#hoshino ma'am i love and respect you and your work but you should take notes

[candy-crackpot]

Watching the original Sailor Moon anime and other 90's anime I have to say I am stunned to see that fenale characters are treated so much progressivels than 2000s or 2010s media. You have crybabies like Usagi who get teased for it but when push comes to shove she will stand up for and fight what she thinks is right, her easily crying is depicted neutrally as a trait and not a hindrance that makes her less than others. I also really love that the girls all express their femininity in different ways and not one of them os expected to carry the representation of their entire gender. They are all flawed and goofy in their own ways and that doesn't take away from them it is merely a part of them.

Cowboy Bepop and Evangelion as well have female characters who don't fall into the traditional chaste, submissive waifu roles, Faye is a cheeky troublemaker, Asuka is a self-centered egotistic jerk, Misato escapes into carnal pleasures, but they all have their personalities beyond serving male character(s), they have thoughts and feelings and goals on their own. The narration depicts them neutrally, they have ample screentime for their own stories, we are shown their past and it is left up to the audience to decide if they like them or not, we are not being suggested to either commend or condemn the characters.

There is this blasé, unabashed neutrality that invites you to observe and empathise first and not prompt you to take a stance. It's a really humane approach to media analysis and I find it really refreshing.