Beautiful Fighting Girl

As someone who has a background in literary criticism, I've been looking for critical theory on Japanese culture written by native critics. What I found useful was the raw data, anecdotes, and ideas. Unfortunately, this text was written in 2000, and its obsession with Lacanian psychoanalysis shows its roots in older criticism. Honestly, it shows its age in certain assertions that are fairly dated, like the assertion that Disney otaku don't exist (they do now, but were unheard of in 2000). I hope that publishers start to see an interest in this topic and work to publish more current analysis, particularly that written by critics with a basis in gender studies or more current postmodern analysis of manga and anime. Translation of Japanese texts, particularly of an academic nature, is incredibly difficult for someone whose command of the language is only at an N1 and having professional translators work on this topic helps those of us who are invested in the theory work. This particular text still has worth, obviously, and is definitely a basis for a lot of criticism that followed it. I recommend it on the condition that it be seen as a work of its time.

Insightful and well-researched, very solid translation and notes.

Part of a growing body of literature on otaku and Japanese popular culture that has been translated into English, SAITO Tamaki's "Beautiful Fighting Girl" is unique in its psychoanalytic approach to its titular subject. Unlike many sociological or literary studies of otaku culture, Saito uses the figure of the "beautiful fighting girl" (sentou bishoujo) as a touchstone from which to analyze the mindset behind much of Japanese popular culture. With the help of Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud, Saito attempts to tackle the psychosexual underpinnings of this phenomenon.As a literary studies specialist, I found some of his argumentation to be very dense (something I feel about much psychoanalytic theory) and difficult to comprehend, but obviously this will vary with each reader. As far as the intended audience is concerned, it is definitely a book for academics, unlike its more generalist counterparts in "New Academism" such as AZUMA Hiroki's  Otaku: Japan's Database Animals . Saito's detour through American "outsider art" was, in my opinion, unnecessary, but it was a nice nod toward the global implications of the study.In short, the translation "Beautiful Fighting Girl" is a welcome new perspective in the realm of English-language literature on Japanese popular culture, and if you are able to grasp its sometimes tangled psychoanalytic language, your time reading will be well spent.

If you think this book is feminist, think again. The author is a Freudian psychoanalyst who's argument about these "phallic girls" is inherently sexist, homophobic, and reductive. For example, he argues that the icon of the beautiful fighting girl is capable of encapsulating perversion, "She radiates the potential for an omnidirectional sexuality latent with pedophilia, homosexuality, fetishism, sadism, masochism, and other perversions, yet she behaves as if she were completely unaware of it all." (158) Clearly, this views homosexuality as a perversion = homophobic. Using the term "phallic mother" is basically an argument for the all-powerful status of the penis and the notion that women who are "damaged" through trauma (especially rape) are desirable based on that trauma, and that the beautiful fighting girl is an empty stand-in for the penis because she has never been raped. Clearly, the author assumes that his audience is all heterosexual men, a universal "we." Perhaps something was lost in translation, but by the last 20 pages of this book, I was seriously annoyed by this reductive, outdated psychoanalysis. Aren't there more productive ways to consider images of beautiful girls that aren't totally focused on the penis and male desire?

So I used to have a review here that was quite negative, complaining that the book's structure was a mess, the comparisons with American/western examples overgeneralized and underargued, and the author's refusal to engage with feminist approaches to manga and anime very disappointing. After reading it a couple more times and discussing it with others, however, I've come to appreciate the book much more. The main argument - that the use of fictional characters as a way to satisfy sexual desire is in its own way socially adaptive - at first appeared rather ludicrous (no doubt in part due to my own initial biases against it). But over time I've come to appreciate Saito's perspective as quite provocative and insightful as a way to understand and (even more importantly) take seriously a certain 'otaku' approach to desire. I've even come to appreciate the Henry Darger chapter and what it adds to the book, a section that totally didn't seem to fit the first time around. Keith Vincent gives some important clues in his excellent introduction, but for this reader at least this book took some time to reveal itself.

Not as dense or inaccessible as other reviews lead me to believe, but some familiarity in academic writing would be recommended I guess. Tamaki's Lacanianism is actually suprisingly accessible, I'm sure someone would be able to get a good grasp of the book just having watched some youtube videos on Lacan.

First published in Japanese in 2000, "The psychology of the Armored Cutie" is an immensely important landmark work of critical speculation that started out as a side project for a noted Japanese Lacanian psychologist. You have been warned, although the only really dense head-scratcher will be the part on "lacanian trauma". Te rest, if you are patient is readable, interesting and well argued. Very guy-lacanian POV scratching his head over guy fans obsessing over sexualised cartoon girls. The translation is first-rate, the translators' introduction excellent. Well worth purchasing, especially if you have some academic or hobby reason for tracking the evolution of the way the social sciences viewed fans of pop culture, especially fandoms that consume libidinised content. 20 years later, the discourse has far surpassed his approach - a lot of his insights will feel dated but this is the one that tossed the first big firecracker into the pond.A useful preview and contextualisation of the work can be found if you hunt down Michael Moon's review, wherein he examines it in relation to queer theory.

With an eye-catching cover showing the iconic Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion & enticing title of "Beautiful Fighting Girl" you might be tempted into thinking that this book is a readable overview of some of our favourite battling heroines from Anime & Manga. However an in-depth knowledge (or preferably a PhD) in Lacanian & Freudian psychoanalytical psychiatry is more or less a prerequisite to get anything meaningful out of it - or even to finish reading it. At least the title of the opening chapter, "The Psychopathology of the Otaku", is probably enough to warn off any but the most earnest seeker of arcane knowledge. Furthermore the fact that it was originally written in 2000 means that in the fast-moving world of the Otaku it is pretty dated & being translated from the Japanese doesn't help much of the esoteric psycho-babble the author uses. Only chapter 5, "A Genealogy of the Beautiful Fighting Girl", is generally accessible (i.e. readable & interesting) to the average Otaku like me, & I don't think that that's enough to warrant buying this book.So why did I buy it? I was beguiled by the cover - don't you be!