The Glasses Wearer in Anime: A Few Thoughts

Those who have watched much anime (or read much manga) are likely to have noticed that in that medium a character's wearing glasses does not have the same significance that it would in the United States. Where here it is common to associate glasses (especially when they are not presented as a marker of aging) with infirmity, unattractiveness, studiousness--and with the combination of all three qualities in "nerdiness"--it is not always so there. Certainly anime does have its recognizable nerd stereotypes, most often a very skinny or very fat guy with glasses who is apt to be indifferent to his dress, physically unattractive, prone toward "techie" skills and occupations, given to geeky pastimes, and likely also a "creep." There is also the nerdy girl, more likely to be very skinny than very fat, and less likely to be poorly dressed, and perhaps not so strongly associated with "techy-ness," but also unattractive, given to geeky pastimes, and also creepy. Yet a great many glasses-wearing figures do not fit that mold. Rather more than in American productions a male with glasses may still be thought athletic, a dominating Alpha male, even handsome--a "megane" a formidable adversary in physical as well as mental pursuits, a serious rival for a woman's affections. At the same time a woman with glasses will often be presented as very beautiful, and very feminine--especially if the glasses go with striking curves and a gentle, shy, demeanor in the manner associated with the "meganekko."

That said it is worth pointing out the limitations of the difference. As many will rush to point out, American fiction has its "hot librarians." And so far as I can tell while a protagonist's circle in a "harem" comedy is likely to include a "glasses girl" of the meganekko type, for example, the principal love interest of the protagonist in stories for male and female readers alike tends not to have glasses. Indeed, that the only exception I can come up with is Boruto itself seems to underline the point Sarada Uchida (who at least early in the series appears the stereotypical smug "know it all" who enjoys seeing the male protagonist at a disadvantage of the type much more enjoyed by female than male readers) seems yet another example of a shonen series making concessions to female readers in ways that, in America at least, are prone to start a culture war rather than an example of a meganekko as the female lead in an anime. Still, the difference in attitude is there, the meganekko far bigger than the niche character of anything comparable in American pop culture.