{"id":31252,"date":"2013-05-13T14:23:52","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T18:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/?p=31252"},"modified":"2013-05-13T14:29:29","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T18:29:29","slug":"ask-john-whats-the-significance-of-gender-exclusive-schools-in-anime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/ask-john-whats-the-significance-of-gender-exclusive-schools-in-anime\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask John: What’s the Significance of Gender-Exclusive Schools in Anime?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"high_school_girls\"<\/a>
\nQuestion:<\/strong>
\nWhat’s the significance of all-girl high schools? I’ve recently seen a slew of all-girl schools in anime like K-On!, Girls Und Panzer and the recently premiered Yuyushiki. It looks interesting.<\/p>\n


\nAnswer:<\/strong>
\nI’m not actually certain that all-girls school settings have a significant meaning in anime apart from being a reminder of the sort of subtle cultural differences that distinguish anime from American pop-culture entertainment. Unlike America, which now has few if any gender-exclusive schools, all-boys and all-girls school are relatively commonplace in Japan. And these institutions have been prominent settings for anime for decades. Anime including the 1984 Cream Lemon: Escalation<\/em> series, and 90’s and later productions including Oniisama E…<\/em>, Maria-sama ga Miteru<\/em>, Strawberry Panic<\/em>, and Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight<\/em>, in addition to productions like the current Yuyushiki<\/em>, have been set in and around all-girls schools. Anime series including Gakuen Heaven<\/em>, Princess Princess<\/em>, Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shoganai<\/em>, and Danchi Kokosei no Nichijo<\/em> are set in boys-only schools. Anime including Sukeban Boy<\/em>, Ai Mai Mii Strawberry Eggs<\/em>, Mariaholic<\/em>, and Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru<\/em> use the setting to create fish-out-of-water situational comedies by putting a disguised boy in an all-girls school. The Seitokai Yakuindomo<\/em> and Asa Made Jugyou Chu<\/em> anime play with the trope by setting their stories in schools that have just switched from all-girls to co-ed, making male students a tiny minority of the student body.<\/p>\n

In the case of anime series like the “Escalation<\/em>” series and Oniisama E…<\/em>, and Gakuen Heaven<\/em> and Sukisho<\/em>, the gender-exclusive setting allows anime to concentrate on the dramatic and sexual conflicts and relationships that emerge within gender-exclusive communities. The “Escalation<\/em>” series, Strawberry Panic<\/em>, Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke o<\/em>, and Aoi Hana<\/em> focus on lesbian relationships that develop at all-girls schools. Oniisama E…<\/em> and Joshikousei<\/em> deal with the cattiness, rivalry, and adolescent insecurity naturally evoked and propogated by an all-female environment. Gakuen Heaven<\/em> and Sukisho<\/em> depict homosexuality emerging due, in part, to exclusive male closeness. Princess Princess<\/em> depicts boys at a gender-exclusive school devising a novel way to introduce a female presence into their school. In very recent years, the gender-exclusive school setting has been used primarily as a convenient narrative shortcut. Shows including K-On<\/em>, Yuyushiki<\/em>, and Danchi Kokosei no Nichijo<\/em> can focus entirely on cute girls or quirky boys because the story setting eliminates the necessity of representing the opposite gender. In effect, exploiting the gender-exclusive school setting allows for greater fan service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: What’s the significance of all-girl high schools? I’ve recently seen a slew of all-girl schools in anime like K-On!, Girls Und Panzer and the recently premiered Yuyushiki. It looks interesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-john"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31252"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31264,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31252\/revisions\/31264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}