To ‘Hit’ a Girl (Diebuster Paper/Analysis)
This is me working really hard and trying to get an ‘A’ on a paper. The first half of the intro paragraph is the same and then the rest of it is completely rewritten. My thanks to Carol J. Clover who advanced my thinking during the writing process with her fascinating article expositing on gender roles in the horror genre Her Body, Himself. This also was written on very little sleep and I’m posting it on very little sleep so I still think it’s good. There won’t be enough pictures in this post, don’t be fooled.
Unfortunately, I realized sometime ago that I was not destined to be pulled off the street by a secret organization that needed the skills only I had to fight another even more super secret order discount pills organization bent on destruction. There just came a moment when the cartoons I watched became a work of amusing fiction instead of the irrefutable truths I had greedily devoured as a child. That’s not to say I don’t still enjoy watching an irrepressible young hero rise up against all odds to save the phentermine day and get the girl, I’ve just grown to understand my lack of superpowers or a giant robot. The anime (animated television) industry in Japan often capitalizes upon this still popular content of a young boy with wonderful power going out into the world to make his mark. The young boys often do manly things like: Destroying everything in their way and protect the things that need protecting (often scantily clad, recently abused females) with what often appears to be nothing more than sheer will power. The role of the female takes a side line to the male protagonists often stereotyping them as obsessed with their looks and in need of rescue. Despite the hordes of anime I myself have ingested I would be hard pressed to point out an anime where the female character wasn’t reliant on the male lead: that is until you count the works of GAINAX. Diebuster is a six episode set of OVAs produced by Gainax on their twentieth anniversary as a sequel to the popular Gunbuster produced in 1988. The space battle that ensues takes the viewer on a fast paced, plot packed, philanthropic journey that delves into what’s in store for humanity once we reach the stars. The true oddity of Diebuster, however, stems from the two lead characters being female since traditionally “battle” anime is a male dominated genre. Instead of having a young boy defying the odds and counting on his strength we’re asked to identify with females pulling the same punches. By placing the female in the role of the “hero” instead of the typical “heroine” Diebuster effectively castrates its male audience allowing them to realize the standards created by society and reinforced by anime—normally—have no relevant bearing on what a female is capable of.
Diebuster is the story of two girls: Nono a country girl/robot from mars, and Lark the “princess” of the organization called Fraternity (A group of teenagers with the power known as “Topless” [The ability to control large, robotic weapons called Buster Machines]). The story itself is long and complex and to cover it in detail would be impossible. Instead I deemed the story of Lark who shares the “Final Girl” role with Nono to be the most important in terms of identification. Lark has many of the tomboyish features like short hair, small breasts, and sexually ambiguous clothing. The stark contrast between the assumed genders of Nono and Lark is shown plainly by the comparison of the cute, frilly dress Nono is wearing to the genderless uniform Lark has donned. Therefore when Nono confesses that her dream is to become a space pilot and that she’ll do her best with guts and hard work Lark’s response “We don’t need those online buy Ampicillin things the only ones who can fight alongside us are those who have become topless” becomes crystal clear but sexually ambiguous. The word “topless” is one of great interest as women not wearing shirts carries a certain social stigma that doesn’t apply to men with the same torso nakedness. Like the word “Fraternity”, meaning brotherhood, Diebuster at the outset is labeling these powers as strictly male. Thus, for Lark to be a member she has already put on the male persona and lost many of the characteristics that would normally make a character discernibly female in anime. Despite her best efforts, however, the other members of fraternity have branded her “princess” a purely feminine title. The male audience must therefore come to terms with her sexuality while identifying with a hero who is in every other way very much male.
