably not the animes to use as gateway animes for new female fans. Now, if a woman is already an anime fan, then it doesn't hurt to ask if she's into something like Beserk or Ninja Scroll.

[HectorP]

I have a standing policy to only recommend anime to men, because of the depiction of women in anime and I was just wondering where you guys stood on this issue.

Recommend them the right ones. Which those are, that's the fun part.

[Kaos]

anime shouldn't be avoided by anyone. should be criminal to miss it.

[arp2008]

Yeah. I find this funny as it seems women and girls outnumber males at most anime cons I go to. Sure, they're not all into the same ones as guys, but there is overlap. I know or have met girls who read male oriented stuff like Berserk or Hellsing. Meanwhile I've read and watched stuff like Fruits Basket or some CLAMP books. What? Girls > Guys? What cons do you go to?

[jesse_custer]

I will say, though, that Beserk, and Ninja Scroll, are probably not the animes to use as gateway animes for new female fans.

Coincidentally, I know a woman who got into anime through Ninja Scroll.

[The Xenos]

What? Girls > Guys? What cons do you go to?

Anime Boston. Otakon. Hell, even our local Anime Club has just as many female members now. It fluctuates. It was founded by two girls. There was a fun bit when she was still prez and showed Fake. Also, the 37th ep of Fushigi Yui. Then mostly guys showed up for a bit when I was an officer. Now there's an influx of girls and the two officers are girls.

[Bakasama]

What? Girls > Guys? What cons do you go to?

I guess you never heard of the Bishounen effect.

[arp2008]

No, I haven't. Care to explain?

[Bakasama]

Two words: "Pretty Boys"

[Demon wizard]

There are some female anime nerds at our school, but most of them are more into Naruto and Inuyasha, than the Darker/Gorier stuff I like. :frown:

[The Xenos]

I guess you never heard of the Bishounen effect. No, I haven't. Care to explain?Two words: "Pretty Boys"

The newest example would be Ouran High School Host Club. Swarming with them. Fruits Basket is another popular one. Code Geass is an interesting mix as they have pretty boys for female fans and cheesecakey girls and mechs for male fans. Though even as far back as Gundam Wing there has been a mix of bishonen and mechs to draw a cross gender audience.

[stelok]

For example Some of the female otakus I know have disliked Oku-sama wa Joshi Kousei, which means My Wife is a High School Girl in Japanese and whose summary is about a 17-year old school girl who is married to her 25-year old teacher. But some other female anime fans have liked it. I guess it depends on individuals' tastes.

http://i35.tinypic.com/ru1vsy.jpg
http://i38.tinypic.com/28b60yr.jpg
http://i35.tinypic.com/5xlpax.jpg
http://i38.tinypic.com/j8zg48.jpg

[stelok]

It is quite rare to find a female otaku who likes an anime manga series named Kodomo no Jikan whose star is a girl and which is ironically created by a woman to intentionally attract a certain group of male anime fans.

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk193/ichirou_ohgami/grab4222.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk193/ichirou_ohgami/grab4472.jpg
http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/1560/kodomonojikanv1059vy3.png
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/2950/kodomonojikanv1129bh1.png

[Bakasama]

The newest example would be Ouran High School Host Club. Swarming with them. Fruits Basket is another popular one. Code Geass is an interesting mix as they have pretty boys for female fans and cheesecakey girls and mechs for male fans. Though even as far back as Gundam Wing there has been a mix of bishonen and mechs to draw a cross gender audience.

Yeah I remember a Gumdam fan complaining that Gundam Wing had too many pretty boys and a bunch of pseudointellectual crap. I kind of agree with pretty boy part. I remember back in the 80's didn't have as much bishounen as main characters. I suppose bishounens work in this day in age. They hook potential fangirls in.

[Melchior]

The newest example would be Ouran High School Host Club. Swarming with them. Fruits Basket is another popular one. Code Geass is an interesting mix as they have pretty boys for female fans and cheesecakey girls and mechs for male fans. Though even as far back as Gundam Wing there has been a mix of bishonen and mechs to draw a cross gender audience.

