Presented at Fashion in Fiction: An International Transdisciplinary Conference (2007, 26-27 May), University of Technology, Sydney Australia.
ABSTRACT (2006)
“Kamikaze Girls (dir. Tetsuya Nakashima, 2004) is a film that both extracts and informs the Japanese fashion subculture of the Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL, gosuloli or Loli-Goth). Based on a light novel by Novala Takemoto (2002) and spawning Yukio Kanesada’s manga version in 2005, it is an example of shojo (teenage girls’) fiction. Released in Japan as Shimotsuma Monogatari, or Shimotsuma Story, Kamikaze Girls tells of the two unlikely companions, Momoko Ryugasaki (Kyoko Fukada), a ‘Sweet’ Lolita obsessed with the designer label Baby the Stars Shine Bright, and Ichigo (‘Ichiko’) Shirayuri (Anna Tsuchiya), a yanki, or biker-punk, member of a rough all-girl bōsōzoku (motorcycle gang). The narrative operates on a somewhat allegorical level and is certainly of a comical nature, weaving the girls’ histories throughout a fantastic multi-media world of anime, music video, and live-action sequences. On the surface, this colourful foray appeals as light entertainment yet on another level represents more topical cultural issues.
Kamikaze Girls interfaces with the realm of the EGL (Elegant Gothic Lolita) and the notion of ‘cute gothic’. It has been said that Japan’s obsession with all things cute, or the kawaii phenomenon, represents an ‘infantile mentality’ (Kageyama, 2006) and a reluctance to ‘grow up’ (Kirby, 2006). It has also been related in general to post-war Japan’s perpetuating uncertainties about the future (Parker, 2004). In terms of the Lolita, Rika Kayama says that the dressing as frilly babies symbolises still a deeper anxiety, instigated in the 1990s by economic instability and the wish to hang onto childhood security (Parker, 2004). This is perhaps one reason why the cult translates, for a minority of male followers, to that of the Elegant Gothic Aristocrat (EGA). For Japanese girls, though, this fear of adulthood is more pertinent in the face of the harsher realities of womanhood. This is interesting in terms of the sexual connotations of the Lolita in the West and the sexual ambiguities of the EGL. The focus of this paper, therefore, will be how Kamikaze Girls reflects more complex attitudes related to sexuality, gender and Japanese society via competing images of the ‘cute’ and the gothic’.”
References:
Kageyama, Y. (2006, 16 June). Cute is king for the youth of Japan, but it’s only skin deep. The New Zealand Herald.
Kirby, A. (2006, 22 July). The fashion victims who refuse to grow up. The Times (London).
Parker, G., (2004, 25 September). Parasols and pink lace: Japan’s Lolita girls, ‘I’d like to go back in time, like to the era of Marie Antoinette’, says 24-year-old nurse. Globe Style, The Globe and Mail.
Kathryn A. Hardy Bernal 