The Speakeasy Podcast recently released their 4th episode, wherein they talk about the “bishounen,” and all of the celebration and agony that comes from putting some eye candy for girls into anime that are traditionally considered “for guys.”
For those unfamiliar, the term bishounen literally means “beautiful boy,” and refers to characters in manga, especially shoujo manga, who are beautiful and effeminate. In being pretty, bishounen in turn violate the unwritten rules of Acceptable Beauty in a Man, where guys are allowed to look good, but only in a way that reaffirms heterosexuality by having them conform to the male view of what a lady killer is supposed to look like.
Simply put, bishounen threaten masculinity and make guys uncomfortable. But the “threat” of bishounen isn’t simply in their looks, but in their very presence, and to get to the real heart of the problem, we have to take a look at a very similar concept which also holds some very profound differences: the trap.
The origin of the term “trap,” as it’s used by English-speaking anime fans, refers to the idea that a male viewer is “tricked” into being attracted to what he thinks is a very attractive lady, only to find out that the character actually has a Y-chromosome. In some cases, it works so effectively that some will say that liking traps is still not considered “gay,” because the character is so effeminate that all they’re doing is appealing to a heterosexual man’s natural desires using the power of artistic expression.
Now what’s really interesting is that in some cases you’ll find examples of guys who love traps but hate bishounen. At first, it can appear to be a contradiction, but there’s a fundamental difference at work here: bishounen are designed to appeal to girls, while traps are designed to appeal to guys.
Of course I’m aware that there are plenty of guys who decry the presence of traps just as much as they do bishounen, guys who believe that both the moe fan and the fujoshi are killing anime. But I really believe that the thin line between bishounen and trap reveals the truth, and that it all comes down to fear.
Guys who lament the presence of bishounen are not as threatened by their good looks as they are the idea that the presence of bishounen means that guy-oriented anime will suffer in some capacity. When the bishounen talks, this is what they hear coming out of their mouths.
“These character designs are not for you.”
“We’re doing things to actively appeal to people that aren’t you.”
It’s the fear that girls will latch onto a show just for the hot guys and will ignore all of the deep and wonderful story that’s actually there and will refer to the guys as “bishies” and debate the degree to which they would “glomp” them. It’s the fear that anime which would have had excellent story and setting might end up being aborted half-way and turned into a hideous carbunkle that sacrificed its potential for greatness for scenes involving with male beauty, angst, and sparkling moonlight.
The truth of this matter is actually stated in the Speakeasy podcast: anime, in some capacity has always made attempts to appeal to girls, even in that most manly of genres, the giant robot anime. The original fans of Mobile Suit Gundam were actually mostly female. UFO Robo Grendizer found a female fanbase as well, because of some of the romance elements in the story, as well as the presence of strong female characters. Even Gowapper 5 Godam tried to appeal to girls by being the first giant robot series to have a girl as the main character. They may have been a secondary audience to the boys buying action figures, but when it comes down to it, what’s wrong with having an audience that’s 50% female?
OGIUE MANIAX 
Yeah, for the record: it’s not “a fear that” when it all actually happens.
“girls will latch onto a show just for the hot guys and will ignore all of the deep and wonderful story that’s actually there and will refer to the guys as “bishies” and debate the degree to which they would “glomp” them” — the predominant truth such that any exceptions are asymptotically minimal, and if you even fathom to try and argue to the contrary then you need to get out of your goddamn Internet ivory tower and spend some time in the trenches
“anime which would have had excellent story and setting might end up being aborted half-way and turned into a hideous carbunkle that sacrificed its potential for greatness for scenes involving with male beauty, angst, and sparkling moonlight” — that also happened, it was called Glass Fleet, though feel free to insert any number of others
These people, these zealots, these liars and charlatans who either lack rudimentary reading comprehension or–more likely–willfully choose to hear what they want to hear need to get it straight: the enemy isn’t “girls.” Not directly.
