In defence of anime girls/women...

[Chemical Alia]

You don't need to defend drawings, they're not real people. Also, anime is kind of retarded. :C

I'd never use the term "shallow bitches" to condemn or judge real people and it sounds just as immature to describe cartoon characters in this way. Aesthetically, I've never seen an a female anime character that I've liked, or found interesting or particularly well designed. I don't watch anime and therefore can't judge the characters you mentioned, but in general shrill voices, grating personalities and boring art all contributing reasons for that.

Other peoples' opinions on cartoons really aren't worth getting upset over. You should really take a break and get some fresh air and perspective on this issue.

 

[Doctor What]

It really just depends on which anime you watch, remember that most of them are made and watched by dudes, so yeah, the chicks are there for random fanservice most of the time. I just made my way through a day marathon of Fate/stay night, and it was filled with competent "women."

Spoiler: I just had to throw this in

[http://img215.imageshack.us/i/fromplanetxcensored.png/]

 

[Marik2]

What ever happened to the whole "Women being sexy is freedom against male oppression" movement.

And with that note I state my candidate

I prefer Stocking

Spoiler

You can preference her all you like, Panty is still the more independent one of the two.

For the record I like the both pretty much equally.

What makes you say shes more independent than Stocking?

1. For the Majority of the series she bashed and refused being in a serious relationship with any guy.
2. Even after gods refusal to allow her into heaven she still breaks the rules.
3. Although there both very vocal about there opinions Panty verbalizes hers far more often.
4. Now this one is kinda out there but compare sexual preferences, Panty is pretty much a *Just do it* kind of girl where as Stocking is into restrictive bondage, and it wouldn't be too far fetched to say she enjoys Master & Servant sexual practices.

I think your confusing Independence with "not giving a shit"

I would say, other then 3 all them are examples of her saying no, to any form of dependance. Dependance from god and Dependance on a man.

But is it truly independence to not follow authority?

And just go with whatever you feel like doing on a whim?

Cuz that sounds like your being dependent on your whims than actually being "independent"

Yeah sorry to get all philosophical

But yeah Im not here to change your liking to Panty. Everyone has their reasons.

 

[Marik2]

It really just depends on which anime you watch, remember that most of them are made and watched by dudes, so yeah, the chicks are there for random fanservice most of the time. I just made my way through a day marathon of Fate/stay night, and it was filled with competent "women."

Spoiler: I just had to throw this in

[http://img215.imageshack.us/i/fromplanetxcensored.png/]

XD

Wheres that from?

 

[Erana]

I'm just disappointed with the industry because its still "Blah blah anime girls" and how they're so markedly separate from their male counterpart. Usually in all the wrong ways.

Also, "Girls" still more accurately describes most anime females than "Woman." This isn't a matter of age, either. Its just... Urgh.

That being said, I do have a favorite anime female stereotype, and its the somewhat mysterious, quiet mother figure (Tall, thin, usually blonde too) epitomized by Maetel from Galaxy Express 999. A more recent example is Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy. I... Honestly can't find a TV trope for them. There has to be one!

 

[Dark Knifer]

Just to make sense why people like this, the mainstream animes usually have very superficial female characters and mainstream is what people always see first about that. If you just watched bleach then yes you'd think that that's what all animes are like. Though I do agree with your point, there are exceptions it's just that people don't harp on about them like they do for the annoying ones.

 

[SilentCom]

I don't really watch anime very much but I do like Full Metal Alchemist. In a more relevant note, female characters are portrayed in similar fashions in many other forms of media. You get the fantasy oversexualized characters to the more realistically portrayed ones... I guess it depends on who the target audience is. The same sort of goes for male characters- you get a variety, ranging from tough guy to wimp, nerd to idiot...

 

[BonsaiK]

Right... I have little interest in people who are going to post here just to say how shallow female characters in anime can be. I've read a couple threads too many to realise what dickheads some people can be by making such a generalisation.

To those who read and intend to flame, I'll ask the following two question sets:

1. If you do watch anime, what do you watch that leads you towards such a conclusion, and why do you watch it?

&

2. If you don't watch anime, where does your justification come from?

I watch plenty of Anime. I have serious issues with the portrayal of women in Anime, but I definitely wouldn't say that portrayal is "shallow". In fact I'd suggest the very opposite - the portrayal actually goes far deeper than a lot of watchers realise, and that's actually the problem. In fact it goes so deep that to explain further would take me a few days of typing not to mention seriously off-topic this thread, but rest assured that the reason why I don't like Anime girls in general much has nothing to do with "shallowness" in the traditional sense.

Now, I like to watch slightly less popular (i.e. not mainstream) anime

Er... no.

 

[Weaver]

Op, perchance you should take a look at this:

Spoiler

 

[ckam]

I guess I can talk about Puella Magi Madoka Magica, but that's I'll say.

 

[A random person]

90% of everything is shit. Humans and Anime Women are no exception. Listing a few examples of well developed female characters does not remove the truckloads of fanservice, bad voice acting and stereotypical behaviour.

This is a fair and reasonable position, and I'm an anime fan saying this.

Of course, while we're on the subject, the anime reviewer JesuOtaku said Kino from Kino's Journey is an excellent female character. I agree with her.

 

[blankedboy]

5. Ergo Proxy - Re-L Mayer, granddaughter to the effective ruler of Romdeau Dome, looked down upon because of that connection as being the only reason she's a ranked police officer, so no-one believes her about the appearance of Proxy 13, plus all the shit she has to go through to resolve everything.

WOOOOO ERGO PROXY ^^

Spoiler: EP spoilers, kinda

Wasn't Proxy 13 Monad though? She only saw Vincent, and he's proxy 1. :/

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

-snip-

OP, regardless of your opinion, Orihime and the like are the poster children of the representation of women in anime stereotype: Damsel archetypes who advance the plot through being a hindrance (Bleach did this for it's first two story arcs). A lot of female supporting characters fit that bill.

Hmmm (random Bleach/Naruto character rant below)...

Spoiler

Kubo...you had every female character archetype under the sun, and (I can't believe I'm saying this) your most fleshed out character was Orihime...shocking.

And Kishi, you actually do quite a lot with your female characters (Tsunade, Hinata, etc) but damn do I hate Sakura. Without clear justification for her love interest, she's just become another Orihime.

I don't like saying it's a reflection of their culture, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't think so. But that's a can of worms in of itself.

The over-sexualisation is just as bad as ours(the west, but Britain is actually worse) so that's not an issue. Sex sells and most of the manga we see is Shounen.

I could name a thousand characters like Balalaika from Black Lagoon (position of power, physically scarred, actually interesting) and Mirielle from Noir, but they would still be in the minority to Releena Peacecraft and co. That is what dominates the medium.

 

[RelexCryo]

To my knowledge, character development in Videogames/Anime/Whatever is roughly similar to character development in pretty much every other artform.

Let me give a few examples: Juliet from Romeo and Juliet is a teenager in love. Every act she takes is derived from those 3 words: Teenager in love. She in no size, shape, or form, ever manages to be more than a teenager in love. Those three words define her entire existence. The same is ultimately true for Romeo.

In Les Miserables,

Jean Valjean starts out as a convict, becomes a good man who is rich, adopts a girl.

that is pretty much everything you could possibly want to know about him, he has no more depth than that. He is arguably a cardboard character.

The only characters I can think of with actual depth are in Charles Dickens novels, and that is simply a byproduct of the insane amount of detail Charles Dickens delivers. Can anyone here name a single complex, well rounded, well developed character in any concievable art form known to humankind that is not a work by Charles Dickens?