Japanese Animation: The most misunderstood entertainment in the world
By: Maximillion Fuse, "Kiyosuki"

"Is Anime sexist?" I'll probably be the rarest writer you'll ever have. I've almsot never even thought about writing an essay as I like to keep solo when online, but recently an article released here at NintendoLand explaining about how anime is generally sexist viewed I feel is very wrongfully critisizing something based on a half truth, as stated by the author herself. I totally respect your opinion, yes it does sometimes look like Tuxedo Mask is the Mr. Know it all of the show while the girls seem to be like ditzes (He's also a man who acts all big, but usually when he goes to join them in a battle I've noticed from watching what little I care too, that it takes usually one hit to knock him out, but thats straying way of subject. :)), but I do not believe its fair to give such a harsh critisism on something you don't know about through and through. So I shall respect your opinion, please respect my own. With that said, and all bias out of the way, I'll explain what has compelled me so much as to get me to write something like this. I'm half Japanese myself, and since I was a little child I've sort of shared life both there and in the US, so I've sort of grown up around anime. Now as I begin to enter my adult years I'm trying to become a serious art student among some things. I've studied many various kinds of art styles and histories, and having done this I've come to respect Anime as a very serious art style in itself, when you understand its cultural roots and drives its very easy to see. But Anime, especially over here in the western English speaking world, is one of the most misunderstood artstyles ever, as well as one of the most misunderstood things to come from Japan in general, just like alot of things about the country. Sadly, rather than be mass marketed as a serious art medium like it should be, its been blatantly sold off as nothing more than an excuse to see naked chicks fight with guns, and giant robots smash things without care. On TV its all just about fad and style, and even domestic releases by underground companies such as ADV and Pioneer tend to ignore anything that doesn't have some kind of cyber punk feel to it, which I believe is very tragic.

Yeah, maybe I'm looking into it a bit much, but I'm a bit fed up with it. Going to a more direct aproach now, you have critisized anime as being sexist by using Sailor Moon, which no matter what anyone says in the end, is meant to be a childrens anime, even in Japan. However, at the same time you've also mentioned Gundam W as one, and rather interestingly, that anime is the complete reversal of Sailor Moon, except more masculine, but the team is there, and theres one token female character who sprouts all the philosophy now. Heh..:) But in the end, your mainly guessing at this and jumping to harsh conclusions. Yes, there are anime that are VERY blatantly sexist and I am not afraid to admit this at all, but to say that its just a matter of females is very wrong, I've witnessed some interesting ones made by Female artists aimed at Males quite often, stereotyping and all. :) But even these ones, although they seem sexist, they arn't meant to mean any harm like you seem to be implying. Anime, just like any other medium, is art, and art is an expression of individuals, each different person may have a different take on things, male or female. Its not all sexist, to say this is blatant bias from only half the picture, and if you looked into it more you would see this very clearly. I'm aware that with as much stereotyping as females get its easy to jump to conclusions about this sort of thing but think about it before you jump into this, is it really nessisary? Even though Sailor Moon and Pokemon are hardly serious anime to base a serious opinion about, even those two shows show little discrimination in the first place. I don't remember Misty being regulated to being the stereotypical weak heroine ever, and While Tuxedo Mask may seem wise and knowing, later in the series you realize he's just as ditzy as the girls, which they arn't even. Anime doesn't believe in perfect heroes or heroines, flaws are a good thing.

I know your not trying to diss anime, but its just such a hard thing to describe. To your worry about the subject of girls being portrayed as weak, your mainly scratching on the surface of anime in general. The ones shown do show this sometimes, which is sad as it seems Toonami is trying to please mostly the male group of anime watchers (Escaflowne's a perfect example of this, the main character was female, but she never commanded a giant mech or anything, so it was edited on TV horribly to make it seem like the co-star was the lead, whom ofcourse was male. This makes my blood boil..) Anime is one of those things thats very easy to look at from distance and jump to conclusions without giving reguards to a full view on the subject. There are lots of strong anime females out there (And since your brother seems to watch Toonami, I'm rather surprised you never noticed Outlaw Star, which had a very strong female role in Suzuka, who actually saved the main character more than He did her.) There's more too, The Princess Mononoke is the most shining example of gender equality in anime possibly ever. Neither gender shows a superior trait in that movie, its a matter of the individual person, not the gender. Evangelion, the oh so (in)famous anime, famous for taking a long used Genre of anime, and doing everything differently, had one of the most underdogish male main characters ever made, in anything I believe. Anyone who's seen Evangelion knows Shinji is hardly the hero anyone would want to have save his/her world, but he's what we got, and it will have to do. It depends on the artist really, and so I don't make any enemies I'll spare my opinions of different artists, but I believe my point has been made. Trust me the anime your judging this off of makes up roughly 20% of the whole thing, if even that. And thats counting all the anime never seen here in the US.

I know I sound harsh about this, I'm not some anime fanatic who's room is ladened with anime merchandise, in fact I barely have anything animeish in my room. I'm just some guy whom loves art, and I love this artstyle very much. I'm worried that people over in this country are missing anime's point. Its got its ups and downs, but in general the ups far outwheigh the downs. Its really, just like any other medium, from movies, to TV, to books. But ofcourse, its anime, so its easy to place the blame of anything on it.

The bottom line, don't worry. I know your worried about gender equality, but very few people take what they see in anime seriously anyways.., there's no need to worry about it. This isn't an article trying to "convert" people to liking anime, nor is it just a blatant flame, I just felt the need to defend an artstyle I love, an artstyle with a great history, an artstyle thats so terribly misunderstood. There's too much misunderstanding out there as it is, and I just hope to clear at least a little bit of it. Its the only way to learn. Anime just has so much potential as art, it just saddens me greatly that its been shown off in such a way that causes it to be the center of so much half hearted mockery.

Please, take care now.