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View Poll Results: To female readers, why do you read shounen manga ? | |||
To see attractive-looking male characters (bishounen) | 13 | 44.83% | |
Battle scenes | 11 | 37.93% | |
Other (respond by quoting) | 14 | 48.28% | |
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 29. You may not vote on this poll |
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2011-12-21, 11:46 | Link #1 | |
Autistic NEET bath lover
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: France
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It seems that a lot of girls read more shounen than shoujo
It's a bit old (7 months ago), but I wonder why girls like more shounen than shoujo.
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Spoiler for Other subgenres of shounen:
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2011-12-21, 13:23 | Link #2 |
Criminal Unrequitor
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Jul 2010
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Bishounens have entered the shounen world after all + the fujoshi's Yaoi goggles have been getting stronger and stronger by the years.
I mean just look at Reborn or Gintama. Its not girly but it has a strong legion of female viewers.
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2011-12-21, 14:31 | Link #3 |
Shocking Pink
Join Date: Dec 2007
Age: 28
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For me, it's simple. Most shounen stories seem to capture my attention more than shoujo do. Maybe I've just read bad shoujo, but no cast has captured my heart like say the cast of Bleach or Toradora. The focus on the attractiveness and overall "perfection" of the male lead leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Jealousy and possessiveness are idealized a lot. I often find the relationships in shounen and seinen to be more well-crafted and interesting than shoujo relationships. But obviously, not all shounen are awesome and not all shoujo are crap. In my experiences, shounen and seinen just draw me in more.
EDIT: "Main male heroine." orz Yeahh...I'm just going to rewrite this..
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Last edited by LC; 2011-12-21 at 23:11. |
2011-12-21, 19:57 | Link #4 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Why should anyone restrict their reading based on how a publishing house labels a title? All the label really tells you is what demographic audience the publisher guesses it is targeting. All the publishers, however, have long records of picking up titles they think will sell no matter what the content or to whom it is sold to (which is why you'll see titles that "look shoujo" in shounen magazines or vice versa... or titles more suited to adults (seinen/josei) in shounen or shoujo rags.
Shounen, Shoujo, Seinen, whatever.... if it entertains a reader, they should read it.
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2011-12-21, 21:03 | Link #6 |
Hen-Tie
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Hen-Tie pen
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While it isn't a manga to begin with but look at Hetalia. Is it a shoujo? No but look at its fans are. I believe 90% of its fanbase were made up of teenage girls and some young adult women. They just want to see cute guys doing cute things and most of them just don't care any political satire that ACTUALLY its main attraction.
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2011-12-21, 22:52 | Link #7 |
Sayaka★Magica
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Under the piercing blue sky
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You mean intended attraction, yes?
Anyway, I do think that the rising appreciation of shounen type stories by girls are due to the increasing number of bishounen type characters in those, not to mention the proliferation of "cool guys" doing "cool things" in such stories. I'm not a girl though, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
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2011-12-21, 23:38 | Link #9 |
You're Hot, Cupcake
Join Date: Aug 2008
Age: 42
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That's kind of over-simplifying the matter.
I think there's underlying effects of gender revolution in place. The 'glass ceiling' in Japan took until around 2000 to be somewhat broken. The option of being a careerwoman, more creative and social freedom. Women in Japan are fairly different to what they were a decade or two ago. Kawaii and glamorous are still valued but it's not the only way to live and dress for females now. There has been somewhat of a cultural shift. And I don't think shoujo has evolved with it. It seems to still be pitching to the audience it was at the peak of manga sales in the 90s. But things have changed since then. When you look at what sells in shoujo these days, Kimi ni Todoke and NANA (okay, it's probably more josei, but it was printed in Shoujo Beat for quite some time) are the two that are able to match numbers with most of the bigger shounen titles. After those two, it's a considerable drop. What's unique to those two titles is that they offer something different from what's stock standard is that they offer a variety of female character types, treats them with respect overall and put them in situations people can identify with. There will always be cliches/tropes associated with them, but they have adapted to the times. Shiino and Yazawa have adapted to the times. I help run an anime club and more females have started appearing since a friend and I took over. We asked them what things were appealing to them most on the list. Shoujo wasn't in any of there answers. Some wanted bishes/yaoi. Some wanted hot females. Some wanted action, some 4-koma/slice-of-life comedy. And in the West, female tastes have also changed. Heck, in my state, I asked the main manga store what females were buying most. He said that for one year, Gantz was the most bought title by females in his store! And I've seen a lot of cases where young women take a look/watch of once very popular shoujo titles like Fruits Basket and laugh. In a nutshell, women are different now. Sure, they still like style and beauty. But that doesn't mean they crave things more socially associated with men. Genre and gender labels shouldn't define what a person should want to read.
