[Dr.Otto]

Interesting bit I caught the other day. I usually have Cartoon Network on as background noise while I work, and the other day they ran an episode of YuGiOh GX where one of the main duellists, Bastian, was challenged to a card battle by an amazon warrior (replete with tribal tattoos and tiger sidekick). Curious thing about this is that the amazon, Tanya, was depicted in a very positive light. While built like a steamroller, she was also well-proportioned (not the usual hulking masses depicted in anime), was considered very attractive, and even had more than a few girlish mannerisms about her. Even moreso was the fact that when she became smitten with Bastian (who happens to be the most cereberal and refined of the GX crew), it turns out that the feeling was mutual, and he was just as lovestruck as she was. I think this is the first time in anime (or any mainstream media) that I've seen it to be 'okay' for a muscular woman to show affection, and the object of her affections wasn't totally freaked out but actually felt the same way.

Interesting that it takes a cartoon to demonstrate what humanity is about.

[BlackKusanagi]

That was quite true…and quite intresting. Maybe this is hope the public eye is changing.

[The Muffin man]

Interesting bit I caught the other day. I usually have Cartoon Network on as background noise while I work, and the other day they ran an episode of YuGiOh GX where one of the main duellists, Bastian, was challenged to a card battle by an amazon warrior (replete with tribal tattoos and tiger sidekick). Curious thing about this is that the amazon, Tanya, was depicted in a very positive light. While built like a steamroller, she was also well-proportioned (not the usual hulking masses depicted in anime), was considered very attractive, and even had more than a few girlish mannerisms about her. Even moreso was the fact that when she became smitten with Bastian (who happens to be the most cereberal and refined of the GX crew), it turns out that the feeling was mutual, and he was just as lovestruck as she was. I think this is the first time in anime (or any mainstream media) that I've seen it to be 'okay' for a muscular woman to show affection, and the object of her affections wasn't totally freaked out but actually felt the same way.

Interesting that it takes a cartoon to demonstrate what humanity is about.

It was also really positive because a show you'd expect to make a lame joke about the situation actually treated her like any other character. No one made a negative remark about her size.

[Dr.Otto]

Anime was the last place I expected to see this sort of thing, because usually the Japanese are really brutal when depicting stereotypes. Looks like at least in some aspects of the medium, things are loosening up.

[The_Pimp_NeonBlack]

You do fail to realise that female bodybuilding is not as frowned upon is Asia as it is in the North America and many European countries.
It is considered a marginalised sport and will probably never be fully intergrated into mainstream society but the athesetic values of a muscular female form is actually quite admired.
In Japan, female bodybuilding is mainly considered a "older woman's sport" (the majority of practicitioners being in their late 30's and 40's), though many younger women are starting to see the health benefits of the practice.
And there are actually many depictions of muscular women in Japanese animation, though many are never seen in the West because of the overall cultural content of the work rather than any small reference to muscular females.
Ah, such is existence.
Peace
The Pimp NeonBlack

[gblock01]

I agree with what The_Pimp_Neonblack says. From what I can see, America, as a society, is more up-tight about visual appearances than any other country in the world. There are some differences among cultures, but I find that it is more pronounced in American society since the "socially acceptable look" is something that you realize as you get older and try to conform to. In other cultures, you're raised into it. They also aren't nearly as destructive as some of the things that women in American culture do to lose weight (binge/purge, enforced starvation, etc.).

Anyway, getting back to the subject at hand, Japanese society has more loose restrictions on what a woman should look like, again as far as I can see. I remember seeing a show (I think on the National Geographic channel) called Taboo. On one of the segments for the episode, they go into female wrestling. It's nothing like the WWF Divas that we have in the US. This is brutal, undeniably real, and looked upon with a general positive light.

I think that the more amazing thing is not that the anime has a muscular woman in a positive light, but that it was aired on a major network, in the US, and was not censored to show otherwise.

In my opinion, I think that they were doing that to make up for Crowler. 😉

[NecrochildK]

Isn't Yu-Gi-Oh american made anime though?

[BlackKusanagi]

Nope. Original Yu-Gi-Oh started in 96 in japan. Came to US late 99 to 00.

TT is an american made anime.

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