Naruto...A little Sexist?

njijin · Post by **njijin** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 10:44 am

Actuly If you include naruto's tec ninja center fold and ninja herim the show dose have a good amount of grils in it.

erato · Post by **erato** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 3:50 pm

Yeah Naruto is a shonen, but we already knew that.
It's one of my favourite shows in quite a while and has drawn lots of people into anime but I have kinda wondered what most of the female charas are there for.
I like strong female leads and I know Japan has a diff outlook on this kind of stuff but they can be found. ¬_¬

If we are to beleive that the female shinobi are trained differently (more as a spies than fighters) why are they never shown doing any of this work?

Tsunade is real powerful & so is her assitant but we have had to wait until over halfway thru the series for her appearance! O_O:;
In the meantime Sakura has missed several opportunities to kick arse and/or improve and Hinata made the choice to fight for Naruto and was effectively removed from the series for it.

Thats my take on this debate (please, nobody mention Lee-san!)_m_O_m_

HeavyMetal · Post by **HeavyMetal** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 12:32 am

erato wrote:If we are to beleive that the female shinobi are trained differently (more as a spies than fighters) why are they never shown doing any of this work?

Well so far I have only read a bit of the manga. The bit of the show I have seen is in an AMV or two.

Anyway, it could be because in reality ninjas did not have open field matches of ninja skill and magic (tricks).

They were paid assassins and used their minds opposed to strength to get the job done.

They used things like disguise, poison, psychological war tactics, and general sneakiness.

Savia · Post by **Savia** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 12:58 pm

Case in point: the three things that everyone's favorite hermit calls the 'Ninja's Bane' are money, alcohol, and women. Clearly he's not thinking about the weaknesses of female ninjas here.

But yes, the points about all this have already been made.

In4ser · Post by **In4ser** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 10:32 pm

most anime are guys always are in lead and strongest, women are the ones in control and have the brains ^_^

Daio Kaji · Post by **Daio Kaji** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 11:42 pm

erato wrote:...and Hinata made the choice to fight for Naruto and was effectively removed from the series for it.

...you mean that?... omg, j/k
..i'm sure that didn't make much sense... oh well

point is, i like Hinata's character and it sux that she's taking this long vacation from the show since she got pwned >_<
but like Lee, she might make a reappearance, the manga's not all been translated and i don't even know if it's finished in japanese

so don't count your Shinobis 'til they pass Ninja Tech

( me will buy dvds in boxsets when they come out... in US releases... as long as they contain english dub in ADDITION to the japanese track )

madbunny · Post by **madbunny** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 12:44 am

Daio Kaji wrote:
erato wrote:...and Hinata made the choice to fight for Naruto and was effectively removed from the series for it.

...you mean that?... omg, j/k
..i'm sure that didn't make much sense... oh well

point is, i like Hinata's character and it sux that she's taking this long vacation from the show since she got pwned >_<
but like Lee, she might make a reappearance, the manga's not all been translated and i don't even know if it's finished in japanese

so don't count your Shinobis 'til they pass Ninja Tech
( me will buy dvds in boxsets when they come out... in US releases... as long as they contain english dub in ADDITION to the japanese track )

I don't know about that. I LIKE the idea that a show can explore the idea of 'good guy'characters who can try really hard, and still lose. It takes away all the tension and drama from a show if you know that good always prevails in the end. That isn't the way life works, sometimes we lose things that we care about. If a show can take the time to develop someone like Rock Lee (for example) and have him lose in spite of all his hard work then that makes him a much more real and tragic character than if he just recovered and went on to save the day later on, or magically learned to use his chakra just in time to save Sakura or whatever.

Daio Kaji · Post by **Daio Kaji** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 10:17 am

madbunny wrote:If a show can take the time to develop someone like Rock Lee (for example) and have him lose in spite of all his hard work then that makes him a much more real and tragic character than if he just recovered and went on to save the day later on, or magically learned to use his chakra just in time to save Sakura or whatever.

<_<
>_>

ironic spoilers wrote:sorry madbunny, i talked about rock lee coming back later in my post because that's what he does >_<
he comes back in the manga so far (cause the eps aren't that far yet) and saves Naruto from DEWWWWWWM!!!!

but it's okay, the story isn't all weird, it's very dramatic and takes time to explore Lee's relationship with Gai (his master... with the ginormous eyebrows) and the only reason that lee is able to return to fighting status is because of Tsunade who is brought back to the village as the 5th Hokage to mostly heal Sasuke and then Kakashi, and eventually Rock Lee... so it's not something plot-holish and outrageous... but it does take away ur 'good guy loses' thing... my condolences..(sp?)

njijin · Post by **njijin** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 3:13 pm

Dose the fraze "behind every great man is a great woman." ring a bell?

NineBirds · Post by **NineBirds** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 3:48 pm

Of course it's sexist . . . it was made in Japan. Until things change there, anime won't change. It's something one just has to get over. :-/

A token increased ability over a few male characters or one strong female character does not mean equality when the female characters are overall weaker. Nor does equality come from a show where most of the main characters are female if they remain restricted to sexist roles (not referring to Azumanga Daioh, here).