Okay, so I'm genuinely curious what you guys think about something that isn't really video game related, but still involves women as created by Japanese artists.
Specifically I’ve always wondered about the female protagonists of Masmune Shirow's work (note: I am only speaking of the actual Manga. Adaptations generally ruin the characters pretty badly).
Now, on one level, it's pretty clear that Shirow is just masturbating furiously as he panders to his own fetishes. God knows that if we talk about the images rather than the writing, this argument is over before it even begins. Shirow’s drawing style is hopelessly sexist, if not downright raunchy.
But does that invalidate the characters he creates?
First off, they're the product of harsh environments (military service in wartime or during periods of great social instability), but neither rape nor torture have been used as a shorthand for character building. On the flip side, their pasts are usually not referred to in any great detail, making them something of a cipher. Most crucially, they tend to be particularly talented. Their rise to rank is sort of implied by those talents, but this generally not stated explicitly (it is stated outright in GitS, though only briefly, in an offhand way).
Shirow’s female leads
are shown as being pretty unique in their maturity and skill. Most ancillary depictions of women have them as more traditional stereotypes, but I’m not sure that’s as negative as it seems, because it’s showing valid differentiation between individuals and also more crucially because not all the minor female characters come off poorly. Several minor characters like the Russian Ambassador in GitS or Asada seem like equally strong or at least responsible figures.
The second Dominion book is especially interesting in this this, as most of the other women come off as are catty or ditzes. Yet if you scrape the surface most of them have some positive traits. Asada is depicted as eager and young without being stupid or crazy (in fact she seems much more reasonable than her squad commander, Leona), the puma sisters (yeah, I went there) are the product of an incredibly bizarre origin (basically, combat sex toys for Buaku’s gang in the original book) and are in fact willing and eager to learn; they’re written much more like children rescued from a war zone. Even the parking patrol girls are demonstrated to be “dizzy dames” not because of any inherent failing, but because they been put (allowed themselves to be put?) on fairly rigid career and life rails, with one of them maybe growing a little by the end of the book (debatable).
Deunan and Motoko tend towards a stern professionalism that dominates their other personality traits and this could arguably make them somewhat one-dimensional, but that also fits someone who is pretty hardcore career military/police. Some traditionally female traits do come out as a sort of motherliness that creeps into their command style, and distinguishes them (slightly) from some of their male colleagues and we do see small personal moments with friends or old acquaintances here and there.
The characters are not all interchangeable clones of one another, though they are certain done in a similar style. In Motoko’s case, her relationship with her command is a little more collegial (outside of Togusa, as her squad members are from very similar elite forces backgrounds. There the critical determinant of respect is skill, where Togusa is much more on the outs than anyone else.
Deunan of course is the only major character in any sort of romance that’s a core book relationship (Motoko’s relationship is little more than a plot hook, and of course, Al’s love for Leona is wholly unrequited). Romance isn’t Shirow’s strong point by any means, but he does a reasonably credible job of portraying a relationship that’s sometimes distant or strained because its principals are both two high-flying professionals at the same workplace. We also get more backstory for Deunan than anyone else, such as her father’s work and the racism her mother endured. Deunan is probably the most tempered and “whole” person out of Shirow’s female leads.
Even Leona - a character much closer to the traditional "loopy dame" begins to pick up some of Motoko/Deunan’s stern parental command style in the second dominion book, becoming much more responsible with her squad and losing a significant portion of her loopiness (though it still comes in frequent outbursts).
I haven’t mentioned Seska from Orion yet, so it’s worth bringing her up. Seska is way closer to the traditional “One-dimensional Crazy Broad Protagonist” that features often enough in Anime/Manga. Certainly she’s no argument for feminism of any kind (unless you think that untempered aggression is somehow feminist). I guess you could argue that Orion shows that the character of his other female leads is more of a deliberate choice, rather than a rote habit?
It also bears mentioning that in a fun display of turnabout, many of the men are portrayed as softer-hearted, more gullible, or more domesticated than the female protagonist, sometimes to the point of their displaying far more feminity than the woman (though the last part’s usually played for gags).
So I don’t know, I think there’s actually something in all that. It’s a complex picture, not without its flaws, but maybe a positive one overall?
What I'm saying is that in spite of the hilariously misogynist visual window dressing that completely saturates Shirow’s work, I've always wanted to give him credit for the way he actually
writes his characters,
especially considering the fact that he's Japanese. But I've also wondered whether I was in the minority there.