A recurring theme of a boy becoming a man (or just a man being a man) can be found in a single question from Bones’s anime Darker than Black “Do you have something you would risk your life to protect”? Ultimately, this line (in context) informs the viewer of what true heroism in Japanese culture is. Pure violence accomplishes nothing and is just destruction. Heroism on the other hand can be found from man/boy who draws his sword only to protect others. Thus a man/boy without something they’d be willing to protect with their life is an empty shell. In the second episode of Diebuster we’re shown our second battle with a space monster, this time we’re given the first male we can identify with, Nicola, who appears to be on the verge of stealing the show. Nicola shouts out commands to Lark (Nono is sharing the cockpit behind Lark) in the battle against the space monster all the time ignoring the spaceship full of the regular army falling into the atmosphere. Nono informs Lark that the spaceship is in danger and a true space hero would save them. The moment of silence that ensues as Lark makes her decision between having “her chance at being with Nikola” and being an ally of justice can be put into our larger question. On one hand she wants to be female and with Nicola, the cool guy: She wants to rely on the strong male (made explicit by her listening to his heart in a previous scene to calm down). On the other hand she wants to be the hero of the story—not the heroine: As she says ,when telling a story to Nono from her childhood about the time a baby crow fell out of its nest “I want a hand that can save that chick”. “At the moment that the Final Girl becomes her own savior, she becomes a hero; and the moment that she becomes a hero is the moment that the male viewer gives up the last pretense of male identification” (Clover 103). Lark cheap doxycycline leaves Nicola to fight the space monster and she goes back and protects the spaceship. As Clover put in the pretense of saving oneself—as is common in American cinema—the role of protection is fundamental to the Japanese battle anime. The moment Lark, the final girl, turns back around and pulls upon that reserve of strength she shouldn’t have is the moment the male audience has no choice but to identify with her instead of the destructive, immature Nicola. She has become someone who fights for something instead of for the sake of fighting and at that moment she has stepped into the role of the hero, the role the viewer most wants to identify with.
The full name of Diebuster is Diebuster: Aim for the Top 2! To reach the top of course means that there is no longer a top above you so you have effectively become topless, but it also signifies the possibilities of a female reaching the top within our society (we still haven’t had a female president). A series of twists and turns lead us to the climactic conclusion of the series as Lark (with Nono joining later) facing off against “Mankind’s greatest enemy”. The contrast to the heroic view of Lark thrown against a cargo tube breaking one of her teeth would have to be how delicate women are normally portrayed in anime (with perfect teeth). The stereotype is blown out of proportion by Sanji in the anime One Piece who worships women to the point that he will not attack a woman even if it means his own death. Women are drawn as figures that should not fight in anime as their delicate beauty is often the thing the male deems worth protecting. Shelly Jackson makes an interesting point along these lines “Then there are necks, but they are too skinny… I have coveys of princesses with necks no wider than their chins. It took a book to correct my eye and point out that the neck is a sturdy extension of the trunk, bigger around than most people’s arms, not a spindly perch for the head”. Anime often does draw the females with scrawny necks or completely ridiculous proportions. order discount tabs As the underlying message conveys woman are not weak and delicate, but we often idealize them in such a fashion. Diebuster contrasts the effeminate Nono next to the normalized Lark for what I assume is precisely this reason (Not to mention Nono ends up being a robot [In other words: Nono is an idealized form of humanity]). The contrast between how men and women are often differentially drawn in anime is proof enough of a physical separation. However, the difference in Diebuster is the Buster Machine. Inside a giant robot there is no physical difference between a man and a woman’s physical power: To shatter the male illusions even further give a girl a gun and there is no difference in physical power. Regardless of sexuality technology is the great equalizer that makes it possible for anyone to reach the top and become topless.
As Lark says after ripping off her shirt “Strength isn’t the size of your body, it’s the power in your heart”. The ability to protect what’s important, the strength to protect what’s important, while capturing the hearts and minds of both genders; Lark embodies it all. We’re taken for a ride and forced to choose a very realistic girl to fight with, to be emotionally moved by and ultimately to identify with. By creating a female character that a male audience member projects upon; Diebuster, effectively, has made a series that transcends sexual difference. Instead of seeing the girls who talk about shoes and the guys who talk about football we’re given the girl who is football while the guy finally feels the awkwardness of the high heels he’s made to wear. Maybe I’ll never be the hero I always envisioned, but within the bounds of anime we’re given the message that anybody can be that hero. Anybody can fill those high heels
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9 Comments
I haven’t watched diebuster before (nor am I given to reading wall-of-texts) but I did look through chunks of your previous draft so I thought this time I’d read through the whole thing.
I think this one is much better than the previous draft. Good job! I like how you laid the groundwork by identifying the defining traits of male heroism and highlighted the Nikola event as the critical point the girl, by choice, broke out of the stereotype. I do think that you grew a little breathless in the paragraph before the last though (The full name of… etc). Think you got too much content jammed in there to make your core argument a little lost in the mix. Split it in two maybe?
