Manga and anime series, which have gained great popularity today, are indispensable for the young age group. However, as many viewers and readers have noticed, the male characters in these series are drawn just like women. These characters, who are almost male-beautiful, can sometimes be mistaken for women by the reader/viewer.
In fact, this drawing is done on purpose, and it even has a very old history. We can hear that you are surprised; Don’t worry, we were surprised a lot while researching for you.
The concept of a beautiful man is not a new topic for the Japanese; It appears frequently throughout East Asian history.
We can give the best example of this in history with the Onnagatas who played female roles in Kabuki theatre. Although these actors are generally people who carefully observe women’s attitudes and behaviors, they are people who are desired by many people, regardless of whether they are men or women.
It was also a plus for them that the Western beauty standard matched Japanese men exactly, so they could reflect the people they were influenced by in the West in their drawings. It is not like that in our culture, but; In the West, standards such as smooth/hairless face, thinness and having less fat actually coincide with the beauty standard in Japanese culture.
Although they have had their own standards of beauty throughout their history, it was not reflected in anime and manga before the 1970s. What do you think really happened on that date?
Mangakas (manga illustrators) in the 1970s; She became frequently influenced by male icons such as David Bowie and Swedish actor Björn Andrésen. In fact, we can say that Andrésen gave this effect more because he became an international icon. The reason why he appeared as an icon was that, unlike many men of that period, he had a more feminine beauty.
Andrésen, who attracted the attention of Japanese mangaka with her smooth skin, golden hair, snow-white skin and feminine stance, actually unknowingly became the subject of inspiration for manga. In fact, the biggest example of this can be given by the characters of the old manga “Year 24 Group”.
As we get closer to today’s date, we can clearly see that they still maintain this standard. For example; It is an inevitable fact that many characters that we cannot think of, such as Griffith in the popular manga and anime series Berserk, Alucard in Castlevania, Johan in Monster, were influenced by Björn Andrésen.
This style of drawing even has a name today: Bishounen.
When we look at the Japanese word meaning, we can see that it means “beautiful man/boy with feminine features”. These characters, who are generally drawn as tall, thin and have almost no muscles, appear in manga and anime today. In fact, even the voices of these characters are usually women.
We’re not exactly sure what the mangaka are trying to do, but sometimes even we can mistake a character for a woman while watching! In fact, if we talk about the voice actors: The Armin character in the Attack on Titan anime actually has the same characteristics as we mentioned above. Moreover, the voice of the character Armin really belongs to a voice actress named Marina Inoue.
So, it’s best not to form a heartfelt bond with a character, even if it’s not real. If you’re a male viewer, you’ll be the one who gets upset at the end of the day! If you have another character in mind, don’t forget to mention it in the comments.
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