Ironic, isn’t it?
Anime is often criticized for its:
- Fanservice.
- Ecchi.
- Camera angles.
And in some cases, hentai or anything in between.
Usually when it’s women. In fact, it’s ALWAYS when it’s women since the stance is inherently hypocritical.
And yet, anime promotes and celebrates women better than other mediums for plenty of reasons.
Even if many won’t admit it out loud.
Let’s talk about it.
Why anime celebrates women better than other forms of entertainment:
1. Anime has it all (healthy shapes and sizes)
One thing you will notice about anime is the fact it doesn’t discriminate when it comes to shapes and sizes.
It doesn’t promote toxic ideals or pedestalize being unhealthy in terms of shape or size but instead celebrates the opposite.
This is why so many female anime characters are attractive across the board.
Voluptuous women
I hesitate to use the word “thicc” because that usually means overweight in 2024 and beyond (mostly Western culture), so we’ll stick to what it’s supposed to mean. And that’s voluptuous.
A term used for truly curvy women or women with more “volume” so to speak.
Anime is full of these types of female characters, though it depends on the author of the series and the designer.
Fairy Tail famously has voluptuous women like:
- Mirajane Strauss.
- Erza Scarlet.
- Lucy Heartfilia.
- Ultear Milkovich.
And shows like Akame Ga Kill, High School DxD, High School Of The Dead, Miru Tights, Shuumatsu No Harem, and too many to name also have these “features”.
It doesn’t hide it or try to make it “sexist” like many western cancel culture enthusiasts like screaming at the top of their voices on Twitter or social media in general.
It’s not sexist or offensive to be what you are, in this case, a voluptuous woman.
Slim women
Another way anime celebrates women to the fullest without hesitating is with its slim women. You could argue this type of woman is the most common.
Or one of them.
Unsurprisingly, the anime Fairy Tail features these types of women yet again despite the fact it’s criticized for its “fanservice”.
Characters like:
- Kobayashi (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid).
- Levy McGarden (above in yellow).
- Testarossa from Full Metal Panic.
- Megumi Kato (Saekano).
- Yuukinoshita Yukino (Oregairu).
- Sawako Yamanaka (K-On).
- Mine (Akame Ga Kill).
- Misaki Ayuzawa (Maid Sama).
Plus many others fit into the “slim women” category.
Another win for anime.
Tall women
These types of women can obviously fit into the voluptuous pile, the slim pile, or a little bit of both just like in the real world. Anime imitates life after all.
While tall women aren’t pushed to the forefront in general, in anime, when it happens they don’t pull any punches.
Anime shows like Shakugan No Shana features a tall woman called Margery Daw. She’s blonde, wears glasses, dresses up in smart clothing, and is a stunning character.
Characters like Kohiruimaki Karen from Gun Gale Online are also tall in real life. Isane Kotetsu and Unohana are two more from Bleach.
Small women
And then there is the group of small women or girls. This is a funny topic because it’s the source of so much controversy from people who fit a certain category.
Usually, people will say “You’re a pedo” if you refer to anime women who are small but big breasted for example.
They either:
- Don’t socialize or live in the real world often.
- Or haven’t met many women in the world at large.
- Or are simply being disingenuous.
Women who are small but older than they are, women who are big breasted but also small, or women who are small and look younger than they tend to be discriminated against, ignored, or forgotten.
Anime in this sense celebrates these women without shame, as it should. Other mediums have perverted ideas (and accusations) when it comes to this group of women.
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2. Relatable characters without the mental gymnastics
Let’s use a character like Morgiana from MAGI.
She’s an ex slave, and more importantly, is a woman who has gone through many hardships, struggles, and battles with her self esteem and self worth.
It becomes easy to empathize, sympathize, and put yourself in her shoes because of the way the anime is written and how she as a character is portrayed.
There is no virtue-signalling nonsense that you’d see in the Western media equivalent, and it doesn’t feel like a bunch of mental gymnastics is being used in order to explain her background, history, and how she came to be who she is.
Which is what Western shows in the modern day are guilty of.
That leads to the next point.
3. Women are strong but without the unnecessary politics
There is almost no better female character to use than Erza Scarlet in this scenario. She is the textbook definition of a strong woman.
