Following the Heroine: Harmful Representation in Shoujo Anime
Figuring out the dating world by yourself is hard enough, so why does anime make it even harder?
BY: MAIDAH AFZAL
Promotional material for Ouran High School Host Club / Still courtesy of Netflix
TW: mentions of sexual abuse/harrassment, abusive relationships
As an awkward yet extroverted girl just entering high school, I have always had a special interest in love. Growing up in a household where we never spoke about romance, even that of my parents, love always held a grasp on my mind. What was it like to be in a relationship, anyways? But most importantly, why the hell did I want to be in one so badly?
One of the most memorable introductions to romance was through the infamous Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park, at the age of 6. We’d find our title character’s admirer fluctuating between teasing and gushing over her, which led to me romanticizing the kindergarten boyfriend I never had. It didn’t help that I’d upgrade to the Candy Apple books, where I would get a taste of the boy-next-door trope paired with the classic clumsy girl protagonist.
As I kept reading, I found common acts of love that were widespread in all these books. Through all my reading, however, I was unable to truly fit myself as the main character, who awed at the bouquet of roses gifted at prom or who would bat their eyes at the boys on the football team. My infatuation with the idea of love had thus been hit with extreme feelings of anxiety and troubling thoughts of potentially never fitting in. Then, unfortunately for me and all my future relationships there on, I stumbled across shōjo anime.
Originating in Japan, Shōjo anime (which directly translates to “girl” or “young woman”) are Japanese animations directed towards young teen girls. While the genre can vary, the common focus of these shows is the protagonist’s romantic relationship, and their emotions dwelling on it. It usually involves the classic love-at-first-sight trope; two people who are destined to be together end up with problems holding them back. Although it is a term that falls under the umbrella of anime tailored for a specific demographic (such as shonen anime, directed towards young men), I found the term to be more pronounced in relation to the others due to the uniformity of their respective plots.
Their promotion is in addition self-marketed by viewers. For example, by scrolling too long on TikTok, you would be exposed to corny, niche jokes about common tropes in shōjo anime.
Misaki Ayuzawa (left) with Usui Takumi (right) / Still from Maid Sama!
The increasing exposure to shojo anime on platforms targeted towards younger children led to pre-teen Maidah first discovering it on YouTube on an uneventful, summer day. Allured by the cutesy-animated characters surrounded by pink petals and glittering backgrounds, I fell for the trap and decided to click on what looked like two teens posed on the cover of one of my romance novels.
Man, was it a shock. Maid Sama!, released by the J.C. Staff studio and published by Tokyopop and Viz Media, features Misaki Ayuzawa, a high school president at a school that has recently become co-ed. As is typical for shojo, we also meet the love interest, Usui Takumi, a blonde haired, green-eyed senior who’s lack of interest in women (or anything in general) comes across as cool and mature in a rowdy school of “indecent men.” He becomes infatuated with Misaki after seeing her come out of a maid cosplay cafe, where she requests his secrecy only to be surprised by a sudden obsessive fascination with her. After 26 episodes of watching Misaki reject Usui’s advances, she finally admits to having a crush on him all along.
Now, analyzing the relationship itself is what takes me aback. Rewatching this show in my adult life was probably the worst mistake I could have made. While superficially presented as a protective, willful man loving a girl who’s exclusively interested in her work, the blatant sexual assault that comes across in many shojo’s is constantly framed as “romantic” and detracts from the story of a potentially female-empowering heroine. What I hadn’t noticed before was blaringly obvious now, where moments of lifting up skirts to make a snarky comment actually wasn’t flattering or complimentary.
Maid Sama! holds countless moments where the heroine loses her own morals at the hands of feeling inferior to her male counterpart. Getting flustered by the fact that a man was able to ward off other men by stating he “owns her” isn’t an appropriate reaction when trying to teach young women that you don’t need a man to have value or reason to reject others. The show pushes the old ideology of women being submissive to men, which my younger self definitely partook on. As a woman that has been in and has heard of situations similar to this, it isn’t something to romanticize and fantasize about. Producing content like this just further allows predatory acts to become normalized in an increasingly dangerous world.
Rather than providing a strong, healthy relationship, where both partners are on equal grounds for communication, trust, honesty, and overall comfort in being in each other’s presence, this harmful representation ends up becoming the norm in the growing market of romance anime.
