Underlying Sexist Agenda

This demotivational poster is highly Anti-Rumiko Takahashi. Sit back, relax, and revel in the evisceration I have in store for this so-called “Queen of Manga” (Bah! Yeah right!). For those of you who adore Rumiko Takahashi, please take a chill pill and take what I have to declare with the finest grain of salt. What I say is going to be quite controversial, but I do my best to back up my arguments with reasoning. I do not wish her any ill as a person and as an artist, but her flaws as an author are more than sufficient to make her valid for the criticism I have in store for her.

Rumiko Takahashi, we meet again. If you know me, I have the most formidable love-hate relationship with this particular mangaka. The other mangaka that trail behind her are the likes of Akira Toriyama, Lynn Okamoto, Go Nagai, and Ken Akamatsu because there are occasions where I can spot some misogyny and other gender role flaws in their works, Toriyama-san your Dragonball franchise is not remotely immune to the misogyny I have spotted, especially when it came to how Chi-Chi was developed in Dragonball Z. However, my sentiments towards Takahashi-san lean towards a strong dislike to her as an author because of how she fails at writing healthy relationships for her characters, does not let her characters develop so well, making a good number of men perverts, an equal number of men jerks with hearts of gold who have justifiable reasons for why they show disgust at other characters even though they are in the wrong, Karma Houdinis who get away with their crimes and escape unscathed, certain child characters who end up as nothing more than punching bags for the jerks with a heart of gold, and, worst of all, women who act like horrible, manipulative, abusive shrews who inflict animosity and physical pain on the male protagonist just because they cannot perform to their every whim let alone their petty demands. Even with this proverbial final nail on the coffin for why I find Rumiko Takahashi rather appalling as a writer, she at least knows how to write women to varying degrees, but that is not saying much. Among all of Rumiko Takahashi’s works, the ones I find guilty of these failures, especially on misogynistic and misandrist level, are Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, and Inuyasha. Not even a fine piece of work such as Maison Ikkoku could escape the criticism it was bound to have.

Before I delve into the sexist agenda I have found completely disgusting in several of Rumiko Takahashi’s works, especially the most popular ones, I would like to delve in the problem I have with how she writes interpersonal relationships, which tie in nicely with the sexism that encroached the potential her works have to be great and not just rather decent at best and below mediocre at worst. A lot of her characters have found themselves in horrible, dysfunctional, and toxic relationships. You need not look further than Ataru’s atrocious treatment towards Lum and Shinobu, both the Tendo and the Saotome households filled with animosity just for the sake of some laughs, Akane’s physical abuse against Ranma, Kuno, Ryoga, and Mousse displaying as much animosity towards Ranma for petty reasons, Ginta and Hakkaku sticking by Kouga, even though he himself is a horrible friend to these wolf yokai brothers and despite Hakkaku and Ginta far more confident of Inuyasha’s strength and not Kouga’s, Shippou being used as nothing more than Inuyasha’s punching bag even though he is a young kitsune, Sesshoumaru’s and Inuyasha’s constantly bloodthirsty bickering which tends to get very old after a while, and, the moment you have been all waiting for, Kagome abusing her sit commands towards Inuyasha if he did not obey her. I am specifically calling out Inuyasha and its series of problematic relationships because, despite Miroku aka Daddy Dunderhead and Sango aka Mommy Dunderhead having one attribute in common with Inuyasha which is how Naraku manipulated them to lead lives full of loss and trauma, all Daddy Dunderhead and Mommy Dunderhead ever did was stay by the sidelines, not listen to Inuyasha’s side of the story of how he was still traumatized after Kikyou’s loss, and even restrained Kagome. However, they did not, and they just saw Inuyasha was always in the wrong while giving Kagome free reign to sit him to her petty heart’s content. Shippou aka Baby Dunderhead is just as complicit in not being such a good friend to Inuyasha and always siding with Kagome. Every time I re-watch Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2, and Urusei Yatsura, I cannot help but cringe at the absolute frigidity and putridness I have seen in a lot of the relationships to the point where I believe that some characters deserve better and some deserve much worse. Seriously, Takahashi’s idea of healthy relationships makes DiMartino’s, Konietzko’s, Murakami’s, and Timm’s ideas of healthy relationships seem more like magnum opuses because at least in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Teen Titans, and Justice League the camaraderie is not steeped with animosity nor the putrid scent of toxic relationships.

