What is the ‘Shōjo’ and how does it often function in anime?
Shōjo in Japanese means ‘little girl’ it is also a type genre in anime and manga which focuses on romantic relationships and personal ones Shōjo mainly has a target audience of young girls because of how much it romanticizes a young girls life. Shōjo rose to popularity in the late 90s it is seen to have this stigma of female pureness, virginity, vulnerability, romanticism and nostalgia” (Berndt, Nagaiki, Ogi, 2019). Which means that Shōjo characters can be sexualized, unlike the male protagonists which are shown to be protective dominant and masculine males which are shown to be idealized in for the younger girls in Shōjo anime.
Shōjo has evolved throughout the year’s directors such as, Hayao Miyazaki who is a famous anime director who created anime movies such as ‘Spirited Away (2001)’, My Neighbor TOTORO (1988) and Princess Mononoke (1997) proves that Shōjo can be more than just romanticism and fragile girls that need to be protected by boy/men his work portrays girls as being strong independent protagonists that don’t need protection. His work admired and appreciated because of the themes of environmentalism, pacifism, family, love and feminism for example in his anime film ‘Princess Mononoke’ all of these themes can be seen through the character Ashitaka who does not intend on going to war against humankind and believes in peace much like another anime he directed Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds (1984) where the character Nausicaä also possess the same pacifism and many other qualities as Ashitaka making the themes consistent with Miyazaki’s work. Miyazaki’s work is seen to empower women to be self- efficient and not having the need to have a saviour which makes his work different according to Cavallaro (2006) said that “while the average shōjo is portrayed as a passive being suspended in something of a timeless dreamland”. Which means that directors such as Hayao Miyazaki have their own interpretation of Shōjo and how they convey it to their target audience and it isn’t necessary to coney Shōjo to be sexualised or romanticized but can also be shown Shōjo to empower girls/women that can fend for themselves making Shōjo an important part of anime function.
References:
Mountfort, P. (2020). Pop genres week 5 anime 2 part 1 [PowerPoint Slides]. Blackboard. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/
Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction. In the Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki (pp.5-13). London: McFarland & Company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki
Pop Genres 2020 