WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Platinum End Episode 22, "Wings of Determination," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
The story of Platinum End features 13 hand-picked people competing to determine who will become the next God, and each candidate has his or her own patron angel. Protagonist Kakehashi Mirai has the playful but brutal Nasse guiding him, while his crush Hanakago Saki was chosen by Revel. These candidates also vary greatly in their personalities and goals during the divine battle royale.
This group includes a few young women such as Saki, Temari Yuri and others. They each have a role to play but it's only marginal; unforunately, Platinum End's narrative sees fit to hold them back and reduce them to token characters during most major sequences. Death Note and other recent anime sometimes do this too, and it may leave a bad taste in many viewers' mouths.
When Female Characters Become Sidelined & Marginalized In Platinum End
Platinum End features a relatively small cast, which should give the female characters a chance to stand out and make something of themselves. That does happen from time to time, such as when Saki and Revel powered up to help Mirai and Mukaido take the fight to Sokotani Hajime. Such scenes are the exception, however, and the narrative mainly uses these characters as token love interests, damsels in distress or even just comic relief, and it's never a flattering look. These women get sidelined or reduced to spectator status anytime something truly important is happening.
Saki has done well to survive thus far and has some skills of her own. But when foes such as Metropoliman or Professor Yoneda Gaki make their move, it's up to Mirai or Mukaido to save the day, while Saki and later Yuri do little more than watch and hope for the best. These two are battle royale contestants too, but half the time they don't even act like it, and Yuri's selfish and apathetic attitude is a bad look for the character.
Yuri is portrayed as a lazy and self-centered person who wants everyone else to pamper her -- especially with the red arrow's power -- making her an odd sort of gold digger, which is downright disturbing. Then there's the police pair Hoshi and Yumiki. Between them, Hoshi does far more while Yumiki, a female cop, does relatively little and even ended up a hostage in Episode 22, along with Yuri and Saki.
During this sequence, it fell to Mirai and Yoneda to finish the fight and determine humanity's future while the young Shujin held all three female characters hostage. Granted, there were organic reasons in the story for things to turn out this way, but even so, the scenario still seems to suggest some less-than-empowering messages.
The narrative itself hasn't directly said so, but the whole setup implies that it's up to men to make changes in the world and get things done, while women lack the vision, strength and resolve to do the same. Platinum End almost seems to be admonishing these female characters for the audacity of trying to take a more active role in current affairs. Even if that's not the intended message, which it probably isn't, the whole setup is still oddly regressive and easily could have been handled another way. Surely Yumiki, Saki and Yuri can do more than this, even if they lack white arrows.
Similar Scenarios In Death Note & Love Of Kill
Similar scenarios play out repeatedly in Death Note, Bakuman and Love of Kill, among other recent titles. Death Note and Bakuman were even made by the same creators as Platinum End, suggesting a pattern where they are concerned. Death Note's major players were primarily male, such as Light, Soichiro and L. The sole powerful female, Misa Amane, was little more than Light's admirer and tool. Characters such as Light's sister Sayu and Hal Lidner had a minimal role to play, and Soichiro's wife Sachiko did practically nothing. Meanwhile, an early chapter of Bakuman showed an elderly man tell his adult daughter that women simply don't understand the hopes and dreams of young men, which is downright insulting.
Finally, the seinen-style anime Love of Kill involves the female bounty hunter Chateau Dankworth, who is highly skilled but often needs to be rescued by her yandere admirer, Ryang-Ha, who gently patronizes her. At least recent episodes reverse this situation and showed Chateau finally rescuing Ryang-Ha instead. But it may be too little, too late in the eyes of some viewers. Anime heroines can, and should, play a more active role and be more than someone who needs rescuing, and Platinum End can likewise do better.
