{"id":39,"date":"2007-07-16T01:18:41","date_gmt":"2007-07-15T17:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2007\/07\/16\/the-most-amazing-women-in-manga\/"},"modified":"2007-07-16T01:20:42","modified_gmt":"2007-07-15T17:20:42","slug":"the-most-amazing-women-in-manga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2007\/07\/16\/the-most-amazing-women-in-manga\/","title":{"rendered":"The most amazing women in manga"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, Oricon released a poll<\/a> citing the prettiest women in manga. The question was simply “who are the prettiest women in manga?” However, as the answers started piling it, the list turned out to be closer to ‘who are the most amazing women in manga?’ The list is very interesting, consisting of ladies that are really at the top of their game. However, what I find most fascinating about these choices is the variety of women in the list, most especially the choice of a swindling lady like Fujiko and the girl next door Minami. Is Mikiso Hane’s theory of the ‘pure lady as the most attractive’ already of the past? Do Japanese men love their ladies to be a little ‘dirty’? To further look into the issue, let’s see first the list of Japan’s top 10 hottest women in manga.
\nManga’s Hottest Women – The general choice<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Fujiko Mine (Lupin III)<\/li>\n
  2. Minami Asakura (Touch)<\/li>\n
  3. Sailormoon (Sailormoon)<\/li>\n
  4. Nana Osaki (Nana)<\/li>\n
  5. Maetel (Galaxy Express 999)<\/li>\n
  6. Reika Ryuzaki (Ace wo Nerae)<\/li>\n
  7. Oscar Francois de Jarjayes (Rose of Versailles)<\/li>\n
  8. Lum-chan (Urusei Yatsura)<\/li>\n
  9. Ran Mori (Detective Conan)<\/li>\n
  10. Nami (One Piece)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Free-spirited ladies<\/strong>
    \nThere are many girls in manga that the choices for this survey was rather hard and quite broad. But it seems that the respondents had a universal stereotype that they loved. And these were, the free-spirited ladies.<\/p>\n

    From the rocker chick to swindlers, the girls listed down are all tough and free-spirited ladies. Does this mean that the Japanese have had it with princesses? What about Sailormoon? Well Sailormoon is still a little of a ditz, but in the end, she still has a strong personality. More so, they wrote Sailormoon and not Usagi.<\/p>\n

    I once read Mikiso Hane’s Easter Phoenix <\/a>and in his last chapter, according to him, the Japanese have a particular preference for the pure types of ladies. Hence innocent characters such as goddesses and demure princesses were always the preferred characters of men during the postwar era. But if we look at these choices, the types of ladies chosen are those that have prolly grown out of their shells and have faced reality. Just look at Fujiko. She is far from being naive. Some of the girls may be a little ideal such as Minami, however they do resemble a more real woman, one who doesn’t just cry in a tower to wait for her prince. Perhaps for most Japanese, the free-spirited woman is the new ideal.<\/p>\n

    Girls like ’em tougher while men love them sweet. <\/strong>
    \nAlong with the top 10 list, Oricon also released the top 5 choices of men and women. It seems that women prefer Fujiko, Nana, Sailormoon, Reika, and Oscar. While men prefer Minami, Fujiko, Maetel, Nishino Tsukasa (Ichigo 100%) and Nami.<\/p>\n

    The girls’ choices were really geared towards the liberal women. You have strong characters like Oscar and Fujiko who really set a trend in terms of characterizing women in manga. It is easy to say that they chose these women because they have characteristics that women wish they had. Even I understand why Fujiko is at the top. She’s sexy, smart, sly, and always gets her target. But at moments when her heart is in turmoil, she always never forgets that she is a woman first. Perhaps a more organic feminist?<\/p>\n

    Looking at the boys’ choices, most girls were sweet in nature. I cannot say for Nishino because I haven’t read Ichigo 100% (Should I? TAT;; I fear to tread this harem manga! ><;;), but at least for Minami and Maetel, they have a very endearing and charming element in them. If we look at the top 10, other girl next door types like Ran and Minami are there. The charming point is the ever loyal girlfriend who will always fight for you and be your best friend until the end. Fujiko also has this sweet aspect in her. Even Nami, as long as it doesn’t concern money, can be a very charming lady as well. Men pointed their choices towards their ideal girlfriend. Which points out an interesting thing… even men can’t stand to have a girlfriend like Sailormoon. lol.<\/p>\n

    In the end, they were very cool girls. <\/strong>
    \nIn my case, I think the choices are fair and justified. I too love these characters and they are really beyond just pretty characters, they are truly amazing.<\/p>\n

