Problem Space
There is a gap in the market for streaming services aimed at girls and women who like anime and manga. This is due to most anime being created to appeal to the male demographic, with sacrifices made to story and character development for fan service, and lewd portrayals of womanhood.
It is evident that there is a large demographic of girls and women who enjoy manga and anime, and struggle to find a show that doesn’t have fan service, or isn’t catered towards the male demographic.
Thus, the aim is to create an ‘companion app’ streaming service that is aimed at girls and women who like manga and anime.
- Most anime is aimed at men
- Anime is gaining a perverse reputation for fan service and fetish content that objectifies women, and damages young men and women’s expectations of what womanhood is.
- Giving those who do enjoy normal anime a bad reputation for being debauched.
- Anime industry is sacrificing narrative, and character development, in lieu of fan service, which makes the anime unwatchable, often making people feel uncomfortable.
This is an issue that is deep rooted in the country of origin in which the art is from and most commonly produced (Japan); it is well known that Japan has an issue with the treatment of women, and in a statement by Human Rights Pulse:
“Earlier this year, the creative chief of Tokyo’s Olympics, Hiroshi Sasaki, resigned after making comments body shaming Naomi Watanabe – a plus-sized entertainer – and describing her as an”Olympig “. Just one month earlier, the chair of the Japanese Olympic Committee was forced to step down following remarks he made, stating that women “talk too much,”.
It can be seen that this attitude is indeed reflected in anime, as art imitates life:
“Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa declared publicly that “women are child-bearing machines,” which continued to feed the popular stereotyping in Japan that the main contribution of women to society ought to be bearing and raising children.”
This, and the demographic of “Otaku”, and the fan service catered towards them is creating an unrealistic expectation of women’s behaviour and bodies, that are simply just not true, and this is harmful to young girls growing up into womanhood, and especially in the anime community.
Mission Statement
“To create a space where women can enjoy anime without feeling like they are watching fetish content or fan service aimed at the male demographic.
To try and take back the word “Otaku” and its negative connotations. Over the years “Otaku” has had a stigma attached to it due to it having a reputation of being favoured by sub- cultures such as “incel” culture, and that all anime is strange and sexualised.
The app is an anime streaming service that aims at providing shoujo and josei anime and manga for girls and women.
Abridged: A streaming service for girls and women, who want to watch anime with a genuine focus in storytelling, character building, music, romance and art. “A streaming service WITHOUT the fan service”, so women can feel more safe in the anime community.
A blog post by Emma Sauer states her opinion, that as a long time anime watcher, the one thing she could never grow accustomed to was the fan service, and all the strange scenes that come with it; however she also states that it’s not dirty jokes, or sexy characters that are the problem, stating:
“To clarify, I don’t have a problem with dirty jokes or sexy characters in anime–this is not the issue. Rather, what skeeves me out is when sexual harassment is played for laughs, or when the “sexy” character in question looks like a child. For example, take the first season of the Netflix original anime, Seven Deadly Sins. The main character constantly harasses another character by groping or looking up her skirt, while the other characters berate him for being a pervert. This is supposed to be a running gag. ”
This is common in a lot of anime, and therefore my project will focus on UX/UI for an app designed for men and women who just want to watch beautiful animation, in a safe space.
Figma Mood Board and Wire Frames
User Flow
Above is the user flow diagram for the Daisy App, which shows pages which can be accessed via the navigation bar, and pages which can be accessed via the hamburger menu, and their sub pages.
User Research
It can be observed that the following research does support the opinion that there is an issue with anime and fan service, and that there are women out there who would have use for an app like Daisy; However, there are some opinions from users that do not align with mine, however it would have been biased for me to have filtrated these so i have included all of the user research i got from Google Forms.
As you can see, 66.7% of users admitted that they had stopped watching an anime because of uncomfortable fan service, which corresponds with the concepts behind the Daisy App, (creating a safe space where people can watch anime for its story).
Here the responses where mixed which was interesting, with sometimes being most responded, which means that Daisy App would be for subjective purposes, e.g. , for those who feel they want to get away from fan service, as not all women dislike it.
