The image of the shōjo (adolescent girl) in Japanese popular culture has long functioned as a dynamic site for negotiating gender identity and the divide between vulnerable innocence and empowerment. Anime and manga have historically provided evolving portrayals of adolescent girl and young woman characters who have embodied subversive potential while also being constrained by idealised notions of girlhood. This paper extends the discourse on the shōjo by situating it within the Indian digital landscape, where anime fandom, cosplay culture, and social media platforms are reshaping self-presentation and gender performance among young girls and women. Grounded in feminist theoretical perspectives, this study explores transnational digital practices to examine how gender, sexuality, and power are negotiated in virtual spaces. Through an examination of Indian women who engage with anime-inspired aesthetics and cosplay, this study explores cosplay as a form of the gendered digital labor within platform capitalism. This paper reveals how Indian women navigate the competing demands of algorithmic visibility, affective labor, and self-branding while simultaneously experimenting with identity and subverting traditionally constructed gender norms. The analysis connects these performances to the feminist political economy of digital labor, addressing how the pursuit of visibility necessitates affective labor that disproportionately exposes women to economic precarity and digital harassment. By conducting semi-structured interviews with Indian women digital cosplayers, this research highlights the ways in which the shōjo aesthetic is reinterpreted in India; it is framed not merely as a form of fandom but as a means of self-branding, digital entrepreneurship, and alternative femininity. Ultimately, this paper explores how digital media enables new avenues for agency and representation while also reinforcing certain gendered constraints within India’s evolving online culture.

In the 1940s, children in war-torn Japan would hear warning sirens and look skyward with dread, fearing a firebomb attack from enemy aircraft. But for young Jiro Horikoshi in The Wind Rises, airplanes mean ‘beautiful dreams’ and self-actualisation. Animation films like The Wind Rises (The Wind, 2013), In this Corner of the World (This Corner, 2016), The Boy and the Heron (The Boy, 2023) and Grave of the Fireflies (1988) focus on children’s agency in confronting Japan’s conflicts regarding memory, national identity, and pacifism. The Wind explores Japan’s historical paradoxes, juxtaposing pride in innovation with a pacifist critique of militaristic nationalism. This Corner emphasises the plight of quotidian existence during wartime, highlighting collective memory and trauma. The Boy examines grief and healing through fantastical allegories, underscoring the significance of imagination in coping with trauma. This paper applies Igarashi’s theory of ‘absence presence,’–referring to Japan’s self-protective absence of exploring the war’s haunting memories–Andrew Hoskins’s ecology of memories, and Michael Rothberg’s ‘multidirectional memory’ to contemplate the intricacies of nationalism in Japan. The paper explores these films within the context of national and international reactions to how Japan confronts its wartime past in the context of its postwar pacifist identity.