Anime and manga were my first real hobbies. When I bought these comics I was convinced that not only would I never get tired of them, but I would want to pass them on to my children. As I've gotten older my feminist awareness has increased and there are few titles I would want any daughters to read.
Common themes in shoujo manga: love triangles, peer bullying, nice but dumb-as-bricks girls. Not that these aren't real issues, but holy crap are these girls abused. As the storyline progresses they have to keep outdoing themselves with the dramatics.
In Hot Gimmick, the main character is characterized as being timid, easily manipulated, and having low self-esteem. She is bullied, blackmailed, and sexually harassed by the rich son of her dad's boss. Her happy ending is at the end of it all she gets to be with that asshole.
Peach Girl starts off benign enough when another girl buys a handbag the main character likes after telling her that it was ugly the day before. Later on in the series the same girl has her kidnapped and tries to set her up to get raped. For no reason other than she is jealous.
I would read Hana Yori Dango again but the abuse Makino takes is just as bad. She is kidnapped, beaten, locked up, and finally ends up with one of the biggest abusers of all (she just happened to bring out his softer side). She gets some credit for being plucky and standing up for herself.
Othello is a cute shoujo manga about a girl with a split personality. Normally she is a timid and unassuming girl, a target for the school bullies. One day she is hit on the head during a session of teasing and her other half comes out for the first time: a tough, no-nonsense girl who wants justice. Not as bad as the other titles, her alter-ego deserves a series of her own.
Status: Dibbed
Oh, I liked this series, so I would not mind at all having it :3 Let me know how much I should send along to you for shipping, ne~
ReplyDeleteWill do :)
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