Feminism and anime - can they coexist?

[Hypatia]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz1q2epSS9Q&eurl=http://www.feministing.com/&feature=player_embedded

I found this on Feministing, the woman who posted it said: "One of my fabulous students at Rutgers put this video together for his final project. I think it's great so I wanted to share..."

[lady amarant]

Haha! So was it an A+ then?

Interesting point the video brings up though. I would agree that alot of anime is hyper-stereotyped gender-wise, but contrasted to that are strong female characters like Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell, for example (her outfit notwithstanding. >.< ) and Robin from Witch Hunter Robin. Likewise, The Rurouni Kenshin OVA's portray two strong women and how they cope with the very patriarchal society of 17th century Japan.

I suppose, like American or European film and TV, Japanese entertainment also still caters very much to the lowest common denominator in many ways. Intelligent and thought-provoking shows exist in all these cultures, but as with anything of quality, the vast majority of stuff is pretty-much fluff.

~Simone.

[Jemma]

Unfortunately I couldn't watch the video, but I still wanted to comment.  I think that feminism and anime can coexist.

It seems that in the beginning of an anime or a video game, the person who came up with the concept is working with stereotypes.  Women, at first, are the stereotypical person that they are portrayed to be. Then something happens. It changes them or reveals a facet of their character that would not normally have been seen by just looking at them.
I think thats why I watch anime. I like to characters that grow, learn, and change. Characters that turn out to be different than what they appeared to be.

Maybe in the end that is what the creators wanted to show. That stereotypes are superficial. That we are all capable of more.

[Vexing]

IMO, the Japanese culture has too much entrenched sexism.
Perhaps in American produced anime, feminism might be able to come to the fore, but I doubt the fanbase would be terribly interested.