Discussion
On September 7, 2021, the 256th Japanese Specialist Seminar was held via a webinar. In the presence of about 30 participants, Shogo Sugimoto, Associate Professor of the Department of Japanese Language and Literature at Korea University, gave a presentation under the topic of 'The Transformation of the Image of a ‘Girl’ in a High-Consumer Society - Focusing on AI Yazawa in the 『Ribbon』 Period. Professor Sugimoto first examined the phenomenon in which the representation of 'girl', represented by 'kawaii', under Japan's high-consumer society permeates into society in general. On the other hand, the diversification of young women's culture has progressed through capital marketing. In particular, cultural tribes such as 'gogyaru' and 'fushigi-chan', which are not included in the traditional 'girl' image among high-teens in the 1990s, appeared, and thereby phenomenon of segmentation of young women's culture appeared. Meanwhile, in the 1990s, among elementary school students, manga magazines for girls still recorded a high number of publications, and they were firmly established as a common base for elementary school students' cultural experience. At this time, Professor Sugimoto emphasized the need to re-consider elementary school girls' manga magazines as a conflicting arena where the traditional representation of a 'girl' and the representation of a new young woman intersect.
Furthermore, Professor Sugimoto analyzed the change in the image of a 'girl' drawn in his work by using Yazawa Ai (矢沢あい), an artist who was sensitive to the trends of each era. In 「I'm Not an Angel」 serialized in 「Ribbon」 from 1991 to 1994, the emotional aesthetic of 'kawaii' was actively introduced and used as a means to hinder the independent growth of the protagonist. The protagonist doesn't grow up and wants to remain a girl, talking about her boyfriend's dreams rather than her own dreams. However, in "My Boyfriend's Story (ご近所 物語)" serialized in 1995-97, for the first time in Ai Yazawa's work, a woman who voluntarily pursues her own dream appears as her protagonist. Although she still shows passivity when it comes to her love affairs, she is portrayed as a person who pursues her own dream and places more importance on individuality.
Professor Sugimoto then analyzed that the fact that individuality was promoted in the CUTiE culture as a strategy against the 'gogyaru' culture that promoted sexuality lies in the background of the trend toward individualization in 「My Boyfriend Story」. In fact, even in “My Boyfriend Story,” the “gogyaru” character Mariko appears as the antagonist of the main character, Mikako. However, Mikako and Mariko narrow the psychological distance and reconcile by sharing the 'girl' mentality who is troubled and suffering in love with the opposite gender. In other words, in this work, the traditional image of a girl functions as a medium for reconstructing the solidarity of young women who have been segmented. This can be said to be 『Ribbon』's answer to the segmentation of young women. However, in 「My Boyfriend Story」, Mariko as a 'gogyaru' finally fails to find her dream and is expelled from her school. It was analyzed that this must have been the inevitable result of 『My Boyfriend Story』, which combined the media of elementary school students called 『Ribbon』 and the culture of 『Cutie』.
Professor Sugimoto gave a glimpse into the change in Gogyaru's status in Ribbon through the subsequent release of Mihona Fujii's GALS! (1991-2001). After the presentation, a question-and-answer session followed. First, there was a question about how magazines such as 『Cutie』 and 『Gogyaru』, 『egg』 actually contributed to the phenomenon of segmentation of young women's culture in the 1980s and 1990s. In this regard, Professor Sugimoto introduced the phenomenon in which the latest status of street culture in each of 『Cutie』 and 『Egg』 magazines was surveyed on the street and the project of disseminating it nationwide became popular. Of course, there is also the aspect of forming the image 'top to bottom' by actively distributing information about 'gogyaru' from the mass media side, but the strong movement of 'bottom up' through these magazines also affects the segmentation phenomenon of young women's culture. explained that he did. In addition, the seminar was concluded after discussions were held on questions such as the status of the media as magazines in Japan in the 1990s, the relationship between elementary school students and the media of girls’ manga magazines since the 1990s, the process of actually carrying out the research methodology called representational culture theory, the mid-1990s as a starting point for girls to focus more on subjectivity than passivity, supplementary explanations on the changes that were made and drawn, and the segmentation status of girls' manga magazines for elementary school students.
