Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics

ISSN: 2150-4857 (Print) 2150-4865 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcom20

Mythology moe-ified: classical witches, warriors,

and monsters in Japanese manga

Buket Akgün

To cite this article: Buket Akgün (2019): Mythology moe-ified: classical witches,
warriors, and monsters in Japanese manga, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, DOI:
10.1080/21504857.2019.1566155

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2019.1566155

Published online: 17 Jan 2019.

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JOURNAL OF GRAPHIC NOVELS AND COMICS
https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2019.1566155

ARTICLE

Mythology moe-ified: classical witches, warriors, and

monsters in Japanese manga
Buket Akgün
Department of English Language and Literature, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Through a gendered close reading, using classical reception stu- Received 12 December 2017
dies as a springboard, this article discusses the reception and moe- Accepted 28 December 2018
ification of the female witch, warrior, and monster figures from
KEYWORDS
classical mythology in Japanese seinen and shōnen manga at the Manga; mythology; classical
turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It focuses on Flora reception; moe; witches;
and Schierke in Berserk (1990–); the Gorgon sisters in One Piece feminist theory
(1997–) and in Soul Eater (2004–2013); and Medusa in Witchcraft
Works (2010–), all of whom are named and/or fashioned after
Circe, the Amazons, the Gorgons, and Arachne. It points out to
the intertextuality between these worldwide popular turn-of-the-
century Japanese manga and classical mythology narratives. It
discusses the moe-ification of these classical subversive monstrous
female figures, formerly demonised and marginalised by the patri-
archal discourse. It analyses how their reception in manga con-
tributes to canonising the monstrous female. It illustrates how that
offers the female readers of seinen and shōnen manga new ways of
expressing and interpreting gender that liberate and restructure
the female’s relationship to power.

Introduction
The subversive female figure as an antidote to patriarchy is one of the most persistent
and revolutionary simulacra. It has been resurfacing as the female witches, warriors,
and monsters from classical mythology reinterpreted in Japanese manga. This article
scrutinises the rebirth of classical female figures in worldwide popular seinen and
shōnen manga at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: Miura
Kentarō’s1 Berserk (2003), Oda Eiichirō’s One Piece (2002), Ōkubo Atsushi’s Soul
Eater (Ōkubo 2009–2015), and Mizunagi Ryū’s Witchcraft Works (2014). This recent
rebirth is akin not only to classical reception but also to Gilles Deleuze’s (1994, 69)
theory of simulacrum, in that it embraces the negative connotations of these subversive
female figures in order to expose and undermine the discourse of the oppressor. Manga
proves a convenient medium for reinterpretation of classical subversive female figures,
formerly demonised and marginalised by the patriarchal discourse, because manga
questions ‘naturalised preconceptions’ such as subversiveness (Berndt 2015, 28). The
reception and moe-ification of the classical subversive female figures in the

CONTACT Buket Akgün akgunbuk@gmail.com Edebiyat Fakültesi, İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı Anabilim Dalı,
İstanbul Üniversitesi, C Blok, IV. Kat, Oda No: 11, Ordu Caddesi 196, 34459 Laleli, Istanbul, Turkey
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 B. AKGÜN

contemporary fin-de-siècle seinen and shōnen manga contribute to the canonisation of

the monstrous female. Their classical reception presents these mythical female figures to
a wider readership. It enables brand new readings and interpretations. More impor-
tantly, it provides the female readers of these manga new ways of expressing and
interpreting gender so as to restructure the female’s relationship to power.
Among the reasons why this article scrutinises particularly Berserk, One Piece, Soul
Eater, and Witchcraft Works are their worldwide popularity, their attracting a substantial
amount of female readers, their representation of female characters, and the male–female
ratio of their characters. It should be noted that although these manga were originally
aimed at a Japanese readership, they are being translated into other languages and read
worldwide. In other words, their worldwide popularity affirms that non-Japanese readers
are also familiar with these manga. Speaking of targeted readership, seinen (Berserk and
Witchcraft Works) and shōnen manga (One Piece and Soul Eater) are intended for young
adult males and male teenagers, respectively. Seinen and shōnen manga revolve around
the action-packed adventures of a male protagonist. Seinen manga tends to include more
violence and sex; therefore, it is targeted at young adult males instead of male teenagers.
Nonetheless, a 2006 survey disclosed that the turn of the century shōnen manga, especially
the manga magazine Shōnen Jump and the manga series One Piece, attracted large
numbers of female readers. As a consequence, the female characters in seinen and
shōnen manga started to gain importance and have more significant roles (Drummond-
Mathews 2010, 74). Giancarla Unser-Schutz, Shiokawa Kanako, and Unno Kayoko note
that since the 1970s, the female characters in Japanese shōjo and shōnen manga have
become more adult-looking, spirited, and even aggressive. Pointing out the positive
change in the representation of female characters in the recent fin-de-siècle manga, the
childish female characters who used to be mere ‘“rewards” for male characters’ success in
1995’ are replaced by female comrades and/or enemies in 2005 (as quoted in Unser-
Schutz 2015, 137). Fujimoto Yukari asserts that the representation of women in One Piece
‘until then had been undreamed of in boys’ manga magazines’ because in One Piece ‘the
female characters do not serve as objects of romantic interest but act naturally as equals’
(2013, 173, 177). Correspondingly, like the mythological characters they draw on, Flora
and Schierke in Berserk; the Gorgon sisters Boa Hancock, Boa Sandersonia, and Boa
Marigold in One Piece; Gorgon Arachne and Gorgon Medusa in Soul Eater; and Medusa
in Witchcraft Works disrupt the patriarchal order and traditional conventions. They wield
power and weapons alongside, instead of, or against male characters. They are portrayed
as indispensable companions (Flora, Schierke, and Boa Hancock eventually) or worthy
opponents (Boa Hancock initially, Gorgon Arachne and Gorgon Medusa, and Medusa) to
the male protagonists of these seinen and shōnen manga. Lastly, the male–female char-
acter ratio is balanced in One Piece, Berserk, and Soul Eater, while the female characters
significantly outnumber the male characters in Witchcraft Works.

