by Asuka
Asuka is co-webmaster of AnimeInfo.org and its main graphics designer. She also works for an annual Anime Convention in the Midwest, Anime Central. A sci-fi/anime veteran of series such as Babylon 5, X-Files, Evangelion, and Cowboy Bebop, Asuka is, like her namesake, always at her best and not afraid of saying what's on her mind - even if it's looking cute and asking Frank to fix something that's broken.

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With the rising popularity of Japanese Animation (Anime) in the United States - started by shows such as "Pokemon" and "Sailor Moon", the interest in Japanese Animation is increasing by the day. It is also bringing the western culture of America together with the eastern culture of Japan. These two have different ideas about what is normal in society, whether it be about popular trends, practices, and social interaction. However, the medium of animation has served as the bridge for these two cultures, and the cross-influence of the two different styles has brought along new and different ways of animated shows, feature films, and series. In recent years, the Japanese style of animation, also known as "anime", has come to influence the West more than the other way around. More anime series are becoming "mainstream" or are appearing on Western television and stores, and many of them provide an insight into the inner workings of Japanese culture.

There are two different formats that a lot of anime series come in. The one that is most common in the United States is the animation. However, manga, which is much like a very thick comic book, is also very popular. "In 1994, 2.27 billion manga books and magazines were published, making up 35 percent of all material published in the world" (Grigsby, 61). Many stories are being published and animated in both formats. In Japan anime is more common than in America. It is more on the level of American sitcoms, and not all anime series are appropriate for children. There are anime series dealing with romance, drama, philosophy, and other adult themes (there are even anime series that are pornographic in nature, called "hentai" anime). Some of these series can be very reflective of Japanese and or general traits of eastern culture, in which among other things, gender roles are very clear-cut with no deviation.

Vandread is an anime series that breaks away from the traditional anime stereotype, which usually model the characters in a series after the more conservative Eastern culture. In many of these series, women are most commonly portrayed as being the characters that are often placed in danger and in need of help from their male counterparts, are boy-crazy, are looking for a husband, or their fathers are trying to marry them off. It is not very often that they are the sole heroes of the story line.

Women are not seen as valuable as men are in Japan. Mary Brinton writes in her article in the American Journal of Sociology "In cultural settings where parents (1) are motivated to invest in at least one child for future returns such as old-age support, (2) have resources for investment, and (3) perceive the labor market to be sex discriminatory, they will favor investments in sons over daughters. This describes, in short form, Japan." (Brinton, 307) There are also differences in the roles that men and women play in Japanese society. Women are less educated overall, and the education switches tracks in high school. Women are placed in tracks that commonly lean towards more traditional female roles, and more women attend junior colleges rather then a four-year one, as compared to men. Junior colleges also tend to focus more on things such as home economics and literature. More men attend four-year educational institutions, where the subjects cover a much broader area. When women enter the workforce, there are sizable differences between a man's salary and what the woman's salary is. As a result, not very many women in Japan look to advance in the professional world, and instead look to marry. Brinton says that In Japan "very few Japanese females marry before the age of 20, but by the age of 27 over three-quarters have married." (326) This idea is supported by an article in Cultural Anthropology by Karen Kelsky, which examines a new trend in Japan, in which women are trying to become more professionally involved in society. She notes that this is a new trend and is still not very large, saying "the majority of young women in Japan still hold marriage and full-time motherhood as their primary life goals" (Kelsky, 229). Kelsky's article deals with talking to the women who are trying to take a more western attitude, and become involved in international business. These women perceive the eastern culture as repressive to the female gender, which supports the common traditional ideas of the conservative eastern culture. These two articles reflect common elements that show up in Japanese media, which certainly includes the majority of anime series.

Breaking from the traditional ideas is not always the most accepted thing to do. Most cultures, including that of the Japanese, are slow to change, especially when it comes to gender roles, and when there is an attempt at change it may not always be easily done. "Women typically occupy roles that are lower in structural power than those available to men. Similar power motive-related behavior cannot be expected from women if gender role norms and institutional rules define the behavior as inappropriate for women" (Jenkins, 475). This is something that is coming in most cultures. Power roles that characters in media take on reflect the ideas of the culture; this is especially true with television series, including anime.

