week6- What is the ‘shojo’ and how does it often function in anime?

What is the ‘shojo’ and how does it often function in anime?

I have a lot of interests in movies and animations. Personally, if someone asks me what the first thing that pops to my mind is when I think of the feature of Japanese animation, I would say it is a ‘shojo’, a Japanese word which means girls in English.

Now looking back on Japanese animations I have watched, most of them have a young girl in early age of 5 -18 as the main character. Especially, Hayao Miyazak, who is the most famous animation director in the world and my favorite director, also presents young women. He presented a kid that seems to have just begun going to primary school as the main character on My Neighbor Totoro. As well as the My Neighbor Totoro, the rule of using girls applies to many of his other works.

Why do animation directors use girls in their animation for the main character? How does it often function in anime?

I think it is easy to make stories based on a character that has unstained innocence and liberty. The character has unstained innocence and liberty is a girl, called ‘Shojo’.

I think that is why many directors prefer a young woman because of purity and freedom that the features of young women character have in animation. There were some restrictions on man`s life like dress, behavior and formality. It is as if a man wears a dress for women and put on a heavy make-up, other people might think he would be a gay and looks like a freak. Like that, a girl character has more flexibilities and liberty of a scope of behavior and formality to express a various characters and situations. Of course, many restrictions in woman`s life existed in the past. Because of this flexibility and liberty, woman characters are expressed as various characters like Mulan which was based on an old story that women dress up as a man and go to a war.

Furthermore, when a director uses a girl character, feelings in animation is expressed easily, variously, widely and more abundantly. And, the director is able to keep pure emotions and last it longer. I think purity is only expressed by females, especially young woman. One of representative examples is Hayao Miyazaki. He presents the girl in My Neighbor Totoro and appeals to audiences about the importance of nature by using purity of children. So the audiences could understand the director’s purpose without any repulsion.    

Also, in The Princess Mononoke, the princess is a young lady and looks adolescent just under 20 years old. I think this period is the time when person has both innocence and maturity. So, due to this advantage, a message about reckless destruction of nature by human being, and the process that the princess is opening her eyes to other cultures and love could be effectively engaging to audience.

Reference

Mulan [Photograph]. (1988). Retrieved September 21, 2012, from http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mulan/
 
Hayao miyazaki [Photograph]. (2009). Retrieved September 21, 2012, from http://geekinthemovietheater.blogspot.co.nz/2009/07/limelight-hayao-miyazaki.html