6

Critical approaches 6
Sophie Husteden

Audience profile
This is a both Manga and Anime, however I am going to focus on the Anime version
for this project. The plot of the show is that a 15 year old boy suddenly wakes up
one day to find out he is the son of Satan, his foster father is killed, so he decides to
become an exorcist to defeat Satan. The genre for it is that it is action and drama,
that is set in a school. I could not find a specific audience profile for this show, but it
does have an age rating of 14+. From watching the Anime I can make assumptions
of what the audience profile would be like, so here are my assumptions:
The age rating for the show is likely to be for people aged 15 up wards, this is
because the main characters are aged 15, so the audience will relate to them. Also
it is set in a school which the audience will also be able to relate to, if they are
younger.
The gender can be either, but it is more likely predominantly male. This would be
because the story is based upon a male, also they show the girls wearing short
school skirts and large chests, which is more likely to attract males. I would say that
this Anime is quite mainstream in Japan, however in England it is more niche. This is
because Japan is where it was released, and in Western countries it is more niche
and uncommon to like Anime. The geodemographics is anywhere really, since there
are many different sites that show and translate the Anime to their language, but
the audience is going to be predominantly Japanese. The socio-economic status of
the audience is probably people is the social grade A, B, and C1, this is because they
would need to have the money to own a television or computer to be able to watch
the show. If we included the manga it would be the same social grades because the
audience need to have enough money to afford to buy all of the manga's.

Front cover and description
The front cover of the show has all of the main characters shown and they are in
order of their importance, so the main character ‘Rin’ is shown right in the front
and center. Rin is showing his abilities as that is the main focus of the show, and
since he is the only one with powers it shows the audience that he is special. All
of the other characters are showing the weapons that they are known to use, so
Yukio is holding a gun, bon is shown holding his rosaries, this is the same with Rin
as he is shown holding open his sword which holds his powers and is his main
weapon. The background of the image shows the main location of the show, the
true cross academy, this is important to the plot so it has been shown. In the
bottom left corner of the page there is the name of the show in the original
language it is in, Japanese, this shows that it is not just an animated show but is a
Japanese Anime. This cover represents all of the character as strong and
powerful, as they are all holding their weapons and standing in poses where they
look ready to fight, so it shows the women of the show as equal to the men.
The description of the show on IMDB is ‘After discovering that he's the son of
Satan, a young man must join the True Cross Academy in order to master his
abilities and defeat Satan himself’ this is quite a short description that shows all
of the main points of the show quickly. It is a little wrong however because the
show is not about him defeating Satan but is more so about his training, this was
probably written because it sounds more interesting to the reader than if it just
wrote about him having to train.

Episode 1
The episode begins with some priests performing a ritual, this is shown by the
opening image being candles then it shows some monks chanting. Then a monk
begins to scream and is shown with blood coming out of their eyes and nose, this is a
sign shown over the whole show of how Satan takes over a body. The monk shown to
be being possessed then bursts into blue flames, which is another symbol for Satan in
the show, more people begin to burst into blue flames, then the head priest is shown
with blood coming out of his eyes and nose, this shows that he is being possessed.
The show starts by showing all of these things as they help the viewer to understand
important signs of Satan in the show, so that they can then identify these symbols
later in the show without having to be told them.
The next scene begins immediately after the head priest is shown to be possessed.
The scene starts by showing the main character stood in front of a group of boys that
are on the floor, and look as if they have been in a fight, the boys then say ‘What are
you? Some kind of demon?’, this is foreshadowing for when that character is revealed
to be a demon. The next shot is of the main character wiping blood off of his nose,
this shows that he is the one that got into a fight with the other boys that were laying
on the ground. This character being introduced in this way shows the audience that
he is tough and rebellious, this makes him look like the bad boy of the show. He says
‘You assholes are way more demonic than me.’ this also shows that he is rebellious as
he is swearing, and the fact that he says that they are more demonic is foreshadowing
because later in the episode one of the boys turns out to be a demon that tries to kill
Rin. After this scene ends with Rin saying he needs to stop fighting it goes to the title
sequence.