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2011-12-22, 07:38 | Link #10 | |
Junior Member
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2011-12-22, 08:33 | Link #11 |
Hen-Tie
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Hen-Tie pen
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Want to know about Black Butler?(I decided not to mention its Japanese name since it has word "s**t" in it) It actually a shounen manga but at same time it also quite obvious it is marketed towards female readers over male ones. Maybe it sell better as shounen rather shoujo perhaps.
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2011-12-22, 08:43 | Link #12 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Planet Earth
Age: 54
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2011-12-22, 13:57 | Link #13 | ||
Vanitas owns you >:3
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I will basically read anything that has a good story, good characters and good art. That's all there is to it. But I certainly have more favorites in shoujo than shounen. Quote:
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2011-12-22, 17:45 | Link #14 |
Ghostbuster
Join Date: Dec 2011
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Er. So let me get this straight: the only appeal that shounen anime has for females is the eye-candy? In my experience, females are MUCH less concerned with pretty-looking people as they are with quality -- art, plot, characters, what-have-you. This is obviously an over-generalization, so don't flame me for saying so, but it's the GUYS who are attracted to skimpily-dressed characters and blatant fanservice. In general.
Personally, I prefer shounen anime, because shoujo tends to be fluffy and lack any real gravity or significance. It's all about frilly dresses, shallow romances, and the occasional DRAMATIC PLOT TWIST (t.m.), which doesn't appeal to me. I need depth in my anime, and for whatever reason, those animes tend to be labeled as shounen. However, there are plenty of shounen anime that I find to be absolute drivel -- just non-stop fight scenes, overly-muscular badasses, and ridiculous manly posturing (e.g. DBZ. Ugh.). In short, both shounen and shoujo are associated with stereotypes that I find unattractive, BUT for some reason, the few good animes that do exist are shunted into the "shounen" category. Hence my preference for shounen anime. |
2011-12-22, 22:27 | Link #16 | |
Vanitas owns you >:3
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That's what lots of shounen romances do. I dare say, shounen love-comedies are shameless when it comes to being "shallow" with their "romance". Shoujo romances are anything BUT shallow-they are much closer of the two on displaying the idea of "true love" over "true lust". They're all about HEART instead of sexual tension built from fanservice and awkward touching. Sorry, if you state something as outrageous as "shoujo is about shallow romances", be prepared to get a rant back, especially from someone who takes romantic writing VERY seriously. There are plenty of shoujo series with a ton of depth, character growth, and gripping plots. You're just not watching the right ones.
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Last edited by Chiibi; 2011-12-22 at 22:39. |
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2011-12-22, 23:04 | Link #17 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Heh, have some tea and watch the snow fall.... but you're right. Shoujo is often much more subtle and about how the *girl* feels. It also often covers what happens AFTER the confession.
One of my favorite ones manages to combine elements of shounen and shoujo (sold as shoujo) -- Love Complex. I also like Kimi ni Todoke (though the leisurely plot does have me twitching at times, I just want to pick her up and throw her at her guy ). OTOH... Toradora! is shounen/seinen (depending on the publisher) and it is one of my favorite romances....
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2011-12-23, 00:21 | Link #18 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: U.S.
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But back to topic, a lot of female attract to shonen is definitely either the male characters or cute characters. Take out OP(it's selling to every demographic) just look at the series that are traditionally strong with female support. Naruto, Bleach, Reborn, Conan, Prince of Tennis, the all features some sort eye candies along with potential BL-shipping materials.
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2011-12-23, 01:47 | Link #19 |
Shocking Pink
Join Date: Dec 2007
Age: 28
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Not all are shallow. In fact, not even most, imo. It seems to me that you're referring more to the "he's nice so I throw myself at him" harem shounen. Toradora (a shounen) isn't shallow, for example. Heck, even Haganai isn't shallow, though I wouldn't recommend it for its romance. Some relationships in action manga like Naruto and Bleach are very well developed, even if they aren't explicitly considered romantic yet.
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