ESSAY #1
From a historical standpoint, just about every culture on the planet has venerated males as dominate figures, while scorning females as the lesser sex. Japan is surely no exception to this method of opinion. Although, ironically male writers paved many of the pioneering days of shojo manga, many female writers emerged and revolutionized the shojo manga market and further gave women within Japanese society who read Shojo manga a sense of exemplification and ‘an air or authenticity’. This was an important mark within Japanese society, because it very closely related to the rise of femininity within Japan, as there were not many female artists before or after the World War. In came the era of the 1970s, and many female artists appeared to express their opinions by manga; their work met the demands of Japanese girls to read manga written from the female point of view. The development of manga had portrayed reality quite well, and sales within these girls’ magazines skyrocketed.
As female artists maintained and developed more individuality within their art, Shojo manga in turn depicted the social roles and reduced responsibility that Japanese women had in society. Many of these magazines ‘pushed the envelope’ within society, as many of the relationships created within the stories were doseiai, or same sex romances. The writing and imagery reinforced a “visual of monotony, as many of the characters had similar facial features, and wore identical school uniforms as they struck similar poses”. These represented young Japanese girls’ close, adoring bonds with their female cohorts within their school life, as artist Jun’ichi Nakahara further wrote that the similarities of the characters emphasized “sentiment and the exploration of interiority.” This gave many young girls a sense of unity as it questioned societies’ expectations of an orthodox heterosexual relationship as a means to a happy life within society. Young girls were able to shift their focus away from the opposite sex, not worry over their future relationships with males, or burden over males’ dominance within society. They could rather bond with their close friends and create a sense of harmony with their female associates; creating lasting friendships that together could get them through the stresses of a conventional society. Alongside with ‘love among schoolgirls’ stories created within the 1970’s, a new form of manga, boy-boy [shonen] manga appeared that transformed love stories through forms of transposition and fantasy. Through these relationships, women could repress their desires by displacing themselves within the fictional male characters, as the narratives invited the women readers to explore feminine appearance. This untraditional relationship enables a displaced evasion of normative behavior within accepted Japanese society, and in a way liberated women from sexual restrictions imposed in that culture. The female spectatorship of boy-love manga commends its’ ability to expose readers to sex and sexuality without directly making them participants in it. Having this beautiful boy genre of manga also allowed the stories to disrupt the commonplace notions of sex and gender, and allow readers to escape sex and gender altogether.

ESSAY #2
Iwabuchi argues that the legacy of Japan's colonial period meant that Japan's exports often came with a 'cultural discount', that is, their Japaneseness had negative resonances for many people within the region. Japan overcame this in the 70s and 80s by exporting what Iwabuchi terms 'culturally odorless' products such as consumer technologies (VCRs, karaoke machines and the Walkman); comics, cartoons and animation. While consumers were, of course, aware of the origin of these products, none were strongly impregnated with a 'Japanese bodily odor'-as even Japanese anime characters were modeled on Caucasian body types and were sited in fantasy lands quite different from 'Japan'. This odorlessness introduced the concept of Mukokuseki, which from a Japanese standpoint is intensely disconcerting. Mukokuseki is the idea of self-erasing features and characteristics (such as characters in anime) that are culturally and racially assimilated in order to become more acceptable on the world stage, and goes beyond forms of racism (or more accurately perhaps, xenophobia). It speaks of a rejection of self and acknowledgment of an “un-acceptableness” of one’s culture and lifestyle and parallels to American and other Western consumers/society. How is it really Japanese if it is concealed in American skin? The solution may lie just where the problem was created, as anime is actually quite adept at portraying important social and cultural issues like alienation, gender inequality, and teenage angst. The main strength of “culturally odorless” anime is that they allow universal elements to become the main focus of consumption, even when delivered through a non-odorless medium. This is likely the reason why more political anime such as Ouran High School manage to remain popular: the central themes (ex. desire for acceptance, difficulty of achieving equality) of these shows become the object of focus rather than any explicit politics and/or philosophical frameworks. For all these positive elements, however, the “culturally odorless” argument tends to overlook the attraction of foreign goods due in some part to exoticism-driven (i.e. somewhat Orientalist) impulses. In Princess Mononoke, the apocalyptic scenario of a world where evil and hatred could enrapture the entire world, is a clear device to discuss the major social issues and after affects that the atomic bomb had on Japan. But, by hiding this topic by creating a dense background/story plot behind stories such as Princess Mononoke (the atomic bomb was represented by a collection of lost souls, and evil within society that nearly destroyed the world), Miyazaki is able to hide this political context and ‘Japanese odor’, and allow other viewers from various societies’ to enjoy the show.

ESSAY #3
Kawaii, meaning ‘cute’ is the term used for the phenomenon of Japanese obsession with cute characters, toys, foods, games, housewares and fashion. This idea of ‘kawaii’ can be discerned most in comics targeted at teenage girls, otherwise known as shōjo manga. Shōjo manga was created by men in its early stages, and as a result often featured a sexist ideal of a Japanese female: subservient, docile, one who aims to fulfill her household duties, and more importantly, nonthreatening. Yet, as the 1980s progressed, manga comics depicted women joining the men in their fights. . Cute But Deadly, Shiokawa believed such a combination prevailed because it appeals to both genders; it provides a strong role model for girls, without intimidating the boys. Sailor Moon reiterates Shiokawa’s ‘cute but deadly’ persona, as the protagonist Usagi Tsukino, after discovering her true identity as the titular character from the magical cat Luna, fights to protect the Earth from the Dark Kingdom. As Usagi matures within the story, she becomes one of the universe's most powerful warriors and protects her adopted home planet, Earth, from villains who wish to harm it. Usagi is depicted as carefree and cheerful when at ease, but quickly serious and strategic-minded when fighting.