Moe, moe-element, kyara-moe, and moe-ification in Japanese manga

On the part of both the creators and consumers of Japanese pop culture, there is an
encoding-decoding process based upon which Azuma Hiroki calls the database. To
explain in a rather simplistic and reductionist manner, it is a database of stock
characters with certain features inspiring moe in manga, anime, video games, and
 JOURNAL OF GRAPHIC NOVELS AND COMICS 3

related media. Having emerged in the late 1980s, moe originally referred ‘to the fictional
desire for characters of comics, anime, and games or for pop idols’ (Azuma 2009,
47–48). For the producers, the success of a work is determined ‘by its ability to evoke
the moe desire through character design and illustrations’ in order to sell merchandise
and related goods (48). This paved the path for the emergence of moe-element data-
bases. Azuma argues that, consequently, ‘many of the otaku characters created in recent
years are connected to many characters across individual works, rather than emerging
from a single author or a work’. Reminiscent of receptions, these connections are called
‘quotations’, ‘influences’, and ‘parodies’ (49).
Granted, the moe-ification and database-ification of mythological characters featured
in Japanese manga might drive from and serve the aesthetic response of the readers. On
the one hand, Gō Itō in his book Tezuka is Dead (Tezuka izu deddo, 2005) heralds the
death of the author and story in favour of the appropriation of cute characters copied
from previous texts (as quoted in Berndt 2008, 302). On the other hand, Azuma owns
that just because otaku consumption is focused on characters and kyara-moe (character
cuteness), it does not mean that narratives or the interest in them entirely disappeared
(2009, 75). It might be argued that the database displays the intertextuality in narratives
which are also, obviously, influenced by Western literature, culture, and mythology. As
far as Azuma is concerned, the authors are unaware of the previous works when they
create characters using moe-elements which are registered to the database (51–52).
Respectively, he claims that once the moe-ified mythological characters make it to the
database, the original myths and manga are supposed to fade away, leaving behind only
the moe-elements in the database to be used again in other works. However, Azuma’s
database theory seems to disregard the fact that some readers can still find intertex-
tuality between these moe-ified characters in manga and their mythological origins.
The naming and fashioning of female characters in One Piece, Berserk, Soul Eater,
and Witchcraft Works after goddesses, monsters, and witches from classical mythology
include ‘disassembling and reassembling the characters in new and creative ways’
(Lamarre 2009, 258). This might seem, on a surface level, similar to Jean Baudrillard’s
‘process of simulation’ (1998, 126) and otaku’s construction of databases of their
favourite characters. Drawing on Baudrillard’s theory of simulacra, Azuma expresses
that ‘[w]ithout reference to the real world, the original is produced as a simulacrum of
preceding works from the start, and in turn the simulacrum of that simulacrum is
propagated by fan activities and consumed voraciously’ (2009, 26). On that account, it
might be argued that these four manga adapt and appropriate these female figures from
the preceding manga rather than the classical myths themselves. Also, manga is
a bundle of practices which include artists, editors, publishers, and even readers in
the decision-making and creation processes (See Berndt 2015, 21). Hence, unlike
literary textual analysis, it is not quite possible to refer to ‘author’s intention’ in
manga studies. Nevertheless, Miura admits that he intended Berserk to display the
Western influence on his work (Beaty and Weiner 2013, 35). The remaining three
manga, too, illustrate the familiarity of Oda, Ōkubo, and Mizunagi with these classical
myths. As discussed below, some of these female figures, such as the younger Boa
sisters, are influenced by Japanese myths as well. Notwithstanding, one common
characteristic of Flora and Schierke in Berserk; the Gorgon sisters Boa Hancock, Boa
Sandersonia, and Boa Marigold in One Piece; Gorgon Arachne and Gorgon Medusa in
4 B. AKGÜN

Soul Eater; and Medusa in Witchcraft Works is that they are all receptions of subversive
classical female figures with witch-like attributes. These characters confirm that, as John
W. Treat claims, it is impossible to consider ‘“Japanese” popular culture without
involving much of the rest of the world’ (as quoted in MacWilliams 2008, 16–17).
While such cultural references might remain superficial since these characters cannot
easily be identified as Japanese or ancient Greek, they still bring with themselves their
historical connotations. Regardless of the author’s intention or the problem of author-
ity, the readers can trace the intertextuality between classical myths and Japanese manga
(See Ingulsrud and Allen 2009, 5).

