Anime: Breaking the West

American culture is filled with stereotypes for the ideal person. These stereotypes can be reflected through movies, ads, and everyday life. The main stereotype is with gender. Women are weak and emotional, while men must be the strong silent type and depend only on themselves. In anime, however, this stereotype is broken time and time again. Here are three different anime and the anti-stereotype character traits they display.

One of the most iconic anime that breaks these unrealistic molds is Ouran High School Host Club. In this the main character, Haruhi, is a female who by appearance seems to be male. She accidentally breaks a vase that was to be sold in the host club’s auction, and joins them to pay back her dept. This show has stereotyped characters based on their personality, aka the prince type, but throughout Haruhi proves that the only thing that matters is what’s on the inside.

Ouran also breaks many other American stereotypes. Honey-senpai is a child-like high-schooler who adores cake and his stuffed bunny, but he is also a marshal arts master. He chose to follow his love of sweets over following his family’s traditions of becoming the strongest and faced many hardships because of this. Kyoya is extremely intelligent and has his entire future planned out for him. Through his interactions in the host club he learned that he has the freedom to become whomever he wishes to be. The identification of people gender wise is also covered. Haruhi’s dad is a drag queen, Haruhi herself sometimes dresses as a man, and the girls from Lobelia Academy act both male and female. American shows may be starting to display some of these characteristics in a small amount of their shows, but overall these real life characteristics are still usually only shown in anime.

Another groundbreaking anime is Yona of the Dawn. Yona is a princess who has never experienced any type of hardship until the man she loved killed her father and attempted to kill her. She has to overcome not only the shock of betrayal but become strong enough to protect herself and the people she cares about. She goes from a weak and naïve girl to a warrior capable of defending her friends and country.

Yona’s strength, both mentally and physically, are the main focus of this stereotype override, but several others occur as well. Gija, the powerful white dragon, is terrified of bugs. Jeaha, the green dragon, had the strength of the dragon in his leg but still chooses to run from danger as often as he stays and fights. Zeno, the yellow dragon, is weak physically and in appearance and would rather never fight but due to his immortal body he is able to become a shield for those he cares about. Sinha, the blue dragon, is gentle and never goes anywhere without his pet squirrel Aoi. Gigan, an old woman, created and lead her pirate group to save the people of her village from their corrupt lord. This anime highlights the strength women can have and add real human traits to both genders.

The final anime that will be mentioned for this mold breaking blog is the well-known One Piece anime. Most every character in this show breaks a stereotype in some way, some of them are unique while other traits are shared by all. One universal trait is that it's okay to be emotional. Even men are allowed to cry when they’re sad. All the characters, no matter their gender, can express their emotions and dreams. They all depend on their friends who will stick by them whether life is easy or tough.

Individual characteristics can be seen throughout as well. Luffy is scrawny and lives his life following his emotions and dreams. Usopp is weak and a coward, but is an expert sharpshooter, tactician, and inventor. Nami was forced to live her life as little more than a slave to the Arlong pirates but gained the strength to ask for help and then to be able to fight for herself. Chopper was ostracized for being different. He was a reindeer who became nearly human, so his herd avoided him, and humans attempted to kill him and called him a monster. Despite that, he became a strong fighter and an exceptional doctor. Sanji ran away from his home and his training to become a mercenary in order to become a chef and follow his dream of finding the ocean known as All Blue, a place where every fish in the ocean lives. Emporio Ivankov knows has the ability to control hormones and is able to use his ability to change his gender to male or female. Inazuma is both genders at once due to Ivankov’s ability. All of these characteristics are unique to anime in the way that American shows do not generally display them.

American stereotypes might not be all bad since they encourage strength and individualism. However, American stereotypes are overdone to the point where any who don't meet the standards are judged and sometimes ostracized. Anime does not follow these stereotypes. In fact, anime is able to break these stereotype molds by making characters that are realistic and therefor relatable role models that teach their viewers to be who they are no matter what others say.

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