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meteordustThis year, for Hikago Day, I offer some brief musings.
Hikaru no Go is still one of my absolute favourite manga - inspiring, funny, moving, and surprisingly gripping considering it is about a boardgame. ("Where will he put his next stone?!!") But one thing you can't praise it for is a strong showing of female characters. They are far fewer and more peripheral than the male characters.
I'm sure it's been discussed before, and really, it's no worse than what I would expect from the typical shounen manga. But on the other hand, some of my other favourite shounen manga, like Fullmetal Alchemist and Bleach, have heaps of women running around - heroes, villains, mentors, housewives, soldiers, engineers - so it can be done, and done well.
I guess what I'm particularly feeling is the dearth of female go players, and especially female professional go players. Of the former, we see Akari and Kaneko (junior high school students) and Nase (an insei); of the latter, we see only mentions and glimpses. (The only named one I can recall is Sakurano, whose match Touya subbed for, and who we didn't actually see.)
So what I've been wondering about is which, if any, of the other characters could have been written as female, without altering the dynamics of the story too much. My personal favourite choice would be Kurata, the young hotshot pro climbing the ladder. He is prominent enough in the story to be a real person, and genderswitching him wouldn't detrimentally affect the story or the portrayal of women.
And if I were forced to pick another, I would say Kuwabara, who I can easily see transformed from a wily and irreverent old man to a wily and irreverent old woman. But then again, perhaps to have a woman at the top of the ladder would be turning the world of go upside down.
Hikaru no Go is still one of my absolute favourite manga - inspiring, funny, moving, and surprisingly gripping considering it is about a boardgame. ("Where will he put his next stone?!!") But one thing you can't praise it for is a strong showing of female characters. They are far fewer and more peripheral than the male characters.
I'm sure it's been discussed before, and really, it's no worse than what I would expect from the typical shounen manga. But on the other hand, some of my other favourite shounen manga, like Fullmetal Alchemist and Bleach, have heaps of women running around - heroes, villains, mentors, housewives, soldiers, engineers - so it can be done, and done well.
I guess what I'm particularly feeling is the dearth of female go players, and especially female professional go players. Of the former, we see Akari and Kaneko (junior high school students) and Nase (an insei); of the latter, we see only mentions and glimpses. (The only named one I can recall is Sakurano, whose match Touya subbed for, and who we didn't actually see.)
So what I've been wondering about is which, if any, of the other characters could have been written as female, without altering the dynamics of the story too much. My personal favourite choice would be Kurata, the young hotshot pro climbing the ladder. He is prominent enough in the story to be a real person, and genderswitching him wouldn't detrimentally affect the story or the portrayal of women.
And if I were forced to pick another, I would say Kuwabara, who I can easily see transformed from a wily and irreverent old man to a wily and irreverent old woman. But then again, perhaps to have a woman at the top of the ladder would be turning the world of go upside down.