The misandry found in Rumiko Takahashi’s works leave me feeling very ill and disgusted with how men tend to be portrayed. Male characters are often casted as jerks with a heart of gold who are very stubborn yet wonderfully formidable, the romantic rivals who are usually all talk and barely any action and sometimes get away with far too much than they should, and perverts who pleasure themselves with the idea of fondling different women but also objectifying them. I may love Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha to my heart’s content, as they are strong fighters, courageous souls, and brothers who love a good battle. However, these two dog yokai brothers fall in the category of jerks with a heart of gold, with Inuyasha taking that title to a tee and Sesshoumaru starting out as an egotistical jerk but eventually develops slivers of not being as cruel as he is when Rin came into his life. Shuran may be an anime-only character, but all we get to know of him is that he is the hulking brute who radiates lightning as his main attack. Ranma is cool to a degree, but even he gets type-casted into this particular trope. Kuno, Ryoga, and Mousse are hilarious foils to Ranma, given that Ranma has a tendency to be boorish while these “gentlemen” try to act more refined than him in order to fuel the heaps of sarcasm I have in store for them, but their words and actions leave much to be desired. Even the male characters of Maison Ikkoku cannot escape either trope. At least Naraku is a cold, calculating, slimy villain I actively love to hate and respect at the same time because of how devilishly well he can play at the protagonists’ weaknesses as well as the conscientiousness of his atrocious crimes. The worst offenders who deserve all my ire, hatred, wrath, and the bastinado at my disposal are Ataru Moroboshi, Happosai, Kouga, and Miroku. Ataru is nothing more than a sexist, chauvinistic, hoggish piece of crap of a person due to how much he objectifies women, cheats on Lum with Shinobu, and has the personality of a moldy cheese mixed together with rotten meat. Happosai is a serial sex offender, rapist, and pedophile who gets away with far more than he should to the point where I wish Japanese authorities blooming arrested this scheming, low-down, lousy scumbag of an imp. Kouga is a skirt-chasing loser in love who got away with the stone-cold murder of an innocent young child, Rin, through his wolves’ bloodstained paws, brags about his own so-called strength and combat prowess even though he is a cheater using the powers of the Shikon Jewel to pump up his abilities and is a complete zero without them, constantly has Hakkaku and Ginta by his side to advertise how great he thinks he is, thus making me feel sorry for both Hakkaku and Ginta even more, treats Kagome like a princess just because she is a Shikon Jewel shard detector, and a complete and utter coward. Why would I go there and say that Kouga is a coward? For all his big talking and wanting to avenge his fallen comrades, he surely did a piss-poor job at it in Inuyasha: The Final Act’s eighth episode when he was deprived of his precious jewel shards by Naraku, despite being armed with Goraishi, thus abdicating his fart of a duty. Even after all that, he still ended up with Ayame, in spite of showing more interest to Kagome. Yeah, if I were Ayame, I would have just dropped Kouga like a bad habit once and for all. Now we get to Miroku. Miroku aka Daddy Dunderhead is a terrible friend, an even greater hypocrite, a two-faced lowlife, and an unfaithful loser of a person. There have been several occasions that he has been asking various women either younger than him or closer to his age if they wanted to be pregnant with his children in order for them to fulfill his lame legacy. I know that is part of the joke, but it still makes him an unacceptable pervert whose morality is far more crooked than his priorities as a Buddhist monk. His hypocrisy is just as damning, as he calls out Inuyasha on cheating on Kagome, when he himself is a faithless cheat, objectifies women to no end, thus perceiving them as nothing more than his potential breeding mares, and not that much of a freaking saint. His Kazaana or Wind Tunnel and sutras may be aspirational, but it is such a pity that they are wielded by a hypocrite such as he. Takahashi’s male characters might be entertaining to varying degrees, but those who I called out continue to make me sick to high heaven.