Berserk: from Circe to Schierke to chibi

Miura Kentarō’s Berserk (2003) is an ongoing dark epic fantasy seinen manga series. It
tells the revenge quest of Guts, a mercenary warrior, in what seems to be medieval
Europe during the peak of witch hunts. Until the introduction of the witch Flora and
her apprentice Schierke, the series portrays witches as Satan worshippers. This portrayal
relies heavily on the Inquisition’s descriptions of witches and Witches’ Sabbath, includ-
ing the half-goat and half-man image of the Devil, orgies, and human sacrifices.
Reflecting the favourable change in the representation of witches in the series,
Farnese, the former commander of the Holy See’s Holy Iron Chain Knights, and her
half-brother Serpico, a former Holy Iron Chain Knight, join Guts’s travelling company.
Farnese apologises to Flora for the Inquisition’s persecutions of the alleged heretics.
She, eventually, becomes an apprentice witch to Schierke. As a matter of fact, Farnese’s
faith in the Holy See begins to falter after she sees the Inquisition’s torture chamber.
The Inquisitor reminds her that the torture chamber is a part of the Vatican she has
sworn to protect. Serpico explains that along with the noblemen, the Vatican and the
churches monopolise power and wealth; if anyone complains about this usurpation, the
Vatican accuses them of being heretics, Satanists, and/or witches. In other words, Miura
condemns the Inquisition’s scapegoating and witch hunts through the two former
members of the Holy See.
As for Flora and Schierke’s introductions, Schierke is seen briefly for the first time at
the end of volume 22. She is introduced properly in the second chapter of volume 24
titled ‘The Witch’ (majo). Flora, likewise, is introduced for the first time in the
following chapters of the same volume. It is noteworthy that Muira explains the
cosmology, philosophy, and logic of Berserk through the characters of Flora and
Schierke. He chooses to wait until volume 24, in which he introduces the two witches.
This strengthens the portrayal of these two witch characters as wise and beneficent
protectors. Unlike the Satanic worshippers in the previous volumes, Flora has devoted
herself to arcane studies at the fount of her great tree’s immense spiritual power. She
maintains the balance between the Physical World and the Astral World. Furthermore,
she prepares magic arms and coats of protection, ointments to perceive ethereal bodies,
talismans to weaken the effects of the brand of sacrifice for Guts and his travelling
company. They heal fast in Flora’s tree house thanks to the medicinal baths. Most
importantly, Flora puts a protection spell on the Berserker armour and has Schierke
deliver it to Guts. Even after being burned to death by the Apostles sent by Femto, the
arch nemesis of Guts, she continues to protect Schierke and Guts’s travelling company.
 JOURNAL OF GRAPHIC NOVELS AND COMICS 5

