"At Its 20th Anniversary, Yu-Gi-Oh! Is Still Stuck in the Past When It Comes to Women"

[Halubaris Maphotika]

https://archive.is/PVzdq

 

This is actually Yu-Gi-Oh! related! And with all the Konami hate recently this is doubly relevant. Discuss my good sirs.

[Blake]

Just going to say, aside from the anime not being tied to Konami directly, it's really not.

 

The main female characters in Arc-V are both fairly successful, winning more than losing. Sure, the lead is at the whim of the plot, but so is everyone else, with fan favorites losing recently, as well.

 

Both Yuzu and Celina have shown marked development, with the latter's occuring recently, and there's actual depth to both of them, partially due to a link the two of them share + 2 other girls who haven't appeared in person. Just like the main and his 3 counterparts.

 

While the main antagonist is unclear, a fair number of people expect a woman to be the true antagonist of the series, given her characterization and role reminding them of the main antagonist of Kill la Kill.

 

Some fans hate on the female characters, wanting them to lose, but the anime has been kinder as a whole. Even the side female characters, such as MC's mom, a young psychic, and a gem-knight user, still present strongly, and give you a reason to like them, while not being irrelevant to the story (okay, G-K girl kinda got shoved aside after yuri the duel, but).

 

Arc-V, unlike the former ones, is at least attempting to change that.

[UltimateIRS]

>"yugioh is still stuck in the past"

>talks only about dm

>stopped watching during gx era

 

okay

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

>"yugioh is still stuck in the past"

>talks only about dm

>stopped watching during gx era

 

okay

This was my exact thought. They didn't mention any female characters besides two, and only from the original series. It's not as though what they said was incorrect, in itself, but it's lacking in information and research.

[epicmemesbro]

>"yugioh is still stuck in the past"

>talks only about dm

>stopped watching during gx era

 

okay

This is me in a nutshell.

 

She kinda has a point on some tropes tho. I don't really know much about female roles in the newer series. I don't recall any strong women in 5D's, I could be wrong though.

 

Also what is this "fan service" I keep hearing about? Is it like an Easter egg or something?

[UltimateIRS]

Also what is this "fan service" I keep hearing about? Is it like an Easter egg or something?

this guy

[Alastar Rainford]

Aki was a strong female in 5Ds,so was Carly. The later having a great character arc. Though once their arcs finished in signers they went to the side.

 

There was also Sherry, who was a strong duelist til the final episodes.

 

Gx had Alexis and Clare who both won and lost i believe equal duels like most of the supporting cast.

 

Tbh Zexal was worse than DM thanks to really bad writing and too much focus on the main 3 of Kite,Shark,and Yuma.

[Trebuchet MS]

Gx had Alexis and Clare who both won and lost i believe equal duels like most of the supporting cast.

Unfortunately, keyword is "supporting cast". Let's not forget the fact that there are several supporting cast members who had wins in more plot-important duels than them.

[Just Crouton]

"However, behind the excitement is a bittersweet feeling that comes from not having a female duelist to look up to as fan."

 

This is pretty understandable.

 

While the article falsely claims that Mai was never shown to be any better than the men (she clearly overwhelms the two male leads and hustles a tournament-level player in season 1 alone,) Mai's last act in season 2 was to be fridged to build up Joey's match with Marik.

 

Alexis and Yuzu actually do stuff, sort of. Alexis saved her brother herself, and Yuzu, last time I watched the show, was at least Yuya's equal.

 

But Anzu only existed for boobs (the early manga made this obvious,) a love interest that went nowhere, and a cheerleader.

 

Aki, who was argubly the most powerful member of Team 5D's, was stripped of her powers because and reduced to just being in love with Yusei, all for the sake of making her piece of cardboard not-boyfriend look more powerful.

 

Luka got Ancient Fairy Dragon and saved her brother...then did nothing else worthy of mention for the remaining 100+ episodes of the show.

