On the beauty of Magical Girl shows...except with my word vomit wandering elsewhere

Feb 24, 2013 13:18

I'm currently sloooowly working on a Legally Blonde: The Musical post, so in the mean-time, have THE BEST ESSAY ON THE MAGICAL GIRL GENRE EVER, from Tumblr.

On the importance of Magical Girl Heroines & Weaponized Femininity

Although, as always, I have my own questions about if a piece of media's transformative power can be diminished by the way it is consumed. While the likes of Nanoha, Madoka, PreCure, and Sailor Moon undoubtedly have a good female following, (one only has to look at the self-proclaimed otaku members of the 48 franchise) what about the...trashier...Mai Hime/Mai Otome? Mai Hime in particular deals with the same issues as Madoka Magica, and the execution of the episodes dealing with those issues are just about as good, but Mai Hime is also swamped in trashy fan-service that waters down the progressive messages, and it shows in how it's not hailed as one of the great magical girl shows, and isn't even that well known in the anime sphere compared to SM and Madoka Magica.

(Jury's kind of out as to how popular Nanoha really is internationally. It's definitely not on the level of SM and Madoka, though, the latter having so much more hype that reaches people who don't normally watch magical girl shows. Both Nanoha and Mai Hime arguably didn't reach those outside audiences due to how ultimately optimistic they were, whereas Madoka WENT THERE every time, and so gained Evangelion levels of infamy. Meanwhile, most have heard of Utena and agree with the acclaim, but haven't actually watched it due to the length of the series and all of the stock footage/formulaic parts padding out the time. Utena is like the majority of "classic" literature. XD)

Rinne is even less well known, and wasn't popular in Japan, much less overseas, which was why season 2 took such a hit in quality, which didn't help things at all. But it definitely didn't attract much of a female following, and does that make the show into just more fodder for the male gaze, or does its overall progressive content override that?

And on the other side, there are shows that are explicitly fanservice-driven, but also act like the fanservice is in isolation, and otherwise have well-developed plots and characters. See Strike Witches and Vividred Operation, and many a viewer have been skeeved out by all of the panty shots and pedo-voyeur tones of said shots, and can't take any more of it EVEN IF the rest of the show could be considered as good. If the shows are indeed well-written OTHER than the fanservice, should they be given a second chance, like Mai Hime, or should there be a movement to remove unnecessary things that hinder perception of the progressive elements? Take for example the Battle Royale manga, which is just complete trash, and turns the original warning tale into torture-porn. And even while the film version of Battle Royale is a good film, arguably the reason why The Hunger Games has gained more mainstream recognition, including its film, is because The Hunger Games trim the fat and don't faff around with the camp elements and tone-breaking comedic bits. (And with better actors) (The Hunger Games has humor, but said humor is embedded in a way that doesn't change the tone of the scenes from making their contribution to the overall message. Some of Battle Royale's do.) Again, like Mai Hime vs. Madoka Magica.

I can just go on and on about this.

But on the other other hand, there is a matter of intent to consider. Legend of the Seeker may have not had the popularity it needed to make up for its money problems because it was a light-hearted fluff show, never taking its fantasy premise too seriously to poke fun at its own campy elements. It is not a Game of Thrones. And it never had the acclaim that Game of Thrones had. But I don't want to watch Game of Thrones. I want to enjoy my fluffy LoTS. Is that different from the people who enjoy Strike Witches and Vividred Operation despite/for more than its fanservice? We don't have to condemn everything that's problematic, after all, if they have merit, and aren't going for acclaim in the first place. And I don't need idols to be progressive 24/7 to enjoy them. Their progressive moments are just icing on the cake.

And yet, being complacent won't help either. Is not condemning the likes of Strike Witches ultimately supporting the system that produces the male gaze driven parts I cringe at?

How does one support the beautiful idol system without also supporting the terrible purity system, or the way idols often promote problematic aesthetics and gender roles as well? The economic drive of everything makes it pretty much all or nothing situation, and has affected the anime industry in that direction as well.

argument, *meta, *tv show, *book, *text only, *anime, *film, *fandom

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