Few shoujos avoid vilifying the love rival to a certain extent. Even Kimi Ni Todoke, a series that has garnered a large readership (for good reason), is guilty of this. Kurumi is introduced as a villain rather than a character in the story in my personal opinion (her later development is subversive and stunning but does not erase the fact that she was introduced as a villain). The only shoujos I have read that don’t vilify the female love rival off the bat are ‘Strobe Edge’ and ‘Heroine Shikkaku’. Most others portray the love rival in an antagonistic way because they oppose the heroine’s romance, and most readers end up dismissing the love rival because of the way she is presented. The upsetting trend in all of this is that the love rival is always evil, always female, and always disliked by the majority of the active/vocal fandom.
You can propose that ‘Well, sometimes it isn’t the reader’s bias – if the authors purposely portray the love rival as an evil character, how am I expected to like her?’
That is the point I’m going to get at with this entire discussion. Why do the authors feel the need to vilify the female love rival (from this point on, FLR), when they can instead craft a character with as much personality and as much motivation as the heroine herself? The answer: sexism. The love rival character, especially in a run-of-the-mill shoujo, is almost if not always created as a plot point, to be the one that riles up the heroine and pushes her onward in her conquest for love. Nothing more. She is not so much a character as she is a narrative device.
Portraying a girl as a villain when she doesn’t have to be one is disempowering to me. Because the girl is just doing what she wants and making her own choices, and when the narrative casts a negative light around her for pursuing her interests, it’s disempowering in a way. We see it happen constantly in shoujos. Why does it mean that as long as a female character obstructs the way of the heroine, she’s automatically a villain?
The successful love rival character, on the other hand, develops alongside the heroine and contributes to the heroine’s development. The successful love rival does not need to deploy nasty tricks to break the heroine away from her love interest, they instead use sincerity, youth and determination in most cases. The successful love rival endears themselves to you, is someone you want to root for. The successful love rival may not win the heroine’s heart in the end, but has achieved the highest success by becoming a deep character. And do you know what? The successful love rival is almost always male.
When a boy intrudes into the love triangle, they are rarely portrayed as evil (examples include Hikaru of ‘Ouran Highschool Host Club’, Kento of KnT, Yuki of ‘Fruits Basket’, Hinata of ‘Kaichou wa Maid Sama’) but are drawn as sympathetic and cute/cool and readers support their love – can you see how gender marks a vast difference amongst treatment of love rival characters now?
The most current and applicable example I can present to you now is ‘Ao Haru Ride’’s situation as of Chapter 20. The character Narumi is introduced in this chapter, past mentions of her character hinting that she falls into the FLR archetype. What is Futaba, the heroine’s, immediate reaction? Out of nowhere, she feels the need to confess to Kou, the love interest. Narumi threatens Futaba’s title as the heroine and compels her to get closer to Kou. Check and check, the stereotypical love rival.
Then we have Kikuchi, who’s been around for quite awhile – the determined and charming boy who has fallen for Futaba. He’s portrayed as driven but calm, and his desire to catch Futaba’s eye is portrayed as endearing, adorable, cool even. Check, check, check. The successful male love rival. Narumi is by all means not ‘evil’ in any sense, but the jarring thing about her and Kikuchi is their completely contrasting portrayals in the manga, and treatment by the fandom.
Another question to consider is this: why is it that most evil females in shoujo are evil because of their love? Why are FLRs portrayed as clinging to the notion of love so close, that they would do anything for love even if it means playing the villain? I don’t dispute that there are girls who would feel that way, but I find it problematic because this scenario has been repeated again and again in shoujos. The FLRs lack variety, character, heart. It is as if they do not have anything else on their mind apart from romance, which is an amazingly narrow-minded portrayal because girls do not think about love all the time!! Once again – the FLR character as a simple narrative device, rather than a character you can actually understand.
The most problematic issue that arises from the vilification of the FLR is this: who is the main readership of a shoujo manga? Young girls. What I find so upsetting is that this writing of the love rival archetype creates conflict between the FLR and young female readers. It encourages young girls to loathe, reject, ostracize a fellow female – and while she may be fictional, she is still a female nonetheless. It’s very telling about how easy it is to pit girls/women against each other. It threatens female solidarity and instead imposes and encourages the idea of victimizing/vilifying fellow girls. Why is this a thing? Why do girls feel that hating on fellow girls is the accepted norm?
This is one of the reasons why I celebrate positive female relationships in shoujo (which I will tackle in a future editorial), because we have seen too much girls fighting and scratching and pulling each other’s hair, when in fact we should be promoting the notion of female support and solidarity, especially on impressionable young girls.
Shoujos make it a trope for the female rival to be a villain, but for the male rival to be likeable. How scary and ironic is it that sexism is imposed by the female reader and the (usually) female author? That you’re disempowering your own gender?
Do I think all villains should be male? That all female characters should never be evil? No. That’s not what I mean at all. My argument here is this: I want a character to be villainous because of their character and motivations, not because of their gender. The perpetuating trope of the evil FLR constantly achieves the latter, never seeking to achieve the former. This is a genre where female characters outside of the heroine’s social circle are constantly disempowered or unfairly treated, and male characters are portrayed as desirable and ideal.
The most devastating part of it all is that most girls don’t realize this when they read these stories.
If you have anything to add, or if you disagree with any of the points I’ve raised here, please feel free to leave a comment!
Kagayaki Koteri 
On a related note: I’ve had the pleasure of reading excellent shoujos where the female love rival character is well developed and stands as a character rather than a narrative device. These include ‘Heroine Shikkaku’, ‘Strobe Edge’, ‘Tonari no Kaibutsu Kun’ and ‘Tonari no Atashi’. If you have anymore to add to the list — by all means!
I’ve been thinking a lot about this topic myself. Many times the only prominent female character aside from the main protagonist is a love rival, which sends the unfortunate message that women are only to be seen as competitors for men (and that female relationships are defined by and revolve around men). I love female friendships in shojo manga; and I actually wrote a post about it. It’s unfortunate that some manga authors (namely Yuu Watase with Absolute Boyfriend and Fushigi Yugi) employ the cliche of having the female friend betray the protagonist, which also sends negative messages about female loyalty. I will, however, say that typically the male rival, even if he is not actively vilified, often comes across as annoying or a flat character because his role is similarly only to create drama – Kento in Kimi ni Todoke and Kei in Marmalade Boy are good examples.
Exactly, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts (: Definitely agreeing with you about women are too often written as competitors instead of friends/sisters etc. I think that such themes deserve more spotlight in a genre like shoujo, which is why I really like ‘Kimi ni Todoke’ for focusing impressively on friendships outside of the main couple. ‘Fruits Basket’ was another flawless shoujo in my eyes because of not just the positive, but also diverse female relationships it offered (the relations between Rin, Kagura, Tohru, Akito, Uo & Hana etc).
That’s a good point! There are times where the male love rival may be flat, which can be as much of an offence as being vilified for no reason. Still, I find that male characters hardly if ever face the burden of being villains. If they are, they usually come with a background explaining their motivations or a ‘defrosting the ice king’ storyline that I feel is overused at times and doesn’t always serve to add depth or development. Female love rivals rarely get that privilege, if we can call it that.
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So true. You could also add Skip Beat! to your list of shoujo works that avoid vilifying FLR. Well, technically, I don’t think there is a FLR in Skip Beat! Kyoko (the MC) usually tries to befriend any female rivals she has(almost always in the realm of acting, not in love), rather than antagonize them, which is such a refreshing thing to see in shoujo.
Thanks very much for the input! I’ve never read Skip Beat but I just might after this.