Meganekko

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Meganekko ( Japanese メ ガ ネ っ 娘 ) is a composition in the Japanese language and describes a girl wearing glasses. The compound is made up of the words megane and ko . Megane ( メ ガ ネ , also め が ね or 眼鏡 ) is the Japanese word for glasses and ko ( 娘 ) the name for an unmarried woman or a girl.

Meganekko is also the name of a certain character archetype in works of Japanese popular culture .

Character archetype Meganekko

The glasses as an expression of introversion and awkwardness.

In works of Japanese popular culture, the behavior of the girl wearing glasses is mostly characterized by introversion and intelligence. The functionality of the glasses takes a back seat as they are only a distinctive accessory. So these girls more or less represent the cliché of the well-read bookworm . With their innocent and demure charisma, they have a certain Moe potential in a certain part of the Japanese audience .

Within the spectrum of Meganekkos there are two essential marginal forms (stereotypes). These are mostly reflected directly in the design of the glasses.

Pretty clumsy girls, who are supposed to look particularly cute and shy, wear models that have a rounded shape and whose glasses are relatively large. The glasses frame, on the other hand, is only very weak and is sometimes even left out when drawing. A typical representative is, for example, Mimi Usa from Kodomo no Jikan . Compared to her classmates, she is very intelligent and particularly well developed, but nonetheless, especially in sexual matters, very naive and inexperienced.

The opposite pole to this type are girls, who are characterized as strict, who play a role model role and who often have ulterior motives. Their external appearance is characterized by rather angular, narrow glasses that also have a strong frame. Examples of this would be Mai Minakami from Nichijou or Nodoka Manabe from K-On! who both take on the role of class representative and are accordingly determined.

There are also numerous mixed forms. So is z. B. Yuki Nagato's glasses from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya are a mixture of these two types. Nevertheless, she is a strongly introverted bookworm, behind whom there is more than a quiet girl and who does not need glasses at all.

Male equivalent

Boys and male characters who wear glasses, on the other hand, are simply referred to as megane or, in more detail, as megane otoko or megane danshi ( メ ガ ネ 男子 ).

literature