On January first, 1963, Astro Boy became the first Japanese Anime to reach American television. Since its initial debut here in the West, it has grown immensely popular, and it has spawned an interest in Anime all across America. Before long, multicultural sensations such as Fist of the North Star, Dragon Ball Z, and Akira, started popping up in the States in the mid-1980s & early 1990s. The primary appeal that these old anime held in common is their genre, being among the two most prominent of the five main genres of anime, Shounen, and Seinen. Both of these genres are made up of violent, nonsensical high-action, and male protagonists, with the only difference being whether they were targeted at young boys or young men. Clearly, something about these two genres resonated with American audiences, as to this day, despite the emergence of many others, they’ve remained in the spotlight of the mainstream. With recent Shounen & Seinen anime films such as Jujutsu Kaisen: 0 and Demon Slayer: Mugen Train breaking global box office records, it’s clear that these anime are reaching broader and broader audiences every year as they gradually grow more destigmatized, and with their resurgence in popularity, it’s important to examine the messages that they expose our young boys to regarding gender roles, expectations, and identity.
Upon analyzing what defines these prominent genres, it’s clear that both primarily feature dumb and athletically adept male protagonists, who are often motivated by an oversimplified ideology. These characters are both designed to be relatable to their audiences and to embody the desires that the creators believe their audiences have. Furthermore, these characters generally fall into one of two archetypes. The first archetype is the inexplicably physically gifted individual. This archetype consists of characters like Broly, from Dragon Ball Z, or Yuji from the aforementioned Jujutsu Kaisen.
Characters of this archetype, with no explanation, possess supernatural strength and abnormally muscular physiques. Despite a lack of regular exercise or proper diet, Yuji starts out as a regular middle school student who can be seen performing world record-breaking feats in absurd ways as early as the first episode of the show. The result is that Yuji’s displays of strength and speed are nothing short of comical. The same can be said for Broly, who grew up on a desolate planet inhabited by monstrous bugs, driven to survive only by his hatred of a baby who cried too loudly in the nursery they spent their infant days in together. Despite all this, he grew to stand at a hulking height of 9’3, and weight of 303 lbs. This archetype is problematic for young male audiences because it sets unrealistic body standards for those who are still forming expectations about how their bodies should look and perform. The second archetype is the individual who can surpass any limitation they encounter if they just try hard enough. Examples include Tanjiro from Demon Slayer or Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z.
This archetype of character can be seen exercising through the pain of the injuries they sustained during training, with fevers and broken bones failing to keep them from pressing on. This archetype is problematic for young audiences because it does not give them false expectations about failure, one’s own limits, and when to quit. A never give up mentality can lead to physical and or mental overexertion, cheating, and even overstepping in social situations.
Beyond these harmful archetypes, these shows often feature male-dominated casts, with little to no representation of women. Whenever women do have roles in these shows, they rarely play any significant part in the story and are often objectified as they’re depicted with unrealistic bodily portions while wearing very revealing clothing. Whether it’s Chi-Chi from Dragon Ball who fights in a bikini and cape, or Blair from Soul Eater who is depicted nearly nude most of the time, women typically get poor representation in Shounen.
This can skew children’s ideas of a woman’s worth and can lead to the formation of misogynistic worldviews.
It’s these main aspects of these shows that I feel like the adults who grew up watching anime should respond to, either as parts of the Feminist movement at large or even as parts of profeminist men’s movements. I believe that the objectification and lack of representation, of women in this growing part of the entertainment industry should not be exposed to children without being accompanied by parental education about the messages that should not be learned from these shows. That sentiment goes for the earlier comments about the messages that these shows teach young boys about themselves, too. I think the main way to accomplish this is for anime to be included in the conversation when members of feminist movements, profeminist men’s movements, and the Men’s Liberation movement talk about the impact of cartoons on children. This way, parents who participate in these movements can be more aware of the content their children are being exposed to, and in turn, educate their children about the harms of toxic masculinity, the reality that people are fallible, the value of the female gender, about their self-image, and about choosing what masculinity and femininity(or a lack of both) mean to them. For the educated to participate in these movements and learn from them without imparting what they’ve learned to the generations that will follow would be neglectful. I say this because only so much progress can be made in a single generation. It is important that youth get taught about gender and representation while they’re still young and at their most impressionable, as currently, the mainstream media won’t teach children that it’s okay for boys to be vulnerable and to love their bodies no matter what shapes they come in, and that a woman’s value is not limited to her appearance, and that women can be the heroes of their own stories, and that things are not as simple as they appear on the screen.