#saint seiya

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THE FEMINIST CASE AGAINST A FEMALE ANDROMEDA SHUN
Netflix is known for almost always having good female and LGBT+ representation in their works, and even in their reboots of other franchises. An example of this is the excellent reboot of She-Ra, which was severely criticized by several fans (mostly older adult males) for removing the sexualization of the main character, and which also changed the ethnicity and biotype of various characters, giving the animation an incredible diversity. Now, the hot topic is the trailer, released yesterday (December 08th, 2018) in Comic Con Experience, of their reboot of the classic anime Saint Seiya. In it, what caught the most attention was almost definitely the genderbending of the character Andromeda Shun, who is now a woman. This is definitely being rejected by purist and older adult male fans. But I come here to write the reason why this change, in my opinion, and from what I see, in the opinion of almost all the more liberal, progressive, and feminist fans, is a horrendous idea and, I dare say, against the ideals we stand for.
Andromeda Shun is an extremely sweet, sensitive, gentle, delicate character who wears pink, and is definitely effeminate. However, although he is often bullied by part of the fandom because of that, he is never treated as a joke in the context of the original work. This in itself is already great, especially given that it is a shonen originally written in the 1980s, and that even today effeminate male characters are treated as mere jokes in many works. But Saint Seiya not only does not treat him with mockery and derision, it portrays him as possibly the most powerful knight of Athena, and one of the most powerful characters of the entire saga.
This is extremely important. The fact that he is effeminate (and quite possibly likes men, let’s face it, there is no heterosexual explanation for his relationship with Hyoga) and someone who does everything not to use violence, to solve things without bloodshed, and even in the need to fight, be much more defensive than attacking, almost always containing his full power, is extremely important. This goes against several of the socially constructed conceptions of what it is to be a man, what it is to be strong, what it is to be a strong man. He is an absolutely pacifist character, the opposite of aggressive and imposing, but he is the strongest and most powerful knight of Athena. Gentleness, sweetness, compassion, and pacifism are not portrayed as weakness, but as moral. And even the original anime failed him because it made him a damsel in distress being saved by his brother several times, while in the manga it seems he saves the others more than the other way around. Having a powerful character who is a man with these characteristics, challenging notions of masculinity, is a very, VERY, powerful and progressive characterization.
Genderbending him is not going to serve to improve the original anime’s problem of female representation, and there were several other ways to actually do it. This is only going to serve to reinforce stereotypes. To wear pink, to be gentle, sweet, delicate, pacifist, self-sacrificing, are reinforced as exclusively feminine traits. The power of these traits is relegated once again to just girls. Instead of challenging ideas of masculinity that are often extremely toxic, such as aggressiveness, imposition, lack of sensitivity, selfishness, impulsivity, among others, making him female reinforces the idea that those traits are inherently feminine (and, therefore, often read as inferior, due to the social notion that feminine = inferior).
There were several ways to improve the series’s female representation. They could develop characters like Saori, Marin, and Shaina to begin with, write arcs for them that depend less on the main male characters, and even improve their relationships with them. For me, they could reinforce Shaina as an antagonist, and take away the “all the time she was in love with Seiya” thing. They could reduce the “damsel in distress” trope with Saori, because my gods, she is freaking Athena, goddess of war. They could give more importance and role to the Amazons, maybe even creating new characters. They could give more role and personality even to Ikki’s and Shiryu’s romantic interests, whose importance is so great that I’m even having to google these men right now to remember their names (which by the way are respectively Esmeralda and Shunrei). After all, female characters do not necessarily have to be fighters to be strong, badass, and important - see Lois Lane, Sansa and Catelyn Stark (from the books, the show can go die in a hole), Jemma Simmons, Molly Hooper, practically every Doctor Who companion, Winry Rockbell, Zoe Hange, Saint Kassia, Princess Bubblegum, among many others. They could even further develop the already existing element in the lore of criticism of sexism, which affects female knights, making them even having to wear masks to “abdicate” their gender (which in turn also generates a problem of internal inconsistency, since Shun does not wear mask in that reboot, but Marin does). And for real, simply removing the armored breasts from the armors of the female fighters who already exist would already be a big step in this aspect, but even that they didn’t do.
And I haven’t even mentioned that if they, like in the original anime, make Shun be saved a billion times by his brother, this will 100% fall into the cliché of the damsel in distress that has to be saved by a man. Feminist as hell, huh?
To conclude my rant, genderbending Andromeda Shun, in my opinion and in the opinion of several others, was not only a bad idea, it was an idea that reinforces conservative and anti-feminist notions against which we fight. I’m totally here for repaginating old works in order to improve issues with representation, and I even dare say I’d be ok with about any character other than Shun (or Hyoga) rewritten as a woman. For hell’s sake, genderbend Ikki, the giant angry fire-bending badass ex-villain who is overprotective of his brother (although this would keep the problem of internal inconsistency briefly mentioned here, and would continue to take away the opportunity to better develop stories around the female fighters having to wear masks, which I think would be awesome). But not Shun. It is extremely important that Shun keeps his “feminine” characteristics and continues to be a man. This type of representation is also immensely important, not just female representation. This time, then, this feminist is on the side of purist and older adult male fans, deeply dissatisfied with a character’s genderbending into a woman, and way less excited about Netflix’s reboot.
2 things I’d like to add:
1) They should get rid of the whole female face- concealing mask business altogether because it’s an outdated concept it can absolutely live without. I’ll get in more detail why if you want. But, in short, it’s oppressive because the woman’s pride is tied to her having to reject her femininity in order to be taken seriously as a saint and as a sign of her devotion. This is just like the hardships of women in a male dominated environment that, in an attempt to be respected and treated as equal, try very hard to not be viewed as weak and typically female. Not to mention if a GUY sees a girl saint she has to marry or kill…because…i have no idea? I guess a possible logic would be he managed to beat her, she was weaker than him, and since her honour is strictly linked to the mask, she has to take responsibility: either he must die because he saw her face (lol) (to hide the shame of losing?) or he’s the bae and worthy man of her dreams. This is pretty outdated sexism, isn’t it? Overall, it’s not a good thing for the girl saints.
2) Even though the anime certainly pushed a not so subtle titillating homoromantic agenda with the libra scene, I think his relationship with Hyoga is at most portrayed platonic, and honestly, while you could say “gaaaay”, he was just trying to warm up Hyoga to save his life and actually maximizing the body contact makes sense. But you’re free to read more into that if you want (I guess I’m slightly biased myself). The thing I like about Saint Seiya is the strong friendship and devotion between the characters. While I like romance, I think it’s important to point out friendships and platonic relationships are no less important than a romantic one, and this is particularly relevant to me as a grey shade of ace/romantic. But hey I like shipping.

Girl, you have almost read my mind. There’s some explanation at our points.

About Shun being gay, there’s a possibility but also he likes girls since he kind of have a relationship with June of Chameleon.

About the mask fact, in an episode Shaina explained since the world of the knight or saint, is a world of men and being Athena the only woman allowed in the sanctuary then women must cover their face in order to become a knight/saint.