By “loli” I mean it in whichever broadest way I could have used it in a serious manner.
The strange thought came after viewing Infinite Stratos 8. Actually, it started a few weeks ago when someone made an off-comment about the lack of DFC in the series, to the extent that “wait, is it just China?” China’s representative herself is not exactly flat; probably just closer to normal for a high school student. Soon enough we were fixed of this with the appearance of France and Germany. One is magically flat, the other flat by archetype. And that is the archetype I want to talk about today: the killing machine loli.
There had been a fair number of the loli-born-of-science over the years. I think the all-time iconic stoic deadpan tsurupettan still is Ruri Hoshino, in her original, pre-teen tsukkomi self. Granted, she was not particularly violent, but when combined with some super computers in battleships, the results don’t leave much to your imagination. Evangelion’s Rei is another all-time favorite, so I won’t go into how she’s any different.
German-chan, or Laura, has a backstory that is slightly spoiler, although I don’t think it matters; so bear with me. I think she stands more in line with Gundam00’s stoics better, who inherits from their generational Zeon experiments, starting from the original ethereal space beauty, Lalah Sune.  To cut to the chase, I think Zeonism is pretty much drawn from Nazism, if only in some vague sense. German-chan would fit right at home.
On the other hand, I have a hard time coming up with an American death loli. In fact the only loli of any sort that I could think of is the all-American fujoshi, Susie Hopkins. And even so, she’s not exactly loli by definition. So where are they?
I mean Italy has a whole line of deadly lolis (and probably bonus point to Russia and maybe even..Tunisia? Netherlands?). Where are the French, Spanish or English ones? Well, they’re probably out there, just none coming to mind right now. I’m not well-versed in this subject matter, so it’s an arduous task for me. Can you help?
Also I wonder if this has any connection with Japan’s national stereotypes of foreign nationalities. It probably does, but it’s a subject for another day.
February 27th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
You might be able to count Cal from Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ as an American one, though, it’s sort of tenuous, since she was more of a helper in the dealing of death, rather than the actual dealer, when she’s a loli in the story. She quite literally becomes the anti-thesis of loli once she takes on the post-timeskip mantle of Drei.
Even then, she’s sort of the “genki killer loli” rather than the “stoic killer loli” that is under discussion.
Another “genki killer loli” would be Stella from Arakawa, but of course, that’s a comedy show, rather than one where the killer loli title would have more meaning.
Oh, would Anya from Code Geass R2 perhaps count as one from “Britain”? Heh.
Cynthia Lane from Overman King Gainer might qualify another point for… somewhere? Russia?
I think with that, I’ve more or less exhausted possibilities I know.
February 27th, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Of course it has something to do with Japanese foreigner stereotypes. From the silver-haired stern German to “all black guys have big afros”.
As for why a lot of killer lolis are German, that’s really about the eugenics connection, yes?
Then again 00’s Soma is technically “Chinese” as far as that series’ geopolitics go.
February 27th, 2011 at 7:08 pm
I think Soma is actually an anomaly. Chinese test tube babies are more geopolitically feasible today than Russian programs, but the latter had the reputation of doing so. But yes, anime does not spare China, despite Japan having relatively close ties with that country compared to most others.