Kaichou wa Maid Sama! and female strength

Anime

Note: this post is also on Japanator as a feature.

When my lolita friend Bune suggested I check out Kaichou wa Maid Sama! (President is a Maid!) I was expecting a bubbly shoujo comedy-romance. I was half right.

The leading lady, Ayuzawa Misaki, is anything but bubbly. The class president who works as a maid cafe for plot-convenient financial reasons, Misaki is poised, authoritative, and physically strong. The humor comes from the plot point that, as the female student president of a mostly male school, she can’t let anyone know about her part time job. (The romance comes from one particularly hot classmate who finds out and promises to keep it on the DL.)

When the series started, I thought Misaki’s ability to verbally and physically overtake her male classmates would soon give in to feminine vulnerability as soon as she found a love interest — that she’s just a tsundere that needed a man to set her straight. However, I’m halfway through the series and no man can conquer this powerhouse of a character (and what’s better, several of the storylines involve Misaki teaching her female friends to stick up for themselves, too). Misaki is smarter, stronger, and more articulate than every other character in the show. At the same time, she’s drawn realistically, with brown hair and eyes and a modest figure. Maid Sama! is a shoujo anime so she’s made to be a role model for girls — she’s designed for a female gaze.

I don’t think this would happen on American TV. Hollywood’s idea of a strong female character is one who is forceful during romantic encounters, basically, in regard to a male character or male gaze. We very rarely see a female gaze in American television at all. This is why it was so hard for me to accept that Misaki is strong and remains that way, whether she’s in love or not.

Why is this happening in Japan, a country we consider far more sexist than America? I found one hypothesis in Roland Kelts’ Japanamerica. Kelts observed that animes often have female or child heroes and found that this has a lot to do with Japanese identity. He interviewed anime journalist Hideki Ono, who presented his take:

“Also very Japanese, [Ono] believes, is the emphasis on female and child characters… He theorizes that Asians in general, and Japanese especially, like to have more diminutive characters performing heroic feats — David beating Goliath — primarily because they are physically smaller than other ethnicities.”

Maid Sama! fits well with this storyline, as average looking Misaki beats all the boys at the Sports Festival, files comically large stacks of paperwork in mere minutes, and gets the highest grades in the whole school, all while beating up stalkers and delinquents.

Of course, Maid Sama! is not without its subtle sexual storyline — Misaki IS a maid-cafe maid and plot points frequently refer to the various moe themes at the cafe: Glasses Girl Day, Pigtails Day, Visual Kei Day etc. But the fan service is never gratuitous, and some of the comedy comes from Misaki’s irration at having to act cutesy. If anything, the costumes and personas the maids assume on moe days show that weakness as femininity is just an act. Not to mention the parallel between the way Misaki’s male classmates are at her mercy at school, so are the male visitors to the maid cafe.

Has anyone else watched Kaichou wa Maid Sama!? I definitely recommend it, not just for the feminist critique I’ve made of it, but because it’s a refreshing slice-of-life anime far removed from the excessive fan service I’ve been rotting my brain with this anime season.

What’s the appeal of cat ears?

Anime, Fandom

After finishing Strike Witches, I was stuck on the way that, when performing magic, the girls developed cat ears and tails for no apparent reason. The Strike Witches producers knew what decades of anime has already confirmed: cat ears on women are cute.

For the past two weeks, I have been trying to dig a little deeper. We already know that catgirls (and catboys) are adorable, but why do we feel that way? And why are they so prevalent in anime? So far, I have three theories:

1) Cat ears appeal to our animal instincts. Sure, we’ve come out of our caves and we wear clothes now, but our brains still have their instinctual residues like the fight or flight response. Maybe we think catgirls are the manifestation of a woman who follows her animal brain, her immediate needs and desires. We find the idea of an impulsive woman unbarred by modern rules and morals attractive.

2) Cat ears resonate with ancient human mythologies. There were the cat gods, worshipped by the ancient Egyptians, including the fierce and beautiful Bastet. More closely tied to anime was the Japanese bakeneko, a cat demon who could disguise itself as an alluring woman. According to the Catgirl Research Foundation, there are also more catgirl myths from Britain, Ireland, and South Africa.

3) Catgirls can be guiltlessly objectified. This fits in with the moe anthropomorphism I discussed in my fan service articles. When we combine women and girls’ bodies with non-human elements, like computer or, in this case, animal parts, they appear less human to us. Therefore, we do not feel the obligation to treat them with the respect we’d offer other humans, and can lust after them without worry.

However, I haven’t yet been able to find much to support or disprove my claims. I’ve tried the forums of the Catgirl Research Foundation, contacted Kittenplay.org, posted a call for suggestions on the Livejournal kitty_ears community, even reached out to a few anime academics.

So far, only the fantastic aniblogger Scott of Anime Almanac has responded to my call. As a self professed “expert in catgirl appreciation,” he had a lot of insight on the subject.

