Portrayal and performance: A study of wo/man character in Ranma 1/2 and Tokyo crazy paradise

• Main Author: Goto, Lily Anne C.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2011
• Subjects: Comparative Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2589
• Institution: De La Salle University

For my thesis, I have studied the shonen manga Ranma 1/2 and the shojo manga Tokyo Crazy Paradise. Given the difference in target audience - one is primarily written for boys and the other girls - I have looked into the women characters of both series and determined if they have been portrayed as empowered or as submissive. It must be noted that I did not study the entire female cast. I have chosen six for Ranma 1/2 and two for Tokyo Crazy Paradise. After selecting the characters that I want to study, I have classified each of them under a category/categories. To give an example for this, Akane Tendo of Ranman 1/2 belongs to The Tomboy and The Super Woman, while Tsukasa Kozuki of Tokyo Crazy Paradise is classified under The Mother, The Mistress and The Super Woman. Aside from the female characters, I have also looked into the male characters and studied them in relation to the Japanese concept of masculinity and shonen masculinity. In the analysis part, I have started with Ranma 1/2 first. I have analyzed the characters one-by-one, beginning with the females. After studying the women individually, I look at them as a whole, and from here, I determine how they have been depicted. The same process is applied to Tokyo Crazy Paradise. Finally, after doing my analysis for the characters in both manga, I have compared the two to deliberate which genre has made their women submissive and which has portrayed them as empowered. As a result of completing the above procedure, I have come to the conclusion that although the female characters are strong and capable of holding their own in a fight, they can't be deemed as empowered because they are defined by a male. They choose this or that course of action because it has something to do with the man they like. The women do not stand independent, but are in fact seen in relation to the men.