She too was also an ex child slave but that’s not the point. It’s what she becomes, how she overcomes, and how she evolves and chooses to never let her circumstances or struggles define her life, future, or what she is capable of.
She is a strong woman many women can relate to and even take inspiration from, but without the usual politics that get inserted to make the woman unrealistically strong or simply unrelatable at the expense of “strength”.
We see this trend with other Fairy Tail characters like:
- Lucy Heartfilia.
- Kagura Mikazuchi.
- Ultear Milkovich.
- Levy Mcgarden.
And we also see this in other anime like:
- Undead Unluck.
- Dragon Ball Z.
- Bleach.
- Slayers.
- Scrapped Princess.
- Jujutsu Kaisen.
- Shakugan No Shana.
- Railgun.
And many more anime shows that display strong female characters without politics while celebrating them better than other forms of entertainment.
4. Women are sexy without the need for censorship
We could use an anime series like DANMACHI to make the point. Goddess Hestia, the black haired female MC is without a doubt a sexy character by design.
No censorship takes place and no nonsensical politics is shoved into the anime to condemn it as if it’s a crime.
This is true with Danmachi’s other characters like Ais Wallenstein, Mikoto, Ryu (you could argue), and other characters of the franchise.
High School DxD doesn’t hesitate to show off its sexy female characters either, WITHOUT the censorship.
The same is true for the sports anime Keijo, which happily and hilariously shows off women’s butts and figures with a touch of comedy.
The nonsense of Western criticism criticising women for being attractive has no place here, so celebration isn’t stifled.
5. Creativity isn’t stifled by political correctness
Shimoneta also called A Boring World Where The Concept Of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist.
Shimoneta makes fun of the politically correct world that walks on eggshells and censors even the midlest of things and turns it into a work of art with fanservice thrown in the middle of it.
Society has become so politically incorrect in this world that sex and anything related is banned and can land you in jail if caught.
This anime series is famously Ecchi with a mix of comedy and sex jokes. The main character Ayame Kajou has a secret alter ego called Blue Snow who is branded a terrorist for spreading the word of lewd jokes and sex.
Imagine this concept in a Western film, TV show, Hollywood, or otherwise in 2024, 2025, and so on.
It can’t happen because even though they claim to celebrate women and certain topics, they demonise it to appeal to a group of people who choose to be offended by everything as a way to gain power through victimhood.
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6. Lesbians without the identity politics
The beautiful anime series Bloom Into You shows this very well. I loved this anime more than I should have given that it’s a Yuri series.
Not to say that they are all bad, but it’s a small genre.
Yu, the MC, is a striahjg girl, seemingly. She has never taken an interest in any women or men romantically and comes across as someone who is asexual.
The student ocunil president, Touka, is someone everyone looks up to, but someone like Yu sees a different side to since she doesn’t kiss her ass and shower her with praise like everyone else.
This leads Touka to become interested in Yu, and eventually, Yu is interested in Touka, and the process feels so natural, wholesome, and isn’t at all forced.
Especially not with shoehorned politics like you’d see in a Hollywood comparison.
You can also make this point with the anime Sailor Moon with the characters Sailor Uranus And Sailor Neptune. Two female characters who are lesbians.
While it’s not the main focus of the series, it’s still handled well and is better handled than what you see in so called modern media that dedicate everything to the lesbian image at the expense of quality or respect.
When anime portrays lesbians, outside of parodies and deliberate comedy, it feels genuine rather than an attempt to gain virtue points with the “right” crowd.
7. Breaking stereotypes without unnecessary agendas
Whether it be women who are gay, women who are straight, women who are overweight, women who are short, or any other class of woman, anime tends to be respectful and authentic in its approach.
This also applies, to a smaller degree, to women who are of a certain race, colour, and so on.
If we’re comparing anime’s portrayal of women, and how it showcases these women in every way imaginable, it feels more authentic 9/10 compared to what Western films will portray.
Anime’s women aren’t the victim of pandering to unnecessary degrees, shoehorned politics, feminist ideologies that are toxic, or false portrayals of equality forced into a story to the point of ruin.
Or any other version of unnecessary politics.
That’s what makes it attractive to both men and women of all backgrounds, even if they’re unaware of it on an intellectual level.
Everyone loves something real, and we all know it when we see it.
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Recommended:
Why Anime Fanservice Offends So Many Westerners