Representations- Gender
Overall they show both males and females as strong and powerful, this
is because the show is mainly about fighting demons in different ways
so it shows most characters as strong physically, but some are shown
as strong mentally. The characters that are stronger mentally are
usually quite weak, such as the character Shiemi, she is shown as
physically weak but mentally very strong. They also shown the female
characters to be strong physically, for instance the character Shura, she
is presented to be a great fighter that uses a sword, she is even shown
defeating male characters. So they represent both females and males
in a positive way.
They show the female character to be wearing quite revealing clothing,
for instance with the character Shura she wears a bikini top and shorts,
this shows a lot of her body. This is different to how the males dress as
they are all shown to be fully clothed and covered, they also tend to be
dressed in a more grungy style that makes them look more rebellious
and cool. The fact that they present the females to be wearing quite
revealing outfits compared to the males that are fully dressed shows
that they are trying to make them look sexy, this may be because the
audience is predominantly male and they are making the characters
appealing to them, this would also be a reason to why all the males are
shown to be dressed cool.

Representations- Age
All of the main characters in the show are aged 15, this is shown
in one of the episodes where they hold a birthday party for one
of the group members, they are also shown to be going to high
school and that they are in their first year. The main characters
are shown as being quite mature for their ages, for instance with
the character Yukio he is already a fully fledged exorcist and
even teaches a class to some of the other students. They are
shown to be mature as well since they are made to handle
missions that are meant for adults. This represents them as
being strong and powerful for their age as well, especially since
Yukio and Rin are shown to take on Satan in some of the
episodes.
The main adults in the show are shown to be quite immature,
for instance with the character Amaimon he is one of the main
nemesis's in the show and is very immature, he is presented to
be similar to a child as he speaks that way and does similar
actions to a child. Showing the adults as the same level maturity
as the 15 year old characters makes the 15 year olds look more
powerful and like they are more important.

Representations- Social issue
One of the social issues in the show is that Rin and Yukio’s adoptive father
kills himself after he is possessed by Satan, this topic is not really spoken
about. It shows the event happening, then Rin at his gravestone, there is
nothing else is really mentioned, such as if they are depressed after it
happening. This could be because in Japanese culture they don’t talk about
many issues like depression, it is seen as taboo to talk about so that could be
a reason as to why they do not mention it.
They have the social issue of being adopted as part of the storyline, similarly
to the father being killed storyline the fact that they were adopted is kind of
glazed over. During the scene where the adoptive father dies Rin does
mention it and says that he was never his father, but that is the most that it
was mentioned. This could be for the same reason that it was never
mentioned about how they felt after he died, it is taboo to talk about in
Japan.
Another social issue shown in the show is unplanned pregnancy, this is with
the twins parents. In the final couple episodes Satan explains how he and the
twins mother did not want them originally and that they were an accident,
the show shows the mother dying during the birth and their adoptive father
taking them in. The show does not talk about the issue probably because it
was mentioned so late into the show, or it could have been because similarly
it is a taboo topic in Japan.

Audience profile
Assassination classroom was originally a Manga series before it was an Anime,
however I am going to focus mainly on the Anime not the Manga. The show is
about a class in a school for assassins, the class is the worst in the school but
they have a special teacher, that is an alien that destroyed half the moon and
said he was going to do the same to earth if the class he taught could not kill
him before the end of the year.
Similarly to Blue exorcist this show does not have a audience profile so I will
have to make it myself. The target age for the audience would probably be age
15 up wards, this is because the show is set at a high school and the students
are around this age. Also if the audience is a similar age to the characters or go
to school then they would have something in common with them, which would
make the show relate to them. The gender of the target audience could be
either male of female, due to there being no set main character, and it goes
between multiple different characters from the class depending on the episode.
The anime is more niche, in both Japan and western countries. The
geodemographic for this show is social grade A, B and C1, this is because the
audience need to have a TV or device to watch the show on. Also if the
audience want to read the manga's they should be in these social grades too as
they need to be able to afford all of the books.

