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larryhammerIt's been a while since I nattered about manga, and I've been pondering the subject of girls playing for boys -- that is, shounen and seinen* sports manga about female players. This is a (sub)genre that rarely gets licensed, aside from a couple girls-playing-baseball anime series. The variety of ways it's handled is kinda fascinating.
It's also kinda dangerous. As you know, Bob, the problem with manga featuring women that are written for men is that oh so many of them exist to provide fanservice for the male gaze. Aside from all the obvious issues this causes, I also have artistic issues, namely that gratuitous fanservice is gratuitous -- tacked on, pasted on, artificial, and otherwise not integral (or even a harmonic grace-note) to the story. Case in point: Saki -- mah jong does not ordinarily create that level of teh sexy (or have that many lolis playing). So out that goes. Which means how good a story it is isn't the only criterion here -- there's also how well it averts, subverts, inverts, or otherwise fold/spindle/mulilates the male gaze.
So in no particular order, some series that I continued reading -- where by "no particular" I mean "alphabetical."
Baggataway - High school girls playing lacrosse (shounen). This one startled me, not because it's a manga about lacrosse, of all things -- look hard enough, and you can find a manga about anything -- but because it looks and reads like Kozue Amano decided to write a sports manga. Not just the character designs, but the relaxed pace and how scenes are framed. It even runs in the same magazine as Aria. And given how I feel about Aria, no surprise that I'm kinda charmed. Minimal fanservice, heavy infodumping about rules and gameplay. (Unlicensed, ongoing, scans through a volume and a half)
Beach Stars - High school girls playing beach volleyball (seinen). This series is indeed loaded with fanservice, but it at least comes by it honestly -- beach volleyball players wear skimpy uniforms, after all. There's nothing original about this one, with not a single character or story arc or match that we haven't seen before, but the author walks through the numbers with the apparently sincere belief that this is how to tell a story. With heart and honesty. (Unlicensed, 8 volumes, of which 5 are scanned)
Girl Fight - Middle-into-high school girls playing volleyball (seinen). This started mostly realistic, but when the Quirky Rivals appeared it started sliding into sports cliches and powerups and I've been losing interest. At least it has retained its refreshing lack of fanservice, except on covers and title pages. (Unlicensed, ongoing, scans through volume 2)
Koukou Kyuuji Zawa-san - A high school girl playing on a boys' baseball team (seinen). This one is frustrating, as the chapters are not about Zawa-san, but vignettes about various boys and men reacting to her, mostly trying to figure out either why she's playing hardball or how to deal being on the team with her. They're well-told snippets of story, but the limitation bugs me like a hangnail without a bandage. No fanservice. (Unlicensed, ongoing, scans through volume 1)
Matsuri Special - High school girl as a professional wrestler (shounen). Yoko Kamio ordinarily writes shoujo dramas like Boys over Flowers, so this was a change of pace, or something of one: it's a shounen drama using the, er, sport as the ostensible excuse for a plot. I'm still not quite sure what to make of it. Minimal fanservice. (Unlicensed, 4 volumes, scans through volume 3)
Shion no Ou - Teenage girls playing shogi (seinen). Take Hikaru no Go, swap one eastern board game with another, genderflip the protagonist, and replace the Heian era ghost with a childhood trauma that rendered the protagonist mute, and you might get something like this. Sorta. Okay, not really, but at least that gave you the premise. One thing it is good at, much like Hikaru no Go, is embodying the character drama through the playing, only with added psychological thriller plot. I wish scans weren't stalled for over two years. Fanservice limited to that the girls are cute. (Unlicensed, 8 volumes, scans into volume 3)
Yawara! - High school girl competing in judo (seinen). With lots and lots of romcom hijinx, but eventually Yawara gets her ambition on and takes going for Olympic gold seriously. Mild fanservice, most instances (at least in the first volumes) having plot significance. (Unlicensed, 29 volumes, scans through volume 5 -- anime adaptation is licensed)
Notable for its absence is anything by Misturu Adachi -- he frequently writes good strong female characters who play sports, but he's yet to write a girl-focused sports story. Slow Step comes closest, but a) the softball isn't anything more than a subplot, making it not a sports series but a romantic comedy, and 2) it's actually shoujo. (Really.) Cross Game has dual male and female protagonists, but while she gets far more character development (even more so in the anime), the narrative centers his story, even giving him voiceovers but never her. What makes this all the more of a shame is that while Adachi does include gratuitous fanservice, it's done so lightheartedly -- often enough, its very irrelevance is lampshaded -- and rarely focused on the main female characters, in contrast to all the above.
Shoujo and josei** sports stories belong, of course, in a whole 'nother post.
* Obligatory reminder: shounen is aimed at tween and teen boys, seinen at young adult men (which sometimes overlaps with the upper range of shounen).
** Ob-reminder: shoujo = aimed at tween and teen girls, josei = aimed at adult women (again, there's overlap at the boundary).
---L.
