To what extent are female characters in Anime created for the pleasure of men?

[MCRdeathGOD]

Can I ask you all a favour please;
for my second Year in college I'm suppose to do something called "Critical Research", I'm suppose to pick a topic, create a question around that topic and research it. My question is "To what extent are female characters in Anime created for the pleasure of men?" I'm suppose to question people on what they believe could be the answer. Asking people what they think on this subject is part of the research.

Do you believe that Females in Anime are all created for the pleasure of men? (E.g. Inoue Orihime/Rangiku/Yoruichi or even Chizuru/Soi Fon [Bleach])

Do you think that it depends on the genre of the Anime? (Shounen, Shojo etc)

Do you think it depends on the Gender of the creator of the Anime?

Or do you think that every single Anime has at least one Female character that is created specifically to attract Male attention?

ANYTHING that you can tell me will help me a lot

I believe that not all Anime females are created for the pleasure of Men, Rukia Kuchiki is the most popular female in Bleach (this has been proven in the Shounen Jump Popularity Polls) but compared to Inoue, Rukia is the least sexiest in Bleach (In some people's view)
This is My opinion from what i have found out with my own research

So ANYTHING, ANYTHING that you know or think will help me ALOT!
I really want so ace this part of the course because it's centered around Anime and i Love Anime with all my heart.

P.s If you are able to help me can you please state your gender and age (if you don't want to post it please PM me, I promise that i won't make the Info public) It's part of the research to know the gender and age of the people who helped me ^^ My teacher is also telling me to get background research on the people who help answer my question, so that i can see what influences people to believe what they think could be the answer ^__^

[Planeswalker]

In shounen...usually. You cant say a universal yes. In shoujo the male characters are usually created for the pleasure of females.

Yes it does depend on the genre. It depends on gender of the creator. It strongly depends on what happens when both facotrs entwine. For example a female manga-ka and shoujo are not likely to make the female characters to appeal to mean as the target audience are girls -_-

As for Rukia being the most popular woman...its not just men that take part in polls. Bleach has female fans that can vote for Rukia based on her character and not her body. It also has lots of male fans that can do the same.

Male 17

[speedphantom]

Can I ask you all a favour please;
for my second Year in college I'm suppose to do something called "Critical Research", I'm suppose to pick a topic, create a question around that topic and research it. My question is "To what extent are female characters in Anime created for the pleasure of men?" I'm suppose to question people on what they believe could be the answer. Asking people what they think on this subject is part of the research.

ANYTHING that you can tell me will help me a lot

I believe that not all Anime females are created for the pleasure of Men, Rukia Kuchiki is the most popular female in Bleach (this has been proven in the Shounen Jump Popularity Polls) but compared to Inoue, Rukia is the least sexiest in Bleach (In some people's view)
This is My opinion from what i have found out with my own research

So ANYTHING, ANYTHING that you know or think will help me ALOT!
I really want so ace this part of the course because it's centered around Anime and i Love Anime with all my heart.

P.s If you are able to help me can you please state your gender and age (if you don't want to post it please PM me, I promise that i won't make the Info public) It's part of the research to know the gender and age of the people who helped me ^^ My teacher is also telling me to get background research on the people who help answer my question, so that i can see what influences people to believe what they think could be the answer ^__^
Do you believe that Females in Anime are all created for the pleasure of men? (E.g. Inoue Orihime/Rangiku/Yoruichi or even Chizuru/Soi Fon [Bleach])

Some characters yes but definitely not all. The creators of the anime/manga want characters to be appealing hence sex appeal plays a factor in that. Some anime have "cute" rather than "hot" female characters so it depends if you define cute characters as being for the pleasure of men.

Do you think that it depends on the genre of the Anime? (Shounen, Shojo etc)

Shounen more so since its targeted at males so attractive females do function partly in order to attract more watchers.

Do you think it depends on the Gender of the creator of the Anime?

The gender would play a part of course, male creators might have a tendancy to have attractive females. However CLAMP with Code Geass have several attractive female main characters so that cannot be said male creators only.

Or do you think that every single Anime has at least one Female character that is created specifically to attract Male attention?

Eureka Seven I would say doesn't have any female characters which are particularly created for male attraction. Same goes for many others too.

Male, 18

What influences me to think what I answer are just my opinions of what males would consider attractive:p and what I feel the characters are created for. Some characters are clearly for "show" for males in certain anime and others aren't. Also having watched many anime and comparing character designs and other details.

Hope that helped;)

[Shinrin]

Do you believe that Females in Anime are all created for the pleasure of men? (E.g. Inoue Orihime/Rangiku/Yoruichi or even Chizuru/Soi Fon [Bleach])

Both yes & no, they are created for the show and the show is created for the viewers so yes, but no not every´female is created for the sole pleasure of men.