She appears as a wall of fire between them and the Apostles. Flora’s death reminds of
the Inquisition’s burning the alleged witches at the stake. Femto has Flora killed because
he fears that one witch who is so old that she has actually been expecting her imminent
death might pose a threat to his sovereignty. Like the Vatican, he wants to be the sole
and unchallenged controller of the kingdom’s wealth and power.
Flora and Schierke, whose name sounds like Circe, are in many ways receptions of
the classical witch Circe. Indeed, Homer’s Circe is considered to be ‘the first extant
portrait of a witch in Greek literature’ and serves as ‘a template for all later witches’
(Ogden 2002, 98; Rabinowitz 1998, 73, 100). The herb-clad hills and courts of Circe’s
home is sheltered in the midst of a thick wood on an island and surrounded by
mountain wolves and lions that are bewitched by Circe’s evil drugs. For Roman writers,
the abode of witches is always ‘peripheral to what they saw as the centre’ (Purkiss 2003,
261). Accordingly, in Berserk the Holy See’s religion has driven herbalist healers, such
as Flora, to the outskirts of towns during the witch hunts. Pointing out to the Otherness
of the witch, Flora’s tree house is in the midst of a deep forest within the borders of the
Interstice between the Physical World and the Astral World. Similar to that of Circe’s
house, which is protected by wild beasts, Flora’s house is surrounded and protected by
barriers and golems. Alongside the barriers and golems, the pentagrams, spirals,
triangles, and moon symbols decorating her house are also associated with witchcraft.
After the death of Flora, Schierke joins Guts’s travelling company. Being a young girl
with magical abilities, whose powers are constantly growing, Schierke resembles mahō
shōjo (magical girl). Instead of the cute animal familiar of mahō shōjo, albeit reminis-
cent of the witch’s familiar, Schierke is accompanied by Ivalera, a female elf. Ivalera
oversees her training and even saves her life at one point. The magical girls are
subversive female figures, too, who disrupt the traditional gender roles. Their quests
present female readers a means to escape from ‘the constraints of expectations and [to]
become the traditionally male heroes and fighters’ (Brenner 2007, 178). In like manner,
when Schierke meets Guts’s companions for the first time and saves them from the
trolls, her sentences are significantly short and imperative. Guts calls Schierke boss and
Lady Witch. Both express his confirmation of her authority. He pays heed to her advice.
Kotani Mari, a Japanese critic, mentions ‘a certain aggressiveness’ in the shōjo, as well.
This aggressiveness was ‘formed within the system’, but ‘ended up paradoxically
possessing an aesthetic and sexual magic that shook the system’ (2007, 57). Just as
the female characters in the fin-de-siècle seinen and shōnen manga adapt the simulacra
of the subversive female figure to undermine the patriarchal discourse, Schierke’s
spirited and aggressive nature allows her, as a teenager, to give orders to the adult
male protagonist. Unlike the rest of the female characters discussed in this article,
Schierke is not sexualised. She is not defined primarily in relation to her sexuality or
through passivity (see Creed 2007, chap. 11, par. 1). She is short and cute. Whenever
she is ‘in a heightened emotional state’, she is drawn in chibi style, even shorter and
cuter, in an ‘exaggerated and simplified form’, also known as ‘superdeformed’, ‘hyper-
cartoony’ (Brenner 2007, 29; Cohn 2010, 192, 189). This moe-ification absolves Schierke
from wearing the femme fatale face of the monstrous-feminine (see Creed 2007,
Introduction). However, it does not infantilise her or render her powers as less
threatening or easily containable. On the contrary, although Schierke is the mildest
and humblest among these female manga characters, her righteous aggressiveness can
6 B. AKGÜN

be fatally destructive. For instance, she can flood an entire village whilst trying to
actually help them because of her general animosity against humans who persecute
arcane spirits and those who study arcane arts.
Schierke’s overflowing emotions display the duality and fluidity inherent in the
image of the witch. Historically and mythologically, water and the properties of fluids
have been associated with the feminine (Cixous 1976, 889; Irigaray 1985, 111; Moi 2002,
115–16). Schierke’s enchantments, drawn in the shape of vertical spirals, akin to the
curling tops of her witch’s hat and wand, symbolise water and are thus indicative of the
fluidity of the witch’s body and language. Besides, Schierke’s transformations include
assuming the physical form of the elements and spirits she invokes during her spells.
Hélène Cixous claims that ‘women take after birds’ and ‘[f]lying is woman’s gesture’
because for centuries women have ‘been able to possess anything only by flying’; they
have ‘lived in flight’ (1976, 887). Respectively, just as Circe can ‘send her soul flying
through the air’ (Ogden 2002, 99), so can Flora, Schierke, and Farnese have out-of-body
experiences by releasing their ethereal body from the physical confines of the physical
world and thereby delving into the astral world. For instance, Schierke can borrow the
body of a bird to astral travel when she does not want to use her astral form.
Schierke’s magic mostly focuses on guidance and protection. Like Circe instructs
Odysseus on how to travel to the Underworld and talk to the prophet Teirisias, Schierke
acts as a guide to her companions thanks to her extensive knowledge of the Astral World
which is gradually merging with the Physical World. Like Circe of the many drugs/spells,
she heals the wounds of Guts and other companions with her herbs and spells. When Guts
wears the Berserker armour, she becomes his eyes and ears in her astral form and preserves
his will. That is to say, Schierke becomes indispensable for the survival of Guts and his
travelling company and thereby one of the major characters in the manga series.

One piece: the Gorgons and the Amazons merged into pirates
Shōnen manga adapts and rewrites world history, literature, and mythology. It tends to mix
genres, cultures, and periods. Because manga is historically, aesthetically, and culturally
ambiguous, the Amazons and the Gorgon sisters can be merged into the all-female Kuja
pirates in Oda Eiichirō’s ongoing shōnen manga series One Piece (2002) (See Drummond-
Mathews 2010, 75; Ingulsrud and Allen 2009, 10; Berndt 2008, 305). Adrienne Mayor,
a historian, expresses that ‘Amazons have been interpreted as negative role models for
Greek women; as repulsive monsters or “Others” who threatened the Greek masculine
ego … expressing fears of female rebellion against male oppression’ (2014, 26). Therefore,
Greek heroes are always victorious over Amazons and restore ‘the “proper” patriarchal
order’ (Mayor 2014, 11, 27; Doherty 2003, 137). The Gorgons, likewise, are three sisters
with poisonous snakes instead of hair and dreadful looks whose gaze could turn one into
stone. In one of the many versions of the Gorgon sister Medusa’s story, she is a beautiful
woman. Poseidon rapes her in a temple of Athena. As a punishment, Athena turns Medusa
into a monster that would turn into stone anyone who looks at her face. Eventually, Perseus
kills Medusa by beheading her, uses her head as a weapon, and then presents it to Athena.
The goddess appropriates the head of ‘the unchaste and monstrously feminine Medusa as
her aegis’ (Beard 2017; Purkiss 2003, 205).
 JOURNAL OF GRAPHIC NOVELS AND COMICS 7