The front cover of the show has all of the characters from the class shown in the
image, they also show the character closer to the front and center of the photo by
how important they are. So they have the most important character, Koro sensei, in
the center, this shows that he is more important than the other characters as he is
the first the viewers will see, also he is the center of the show which is the same
with this image. Then other characters that are also important but are not the
center of the show are around Koro Sensei, such as the character Karma, he is
shown in the bottom right corner with red hair. Other characters that are not as
important or not relevant are shown in the back of the image, they are quite
difficult to make out or recognize, which shows that they are not that important to
the show. The characters of the show also are shown holding their chosen
weapons, for instance the character Nagisa is holding a dagger, which is his chosen
weapon. The background for the image shows the classroom that the Anime is set
in and around, having it being the background shows that it is the main setting and
is important for the show.
The description of the show is off of the website IMDB, it says ‘A powerful creature
claims that within a year, Earth will be destroyed by him, but he offers mankind a
chance by becoming a homeroom teacher where he teaches his students about
how to kill him. An assassination classroom begins.’ this description is accurate to
what the show includes. It is quite a small amount of text to describe the premise
of the show, as it is quite a difficult show to understand the meaning of, however
they did quite a good job writing that as it is short and easy to understand.

Episode 1
The episode starts by showing the classroom name, ’3E’, this is to set the scene
and to show the main setting of the show. The next scene shows the children
sat in the classroom, they all look quite sad, especially since the colours in the
scene are quite dark and gloomy looking. It then cuts to an clip of something
flying through the air, this shows that something important is coming, the thing
is then shown landing outside of the classroom, it makes a big impact which
makes it look as if it is something very heavy. The next scenes show the thing
moving through the hallways and entering the classroom, this is done through
first person view from the thing that is coming in. Having this kind of build up
makes the viewers anticipate the thing coming into shot, it also makes it seem
like it should be something really scary and horrifying.
The thing is then shown in the next shot by its hand putting a book down, their
hand is yellow and obviously not human. His face is then shown as he says
‘Alright lets get started people’, this shows that he is meant to be in charge of
the class (as their teacher). With all the build up to seeing this character, the
viewers are likely to think that he will look scary, however he looks more like an
octopus with an emoji for a head, he doesn’t look that scary personally. Then
he is shown doing the register, while he is doing this the students are shown
shooting at the teacher, this shows that they are at a different type of school,
also this will intrigue the viewers since they will want to know what is
happening and why they are shooting their teacher, or even what their teacher
is.

Episode 1
The teacher is shown dodging the bullets while still doing the register, after
he is shown to be fine and not have been hit once. The students then start
to put their weapons away, while talking about how he wasn’t even hurt
and that they wont be able to get him. Then the images focus on the
character Nagisa, he then says ‘Yep we are assassins, and our target is our
teacher’, this finally tells the viewer what the main premise of the show is.
The teacher is also shown as being really nice and caring towards the
students, this is done by him being really happy when he sees that none of
the students were late, and he is also shown telling them better way to
improve their shooting techniques.
The teacher is then shown shooting himself with one of the bullets to show
the class what happens, this causes his arm to be cut in half and start to
spray yellow liquid everywhere like blood, then he says ‘in a few minutes
however I will regenerate and grow back my arm’ this shows the viewers
one of his weaknesses but also one of his strengths, as well as showing that
he is definitely not a normal teacher.
The opening scene then ends with the teacher smiling evilly, and saying
‘Good luck killing me before graduation, you're going to need it’ then he
proceeds to laugh. This shows that he may not be as nice and caring as he
seemed to be in the rest of the opening scene. The title credits then start to
play.