Actually, I believe an earlier "bishonen eye-candy for the girls in a commonly male-dominated show" dates back to Saint Seiya or the slightly later.... Samurai Spirits? Whatever Ronin Warriors is in Japanese. From my understanding the voice actors for the Japanese Ronin Warriors were the first to reach a pop-idol status among girls, and had to have protection from the fangirl masses during con appearances. Gundam Wing successfully followed it with its own five-man bishonen squad several years later.

[chaosakita]

I have a standing policy to only recommend anime to men, because of the depiction of women in anime and I was just wondering where you guys stood on this issue.

This is like recommending film only to women. I don't think you know how varied the anime genre is. Would you seriously recommend shojo anime (even josei) or something like Revolutionary Girl Utena to a guy? Anime isn't just hentai seinen stuff. I'm serious.

In fact, many male-oriented series have a huge (even fanatical) female following. They even intentionally try to capture the fuyoshi group.

[Lester C.]

No, I haven't. Care to explain?

When I saw promotional material for Trinity Blood I couldn't tell the difference between the men and the women. I can't post pictures at work but I'll show you what I mean tomarrow.

[The Xenos]

It is quite rare to find a female otaku who likes an anime manga series named Kodomo no Jikan whose star is a girl and which is ironically created by a woman to intentionally attract a certain group of male anime fans.

HA! Funny you should mention that. My college.. er.. alumnus's anime club had our first meeting tonight. We had people list of some favorite anime. One person said Kodomo No Jikan. Our female VP who was sitting near me bleeted out a "No!". Then everyone laughed. Despite our VP's little outburst, a couple of guys at club gave a thumbs up, especially one we teased for liking the series last year.

Meanwhile, the turn out was pretty 50/50. There was a decent representation of female fans, new people and freshman at that. Plus our female prez and others gave thumbs up to some of the showed named, like Saiyuki or Kyo Kara Maoh.

[Riful#]

I have to agree with those that ask what kind of anime are you watching? There are plenty of series I would recommend to women. The most important thing to take into account is the individual. What one individual might find interesting, another might find boring. What one might find exciting, another might find redundant.

It's all about individual choice.

/totally agree

I got into anime due to recommendations from male friends. Started with Claymore and then since seen RGU, Cowboy Bebop, Hellsing, Noir, Berserk, Madlax, Bleach, .hack//Sign, Code Geass, Blood+, Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, Guyver, Juuni Kokki, Ghost In The Shell (everything related to it) and a lot of other stuff.

Not all girls dig bishounen, at least I don't care much for it although it can't be denied that it has a certain pull to some of the female population x.x

[Ragnorok64]

Just look at some of character designs coming out of Square Enix, and other games and you'll see there's a pretty large infusion of estrogen in the fanbase. Yes I'm looking at you Vaan.
http://www.ffcompendium.com/art/12-vaan-a.jpg

[HectorP]

I just thought of The Wallflower for some reason.

[Eliseu Gouveia]

The one thing I absolutely love about manga is the diversity of genres it touches.
There´s practicaly everything for everyone,it´s like a variation of rule 34:

"If the subject exists, there is manga of it." :biggrin:

<- goes back to search for a title addressing talking fruit Sci fantasy. ^_^

[MKTerra]

Samurai Spirits? Whatever Ronin Warriors is in Japanese.Yoroiden Samurai Troopers :wink:

[Ghost]

Just look at some of character designs coming out of Square Enix, and other games and you'll see there's a pretty large infusion of estrogen in the fanbase. Yes I'm looking at you Vaan.

Thing is, between Balthier, Basch, Reddas, Al-Cid Margrace, etc, they'd started to run out of sheer manlyness once they got to Vaan. The budget just didn't cover it. :tongue:

[Lester C.]

I consider myself a serious anime fan but I'm hearing all this jargon for the first time. It's been a really interesting experience.

[Alex L]

Welcome to Level 2 Otakudom. http://www.darksides.co.uk/images/smileys/Bigsmileys/green-neon-scared.gif

Follow fansubs for a bit and you'll get every word we're talking about.

[Lester C.]

Welcome to Level 2 Otakudom. http://www.darksides.co.uk/images/smileys/Bigsmileys/green-neon-scared.gif

Follow fansubs for a bit and you'll get every word we're talking about.

I am conversationally fluent in Japanese so I don't need them. Unfortunately I only know Hiragana and Katakana so I'm scrwed when it comes to video games as you need to know around 3000 Kanji to know what's going on.