The characters with power in anime are most often the men, and when it is not, it is seen as something that could be considered controversial. Many anime series, such as Dragonball Z, Ninja Scroll, and others, feature dominant male characters who are, when they are not saving the female characters from danger, are the ones with the most power and the most significance when it comes to the plot and the characterization. These male-oriented and dominant series highlight the perception of the male in Japanese society.

"Vandread" takes a different perspective to traditional character and specifically, gender roles. It does this by creating a setting in which not only gender roles do not exist, but also where men, and especially women, play roles which are not normally as prevalent in Japanese culture. Vandread is a story about a universe where men and women are each their own separate culture, and do not get along. Their universe has been this way for three generations. Originally, on a colonization ship leaving from earth, the men and women were together, until the men escaped from the women, and now have developed their own empire, Taraaku. The women took the remaining ships and established an empire called Mejeiru. The series takes place three generations after the split, and there is now a generation of men that have never interacted with women, and vice versa.

Within each empire there is also a class structure in place. For example, in the male class system, the lowest class of citizens are the third-class ones who are make the Vanguard fighting units (essentially, technicians and grunts). They are not very highly looked upon, even though they are the ones who create the main weapon to fight their enemy, the women. Hibiki is a third-class citizen who is one of the main characters in the series; but he is not like most traditional anime male characters, who are portrayed as strong figures with dominant personalities. Hibiki is at first cowardly and full of self-pity, especially when it comes to women. The first encounter he has with a woman he runs away from her, terrified that she is going to eat him.

After accidentally becoming a stowaway, Hibiki and two of the other crewmen get captured by the women after they attack the Ikazuchi, the mens' newest battleship. The women that attack the ship turn out to actually be a group of pirates and not part of the women's military forces, and they are not against the military or their own empire. After the women capture the Ikazuchi they realize that the ship will not allow them to pilot it, that it can only be done by men. They also come under attack by a new enemy, someone other than men, who they have never seen before. Their Dreads (the women's fighting ships) alone cannot beat them. The pirates must work with the three men to fight against this new enemy and get back to warn both of their empires about this new threat. It is this adjusting to working with each other equally side by side that is the main focus of the series, and this gender-equal theme is one which is different from other traditional anime series with clear gender roles.

In this new approach to the portrayal of gender roles, the series is constructed such that men and women, performing in their separate roles, are not able to overcome obstacles and the enemy without working together. For example, the females are the ones that ultimately organize the fighting force and the numbers to fight, but the males are the only ones that can pilot the ship and initiate combinations with the female ships.

There are also numerous examples in the series where the males or the females are in trouble and must rely on one another to win. One of the characters, Meia, is a very independent female who refuses help from anyone. However, she gets into a situation where her recklessness and her claustrophobia get her in trouble, as she is trapped inside one of the robots on a planet with sand that moves and threatens to enclose her. She is saved only by the male doctor's assistance in helping her overcome her fear, as well as Hibiki's encouragement and rescue operation. While it does not completely change her attitude towards the men, it does help her realize that she and her companions do need the help of the men to overcome their troubles. These and other examples introduce the forced beginnings of gender-equality into society where there was none before (having been in separate societies, both the men and women at first attempted to establish their dominance, to no avail). This idea that there must be equality so that they may survive is one of the main themes of Vandread, and a departure from other series in the culture.

