Woman and Anime Industry

Anime & manga is often bashed for the way these two products portray women. Not all i believe but most of them. At least that is what has been considered pop culture. This makes me think: the best practices if you want to portray something, it has to be directly created by someone who’s there on the portrayal. Or at least as the right person. You don't portray something specially someone just for the sake of your imagination. It has meaning when it represents something specially gender. 

This question leads to another question. How do women play their part in the whole anime industry? That question led me to some google pages about the history of the anime industry.  In post-world war 2 Japanese society, women were expected to get married and take care of the household. Pursuing a career was not an option. That also applied to the anime industry. The only part of the industry given to women back then is “Shiage” or “Finishing”. While at home, women can ink, clean up and draw. 

In the late 50s the anime industry started to record several names of prominent female animators such as Okuyama Reiko and Nakamura Kazuko. Of course with discrimiation happens towards female employee such as lower salary. 

In 1985, Studio Ghibli was founded and many capable female animators have been involved in its projects behind the scenes. For instance, until her death in 2016, Futaki Makiko worked on all of Miyazaki's films, beginning with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984). She was also a key animator for Otomo Katsuhiro’s Akira (1988), and was celebrated for her skill in detailed natural animation. Then the 90s came. Marking the coming hugely prolific Nobutomo Keiko, who was lead writer on Cowboy bebop. Which one of a most timeless anime of all time.

After that I think the anime industry has already become more friendly for women. There're a thousand titles you can search that’s made from a woman's perspective. Some other things surely still need to be improved. But it's always nice to know we’re growing to a better situation day by day. 
 
if you’re looking for an anime-style game created also by mostly women team, you can see Memories Interactive an otome anime styled game from Indonesian developer which you can download here if you’re using iOS or here if you’re using Android