Why Bishoujo Senshi?
An essay by former Secretary and President Benjamin Liu '98, November 2000

Or, should the question be, why not superman? Power is gender specific. In the US, we are at least familiar with the patrearchal rhetoric, and is semiconscious of the chauvinism behind the idea of superman. Superwoman is a mere after thought. Looking at her muscle, her movement, she is but a superman with a sex change operation.

The bishojo senshi is a different creature. All the sailors are unmistakenly female--even the lesbian undertone is unmistakabley lesbian (female). If Japaense society is always so patriarchal, as we often claim, then how does one explain the girl power in anime? Everyone of Miyazaki:s protagonist is a girl. The magical transforming girl show has been a stable. Miyu, Lynn Minmei, Ai, Belldandy, Rei. . .etc. The list of girl with supernatural power goes on and on.

Perhaps the answer is in the cosmology of the mythical Japan, in the world of Amaterasu and Himiko. Amaterasu, according to the record of the ancient matter, is the founding goddess of Japan. Himiko, on the other hand, is a clan ruler/shamaness around the 2nd century. The pre-buddism Japanese is a shamanistic Japan, and clan rulers are often oracles who conveys the divine will to a male campaignian.

Later, Japan witnessed a series of social political changes that gradually empowers men in the area of politics and economy. The introduction of paternalistic Confusionism and Buddism marginalized the shamanistic women. However, precisely because they are marginalized, they become even more closely tied with the unknown, the mythical, and the supernatural. The blind shamaness, thought to be connected with the ancient priestesses, gathered and told fortune in Northern part of Honshu until the late 70s. Many new religions founded in the last century have a female shamanistic figure as a founder, who perhaps were freed from the constrain of a paternalistic society via the age-old vehicle of shamanism that ties the all-powerful preistess, the shinto miko, the demon possessed court ladies in Genji Monogatari, the yamauba, and the Tohoku blind shamaness.

So what does that mean in anime? The males control rational power, while the females control irrational power. Take Macross--Hikarus power comes from the Valkyrie he pilots, while Lin Minmei is a shamanistic character (song and dance has been a part of Japanese village rituals). And Macross Plus--the Valkyries remains the mechanized symbol of rational power with their phallic pointy head, while Myung controls the man-made goddess Sharon Apple--who is an alter ego of Myung. This is another pattern in Japanese mythology, where the priestess of Amaterasu and Amaterasu mirrors each other. Gundam and Gotcha"man" are dominated by superscience, while magical shoujo shows employs, well, magic. Even in Miyazaki's film, the fated priness of Laputa does many of the shamaness thing: she enchants, she has a stone, she understands the robots (communication), while Pazu is a miner who builds airplane--a rational machine and a mark of civilization. Nasicca, Kiki, Totoro, Porco Rosso, Mimi o Sumaseba . . you name it. Boys fly with a machine. Girls just fly.

Should I mention Escaflowne or . . . Eva?

In no way do I imply that all manga artists follow this paradigm, or that those who follows it are aware. Perhaps this is so much of the cultural psyche or the collective unconscious. There are many immidiate reasons why the magical characters are female--Lin Minmei is modeled after an idol of the 80s, hence she is a female. Nikki Basara sings magical songs, but he is a male rock star. However, perhaps the shamanistic tradition is something that gives validity to the more immidiate reasons. After all, why have all the summoners in the Final Fantasy series been females (except those series where all player characters may learn summon spells).