    I was quite surprised that Ran of Detective Conan was there. Ran is one of my favorite female characters in manga because unlike some leading ladies in shounen mangas who only serve as an excuse to make the manga look straight and not a potential BL manga (Sakuno? Misa?), Ran is such a strong character who Aoyama really utilizes to bring the story forward. Conan may appear a little episodic for now, but I’m going to look forward to the day that she finally meets Shinichi again. Hang in there Ran, Aoyama-sensei will take care of you.<\/p>\n

    I’m surprised that the likes of Maya Kitajima of Glass Mask (or at least Ayumi Himekawa) didn’t make it to the list. They were quite strong themselves. Maybe they’re not enough spark for the top 10 (or has the series been too long that Japanese fans are already drained of the story? ^^;; I kinda understand that too). Otaku favorite Suzumiya Haruhi or Seed’s Lacus also didn’t make the top 10 cut. Isn’t that quite interesting?<\/p>\n

    If I were to make a list of the most beautiful women in manga, here’s what my list would look like: Oscar de Jarjeyes, Minami Asakura, Miyuki Umino (Happy), Megumi Noda (Nodame), Ran Mori, Nami, Nico Robin (One Piece), Maya Kitajima (Glass Mask), Sapphire (Princess Knight), and Tokine (Kekkaishi).<\/p>\n

    How about you? Who would be your top 10 amazing women in manga?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Last week, Oricon released a poll citing the prettiest women in manga. The question was simply “who are the prettiest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-insights"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/01.gif?fit=223%2C300","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p26e5y-D","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2007\/07\/25\/06-touch-by-adachi-mitsuru\/","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":0},"title":"#06 – Touch by Adachi Mitsuru","author":"khursten","date":"July 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Touch by Adachi Mitsuru Published by Shogakukan Serialized in Shounen Sunday Touch. I got into Touch one afternoon where there was nothing I could do but watch some free videos online. It was considered as the highest rated anime ever. It is so popular that it's an institution. It is,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fujoshi Reads"","block_context":{"text":"Fujoshi Reads","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/images\/scans\/touch\/_cover.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1941,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2015\/01\/04\/manga-resolution-for-2015-all-about-josei\/","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":1},"title":"Manga Resolution for 2015: All about Josei","author":"khursten","date":"January 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"As I was writing down my favourite reads of last year, I sat back and wondered, how much attention did I give to josei that year? I remember writing last year about the silence on josei but did I even make an effort to tackle josei, let alone understand this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fujoshi Life"","block_context":{"text":"Fujoshi Life","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8668\/15994894688_a84d1ae6c0_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1686,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2014\/02\/26\/the-silence-on-josei-manga\/","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":2},"title":"The Silence on Josei Manga","author":"khursten","date":"February 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"So Ed Chavez posted a really interesting question on twitter the other day. Why aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t we talking about Josei? It made me think a bit about the genre, reflecting on the things that have been posted and realised, yes, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been quite mum about Josei. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hardly any people talking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fujoshi Life"","block_context":{"text":"Fujoshi Life","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/25.media.tumblr.com\/b6c2d92c77b006a614bd29b93993b88e\/tumblr_n0fjh3TxNR1rskdrao2_500.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1479,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2013\/08\/02\/801mmf-the-fujoshi-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":3},"title":"#801MMF: The Fujoshi Bible","author":"khursten","date":"August 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In Eureka's Fujoshi Manga Compendium, there's this interesting section where they list down the things a fujoshi must read.\u00e3\u20ac\u20acThey called it the Fujoshi Manga Bible.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I thought it'd be best to share the list down here for fujoshi to check what these women think are titles that we fujojos must read.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Features"","block_context":{"text":"Features","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/features\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5535\/9420898588_273302a7ac_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1392,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2013\/03\/26\/history-mmf-chapter-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":4},"title":"History MMF: Chapter 1","author":"khursten","date":"March 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Day 1 has come and gone and I think it some parts of the world (at least in mine) it's already inching towards the 3rd day. Nonetheless, I'm happy to receive some contributions with regards to the MMF. Hopefully, it'll give us a glimpse on the titles that we can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Manga Moveable Feast"","block_context":{"text":"Manga Moveable Feast","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/features\/mangamoveablefeast\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1890,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2014\/11\/10\/lessons-from-manga-futures\/","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":5},"title":"Lessons from Manga Futures","author":"khursten","date":"November 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"To try to encapsulate the entirety of Manga Futures in one blog post is difficult. There were so many amazing people, many of which were experts in studies of Japanese popular culture. 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