Why Madoka from Metal Fight Beyblade is an unusual female lead for a kodomo with codes of nekketsu/shonen
(I'll only be talking about same genres animes that aired during the same period as MFB, like Inazuma Eleven, Dinosaure King and others that come to mind, maybe a little of Pokemon too. My arguments may not apply to today animes and should be considered only for the time MFB anime ran in Japan)
Recently got back into Beyblade and I wanna talk about one of my favourite MFB characters:
YES! The only character that doesn't battle. The "nurse" of MFB. The healer of your party in RPGs. The typical female character lead in kodomo/shonen because apparently, they absolutely need a girl for that.
I guess it's because it's viewed as cute in Japan to see a girl taking care of others instead of kicking the boys' asses in battles.
You know what wasn't cute for a girl in Japan when MFB ran? BEING A SCIENTIFIC NERD.
And what Madoka is? A SCIENTIFIC NERD.
She knows a lot about science, from physics to computer science. She hacked the Dark Nebula security system, she spends her time explaining that hot air goes up and that fire can't exist without oxygen.
She's like between 10~17yo at most and she REWROTE A ROCKET LAUNCHING PROGRAM, A AUTO-PILOTE PROGRAM FOR THE ROCKET, sent her friend to space and got him back safely on Earth. In like 15min. Without having done it for real before since I doubt they learn that in elementary or high school in Japan.
The only guy who more or less seduced her succeeded by TALKING SWEET SHIT ABOUT A PHYSIC THEORY CALLED THE "STRING THEORY".
Don't be fooled, Madoka isn't interested in Alexei himself. She's interested in HIS SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE. He's the first character with whom she can talk about physics and computers and astronomy.
She's surrounded by idiots who only think about Beyblade (sometimes food), LET THE GIRL HAVE SOME FUN FOR ONCE
Speaking of the idiots, their 2 brain cells are at least able to work to acknowledge Madoka's skills and knowledge.
Aki and Haruna from Inazuma Eleven are listened to because they're decent human beings. Natsumi spent half saison 1 treatening the club so they listen to her more by fear. Fuyuka too, is a decent human being. Zoe from Dinosaure King is mostly treated like Max and Rex because she does the same as them. But when it comes to things outside what the boys knows, she's more disregarded by them.
Madoka? YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT MECANIC SO SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND GIVE ME YOUR PEGASUS
Her skills are acknowledged by the others. She is respected for that and the anime never forget it. How?
By showing every now and then that she was right. The characters admit when they are wrong and she is right. The anime punishes the characters when they don't listen to her.
Gingka mentions that Madoka taught him how to grill fish. Later in Metal Fight, when he learns that the Ultimate Battle was a setup to feed power to L-Drago, he remembers that she warned them and they didn't listen.
In the movie, he acknowledges that the gang thought only of themselves when they all came back to play Beyblade. So he offers to go back to the beach to make up for not thinking about her.
Sure for Japanese people it's more of a way to show the "you gotta look confident to not worry others". If we were in an other kodomo/shonen, the main girl would be sweating or internally praying (again, probably because in Japan it was seen as cute).
What is Madoka doing? CHECKING A BUNCH OF TECHNICAL STUFF. She's about to launch 2 people into space and she's looking at NUMBERS like she's analysing a bey. She acts perfectly calm. No hesitation.
We know she is stressed because of the little silence right before Gingka talks about the beach (and that's probably because of this silence that he decided to talk about something light).
But look at all the dangerous nonsense she witnessed in Metal Fight. 3 EVIL DRAGONS almost destroyed the world some months ago. And she remained mostly calm about it. So launching a rocket into space? As normal as breathing.
(sidenote: I think it's very smart to portray a character being stressed by having them concentrated on their task to the point they're silent)
Ah, so you expected the characters to protect her? Like most of the non-fighting girls in kodomo/shonen?
My friend, she watched an ancient devil dragon battling at full power like 20m away. And she survived. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO PROTECT HER FROM?
An overheating nuclear-like reactor? Pffff! Gingka my friend, Madoka already witnessed almost the end of the world. She can handle one more or two. And also, she probably understands the danger more than you.
No MFB character is protected more than necessary. When they try to, they get ignored or shown they were wrong.
When Madoka does it, most of the time it's because the beys are at risk. Except when she tried to stop Nemesis from attacking Kenta. That moment was ridiculous and useless. But Metal Fury second half has the most of "what the heck was that even for" moments anyway.
My 15yo GinMado shipper self loved this frame but hated the previous one
So, we get it. Madoka is a science nerd, she has guts and the writing respects her character throught all the MFB saga. Is this everything?
Madoka is also a good cook, she seems to like pink and maybe wears makeup, she enjoys sunbathes, she worries about her friends, she's the "healer", she enjoys shopping... Things that are (sadly) seen as cute and girly only, especially in Japan.
But my point is that Madoka has interests in "boy-ish" stuff AND "girly" stuff. It's more common for a female lead in kodomo/shonen to being either a tomboy or a girly girl. Touko from Inazuma Eleven is a tomboy so she has no interest in fashion before GO. Rika is really into fashion and romance.
Zoe from Dinosaure King is more balanced but her more "girly-side" is made fun of.
MFB doesn't make fun of Madoka no matter which "side" of her is portrayed. She's praised for both. The boys may not understand how Greece is romantic but they don't disrespect her reaction. She may bring an unpractical suitcase when looking for Koma Village but she switches to a backpack the second time (and I can tell you a lot of big city folks would the same mistake).
Of course it's perfectly fine to have a tomboy or a very feminine/"girly" girl. I simply find it nice that for once a female lead has these 2 sides and none of them is treated as a comic relief.
Tsubasa also seems to like sunbaths, as we see in the movie and Hyoma looks pretty good at grilling food
Madoka was created by the anime staff because there wasn't enough female characters, according to the mangaka. They chose to make her a female yet science nerd probably to advertize the real beys because they needed a character to tell you how awsome the real beys are. This unusual choice came out at the expense of making their female lead a popular character.
Note: Madoka doesn't appear in the manga except to say 2 lines here and then. It seems Takafumi Adachi is very fond of her though, judging by how much he draws her compared to other female characters that are from the MFB manga.
(Click on the picture to go to the tweet. The link is also in the source of this post)
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