Damsel in Distress Complex

After watching numerous anime, especially shoujo/romance, I feel the need to rant about the absurdity of the majority of the female characters. Shoujo romance makes women weak, flaky, clingy, and simply irritating. I don't understand how people could think that it is cute. I understand that shoujo is mostly directed at teenage, romance-angst, girls. But, come now, could the characters have a little bit more backbone?

Lets start off with the most hated character on my list: Miaka from Fushigi Yuugi. Don't get me wrong, the story is very interesting, I just don't like the main character. She is a coward, has no goals, obsessed with food, and mediocre all around. Just because she has a good heart, that shouldn't be the reason for her to be "special". Most main characters have good hearts, how is that "special"? But nevertheless, despite her weak personality, she has almost every male fawning over her saying how wonderful she is. She also has very sporadic behavior. In one instance she is trapped in a mirror, while the rest are fighting her evil copy. She attempts to break free but to no avail. Suddenly a table full of food appears, she completely forgets that she is in trouble, runs over to the table and stuffs herself. After that she suddenly decides that the only way to kill her evil twin is to hurt herself, so she stabs herself in a chest. What kind of out-of-wack behavior is that?

In every episode she gets herself in trouble, then Tamahome rushes to save her, and at the end she builds up new resolve to fight and get stronger. Except it's rinse and repeat in almost every episode. I really wanted to like her since all of the characters kept harping on how perfect she is. I just did not see it. The writers did not give any evidence to believe that she is great aside from the fact that other characters say it.

Kotoko from Itazura na Kiss also proved to be clingy and completely self-insufficient. She loves a boy who is completely out of her league. She is a lively airhead, he is a cold and stoic genius. What could they possibly have in common? Nevertheless, they still manage to live happily every after for reasons unknown to modern science. Through their marriage they hit a number of roadblocks, but it mostly has to do with his inability to act like a normal human being. He completely ignores her, looks down on her personality, gets jealous of her being friends with a coworker who develops a crush on her. But does nothing except pretending to not care. She, in return, stays completely faithful and succumbs to her internal turmoil. Finally, he realizes that it's about time to have a jealousy fit, declares his feelings, and their romance continues. How is this abuse even remotely romantic? I absolutely hated how she would just take it without standing up for herself. Aside from that, she is clumsy, stupid, and clueless.

Usagi from Sailor Moon is a lot like Kotoko from Itakuza na Kiss. She starts off as clumsy, a crybaby, boy crazy, and a horrible student. And the series end with her being exactly the same. She is a superhero. Yet she doesn't know how to fight, and she never learns how. She constantly relies on her friends to come and save her. And, she is a glutton who always has something in her mouth. Yet, she is claimed to be awesomely wonderful by her friends, her peers, and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend, is also the completely opposite of her. Firstly, he seems to be older, he is neat, a good student, and seems to care about other things than food. However, he is a lot kinder to her than Irie to Kotoko. I guess that is one redeeming quality about their relationship.

To be fair, not every female romance character is as bad as I've described. There are some that I found quite likable.

Lets take Kogame from Inuyasha. (I am aware that Inuyasha is not shoujo, but I had to throw this one in) She is a typical school girl who gets thrown into another world to help fight demons. However, she is the complete opposite of Miaka. (who also gets thrown into another world to help fight the bad guys) Kagome shows tremendous maturity and character throughout her adventures. She never cries and whines. She takes initiative. Despite being the weakest in her group, she proved to be incredibly helpful on many occasions. And she doesn't throw jealousy tantrums every time Inuyasha rushes off to help Kikyo. She actually encourages him to do it, and he always comes back to her at the end. The fact that nobody ever claims her to be extraordinary in anyway, makes her extraordinary. She is just a normal girl who shows tremendous character in tough situations and that is pretty extraordinary.

I also really like Hikari from Special A. She is the exact opposite of Usagi. She is a great student, she is tough, she doesn't need her friends to bail her out, and she is self-sufficient for the most part. Even though she is oblivious to Kei's feelings, it helps them built a relationship. They are also rivals because she wants to beat him in sports and academics, although she never seems to be able to. Despite their never-ending rivalry, they have mutual respect for each other. She doesn't whine and cry when she loses and always holds her end of the bargain like a champ. I like the fact that their rivalry wasn't turned into a war and they always know where to stop and cooperate with each other.

And finally......yes, I know, it's the fangirl in me talking....I have to go back to Bleach. I am well aware that Bleach is shonen, but I found one of the main female protagonists to be closely related to the topic at hand. On the surface, Orihime is an average school girl with a very real damsel-in-distress syndrome. She is an airhead with abnormal food tastes (so abnormal that nobody besides a selected few can stomach it). She tends to babble complete nonsense and many people think she is "weird". She is completely dependent on her friends. She can't fight, and she is always being saved by somebody else. Usually, the main male protagonist. She also has a long time school crush on Kurosaki Ichigo, who also (conveniently) happens to be the main protagonist, and she doesn't have enough resolve to confess her feelings to him. As a result, she is extremely insecure about it. Sounds familiar? Yes, she is a classic recipe for a shoujo character. However, when Orihime is pushed into a rather difficult situation, where she is kidnapped and the only other person she has communication with is her cold and up-tight jailer, she suddenly blooms into an adult. Many UlquiHime shippers have noticed it, which of course made us glee with excitement. However, I have very mixed feelings about her. I never really liked her until she met Ulquiorra. But she showed so much backbone and resolved when she was with him, that I couldn't help but warm up to her. Then, of course, my mind started wavering again after Ichigo came to her rescue and she reverted back to her old insecure self. Now, I simply don't know what to make of it. She definitely proved to have a strong side, however that side was triggered by her interaction with Ulquiorra. He treated her as an equal and gave her some hard time which shook her out of her little fantasy. Perhaps, the reason why so many shoujo characters are weak is because people around them treat them like weaklings. Once the kid gloves are put aside, those girls tend to show some serious strength. Maybe, that's what the doctor ordered.

This brings my little rant to an end. What I've noticed about these characters, is that the strongest ones come from more recent anime. Seems like the damsel-in-distress syndrome started to become a thing of the past. And more girl characters are award with strong personalities, that indeed make them extraordinary.