How Tomo-chan & Komi Can’t Communicate Create the Best 21st-Century Anime Girls
Tomo Aizawa enjoys a masculine way of living but also wants to establish her femininity. Nakanaka Omoharu is all too familiar with this emotion.
New romance comedy Tomo-chan Is a Girl! is from the Winter 2023 anime season. Tomo Aizawa, the tomboyish lead character, wants to capture the affection of her childhood friend Jun, but Jun views Tomo as “one of the men” since she enjoys karate. Tomo sets out on a journey to show her femininity to her admirer while maintaining her identity.
As a young girl in the twenty-first century, Tomo is reasonably realistic and grounded, and the anime’s central conceit explores some intriguing ideas about contemporary females and their identities. Tomo is a part of a developing trend in anime where female characters violate strict, conventional gender roles while maintaining a uniquely feminine personality. Nakanaka Omharu, a supporting figure in Komi Can’t Communicate, has the same traits.
How Tomo Aizawa Balances Her Tomboy & Girly Sides in the Anime
Tomo-chan is a female character! In the setting of a likeable tomboy seeking to win over her sweetheart, anime is a lighthearted satire of ingrained gender standards. The two aspects of Tomo Aizawa’s self-image are her conventionally feminine side and her overtly male actions, such as her gruff voice and passion for karate. Tomo believes she manages to balance these two sides equally and can switch between them without difficulty, but her peers often only notice the male side.
Even Tomo’s buddy Misuzu Gundo, who obviously prefers conventionally feminine ladies, is dubious about Tomo’s half-and-half existence. Gundo is genuinely devoted to Tomo as a friend, but she also embodies the social pressure on females to always be properly feminine, which Tomo cannot accept. In Tomo-debut chan’s episode, Gundo tried to get Tomo to act more like a “regular” or conventional girl, but Tomo refused. She loves karate and stays loyal to her outgoing, almost boyish attitude since she detests lying to herself. Tomo’s character journey, which is sympathetic and motivating and contributes to the romantic comedy of the plot, is all about personal sincerity. Tomo has to be true to herself as a boyish but also feminine person, even if society and Gundo don’t like it.
Tomo is already at ease with her dual nature, thus her struggle is mostly external. Because of her overtly boyish mannerisms, it’s the other students and her pals that misunderstand or have doubts about her. Therefore, Tomo’s goal is not to transform herself or find self-acceptance, but rather to alter how others see her. Tomo will probably be a static character for all the right reasons—she is a dependable and constant lead character who has an impact on everyone in her vicinity. Tomo is secure in who she is as a person, although she can have a few tiny doubts along the road and some insecurities if growth is gradual. That makes her the next Nakanaka Omoharu, an anime character who challenges conventional wisdom without entirely upending it.
How Tomo & Nakanaka Promote a New Kind of Modern Girl
To the chagrin of the yandere Ren Yamai, the chunibyo character Nakanaka Omoharu in Komi Can’t Communicate likewise breaks strict gender conventions. Ren is a stylish and well-liked girl who strongly favours traditionally feminine things on all levels, such as how a girl should decorate her bedroom and what a female should do for fun and live. While it’s admirable that Ren finds fulfilment in all of this as she develops her personality, she exploited it as a pretext to attack Nakanaka’s lifestyle. As a “faulty” girl with an unfeminine bedroom and a lifestyle centred on video games and otaku culture, Nakanaka was acting incorrectly in Ren’s eyes.
Nakanaka and Ren disagreed on the characteristics of a contemporary Japanese female, and neither opinion was altered in the end. The idea is that they each maintained their own brand of contemporary femininity. There is no one “correct” way to be a contemporary boy or girl since it depends on your lifestyle and personal preferences. Cosmetics, frilly pink items, or thinking about the ideal wedding are examples of traditionally feminine things that still have a place in the contemporary world, but there is also space for equally acceptable alternatives. Ren’s conventionally feminine habits are not threatened by Nakanaka’s masculine lifestyle; rather, it offers an option. It’s not about replacing things; it’s about having more possibilities.
Similar to how Tomo demonstrates that modern-day ladies may choose to be more tomboyish and combine their feminine sides with more masculine activities like roughhousing, martial arts, and more. Tomo’s way of life is not a threat to conventional feminine values; rather, it is an alternative way of life that coexists with them. While characters like Ren Yamai and Gundo continue to embrace conventional girlhood, which is equally respectable, females like Tomo may break from traditional feminine conventions as they like. Even if her peers and even her infatuation don’t initially accept it, Tomo is following Nakanaka’s lead in demonstrating that there are several ways to be a fantastic, attractive contemporary lady that everyone can adore.
How Tomo-chan & Komi Can’t Communicate Create the Best 21st-Century Anime Girls
- Reference Sites:
- https://animesee.com/
- https://www.crunchyroll.com/
- https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/
- https://www.cbr.com/
