Which Manga Explore Female Domination Through Character Arcs?

A lesser known example: Read or Die (OVA and TV series). The main antagonist of the OVA is a woman trying to conquer the world with paper. In the TV series R.O.D the TV, Yomiko Readman’s protégées, The Paper Sisters, are all powerful bibliophiles who use their skills to work as bodyguards. As they are incredibly powerful, The Paper Sisters also give their charges a hand in battle. The main villain, Joker, is also a powerful woman. Overall the series is a lot of fun, an action packed takes on the idea that knowledge (books) is power, mainly held by women.

One of the shoujo classics that I look to for a defining example of the genre is Maid Sama!. The main character Misaki Ayuzawa is the strict and hardworking student council president of Seijo High School. She secretly works at a maid cafe to pay for her family’s rent. The fact that she works to support her family shows her fierce determination and protectiveness towards them. Her love interest is the laid-back Takumi Usui, who is very perceptive and always figures things out. What’s so amazing about this manga is that he loves her for her strength and always supports her while also teasing her a lot throughout the series. This is a very funny and heartwarming manga, and despite containing many typical shoujo tropes, Misaki never gets diminished in order to progress the plot for her love interest. In fact, she is the main driving force behind the story.

I’ve quietly been adding every single title from this thread to my ‘Plan to Read’ list on Anilist. Thanks so much for the great discussion – my weekends are now booked for the foreseeable future.

A fairly straight-forward shoujo with a twist is ‘Mizutama Honey Boy’. The heroine is tall, sporty and a bit messy, whilst the hero is short, cute and delicate. He’s into baking, sewing and generally anything ‘cute’. They live together under a honey-boy type of arrangement where he looks after her and cooks for her, etc. He’s essentially the ‘wife’. There’s a big difference between her (a rough-around-the-edges, breadwinning part-timer) and him (a domesticated, husband-like cohabitee who’s into baking, sewing, etc). Most of the comedy comes from his inversion of expectations as a male, but he’s not trying to be anything other than himself and she appreciates his appreciation of her, as well as her appreciation of his strengths without any qualms about her lack of femininity. It’s a cute, low-stakes story.

While the guys brought much of the humor in the series, Sam brought a particular brand of wit. While not as boisterous as Cole, it was dry and more sarcastic in nature and generally focused on the absurdity of the violence they were facing. The humor of Kait was a lot darker and more cynical as she has experienced first-hand just how hard it is to scrape by. I also enjoyed Anya’s wry observations over the comms. They and the others provided a much-needed contrast to the typical testosterone-fueled bravado of the males in the group and helped to maintain the sense of a group of real individuals with different personalities rather than a single note played loudly and again and again. Their humor is an important part of the team’s chemistry.

Within omegaverse types, you have the standard alpha, beta, and omega, but there are many more nuances to the others. Some works are even more focused on the pack dynamics between characters of different status within the group. These dynamics can create really interesting stories, even when they aren’t strictly part of the omegaverse, such as in ‘My Hero Academia’. The dynamic between characters and how they relate to one another within a hierarchy is really interesting and is often portrayed well within the Omegaverse. It is great to see how the relationships of characters can evolve and how they get to define themselves within a group of people. Many stories that are set in an omegaverse are full of tension and revelations and they can be very interesting to read. The aspect of mpreg can be especially interesting, because it can lead to new situations and conflicts in the story. The omegaverse is a very interesting way to portray character interactions and to explore themes such as love, power and identity.

