Have you ever heard of anime? If not, you may be surprised to hear that it is the world's third most popular sub-genre of media. The term “anime” describes Japanese animated media and is typically split into five popular genres: Shoujo (young girl), Seinen (adult men), Josei (adult women), Isekai (fantasy), and Shonen (young boy). Since I joined this fanbase in 2019, I have watched a lot of anime, recruited my dad to watch anime and read more manga (Japanese comics) than I can count.

As a non-man consuming anime, it's impossible to ignore a common similarity among these shows – poorly written female characters. Across genres of anime, the worst cases are typically in Shonen (young/boyish) media. Most popular anime falls into the Shonen category and involves high action, dramatic fight scenes, and an underdog main character. Typically, this underdog miraculously has a beautiful woman fawning over him despite her being immensely more attractive. This character is often overlooked, over-sexualized, and under-appreciated, even though her skill level is on par, if not higher, than the main male character.

Watching women written this way in such a widespread media nearly turned me away, and while there are a few rare gems, I couldn’t ignore this prevalent issue.

The Seven Deadly Sins

The Seven Deadly Sins is either the best Shonen anime to start with or the worst. As one of my starter anime series, I watched more of this than I should have. The first piece of information I must share is that I watched this with my dad. Don’t make the same mistake I did.

The Seven Deadly Sins focuses on seven main characters based on one of the seven deadly sins – pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. The main protagonist, Meliodas, the sin of Wrath, meets the female protagonist, Elizabeth Liones when she seeks his help to take back her family’s Kingdom of Liones. This all sounds good until you get to the second and third seasons and wonder why none of the female characters are given any depth. Elizabeth, for example, is the Princess of Liones and the reincarnation of a powerful supreme deity’s daughter, but for some reason needs to be saved in every fight she is given.

Elizabeth Liones

Elizabeth is 16 years old and has a well-written backstory, but she tends to be viewed only as an object for Meliodas to grope whenever he sees her (literally). Her first outfit is a waitress uniform from the pub she worked at, and even though she’s a princess, she is never seen in royal garb. Despite being a minor, the writer chose to have her dressed in a mini skirt with thigh-high stockings and a cropped sleeveless shirt that is very form-fitting around her chest– a fact Meliodas never lets the viewer forget. His character is creepy, and the age gap (since he is over 3,000 years old) is completely inappropriate.

Later in the show, the writers also decided to add that Meliodas met Elizabeth for the first time when she was a baby, making his future groping and attraction to her even more disgusting. When I look back on my experience watching The Seven Deadly Sins, it is impossible to ignore my anger at the wasted potential of Elizabeth’s character. Elizabeth Liones should’ve been allowed to become the powerful Queen of Liones she was meant to be.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Now, this is an anime to watch with your dad. This show is the perfect mix of funny playfulness, mature themes, and well-written characters. Many of the primary characters are women, and every single one is well-written – a detail most likely credited to its female writer, Hiromu Arakawa.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood follows two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, as they search for the Philosopher’s Stone to restore their bodies after alchemy (the power system of the anime) inflicted injuries on them. Thanks to the main female protagonist, Winry Rockbell, a mechanical repair specialist, Edward’s lost limbs were restored with the use of automail, an advanced prosthetic. Unfortunately, most anime with a trio of two guys and one girl often makes the woman feel like an emotional support character, solely written to further the character development of the men. To my surprise, Winry is never portrayed as any less important or skilled than the Elric brothers.

Winry Rockbell

Winry designs and maintains Edward’s prosthetics to support the Elric brothers, continuously upgrading and repairing them after his battles. This role provides her with a vital role in the story, as the Elric brothers can’t physically continue fighting without her mechanical input. At the same time, she retains her separate career working as a mechanical repair specialist and a training surgeon. Winry carries all these skills -- keep in mind -- at only 15-16 years old at the beginning of the anime.

To add to her depth, Winry is also provided with an age-accurate wardrobe. While she is working, she wears beige overalls with a black tube top. Some could argue that her tube top is a bit revealing for her age, but it never alerted any red flags for me. Winry works at home and is only visited by Edward or Alphonse. If I was sweating from my mechanic work, I would also wear a tube top, especially if my writers never sexualized me. Winry Rockbell is a perfect example of a well-written female character who remains strong while maintaining her femininity and bubbly personality.

Death Note

Death Note follows male protagonist Light Yagami, who discovers a mysterious notebook titled “Death Note.” Inside the cover, it reads that anyone whose name is written on the pages will die if the writer knows the person’s face. After a Shinigami (Japanese death spirit) named Ryuk appears, Light learns that the Death Note once belonged to him and starts using it to kill anyone he deems immoral.

A couple of episodes into the series, model, actress, and leading female protagonist Misa Amane is introduced. Similarly to Light, she receives a Death Note from a Shinigami named Rem. Eager to learn the real name of “Kira” (the name given to Light once the killing starts), Misa makes a deal with Rem for the Shinigami eyes, which reveals the name of anyone she sees at the cost of half of her lifespan with every use. After tracking down Light, Misa immediately falls obsessively in love with him.

