Japanese manga and anime have been a
new media for me to work with this year and so far, I have to say that it has
been very thought-provoking and insightful to experience. Manga seem to be equated with the Western
comic books and anime has been dubbed to be the animation of these manga. This is how I made sense of it at first anyway. It turns out that Japan has been making
cartoon-based art for hundreds of years, before Western art was taken to the
comic book stage. Granted, some aspects
of manga were inspired by Western influences, such as Walt Disney, but the
style itself is unmistakably a part of Japanese culture. The manga that made a transition to anime
television show that I would like to focus on is Takahashi Rumiko’s Ranma ½.
Not only is the concept behind this series a very unique one, but it
manages to display a lot of gender dynamics and relationships that can reveal a
lot about Japanese culture at the time it was created.
After watching the entire first
season of Ranma ½, I can attest that
there are a variety of different characters with their own distinct
personalities and agendas that make up the interweaving story line of this
series. The plot is focused around a
sixteen year old student named Saotome Ranma.
It is to the audience’s understanding that he is an experienced martial
artist and has spent a lot of time traveling with his father to better his
skills. His father, Saotome Genma took
Ranma on their latest trip to Jusenkyo, China where they fell into some cursed
springs that left them changed. Whenever
Genma is doused in cold water he becomes a panda. In Ranma’s case, he takes on the form of a
young red-head girl. Hot water reverses
the effects. Genma’s old friend, Soun
Tendo, owns the “Anything-Goes” (Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū) martial arts dojo and
has three daughters: Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane.
Genma and Ranma return to Japan and stay at the dojo because it is Soun
and Genma’s wish that Ranma marry one of Soun’s daughters, particularly Akane,
so that there will be an heir to the dojo.
Kasumi is the eldest Tendo daughter
and is also the most traditional. She is
out of school and spends most of her time keeping up the household and watching
out for her family’s well-being. Nabiki
is the second eldest daughter, who is usually involved in some kind of con-man
scheme to make money or use people to buy her things like sweets or
clothes. Akane is the youngest daughter
and is the female protagonist in the series.
She is forced to be engaged to Ranma who she despises ever since she
found out that he was really a boy.
Akane is by nature a friendly and sensitive person but she has a big
temper, especially when it comes to Ranma or boys in general. One of the first things you learn about her
is her hatred of boys, which is mainly because of all the attention she receives
from boys at school who want to date her.
The gender power relationships in
this show are not very set in one direction or the other. If it were placed on a spectrum, there are
certain aspects of the show that bring it towards the middle. For starters, the fact that Akane is
introduced as a bit of a feminist and beating up boys every day at school
because they want to date her says one thing about women having power. Akane thinks for herself and is not afraid to
hit a guy if he is bothering her. But,
directly contradicting this are Akane’s sisters and many other female characters
in the show. Kasumi is depicted as
beautiful and gentle, the matriarch running the household and packing everyone’s
lunch. While Kasumi shows a more
traditional side of what it means to be feminine in Japanese society, Nabiki
has a more modern take on it. Before
Ranma arrives, she mentions a few times how she hopes that he is
good-looking. Throughout the show she is
conning men into buying her things and taking her on dates. While it shows that she is cunning as a
woman, it also shows that she is the stereotypical girl that wants her men to
buy her material things.
Another gender-based power dynamic theme
is how men tell women what to do often in the show. Soun Tendo tells Ranma to pick whatever
daughter he wants to marry because he has already told the girls that one of
them would be marrying Ranma. None of
the daughters are too happy about it but they don’t yell at their father and
refuse either. One character who
definitely orders people around is Kuno Tatewaki. He is a fellow student who exudes this
holier-than-thou attitude and he often proclaims himself as the “The Blue
Thunder of Furinkan High.” He demands
that no one can date Akane unless they beat her in a fight. Akane has no say in the matter and so
seemingly hundreds of boys attack her every morning on her way to school. Later on in the show, Kuno’s sister Kodachi
is interested in Ranma and professes her love for him. Her big brother Kuno happens to appear in
that moment and makes it known that he approves them dating and so Kodachi
believes that they are in fact dating because Kuno said so.
However, to balance out this power
scale, women have a different, not so blatant kind of power over men in
return. Every time Ranma does something
that Akane disapproves of or finds inappropriate of offensive, she will use
physical harm on him to show him her feelings on the matter. This is not the traditional feminine tactic
to express emotion but Akane does it anyway.
In one episode, Ranma has a fight with Ryoga (a long-time enemy) and
Ryoga is preparing himself for the fight.
Nabiki gives Ryoga some vitamins and tells him that they will make him
the strongest man in the world. He takes
them and ends up becoming stronger in the fight. It is revealed later that there was nothing
special about the vitamins at all. It
was all in Nabiki’s power of suggestion and pretending to be in awe of
Ryoga. In other words, at times, women
can control men through their ego.
One
of the things that I started to ponder after finishing the season was the
expectations of women in the show. Akane’s
character struggles with trying to be feminine and combatting her low self-esteem
and is easily upset when Ranma calls her things like “tomboy.” Ranma proclaims multiple times over the
season that he hates violent girls like Akane and that she is “uncute.” Kasumi is the ideal feminine woman in Akane’s
eyes because Dr. Tofu is in love with Kasumi and so she wants to be more like
her. She ends up trying to grow her hair
longer than Kasumi’s in an attempt to be better than her. Women are expected to be dainty and kind and
that is the opposite of clumsy yet powerful Akane. However, there are times that Akane is
revered by many men in the show because of her fighting skills and beauty. The combination of Ranma’s cruel words and
Dr. Tofu’s obvious attraction to Kasumi is why Akane tries so hard to be a
normal girl. As the show progresses, the
learns that it’s okay to be herself and Ranma ends up caring for her the way
she is. A huge turning moment is when
Akane’s long hair is accidently sliced off in a fight between Ranma and
Ryoga. Instead of becoming full of rage
or crying as Ranma and all the other boys spectators expect, she simply walks
away and says she had been meaning to cut it.
She is internally worried about what Dr. Tofu will think but she
realizes that it doesn’t matter. She
gets over her feelings for him and accepts herself.
There
is so much more to this show than I think many people might realize. In an interview, when Takahashi Rumiko was
asked whether she was trying to "enlighten a male-dominated society," she
responded that it was not her intention at all.
She was really just producing a comical manga that appealed to women and
children. She may not have intended to
create all the messages she did but by having Ranma change into a girl whenever
he needed to achieve something or better himself, she creates a new kind of
respect for women. The thinking of
having a character that is constantly changing genders is very ahead of its
time. Even now, it might be a controversial
theme for a show. Nevertheless, her strong female characters as well as a male protagonist that is learning about women through himself and his strange curse, are no doubt part of the reason this show was so popular. I have found that
manga and anime are definitely useful tools for insight into the values of
Japanese culture; specifically in this case, gender roles.
References:
"Ranma 1/2". Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation Inc.,19 October 2013.
"Rumiko Takahashi". Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation Inc., 23 Sept
Ranma 1/2 Season 1 Episodes: http://www.youtube.com/watch
Ranma 1/2 is a very typical Japanese anime to reflects the woman right and I think the topic you chose is very interesting. I like you mentioned that "Every time Ranma does something that Akane disapproves of or finds inappropriate of offensive, she will use physical harm on him to show him her feelings on the matter." in the sixth paragraph it shows that Akane was tying to tell Ranma that she is also strong even if she is a woman. Trough your blossay, I find out the female status are gradually changed until now. I like the way you talks about the what is the female role looks like in the previous paragraph and your whole blossay structure is very good!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yea, I think the way Akane physically reacts to Ranma's comments was something that was important and consistent throughout the entire season.
DeleteI agree with your thoughts. This anime, Ranma 1/2 shows a lot of aspects and issues of gender roles.
ReplyDeleteOne thing which was very new for me is the fact that women are supposed to be obedient in traditional gender ideology. Well, I kind of knew this, but did not realized in the scene where the three sisters are told about marriage by their father.
Overall, I enjoyed reading your blossay.
Thanks for your thoughts. I agree that there were definitely varying aspects in gender roles shown in this show. It's interesting how one show can include both extremes of very independent women and women following traditional expectations.
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