Regressive character arcs are a powerful but underused plot device in fiction. Rather than growing and improving, the main character can get worse and worse until he becomes the embodiment of his worst traits. The arc of Walter White in Breaking Bad and that of Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels are classic examples of this type of arc. They are powerful because they show how humans can sometimes fail in the same ways even when they have the chance to do better. In order to write a regressive character arc, you must first have a good idea of where your character started out and what made him vulnerable in the first place. Then you must be able to show how outside forces can slowly bring him down to a low point. First, work out what your character was like before they started to regress. Try to make them somewhat sympathetic and relatable to the audience before they start to decline. This could be a character who is ambitious but also insecure. They may be an idealistic character who is naive to the true nature of the world around them. A great example of this type of character development is Macbeth and his fall from king to murderer. Or perhaps the character of Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight, who was the idealistic district attorney of Gotham City before he was corrupted by the abuse of power of the Joker. It’s easier to make a tragic fall believable when your character starts off with virtues that are laudable to the audience. Of course, pacing is important as well. Usually, a slow-burning story is best for a regressive character arc, because you can illustrate how each compromise the character makes leads to greater moral failures. In the beginning, the character should be making somewhat positive choices for somewhat negative reasons. Compare how the character behaves at the beginning of the story to how he or she behaves at the end. (For example, Walter White told Jesse that he started making methamphetamine only to secure his family’s financial future, but by the end, he killed people simply to protect his own done-wrong self.) Surround your regressive character with foils, people who could have been just as good or better in the same situation. They may even attempt to pull your character back from the edge. How does the rest of the world react to your regressive character? Some people may enable his or her behavior, while others try to resist it. As for the end of your story, a regressive arc does not necessarily have to end with the death or decline of your main character. In fact, he or she could win everything he or she set out to achieve, but suffer such great losses that, in the end, the victory is hollow. It is a very chilling realization, watching a main character finally grasp the full extent of all that he or she has lost. While exploring a regressive character arc can be frustrating for some writers and displeasing for some audiences to watch, it can make for a very powerful and memorable story. There are many examples of compelling stories that do not have heroes. Rather, there are main characters who, throughout the story, slowly lose themselves to their flaws. Their downfall can be truly tragic, making for a story that leaves a lasting impression on the reader. Just be sure to make their decline believable and earn their downfall.

I recommended this to a friend who is a blended family therapist. She said the character relationships were very accurate. All of the ways that jealousy can play out, the various loyalty binds that form, the many ways that families test each other’s boundaries and have accidents that negatively affect each other were all covered. It was painful to read at times, but also helped me to understand some things that I hadn’t quite gotten before. For example, Anna trying to make dinner that the kids’ other mom used to make was disastrous. Leo getting angry with Anna for trying to discipline Sora was also very real. Hiroshi trying to go shopping and not knowing what brand of juice to get because he’d never done it before was also very real. All of the main characters are case studies in non-biological family integration. So, it’s not just a good story. It’s also very insightful to read for someone who is interested in family dynamics.

A particular niche theme that comes to mind is 'Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid'. Although the title is mentioned, I want to clarify that it is on the more explicit end of the ecchi spectrum. However, if you’re interested in reading more web novels that are focused on storytelling rather than shock value, while still delving into the power dynamics between a captive and master in a fantasy world, then ‘That Prince Is A Girl: The Vicious King's Captive Slave Mate’ would be a good choice to look into. The psychological dynamic between the two characters is what drives the story and has a lot of complex, interesting moments.

I get more enjoyment out of analyzing a particular trait that is portrayed in a movie or book and how that relates to the rest of the story as opposed to actually reading the story itself. There is so much to analyze when it comes to the fleshed out villain who is usually portrayed as having a dual persona: nice to those around them but cruel to those closest to them. Their origin story is often left to the audience’s imagination but most often it relates back to some form of trauma or abandonment. The most interesting part of their character to analyze is how they use everyday objects to carry out their crimes with the objects taking on a large amount of symbolism such as scissors, box cutters, cookery and more. The reason why this particular type of character is so beloved to people all over the world must have something to do with our deep seated anxieties of love, trust, and our desire for autonomy. All of these aspects can be analyzed through the lens of literary criticism, psychology, and sociology making this particular trope a ‘gift’ to overthinkers and pop culture analysts everywhere. Sometimes the stories connecting these archetypes are better than others, but the archetype itself is endlessly fascinating material for analysis.