Misa Amane

The beginning of the series convinces the viewer that Misa will be a very pivotal character in the plot. However, the writers seemed to forget about her character and toss her to the side. This was disappointing because Misa was provided with a niche backstory, an age-appropriate stylish wardrobe, and an unsettling but intriguing personality. Her story had so much potential to be written in more depth, but the writers chose to make her only motivation the goal to be Light’s girlfriend.

As the season continues, the number of times Misa cuts her life in half to help Light begins to get really depressing. And the worst part is that Light doesn’t even care about her. At the end of the anime, Light has gone too far, and Ryuk writes his name in the Death Note, killing him. This could’ve been the perfect opportunity for Misa to become an independent character and figure out a new and interesting motivation. Instead – the writers have her end her own life. Her entire purpose in life was tied to Light, and with him dead, the writers gave her 5 minutes of screen time and completely wrote her out of the story. Misa Amane was just as, if not more, powerful than Light, and the writers couldn’t even grant her a main character’s death.

One Piece

It’s impossible to conduct an anime analysis without mentioning the world's most popular anime and manga series – One Piece. The hype is very much worth it, I’m afraid. I’ve never seen such thorough world-building and more in-depth character backstories in any other series, animated or live-action.

One Piece is a Shonen anime focusing on the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy on his quest to find the treasure of the late king of the pirates – the “One Piece.” To help on his journey, this rubber boy, thanks to a devil fruit (the power system of this anime), recruits crew members to form the Straw Hat Pirates.

Nami

Even though Monkey D. Luffy is the protagonist of One Piece, one of his first comrades was Nami, a thief and the future navigator of the Going Merry (their ship). At only 18 at the beginning of the series, Nami was already fighting bravely against her enemies. Her character is vivid, with a backstory that easily explains her goal of creating a map of the world. In terms of wardrobe, Nami is given a new outfit every arc, fitting the location and event that is taking place.

Image from Reddit
(pre time skip on left, post time skip on right)

For how many areas of the world are explored, it is a little strange that every single woman has the same exact body type. Nami and future Straw Hat Pirate Nico Robin are the same height and proportions – from an unrealistically small waist to elongated legs and arms. After a two-year time skip, for some reason, every woman’s chest had to grow about three sizes, and their waists had to shrink about three sizes. If this was one or two characters here and there, it might be acceptable and less obvious, but it was every single female character (literally).

Of course, the characters’ bodies didn’t take away from their writing, but it did mean that the male characters became creepier. Unfortunately, I noticed this change led to an uprising in One Piece fans sexualizing the female characters and making grotesque comments about the figurines modeled off the women. While One Piece excels in well-written female characters, the writers have made a few questionable choices regarding animation that have not gone unnoticed by fans or creeps.

Fairy Tail

There was no better way to spend my two years in quarantine than watching this silly anime about a magical guild of wizards with my dad. Even though almost every fight is won with the “power of friendship,” I could never bear to criticize it. For the good of women everywhere, here’s the truth.

Fairy Tail is a Shonen anime with a magic-based power system that follows protagonist Natsu Dragneel, a wizard guild Fairy Tail member. One day, while searching for his adoptive father, Natsu meets a young celestial wizard and the main female protagonist, Lucy Heartfilia, and recruits her to join Fairy Tail.

Lucy Heartfilia

At the beginning of Fairy Tail, Lucy has three gold keys that can call upon the celestial spirits to help her in battle. By the end of the anime, Lucy holds 10 of the gold keys, all of which she can summon at the same time if necessary. As the most potent living celestial wizard, she can channel her spirit’s abilities without them being physically present. Lucy's confidence builds, thanks to her skills advancing, and she can handle just about any of her enemies.

Almost every season, Lucy Heartfilia is provided with a new outfit – typically one that matches Natsu’s. I am a fan of most of Lucy’s outfits throughout the series, especially when she uses one of the powers of the celestial spirits. Some can be viewed as a bit revealing for a 17-year-old girl, but since the male characters wear just as little clothing, I never had much of an issue with this. At least the revealing clothing isn’t limited to the female characters.

For some reason, however, no matter where enemies attack her while in battle, Lucy’s shirt magically ends up in tatters with ribbons remaining – just barely covering her breasts. This was completely unnecessary for the writers to include, and yet it happens in every one of her fight scenes. I hope that, for the sake of viewership and Lucy’s dignity, the writers will allow her to end a fight while still wearing a shirt in the sequel series, “Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest.”

Negative Impacts

It’s hard to believe that such a popular industry, with over 3 billion viewers worldwide, can succeed without developing its female characters. While some male creators may disagree, it’s not difficult to present a well-written female character – write a character with a fantastic storyline and an appropriate and realistic wardrobe, then make them a woman. Since every anime highlighted is very popular, women globally have consumed these misrepresented female characters. I can’t begin to imagine the scale of the negative impacts of this media on female viewers’ self-image. As the new Winter anime season begins, let’s strive to continue fighting for well-written female characters.

Popular Anime: The Depth of Female Characters