Scott was quick to differentiate the catgirls we see in anime from the Western women who dress up as sexy cats for Halloween. “It’s not about animal lust,” he told me in an email. “It’s far more innocent than that.”

Instead, he tied it to the attitude of real-life cats toward their masters, in that anime cat girls are both independent and affectionate. Scott said this style, “Selfish and spoiled one minute, and then sweet and affectionate the next,” already meshes well with one of the most established female personality types in anime — the tsundere — who extremely appeals to otaku.

But in a nutshell, Scott said that he thinks otaku are fans of catgirls because they are so easy to please. While some female characters, whom he refers to as having dog or puppy personalities, need a man to protect and care for them always, catgirls are more hands off:

“The catgirl, on the other hand, doesn’t need a man to run her life for her. She can do just fine all by herself. But when she is ready for some love and attention, she’ll nuzzle up to that guy, sit on his lap, knead her paws all over him, and purr with a satisfied look on her face,” he said.

And now I open up the debate to readers. Whether or not you’re a fan of cat ears, what do you think is their appeal? And if you’ve heard of an academic study on the subject that you think I’ve missed in my research, please let me know!

My first foray into Gundam modeling

Anime

Like Gunpla? Click the image below to visit my new blog, Gunpla 101. 

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Industries take note: I can be recruited to any hobby if it comes in pink.

I’ve publicly indicated that I’ve never owned figures or models, never felt the urge to collect. But when I saw this super deformed pink Gundam mod in the Otakon dealer’s room, I was begging my surprised (and Gundam obsessed) boyfriend for one of my own.

Gundam models are usually models of giant piloted fighting suits that, to Americans, resemble Transformers. This one turned out to be a model based on Shin Sonshoko Gerbera SD from BB Senshi Sangokuden, a show where the Gundams are all person-sized and living in feudal Japan. Not surprisingly, it never made it to the states. John helped me find the right kit, a $10 feminine looking Gundam, but it was red. It turned out the display figure I saw was a mod. So we got a pink Gundam marker to paint some of the parts.

John and I spent an afternoon putting our respective Gundams (his being Gundam X) at our kotatsu. Here’s a photo of the parts inside. There aren’t too many parts. The salesman said this would take around 20 minutes to put together.

The instruction manual was in Japanese, or “moonspeak,” as the salesman told us. What a card. I was worried about reading them, but quickly learned that as long as I know how to count, I can figure out which of the numbered parts go where.

The pink torso and shoulder parts drying. Note the red armor on the box. You can also see the finished legs of John’s model in the background.

Almost finished! I decided at the last minute to paint the bow, which is a bow in both senses of the word (and even came with an arrow) pink.

My finished model from the front and back.

Overall, it took about an hour, leaving time for the paint to dry. I’m so glad I saw it through to the end. I really enjoyed building it and also the fact that, due to my customizations, it’s the only one like it in the world.

I think I could get hooked on Gundam modeling. I’ve already decided on what my next project will be.

Like Gunpla? Click the image below to visit my new blog, Gunpla 101. 

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The day I pissed off 4chan

Uncategorized

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to talk about this, but blogging is as much about your audience as yourself, and I think this is something you all would like to hear about.

The day I pissed off 4chan appears to be the thing I am currently most infamous for on the Internet. I had forgotten about the whole experience until I read an article on Geekosystem that alluded to my mistake. So here’s the whole story!

When I started my internship at Kotaku, my boyfriend John was especially worried about me. He made me change all my passwords online and make sure my domain information was secure. He was concerned that as an intern on one of the big geek sites, I’d be a public figure and therefore a target. I took his advice, but I didn’t believe him. I was going to be an intern, not an editor. I’ve lived my online life conservatively enough that strangers haven’t cared about this smalltime journalism graduate student in D.C.

However, I made a pretty bad decision. I wrote about something that mattered a lot to 4chan, especially /v/: the nicknames of the new starter Pokémon. When I was interning at Kotaku, I rarely got to write my own stories — that’s just not what interns do, anywhere really — so I did my best to pitch original story ideas. My Nobuo Uematsu scoop was an example of this; none of the editors had met him so it made sense for me to write that story. And when I heard my friends on twitter talking about their invented nicknames for the new starting Pokémon for Black and White — news to the editors — I was allowed to write that story, too.

On Kotaku, it’s policy to ask permission before reposting stories, but not images. When reposting images, Kotaku instead takes care to link back to the image producer so they can share in the traffic. So when writing the Smugleaf story, I reposted photos from Deviant Art authors with credit… except for one photo. I couldn’t find the artist, so I posted it creditless with a note to please help me find the artist. That artist turned out to be a 4chan poster. And it turned out the meme itself originated on 4chan. As one Kotaku commenter warned me, “/v/ is pissed.”

The ire of 4chan was suddenly upon me, complete with ad hominem attacks on the article and here, my personal site. Overnight, the top Google search for my website was “Lauren Orsini nude.” (Some 4chan posters had the idea to find naked photos of me and get me “fired” from Kotaku. Luckily, those don’t exist!) I followed the advice I’d heard about getting 4chan to move on, mainly not “feeding the trolls” or responding to any of it. Arguably, writing an article on the subject isn’t doing that at all, but I think it’s been long enough.