Representation- gender
Overall I found that the show represents both females and males as equals. Since
the show is about them being able to kill the teacher, it shows their strengths and
what kind of weapons they use, so they show the females being strong as well as
the males in the show. The show even shows some of the females as stronger
than the males, for instance with the character Irina, she is a fully trained assassin
that was sent into the class to try and help kill the teacher, she is shown as a very
strong woman, even so that some of the males in show as she is shown fighting
some of them. They also show some of the boys as quite weak, such as the
character Nagisa, he is shown being quite scrawny and not good at fighting, but
instead relies on his smartness.
With the show being set in a school it means that the characters are shown
wearing a uniform, when watching other Anime’s set in schools I found that they
showed all the girls in quite skimpy looking versions of the uniform, with short
skirts and showing off their cleavage. However this one has each of the uniforms
for the girls based on the character, such as with the character Manami, in the
show she is the nerdy girl that likes science, and her uniform reflects this as it fully
covers her with the skirt being quite long. This differs from the character Kayano,
who is shown to be more confident and strong in the show, and her skirt is much
shorter than Manami’.

Representation- age
Most of the main characters are shown to still be in Highschool, and in
their last year, this is since the show is set in school and they often talk
about passing the final exam for school, this would mean that they are
17-18 years old. We are not told how old the adults in the show are,
however I would guess they are late 20s early 30s, and I can not even
guess what Koro Sensei’s age would be since he is an Alien, however he
mentions that he has been around for a long time.
Since most of the main characters in the show are teens and they are
shown as being quite strong, as they have been given the task to kill an
alien that is much older than them, this shows that they have been
represented in quite a positive light and that they can be as mature as
the adults in the show as they were put to a task that the adults could
not complete. The adults in the show are shown as weaker than the
teens, as they could not kill Koro Sensei, but the teens were trusted to be
able to kill him. This could be because the target audience for this show
is people aged 15 upwards, so them showing the teens in the show as
being strong and powerful it will appeal to the target audience.

Representation- social issues
There are not many social issues that I could think of that the show touches
upon, since it is more of a dark comedy, than something that would have lots
of serious topics in it. One of the main ones that I could think of was that the
class that is made to kill Koro Sensei are known as the bottom class, and the
place that people that are not getting good grades go, the students in the
class get bullied by other students for being in that class, and are thought of
as less that everyone else as they are in the bad class. So the social issue
they spoke about is bullying, they did not show any resolve to this topic
though, probably because it is not the main focus of the show and they did
not want it to go out of the comedy genre.
They also deal with the social issue of death, this is however very late into
the show, as it is the death of a main character. So it is not spoken about as
much as it would have been if it had happened at the beginning of the show.
There are not many social issues talked about in the show as I mentioned
earlier, this could be because the show is for Japanese audiences and in
Japan they do not talk about many social issues as it is seen as taboo.

Audience profile
This is both an Anime and a Manga, however I will be focusing mainly on the
Anime version of the show for this task. The premise of the show is that
Akuto is a transfer student to a prestigious school in the city, on the first day
the students are told what their future occupation is going to be, Akuto is
told that he will be the demon king. The show then follows how he accepts
that fate and handles school life know that he will become the demon king.
Similarly to the other shows that I wrote about there is no audience profile
that I could find, so I decided to make one for them. On the IMDB page for
the Anime it said that it is rated TV MA, which is equivalent to PG, however I
would disagree with this as there is some scenes that show explicit stuff,
such as one that shows a woman with her clothes being ripped off of her to
reveal her being nude. Since there are scenes of sexual nature I would guess
that the age of the target audience would be above 18 but too old as they
would still have to be able to relate to the school setting, so I would say
between the ages of 18 and 20.
For the gender of the target audience I would say it is more likely to be male,
this is since all of the sexual scenes focus more on the female characters.
Also the main character is male, so the audience would relate to them more
than a girl would.
Within both Japan and western countries this is quite a niche Anime. The
social grade is A, B, C1 and C2, this is because people need to afford to own
a device to be able to watch the show on, also if they want to read the
manga's they need to be able to afford to buy all the books.

