If Maid-sama was maid today, Misaki would be a much more tamed tsundere. Violent tsunderes like Misaki and Taiga (from Toradora) are looked down on now for hitting the love interests. I think the reason many of us who didn’t mind it is because we grew up in a time with cartoons like bugs bunny and Tom and Jerry where they are always harming each other for fun so we don’t see it as much of a big deal compared to youths who grew up with different style of cartoons and anime.
What I wish more of the Villainess stories stole from Bakarina was *the lesbianism.* Katarina was a bisexual disaster and it was amazing, though the stories eventually did some weird ass shit. So far I can only think of one other story that instead went for a gay MC, although that MC didn't technically become the villainess, but rather the heroine, because she was in love with the villainess... but that story also pulls some ABSOLUTE NONSENSE in it's final two books, spoiling the enjoyment of the first four, despite those four books being excellent.
That's why I loved "Tokyo Crazy paradise" and Tsukasa!it's my all time fv shoujo. Her character was pretty tomboy & story as well as event were centralised towards the mafia/police (since she was from police bg while ML was mafia Heir) more rather then the romance element. PS: it's also by yoshiki nakamura
These videos are amazing, both this and about Eva's family. It never crossed my mind to think of Natsuhi as Lady Macbeth, but... holy shit. Yeah. I really love how you pace your essays - your writing's got swerve. Honestly, the first 8 minutes and the bit on Ange's viewpoint would've sold me on Umineko if I wasn't a fan already. I think these are my favorite umineko essays so far...
You're wrong about Kamisama Kiss. Tomoe doesn't invite her to live with him. She has nowhere to go so the God of that shrine Mikage (who knows that she is important in the future thanks to her telling him in the past thanks to time-travel) bestows upon her his mark on her forehead so she can be the new God and tells her she can live at his shrine. Which is where she meets Tomoe who is Mikage's familiar, and he doesn't much like or want her around and basically ignores her. But later when she's in danger of being killed SHE kisses HIM and creates a contract (because the other house spirits told her how) so it actually meant he had to do what she said not the other way around.
Theres so much wrong in this video. Why is it a problem to be a hard worker or to make the household as a woman? There is no problem if the women want to do it on their own. It is a problem if women are forced to do it. In neither Kamimashita, nor in Furuba, or Skip Beat, or Maid-sama is the female protagonist forced to do it through their love interest. You have to keep in mind that they are coming from a different cultural background. What you are doing is putting everything out of context and saying more or less: "These aren't my values" and "females have to be strong and independent and may not have traditional feminine traits or ideas like marrying" so "it's bad". That's bollocks. These women/girl characters have so many good qualities! Toru may seem naive and she doesn't have the best grades but she is mentally so strong and she's courageous. She's not someone who runs away, she faces the biggest hardships and works on them. And we should not forget to mention Hanajima and Uotani. Also to very strong female characters in Furuba. The same goes for Kyoko, Misaki, Haruhi and Nanami. They are faithful, strong, independent, loyal, trustworthy and so much more. Relying on help (having the chance to move in with someone/taking a chance someone offers them) is not making them any less independent. They all would have found their way alone if they had to, but they took the chances they got. It's a strength to know which chances you should take. Toru actually lived in a tent because she didn't want to be a burden to her distant relatives, but she had the chance that someone helped her and she took it. She made the household because she didn't want to live there rent free and because the guys are not very talented in it. It's not about "a female can only good enough for the household" it's about learing each others talents and using them wisely while living together.
You revealed the various strategies used to create the stories about girls whileholding fast to the wider conservative Japanese cultural norms If not having music helps your content and arguments by "taking away the safety net" then try it... because this is great stuff
Sincerely I don't mind Erika, but I hate "the black prince" don't even remember his name, my mind just blanked it. That's how much I despise his character.
The first villianess genre that I read that TRUELY portrayed a villain set out for revenge and not just a misguided pumpous brat was the villianess turns the hour glass. That story hooked me in from the get go!!
I honestly don’t know why i never got into skip beat tbh , but i ate up Chibi vampire, angel beat, peach girl, say i love you and most of the ones you named in the video
I think I dropped the Skip Beat manga around the time Kyoko finally confronted her mother? not for that reason but more like the story had started to drag more and more for me bc of the focus on Ren's weird angst and Kyoko acting less and less feisty, oh and also bc there had become less focus on the acting stuff. My favorite part of Skip Beat was always seeing Kyoko go through her whole method acting process, taking on different types of roles, the relationship drama was fukken boring to me I don't think it was as bad as I make it sound, if I didn't have other media that was better at keeping my attention then I probably would've kept following it
As someone who loved Ouran even though I wasn't a huge Haruhi fan, I can vouch for the importance of there being more to the shoujo than the romance. I was able to enjoy Ouran in spite of not being into Haruhi's love life and main couple at all, or even caring much about Haruhi because the show was enjoyable beyond that. I will mention that that while I personally have always found Haruhi boring, I was able to understand recently how relevant she is a female lead, especially as you mentioned because of the trans implications. I'm not surprised I wasn't able to get this because as I am cis so I hadn't really considered that angle until recently. But back to the shoujo stories not being solely about the romance, you only need to look at how much shipping happens outside of shoujo, in male oriented media even to realize that female (and queer) audiences often enjoy their romance more when it's not the end all be all of the plot. When it's complimentary to some other plot, when we can derive romantic meaning and development from non romantic subplots even.