THough there is series that work around Harem & fanservice, which obviously are made for the pleasure of us guys

Do you think that it depends on the genre of the Anime? (Shounen, Shojo etc)

In general yes. Could also be said the other way, for Guys they're oftend way more mentally weak in Shoujo compared to in Shounen:rolleyes:
The girls get there weakness shown more in both Shounen & Shoujo i'd say.

Personally the best 2 female characters to come to mind in anime would be: Youko(from 12 kingdoms) & Kaname Chidori(Full Metal Panic)


Do you think it depends on the Gender of the creator of the Anime?

In general id say it's likely. Still if we compare shounen & Shoujo, Shoujo tend to make characters way "kinder" to look at, oftend with big eyes or stuff like that.



Or do you think that every single Anime has at least one Female character that is created specifically to attract Male attention?

Specifically... No.
Unless your including every female that have decent animation.
Youko beeing a prime exsample, Lookwise shes ok at first, looks good after her change to the new world...
Her serie is more serious then most others, so stuff like fanservice is down to the minimum. Still this serie ain't neither Shounen nor is it a Shoujo.
Im just facinated by her character develoupment.

From normal highschool girl(fear normal stuff)
to monster slayer(fear contact with other humans)
to Empress(~conqured her fears)


Male 22

[MCRdeathGOD]

Thanks you Planeswalker, Shinrin and speedphantom for your answers ^_^ They are very helpfull.

[Beee]

Do you believe that Females in Anime are all created for the pleasure of men? (E.g. Inoue Orihime/Rangiku/Yoruichi or even Chizuru/Soi Fon [Bleach])

Well I think that to a certain extent, yes. Anime/Manga needs to sell and sex appeal usually sells pretty well. You usually wouldn't want to watch an anime/manga where the main character is ugly. So in order to sell, they need to have pretty/sexy/cute characters to attract the young prey-err.. i mean shounen/shoujo... <_<;; Besides, artists usually prefer drawing sexy/pretty people anyways...

However, that can also be said for males in anime being created for women's pleasure as well. Because whether we're talking shoujo or shounen, both males and females have sex appeal. Heck even in Bleach it is true. Yes there's a Orihime, Rangiku, Yoruichi... but there's also Ichigo, Renji, Byakuya who are generally considered to be quite sexy as well.

Do you think that it depends on the genre of the Anime? (Shounen, Shojo etc)

Hm... I guess I kinda answered a bit above but I guess it has a minor impact really. Because yes, men are also in awe when seeing smexy men and women are also amazed by pretty women as well. So I don't think it matters too much. Of course, since Shounen is more male-oriented and shoujo more female-oriented (and even then.. many females read shounens and vice-versa), i guess the ratio of prettyboys/prettygirls would vary a little.

Do you think it depends on the Gender of the creator of the Anime?

I really don't think so. I think if you're talking author/creator, it would vary from person to person... some people, are more 'modest' in their art and make their characters beautiful, but "not too sexually appealing" while some others just love drawing smexy bodies and can't call their art 'art' without that factor. IMO, It's really not a matter of gender, but of style/personnality/...

Or do you think that every single Anime has at least one Female character that is created specifically to attract Male attention?

(i'll answer your question for both sexes and for manga as well)

I don't think so either. Sometimes it does happen, but it doesn't happen that much often and even if it happens, the character "used for fanservice purposes" will either, IMO :

-Appear for one episode/chapter and never be seen again
-Have a higher purpose that just attracting new people
-Have little meaning, and be used only in the beginninf and in-between arcs (aka, the character is useless and has minimal exposure... which means s/he can't attract much..)


--
so yeah, here's what I think about all this. I'm male, 17, and if it can further help your project, i'm also an anime artist so I guess I kinda provide some sort of "vision from the otherside" xD

[Shannon]

Do you believe that Females in Anime are all created for the pleasure of men?
+ No, not always, it would depend. See below.

(But then again, people like the appeal of having the leading male character to have a sexy love interest, since it would spark the reader's interest in the anime a great deal. Or in another case, people like seeing the character with more boobs and less brain. The world these days. Sigh.)

Do you think that it depends on the genre of the Anime?
+ Yes, because in shounen anime it would be as the girl would be his 'pleasure', whereas in shoujo anime it would be the opposite, meaning the guy would most likely act as the 'pleasure'.

The female would most likely be there for pleasure in some general shounen anime, but shoujo-wise the male would be there for pleasure. For instance, like in OHSHC, shoujo, the female is surrounded by rather nice looking men. And in Love Hina, shounen, the male is surrounded by really beautiful ladies.

Pleasure as in love interest. Well, I could go more in-depth, but it would be long.