The enemy is “superficiality.” The enemy is “unbalance,” including but not limited to the Kujibiki. The enemy is “turning fringe elements into the mainstream.” The enemy is “the ends,” not “the means.”
The means are pretty boy character designs. The means are boys who look like girls. The means are girls who look like toddlers. These are just symptoms of a greater cause.
The end they all ultimately lead to…is moe. And moe? Moe is the sniper.
MOE IS THE SNIPER.
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The predominant truth such that any exceptions are asymptotically minimal, and if you even fathom to try and argue to the contrary then you need to get out of your goddamn Internet ivory tower and spend some time in the trenches.
I feel that this sort of thing happens to any show, anime or otherwise. So there are girls who enjoy the show because it has pretty boys in it. Big deal. It’s not like it’s a tremendous offense against your very being as an anime fan.
That also happened, it was called Glass Fleet, though feel free to insert any number of others.
Isn’t it a bit of a fallacy to use a Gonzo show, which has the Gonzo hallmark of usually dropping in quality after the first few episodes?
The end they all ultimately lead to…is moe. And moe? Moe is the sniper.
No, moe is the SPAH, and it’s onto you! It knows where you keep your stash of BL doujinshi featuring Rei from Hokuto no Ken! Keep looking behind your shoulder!
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First I want to say most fanboys I know don’t hate bishounen because of the fear you mentioned, they simply hate it, calling it gay and looking down on it or completely ignoring it. A totally negative reaction I may say. I dont know why but imo it’s because of an unequal attitude toward girls’ stuff that was deeply installed in their head.
Also that reason above only works with people hating moe and fanservice shows in general, it cant be said the same about fanboys who love moe and fanservice shows.
And why do they have to fear of that when 80% of shows each season are for them ? Let take a look at this month’s new anime based on Anidb’s data : 23 TV series excluding old anime like Conan. We have 5 shows for fan girls which consist of 2 kid shows and 3 shows for teenage and above. So there rest 18 shows are either obviously for boys or more ambiguous like ….ok I dont know since ambiguous or not is based on each person’s taste. Anyway what I meant to say is that fear seems pretty baseless to me.
Last but not least,you know that not every fanboy jump in a show staring the entire time at a female character but every fanboy loves a pretty character. The same goes to fangirl.
This one
“It’s the fear that girls will latch onto a show just for the hot guys and will ignore all of the deep and wonderful story that’s actually there and will refer to the guys as “bishies” and debate the degree to which they would “glomp” them. It’s the fear that anime which would have had excellent story and setting might end up being aborted half-way and turned into a hideous carbunkle that sacrificed its potential for greatness for scenes involving with male beauty, angst, and sparkling moonlight.”
will offend me if this is really what many people think.
Btw maybe because I’m new to this community but I dont see any post about this Bishounen issue so I’m glad you posted about this ^^ Thanks and excuse me with my poor english.
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No doubt that there is a fear of THE GAY among male viewers. But where is that fear when the same audience watches shows made for 12 year old girls? The girly and cutesy elements in those shows are surely the pink brick road to homosexuality. Surely.
…I guess little girls aren’t as threatening as a pretty boy with a phallus, always trying to take their waifus away.
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But in this case, the guys can obviously see themselves doing the girls. :v
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I don’t see how a bunch of fujoshi/fangirls squealing over handsome bishounen is any worse than fanboys panting over cute/pretty bishoujo, really. Just as gundam has handsome guys for fangirls, you’ve got magical girl shows targeting grown men in addition to the little girls fanbase. It’s been happening for quite some time. I don’t hear many female otaku whine about the extreme male-oriented fanservice some titles have (and yes, you can have too much of a good thing), but put some bishounen? watch out for the otaku cries composed mostly of “MY EYES!”, “I can’t unsee” and “WTF get this out of my (anime title)!”. Really guys, I hoped you were made of stronger stuff.