As regards One Piece, Boa Hancock, Boa Sandersonia, and Boa Marigold of the Kuja
tribe have been kidnapped as children, sold into slavery, branded, forced to eat devil fruit
for entertainment, and developed powers. Reminiscent of Medusa, Boa Hancock can turn
to stone anyone looking at her with sexual desire. Like Circe and Medusa, the two
younger Boa sisters cross the boundary between the human and the animal, displaying
‘femininity’s power to render categories and identities unstable’ (Purkiss 2003, 260). They
can transform into giant snake hybrids with the breasts, arms, hands, and head of
a woman. Sandersonia can turn her hair into snakes, reminiscent of the eight-headed
snake in Japanese folklore, while Marigold can have snakes of fire instead of hair,
reminiscent of Salamander the snake god of fire. To be able to return to Amazon Lily,
the three sisters keep their enslavement as a secret. They claim that they have killed
a monster called Gorgon which has cursed them with eyes on their backs. Anyone who
looks at those eyes will supposedly be petrified. In this regard, Boa sisters’ brands of
slavery and the younger sisters’ ability to transform into snake hybrids are bodily
disfigurements which, according to Barbara Creed, mark the monstrous-feminine as
different and impure in phallocentric horror narratives (2007, chap.1, par. 9).
Correspondingly, Amazons had tattoos whereas the Greeks tattooed only criminals and
war captives. Athenian vase painters, too, portrayed ‘tattooed foreign slave women’.
Among these tattoos were sunbursts, circles, and rosettes (Mayor 2014, 95, 98), similar
to the shape of the hoof of the Celestial Dragons branded on the backs of the Boa sisters.
Additionally, like the Amazons who killed or gave away their male babies (Doherty
2003, 137), the Kuja tribe only give birth to daughters. Besides, men are forbidden on
the Kuja Island due to their greed and foolish acts; any man who steps on the island
disappears. Resembling Circe’s and Flora’s homes, Amazon Lily, the Isle of Women, is
surrounded and protected by a Calm Belt with giant sea snakes alongside giant
predators on the island. In the middle of the island is a mountain surrounded by
a thick forest. Their village is built inside the mountain. With nine enormous snakes
carved out of it, the top of the mountain looks like ovaries. The name of the tribe Kuja
means ‘nine snakes’ in Japanese. Akin to the witch’s familiar, Hancock has a giant snake
that can swim underwater while each Kuja warrior has a familiar snake wrapped around
their upper body which serves them as a staff or weapon when needed. Whereas the
snake represents rebirth, the mountain itself is ‘a symbol of the fertility goddess’
(Rabinowitz 1998, 100). Appropriately, the Kuja tribe women find, cure, feed, and
sew new clothes for Monkey D. Luffy, the main character of the manga series. Luffy
has his 2-year training on how to use haki on Amazon Lily, too. Born and raised as
warriors, the Kuja tribe women are strong, brave, and elegant; they change ‘Might is
right’ into ‘Might is beautiful’.
The Empress of Amazon Lily, Captain of the Kuja Pirates, Royal Shichibukai,
Hebihime, Snake Princess, Boa Hancock is named after John Hancock, an American
revolutionary leader who financially supported the colonial cause and served as the
president of the Continental Congress. Names in manga can function as symbols,
providing emotional clues and indicating ‘a character’s intended role or personality’
(Brenner 2007, 58). John Hancock was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence
in 1776. This connection might be hinting at Boa Hancock’s possible role in a future
revolution. After all, the World Government is the common enemy of Boa Hancock
and the Revolutionary Army, in that the Celestial Dragons, who have enslaved the Boa
8 B. AKGÜN

