Did you by chance see the most recent episode of the anime? It was mostly a filler episode, but what did you think of Froppy's internship / mentor(s)? It's still not a deep and emotional character arc, but do you think it could be turning towards that direction?
lmao I had to do a quick run of it, because life’s been hellish for me, but here’s my overall assessment (of froppy’s portion, particularly):
Two female characters interacting about what it means to be a hero. Thank. Goodness. Literally the first time this has happened in the entire series
Froppy gets a chance to shine to some degree, and I love her, and she even got into an actual fight for a little bit
Siren is not the victim of groping/boob jokes/sex jokes
Big muscly captain going for a more feminine charm (cuteness)
Ending with congratulating Froppy on how she’s got the makings of a great pro hero (and I am okay with her not being able to function perfectly in a fight or needing to be aided, because she’s 15 and shouldn’t be expected to)
Ratio of male characters to female characters remains not great. There were 8 male characters (the captain, the coast guard guy that congratulates her at the end, the octopus guy, two small octopus guys, the fisherman, and at least two muscly seamen) and only 3 female characters (Froppy, Siren, and the small octopus lady who had notably large boobies otherwise how would you know she was a lady?) (NOTE: this in itself is not an instant kill for me, given how much I love mp100, but it does compound the other factors)
Sirius borders on a throwaway character. Her entire character arc centers around following the Captain’s orders, and how he enabled her to become the person she is today, somehow implying that doing menial tasks such as washing his underwear helped accomplish this. She is relegated to the Support, and says as much herself, and she is unable to function without immediate aid from her male companions.
I know I said earlier that Sirius avoided being the victim of groping, but like. Being wrapped up in tentacles like that is not even subtle. (Also: contrast how Sirius looks when she’s wrapped up by octopus man with how Bakugou looked when he was attacked by the slime monster, and you’ll see how different the body language is)
Unfortunately, we’re continuing the trend of needing the female characters of any variety to be cute and pretty:
She has those fin-ears, but at the end of the day what matters most about the design is that she’s a conventionally attractive female character.
And then we have these two:
Note how designs vaguely court ‘cool’ but really make no attempt at it. They’re supposed to be gnarly looking, you’re supposed to get the sense that they got some badass quirks up their sleeve and that’s what’s important.
I don’t even know what Sirius quirk is at the end of the day? I thought it was like. Super good hearing or something, but those were radios and not even her actual ears?
Anyways, my rating? One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
While I was rejoicing to see a real female-female mentorship that didn’t overtly tell young girls that their main appeal was their physical beauty, it still didn’t even pass the Bechdel test. (That entire conversation was about how cool and supportive the Captain was.)
Also why wasn’t the captain female, he’s named after a female entity from Irish mythology, for all intents and purposes he should be a badass buff seal lady.
She functioned as a conduit to praise how cool the captain was, so that even the times she takes initiative, she does so in order to fulfill the captain’s wishes. So despite the good intentions, we still fall back on the fundamental message:
“Yes I know you’re smart and capable, but I don’t care. I hired you, first and foremost, for your pretty face.”
(Except that, in this case, I wasn’t 100% convinced that Siren was actually smart or capable, so....)
It’s trying, but it’s only lip service. It’s less blatant than the message conveyed by Uwabumi (who, despite people assuring me that Momo would get a chance to shine on patrols, only continued to reinforce the image that the main goal of a female hero is sex appeal). It’s less...insidious feeling, and I guarantee that people are going to call me out for nitpicking, but the reality is that while Sirius wasn’t as obnoxiously awful as Uwabumi, she still didn’t really make for a good character either.
If this weren’t a completely irrelevant, anime-only filler episode, I would maybe have an inkling of hope that we’d continue to see positive change in the treatment of female characters in the near future.
Unfortunately, the one female-female mentorship that we see in this series is literally a throwaway episode, meant to be entirely skip-able and forgetable.
The best hope I can have of this episode is that it’s a sign from the author that he’s matured as a creator, and in the manga from this point on we will continue to see active attempts to incorporate female characters to their fullest extent.
But I’m not holding my breath.
