A recent survey posted on Yahoo! Japan asked men between 24 and 35 which manga heroine was their ideal woman, claiming that women today can learn dating techniques from the well-known characters that had captured the hearts of the nation’s men.
The article soon became very popular online as netizens checked who had come out on top, but they soon expressed their disappointment at the ranking, with many saying that the respondents must have been lying about their age…
Do any of these heroines sound like your ideal woman? And can real women learn anything from fictional characters?
From Yahoo! Japan:
Men’s Ideal Women Are Characters From Manga Or Anime!?: Learning How To Get The Guy From Popular Manga Heroines.
Manga and animes in which everyone’s imagined idea of the opposite sex appears. If you’re a woman, then you would have read shojo manga and felt your heart flutter for a male character…But could it be that it’s the same for men, too?
So at that, we asked men aged between 25 and 34 who their favourite manga and anime heroines were!
And the results were as follows: number one was Lum (from “Urusei Yatsura”), number two was Mine Fujiko (from “Lupin III”), number three was Maetel (from “Galaxy Express 999”, number four was Otonashi Kyoko (from “Maison Ikkoku”), and number five was Asakura Minami (from “Touch”). After number five it was a close call, with Nana Komatsu (from “Nana”), Akagi Haruko (from “Slam Dunk”), Nami (from “One Piece”, and Nausicaä (from “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”) entering the rankings.
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- Lum from “Urusei Yastsura”
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- Otonashi Kyoko from “Maison Ikkoku”
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- Maetel from “Galaxy Express 999”
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- Mine Fujiko from “Lupin III”
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- Asakura Minami from “Touch”
Characters from manga old and new cropped up, but the top rankings are all heroines from famous titles that are nostalgic to us! Why are these women popular?
“Though it might be from manga or anime, the girls that gave us butterflies when we were young steadfastly remain with us even when we become adults. Furthermore, these women have the right chemistry to attract men”, says Professor Shibuya Shouzou of the Graduate School of Psychology at Mejiro University.
“Firstly, Lum sets men’s impluses racing by always doing things they don’t expect, like raining down thunder and lightning on them or making extremely spicy food. Even if she gets cheated on, she’ll just punish you with thunder and then it’s over — for men, this kind of refreshing personality is ideal. Then, we have Mine Fujiko, who has Lupin at her mercy, betraying him or being kind to him. For men, who have had the “hunter” instinct since ancient times, it ignites their passions to chase after a woman like her, who they think they can overpower, but ultimately can’t”.
Interesting. So it seems that these women would be particularly attractive to “carnivorous men” [nikushoku danshi].
“On the other hand, for the widow Otonashi Kyoko and the mysterious Maetel, the fact that they are characters who have a “dark” side, and who don’t show their real feelings easily, is the key to their attractiveness. When men look at a woman with a dark side, who doesn’t seem to be able to be happy, this strengthens their protective urges ‘I’ll take care of you!'”.
These girls will probably be popular with “herbivore men” [soushoku danshi]. Looking at it like this, when Lum is unpredictable, Mine Fujiko has impish ways, and Otonashi Kyoko and Maetel have “dark sides”, then these heroines all have hidden “powers of attraction”.
Before long, the rainy season will be upon us. On your rainy days off, why not take a look at some manga and anime, and see what kind of dating techniques you could learn?
Comments from 2ch.net:
名無しさん＠恐縮です：
Aren’t these manga a bit old for the age group?
名無しさん＠恐縮です：
Seems like a bit of a lie that a 34-year old would pick Maetel…
名無しさん＠恐縮です：
This is more like men in their 30s and 40s…
名無しさん＠恐縮です：
No matter how I look at it, seems to me that these answers must be from men in their 40s and 50s.
名無しさん＠恐縮です：
If it was over 35’s I’d be convinced, but are there really any guys who are 25 and into Lum?
名無しさん＠恐縮です：
If they’d surveyed men in their twenties, then Sailor Moon would have definitely been in there. Ayanami Rei, too.
名無しさん＠恐縮です：
If you’re 34, then when you were a boy wouldn’t Dragon Ball and Slam Dunk have been at their peak?
If you’re 25, then I guess that would be at the peak of One Piece, so I don’t really get why people are disappointed w
名無しさん＠恐縮です：
I’m 28, but I kind of feel like I’m a different generation from this stuff.
I don’t really know Urusei Yatsura, Galaxy Express 999, Maison or Touch that well at all…
Wouldn’t it be Ayanami and stuff, usually?
名無しさん＠恐縮です：
Number one should be Hime-chan from Hime-chan’s Ribbon…
名無しさん＠恐縮です：
The age range is a bit high here w
But I have no objections to Lum being top!
Comments from Twitter:
華猫:
Everyone who responded to this questionnaire must have been lying about their age.
高木登:
This really is weird.
カンチャン:
Impossible. A lot of people who are now in their 20s wouldn’t even have heard of the top 5 (or their names). And did they pick Haruko [from “Slam Dunk”] as a heroine? w I’ve never read one piece, but at least I know Nami.
空野猫:
(◕‿‿◕) Don’t get it.
としなか@名古屋の囚人:
Haven’t they just nicked some old data?
ねこ:
Old staff make this ranking any old way, and you can see right away that they haven’t bothered to actually ask anyone.
dol – H.Fujii:
I’m saying this as a man in his mid-thirties — it’s weird. All I can think is that it was weighted in favour of the 34 year olds.
1日分のメカさとうさん:
Shouldn’t they check things before publishing an article like this?
[自称ご立派]うりぐる獄長:
Hang on, Urusei Yatsura was on when I was in kindergarten….I mean, if they want to write an article without caring too much, fine, but add another 20 years on.
星宮たかちん:
I reckon that they made them choose from the characters that the reporter knew. And of all characters Akagi Haruko appears there?