[Korgeta]

Outlaw star, slayers or Big O have a less sexualised tone on women then usual amimes. I do agree that to an extent anime is still aimed at a male auidance mostly but it is no different to video gaming, the music industry or hollywood. The last two are proarbly the worst as some are even resrted to lie about their age (because there's something sooooo terribly unsexy about the fact that a woman is near 30)

[Lester C.]

Outlaw star, slayers or Big O have a less sexualised tone on women then usual amimes. I do agree that to an extent anime is still aimed at a male auidance mostly but it is no different to video gaming, the music industry or hollywood. The last two are proarbly the worst as some are even resrted to lie about their age (because there's something sooooo terribly unsexy about the fact that a woman is near 30)

I don't any of those shows but I've seen them all. Those shows are less sexulized because the focus on two of three of them is a coming of age story and a male coming of age story. Hell none of the female leads in those three show qualify as human so I don't think women can really identify with Melfina, Lina and Dorothy.

[Bakasama]

I consider myself a serious anime fan but I'm hearing all this jargon for the first time. It's been a really interesting experience.

You speak Japanese you never heard of some these terms? Have you heard of "kawaiiko", "kawaisa", or "kotobagari"?

[hichaec]

I don't any of those shows but I've seen them all. Those shows are less sexulized because the focus on two of three of them is a coming of age story and a male coming of age story. Hell none of the female leads in those three show qualify as human so I don't think women can really identify with Melfina, Lina and Dorothy.

Dude, I'm not a clown fish, but that didn't stop me from identifying with Marlin in Finding Nemo. ;) Does the "species" of the character really matter that much, all things considered?

Anyway, I guess I live in bizarro world, because most of the anime fans I know are female, and their interests tend to vary widely.

[Lester C.]

You speak Japanese you never heard of some these terms? Have you heard of "kawaiiko", "kawaisa", or "kotobagari"?

They don't teach you slang in school. You have to pick that up in the street so to speak.

[Alex L]

You speak Japanese you never heard of some these terms? Have you heard of "kawaiiko", "kawaisa", or "kotobagari"?

Admittedly, I only took Japanese for four semesters but I never heard of any of those terms.

[Bakasama]

Admittedly, I only took Japanese for four semesters but I never heard of any of those terms.

It's Japanese cultural stuff that's in anime and manga but one can only see it if they look closely enough.

Explaining what those terms mean might be much for a post so I'll let tvtropes.org do the talking:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Kawaiiko
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Kawaisa
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Kotobagari

This has more interesting stuff on Japan:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/JapaneseCulture

If you ever wondered what's with the "anime nosebleed" read this:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Nosebleed

[Lester C.]

Dude, I'm not a clown fish, but that didn't stop me from identifying with Marlin in Finding Nemo. ;) Does the "species" of the character really matter that much, all things considered?

Anyway, I guess I live in bizarro world, because most of the anime fans I know are female, and their interests tend to vary widely.

Most fans I know are male but as pointed out in the beginning of the thread by other posters my experience has to do less with the medium and more with the type of anime I watch. I have no problem accepting that.

I do believe that a character's gender, age, background etc is crucial in what audience demographic will identity with that character. The fact that we even have audience demographics is proof of that point. This is the case with anime as posters in this thread keep using jargon to refer to various demographics within the medium.

It's Japanese cultural stuff that's in anime and manga but one can only see it if they look closely enough.

Explaining what those terms mean might be much for a post so I'll let tvtropes.org do the talking:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Kawaiiko
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Kawaisa
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Kotobagari

This has more interesting stuff on Japan:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/JapaneseCulture

If you ever wondered what's with the "anime nosebleed" read this:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Nosebleed

Very informative post. Thank you so much for taking time to compile the links posting them. If you don't mind I plan on sending them out to my friends and classmates in my Japanese class.

[hichaec]

Again, mine must be a strange world, because it never occurred to me that Cowboy Bebop (for example) was a show that girls might actively avoid. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending that series to a lady friend (so long as she wasn't, I don't know, really anti-violence or afraid of crows or something).

I believe the manga adaptation of Cowboy Bebop was even released via a shoujo magazine - one of the Asuka imprints (or whatever you want to call it). So as long as we're talking about demographics and how important they are, I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on that bit of information, seeing as you seem to consider Cowboy Bebop to be a more masculine series.

