“Gender Trouble” Seen in Some Female Characters in Japanese Animation

Abstract

In this article, I address some female characters which are popular on TV in Japan. It seems that they are attractive because they represent various factors of the confusion of old gender stereotypes. In this article, I will consider this positive character of the confusion in terms of (A)gender and sexuality in families in modernity, (B)tensions between cultural diversity and gender issues, (C)citizen, government, fighting and gender, (D)the positions of subject and object. And also I will try to seek theoretical and practical possibilities that animation can provide some “imaginary spaces” for psychologically repressed people to restore positive images of themselves.