This is a great post on what would be considered equal objectification. You know, while I'm on this topic, costumes are only the tip of the iceberg as far as objectification. Let's look at this from a manga lenses. Take Lum. She is an alien in a tiger striped bikini, yet she manages to be less objectified than many of our own comic book superheroines. The artist for the manga at least has some sense of proportion- we don't see tons of loving shots of Lum's crotch, her breasts spilling out of her bikini top, or her bottoms sliding down to reveal her ass crack.

Now in other manga, even stories with women with more covering outside costumes can still be objectifying. We have of course every single manga series that has a loser guy who suddenly finds himself in the middle of tons of girls who are interchangeable except for hair color and superficial traits like 'she's the tomboy' or "she's the smart one" who just can't seem to avoid slipping and showing their panties, ending up in wacky situations where they are in their panties or nude,etc,etc. Now, the reason these manga and many superhero comics objectify women is simple- they are wank fantasies for guys who can't get any ass.

But the reason manga gets a bit less crap about it is that while you got the wank fantasies, it's easier to ignore them and still stay in the mainsteam. I can read Boys Over Flowers, Paradise Kiss, Doubt!, Kare Kano, Happy Mania, Maison Ikkoku, Tramps Like Us and on and on for years if I would like and never encounter an errant panty(although ParaKiss and Happy Mania have sex scenes, it's not pornographic, although Happy Mania is quite explicit). For American comics, I have to stay away with the capes and tights and go with the more interesting independents.