As for me personally, I think demographics only matter to a degree. It's silly to suggest that women (or men, for that matter) are only capable of identifying with characters who are exactly like them. I mean, is it so difficult for comics fans to identify with characters like Superman or Thor? Neither of them are human (and for that matter, neither are any of the various and sundry X-Men, really), but they're written as being human enough, and as far as I'm concerned that's what matters.

There are solid, reasonably popular shoujo series out there - series with a specific young female demographic and presumably a mostly-female fanbase - that have male leads. Granted, some of them are BL, but that further suggests that even in their fantasies women don't necessarily need a woman around to identify with.

Still, series with male protagonists like DN Angel, Saiyuki Reloaded, X/1999 - heck, even NGE: Angelic Days - are all published in decidedly shoujo magazines, and they all do well enough.

In the end, to suggest that women as a whole just can't identify with characters who aren't exactly like them frankly ignores a long, long tradition of women reading almost exclusively about men (and, to an extent, men's ideas about women). As far as I'm concerned, it just kind of flies in the face of a lot of literary history, which is why I disagree with it so much.

[esdee]

here in our place, girls really love watching anime, especially love story-based ones like Fushigi Yuugi. But I personally liked the character of Vash Stampede in Trigun; Gaara in Naruto, and Vegeta in Dragonball series. I love them all and take note, i'm a girl!

[Bakasama]

Very informative post. Thank you so much for taking time to compile the links posting them. If you don't mind I plan on sending them out to my friends and classmates in my Japanese class.

Sure, that's meant to be shared. I do a little research on Japanese culture for fun, while it's very interesting, some aspects of the culture are rather, odd. Such as "paid dating" and the Japanese obsession with "cuteness". I've always found the Yaoi subculture interesting in light that I've been told Japanese society is very homophobic.

[Gilda Dent]

Many anime movies are among my predominantly female family's favorites.

Perfect Blue, Grave of the Fireflies, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, and Jin-Roh are all movies that we've pretty much all enjoyed.

[ananimeonline]

Hahaha, of course you should avoid recommending shonen manga/anime to your female friends.
There's a lot of anime made for girls too.

[The Xenos]

Just so you know, such links as the one in your signature violate the rules of this board. You're linking to a site illegally hosting copywritten material. (Oh and the last bloody time, Avatar isn't freaking anime! Geez. An American company finally makes an amazing show we can be proud of and weeaboos need to credit Japan somehow.)

Meanwhile, your comment is valid. Japan has smartly opened up the animation and comics market to female readers. I swear female American comics readers are reading more Japanese comics than American. Then agian, not that too many comics publishers have extended themselves to female readers or creators. Though they are out there if you look.

[infoebazaar]

Should women avoid anime? The topic is interesting. I wonder i we can have poll here. I do like anime, manga and jdrama especially seinen and shounen. While my girl in love with shoujo. We often in small argue which genre is the best. And she always took the the chance to promote me her fav shoujo..
Honestly, i don't like shoujo. I watch nodame contabile the live action and just because its funny with Ueno Juri slapstic comedy.
But i agree with some people, woman also watch anime especially shoujo.

[Your Imaginary Pal]

My sister recommends anime to me.
because she watches it.
She introduced me to Samurai Champloo, Tekkonkonkrete, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Parika. She's also a big fan of Miyazaki.

A lot of girls I've been meeting lately swear they love anime and magna.

Hentai on the other hand...

[Lester C.]

My sister recommends anime to me.
because she watches it.
She introduced me to Samurai Champloo, Tekkonkonkrete, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Parika. She's also a big fan of Miyazaki.

A lot of girls I've been meeting lately swear they love anime and magna.

Hentai on the other hand...

I think most people find hentai creepy. A female poster once described it as child porn because you had the heads of little girls on grown women having sex.

[Kage Kisaragi]

I have a standing policy to only recommend anime to men, because of the depiction of women in anime and I was just wondering where you guys stood on this issue.

I say thats a pretty good policy, but i'd go one further and recommend you not recommend it to young boys either for the same reasons. Trust me, im living proof of it now. No real woman could live up to my expectations and thus is kind of hinders me if finding/seeking a healthy intimate relationship with a woman. It's just next to impossible because of the misconceptions or my ideas of what my ideal woman should be like. Anime women tend to lean toward way to perfect in their genre, by this I mean mostly physically, and in some cases mentally to.

