05:27 am
In Azumanga for instance, ... The girls behave in a manner that seems to reinforce stereotypes of what a girl should be, and those who deviate from it are punished accordingly. Kaori as an example, is perpetually infatuated with Sakaki; she is in turn harassed by Kimura before being eventually transferred to his class. Tomo and Kagura, as the tomboys of the group, are afflicted with bad grades for a huge portion of the series. [from here]
O_O
I thought their bad grades were you know, due to not studying. D:
What about Sakaki who is just as physically active? is she doomed to forever be bitten by cats? What of Chiyo who is a GENIUS?
Osaka has bad grades too... But she's not a tom boy at all?
Twit.
There's some truth that if she was male that there would be a lot less notice.
But that is because if she was male it would be Yet Another Harem Series.
But hey yeah it does break from some gender standards, but it's also meant to be a parody of other series... Especially Haruhi, in which the main female character is basically a god.
One of the things that's always struck me about Azumanga, compared with Western shows about girls that age, is that none of the characters are boy-crazy. They aren't sitting around waiting for some guy to call, they aren't obsessing over whether the boy they have a secret crush on will ask them to the dance, they aren't trying out married names in the margins of their notebooks. Their lives revolve around their own interests, activities, and friendships, which I find remarkably refreshing.
(and yes, I know I'm waking up a six-month-dead issue here)