(FWIW, I still feel that Lady Penelope was quite the kick-ass character.)"Ninjas, inventors, scientists: anime's female role models
Where were the gutsy pink-haired heroines of Japanese anime when I was growing up? I had to make do with Lady Penelope"
Interesting that the female leads are the ones from the 2nd gen in "Otaku; Japan's Database Animals", or the ones we all grew up with and loved. Would she report back with the same opinion regarding today's moéblob exports?
Also! US ladies especially; we never got Rose of Versailles/Lady Oscar, Georgie, Candy Candy on mainstream TV; general 'girly' shows. My Italian illustrator friends practically wept for our loss upon hearing this. In the UK, we got either boy's cartoons or mutually-gendered "kids" cartoons, nothing really for girls (we got 12 eps of US-dub Sailor Moon on at 7am on terrestrial UK TV in the morning. Once, in the late 90's, years after it's inital Japanese release).
...Do you think Western English speaking females had to be tomboys to "acceptably" be "into" cartoons? And that powerful female leads were appealing after watching the cyberpunkiness of anime like BGC, was being a bit of a tomboy an advantage to not having this type of barrier to enjoy anime initially? That romantic love triangles were also appealing to tomboy anime fans because of the initial Shonen Jump/boy's story angle?
/Food for thought
