Growing up Japanese-American, I didn’t quite realize the difference between the Ghibli Studio movies and the Disney Channel cartoons I watched — only that one was in Japanese and the other was in English. That was until everyone around me started to watch the shows that I thought me and my siblings only knew about.
Japanese animations, more commonly known as anime, have greatly diversified in audience to include Americans when they rose significantly in popularity. Anime shows such as “Naruto,” “Demon Slayer,” “Pokemon,” “Jujutsu Kaisen” and more went from being Japanese people’s favorite cartoons to holding huge American fanbases of all ages. Large streaming corporations such as Netflix and Hulu have even included many of these anime shows to fulfill the demand for them.
Anime has also contributed to the creation of new communities and likenesses among many — along with the creation of fan events such as Anime Expo — that provides an interactive and communal experience for American anime fans. In general, Japanese cartoons have spread to a wider audience alongside the appreciation of Japanese stories and art.
I personally experienced this change in middle school when people came up to me to ask about the anime shows they watched and if I could watch them without subtitles. As interesting as it was to me that my peers appreciated the childhood shows I adored, it was also accompanied by feelings of discomfort when people — especially men — asked me incredibly inappropriate questions about the darker side of anime.
There is no denying the positive impact anime has had in diversifying the celebration and acceptance of Japanese culture in the Western world. However, anime’s journey to the states has also brought over a culture and behavior that has existed in Japan for a very long time: the hypersexualization of Japanese women and young girls.
It might seem ridiculous that innocent cartoons can produce a harmful culture and bring it over to the states. However, it’s important to understand the power and influence that storytelling has in framing how others are perceived; anime is no different.
To give some more perspective, the creations of sexualized female characters in anime have inspired large numbers of pedophilia, sex trafficking and child pornography production cases, which continue to harm Japanese women — especially minors. To selfishly remain ignorant of this problem is to ignore my safety and the safety of other Asian women.
Just as how children learn virtues and life lessons from cartoons at a young age, many can learn to view Asian women as sexual objects from the anime they watch as well. It is also important to listen to the voices of those who are currently or already have experienced a loss of safety at the expense of someone else’s entertainment.
I can no longer watch the shows I loved as a kid the same now after being suggestively compared to those women in anime. There needs to be an understanding that ignorantly talking about the sexual acts one wants to do to an anime character is equivalent to talking about me — the women that those stories belittle and objectify.
As new as this phenomenon is to America, the objectification of women in Japan has and continues to exist through the 2D form of anime. Most animes are catered toward their male audiences, so, in the act of fan service, women and young girls are often depicted with exaggerated features and exposing attire.
Lolicon, the attraction towards explicit drawings of minors, is commonly experienced by Japanese men, which contributes to the popularity of anime centered around highly sexualized young characters. Some countries have even banned certain shows that explore this type of content, but Japan has yet to do the same due to arguments that doing so suppresses the animators’ freedom of expression. Additionally, such depictions of young characters remain legal within Japan’s laws given the characters themselves are fictional.
With anime now holding its place in American entertainment, the culture of sexualizing Japanese women is slowly being much more normalized and made mainstream in the media than ever before. However, its impacts have now expanded to include all Asian American women.
The sexualization of Asian women in America has existed since the 1800s. After U.S.-led wars in Asia, U.S. films depicted Asian women as coy, shy, sexual and highly infatuated with American men. Thus, while Asian women have always been perceived as sexual objects by American men, anime has worked to further reinforce this stereotype.
Not only does this stereotype increase the risk of Asian women becoming victims of sexual harassment and abuse, but it can also risk their lives as well. In 2021, six Asian women in a massage parlor were shot in Atlanta, Georgia by a gunman who set out to eliminate the place in order to curb his sex addiction. It’s clear that this act was a racially motivated crime as well as a crime of sexual violence. While many other factors played into this crime, anime isn’t helping to curb the hypersexualization of Asian women that led to the shooting.
It was at that moment — upon hearing about the shooting — that my fears of being sexualized went from feeling annoyed that people would ask me inappropriate questions about anime women to feeling terrified of possibly being targeted and seriously injured for my race. My fears also extended to not just myself but all of the Asian women around me.
Anime will continue to exist and depict women in these harmful ways, and nothing will stop its consumption. However, it is important to recognize when certain shows participate in this stereotype, so we don’t normalize or perpetuate the sexualization of Asian women like Japan has. Understanding that Asian women are not just 2D sexual objects is essential to preventing the growth of this disgusting behavior that continues to put us at risk of sexual violence and harm.
Skylar Paxton is an Opinion Intern for the fall 2022 quarter. She can be reached at paxtons@uci.edu.