One of the best things to come out of the rise of streaming websites overseas has been an increase in productions that have featured great roles for women. This year alone we've seen some phenomenal acting from Elisabeth Moss on "The Handmaid's Tale" and powerful ensembles on Netflix's "Orange is the New Black" and "GLOW."
With streaming services stepping up their game in terms of broader representation, the major networks have been feeling the pressure to follow suit, and that pressure seems to be extending across the Pacific.
Japanese actresses regularly have to deal with stereotypical roles on prime-time TV, appearing as mothers and daughters with heavy familial duties, as love interests and hopeless romantics, or victims that need saving. Online productions and co-productions, however, have had a bit more luck breaking free from those constraints allowing women to be funny, ambitious, subversive and, importantly, just plain normal.