cutie kanji You always thought that boys that watched anime were merely desperately lonely nerds that liked silly robots and cartoon girlies. Well you're partly right — make that shit kicking mecha and long legged, blue haired cuties. Regardless, anime boys are also a hidden treasure for those that seek sensitive and romantic men. I'll present two examples for your consideration:

Pity from Cuties

A common theme to anime is that a male character is secretly tortured and longs for pity or help from the female, who has a secret love for him. No one may admit their need nor love — resolving that tension is half of the plot. A variant of this that is in Neon Genesis Evangelion, in which a shy 14 year old boy (Ikari Shinji) is being looked after by an older protective woman. Ikari has the capability to control a giant fighting robot that is needed to kill the evil alien "angels". Of course, he is only a young boy, his dad was the mono-maniacal creator of the robot, and an ass to boot; he abandoned the boy, and only reunited with him when he needed a new pilot. Ikari is often being shifted around (in an episode entitled "unfamiliar ceilings" he lays staring at the ceiling and listening to his walkman) and was often mopey and sad. His attractive commander felt sorry for him and said he couldn't stay in the research/hospital place forever, he should come live with her. Of course there were some embarrassing incidents for the boy at the apt. For instance, when he went to take a shower, a penguin (that lived in the woman's freezer) was in there, scaring the boy who ran out into the kitchen naked.

So the story was set to represent every boys' dream: to be all innocent and naive, but to go crazy every once in a while and kill aliens in a shit-kicker mecha. Of course, all the cuties are concerned, because you are the hero, but you are also getting kind of screwed up when you fight the monsters, physically and psychologically, so they take care of you...

Honor and Unrequited Love

The movie Ninja Scroll is so Japanese romantic. I think it is interesting that American women complain that men are so insensitive, they need Otaku (anime fan)! The anime is so dramatic. In this one, a vagabond warrior (Jubei) guy is recruited by this little old man to fight the Shogun of the Dark and his Demon Ninja. In order to persuade Jubei to cooperate, the old man poisons Jubei and will only give him the antidote when the mission is complete. In the course of his travels, he saves a Ninja Girl (Kagero) who is being raped by a stone Demon Ninja. Once rescued, they flee and the Ninja Girl is cold, distant. One of her specialties is that she is immune from poison, in fact she is poisonous. Later, Jubei runs into the Demon Ninja and is able to penetrate his stone skin — the evil Ninja just starts crumbling — because when he was raping the Jubei , he had been poisoned.

So we have a typical scenario of unrequited love and honor, which results in romantic tension. A common anime scenario: Hiro loves Miko, but neither can admit it. (In the anime for mini-teens this often results in a boy dating the best friend of the girl he really likes, to make her jealous. The girl he likes will do the same to him. ) The plot of these stories is a slow spiral towards the truth that each loves the other. Kagero feels she owes Jubei something in return for saving her, but she is cold to him. She wishes to repay her debt, and no more. During one of the arguments she explains that she is poison, and that any man sleeps with her dies. Jubei asks her if her heart has become poisonous as well, she gasps, her large eyes are on the verge of tears. Of course, she really does love him, and her coldness is merely a charade to protect him from her deadly embrace.

As the story progresses, Jubei is wracked with bloody coughing fits, a result of the poison the old man gave him. The old man tells Kagero that the antidote is her, if she makes love to him, her poison will cancel his. She tells the boy that she owes him her life, and will sleep with him, not because she loves him, but to be even, to be honorable. She disrobes and stands before him — pale and shivering. Jubei hugs her and then turns away. She collapses in tears.

Of course, the spiral towards the romantic truth is only realized near death. The Ninja Girll is mortally injured, as she loses her hold on life, she tells Jubei she was glad she met him, and that he truly cared for her. Jubei kisses her, and she dies. He does not.

Recommended anime:

  • Akira
  • Armitage
  • Battle Angel
  • Gundam
  • Key
  • LAIN
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion
  • Ninja Scroll
  • Ghost in the Shell