Just as Heinsia said, I’d be extremely offended if most people thought of fujoshi or fangirls as mindless people who only care about eye candy. At least in my case I care about the story, the depth and you know, all that stuff that makes an anime, and any other title in any other medium, great.
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“Simply put, bishounen threaten masculinity and make guys uncomfortable.”
I’m not sure I can agree with that. I don’t really know that it’s fair to call out bishounen specifically. What guy is as manly as Char or Archer, for that matter? And I’m sure that on the other side of things, we can easily name a dozen anime girls that real girls can’t match up to. Any time you compare a real person with a fictional hero, it’s unsurprising that the real falls short.
Girls have been compared to their idealized fictional counterparts for a long time, but when there exist pretty boy counterparts for guys, suddenly it’s an extraordinary threat to masculinity?
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You misunderstand something. It’s not about the bishounen being on a level above normal guys and guys having issue with that, it’s that bishounen are a level above in a way that guys don’t like.
Let’s take your examples, Char and Archer. They can be considered impossibly manly, but that’s something guys want to aspire to. They want the image of the lady killer to be in line with the image of ideal masculinity, of strength and intelligence and charisma, what guys wish they were.
Basically, think James Bond vs Backstreet Boys (or any other Boy Band).
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Anime or manga in which editors/authors have the freedom to retroactively shoehorn in a bevy of bishounen characters and implied yaoi-type relationships, in an effort to appeal to the unspoken, yet obviously recognized fujoshi demographic don’t usually have very strong plots to begin with. Therefore, I don’t find the threat of a compromise in the quality of the storyline to usually be an issue. I think alot of people that object to this, citing a compromise in the quality of the story, are just rationalizing their preference for bishoujo character designs, which is basically comparable to the fujoshi’s preference for bishounen characters.
It is important, though, to differentiate these more “opportunistic” anime/manga from other titles like Kuroshitsuji or Ouran High School Host Club, which contained bishounen characters from the beginning, and contain much stronger plots that are actually built around these characters.
As much as I love Oh! Great and admire his artwork, Air Gear stands out as one of the best examples of an originally extremely male-centric manga which obviously introduced a plethora of bishounen in an effort to appeal to it’s respective magazine’s fujoshi demographic. I just can’t see a former hentai mangaka coming to this decision without the advice of an editor who has a more informed understanding of the mag’s readership. But you can’t fault him for wanting to design characters that are easy on the eyes, whether male or female, and doing it very well. An artist skilled at drawing the human form should be able to recognize beauty in both male and female, and this has absolutely nothing to do with sexual preference.
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There’s something a bit visually different, also. It’s hard to say, though, exactly… Longer chins and noses, thinner eyes in the bishounen perhaps? There are male cues working there, whereas a “trap” is visually a woman with a penis.
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As Daryl Surat sort of stated, you could see the same types of attitudes regarding moe, and it could contribute to this sort of world view where those aren’t “what anime is supposed to look like” to the people that have those thoughts. It’s just when those person’s preferences are attempted to be applied to everyone else that I have problems with.
And you’ve probably said what I would have said on bishounen and traps, so I don’t have to add anything to that. :P
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I’d like to pose the question: what’s wrong with having an audience that’s 75% female? Or 100% female?
I think you are onto something that feminists have been saying for a very long time – when media is made by women or for women, men cry foul. But when media is made for men and by men (which is the vast majority of media), no one cries foul.
It’s that sexist idea that anything that appeals to women is inferior to that which appeals to men. Which is, of course, ridiculous. Bishounen are no worse than sexualized loli moe blobs. But when male anime fans decry that their anime has been corrupted by “teh yaoi” you’d think it was a tragedy. Do you hear female anime fans complaining that their anime has been corrupted by incredibly unrealistic, idealized “fanservice” female characters? No, because the majority of anime is this way, and so it has been considered the norm.
You are right when you say that anime has appealed to both genders for a long time, and there’s nothing wrong with that!
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