As part of the discussion on Artemis’ excellent Defining Moe post I made this comment:
Rumiko Takahashi is a difficult case to assess. She may be simultaneously the most successful female comic artist ever, AND one of the least feminist comic artists ever. The gender roles in Ranma 1/2 are horrifying.
This is basically what I said when I reviewed Ranma 1/2 season one. This is mostly because of the episode where Nabiki is covertly taking, and selling, photos of her sister and somewhat more provocative photos of a sleeping Ranma-chan.
Then I started getting a few hits from a Vulture of Critique post titled “Rumiko Takahashi horrifies John Samuel … because she’s not feminist enough for him?”
Not the sort of thing I ever expected to see, and I’m finding the whole thing to be quite odd.
Leaving aside the content, the post title itself is a misinterpretation.
It is a long, long leap from saying that the gender roles in Ranma 1/2 are horrifying to saying that I find Rumiko Takahashi horrifying.
As it happens I don’t find Rumiko Takahashi horrifying; I find that her works can be problematic and especially the gender roles in her earlier works. I didn’t see all of Inuyasha¸ but what I did see was a significant improvement in that respect.
A lot of the post content seems to be “feminism is bad”, which I rather obviously disagree with so I won’t comment further.
The comment did indeed seem to be very misinterpreted. I can’t really say much more than this though – I’ve only seen about half of Ranma 1/2 and a few episodes of Inuyasha, and am not at all personally familiar with any of other Takahashi’s works. (And apart from not liking to make assumptions about things I haven’t seen/read, I have absolutely no interest in getting into a debate about feminism.)
I think that’s a fair enough assessment. Debates about feminism on the internet can get nasty so I can understand not wanting to get into one.