Let’s hear it for the boys! Because this spotlight is generally women-centric (and will continue to be) we thought we’d better throw a bone to the gender of snails and puppy dog tails. Because men also deserve love and praise on occasion.
You know what? We actually love weird dudes here at the anime spotlight. As long as they have fixed their hearts, that is. It’s not easy to be an icon of positive masculinity in a misogynistic, fan-service-driven world and we want to shine some light on the many varieties of weird dudes who do good in anime to explore the question “what makes a golden boy?” Starting with Babe, the sheep-pig.
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Babe [Babe (1995)]: Born to be eaten, forced to justify his worth to ensure his life, somehow Babe the pig is never embittered in his quest to become something other than Christmas dinner. His curiosity is boundless, he helps and respects his elders, and he’s a good listener. Babe never wakes up and chooses violence (okay except once but he learns his lesson). Instead, he exemplifies a vulnerability and emotional openness that melts even the calcified stoicism of Farmer Hoggett. The smiling face of James Cromwell saying “That’ll do pig, that’ll do,” healed my primal father-wound. Influence hearts and minds, unionize farms, and to your flock be true.
Jiro [Dagger of Kamui (1985)]: The hero of this beautifully animated, meandering psychedelic epic from dir. Rintaro is half-Ainu- a people indigenous to the North of Japan, who have been practically erased from modern Japan. This movie has ~something~ to say about affinity and solidarity between oppressed peoples - Jiro has tender relationships with his mother and sisters, he frees slaves in North America, he kicks it with Native Americans. He is as pure and driven as snow, standing in stark contrast to the corrupt warring regimes of the Shogunate and the Emperor. We endorse ultra-fit vigilante boys with a mission.
Tenchi Misaki [Tenchi Universe (1995)]: During our research we realized that the year 1995 truly was the apotheosis of the evolution of the good boy. Tenchi Misaki might look like your generic mid-90s harem anime protagonist, but he's not horny like one. In fact, the resemblance to the harem genre in this show is deceptive. This is an intergenerational and intergalactic story about forming domestic bonds, each different from the next, against a seasonal backdrop, with Tenchi as the grounded older-brother figure in a household of hapless alien babes.
Eikichi Onizuka [GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka (1999)]: Even a bad boy can become golden. Onizuka is an ex-bosozoku with the goal of being the greatest teacher in all of Japan. As a former delinquent biker gang member, Onizuka might be the only adult uniquely positioned to understand the deep disillusionment and existential darkness of his students. He’s also a huge pervert. Multifaceted. The first few frames may stress test the viewer’s threshold for anime bullshit, but stick it out and watch GTO suplex the autocrats of high school education while he learns and grows alongside his students.
Haruka Nanase [Free! Iwatobi Swim Club (2013)]: What if your soulmate was your childhood swimming rival? What if he was your entire reason for swimming - all your passion drained when he moved to a different continent, just listlessly going through life searching for that spark? Haruka Nanase is in love with Rin Matsuoka, the only other person he’s known to match his ‘free’ swimming style, both in speed and grace. But Rin is training a world away. Haruka’s friends try to reignite the spark by reviving the high school’s swim club, but can anything besides Rin and his shark teeth smile kick Haruka into gear? No. The answer is no. He is hopelessly trapped by his memories of Rin. Maybe if Rin were to move back one day…
Kobujutsu [On-Gaku: Our Sound (2019)]: Not a boy, but a band of boys (though definitely not a boy band) formed by three high school delinquents out of nothing more than boredom--the greatest creative motivator. In the best of cases, music is a vehicle for men to connect in ways that transcend typically accepted forms of male bonding, some potent but ineffable quality in being in total sync. It can do some weird shit to you! All my hometown straight boy bandmates kissed each other like it was no big deal--real Bruce Springsteen stuff. Awesome. Boys don't kiss in On-Gaku: Our Sound (sorry), but the film perfectly articulates the energies that make playing music unlike any other form of creative expression. Like its protagonists, it does so with few words.
Kintaro Oe [Golden Boy (1995)]: The most important exploration of masculinity released in the year 1995 that does not feature a talking pig. Golden Boy sees protagonist Kintaro chasing tail and odd jobs alike across Japan. He's an admittedly contentious pick, blatantly lustful with a brain smaller than his dick, yet his love for women is so deeply ingrained it comes off (to us, anyway) less like objectification and more like the adoration a dog has for its owner. In the end, his superego will always triumph over his id, and every impossibly beautiful woman he loves and leaves is changed for the better by the experience.
Astro/Atom [Astro Boy (1980)]: Probably the original anime goodboy. Astro's heart may be synthetic, but it's warmer than those beating in most humans. His design is molecularly perfect as a machine that generates empathy (to steal a quote from Roger Ebert). Sweetly naive, with those giant Disney eyelashes, he's a foil more than he is an adversary to the many bad guys he squares up against. All that said, instead of picking the 2003 adaptation, much more faithful to the themes invoked here, we chose the 1980 adaptation, solely because it's so off the rails it was never on the rails to begin with. Tezuka was really funny, a total oddball, and the choices made in this series are just baffling, almost alien. You kind of just have to watch it to get what I mean.
