By: Grace Zhang
The top Japanese animators have been creating heroines who are more detailed and complicated than the majority of their American counterparts. These are characters that filmmakers believe in; they have both weaknesses and talents.
In Mamoru Hosoda’s “Belle,” A teenager named Suzu has a life online that appears to overpower her daily existence. Her alter ego or profile is the reigning pop diva of the cyber world of U. Off-screen, Suzu is an introverted high school student. Her music looks over the love and trouble she has gone through, especially since her mother died. Her mother drowned while saving a child whom name she did not know. Suzu is angry that her mother sacrificed her life and even decided to abandon her innate musical talents just because her mother encouraged them. American heroines may show regret and longing for a missing loved one, but not emotions that go further down.
Hosoda said he believed a major shift occurred in animation when the Disney artists made Belle a more independent, intelligent, and contemporary young woman than her predecessors. “When you think of animation and female leads, you always go to the fairy tale trope. But they really broke that template: It felt very new. Similarly, what we tried to do in ‘Belle’ is not build a character, but build a person: someone who reflects the society in which we live.
Because Japanese animations and made by smaller teams; therefore on a smaller budget than American films, the film director can be more open and express more personal visions. Hosoda, Hayao Miyazaki, Makato Shinkai, and many more Japanese directors come up with the entire film themselves. American studios hire story crews to write the story.
The increasing fame toward complex heroines isn’t new with anime. “Spirited Away” by Miyazaki won an Oscar. He said through a translator, “I wanted the main character to be a typical girl in whom a 10 year-old could recognize herself. She couldn’t be someone extraordinary, but an everyday, real person – even though this type of person is harder to create.”
Despite almost all Japanese directors being male, more women have recently been moving into higher roles as writers, producers, musicians, etc. Their contributions are affecting the way girls are showcased onscreen.