Don’t need to take me too seriously I’m just passing by, so to speak :) Like I said, I haven’t watched diebuster, but regarding the issue on the whole I actually think female dominance is on the rise and it’s driving the vestiges of male dominance all the way back to its core genres (hot-blooded shounen mecha and such). In fact nowadays we are seeing strong female leads even in some traditionally very male-led genres, like Bamboo Blade for sports, and to a degree Fate/Stay Night, where Saber is the hot-blooded one that does the real fighting and Shiro does the background work of talking philosophy and taking care/cooking for Saber. Granted, the girls here aren’t quite as ‘GAR’ as many comparable male versions, but then I think there is a line between heroism and testosterone, and compromising the latter is actually good :P
(oops, made a tl;dr comment before I realized it @_@)
I can’t believe I never responded to your comment. Shame on me! I’m not sure if I agree with your general argument. Although shows like Bamboo Blade do emphasize females in sports they still separate the men and women in the actual competitions and make the girls quirky but still somewhat stereotypical. Bamboo Blade is actually one of the better shows and good grounds for rebuttal. Unfortunately I’ll have to completely disagree with you on Fate Stay Night. Though Saber was supposed to be the machismo character she ended up playing second fiddle in my book, constantly being saved by Shiro, not to mention they made Shiro bad ass as future archer. Saber is also toyed with by Gilgamesh and her responses leave me viewing her as easily flustered and unable to cope. While that makes her cute it doesn’t necessarily make her gar in the same way I end up seeing Lark by the end of Diebuster. You should really watch this show Jason, it is so cool. Not only do they name their attacks they also shout them out in an over the top manner.
The girl who voices Nono also voiced Nia in Tengen Toppen Gurren Lagann and I think she does a much better job in this.
I think if you want truly good examples of females taking away the traditionally male role you should look at Major Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell. Not only does she portray a truly badass character, she is clearly the dominant figure in a group of males and her leadership is never questioned. If you can imagine it, it’s what Tessa probably should have been (Though I really like Tessa’s character :x). I also think DTB did a good job of portraying a wide variety of characters making known that the roles we play varies a lot more based on the individual then the gender.
This paper was meant to be particularly argumentative so it’s no surprise I went overboard by using some loaded language. Your comment was great and I’m sorry it took me so long to respond, thanks for reading it :).
Read a couple of recommendations for gunbuster and remembered that you had a post on that here, and voila! the comment response I never saw :P
Anyway, I see your point on Saber. It wasn’t a good example, I was mainly noting that an action-centered show can have girls doing the protagonist fighting role. And I wasn’t exactly pushing the idea of girls taking over traditionally male roles – more of girl characters being in greater abundance and enjoying stronger focuses nowadays. The girls-in-male-roles thing was meant as an extreme example. For the more general case, well, we can consider Suou for example – I wouldn’t at all say she’s cast in the same way a male lead would be, but her being female has implications on how the viewer identifies with her and perceives the show as a whole. So part of the story is that shows nowadays have shifted somewhat towards portrayals and nuances that make it sensible to put females in lead and significant sub-lead roles, even if those females may not exactly be ‘GAR’ in the traditional male sense.
Okay, anyhow I’m convinced and have decided that I wanna watch this show. Now to go see if I can fish it out :)
You won’t regret it :).
Diebuster is one of my favorite animes for being only 6 episodes long. It just moves at a pace that is beyond the ordinary and is constantly confronting our two main characters with growth and development. Nono and Lark grow more than most characters grow in 5 seasons in 6 episodes. Plus it’s just fun (and looks good).
I agree that they do try to put females in typically male roles, but I often fear that anime still objectifies said females for monetary reasons. Is it any surprise that Sailor Moon has girls wearing short skirts? Truthfully I just want to see a few animes where they hold the same values as men and yeah I would really like to see a girl just get decked as a way to resolve problems. I really think the struggle is highlighted in Lark’s case, and at some point you’ll notice she never finds “love”. It just really breaks out of the median for me.
I’ve thought about it some more and I want to pontificate all over this post.
I agree that on some level we’re asked to identify with Suou in the second season of Darker than Black, but objectification and identification aren’t mutually exclusive. Humans have the remarkable ability to identify with just about anything (Lucky socks, or better yet have you ever seen this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeyEXt7-0jU ? It’s absolutely brilliant if you haven’t). Thus even though I agree we are asked to identify with Suou I don’t necessarily think that we aren’t also asked to objectify her.
Unfortunately you didn’t pull your punch here by referencing DTB. You know I’m going to have a hard time arguing against it because in some respects I see them trying extremely hard to develop the characters. Even Kiko is a human being. However, I would like to point out that DTB is not the vast majority of anime. I was actually surprised by how little gender roles really came up (when compared to most animes). The fact that certain characters are women and others are men plays little relevance to the contractor/doll dilemna. If you compare this to just about anything else in our must watch median, I think you’d find it hard to say the same.
