look, i know some fans really love the bnha girls, and i don't begrudge them that, but horikoshi is... not....good....at writing them. at all. i'm not a big anime watcher so maybe this stands out to me more than it does for anime fans because this is pretty standard fare anime stuff (call it the sakura syndrome), but it's really blatant in my eyes.
the problem really is twofold. firstly, there's the rampant objectification/sexualisation, which is extremely unnecessary and weird- people will cope by being like 'but in-universe!!!' except they conveniently forget horikoshi invented these in-universe justifications and there is in fact no good reason for a fifteen year old to be tits out constantly or another fifteen year old to be naked when she fights. ditto toga's needing to be essentially nude when transforming, or the fact every female pro wears a skintight bodysuit regardless of personality and quirk, or the fact people like bubble girl's costume is hysterically impractical for the sake of having half her tits and crotch area out. people will bend over backwards pretending there's good reason for this but there isn't. if all the male pros were in skimpy bathing suits or wearing nothing more than jockstraps with a tank top it would be comically grotesque, but people are so used to women (and literal kids) being sexualised for no reason that they don't see the double standard. that's without getting into the existence of mineta, whose sole purpose is to provide 'comic relief' by way of being a 'lovable pervert' trope. i watch the show with my tweenage brother and he is constantly cringing away from the screen when there’s tit-shots or random semi-nudity.
the second and less superficial problem is that horikoshi doesn't write his women well. if you sit back and think about it: out of all the characters in bnha, how many characters with any real significance are women? i'd say none. there are girls with real screen time, sure- uraraka, or yaoyorozu, etc, but not one of said girls has had any of the focus, care, or development afforded to them that a whole host of male characters have. contrast the amount of in-depth exploration that's been afforded to midoriya, bakugou, todoroki, kirishima, iida, all might, endeavour, hawks, shinsou, shigaraki, overhaul, mirio, tamaki, etc, with any single female character. it's no contest! and that applies regardless of category. look at shigaraki or overhaul or dabi versus toga, whose entire personality is just 'yandere schoolgirl'! contrast mirko, most beloved 'strong female character' of the show, with someone like hawks! contrast uraraka, on paper the main female character of the series, with all of her male classmates, some of whom aren't even in the core class! shinsou or even goddamn monoma have had more careful focus on their motivations and inner dilemmas as to heroism than uraraka has- even in the moments she is allowed to be heroic, it's almost unfailingly in relation to midoriya, her inspiration via midoriya, or her fucking crush on midoriya. the ONLY moment i really feel was on-par with the boys was her sports fest fight against bakugou, because bakugou ironically took her seriously as an opponent. but if you think about the series, and what it examines, and what the characters are supposed to be doing, it blows my mind that none of its women has had even marginally similar levels of inner life to their male counterparts- none of the nuance, none of the layers, none of the depth. and in nearly every single significant moment in the show the women are essentially irrelevant and/or sidelined- think of the stain fight, or the kidnapping arc (yes, momo was on the rescue team, but let's not argue she was of much importance to it), or any of the latest fights, wherein each of the golden trio gets massive important character-revealing moments and the girls aren't even present. eri alone has had that kind of narrative relevance, but solely as an abuse victim in need of rescue (and to bolster mirio and midoriya's personal arcs).
one of the things i think really encapsulates this issue is the way horikoshi treats the todorokis. todoroki is a main character, sure, but over the last few arcs endeavour has been treated as a main character himself, with endless focus on his inner struggle with redeeming himself after his horrendous treatment of his children and spouse, and what a hero he is, and how hard he's fighting to fix things- and then, of course, we get the entire dabi backstory. meanwhile, the women at the centre of the drama have had so little dialogue that their fandom characterisation is essentially fanon. what do we get of rei and fuyumi other than the fact that, post-everything, they forgive endeavour? fuyumi especially we know /nothing/ about other than the fact she's domestic and never shows even an iota of resentment towards her father- and is consistently framed as being 'right' for letting go of any of the completely justified anger shouto and natsuo feel towards the man. where every single male todoroki is an active character, rei and fuyumi are forever passive, irrelevant save as motivators of male emotion of some variety. it's so incredibly insipid.
gamechangershow
izzy806