Similarly to the other covers of the Animes that I have already written about, the
front cover has all of the main characters in the show, they are also shown closer
to the front and center depending on how important they are to the show, this
shows the viewers who is most important to the show. The main character is
shown right in the center, then the next most important characters are shown at
the bottom of the cover right at the front of the image. The main character is
shown in his uniform however he has his shirt undone, this shows that he is a
strong character as he is quite muscular. The rest of the characters are also
wearing the school uniform, you can see that all of the female characters are
wearing quite skimpy looking uniforms, which will draw the attention of the target
audience as they are mainly males. There are magical pentagrams in the
background of the poster, these show that the anime is about magic and has
fantasy themes.
The IMDB description of the show is ‘One of the most promising students of the
Wizard academy takes a career assessment test and the results say that he'll
become a demon king. The students treat him differently after this, but the
female android is still in love with him’ this is the basic premise of the show,
however when I watched it I found that it was not an important factor of the show
how a female android is still in love with him, as this is barley mentioned in it. Also
they say that ‘The students treat him differently after this’ however I found that it
was a big understatement as the students treated him a lot worse than a bit
different. One thing that I thought they could’ve mentioned is how the show isn’t
about how the students treat him but more so about how the main character
dealt with his future changing and how he had to learn to live with being the
demon king.

Episode 1
The show begins by showing that there is a thunderstorm, normally in shows when
there are them they symbolize that something bad is coming or happening, so this
makes the viewers think that. Then a woman is shown, there is a baby crying in her
arms. She is shown putting the baby down in front of what looks like a monastery,
and saying that she hopes that ‘When you find out your destiny, I pray that you will
be strong.’
The next scene begins after this, it shows a train time table, then a man getting off
of the train, and walking through the station. The way that he was presented in the
show would suggest that he is the main character, this is since he is the first
character shown, also if he is the main character I would also assume that he is the
baby from the last scene.
A girl is shown next, she is wearing a school uniform and appears to be looking for
something and late. This girl is obviously important to the show as she is
introduced quickly into the show, also she is made to stand out from the rest of the
people shown walking around the station.
The male is then shown walking up some stairs, an old woman behind him drops
her suitcase and he helps her to pick up her belongings, other people are shown to
just walk past the old lady and not help her. This shows that he is a good person
that helps people, especially since people walked past her, having this makes the
viewer think that he is a good person, which is tricking the viewer as he is later
revealed to be the demon king, this will be shocking as he is portrayed as a nice
person.

Episode 1
The old woman that dropped her luggage is then revealed to be the girl from earlier in the
scenes grandmother. The girl then introduces herself to the male and says that she is
going to the same school as him, and that she is a Freshman. He then introduces himself
to the audience and to Junko (the girl), he is called Akuto. They talk and get to know each
other as they travel to the school, he mentions how he transferred to the school and how
difficult the test was to do so, this shows the viewers that he is hard working and really
wants to join the school. He then says that he wants to become the head priest, and that
it means that he really cares about society and wants to change the world for the better,
this makes the audience think that he is a really good and caring person, which will make
the reveal later so much more shocking for them.
They then arrive at the school, and Akuto is shown where he needs to go next. He is sent
to the informatory to get his health tested and be told what his future career is. They
show other students being told what they are going to be, they get careers such as
‘Doctor’, ‘Soldier’ and ‘Magical Technician’, which are all seen as normal jobs in the show,
this makes it even more shocking for the viewers when Akuto’s future career is revealed.
He is then up next and is told that he is the demon king, all of the students in the room
scream and appear to be scared, the teacher is the same, and Akuto is shown to be in
shock and to fear this. They say that he is going to be the demon king whether he wants
to or not, and that it will happen. Then the title sequence begins.