Do you think it depends on the Gender of the creator of the Anime?
+ Uh yeah, well, it depends too. But most likely, it would. Because if you were a female, you would think that you would want your female lead to have a male person beside her, right? Same with men.

Or do you think that every single Anime has at least one Female character that is created specifically to attract Male attention?
+ Nah, I don't think so. I agree with what Beee says, because usually that would be saved for fanservice.

Heh, I'm a a female. And 15.
Yay, you get an opinion from a girl. Wow, I think I'm the only one as of now, right?

[MCRdeathGOD]

Thank you Beee and Shannon for helping me, your answers are very truthfull and have been explained thoroughly, the more answers that i get the better it is for me and my research.

Thanks to good people like you I am ahead of my class because half of my research is nearly finished ^__^

And Shannon there have been other girls who have helped me but almost all my answers have been from boys, so having more Female answers are necessary.

...I'm not saying that boys shouldn't answer, if they are capable of then i'd appreciate anything that they are able to tell me.
Like i said above, the more help, the better it is ^_^

[Shannon]

Yep! More boys and more girls equal more opinions which equal a wider variety to get your answer from.

[MCRdeathGOD]

Yep! More boys and more girls equal more opinions which equal a wider variety to get your answer from.

Yep, that's exactly what i'm hoping for ^_^

[mori]

Do you believe that Females in Anime are all created for the pleasure of men? (E.g. Inoue Orihime/Rangiku/Yoruichi or even Chizuru/Soi Fon [Bleach])

Within anime its pretty clear that fanservice moments are an easy attractor for an audience, be it female exposure or male exposure in a series. Bleach being a shounen manga and aimed at boys summararily includes attractive female characters, although really how often do you see manga characters that are entirely unattractive?

I wouldn't say they are created purely for the pleasure of men, I know lots of girls who enjoy the female characterisations, even within shounen based series. I think a lot of the time the inclusion of female characters helps to market a series towards a female audience, at least to start with. Sure its nice having "pretty boys" throwing their weight around, but its nicer to be able to identify and associate with a character on the whole.

Do you think that it depends on the genre of the Anime? (Shounen, Shojo etc)

genre is absolutely the defining qualifier in things but I think almost every series you see will have some kind of fanservice directed either to men or women, to quote the age old adage, "Sex sells."

Do you think it depends on the Gender of the creator of the Anime?

yes on the whole, or at least in so much that males and females tend to create different stories and that I think a male creator is more likely to include fanservice type females whereas a female creator may include more male fanservice.

Or do you think that every single Anime has at least one Female character that is created specifically to attract Male attention?

no, again it depends on genre. I'd say that usually though most series (no matter the genre) attempt to encapsulate a basic range of stereotypes to appeal to as many people as possible.

--

male 20,

[wicked_liz]

Do you believe that Females in Anime are all created for the pleasure of men? (E.g. Inoue Orihime/Rangiku/Yoruichi or even Chizuru/Soi Fon [Bleach])

It depends on the genre, in western media u see it in pop groups that have a sexier image (pussy cat dolls) or in the boy band archetype that sets out to appeal to the teeny-bobber consumer. So in anime the u have more serious plot-driven, genres (with no fan-service) like "Twelve Kingdoms" or "Haibane Renmei" or this season "Seirei no Moribito"

You also have the shoujo genre which has fan-service, but their vixens tend to be more loli, or kawaii. It also has the maho-shoujo subgroup (CCS and Sailormoon) that caters to selling more merchandise

Shounen gets a bad rap, in true shounen series like DBZ, or Robotech, female characters are few, and while attractive, they don't run around in skimpy clothing.

But shounen also has subgroups based on the level of violence and sexuality. Evangelion is a prime example, its shounen, but it is also plot-based, and there are strong sexual overtones, that are used to drive the plot and not simply be fan-service. All of my male friends who like anime, view Rei in some measure of idolation (I'm an Asuka fan myself), similar to the current wave of Haruhi (Suzumiya no Haruhi) fans, while they are sexualized, they are not overwhelmingly so, they gain a much more devoted and broader fanbase because they manage to have other attributes. Rei is an Eva pilot of some skill, and though she has a quiet, cool temperament, she can be seen acting sweet. Haruhi pwns all, with a driving enthusiasm of a steam roller.

Cyberpunk show like Ghost In The Shell: SAC or Bubblegum Crisis fall into the NGE group, which seems to have alot of the tech stylings. But still target broader audiences. The is also phenomena like "Tsundere" (tsun tsun, violent, harsh) (dere dere, warm, gentle) (something like that) Characters like Revy from "Black Lagoon" are like this, girls that kick ass more than vy to show their cleavage. Some people see Rukia as being this, I don't...but mostly cause I don't think of Rukia as particularly violent. Another phenomena is "Moe" I know less of this. I'm not really fond of shoujo, even though I'm a CLAMP addict, shoujo bores me.