sisters, are the World Nobles, the privileged descendants of the founders of the World
Government. Despite being one of the Shichibukai, the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and
working for the Marines, albeit only to keep the Marines and the World Government
away from Amazon Lily, Boa Hancock aids Luffy, a wanted pirate. Indeed, she falls in
love with Luffy for his pure heart and selflessness, for having attacked a Celestial
Dragon and wreaked havoc to stop a slave auction. She helps Luffy in his attempt to
save his ‘brother’ Portgaz D. Ace, who is imprisoned to be executed by the World
Government. Like Circe guiding Odysseus to the Underworld, Boa Hancock, using her
Shichibukai title, takes Luffy to Impel Down, an underwater prison inspired by Dante’s
Hell. In Oris Plaza, where Ace is to be executed, and later on in Sabaody Archipelago,
she attacks the Marines to protect Luffy. That Boa Hancock guides and physically fights
to protect Luffy instead of being, as a woman, in desperate need of a man to guide and
defend her overturns the traditional gender roles.
The name Hancock, being a combination of the homophone of ‘hen’ and the word
‘cock’, further indicates Boa Hancock’s combining the social attributes of the female
and the male as the Amazons do. She looks like a typical shōjo character inspiring moe
in the readers with ‘a slightly confused, dreamy, yet seductive vulnerability – that doe-
eyed “please don’t hurt me” look’ (Orbaugh 2003, 204). Even so, it is Boa Hancock
herself who does the hurting. Like Circe who ‘has enough confidence in her ability to
radiate pornographic glory to attempt to seduce Odysseus even though he has just
caught her attempting to turn him into a beast’ (Rabinowitz 1998, 81, 73–74), Boa
Hancock always gets away with her spoiled, sadistic, and cruel acts just because she can
mesmerise everyone with her beauty. Thomas Lamarre asserts that ‘we might also gloss
scopophilia [usual pleasure] as affective response or as moe, because it is a matter of the
attractiveness of things prior to the formation of a distinct subject or viewing position’.
He draws a parallel between Laura Mulvey’s and Enomoto Nariko’s theories in terms of
Lacanian subject formation: men desire to be the gazer while they want women to be
the gazee, that is the object of their gaze (2009, 281). The petrifying power of Boa
Hancock, however, turns the male gaze back on itself.
As Robin E. Brenner maintains, the layout of manga plays the role of the storyteller;
the panels on the page ‘mimic a camera’s eye’ with ‘close-ups, pans, jump-cuts, and
irising’ (2007, 65). Moreover, the use of panels and frames and the narrative conven-
tions in manga ‘promote the illusion of voyeuristic separation’ (Mulvey 1989, 17). For
Mulvey, there are ‘two contradictory aspects of the pleasurable structures of looking’.
The scopophilic one ‘arises from pleasure in using another person as an object of sexual
stimulation through sight’, whereas the other one, ‘identification with the image seen’ is
‘developed through narcissism and the constitution of the ego’ (18). The scopophilic
pleasure is akin to fan service, that is to say, akin to the female characters’ in seinen and
shōnen manga being drawn ‘with hourglass figures’, skimpy outfits, ‘and a lot of jiggle’
(Brenner 2007, 33). In terms of Mulvey’s use of Lacan’s theory, the mirror image that
these female manga characters provide for young female readers of seinen and shōnen
manga, which is ‘more complete, more perfect than they experience in their own body’,
and the ‘misrecognition’ (1989, 17) might instead be liberating and empowering. Any
identification with Boa Hancock’s moe-elements, her abnormally large breasts, long
legs, and ivory skin, would obviously be a misrecognition. Notwithstanding, Boa
Hancock’s unabashed sexual assertiveness poses a sharp contrast with women who
 JOURNAL OF GRAPHIC NOVELS AND COMICS 9

have been turned away from their bodies, ‘shamefully taught to ignore them, to strike
them with that stupid sexual modesty’ (Cixous 1976, 885). Jaqueline Berndt asserts that
it is possible for manga readers to be both observers and participants ‘which makes
identification without immersion possible, as distinct from film’ (2017, 70). Unser-
Schutz, in addition, suggests that ‘girls consuming shōnen-manga may experience
something more complex than just the internalisation and reproduction of stereotypes’
(2015, 149). For instance, Boa Hancock and her two sisters delineate that the male-
imposed labels of ‘woman as beautiful but deadly killer’ and ‘woman as non-human
animal’ can be used as a means of protection or revolt against the very same male order.
Reconstructing the female’s relationship to power, the Boa sisters prove that females
can use their powers to protect or avenge themselves, their community (the Kuja tribe)
and their allies (Luffy) (see Creed 2007, Introduction). Further invalidating the either/or
representations of women, the Boa sisters initially prove to be worthy opponents to
Luffy; afterwards, they become mutually cherished allies who can depend on one
another’s abilities, powers, and confidentiality.

Soul Eater and Witchcraft Works: Medusa the evil witch

Mary Beard, a classicist, traces the origins of the ‘cultural template, which works to
disempower women’ back to the classical world and notes that most often powerful
female characters from classical mythology are ‘portrayed as abusers rather than users
of power’ and as ‘monstrous hybrids’ rather than women. They take the power
‘illegitimately, in a way that leads to chaos, to the fracture of the state, to death and
destruction … they must be disempowered, put back in their place’ (2017). Brenner
explains that:
Japan combined Western concepts of gender with their older Confucian teachings to
confine women to expected roles and elevated men to the controllers of the business
and governmental spheres. Women did not gain the right to vote until 1947, as a result of
the U.S. occupation and their hand in the creation of Japan’s new constitution. . .
… Japan’s pop culture, including manga, reflects a much broader view of women’s place in
society, as well as cultural fears about how that place is changing as women move into the
corporate world and gain independence. (2007, 92–93)

