It’s fun to observe how the social trends of each era are reflected in the anime being produced at the time. Back in the 80s, it was common for pop idols like Seiko Matsuda to go out of their way to act ridiculously cute as a way of winning fans. This was called burikko or “false girl,” and you can clearly see this pattern in the original Macross series with Lynn Minmei. Today two words heard in the media a lot are nikushoku joshi and soshoku danshi, literally meaning carnivore women and herbivore men, which describe the recent tendency for women to become more assertive about everything from their careers to sex while many men become more mellow about life, less ambitious and in some ways more effeminate. In the new Macross Frontier series, one of the more interesting characters is Klan Klang, a giant Zentraedi female warrior who is the epitome of a strong, heroic woman, at least when she’s in her macronized state. She’s an interesting foil to the main character of the series, Alto, a former kabuki actor who played female roles on stage and whose nickname is “Princess Alto.”
Klan Klang is one bad-ass Zentraedi, although her micronized (loli) form is less so.