Representation- gender
The show represented both of the genders as being strong, and even show
some of the female students as stronger than the males ones. For instance the
character Junko, is shown in one scene to fight the main character Akuto, and
that the rest of the class is scared of her, this showed her in a positive way as
she is seen as being strong in the class.
Since the show is set in a school the characters wear uniforms, often in
Animes they show the female characters to be wearing really short and
revealing clothes. This show does that, especially with the character Junko, she
is shown to wear a short skirt, fitted shirt and knee high stockings. In one of
the first scenes that the audience was introduced to her she is shown to be
running up the stairs and her underwear is revealed, I found with lots of the
scenes with her in her underwear is shown, for instance they will have her
walk and the first image shown of her walking is of her underwear. The male
characters are shown to be wearing normal uniform and to be fully covered,
although on the cover for the show one of the male character is shirtless and
showing off his chest, however this is not shown in the actual show.
The main character Akuto is shown to wear his uniform as it should be, this
shows that he is meant to be a character that follows rules. Also since he is
wearing his full uniform it shows the viewers that he is meant to be a good
character in the show.

Representation- age
The character Junko tells Akuto that she is a freshman, then Akuto is put
into the same class as him, so I will assume that they are both the same
age. Freshmen are aged 14 to 15, so most of the main characters are aged
between these two.
The show represents people that are this age as being quite strong and
they are seen as the future of the city. Showing the characters as being
quite strong even though they are quite young is quite a positive way of
showing them, this could be because the target audience is people aged
close to the characters age and they will want the viewers to like the
characters. Also if they showed them in a negative light it may make the
viewers not want to watch the show as they may feel like they are being
shown in a bad light.
They shows the girls in the show in quite a sexual way, even though the
characters are meant to be quite young. This shows the young girls in a
negative way as it is sexualizing young people. They do this by showing a
sex scene between two characters that are meant to be between 14 and
15, they also have scenes that show the female characters in their
underwear or nude.

Representation- social issues
There was not many social issues that I could see when
watching the show, this could be because the show is aimed
towards Japanese people and many topics are thought of as
taboo over there, that wouldn’t be seen this way in western
countries.
One social issue that I could find was that the main
character Akuto was abandoned by his birth mother at a
monastery, where the priest and nuns there adopted and
raised him. This is not a social issue that is spoken about a
lot in the show, it is only mentioned briefly, this could be for
the reason that I previously mentioned, or because it was
not that important to the plot overall.
Another social issue shown in the anime is bullying. This is
shown after Akuto is told that he is destined to be the
demon king, his classmates then find this out and begin to
leave him out and call him names. The show does not show
how this issue is resolved, however at the end of the series
Akuto is shown to have lots of friends.

Target audiences
Each of the shows had quite similar premises, especially ‘Blue exorcist’
and ‘The demon king Daimao’, they were both about a boy that suddenly
finds out that they are both related to Satan and that they are both
demons, they then go to schools to learn how to deal with their futures.
‘Assassination classroom’ is not quite as similar as the other two however
it is also a fantasy show that is based in a school.
For each of the Animes that I wrote about I could not find a specific
audience profile so I made one for each of them. Overall there are lots of
similarities to the target audiences for each of the shows, such as for ‘Blue
exorcist’ and ‘The demon king Daimao’ are both aimed towards males,
but ‘Assassination classroom’ is aimed towards both males and females.
Another similarity is that the shows are all aimed towards people with
similar ages, which is 14+, however TDKD is aimed towards people a bit
older than that only because of the nudity and sex scenes.
They are all considered niche in both Japan and western countries, and
the target audiences social grades would be A, B, C1 and C2, due to them
having to be able to afford a device to watch the show on, and if they
want to read the Manga versions of the shows they would have to be able
to afford to buy all the books.
TDKD = The demon king Daimao
BE= Blue exorcist
AC= Assassination classroom

