Yup, even if you’re not male. Bear with me for a moment.
All this talk about the Love Live movie premiere made me decide to finally sit down and watch Love Live: School Idol Project.* Annnnd I finished it about 48 hours later. It’s a great guilty pleasure show with a quick pace, little depth, and lots of emotional bonding. It’s about nine girls who aspire to be idols, pop stars revered for their cuteness, energy, and dedication. If they want to make a great sports anime about girls, they should look to Love Live for inspiration.
There was just one thing that was a bit odd about Love Live. Every character with a speaking role was a woman! (Nico’s adorable baby brother is the exception that proves the rule.) The only adult man in the show, Honoka’s dad, is shown only partially. It’s clearly a very intentional decision on the creators’ part to keep men’s involvement to a minimum.
Now I’m used to shows that pander to people who like guys or people who like girls, and I know that’s what Love Live is trying to do here. But there was something artificial about it. Take Free!, which certainly attempt to pander to the viewer with touchy-feely bonding, yet still includes major female characters. So on Monday, I tweeted, “It’s strange how Free!’s female characters are Very Important, but Love Live doesn’t show men at all. Are male viewers threatened?”
Click the link to see the enormous discussion that exploded from there. I love Anitwitter because everyone is always down to chat about anime (though it’s not always great for my productivity). The majority consensus seemed to be that idol culture in Japan is about female “purity” from romantic involvement with men, and that mindset has leaked into this idol-themed anime.
Can you imagine if Taylor Swift had to sign a contract with her label stating that she wouldn’t date anybody? (What would she even write songs about then?) As bizarre as this would be, it’s totally commonplace among Japanese idols, who are marketed as bikini-clad sex symbols, but face medieval consequences for such transgressions as having a boyfriend. Perhaps you remember the Minami Minegishi “scandal,” when the 22-year-old idol was discovered to have a boyfriend and shaved her head in contrition. And yet, these extreme attempts to convey idols’ sexual availability still aren’t enough—last year at an idol autograph event, a 24-year-old man brought a chainsaw and slashed two idols’ faces, hospitalizing them. At trial, he revealed jealousy as his motivation. Jealous of whom? These girls aren’t even allowed to date!
On Monday, a gross new article came out illustrating that despite these past events, draconian idol culture hasn’t budged. A 17-year-old idol who was sued by her talent agency for having a boyfriend lost her countersuit. The judge sided with the agency, stating, “In order to obtain the support of male fans, the contract clause regarding a dating ban was necessary.” Ugh! This girl can’t live her life all so some pathetic superfans can fantasize that they have a chance.
We, the viewers, are the men of Love Live. There are no male characters so we don’t have to worry about “competition.” Joke’s on them though, because this is the Bechdel Test in overdrive. And even if they have zero male romantic options, I just ship them with each other—and I’m certain I’m not the only one. Tell me you don’t see the chemistry!
Have you watched Love Live? What did you think?
*As usual, email me if you want a Crunchyroll Premium pass!
This post originally ran as my weekly newsletter. If you subscribed to my newsletter, you would have been able to read this post ten hours ago. Your call.
11 Comments.
Some reason there has been a generally accepted shipping of the girls together. Two examples: Eri with Nozomi and Nico with Maki. Not sure why this happened. It’s something you really notice in the doujinshi world.
@justaddscott:disqus I’ve TOTALLY noticed. Can’t you see it??? Remember when Nico and Maki are sitting by the campfire sharing a potato? They’re both such prickly people but seem to let their guard down with each other.
As for Eli and Nozomi… uh, parfait face much?
I’ve not seen the show in quite a while (actually I need to seen season 2) so I don’t remember specifics scenes. Those two incidents definitely sound like “signs” of the couples. (By the way, I mentioned those 4 girls because they are 4 girls I like. I actually like all but 2 of the girls.)
If you ever get around to watching the movie these implied relationships are quite overt and played for laughs.
Not sure if I so much noticed in the main series, just being around the culture so much I picked up on it that way.
Because the lack of men preserves their “purity” for the male otaku to fantasize over. Then they can head canon themselves into the situation and be all studly because there’s no other guys around for comparison.
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This is ridiculous. No one really thinks or fantasizes about being with 2D characters in an anime. The bonding is the same type that a person and a loved pet e.g. dog, cat might have i.e. non-sexual. Viewers obviously know the characters aren’t real, yet you have an emotional investment in them, much like you would smile at the sight of your cat’s curved lip or your dogs nose, it’s the same thing with anime characters. You’ll also buy your pets treats and such, sometimes you even spent quite a bit on them. This parallels with fans purchasing character goods somewhat.
Why would anyone think a male character in an anime is “competition”? That’s ludicrous. I think the creators of Love Live wanted to make it all females for purely marketing reasons e.g. not much male centered anime goods (except maybe Naruto and Dragonball) are sold and that’s a significant aftermarket revenue source, not DVDs. The fans seem to prefer moe females so that’s what they created for Love Live – it’s just a marketing decisions to increase sales of licenced products, nothing more. Adding male characters which wouldn’t sell as much will deviate from the focus and waste screen time on character development for a product that wouldn’t sell and isn’t in the same target market.
“No one really thinks or fantasizes about being with 2D characters in an anime.”
You’re joking, right?
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last year at an idol autograph event, a 24-year-old man brought a
chainsaw and slashed two idols’ faces, hospitalizing them. At trial, he revealed jealousy as his motivation. Jealous of whom? These girls aren’t even allowed to date!
This is a really common mistake people make, but he wasn’t jealous of the idols in this sense and it’s been revealed he wasn’t even a fan. He was jealous of their popularity and their jobs because he felt aimless in his own life. It’s pretty disingenuous to use this awful crime (which hurt two young women physically and traumatized more) in a superficial criticism of the idol culture.
Nig.gwer, u mad?