The Deviating Voice from the Visual: Representations of Female Characters and Feminist Criticism in the 1990s’ Anime

Abstract

In the 1990s, Japanese anime sophisticated both the visual and voice databases for character creation. These two databases usually cooperate in a complementary manner in order to construct characters in the audio-visual medium. However, there is still always the possibility that they operate inconsistently. And sometimes, a brand-new character type is born from the inconsistent and varying combinations of the visual and voice databases. An outstanding example of the phenomenon is Haruka Tenou, one of the most popular characters in the TV series Sailor Moon (1992–97). In contrast to the otaku consumption suggested by Hiroki Azuma, feminist alternative readings of the work have been activated by the “queer” Haruka and her successors. These inconsitently animated and dubbed characters have been cues for the alternative possibilities of gender and sexuality.