You mentioning Tohrui's friends reminds me of how much I appreciate the portrayal of female camaderie and friendship in shoujo, and not just romance. On their own, female leads like Tohru and Sawako don't feel like the strongest or most progressive female models, but the fact that their stories give space and weight to their bonds with their female friends does a lot to make them relatable and avoid saturating the story with just romance and focus on the male lead. It gives them and the story more depth too, making it more appealing to the female experience.
Once again, I also share your dislike for Dengeki Daisy, and while I am quite flexible with the problematic aspects of shoujo, understanding they're products of a different culture and even time, I can acknowledge now I was also rubbed the wrong way by the power imbalance and age difference.
I also couldn't enjoy Maid-sama. For me it was very hard to find those two compatible. I didn't find it believable that a girl like Misaki, who is frame as a very smart, overachieving, ambitious and feministic model, would fall for a guy like Takumi. The hickey was also off-putting for me. A problem I often have with shoujo is that I feel like the authors and the narrative don't treat the female lead as an actual character and lead, but just a means for self-insertion for the audience and hence any characterization can be relegated for the purpose of getting with the love interest. It doesn't matter if Misaki wouldn't make sense with a guy like Takumi, or if the female lead has other romantic interest she may like, because the guy that will win is the one THE AUDIENCE likes. Misaki will fall for Takumi because Takumi is designed for the audience to want him. It often feels like despite being female lead media for female audiences, the true protagonist, the one the narrative wants us to root for is THE GUY. And I'm not saying I never support the male love interest, but if I do so, it's not at the expense of the heroine. Otherwise, why the hell would I root for this hot guy (because yeah I can still admit and appreciate the attractiveness of the male character) over the heroine (assuming I don't have something against her)? I think the only way that works is because we're expected to root for the guy because we ourselves want him, what makes sense for the heroine be damned.
I remember Maid-sama being popular when I was young, but never got around to it. I never got to watch until the pandemic, when I was an adult. I've watched such bland anime that didn't even care for it's own plot.
Great video and sooo many points that I agree with, but I think your voice could sound a little less monotone or less like the feeling that you're reading a script so it can engage the audience more. Growing up, I think some of the shoujo protagonists did well in serving as a person to look up too, but in other regards they just weren't as relatable because they either didn't have any flaws or they had "flaws" that didn't exactly serve as flaws. I don't think Wolf Girl and Black Prince was a necessarily good shoujo since Kyoya was pretty toxic, but I enjoyed having a female protag who wasn't an entirely selfless or kind person (i.e it wasn't their only character trait). I hope to see more female protagonists that are flawed or actual villains in the future. There are a few villainess manhwa that break this mold though.
Very interesting video! Skip Beat is my favorite shoujo manga of all times! I read/watched most anime and manga featured in the video, and I remember looking back and remembering how... Problematic most of them were 😅 Didnt make tennager me like them any less, but I understood some of those boys were walking red flags But sorry, I had to mention this... As a non native english speaker, this was quite hard to follow, your voice was very sore and it made it quite dificult to understand what you were saying in some parts...
There’s never really a real balance in anything in life. Ppl are generally stuck… whether in jobs they don’t like cz they need money, or relationships that aren’t necessarily great. I think that’s what makes a plot exciting and relatable. No one wants a perfect couple, a perfect life or a perfect plot. There’s no such thing anyway. And Ppl aren’t black and white, characters should be three dimensional, it’s not always green or red flag. Kyoko is a great character and I love Skip Beat! Always have! But you can’t compare Skip Beat and Ouran or even Maid sama. Skip beat is just another level altogether. It’s special. I wish we had more anime like Skip Beat. I’ve been waiting for years hoping for a second season. But going back to the other anime you mentioned. Tbh, I’ve always viewed Haruhi from Ouran as independent and just a character that doesn’t give a crap. She can just walk away, but stayed cz she’s got nothing better to do. To me, the debt was always a comical aspect rather than something to take so seriously. Ouran isn’t a show like that. It’s light-hearted and funny. And not meant to be analyzed from a “blackmailing” and “power imbalance” perspective. You mentioned Maid sama and the scene where Usui brought the photos to school and Misaki was distressed. You need to keep in mind that these are high school students. Ppl make mistakes and grow from them. No one is perfect in the real world and as such, characters in stories shouldn’t be either. Otherwise, ppl will find them boring cz no growth and no development. They’re just perfect and amazing. I think there are plenty of trash romance shows coming out today that deserve this kind of criticism (example: A girl and her guard dog ) but not the good old shows. Not every show is gonna be amazingly done like Skip Beat. But I still love and appreciate Ouran and Maid sama and surprisingly Dengeky Daisy (I looooved this manga when I was a teen).
What I dislike about the stereo typical heroine is that they almost always write them as perfect. They are always calm, always kind, can never get angry, can not stand up for them selves, they cant think too critically and they can never do anything immoral. For me I don't feel like they are written as a 3D character. But nozaki, which is unfortunately not a shoujo with chiyo has one of the best written characters in all of anime for me. In reality I am more like Tohru than chiyo, but because chiyo is written with so much personality I can relate to her more. She is funny, dramatic, bold, imaginative yet gets grounded back into reality, hard working, passionate, stupid, girly and cute.
