This one, is late, as I had a project due this morning; not cool. So in my recent declaration of weekly habit posting, I listed Tuesdays as attraction, a clearer word would have been “like”. Basically, on Tuesdays, I will post a small nibble about an attraction.
A shoujo cover is a shoujo cover…
Today’s attraction is Shoujo (少女) (this sentence rings Sesame Street). I hardly doubt anyone doesn’t know what shoujo is, but what’s the attraction?
I am not an expert or anything, nor a connoisseur of shoujo, but I think it sets a decent example of “a girls’ appeal”, which being a guy, I am naturally interested in seeing what appeals (WHY NOT). Also, most good shoujo, regardless of being shoujo, comes with engrossing stories, romance, and fantastic humor. So it is girly, girls like it, but boys like it too [and not just otomen]. Putting it that way, shoujo is a lot like Audrey Hepburn, appealing to both sexes.
Yes, shoujo appeals to me, though possibly not for reasons intended by a mangaka. I enjoy it anyway, and this is partially why I think strongly of Spring 2008, (5-6 shoujo series? quite a bit for a single season)… the shoujo runs strong, especially on Tuesdays ^^.
Stimulating Interest
A couple sites I that likely have more information on shoujo (objective and subjective):
- Matt Thorn’s papers on shoujo
- Iwa ni Hana, high probability of posts on shoujo titles
Ryan A
note: Notice how a lot of original shoujo covers look similar? I still don’t know why
I think shoujo theme appeals to its target audience in much the same way that shounen manga/anime does. One has a strong focus on relationships and the other goes with the “working hard and striving for a goal together with our best friends” approach. They both have their own appeals but I have yet to see the two combined.
I like shoujo too.
Why?
Maybe because I like the stories in shoujo animes more than the shounen ones..
The first things that comes to my mind when I hear the word shounen are Naruto and Bleach..
Naruto and Bleach have ‘draggy’ stories and worst of all, they added up fillers..
I understand that not all shounen animes are like those two, some of them are great (Soul Eater)..
But..my impression of shounen has been polluted by those animes..
This is personal opinions by the way..
TokiDoki, I can understand that. I think I’m more of a target for shounen than shoujo, but I may enjoy shoujo more, simply for the more satisfying feeling. A combination would be interesting, perhaps something fits the bill, but I think the nature of each style conflict in ways; shounen seems more tof moving forward along a plot line with noticeable objectives, while shoujo is more like slice-of-life in that it strolls, characterizes, but has very blurry objectives.
Setsukyie, I feel the same at times. I don’t remember the last shounen title I was really into (Yakitate manga perhaps), but shoujo easily accommodates to my taste. And, yea in terms of anime, shounen going filler is a turnoff, but the manga versions stay pretty focused (I made it though 300 something Naruto chapters without much distaste), but shounen is shounen, that constant mass of underdog characters becoming strong gets quite old.
For the most part, I feel shoujo is a more durable presentation than shounen. Not saying I don’t like it, I’ll probably do one of these ‘attraction’ posts on shounen. ^^
You may not have been here when I posted about my bout with Geneon and shoujo at a convention years ago on my old blog (site’s dead and gone). Those jerks were doing a trivia giveaway and when the questions came to be about Parakiss, I knew all the answers but they wouldn’t let me answer saying that “shoujo is only for girls”. That just threw me off the deep end.
Point is, you’re not alone. I love shoujo over anything else.
Os, Ah man, that was pretty harsh of them, crazy sexists. ParaKiss hearts, I figured there is a healthy amount of males who enjoy shoujo, I think it has to do with the characters. Supposedly, I told myself the next attraction is heroines of shoujo.