I'm at work so don't have the time to reply to this properly, and it's been at least 6 years since I watched the show, if not more, but this was a really great read, and I really want to do a re-watch now.
One thing though.
"One I found particularly fascinating was the fact that some of the Magical Girl series that are touted in the West as being strongly feminist are, in Japan, primarily aimed at adult men who fetishize the cuteness and even infantilisation of the main characters."
My understanding is there are some shows for men and some shows for teenage girls? And I THINK Utena is the latter? Along with like Marimite and Strawberry Panic and Rose of Versailles. But I watched one of the former by mistake once, I've forgotten the name, and the difference was quite marked. Like even the animation was different. (Boobs. In a gross way.) But IDK, I didn't do a lot of reading around this so I may have it wrong.
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Date: 2014-03-17 12:30 pm (UTC)One thing though.
"One I found particularly fascinating was the fact that some of the Magical Girl series that are touted in the West as being strongly feminist are, in Japan, primarily aimed at adult men who fetishize the cuteness and even infantilisation of the main characters."
My understanding is there are some shows for men and some shows for teenage girls? And I THINK Utena is the latter? Along with like Marimite and Strawberry Panic and Rose of Versailles. But I watched one of the former by mistake once, I've forgotten the name, and the difference was quite marked. Like even the animation was different. (Boobs. In a gross way.) But IDK, I didn't do a lot of reading around this so I may have it wrong.