As far as the portrayal of women, we see that throughout the series, many episodes show non-traditional portrayals of women in men's roles - such as officers, pilots, and other significant roles normally reserved for men as well as the men being in roles that are not traditionally (especially in Japanese culture) reserved for men, but rather women. The entire female cast of the series are, by profession, pirates and warriors, and many of them are strong figures with a high sense of battle prowess, confidence, and aggressiveness. Compared to many other series and media in the culture where women fall into predetermined, more passive and "soft" roles, the female pirate and fighter organization is definitely different. The minority of male characters, though later on recognized by the female pirates as gender equals, are at first treated like subordinates and relegated to roles under the women. Hibiki is even at one point assigned to be a "kuroki" - a decidedly female (in the sense of normal eastern culture) role in which a person is responsible for being a cheerful, passive figure who encourages the "strong fighters" with a smile and is responsible for filling out waitress-style "orders" for more weapons. These reversals of the portrayal of traditional gender roles and their corresponding attitudes show Vandread's uniqueness from other traditional anime.

Another way in which gender roles are portrayed differently in Vandread is seen in the way that "traditional" gender roles are seen in a different light. For example, the roles of motherhood and being the homemaker in Japanese culture, normally filled by the "passive" female, are seen as something that is a sign of strength. In the all-female society of Vandread, there is the one woman that provides an egg (called an Oma), and then a woman who wants the child provides the other half of genetic material and carries the child (called the Fama). The "Fama" is stereotypically the "weaker" and "passive" of the two. However, Vandread reverses this traditional stereotype of the "passive homemaker". This is illustrated when in an episode, the character Meia learns that her "homemaker" mother (the Fama) was actually stronger than her more "aggressive" mother (the Oma).

The series is also different in its gender role portrayal in that the men and women must "rediscover" each other and their opposite gender, something which helps to revise their perceptions of their own gender in society. For example the method by which women reproduce (Fama/Oma), provides for confusion to the men when they discover that one of the female shipmates is pregnant - the idea that children don't come out of a factory is new to them (the all-male society reproduces by way of taking genetic material from two men and producing a child in a factory). The men and women have to learn about each other through the course of the series so that they can work together. Because they have been separated for three generations, they have no idea about how men interact with other men, which is something that the women learn about. The men (being outnumbered) are indoctrinated in how women interact and communicate with each other. Both sides must learn how to deal with each other, which for the younger ones is something that is a completely foreign concept, and for the older individuals something that they have not had to do in a long time.

Vandread provides an interesting alternative to common gender roles in both American and Japanese cultures. It is an excellent example of how society can change, and start to evolve into new ideas about gender and what is acceptable. It takes a perspective on gender that is completely different then what is common culture and uses it to illustrate that what is best for everyone is that there needs to be a level of equality between the genders. Throwing traditional roles into setting so that the 'weak' roles can be placed in a setting that shows that they do not have to be. Although the chances of there being a society even remotely similar to Vandread is unlikely, it still can be an effective tool of education on equality.

Works Cited

Brinton, Mary C., The Social-Institutional Bases of Gender Stratification: Japan as an Illustrative Case., American Journal of Sociology, V. 94 No. 2 September 1988, Chicago, University of Chicago Press. P: 335-354

Grigsby, Mary. Sailormoon: Manga (Comics) and Anime (Cartoons) Superheroine Meets Barbie: Global Entertainment Commodity Comes to the United States. Journal of Popular Culture, V. 32.1 Summer 1998. Popular Culture Association. P. 59-80

Jenkins, Sharon Rae. Introduction to the Special Issue: Defining Gender, Relationships, and Power. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, V. 42 No. 7/8 April 2000, Plenum Publishers. P. 467-490

Kelsky, Karen. Gender, Modernity and Eroticized Internationalism in Japan Cultural Anthropology: Journal of the Society for Cultural Anthropology. V 14 No. 2 May 1999, Washington, D.C: American Anthropological Association. P: 229-255

Lieberman, Leanne. I Want to be a Princess: Japanese Women in the Workplace. Off Our Backs, v xxix, n 11, Dec. 1999, p.13.

Loo, Robert, Karran Thorpe. Attitudes Towards Women's Roles in Society: A Replication After 20 Years. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, V. 39 No. 11/12 December 1998, Plenum Publishers. P. 903-912

http://www.animeinfo.org/animeu/socl102.html is a site that has information on the rise in American culture of the popularity of Japanese Animation.

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