It's also kinda dangerous. As you know, Bob, the problem with manga featuring women that are written for men is that oh so many of them exist to provide fanservice for the male gaze. Aside from all the obvious issues this causes, I also have artistic issues, namely that gratuitous fanservice is gratuitous -- tacked on, pasted on, artificial, and otherwise not integral (or even a harmonic grace-note) to the story. Case in point: Saki -- mah jong does not ordinarily create that level of teh sexy (or have that many lolis playing). So out that goes. Which means how good a story it is isn't the only criterion here -- there's also how well it averts, subverts, inverts, or otherwise fold/spindle/mulilates the male gaze.
So in no particular order, some series that I continued reading -- where by "no particular" I mean "alphabetical."
Baggataway - High school girls playing lacrosse (shounen). This one startled me, not because it's a manga about lacrosse, of all things -- look hard enough, and you can find a manga about anything -- but because it looks and reads like Kozue Amano decided to write a sports manga. Not just the character designs, but the relaxed pace and how scenes are framed. It even runs in the same magazine as Aria. And given how I feel about Aria, no surprise that I'm kinda charmed. Minimal fanservice, heavy infodumping about rules and gameplay. (Unlicensed, ongoing, scans through a volume and a half)
Beach Stars - High school girls playing beach volleyball (seinen). This series is indeed loaded with fanservice, but it at least comes by it honestly -- beach volleyball players wear skimpy uniforms, after all. There's nothing original about this one, with not a single character or story arc or match that we haven't seen before, but the author walks through the numbers with the apparently sincere belief that this is how to tell a story. With heart and honesty. (Unlicensed, 8 volumes, of which 5 are scanned)
Girl Fight - Middle-into-high school girls playing volleyball (seinen). This started mostly realistic, but when the Quirky Rivals appeared it started sliding into sports cliches and powerups and I've been losing interest. At least it has retained its refreshing lack of fanservice, except on covers and title pages. (Unlicensed, ongoing, scans through volume 2)
Koukou Kyuuji Zawa-san - A high school girl playing on a boys' baseball team (seinen). This one is frustrating, as the chapters are not about Zawa-san, but vignettes about various boys and men reacting to her, mostly trying to figure out either why she's playing hardball or how to deal being on the team with her. They're well-told snippets of story, but the limitation bugs me like a hangnail without a bandage. No fanservice. (Unlicensed, ongoing, scans through volume 1)
Matsuri Special - High school girl as a professional wrestler (shounen). Yoko Kamio ordinarily writes shoujo dramas like Boys over Flowers, so this was a change of pace, or something of one: it's a shounen drama using the, er, sport as the ostensible excuse for a plot. I'm still not quite sure what to make of it. Minimal fanservice. (Unlicensed, 4 volumes, scans through volume 3)
Shion no Ou - Teenage girls playing shogi (seinen). Take Hikaru no Go, swap one eastern board game with another, genderflip the protagonist, and replace the Heian era ghost with a childhood trauma that rendered the protagonist mute, and you might get something like this. Sorta. Okay, not really, but at least that gave you the premise. One thing it is good at, much like Hikaru no Go, is embodying the character drama through the playing, only with added psychological thriller plot. I wish scans weren't stalled for over two years. Fanservice limited to that the girls are cute. (Unlicensed, 8 volumes, scans into volume 3)
Yawara! - High school girl competing in judo (seinen). With lots and lots of romcom hijinx, but eventually Yawara gets her ambition on and takes going for Olympic gold seriously. Mild fanservice, most instances (at least in the first volumes) having plot significance. (Unlicensed, 29 volumes, scans through volume 5 -- anime adaptation is licensed)
Notable for its absence is anything by Misturu Adachi -- he frequently writes good strong female characters who play sports, but he's yet to write a girl-focused sports story. Slow Step comes closest, but a) the softball isn't anything more than a subplot, making it not a sports series but a romantic comedy, and 2) it's actually shoujo. (Really.) Cross Game has dual male and female protagonists, but while she gets far more character development (even more so in the anime), the narrative centers his story, even giving him voiceovers but never her. What makes this all the more of a shame is that while Adachi does include gratuitous fanservice, it's done so lightheartedly -- often enough, its very irrelevance is lampshaded -- and rarely focused on the main female characters, in contrast to all the above.
Shoujo and josei** sports stories belong, of course, in a whole 'nother post.
* Obligatory reminder: shounen is aimed at tween and teen boys, seinen at young adult men (which sometimes overlaps with the upper range of shounen).
** Ob-reminder: shoujo = aimed at tween and teen girls, josei = aimed at adult women (again, there's overlap at the boundary).
---L.
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driveby-commenting following the Sirens trail
Date: 20 October 2010 02:17 pm (UTC)Re: driveby-commenting following the Sirens trail
Date: 20 October 2010 03:03 pm (UTC)---L.
Re: driveby-commenting following the Sirens trail
Date: 20 October 2010 06:37 pm (UTC)Re: driveby-commenting following the Sirens trail
Date: 20 October 2010 08:06 pm (UTC)---L.