By: Alex Yang
Recently, there has been a growing amount of people in America looking for female protagonists and a more true-to-life depiction of women in films. But what’s been overlooked by many is that Japanese animators have been creating unforgettable heroines for decades. They have common faults and weaknesses along with their strengths, a balance that many American writers fail to achieve.
A great example of this writing is found in Suzu in Mamoru Hosada’s Belle. In this breathtaking movie, Suzu, like many teenagers today, has a life online that overshadows her life in person. Her alter ego, Belle, is a famous singer in the digital world called U , while in real life, Suzu is an introverted high school student.
Her music also tells her story by showing her pain and sadness after her mother’s death while saving a drowning child from a river. Suzu misses her but is also mad at her for sacrificing herself for someone they don’t know. Suzu even went on to stop singing because it was something her mother encouraged her to do.
In a video call, Hosada said that “when you think of animation and female leads, you always go to the fairy tale tropes.,” Belle, for instance, was based on the lead character with the same name in Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ But Suzu displays emotions and depth unlike what is often portrayed in Disney films. American heroines experience emotions less deep and complicated than Suzu. For example, protagonists like Jasmine never mention their dead parents, which is the opposite of what Suzu does.
Another huge difference between Belle and her Disney counterpart is the portrayal of the villain, in Beauty and The Beast, the villain is a cursed prince, while the villain for Belle is an abused teenager that tries to protect his younger brother from their father.
This difference is shown in countless other animated movies, such as Shinkai’s Your Name which portrays the trauma that many Japanese citizens still feel about the 2011 tsunami. Another great example is Miyazaki’s award-winning Spirited Away which differs from other entertainment sources that young girls are offered in Japan. “I wanted the main character to be a typical girl in whom a 10-year-old could recognize herself,” said Miyazaki in an interview.
This all goes to show that we should be learning from the Japanese animators [SF4] and creating characters that have ties to the real world, have a balance of faults and strengths, along with good character development, realistic problems, and stories that can go deeper than many of the sources of entertainment found now.
Link:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656284719014x984517939433084800/For%20the%20Most%20Complex%20Heroines%20in%20Animation%2C%20Look%20to%20Japan%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf