Feminism without a Manifesto: Agency in the Animated World of Studio Ghibli
Abstract
This article examines representations of female agency in the animated films of Studio Ghibli and argues that feminist impulses are articulated not through explicit political programmes but through everyday, relational practices embedded in children’s and young adult culture. Drawing on feminist film theory and gender studies, the analysis adopts a cross-film, thematically structured approach that foregrounds agency as situated, ambivalent, and processual rather than heroic or autonomous. Focusing on key scenes and narrative constellations across selected films, the author explores how practices such as domestic labour, professional work, and bodily transformation function as contexts in which girls and women negotiate responsibility, care, power, and vulnerability. Particular attention is paid to the films’ refusal of dichotomous moral frameworks, especially in relation to nature, magic, and technology, which are consistently staged as ethically ambivalent and relational fields. The article concludes that Studio Ghibli develops an implicit model of feminism that expands understandings of female agency beyond manifesto-driven politics, offering imaginative resources for rethinking gender, community, and subject formation in animation.