Then there is also ecchi (mild perverse) and hentai, both of which are created with the extent of appealing to a specific target audience of mostly adult males. Video games also display this (like Samurai Showdown) its a genre in which characters jiggle (lol) Stuff life this is made for a female demographic too..."Ai no Kusabi".

Do you think that it depends on the genre of the Anime? (Shounen, Shojo etc)

O_O; heh


Do you think it depends on the Gender of the creator of the Anime?


Not necessarily. In Japan the field of anime and manga are very competitive, if one wishes to be successful one has to understand what demographic they r going for. For instance, Bleach and Naruto and One Piece appeal to a large female audience. But they all appear in a magazine originally designed to appeal to boys.
I'm also a fan of Yaoi and Boy's Love, the men in these manga or anime don't run around on skimpy clothing (*cough* not all the time!) but the market has an increasing draw and availability. They appeal in much the way a day-time soap opera appeals, with angsty (funny) plot and cute boy on boy action. its the opposite side of the fan service spectrum I guess. But most of the mangaka are female, CLAMP is also female, and in Japan women have to fight under a stronger sexist glass floor. Many view that its improper for women to draw sexualized themes, but this is changing. Historically manga and anime drew their audience from a male demographic, but now more girls are reading shounen manga and women have opportunities both to get into the field, and disposable income to divest themselves of.

Or do you think that every single Anime has at least one Female character that is created specifically to attract Male attention?

No, most definitely not. I've been watching anime since I was in primary school. My first series was "Thunderbirds 2086" and the classics "Speedracer" also "G-Force" And to me I remember less boobs and more gay subtext, lmao.

Also on a note, I know more male fans of Rukia than I do of Inoue, but I'm not into Inoue that happens. Rangiku is sexier, IMHO. I also think Rukia is rather attractive, not just b/c she's my fav character, but b/c cute is my kryptonite so to speak. I watch Bleach for her. But I think I'd give the hawtness award to Tatsuki or Rangiku, or Yoruichi...Inoue doesn't appeal to me, but I wanna keep living, so I'll stop here. Good luck with ur paper.

Also I'm female, 26 O_O (zomg! *is consumed by the fires of old people hell*)

[gab00n]

All the male characters seem to be ripped so it is only fair that some/all female characters have big boobies.

[MCRdeathGOD]

All the male characters seem to be ripped so it is only fair that some/all female characters have big boobies.

Thanks for your straighforward, honest answer ^__^

[HELLA PINOY]

All the male characters seem to be ripped so it is only fair that some/all female characters have big boobies.

Here here!! lmao

This is a very intresting thread...wonder how I never noticed it. Seems to me like almost all anime I've seen has the main female char as a buxom girl with huge eyes and a guy with 10 pack abs and wavey hair, lol. I don't think it's really offensive or degrading in any way. It's anime, it's a fantasy world, anything goes.

[Geta Boshi]

In shonen martial arts series its a fact Girls clothes rip off with more ease than boys . Everytime

[emoloz]

Is that for Sociology??? If so i am doing that coursework but my topics something different its on gender roles xD. Probs will be asking the forum my questions too soon enough.

Do you believe that Females in Anime are all created for the pleasure of men? (E.g. Inoue Orihime/Rangiku/Yoruichi or even Chizuru/Soi Fon [Bleach])
Its a kind of inbetween thing because yes people won't watch it if theres not at least one hot looking characther in the whole story. So for men they have to put a female characther in that will attract them to watch and a man whos macho and will be some sorta hero to look up to. And if there gay well then they need a guy to fancy its all in the balance it has to have some hot looking people in it. How the way the world buys and sells stuff these days. Living in a perfect ideal world is what everyone wants to they do this by watching things that show attractive thong sometimes they can't and think they can get. Way the world works all in the mind. Idealism is the world we live in.

Do you think that it depends on the genre of the Anime? (Shounen, Shojo etc)

Nah its the same for all.

Do you think it depends on the Gender of the creator of the Anime?

I don't think so at all because both gneders know the stereotypical idealism of the world.

Or do you think that every single Anime has at least one Female character that is created specifically to attract Male attention?

Yes in many different ways they don't just have to look attractive they can be just personality ideal to a person.

[Kojy]

It's all about the animators whose mind are perverted :p

[MCRdeathGOD]

Is that for Sociology??? If so i am doing that coursework but my topics something different its on gender roles xD. Probs will be asking the forum my questions too soon enough.


Nah it's for my A2 Media

I started Sociology but dropped out...it was so Boring!

[emoloz]

Nah it's for my A2 Media

I started Sociology but dropped out...it was so Boring!

Ah i see. We didnt get to choose media at our college. Its rubbish but meh. I like Sociology.