The hubbub died down in a few days. I was expecting my editors to yell at me for it, but on the flip side, they were psyched! Since my article was 1) original and 2) controversial, it got 70K hits in just a few days, making them a lot of money. They told me not to worry about what people said. I knew this already; in today’s online age, journalists become part of each story they write. I like to think that it’s helping me develop an even thicker skin.

In summary, I’ve learned that any subject can be controversial. I thought that since I don’t write about politics, I don’t touch on anything abrasive, but now I know better. We geeks are extremely passionate about our hobbies. Bobby Kotick at Activision realized this too late — treating video game fans flippantly earned the otherwise mild mannered man the title of the most hated person in the video game industry.

Also, I need to be careful about the word “meme.” People don’t like to hear that something is or isn’t a meme. They just like things to be left alone where they can grow on their own. (That’s just one buzzword I’ve gotten in trouble for using in my time at Kotaku — my most recent article involves the term “reverse sexism” which I never considered to be a point of debate before!)

Anonymity online has become the best and worst thing about the internet. People can say things without being persecuted for their beliefs, but on the other hand, they can also reveal the cruelest intentions of their humanity since they never have to stand behind their comments. 4chan is an incredible site, spotlighting and forwarding Internet trends faster than anyone else. I wouldn’t have even had a story without 4chan! However, it can also be a spiteful community, suspicious of anyone who purports to post their content elsewhere. I view the boards with awe and not a little trepidation.

I’m not going to ignore a topic from now on just because I think it’s controversial, but I’m certainly going to pick my battles wisely. As for another article about fan art and memes, it’s just not worth it.

Geek Origins Stories: Anime

Anime

This is part two of my Geek Origin Stories series. Last week, I wrote about Magic. This time, I want to write about one of my oldest and most treasured fandoms — anime. I actually still have my diary entry from the first time I watched anime. At the risk of embarrassing myself, I will post it in full right here:

12/10/1999

Wow – 11 days ’till my 13th birthday. Cool. Today was a good day, but I’m remembering it backwards. I was just over at Sharon’s and since her sister was not there, we watched some Japanese animated cartoons – “The Slayers.” It was translated to American [sic] only in the print at the bottom, so we tried to listen to Japanese words and make up phrases. I learned how to say, “That is a secret” because one character, Xello [again, sic] said it. He said [illegible attempt at spelling Japanese]. Sharon is a lot more obsessed with anime than I will ever be. I guess it’s because I don’t have a sister who owns those anime video tapes, and where else could I get them from?

Er yeah… embarrassing. But I wanted to post this in full since it shows how far anime has come since I was first initiated. For Sharon and I, the only source of anime was Sharon’s older sister or the video store at the mall, which sometimes had anime VHS tapes for $40 each. I cringe to think I spent once spent a year saving $120 of my allowance to buy Evangelion tapes!

This also explains why I didn’t have a lot of friends who liked anime back then. Today, the proliferation of anime on Hulu, Crunchy Roll, and other streaming websites has made the barrier for getting into anime less imposing than ever. But back then, you had to have a bottomless wallet or a benefactor. And even then, we had it easy compared to fans from the 80’s! In college, I interviewed Stan Sagan, a dealer at Katsucon, about his start in the fandom:

Sagan, 56, discovered anime while he was a theater major in college.

“One day somebody brought an anime tape into the studio, and as I watched it I thought, this is way better than what’s coming out of Hollywood!” he said.

Sagan was hooked, but back in the 1980’s, he said, getting anime wasn’t easy.

“There weren’t stores that sold anime, and you couldn’t download it from the internet. We watched it on VHS tapes that were copies of copies of copies that friends passed around. That’s why it was so great to go to a convention,” he said.

Back to my origin story, it’s clear that I wasn’t very good at predictions. I’m pretty sure Sharon hasn’t watched anime in years. (Another brilliant prediction from my diary: “I spend a lot of time on the Internet now. I will grow out of it soon.”) From there I watched whatever my friends and I could get our hands on. Gundam Wing was a big one, since it was dubbed on Cartoon Network. Same with Tenchi Muyo. I am sure it involved a lot of money pooling, but we also watched the entirety of Magic Knights Rayearth. I attempted Evangelion, but I never could afford to watch it — not until college, when I was able to buy it on DVD!

I didn’t hit the anime convention scene until college, either. My parents, understandably, were confused by why their daughter wanted to watch foreign cartoons and discuss them with strangers. They weren’t comfortable with what an anime convention was or could be. Usually, I indulged my interest by printing pictures of my favorite characters and pasting them in my diary. I also drew pictures as often as possible! But as interesting as THAT would be to see, let’s save a tiny bit of my dignity for the next post.

Next in this series: video games!

Share your own anime origin story in the comments.