The types of female bodies in anime tend to vary to of two types. Busty or not so busty. That is, these two body types apply to the main female characters (not just the one female character) also the mannerisms and personality stray way to far from the norm in real life. Perfect examples the Tenchi Muyo girls, 6 or 7 depending on how you view Tenchi in Tokyo, are primary examples of false representations of women/girls. The likelyhood of 7 women all pining for the same guy and him not being physically sexual active with any of them, and the ideas of this saintly young man and questionable women is ridiculous. I can't say that I've ever encountered a woman anything remotely like Ryoko, sexy and highly confrontational, with the added tendency to be overly sexually agressive while being prone to absolutely gluttony and alcohal abuse. Ayeka and Sasami are way to submissive and Sasami is so not your typical child/girl, that much submissiveness and lack of self is just not normal. The rest are no different either.

Then you have the extreme opposites, with characters like Sakura from Naruto, who at first seem typical until you realize that she has very little to no feminie qualities, she doesn't even try to be a girl most of the time, because she only appears romantic interest for the main character half of the time (and I don't see what Lee or Naruto see in her.) ... I think this has a lot more to do with the author being a guy and thus not knowing exactly what it is that girls do to make themselves girls in our eyes.

I don't want to say shows like Sailor Moon are right in their portrayals of women but at least its more belivable. Yes I'm aware their are girls out there that are very much the tomboy or are trying to be uber tough. Yet seriously anime girls are not those girls, (even in real life the most hardcore girl still wants to be loved by a guy and will melt for him if he's the right one, ... or if shes a lesbian for the right girl.)

Back to the body types, we could go into the whole hair color, type and eye color and skin color thing but thats minor and not to the point, I have scaresly ever seen a fat woman who wasn't just a background character in a anime, or one with a main female lead. I'm not saying that obesedy should be accepted and ignored largely but that it does exist and that they are people and could use some representation.. I in my later years don't necessarily dig the hefty chicks but when I was younger (much younger) I was kind of a chubby chaser, then anime came along and now if she doesn't have a nice rack with almost no waist and optionally a round bottom I'm not interested, not to mention she has to be cute in the face to. (see expectations are way to high, especially since im not rockafeller, or movie star.)

I'm ruined, but save the young boys of all nations that important anime, save the psyche's of all women who might watch anime... or we will become a sterile. :redface:

[Ghost]

I think most people find hentai creepy. A female poster once described it as child porn because you had the heads of little girls on grown women having sex.

...She's a wee bit naive about this sort of thing, isn't she? ^^;

[Kage Kisaragi]

...She's a wee bit naive about this sort of thing, isn't she? ^^;

maybe but then again isn't the brightly colored hair, wide bright eyed look supposed to suggest a youthfulness/softness? I can easily see that as being misconstrued as being young person in that case.

[Bakasama]

...She's a wee bit naive about this sort of thing, isn't she? ^^;

Ah, I guess you never heard of Kawaiikos.

[Ghost]

maybe but then again isn't the brightly colored hair, wide bright eyed look supposed to suggest a youthfulness/softness? I can easily see that as being misconstrued as being young person in that case.

Until you stumble upon actual lolicon, anyway. >>

Ah, I guess you never heard of Kawaiikos.

Oh, you have no idea what I've heard of.

I've been around, you know. I've seen things. oO

[The Xenos]

I think most people find hentai creepy. A female poster once described it as child porn because you had the heads of little girls on grown women having sex.

Well, it depends on what hentai you're talking about. There's also a good number of porn among female fans, which mostly focuses on guy on guy action. I was just over a friend's place last night and we talked about it. I was asking if she read any straight hentai, but she said it was 99.9% gay hentai (yaoi).

Meanwhile, as for the youthful look or even outright lolicon in hentai. Well, they're ink on a page. They're fictional characters. It's not real. So I don't take issue with it. Plus not all hentai is like that. There's a surprising amount of older women and motherly figures in porn. Also, and this was something that friend was talking about too, a whole bunch of incest. Dunno why 'keepin it in the family' is so popular a theme. Though so is the hot teacher theme. um.. not that I'm familiar with Japanese cartoon porn or anything...