As far as I’m concerned the whole idea of Harem anime is a direct salvo of objectification. We literally have a guy “falling in love” based on individual characters set traits. Sure during the arcs of said characters they try to make them human, but on some levels they are just gimmicks that the boy collects. I actually thought Ouran High School Host Club was absolutely fantastic for reversing the norm. The reverse harem gave us the chance to objectify men instead of woman. It didn’t end up doing that… That was a fantastic anime… for some reason it keeps popping into my head with its moments of brilliance. I’m totally derailed. Uh, objectification… I kind of feel like that’s what they did to Haruhi in the second season. There’s a good example.
Mikuru is an object. She has little to know personality and is thrown around at the whims of the brigade members. On some levels she is the model woman because she doesn’t stand up for herself while Haruhi is “the problem” as far as Kyon is concerned. Kyon’s whole attitude is pretty darn sexist. Do I fault him for it… well no he’s as much a victim of his society as Mikuru. However, when Haruhi is “expected” to be an object like Mikuru and is otherwise disliked for not being like Mikuru I do see a problem. There are so many examples.
Now of course this is a complicated issue. It’s hard to say what’s objectification and what’s identification. I just feel like there is a growing trend towards objectification since the anime industry is trying to produce moe. If a girl is just made up of “Moe” than she is no more than the sum of her parts and judging a girl for parts is objectification. I’m not saying Moe is evil, it’s just bad when we start looking at girls for only their Moe. With that said I’m sure you already know this. I just want to remind a fellow enthusiast that the road of objectification is a slippery slope the anime industry seems to be sliding down. Instead of developing their characters they rely on set personality types. This is the equivalent of selling beer with large breasts (American Football *facepalm*).
I should start a protest group named “Like your characters for the right reasons”. This is probably why I like Seitokai no Ichizon so much. I mean they did the opposite. They started with the stereotypes and engineered the anime to show us real characters underneath (well at least I hope that is where they are going. If they don’t I’ll just be really sad).
Hehe, much as I’d like to spare you the potential need to type yet another long response, I feel the need to respond to some of that :P
Firstly I think the argument is diverging a bit here in terms of what each of us are arguing for. I think we actually kinda agree on the fundamentals. I agree on the general increasing trend of objectification, and I think you agreed with what I was trying to say too – that there are enough females in signficant enough roles for us to be here talking about them now. I agree that many of those significant roles aren’t exactly ‘gratifying’, so to speak. Uh, gratifying in a meaningful sense, not the other, ‘moe appeal’ sense, and I agree that a good proportion of the industry is into ‘cheating’ and making unintelligent, often shoddy shows that flaunt moe.
You’re right that identification and objectification aren’t mutually exclusive, and personally I don’t really mind the objectification if there is sufficient balancing identifiction. And I don’t think objectification is limited to females – I think males in older shounen shows (ok, come to think of it, not just older shows) get objectified in a sense too – super-power wielding, challenge the world, justice spouting machines with no real humanity. I think there’ll always be a spectrum of interesting to cookie cutter characters and the specifics just change with times and trends.
Now on to Suou (it was a random example that hit me! wasn’t on purpose! =) uh, nothing much to object here except that I want to reiterate again that I thought Suou’s gender was significant to DtB’s method of storytelling this season. Of course you could call it an ‘objectification bonus’ that she’s a loli and such but what I want to say is that unlike most of the other characters where gender didn’t really make a difference to their role, I thought Suou’s did, in affecting the mood and intimacy of the storytelling. I’m not really talking about blurring the boundaries or breaking/reversing them here – I’m more saying that you can make great and interesting characters even going more or less along the lines of common social gender perspectives, and I think that this is happening quite a bit – albeit mostly in shows in the upper band of quality. Societal prejudices don’t preclude women from making perfectly identifiable, thought-provoking and likable characters.
Next, I’m probably being nitpicky and its not really important, but I have to disagree with you on Mikuru in Haruhi 2. On the surface she is the perfect ‘object’, and she used to be my least favourite main character for that reason, but I thought Season 2 hid subtle hints here and there that Mikuru isn’t exactly all she seemed. I wrote in an old (destroyed) post that it seemed unlikely that one of the major factions struggling in the bitter rivalry behind the scenes would hinge their own existence on a cookie-cutter dojikko. Itsuki hinted that some of that moe surface we see may be deliberate, and Mikuru herself confronting Kyon about Itsuki’s ideologies may hint that she’s more in the loop with the intricacies behind the scenes and their significance then may be obvious. Season 2 never confirmed anything of course, but I find myself looking extra hard at whatever Mikuru does nowadays.