The Gorgon sisters Medusa and Arachne in Ōkubo Atsushi’s shōnen manga Soul Eater
(2009–2015) and Medusa in Mizunagi Ryū’s ongoing seinen manga Witchcraft Works
(2014) are likewise among the archvillains and evil witches, reflecting the male anxieties
about women’s gaining authority and power in public life. In Soul Eater, the Gorgon
sisters’ abuse of power creates chaos and unleashes madness upon the world. Arachne
kills humans and witches alike to meld their souls into weapons; she creates demon
weapons, that is, humans who can transform into weapons. Medusa resurrects Asura
the first Kishin who killed humans with good souls to make his demon weapon. After
the death of the two Gorgon sisters, through the initiation and insistence of the younger
generation, humans and witches work together to save the world from chaos and
madness. They build a new order to coexist, transcending race and gender, without
erasing or forgetting, but learning from the history of humans and witches. In
Witchcraft Works, Medusa is after the powers of the White Princess Evermillion who
10 B. AKGÜN

is sealed inside Takamiya Honoka. Both good and evil fractions of witches, namely
Workshop Witches and Tower Witches, are largely made up of females with female
leaders. As a matter of fact, Mikage Kyōichirō, a male Workshop witch and a chemistry
teacher, is bullied by his female students in the student council and brainwashed by his
sister. He warns Takamiya that his life, too, will probably be governed by females.
Mikage reflects the male ‘resentment and fear of being “taken” by the woman, of being
lost in her’ (Cixous 1976, 877 n.1).
As for the monstrous hybridity, in Soul Eater, Medusa and Arachne cross the
boundary between human and animal. Medusa breeds snakes in her body. The two
snake tattoos encircling her arms can materialise and mimic the serpentine movements
of her body. She can put her snake familiars inside humans and animals and use them
as weapons or listening devices. Medusa’s slithering into the Death Weapon Meister
Academy disguised as a school nurse is made obvious with a giant nyoro drawn in
snake-like kanji on the background. Nyoronyoro means ‘slitheringly’ in Japanese. Like
Homer’s Circe, Medusa loves herbs and gives students drugs she has prepared to create
a kishin. As for Medusa’s sister Arachne, after Medusa’s betrayal, she has split her body
into spiders and hid her soul in a golem to go into hiding for 800 years. Arachne
returns thanks to the madness spreading after the resurrection of the kishin. She uses
her spiders and cobwebs as sensors, spies, weapons to immobilise or turn her victims
into marionettes, or receptacles to spread madness. Medusa also has to fake her death.
She splits her body into snakes. She hides her soul inside a snake, a dog, and a 5-year-
old girl, respectively. Medusa betrays her sister Arachne once again; she helps humans
to kill Arachne and eventually takes over her body. The residual memory in Arachne’s
body is portrayed through Medusa’s hybrid features resembling snakes and spiders. The
narrow and squinty eyes of Medusa and Arachne go against the traditional female
archetype and point out to their ‘evil, sadistic, and vicious’ characters. Medusa has the
irises of the snake. Her intent to kill is illustrated with dark lines shadowing the sclera of
her eyes and arrow-shaped snakes wriggling out of her body. Arachne has entirely black
scleras covered with cobwebs. Traditionally, female characters have large and round
eyes, connoting ‘innocence, purity, and youth’ due to the social constructs and imposi-
tions designating the female as ‘the purer sex’. Medusa and Arachne’s overt sexuality,
‘more fantastic hair, dress, and accessories’, akin to or decorated with symbols of snakes
and spiders, are indicative of their evil nature. The two sisters use their beauty, charms,
and ‘sexually confrontational behaviour’ to seduce and threaten their male opponents
(Brenner 2007, 42, 48).
In Witchcraft Works, Medusa has coiling snakes instead of hair, snake fangs,
a forked, reptilian tongue, and a giant snake familiar coiled around her body. Since
she has the curse of petrifying eye and hand, she always wears an eye mask and
a straitjacket. She uses her giant snake to fetch and carry things. In her witch form,
Medusa dresses like a Lolita, with a huge polka-dotted ribbon at the top of her head and
a long, fluffy skirt with rows and rows of frills. Her straitjacket has a giant eye over her
chest and a giant mouth over her belly. In her human form, she has an hourglass figure,
large breasts, long legs, and long wavy light-coloured hair. She wears a power suit with
a tight mini skirt, dark coloured leggings with clover and diamond patterns, and high-
heeled fancy shoes. If you look at Medusa ‘straight on’, as Cixous suggests, she is ‘not
deadly’, but ‘beautiful and she’s laughing’ (1976, 885). Like Medusa and Arachne in Soul
 JOURNAL OF GRAPHIC NOVELS AND COMICS 11

