[EVA] Gender analysis in the series, vis a vis Asuka and Misato

[V V]

I forget specifically what interview it was, but what really impressed me was that Anno said he reads a lot of women's literature and magazines, to try to actively research how women "think" so he can make more realistic portrayals of women in his works, not just male fantasy.

--- On Fri, 12/11/09, once at ix.netcom.com <once at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

From: once at ix.netcom.com <once at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: [EVA] Gender analysis in the series, vis a vis Asuka and Misato
To: "The english-language evangelion mailing list." <evangelion at eva.onegeek.org>
Date: Friday, December 11, 2009, 12:56 AM



-----Original Message-----
>From: V V <frumious99 at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Dec 10, 2009 4:02 PM
>To: "The english-language evangelion mailing list." <evangelion at eva.onegeek.org>
>Subject: Re: [EVA] Gender analysis in the series, vis a vis Asuka and Misato
>
>I always thought Eva was a good commentary on changing gender roles in patriarchal Japan, which post-WWII were rapidly changing, and this got really exacerbated by the recession (if the men are out of work, the system kind of breaks down). 

It should be noted that the anime industry is as patriarchal as anything else has been in Japan, and perhaps even more so than other sectors of society; in a 1997 interview in TOKION, Anno described his industry as "a boy's club," saying that was the first thing you had to understand about how it portrayed women (he didn't exempt himself from this criticism, and I give him credit for trying to work within a female creator's viewpoint in KareKano--with results everyone liked except the creator herself ^_^). 

I think it would be far easier for most people to name a prominent female manga artist than it would be for them to name a prominent female anime director. Anno is of course himself married to manga-ka Moyoco Anno; it really seems a shame that they haven't tried to make an anime together.

--C.
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