Pacific Rim Inspired the "Mako Mori Test." Uprising Gives the Character a Far Less Inspiring Arc.

When Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim debuted in 2013, fans who valued its Kaiju-conquering, Charlie Hunnam-clobbering, and ultimately world-saving Japanese female hero as much as its monster-on-robot action were surprised to discover that it didn't pass that old standby, the Bechdel test. So they proposed an alternate standard: the Mako Mori test, inspired by Rinko Kikuchi's character in the film. Apparently coined by a Tumblr user named Chaila (the post has been since deleted) "to live alongside the Bechdel Test," it uses the following criteria: The Mako Mori test is passed if the movie has: a) at least one female character; b) who gets her own narrative arc; c) that is not about supporting a man's story. While that might seem like a low bar, this was partially by design. It's really easy to throw away a film because of [the Bechdel] test … if you're a white woman and can easily find other films with white women who look like you and represent you … If Pacific Rim does nothing for you, there are plenty of other films that will generally do quite well for white women.