Carnival and Conservatism in Romantic Comedy

Abstract

Fantastic romance is one of the most popular genres in recent Japanese animation. It is usually presented in episodic situation comedy format, distinctive for its high-spirited tone and broad, often slapstick, humor and revolves around what are usually known as “magical girlfriends.”¹ These magical girlfriends have genuinely magic powers and are somewhat older than the shōjo characters in Miyazaki’s works. Furthermore, in contrast to the rather androgynous Miyazaki heroines, they are sexualized figures who engage in a wide continuum of erotic play with their decidedly unmagical human boyfriends. However, in contrast to the totally sexualized female characters in pornography, these “girls” still project a strongly innocent quality, closer to the still immature shōjo than to an adult woman.

Enacting ideologies of naturalization, women in [Japanese] TV families defer to their husbands, serve them tea, and clean up after them … women’s subordination to men … is promoted in politics, in theory, and on television as eternal features of the national landscape.

—Andrew A. Painter, “The Telepresentation of Gender”