Front covers and IMDB descriptionsI found that all the front covers for the Animes were quite similar in style and what they
showed. For instance they all showed the character from the show on them, and had them
ordered depending on their importance and how close they were to the front and center of
the poster. Another thing that was similar on most of the front covers was that they showed
each characters weapons, this was on BE and AC, but not on TDKD this is due to there not
really being any weapons used in the show and unlike the other two Animes it is not the main
focus of the show to have the characters fighting. Something else that was similar on the BE
and AC covers but not the TDKD one is that they showed an important place or setting for the
show, so with BE they showed the school which is the main setting for the show, I think that
TDKD did not do this with their front cover because there is no main setting for the show, it is
based more all over the place.
The IMDB descriptions are all quite similar as they are all quite short but describes the show
quite well. I found that some of them had small mistakes though, such as in the TDKD as it says
that a ‘female android is still in love with him’ which is incorrect as it is not an important to the
plot and he doesn’t even end up with her by the end of the show which makes it irrelevant to
the synopsis. Another mistake that I found was in the description for BE it says that he joins
‘True cross academy’ to ‘master his abilities and defeat Satan himself’ which is incorrect
because he did not join the academy to defeat Satan but to learn how to control his powers
and to become a fully fledged exorcist.
BE= Blue exorcist
‘After discovering that he's the son of Satan, a young man must join the True Cross Academy in order to master his
abilities and defeat Satan himself’
‘A powerful creature claims that within a year, Earth will be destroyed by him, but he offers mankind a chance by
becoming a homeroom teacher where he teaches his students about how to kill him. An assassination classroom
begins.’
‘One of the most promising students of the Wizard academy takes a career assessment test and the results say that
he'll become a demon king. The students treat him differently after this, but the female android is still in love with
him’

First episodes
BE= Blue exorcist
When I looked at the Animes first episodes they were all different but this could be
because they are all have different plots etc. However one similarity is that all three of
them began with a scene that was a bit darker, with BE they showed a ritual where Satan
was present, this started the show by having suspense that will catch the viewers
attention. The show AC has this by showing scenes where something is walking through
the school and it has the students looking distressed, this almost looks like the start of a
horror movies and having this shows that they should be fearful of the character that was
coming towards the screen. TDKD shows a stormy night and a baby being left outside of a
monastery by a woman, this builds suspense as it will make the viewers want to know
who that baby is and why it is being left there. Another reason that all these shows start
like this could be because they all include foreshadowing to the show that is quite
important, this is true in BE as it shows the signs of Satan and what happens when he
possesses someone, which is important for the viewers to know for the rest of the show.
In AC they do this by showing that the character that is going towards the classroom
should be feared, which is also important for the viewers to know. With the show TDKD it
foreshadows by having the woman that leaves the baby saying that she hopes that it is
okay when it finds out its future, which tells the viewer that something bad is destined for
the baby.
All of the episodes then have a scene right after the darker scene that introduces the main
character and shows that it is not that dark of a show, in BE it does this by then showing
the main character Rin fighting with some guys and him joking afterwards, this helps to
show that the whole show is not dark and scary like the first scene. In AC they show this
by having the kind of main character come out of the shadows and he is shown to be quite
a funny looking character, this almost adds comic relief to the darkness of the opening
scene. In TDKD it shows this by going from the dark stormy setting of the monastery to a
bright colorful train station, this shows that the whole show is not going to be dark and
scary, also it introduces the main characters in a way that shows he is meant to be liked.

