Magical Girlfriend - The "ideal Woman" Personality, or yamato Nadeshiko

The "ideal Woman" Personality, or yamato Nadeshiko

Many magical girlfriends are considered by both fans and critics of the genre to be idealizations of woman-kind. This model of the ideal Japanese woman, the yamato nadeshiko, is similar to that found in The Tale of Genji. Ideal girlfriends are not necessarily magical in nature. Aoi of Ai Yori Aoshi is an example of an ideal woman and girlfriend but is of mundane origin. Some "ideal" magical girlfriends may seem weak and emotionally needy, while others, such as Belldandy of Oh My Goddess!, may possess a godly power stemming from their feminine traits.

Ideal women have absolute dedication to whatever work they do and for whomever they have great affection, although depending on the character's actual talents this can make for anything from 'quite capable' to 'well-meaning klutz'. They usually have calm, gentle and demure personalities. They generally suppress selfish desires in favor of desiring good for others.

Ideal women are always naive or innocent, sometimes explained by the girlfriends origins which do not allow for much experience with mainstream life. Paradoxically, other characters of the girlfriend's origin tend not to be as naive (e.g. Belldandy of Oh My Goddess! is more naive than even her kid sister). Ideal women are emotionally insightful, seeing the good in others when most wouldn't and forgiving their shortcomings.

Ideal women are examples of moe girls in anime. As such, ideal girlfriends are not overly independent. They are proper Japanese women who typically will not initiate romantic action themselves, except in a delicate or indirect manner (Aoi's romantic behavior might be considered clingy, even desperate at times, but is still done in a delicate manner, except in ecchi dream sequences). However, numerous characters are so innocent as to not understand the nature of their actions. Independence and aggression (especially in sexual matters) is a trait of parodies of the ideal girlfriend such as Lum Invader in Urusei Yatsura, Kurumi in Steel Angel Kurumi or Hazuki in Tsukuyomi -Moon Phase-.

Parodies of the ideal woman are often selfish and become involved with the male lead because of their own selfish desires which are not (initially) shared by their mate. While the male lead usually has some sort of hold over his girlfriend (as "husband," "fiancé," provider, contract holder, client, creator, master, or even owner) the parody of the ideal girlfriend either succeeds in inverting the power balance of relationship or simply reverses roles.

Shōjo artists have written another sort of parody of magical girlfriends. Shōjo writers put more emphasis on the girl. Examples include Absolute Boyfriend, in which an ordinary girl gets a magical boyfriend, and Ultra Maniac, in which a Middle School girl meets and becomes best friends with a magical girlfriend; followed by their misadventures at finding boyfriends.

Susan J. Napier has described the popularity of the ideal magical girlfriend, for example, Belldandy and Ai to be a backlash against the "yellow cab" social phenomenon, where some Japanese women were seeking out sexual relationships with non-Japanese men.