Author Drummond-Matthews depicts how most shounen manga, and all of the genres within it, typically follow a similar plot pattern of the heroic journey (much like Homer’s The Odyssey); the call to adventure, the refusal of the call, crossing the threshold, initiation, and the return. Matthews states that to “achieve this linking of characters, goals, conflicts, and actions, the characters in manga must be considerably more developed than the average character in an American comic book”. Shounen manga, through Matthews’ lenses, allows audiences to gravitate away from conservative and common stories to a creation of new order. Matthews further contrasts Shounen to American heroes, as Japanese boys/heroes tend to appeal to audiences of all ages and demographics, are more stoic, and go through more in the initiation process of the stories. For example, in Shounen, the hero will have grown; matured, and learned something that not only enriches themselves, but enriches the world around them. While, in American comics, the stories are revolved around ‘Judeo-Christian plots, where the ‘good’ superhero fights the ‘evil’ villain, and the character is virtually the same person as they were at the beginning of the story, with not much growth experiences’. Dragon Ball Z follows the adventures of Son Goku from his childhood through adulthood as he trains in martial arts and explores the world in search of the seven orbs known as the Dragon Balls, used to summon a wish-granting dragon. I argue that Goku does not develop as much as Matthews states Manga characters cultivate within the stories, but I digress as I observe a few minor character developments within the series that I watched as a young kid. Throughout the series, Goku gradually becomes more knowledgeable and mature, even to the point where he can manipulate people (Yajirobe). On into his adulthood, there's a trend towards a more merciful, pacifistic attitude, but that's quickly traded for Goku’s title of becoming the ‘true saiyan’. After experiencing some traits of egoism, Goku gets his act together, and sacrifices himself for the good of humanity. After he comes back from the dead in the following saga, Goku contemplates about the future, and aids to cultivate the talents of the younger generation.
San is known as Princess Mononoke, the 17-year-old girl, princess of spirits and beasts. When San was a baby, the wolf goddess Moro attacked her parents. Her parents threw San to Moro as a sacrifice to save their own lives, thus escaping while Moro was preoccupied with San. Female characters have traditionally been important in Miyazaki’s works, but San is very special in comparison to his more typical heroines. San is noticeably less “cute” (kawaii) than previous Miyazaki female protagonists, who, “independent and self-possessed, provided the audience with the reassurance that these assertive young women were fundamentally feminine”. Contrarily, San is depicted as a cold-blooded fighting machine. In the first scene where she is introduced into the story, she is “clad in a costume of fur and bone, her mouth smeared with blood from sucking the wound in Moro’s side”. Napier claims that this initial experience of viewing San is ‘worth probing’, as she believes the blood and fur not only associate the character San as violent and wild, but also links a strong sense of ‘sexual, primordial’ qualities to her as well. Further, the scene where she single-handedly attempts to take on ‘Iron-Town’ alone further proves her bravery and her rage that provokes her to destroy human civilization, again in heavy divergence to Miyazaki’s other female protagonists. This scene of rebellion, and San’s attitude is also worth analyzing, as I found it very interesting that Moro as well as nature truly manipulated San into thinking that she sincerely was not a part of the human race. San, as well as the other female characters of Princess Mononoke (Eboshi and Moro) are rather gender impartial in their characterization, which is extremely contradicting of traditional Japanese society. Eboshi is a leader who concerns her business with military matters and the destruction of the ‘shishigami’, while San’s mother Moro appears to be wise and brave, as well as a ferocious killer. I discovered Moro’s talk with Ashitaka (the night he could not sleep/night before the battle) was very fascinating when perceived based off of the gender roles within Japanese society, as Moro defended her family and the position of her daughter, stating that Ashitaka should stay away from San because he will do nothing for her except bring her pain. This dialogue and warning was much like the role of a Japanese or Western father, rather than a mother.
The ending of Princess Mononoke is clearly not as triumphant as any form of American animation films, but because of this the novel is able to demonstrate realistic social issues and problems within Japanese society that continue to be viewed as present hardship. Many of the characters within Princess Mononoke, including the characters that many Western films would portray as ‘evil’ (such as Eboshi, and the representatives of the Yamato court) have a revelation defying their previous actions, and realize that they were in fact wrong. For example, the representative of the Yamato court, who wanted the shishigami head to give to the emperor, comprehended that uniting nature with human society was the correct thing to do and defying that relationship would come with dire consequences.
Mononoke takes a darker, more realistic look at topics of industrialization and other societal issues. As Napier dissects the endings of Disney stories such as Tarzan, she observes that the characters are very one-dimensional in their stories, such as Tarzan’s antagonist. Unlike this one-dimensional structure, Eboshi is depicted with more motivation and reason to her actions, rather than simply greed and stupidity, Eboshi has obligations to protect her city, “Iron Town’ and cater to people she genuinely cares for (whether by protecting them from San, the wolves, or the powers of nature, defending the city and its’ inhabitats with iron, or providing enough sustenance i.e. rice for the citizens). In Ashitaka and San’s farewell to each other, the film depicts how the two challenge their love for each other to stand up for what is important to them, and to defend what they believe in. This provides a realization that the world is much more complex than how it may be in other films with happier endings to love stories. Even at the resolution of the story, Ashitaka, who was in opposition of Eboshi during the climax of the story is willing to redesign and cater to Eboshi and her town after she nearly destroyed the world, further verifies how these characters are created with more components, making more realistic scenarios when compared to Disney films and their ‘happily ever-after’ endings. Thus, Mononoke takes a darker, more realistic look at topics of industrialization and societal issues.