Representations- Gender
When I looked at how each of the Animes I found that they
represented gender in similar ways. For instance they show both
genders as being quite strong and equal, they even show some of the
female characters to be stronger than the males, this is in each of the
shows, like for BE Shura is shown to be stronger than lots of the other
males in the show and even beats one of them in a fight, in AC they
have the character Irena that is put in the show specifically because
she is stronger than most of the other characters, and in TDKD the
character Junko is feared by most of the class and is shown to beat
the main character in a fight.
I chose for all the Animes that I was researching to be based in a
school, because of this the characters would most likely to be wearing
uniform. I found in all of the shows that I researched that the female
characters uniform was particularly sexual looking, such as the skirts
were very short and their tops would be quite tight. I thought that
this might have been because the target audience is male and they
would probably like the females to be more sexualized. This is not
done as much in AC as in the other two, this is since the show doesn’t
have a specific target gender for the audience as the show has
multiple main characters that are both male and female, they have
the characters wearing uniforms that match their personality more
than to just make them appealing to a male audience.
BE= Blue exorcist

Representations- Age
All of the shows have main characters that are similar ages, between 14 and 18, this is because
they are all in school so they have ages based on the year they would be in at school. I found that
all of the Animes represented people between these ages in quite a positive light, as they show
them to be quite strong and powerful. They show this in BE, by the main character defeating
demons and completing challenges that seem as if they shouldn’t be able to at their age. In the
show AC they show the characters to be quite strong and powerful by having them chosen as the
people to kill this alien, which is a task that the military have not been able to do yet. In TDKD
they show this by having the main characters fighting, they also have one of the character that’s
aged between 14 and 15 guarding the school from any threats. I think that all these shows
represent people at this age like this because that is the age of their target audiences, and they
want the viewers to feel like they have people the same age as them has been represented in a
positive way.
Another similarity with all of the shows is that they show the adults as less powerful than the
younger characters. Such as in BE the characters Amaimon and Mephisto are both in charge of
the school, however they are portrayed as being quite childish and immature. In the show AC
they do this as well by having the younger characters being put to the task of killing their alien
teacher which is a task that none of the adults in the show had been able to do yet. They also do
this in the show TDKD by showing the teachers to also fear the main characters, which makes
them appear to be less powerful that the main characters. The shows may do this because they
want the viewers to think that the main character is the best character, and they do this by
making them more powerful than the other characters that should typically be stronger than
them.
BE= Blue exorcist

Representations- Social issues
I found that the Animes did not include many of the same social issues, this could be because they all have
different plots that have different things included in them. One social issue that I found all of them kind of
spoke about or showed was bullying, this may be because it is a topic commonly talked about in schools
and happens often at schools as well, also many other topics may be considered taboo to talk about in
Japan. The show TDKD shows bullying by the main character Akuto being left out a lot by the other
characters in the show, also the other students in his class are shown to talk about him behind his back. AC
shows bullying by having the main class in the show to be out casted by the school and the students in this
class to be looked down upon just because they are in this class, also there are scenes of students from
different classes talking badly about the students from class 3E. In BE they show bullying by having the main
character Rin being left out a lot with the rest of the students in the class, also the rest of the class is out
casted from the rest of the school and is shown to be spoken badly about.
These shows may not include many social issues in them because they are originally in Japanese and aimed
towards Japanese people and it is uncommon to talk about certain things in Japanese culture, this is
because it is thought of as almost taboo and it is often considered rude.
Another reason that the shows may not have included certain topics is that they wanted to stay in a certain
age rating and if they talked or showed some topics the age rating would have been raised in Japan, I
thought this especially for the show AC because they don’t talk about many social issues because they want
to stay in the genre of comedy and to be aimed towards younger audiences, they only really include death
because it is the ending of the show and is what needed to happen for there to be a closing to the show.
One more reason as to why they would not include some topics in the show is because it may not fit with
the plot of the show, for instance with the show TDKD if they included a bit about a topic like suicide it
would not fit the rest of the plot and would be unnecessary to the show. TDKD = The demon king Daimao
BE= Blue exorcist

6

More Related Content

What's hot

Similar to 6

More from Sophie Husteden

Recently uploaded

6