 

And Kotori was just flat-chested Anzu for pedophiles lolis, and worse.

 

Yu-Gi-Oh! really does suck when it comes to women.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

Fansevice?

 

Aki, Mai, *gags* Tea

 

Izhizu was a great female protagonist.

 

Alexis had a chance, but she faded out of importance

 

Aki just angers me, she was a funking badass till they turned her into a cheerleader for Yusei

 

We do not talk about the 4th series

[mitchermitcher]

But Anzu only existed for boobs (the early manga made this obvious,) a love interest that went nowhere, and a cheerleader.

Yu-Gi-Oh started off as a shounen manga, something like this isn't really wrong. She's meant to be the girl you as a young boy fancied while reading.

[Maeriberii Haan]

Meanwhile, lack of good female representation in 5Ds and Zexal is mainly because of Yoshida's self-admitted inability to write girls. And let's not talk about 5Ds post Dark Signer.

 

As mitch said it's pretty excusable due to the main target demographic over there being young boys. Well, female representation would definitely really help still, and this is where Arc V comes in as a start.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Carly and Sherry had some good runs during 5Ds, but yeah former stopped dueling after Dark Signers.

As much as I like Ruka (however much that's fading lately), she really didn't do much. Her manga incarnate was a lot better.

 

Only Rio did anything worth mentioning for a female character in ZEXAL (she should've been female lead, not Kotori). Kotori had ONE duel, and that was when she was possessed by the Barian emblem, which she of course lost. Cat-chan did very little also, but had more duel time. Oh wait, there's also Anna and she did a lot more than those two combined. 

 

At least Yuzu is actually doing something important in ARC-V as far as female characters go (not just being cheering section for the main protagonist of their series). I suppose the same goes for Serena, even with all things considered at present.

 

-----

I didn't care about Mai anyway, even back in elementary school when DM still aired. (Well, there was about a 15-17 year gap between ages)

Anzu/Tea was iffy and the other females were neutral.

 

GX-wise, Alexis/Asuka wasn't bad and least did something relevant in the series.

Blair had that short-lived crush on Zane and eventually moved on to Jaden.

 

There were certainly others, but most of them didn't add much (well, maybe that female Shadow Rider).

[vla1ne]

yugioh is a shounen series, it's aimed at boys, whomever wrote this article must not understand that. i get that they want to see a female character, but the anime is aimed at the male market.

 

Considering one of the best players i know irl is a female, i can't understand how the anime would even discourage them. it's not even like there weren't good female players in the anime. i still remember the amazon duel from GX, as one of the most manly duels in the series (and it was against a woman)

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

I find the "aimed at boys" thing kinda silly. Cause for one, why can't boys have strong female characters to read about. And two, especially nowadays "for boys" or "for girls" isn't really as much of a thing.

[vla1ne]

it's more about it's easier to have a boy as as MC in a shounen series than it is to have a girl since it's far easier to establish a secure link to the target audience (males) thereby ensuring sales won't flop from the giddy-up, in addition to that, as stated above, not everybody knows how to write good female characters. in shoujo series, the reverse is often true instead. the target audience is female, and thus more likely to connect with a female MC, so on average, the MC will be a female, and occasionally, the "can't write a male to save my life" story pops up, where all the males are cringeworthy stereotypes.

 

can there be a female MC in shounen manga? Yes, there is nothing stopping this from happening, and i have no objections to it really, but that will be up to the desires and abilities of the writers and producers. the larger complaint should be that in prior series of yugioh, characters that had potential were wasted away in order to make the MC look like a badass (aki lost her skills, bakura was literally a side character for the entire series, the twins never did anything really amazing, tea and tristan were cheerleaders, Sebastian was wasted potential, syrus didn't do half of what he could have done, and zexal existed.)

