VOlUME 05 ISSUE 06 June 2026
1Anh, Nguyen Thi Lan, 2Cuc, Pham Thi Thu
1,2Hanoi University
DOI : https://doi.org/10.58806/ijsshmr.2026.v5i6n22Google Scholar Download Pdf
ABSTRACT
Anime today is filled with women who command battles, outthink opponents, and carry major parts of the story. Yet something uneasy remains beneath that visibility. The more capable female characters become, the more insistently their bodies are turned into spectacle. Intelligence, leadership, and combat ability coexist with exposed costumes, voyeuristic framing, and scenes clearly designed to attract visual attention. In many mainstream Anime works, empowerment does not displace objectification; it is packaged together with it. Many participants did not reject these representations outright. Several respondents appreciated female characters precisely because they were capable, decisive, and difficult to ignore within the story. At the same time, those same viewers often described fan-service scenes as excessive, distracting, or unnecessary. This tension appeared repeatedly throughout the survey responses. Female characters were admired, but the way they were visually framed often produced discomfort rather than empowerment. The findings therefore suggest that contemporary Anime increasingly turns female strength itself into part of the spectacle.
KEYWORDS:Japanese Anime; Female Empowerment; Objectification; Male Gaze; Gender Representation; Fan-service; Visual Culture; Japanese Popular Culture; Media Literacy; Audience Reception
REFERENCES1) Allison, A. (2006). Millennial monsters: Japanese toys and the global imagination. University of California Press.
2) Azuma, H. (2009). Otaku: Japan’s database animals (J. E. Abel & S. Kono, Trans.). University of Minnesota Press.
3) Cavallaro, D. (2006). Anime intersections: Tradition and innovation in theme and technique. McFarland.
4) Coates, J., Fraser, L., & Pendleton, M. (2020). The Routledge companion to gender and Japanese culture. Routledge.
5) Condry, I. (2013). The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story. Duke University Press.
6) Fredrickson, B. L., & Roberts, T.-A. (1997). Objectification theory: Toward understanding women’s lived experiences and mental health risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(2), 173–206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x
7) Hall, S. (1980). Encoding/decoding. In S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe, & P. Willis (Eds.), Culture, media, language (pp. 128–138). Hutchinson.
8) Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. Sage.
9) McLelland, M. (Ed.). (2017). The end of cool Japan: Ethical, legal, and cultural challenges to Japanese popular culture. Routledge.
10) Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Screen, 16(3), 6–18. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/16.3.6
11) Napier, S. J. (2005). Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle: Experiencing contemporary Japanese animation. Palgrave Macmillan.
12) Orbaugh, S. (2003). Busty battlin’ babes: The evolution of the beautiful fighting girl in 1990s visual culture. In J. Mostow, N. Bryson, & M. Graybill (Eds.), Gender and power in the Japanese visual field (pp. 201–228). University of Hawai’i Press.
13) Ōtsuka, E. (2010). Monogatari shōhiron kai [A theory of narrative consumption revised edition]. Kadokawa Shoten.
14) Patrick W. Galbraith. (2019). Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan. Duke University Press.
15) Potter, W. J. (2018). Media literacy (9th ed.). Sage.
16) Saitō, T. (2011). Beautiful fighting girl (J. Keith Vincent & D. Lawson, Trans.). University of Minnesota Press.
17) Shamoon, D. (2015). Passionate friendship: The aesthetics of girls’ culture in Japan. University of Hawai‘i Press.
18) Steinberg, M. (2012). Anime’s Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan. University of Minnesota Press
19) Susan J. Napier. (2018). Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation (Revised ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
20) Tsugata, N. (2014). 『日本のアニメは何がすごいのか』[What is remarkable about Japanese anime]. Shodensha.
Cite this Article:Lan, A. N. T., & Thu, C. P. T. (2026). Female Empowerment and Objectification in Contemporary Japanese Anime. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE HUMANITY & MANAGEMENT RESEARCHS, 5(6), 1546-1558. https://doi.org/10.58806/ijsshmr.2026.v5i6n22