Eater, the evil witch Medusa in Witchcraft Works looks beautiful and sexy despite her
huge ribbon, eye mask, and straitjacket. She laughs at one of the guards before she
cracks the monolith and escapes from prison too.
Beard reads Medusa’s ‘snaky locks as an implied claim to phallic power’. She points out
that the re-presentation of Medusa in Western literature, culture and art echoes ‘the classic
myth in which the dominance of the male is violently reasserted against the illegitimate
power of the woman’ (2017). In Soul Eater, her own son Crona kills Medusa, whereas in
Witchcraft Works, Takamiya Honoka’s kiss can turn the petrified Kagari Ayaka back to
normal. In both accounts, a male reclaims or neutralises Medusa’s power. Luce Irigaray
affirms that women are condemned to exist fragmentarily on the margins of the dominant
patriarchal ideology (1985, 30). Medusa in Soul Eater is, correspondingly, introduced in
fragments with an eye or half of her face drawn in a single panel at a time. Afterwards, she
is literally dismembered by Doctor Franken Stein. During their fight, Stein sews Medusa’s
body to the ground or the wall to immobilise her because female fluidity is threatening for
the male. Medusa, on the contrary, uses vector arrows, throwing anything on their top in
the direction the arrow is pointing. Arachne, adversely, embraces ‘irrationality, chaos,
darkness … non-Being’ ’ (Moi 2002, 165), leaving her body to become insanity itself. Even
so, it makes her lose her offensive powers, renders her vulnerable, and causes her
imminent death. When we first see Medusa in Witchcraft Works, along with her familiar,
a giant snake, she is tied, chained, and sealed within a magic monolith in the midst of
a prison guarded perpetually. Like women’s return ‘from “without”, from the heath where
witches are kept alive; from below, from beyond “culture”’, like the eternal return of the
subversive female figure as an antidote to patriarchy, refusing to be put to ‘eternal rest’
(Cixous 1976, 877), Medusa always escapes – first from the monolith and later from the
Rottenburg Workshop – and returns to Tōgetsu City.
John Ingulsrud and Kate Allen argue that the characters ‘drawn in the moe style … evoke
a sense of arousal, but also sympathy for the character’ (2009, 196). Accordingly, the moe-
ification of Medusa and Arachne in Soul Eater and the chibi style drawings Medusa and the
Tower Witches to express their immense relief and joy at the end of Chapter 12 in
Witchcraft Works enable manga readers to identify and sympathise with these monstrous
women. Moreover, Medusa claims that the attacks of her apprentice witches on Kagari and
Takamiya are merely for practice. Kagari and Medusa further their hybridity, eating an
apple of discord, which temporarily merges the powers of witches. Lastly, using her
petrifying gaze to unlock the amulet of memories given to Takamiya, Medusa transports
Kagari and Takamiya to the tiny world inside the amulet, so that the two can witness their
past encounter with one another. Indeed, more often than not, Medusa and her apprentice
Tower witches end up helping Kagari and Takamiya.

Conclusion
Manga are written as gendered texts, targeting a specific gender and a specific age group.
However, young girls and women worldwide do read seinen and shōnen manga, such as
the ones discussed in this article. The experiences of authors along with ‘the anticipated
needs’ of readers play a role in the depiction of characters, which in return ‘can influence
readers’ perceptions of gender’ (Unser-Schutz 2015, 136). This reciprocal author–reader
influence shapes the way both authors and readers, be they male or female, regard gender.
12 B. AKGÜN

It might ultimately be a means to reform how society at large regards gender as well.
Marleen S. Barr asserts that ‘[w]ith Hélène Cixous’s and Jane Gallop’s positive definitions
of “monstrous” in mind … feminist fabulation need no longer remain marginalized…. It is
time to canonize the monstrous’ (1992, 21, 22). In like manner, Japanese manga help
canonise the monstrous female. The moe-ification of the classical goddesses, monsters, and
witches in Japanese manga enables identification and/or infatuation with these aggressive,
nonconformist, independent, and powerful women, formerly demonised and repressed by
patriarchal discourse. The female characters fashioned after Circe, Medusa, Arachne, and
the Amazons in Berserk, One Piece, Soul Eater, and Witchcraft Works ‘can serve as
a springboard for subversive thought’ aiming at transforming the contemporary social
and cultural structures based on ‘self-admiring, self-stimulating, self-congratulatory phal-
locentrism’ (Cixous 1976, 879). They can modify the females’ relationship to power.

Note
1. Japanese names in this article are written in the Japanese format with surname first followed
by given name.

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my host Koizumi Mariko for her hospitality, advice, and information galore
and my host institution Kyoto Seika University’s International Manga Research Center at the
Kyoto International Manga Museum, Faculty of Manga, Graduate School of Manga, Joho-kan
and its most spellbinding and helpful librarians. I also gratefully and sincerely thank Jaqueline
Berndt for being ever so generous, kind, and wise.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding
This work was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey
(TUBITAK) under Grant 1059B191600011;Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştirma Kurumu
[1059B191600011].

Geolocation information
Istanbul, Turkey.

Notes on contributor
Buket Akgün is an Assistant Professor at the Department of English Language and Literature at
Istanbul University, Istanbul. Her current research focuses on the historical, mythological, and
literary reception in graphic and visual narratives.
 JOURNAL OF GRAPHIC NOVELS AND COMICS 13

ORCID
Buket Akgün http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4317-2200

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