 

it's not really about their gender complaints, it's about the feel of the piece, they don't seem to understand the series as it is today, the female leads are all certified dueling badasses who are arguably even more awesome than even the male lead after him getting over his depression for the thousandth time. they only saw the originals and never even watched the newest series. they want the female to be the lead, but that's not necessary, it's possible, as proven by anime like soul eater, madoka, claymore, wixoss, nanoha, ect, but they aren't even watching the damn show, so how can they pass judgment on it?

[Smear]

The article's obviously stupid seeing as though they basically only talk about the original season (which came out 15 years ago before this new age liberalism crap). I don't see the problem in a TV show not having many female duelists. Sailor Moon didn't have any male sailor guardians(?), so where's the countless articles about the needed equality of that? Why should people care about TV shows and the 'genders' that are being shown in them, and I use genders loosely because seriously people have butchered the word so much nowadays that I'm pretty sure most inanimate objects have them.

 

This is one of those 'feminism' articles that are completely misconstruing the meaning of the word and end up just being blatant misandry. The reason most series that are aimed at young males have male characters playing the more major roles, such as YGO, is not because of any misogynistic reasoning, it's for one reason and one reason alone. It's more popular. Sure, some time in the future I believe that they'll be equally liked by males mainly because liberalism is starting to get a lot more popular than conservatism. But right now, children don't care. They relate to the cool guys and a lot of them aspire to be like them. That's how companies work. They make what the consumers are interested in.

 

Articles like this just really make me angry. There's really no point. It's not degrading women. It's not degrading men. It's a shounen anime about a card game. No behind the scenes hate towards any gender or sex or whatever, it's just card monsters fighting other card monsters. These kind of articles just make the hive mind of Tumblr attack the show that's being written about for absolutely no good reason.

 

God damn, I don't think I can stand the world for much longer

[Halubaris Maphotika]

Why should people care about TV shows and the 'genders' that are being shown in them, and I use genders loosely because seriously people have butchered the word so much nowadays that I'm pretty sure most inanimate objects have them.

People nowadays, for some reason, are insanely insecure. The growing need to have your existence validated through entertainment is growing. The "representation" argument in media is being used by people who feel the need to validate their petty lives through the entertainment they consume, turning the whole thing on its head and lambasting anyone who disagrees.

[King K. Azo]

... You can't bring up something from the past to say that something is stuck in the past...

 

That means that the person themselves is stuck in the past.

 

Yuigoh wasn't always the best at having strong women, but Yuzu and Serena are a good start. If/When the series keeps going, I'm sure we'll see better and better female characters.

[Just Crouton]

The issue isn't a lack of female main characters in Yu-Gi-Oh. It's that the major female characters suck in a show where there's evidently a solid female fanbase who watch the show and play the game.

 

 

Meanwhile, lack of good female representation in 5Ds and Zexal is mainly because of Yoshida's self-admitted inability to write girls. And let's not talk about 5Ds post Dark Signer.

 

 

Regarding 5D's, I got the impression that fans hated Jaden so much, that the writers took Atem and male power fantasy'd him up to beyond Superman levels, then dumbed down the rest of the team when they realized they were stronger than him. Hence why Aki went from tortured psychic to cardboard cheerleader.

[Smear]

The issue isn't a lack of female main characters in Yu-Gi-Oh. It's that the major female characters suck in a show where there's evidently a solid female fanbase who watch the show and play the game.

I don't know, I always thought Mai was really cool. Other than her there's not really many other female characters. And while I agree there's a solid female fanbase, evidence shows that there are significantly more males. I mean hell, I've been on this site for a solid 7 years and I've seen about 3, maybe 4 actual females.

[mitchermitcher]

Is there like an actual statistic for that, curiously? The number of girls who are into Yugioh, especially in Japan. Having a solid female fanbase overseas won't do much since the anime's made in Japan for the Japanese audience mainly.

[epicmemesbro]

I really don't understand people like author of the articles' logic. If a female is made to be strong and tough, they'll complain how "oh so you're saying a woman has to be a tomboy/butch to be strong, and can't have an ounce of femininity." But of we make a female character feminine they'll complain that the character will be objectified.