Forum - View topicHatarakiman - a sign of the times
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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Hatarakiman is a new anime from the character designer and animation director of SaiKano and Sailor Moon. It is a story about a working woman who puts her career above her relationship. She does have a boyfriend and their relationship is fairly healthy but not without its typical ups and down. The unique thing about this anime show is it explores the life and times of a unique woman who has acheived the status of "Hatarakiman" (lit. working man). Basically it is about a woman who is such a hard worker and good at what she does, she for the most part is viewed as an equal with her male counterparts at her job.
For you who are not familiar, only for about the last 10 years or so in Japan have women in the workplace really begun to be truly seen as equals with men in a professional career setting. It's true that women do obtain managerial and top administrative positions in the office, although not as frequently as men, but as far as an overall workforce demographic women are still seen as homemakers and secretarial types and never really acheive side by side equality status with men in the working-class, white collar environment. The situation is much different here in Western societies where it is men who occasionally have trouble competing with their female coworkers in the turbulent ladder of success. I think this anime very appropriately defines the world and times we live in as expressed through Japanese pop-culture. Firstly, because I've noticed that a lot of anime recently have featured many characters who are, for lack of a better term, gender deviants (ie homosexuals, bisexuals, transexuals and people - both men and women - who just fit better into the roles and expectations of the opposite sex. Portraying these types of characters in anime shows an unprecedented acceptance for the many alternate lifestyles that people lead in our modern world. That is why there was such an astounding positive reaction to the debut of this title, which was aired in a late prime-time programming block; the time when many young and medium aged adults who enjoy anime are watching TV. As a matter of fact the show has the highest viewing percentage of any anime debut during that season aired at this time slot. Hatarakiman in particular interests me because I have acquired a rather poignant following toward anime of late that tell stories of modern gender deviants that I mentioned earlier. Although the anime Hatarakiman is not about transexualism at all, it puts out an interesting viewpoint about the long standing traditional gender roles and standards that are finally withering away with the previous era. Other such recent anime that break this mold without being overtly defined as stories about homosexuals or transexuals are Ouran Koukou Host Club and Kasimasi ~Girl Meets Girl~. The latter is directed by anime creator, Akahori Satoru, who has a long standing history of featuring over-the-top gender situations in his stories, but Kasimasi is more of a down to earth story (with aliens) about a boy getting a fresh start on romance due to a mishap that changed his gender to female. Hatarakiman is kind of the opposite situation where a it's a woman who desires to fit into a male-esque type of persona, but her romantic life is still unaffected by this desire or so she hopes. Man, I gotta get around to watching I My Me Strawberry Eggs. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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There is actually a thread about this series already, though it's been awhile since there was any activity in it. You can find it here: animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=28942&highlight=
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selenta
 Subscriber Posts: 1774 Location: Seattle, WA |
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You know, that's great and all that Japan is finally catching up in the civil rights aspects and all... but please explain to me how a social trend makes this particular show inherently better. Social movements may indeed make an anime more popular for showing women as the equal or superior workers, but simple looking at the actual show I really don't think it deserves any recognition as a "good" show. "Progressive" maybe... but not "good". EDIT: please past PLEASE change your avatar  I lose a day off my life every time I look at his mug
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Also, as was pointed out in the other thread, the main character (I am blanking on her name) has to become a "working man" to be on equal footing, which shows that it might not be as equal as it sounds.
As for whether it's a good series or not, I'm still on the fence. I'm watching it mainly because it's focusing on working adults, rather than high schoolers/colleged-aged people and since I'm about the graduate from university I'm interested in getting a feel for the working world in general. |
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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Since this is more of a thread on the progress of women in Japan, I don't think my post is too off-topic.
While it's a wonderful thing that forced gender roles are being cast aside in favor of freedom to decide one's own place in the world, it seems like the prejudices are just switching places. I've noticed that the trend now is to view homemakers and secretaries with greater disdain. If a woman wants to be respected now, she's supposed to go and get a "real" job, like being a mother or keeping a household straight isn't real work. You see this sort of thing all the time in this country. Take Hillary Clinton's infamous quote: "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life." That is clearly, at least to me, a condescending attitude toward women who choose to stay at home. If a woman wants a career, I say great and go for it! If a woman wants to stay at home a raise the kids, I say great and go for it! Most people, however, choose to see one as positive and the other as negative, which is just wrong in my opinion. marie-antoinette: Since most of the characters co-workers are surely male, doesn't it make sense that if they think of her as an equal, they will think of her as a fellow "working man?" If they are male, don't they HAVE to think of her as "one of the guys" in order to accept her as an equal? Regardless of social constraints, there are some obvious differences between men and women. Typically we don't act, think, or talk in the same ways plus our physical forms tend to be rather different. That's not to say that one gender is better than the other, merely that we are not equals because we are not the same. Source on the quote: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hillary_Rodham_Clinton |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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I 100% agree with you about people looking down on woman who choose to stay home. It really is horrible how "female liberation" has come to mean you have to work or you are a disgrace to your gender. I thought the whole women's moment was about choice. I personally would love to be able to afford to stay home, though I also am looking forward to getting a job (if only because I want money and independence and stuff). There is nothing wrong with the decision to stay home, as long as it works for you and is something you want to do.
To get back to the series, I'd say the workplace in Hataraki Man is male-dominated, but there are still enough women there that I don't think that the co-workers would have to think of her as "one of the guys." Also, the one who most uses the term Hataraki Man is one of her female co-workers. So basically, while the show does exhibit a more liberal attitude towards women in the workplace, there is still a ways to go (of course, the same can be said for North America too, glass ceiling anyone?) |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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Changed per your request (now it's Miss Shizuku from Hunter x Hunter btw).
The relative merits of a show shouldn't have to do with how accurately it expresses social trends. Whether it's good or bad is based on an individual's personal opinion of it's quality. I myself never said anything about the actual quality of the show and the point of my topic wasn't really wether it was actually good or not. Even a very bad show can do a good job of accurately portraying the state of affairs between women and men in the workforce. The recognition I was claiming primarily had to do with how well it was received based on actual viewership data. I merely pointed out these results were interesting in how they expressed the recent increased acceptance of evolving gender roles in anime by typical evening TV audiences. And Richard J. I kind of see where your coming from with the unfortunate consequences of people trying too hard to break out of the mold of being stereotyped and discriminated against. Although I think I may have to read your post again. Basically no matter what someone does, someone else is going to have a problem with the way they are percieved based on their gender or appearance. Pretty much the best thing to do is to be yourself and do what you feel is right, I guess. |
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