By Caitlin Salhany
Tatsuki Fujimoto, by all definitions of the word, is an enigma. Although he is most known for his being the author of the manga, now anime, series Chainsaw Man, fans of his will know all about his puzzling behavior. He tried to fly, he ate his dead pet fish, he even created a twitter account in which he pretended to be his little sister which, if you did not already know, he does not have. If one were to take a look at his works, including Chainsaw Man, they’d see all the oddities in his story-telling as well; Fire Punch, for example, in the first chapter alone is so chaotic a casual reader would likely close their tab and try to forget what they had read. All this to say that Tatsuki Fujimoto is a very strange man and ; these oddities in his behavior and writings, however, do not impede on his ability to write female characters in a manner that far exceeds others in his field. Despite his efforts, though, the male side of the Chainsaw Man fandom will often undermine these female characters and view them in only a sexual manner.
Kobeni-
The character Kobeni Higashiyama, for example, is a young, 20 year old girl that joins Public Safety and hunts devils alongside the main characters in the story. Although this alone doesn’t make her very compelling as a character, her motivations behind her choice to join Public Safety does. Her household had a plethora of children in it, with her being one of many daughters. When given the ultimatum of either joining public safety or selling her body, she picked the former; she would have rather lost her life fighting devils than be seen as or used as an object of sexual gratification. In spite of these explicit motivations behind her character, a large amount of the fandom will sexualize her when discussing her character and making fanart or other fan works. How is it that, even though he clearly states in the story’s text that this character does not want to and should not be sexualized, Fujimoto’s well-respected writings and characterizations are ignored?
Makima & Power-
This does not happen only with Kobeni, however; although these characters have been used in explicitly sexual manners in the text, Makima and Power both cannot technically be viewed as sexual characters, in the story, at least. Both of these characters have moments in which they recognize their beauty and sex appeal and, in these moments of recognition, they will use this to their advantage in order to manipulate situations in their favor. This, especially, happens with Makima’s character. Even still, these women do not have overly sexualized body types in the manga. The characters, although generally beautiful, do not have exceptionally curvy waists or big busts. They don’t even get the true “fan service” treatment other characters will. Even still, fans will create content in which both of their bodies are exaggeratedly busty and curvy, for nothing but their personal sexual gratification.
Conclusion-
From reading this article, one might think that this is only an important issue in regards to the Chainsaw Man fandom, to which I’d say they’d be foolishly wrong. This type of treatment toward female characters happens in fandoms for My Hero Academia, Fairy Tail, Attack on Titan, and even non-anime series like The Loud House or The Amazing World of Gumball. The fault for this doesn’t solely lie on the fandoms’ hands, however, as many male authors and content creators have little to no effort put into making female characters actual characters; their care, instead, goes into making them sexual objects for their male viewers to enjoy.
In order for this not to happen, authors must put more effort and care into their female characters, and, in turn, fans of these characters and properties must look past their bodies and see these women for who they are as “people”, rather than look at them as avenues for their sexual pleasure.