Returning to Maid Sama!, though Misaki is clearly uninterested, Usui ignores her rejections and does what he wants anyways. Unfortunately, the extreme popularity that Maid Sama! has can be the result of his physical allure, which is amplified through the intensity of women’s reactions when seeing him. When young audiences see the superficiality in this and bandwagon off of it, they begin to let go of his accountability by deeming him “hot,” and therefore relieved of any problems.
The background characters are no help either, when every moment of uncomfortable touching that Misaki suffers through is accompanied with squeals of jealousy and the animated “flowers of moe” appearing to mystify every interaction between the two. One scene in particular involves the forceful placement of a hickey on the lower-back of the heroine; an attempt to stop her from helping out her business on the beach in a “revealing” bikini. In my opinion, these instances of showing possessiveness in the show further pushes the normalization of sexual assault and abusive relationships.
There was no consent provided, and his lack of faith in her diminishes any trust that Usui has for Misaki. At this point they hadn’t been dating, so what levels of domination would arise when they actually did? 13-year-old me would have thought it romantic to have a man even consider me this “important” to him, which troubles the 21-year old me in the present. If my favorite anime character says it’s okay, then it is.
Shouta Kazehaya (left) with Sawako Kuronuma (right) / Still from Kimi ni Todoki
That being said, it is important to note the positive effect of a strong, female lead in anime, especially for those who are entering the stages of adulthood and are susceptible to the impact of the internet. While I watched Misaki, there were instances in my high school life that I can honestly say were based on how she would handle things. Much of it was her desire to do well in school, which I can wholeheartedly say is one of the reasons for me even being in university to this day. But again, showing these strong female leads falling into situations of abuse in a romanticized nature detracts from their strength as a female character.
Admiring Misaki so badly and wanting to replicate her personality in my day-to-day life had led me to believe that this was the norm, which would impact my dating experience in high school. Approaching boys held a new standard now: the exaggeration of love-at-first-sight was now instilled into my brain. Unrealistic standards were in place, having to rely on 85 percent looks and 15 percent personality, and by the time I had fallen into a relationship, I was incapable of actually following through on my half of the bargain.
I had done the hefty work; presuming the studious, unattainable personality in class, being too shy to put out any moves, and eventually agreeing to date. I had left all the balls in their court by expecting everything to have been done for me, from creating dates to the most basic, hand-holding sessions.
Eventually, this distancing led to our breakup and several months of self-reflection of what I had done. Where did the confidence go? Well, upon a recent rewatch of this anime with my current boyfriend, I had come to the realization of just how much the characters had impacted my withdrawal from love. I had expected a lot in my high school romances, which inevitably led me nowhere.
Rather than walking up to people and actually asking them out, it would be a six to eight month hassle of acting as flamboyant as Misaki was; playing the intense student that would inevitably find the one man who would see past my academia persona and find attraction behind that. The reliance I had back then on how relationships should be carried out was fully dependent on what I had seen through the media, including other shōjo anime such as Ouran High School Host Club. Among these stories, a lot of it adds to the subliminal fantasy of powerful women becoming submissive to other men of power, which derails away from what years of protesting for women’s rights have given us.
In addition to this, we also see sexism from both ends, where we see Misaki acting out of judgement of characters solely for being male, and therefore giving them no benefit of the doubt but rather dominating them with an iron fist. Again, as she acts this way towards Usui, there is no sympathy or power balance between the two, which teaches children that this is the norm and there will always be this level of submission and domination in order to hold a fulfilling relationship. In the end, I’ve had my years of single-living and learned to love myself and what to expect out of relationships.
Though I do partake in a good anime once in a while, I’m at a stage in my maturity where it won’t be as detrimental to my learning experience as it would have been before. Hence, though nearly impossible to implement, if the content were to continue being produced and marketed, it should hold sincere warnings or restrictions to those under the demographic age. In moderation and taking the content with a grain of salt, these shows do still contain some worthy aspects such as a strong female lead that does as she deems right.
The widespread popularity these shows held throughout the years can make a beneficial impact on the future of media and who the public wants represented, such as these young women doing the best for their communities. Overall, though I do find the faults outweigh the benefits, it’s important to point out the progressive characters at the time of male-dominated shows.