Weisshaupt, for some reason my wife is already getting tired of me going, "too to roooooo."
Japanese men do have some weird caricatures of women, don't they. Issues.
Well, the whole Japanese culture is in crisis so I guess we should be surprised when that Crisis shows up in their art.
After all, if you look at the muck coming out of Hollywood and our "artists" I think you can see our Crisis as plain as day as well.
The women in Manga and Anime I think represent what Japanese
"men" find attractive. So, yeah, "issues" - issues brought on by their economic structure being 10-15 years ahead of ours on the curve, and a population educated well enough to read the writing on the wall. Success is not on option for this generation. They cannot support a family in the traditional way, they cannot do honor to their ancestors, and so I think many just say "f**k it"-- and the women say it too - finding no attractive ( strong, confident successful) men to date.
Maybe our "electronic wasting disease" is a sign of the same thing here. These games and devices and art are fantasy worlds to allow our children escape from reality - to a world where success comes quick and it comes easy. Real life looks a lot less fun in comparison. (The invention of the Holodeck will mean the end of the human race..)
Steins;Gate ( and pretty much all anime) has too much "
fan service" for my taste- and it probably what turns most people off of anime.. the Harem (a guy with lots of pretty girls around- usually enamored with him) and the gratuitous tendency for the camera to focus on cleavage and bottoms. But I suspect most male controlled "cameras" focus on the same things in real life.. so its at least honest if annoying.
There also seems to be a disturbing trend toward "liking your sister" - in anime its always a non-blood relative, but given how they really do dress girls in Sailor Moon costumes in Japan as school uniforms - there just has to be an unhealthy current of pedophilia in that country that I admit I do not fully understand the causes of.
But that is the downside. I appreciate that in Japanese Anime the women are portrayed so as to be admired for both their beauty and for their strengths. The Harem principle is usually used to showcase this .. all of the women in a Harem will be pretty, so the story will tend to revolve around the other attributes that make them desirable (intelligence, attitude, combat skills, and so on) -so the camera focus will usually fall on their, umm, physical attributes, but the story focus will be about who they are and why they do what they do; The Strength of their convictions and beliefs, leadership skills, attitudes, and development of practical skills- all while admitting ( sometimes way to obviously) that these characters are female, and subject to typical and uniquely female foibles. (Foibles that our stories, art and culture will deny exist. )
Fundamentally I think that is what my daughter is responding to ( and she has become an Anime fiend) - she dislikes the fan service, (and like Mayuri) tends to simply pretend it doesn't exist.. but I think she is responding to the truth behind the caricatures - there is more depth of character to female characters in Anime because they will admit of (female) weaknesses..and how the characters cope with them - which is something American programing would simply dare not show.. This, when combined with the more complex and longer multi-episode story lines - typically with some moral and principled underpinnings, simply provides a better story and more drama than can be achieved from the immorality pushing, dry humping, depravity exulting American cesspit of program offerings.
Seriously - which is worse - Gratuitous shots of cleavage and buttocks because that is in reality what is attractive to men, or gratuitous storylines in which those attributes are freely offered to men, often in unsavory or questionable dealings that have nothing to do with marriage, love or respect? Where promiscuity and depravity is celebrated? Where people of principle and character are torn down and made to look like fools to serve the storyline?
But back to Steins;Gate..
Mayuri's "too to roooooo." really annoyed me at first. By the end I just found it adorable and I started to really like the character, and found her contrast with Kurisu ( the American) very interesting.
Mayuri accepts lewd comments in stride as compliments (when she acknowledges them at all; being too "innocent" to notice the double entendre in most cases - or she just accepts the reality - Men are what they are.. no use in getting upset over it, right?) while Kurisu encourages such actions because she reacts (as a feminist would - afraid to not be taken seriously because she is pretty) - Its a Stereotypical portrayal and somewhat exaggerated caricature of each personality type, but then I have also met both of these women in real life.. so yeah. (is it possible for a woman to be too sweet and happy all of the time? - yes, yes it is)
I guess the same even goes for Faris.. I have meet her in real life too - without the cat costume of course...
I suspect that Japanese women are strong only to the point that they have been "westernized" - Anime characters seldom look Japanese, except occasionally in dress, and I suspect traditional Japanese women are often seen my the men there as too docile..and there has always been a conflict between the old culture and the new Western ideas they strive to adopt... so we some of that play out as well ... Our problem is we went too far--in the United States - Women have to be Strong like men are strong.. In Anime they are strong like women are strong ( as it should be)
So yeah, issues all around, but I know which one I prefer.