When asked if they would like to see more anime created from female mangaka authors manga, 12 of the users said yes, which means that there is definitely a gap in the market for more female artists work to become anime.
Daisy would be a space for this.
Here are responses in regards to the safety of being involved in the online anime “community”, and again, the opinions where mixed, and showed that some people don’t feel safe, whereas others do, and even one male replied saying he doesn’t feel safe, so it is really a subjective matter.
Above is evidence that 75% of users agreed with the opinion that; in lots of anime, the female characters are sexualised/objectified for comic relief, or other purposes, and that they would prefer more story driven anime that focuses on character development, and music. Which is why Daisy would be a useful app for those who share this opinion, and want to break away from it to a safer space.
Finally, i got some more qualitive data, in which someone suggested a ‘strong women’ category, and another wanted better filtering capabilities.
Overall it can be seen that there is evidence FOR the desire of an app which is a safe space for women (and all genders), to watch anime and not feel uncomfortable, or like they have to filter through lots of anime to find one without fan service.
Harvard References
| Anonymous (2021) Discrimination In High Office. Japan Takes Gold For Sexism And Inequality. Available Online: https://www.humanrightspulse.com/mastercontentblog/japan-takes-gold-for-sexism-and-inequality [Accessed 11/04/2024] |
| Babich.N (2023) How to design heart animation in Figma. [Video] Available Online:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_QskzyJe0U&ab_channel=NickBabich [Accessed 18/04/2024] |
| C.Mitchell (2016) The Dangers Of Fan Service. Available Online: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-dangers-of-fan-service [Accessed 09/04/2024] |
| C.Steele (2023) 10 Great Anime Series Ruined By Fan Service. Available Online: https://www.cbr.com/best-anime-fanservice-ruined/ [Accessed 09/04/2024] |
| E.Sauer (2022) Someone’s Gotta Say It: Anime’s Issue With Sexism [Blog Post] WordPress 18th February. Available Online: https://info.umkc.edu/womenc/2022/02/18/someones-gotta-say-it-animes-issue-with-sexism/ [Accessed 10/04/2024] |
| Google (N.D.) Anime Go App. Google Images. Available Online: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fanimego-watch-anime.en.softonic.com%2Fandroid&psig=AOvVaw1Wwpre3R-C8p9mYuHIQ_rA&ust=1712840517987000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CAQQjB1qFwoTCMiN8rDbt4UDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE [Accessed 10/04/2024] |
| Mehak (2023) Best anime streaming apps for iphone and ipad in 2024 [Blog Post] IGeeksBlog. 29th December. Available Online: https://www.igeeksblog.com/best-anime-streaming-apps-for-iphone-ipad/ [Accessed 10/04/2024] |
| Ready Start L_Arc (2011) Getting sick of ecchi, fanservice, etc. NeoSeeker. 19th February 2011. Available Online: https://www.neoseeker.com/forums/42/t1621718-getting-sick-of-ecchi-fanservice-etc/ [Accessed 10/04/2024] |
| Shmelt Studios (2023) Menu Animation in Figma. [Video] Available Online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8O78APM17c&ab_channel=Shmeltstudios [Accessed 18/04/2024] |
| TacosAreL1fe (2023) What do you guys dislike about Crunchyroll’s mobile app UI? Reddit Available Online: https://www.reddit.com/r/Crunchyroll/comments/12njtdi/what_do_you_guys_dislike_about_crunchyrolls/ [Accessed 10/04/2024] |
| Vishu231 (2023) What do you guys dislike about Crunchyroll’s mobile app UI? Reddit Available Online: https://www.reddit.com/r/Crunchyroll/comments/12njtdi/what_do_you_guys_dislike_about_crunchyrolls/ [Accessed 10/04/2024] |
| Wikipedia (2023) List of anime- Wikipedia. Available Online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_anime [Accessed 10/04/2024] |
| ZDitto (2023) What do you guys dislike about Crunchyroll’s mobile app UI? Reddit Available Online: https://www.reddit.com/r/Crunchyroll/comments/12njtdi/what_do_you_guys_dislike_about_crunchyrolls/ [Accessed 10/04/2024] |