I’m a little uncertain about Seitokai no Ichizon – I’m a little behind on episodes, but so far the only character that counts as interesting is Sugisaki. On the other hand, as you often cite, Nyan Koi is doing a good job of weaving excellent entertainment out of ‘objects’. I guess in the end there’s no real clear-set rules on what makes a good anime =/
Damn, I’m all over the place >.< I hope I made some coherent sense somewhere.
Haha, what can I say! You got me!
Like you said I think we’ve diverged from the point of this paper. My previous comment was pretty harsh on the anime industry, but I think my original point wasn’t that the anime industry was bad: It was that Diebuster was great. Although it’s true that shows aren’t necessarily objectifying females I’ve never seen a girl in a role quite like the one Lark plays. She’s obviously a girl, but she plays a very masculine role and not just in position. Stuff like Shikabane Hime or even this second season of DTB put girls in masculine roles but they still make them remarkably feminine. Like they’re unable to take on the darkness that is sometimes inherent in characters like Lelouch or Light. That’s not necessarily a bad thing it just makes characters like Lark really stick out in my mind.
I was a fool to go after Haruhi :). I know it’s good storytelling, even if Mikuru is the way she is. I wrote a comment on someone else’s blog a long time ago about the difference between Mikuru and her older version. She’s definitely a character that becomes more than the social ideal.
Like you said to say the anime industry is only creating objects in their animes would be overstating things. Sure they’re trying to sell characters, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t… identifiable. Truthfully I just think that you can identify with Lark in a truly unique way compared to most female characters within the anime median. Do you want to know why I titled this paper “To Hit a Girl”? This probably encapsulates my argument. Whenever you have men interacting with women (especially in anime) I’ve never seen a guy full on deck a girl when he was angry at her. This is common in guy on guy interactions but never between females. I think there is an important separation there that probably shouldn’t exist when we define gender roles. Don’t you think it’s weird that girls almost never get punched? Haha, but with that said…
As a hero of mine once said “There is no bad writing, we just don’t necessarily know how to like some of the forms”.
Re: your title, I know, and I like it :) Com to think o fit Haruhi came pretty close to being decked at the end of sighs :P That said I’m not sure I *want* to see a girl full-on decked though.
It may that I am a ‘victim of my own society’ too, but I don’t really have a problem with having some degree of separation between how both genders are portrayed. There is a line of course, I would say, between ‘trait’ and ‘competence’. Differentiating the former I think is fine, the latter no. I make be inclined to take offense if, uh, for (lame) example, all or a very vast majority of mecha pilots are male and all or a very vast majority of females just sit at home tearfully awaiting their return. That’s a clear distinction with respect to *competence*. But if there is a good distribution of female and male pilots, but the females are more often portrayed as, say being more sensitive and emotionally involved (but being no less effective at their work) while their male counterparts are more inclined to be rash or egoistic, then I don’t really have an issue. I mean, my pov is there *is* clearly a difference, and women as a collective share some characteristics that men as a collective don’t frequently exhibit, and vice versa. Clarifying – this is ‘difference’, not ‘defect’. If gender portrayals reflect some of that difference without oversimplification I think it’s actually good.
Oh wow! I wasn’t trying to be judgmental or accusing. I believe that stereotypes normally evolve due to trends in certain groups. I don’t think there is anything wrong with portrayals of characters, but I think the individual differences are much bigger than gender differences and that’s what I’m most afraid isn’t being portrayed sometimes. Even though Hinagiku isn’t perfect and has some interesting height problems she still portrays a strong female president who tackles problems Hayate can’t handle. In Hayate the Combat Butlet Hayate is often considered very effeminate. In the end I like anime for being anime but I hate when characters are stereotyped into roles like “You can’t do that because you’re a girl” or so on and so forth.
It’s true that girls are generally considered more sensitive in our societies and it’s probably the case that their are Mikuru’s out there. Kyon might be sexist, but that doesn’t mean what he thinks of Mikuru isn’t true. You can’t help what you like, but I think his standard of Haruhi is unfair. Him wanting her to be more like Mikuru bothers me :).
We’re all victims of our society, but when I watch fiction I want to look at the characters that are different. Normality is fun sometimes, but it’s those oddballs we want to put under the microscope. Whether it’s the emotionless robot learning to be human, or the Asuka’s being pushed past the breaking point.
Fun conversation, glad I wrote this paper.