Takahashi might be talented at writing women, but a fine number of her female characters reek so badly of misogyny. I thought how Chi-Chi was developed in Dragonball Z was bad. I thought the way Hinata was handled in Naruto was pathetic. I thought Orihime’s screeching was mind-numbingly inane. However, they are nothing compared to the ire against how Takahashi turns several of her female characters into manipulative, whining, muling, obnoxious shrews with the excuse that they are tsunderes. Yeah, I think I have seen more charming ones than the harlots Takahashi has in store as “tsunderes”. Nevertheless, there are those women characters who are at least tolerable. There is no doubt that Kasumi Tendo is a well-kept, kind, caring young woman, while Nabiki Tendo is hilariously shrewish, sneaky, and sly. Shampoo is a hilarious bundle of joy, while Kodachi is over the top, eccentric goodness. Girl Ranma is just as fun too. Lum is a bubbly alien girl, but at times I do feel quite bad for her because she is so attracted to a scumbag pervert with nary a redeeming quality. Shinobu is just as sympathetic, and I do empathize with her as to why she is so irritated by Ataru. Kyoko Otonashi has a semblance of grace and dignity which I cannot fault her for. Kikyou has proven herself to be a capable archer, a poised priestess, and a young woman who had to endure a lot of suffering, betrayal, and pain, thus making me feel a huge sense of compassion towards her and I will fight anybody who says that Kikyou is trash! I even enjoy a lot of Inuyasha’s villainesses, namely Princess Kaguya, Princess Abi, Tsubaki, Ruri, and Hari. Kagura may have done really unforgivable deeds mostly of her own free will such as her annihilating Kouga’s clansmen, but she is quite polarizing because of her desire to be free while having the mindset of a slave. Where the Inuyasha anime-only characters are concerned, excluding Ayumi one of Kagome’s friends who is also in the manga, for she has some semblance of a personality, Toran, Ayame, Karan, and Shunran are absolutely formidable in their own special ways, and I wish they could have been more prominent in the series. Despite these tolerable women characters, I am not really fond of Akane Tendo, Sango, and…ughhhh…Kagome Higurashi. Akane Tendo is at least a capable martial artist, but her aggression, crankiness, shrewish personality, and awful treatment of Ranma makes her truly repulsive. Sango aka Mommy Dunderhead really had so much potential to grow as a heroine thanks to her unwavering physical prowess and willingness to protect her younger brother, Kohaku, but her incompetence to separate the real from the fake, sheep mindset toward Kagome and against Inuyasha, and her hypocrisy centering around the issue of Inuyasha’s and Kagome’s failure of a relationship make her truly degradable. The fact that she almost killed Rin in order to save Miroku’s life when they were trapped in Naraku’s body was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, and I stopped showing my support for her. I made my stance on Kagome very clear, but if you have not been in the know about my sentiments towards this pathetic excuse of a heroine, here it goes. Regardless of what anyone says to me, regardless of what her defenders have to spew at me, I still find her utterly loathsome. She is so narcissistic beyond belief. She has done the unacceptable by stripping Inuyasha away of his pride by abusing Beads of Subjugation’s power on him. She manipulates the Dunderhead Family into believing that she was constantly hurt by Inuyasha, when he himself has been hurt. Finally, she cannot even grow as a fighter, as she is more often than not the damsel in distress, despite demonstrating her passable archery skills. Kagome is a loser in every sense of the word. It looks like it is equal treatment as to how the women characters tend to be just as maltreated by Takahashi’s incompetence as a writer which is not a great thing.

Terrible relationships, perverts, jerks with hearts of gold, Karma Houdinis, abusive shrews, hypocrisy, and double standards may have encroached whatever potential Rumiko Takahashi has a writer, but they have regrettably become the standard in her most popular works. I am going to go out on a limb and stick with finer mangaka and anime creators such as CLAMP, Naoko Takeuchi, Ai Yazawa, Hiromu Arakawa, Chica Umino, Yoshitoshi Abe, Satoshi Kon, Leiji Matsumoto, Makoto Shinkai, and even the great Hayao Miyazaki, for they know how to write more multidimensional characters and characters I could actually feel for. Furthermore, in regards to the women characters, there is far more agency going on in those works than the ones that Takahashi has been dishing out. If Takahashi-san thinks that what the majority of her characters are doing is acceptable, it should be little to no wonder why I continue to find fault in her works to this day. Speaking of which, I am going to stick with my AU headcanon of Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha, Ayame, Shuran, Hakkaku, Ginta, and Shunran being the main characters, being united in one roof as a family, and letting them grow stronger together with nary any form of animosity or soap opera drama in sight. Therefore, Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha can just shut up about their bickering and eternal hatred towards each other, Inuyasha can be free from his fake friends and fart of a romance with Kagome, Ayame can be her own warrior and heroine as well as ditch Kouga for all his atrocious deeds, Shuran can demonstrate how much of a lovable gentle giant he can be towards his friends and family, Hakkaku and Ginta can have great friends they can rely on and trust, and Shunran can feel at peace knowing that she has great friends by her side. I know Takahashi-san herself is not perfect nor do I wish her any ill, but it says something that even someone like me could concoct healthier relationships for Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha, Ayame, Shuran, Hakkaku, Ginta, and Shunran and have them exist in one healthy roof. The less said about Yashahime, even though Takahashi is not directly involved with it, the better.

If you also agree with my sentiments on Rumiko Takahashi and the sexism that pervades let alone encroaches her works, please let me know in the comments below. I can tell that this is going to be quite interesting in terms of what I am going to hear from you.

I hope you enjoyed my Rumiko Takahashi rant. See you in the next submission. Take care, stay safe, and do not always follow Rumiko Takahashi’s example, everybody.