It is being claimed that girls are now more interested in male-marketed shonen manga than in the shoujo manga publishers think they are supposed to be reading.
The report:
“Question: Do you prefer shonen manga to shoujo manga?”
All love shonen manga (assuming they were not confused by the many meanings of “O” and whatever was on the other card, and that they were even given any choice in how to vote by the producers), and not the marvels of shoujo manga, it would seem.
Manga fans have now been left pondering the seemingly paradoxical prospect of a shonen manga magazine exclusively targeting this promising female demographic, and just whether this supposed trend is actually offset by all the men reading female-oriented manga for the perverted sexual antics such publications are so fond of.
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I think the categories of shounen, shoujo, seinen and josei are pretty much obsolete today. They seem to have been designed when there was a lot separation in what boys and girls were supposed to be into.
Those lines are so blurred today that to say somebody should or shouldn't be into this or that manga is pretty much a moot point.
I'm female and I read what I like.
I have the same impression. I don't know about manga, but when looking at modern anime, most of them are definitely suitable for both genders. Though I admit that the fanservice is heavily targeted towards the male recipient.
Thanks to Ishihara, now all manga belongs to one category: harmful books ñ_ñ
I had really almost forgotten about Ishihara because there hasn't been much news of his trolling recently. You have revived my intense hatred, I thank you!
just saw your name..."IshiharaFanClub"
lol
Get medicine for your mayfly span of attention.
What that show tried to prove is perhaps just this:
That typical male leads in shoujo mangas are too much faggots even for female readers.
Beyond being obsolete, they only exist for marketing purposes, foster the creation of cookie-cutter manga, and suppress the creativity of mangaka. Unfortunately, breaking the mold is hard to do. Who is going to put out a magazine aimed at just having good manga? Who will advertize in it, and who will buy it?
I can be done, but for real success a major publisher would have to be willing to invest some effort and attract famous mangaka to the magazine, and they would have to loosen the editorial control that encourages the creation of predictable manga.
"Those lines are so blurred today"
Nope. Shoujo Manga always sucked, but females only figured that out recently.
Beyond being obsolete, they only exist for marketing purposes, foster the creation of cookie-cutter manga, and suppress the creativity of mangaka. Unfortunately, breaking the mold is hard to do. Who is going to put out a magazine aimed at just having good manga? Who will advertize in it, and who will buy it?
I can be done, but for real success a major publisher would have to be willing to invest some effort and attract famous mangaka to the magazine, and they would have to loosen the editorial control that encourages the creation of predictable manga.
yeah as most of shojo manga is shitty just like their shounen counterpart, people read what is best of all
That's why I prefer hentai, where there are no gray areas.
Unless it's about old people - then there may be grey areas.
No, but there are plenty of blurry areas to make up for it.
I dislike being pigeonholed by classifications. If the story and artwork grab me I'm hooked and I don't care what category it's in.
Well said; I never go through manga based on classifications, if it's good it's gonna catch your eye no matter whether it's shounen or shoujo manga.
Hell, there's just too much good stuff in every "genre" to go around depriving myself!
agreed,I don't give a shit to genre,but just the plot or seems good to me
AM guy and I hate Shonen
Maybe you like Yaoi?
@Diemeow23
You might want to take a few math classes. Just sayin'
Plot 40%
Art 30%
Characters 20%
Loli 20%
Total 100%
Loli? No! I have no regrets X3
Ahh Anon23:21
Young grass hopper you do not realize?
The value of "Loli" is unmeasurable sometime even going as far as toppling the other factors even on it's own(ex:Gosick) Victoria is more than enough X3
While I'd love to agree, I have to begrundedly admit that the seinen classification, aimed at men in their twenties like me, really, really, seems aimed at me. Most of my latest favorite works are seinen. Even the exceptions, like Gurren Lagann, which is a shounen, is borderline seinen (being Gainax, borderline is their second name).
That being said. I find the very little josei I gather vastly more interesting that shoujo.
Josei is love. <3
Seinen ftw! I read Gantz... and I watched Monster... so yah
Gantz and Monster both are Shounen, though.
What do you think about Aria? Pure shoujo manga.
Aria is iyashi-kei.
Nope, Aria (Anime) is Seinen. Learn the difference.
Being a MAN I love both Josei and shoujo
No rational comments allowed on the internet. Please refrain from further use of your intellect.
Righto! Like Bokura ga ita! ne?^^
true that, im good as long as the manga has good jokes and good romance(this is optional) and of course good story and somehow not all girls(ill still watch it if the humor is good like lucky star)
Sure, category doesn't matter. Just a coincidence that most shoujo manga plain and simple suck ass.
so long as i can't predict the plot or the next chapter, that's good enough for me. doesn't matter if it is shonen or not. look at madoka---- i think the QB is much better to compare. :P
damn true, I'm a boy and I read/watch alot of shoujo manga/anime (yosei too)
It's good to have momentum in your manga, I suppose...
I've been preaching the idea that girls can enjoy shonen manga just as much, if not more than the guys for years.
I thin the answer is simple. There's just tons of great guy character designs in shonen manga. Or better yet, the girls aren't leading some kind of a girl-centric harem of boys so that sense of jealousy I might sometimes have with shoujo manga isn't there with most shonen. And while many shoujo manga may take up a for-girls perspective on things (perfectly fine! Shoujo manga is just as deep and as respectable as shonen manga), it is pretty refreshing in a way to see it only from a 'for guys' perspective of a manga story.
I smell the extinction of Shoujo genre.
All hail shoujo Fanboys
Finnally the girls will keep theirs filthy hands of my Shoujo
I hope not AM a Shoujo am a big big
Shoujo Fanboy ill buy everyone copy to keep it going if i have too
no one said its not going strong there are still some really good selling shoujo mangalike kimi ni todoke. I'm pretty sure both genders read that because of its higt sales.
I smell Fujoshi fantasies.....
potent, aren't they?
So:
Women read shonen for sexual/yaoi fantasies
Men read shoujo for sexual/little girl fantasies
The japanese people, men and women need sex stat.
Is there a male term version of fujoshi instead of "type b otaku"?
The first time I went to Japan I noticed girls passing a comic book around the class.
Me: Oh, is that popular with girls?
Girl: Yes.
Me: What is it called?
Girl: Fist of the North Star
Me: O_o Really?! The manga with the exploding heads?
Girl: *giggle* "You are already dead."
well, I as a guy can pretty much say that I am the exact opposite.
Shoujo manga is more than often more interesting than shonens.
same as saying as a guy, playing barbie is more interesting than boys toys...
seriously dude, no problem with that...you are totally normal.
consider the fact that nowadays shonen manga is all about emo teenagers. I haven't read any shoujo manga but it's possible that the ones that were meant for girls are now more manly...
Stuff like Skip Beat has the main character Kyoko do 'manly' (or womanly) feats of bravery and courage at every major hurdle she faces.
It's downright inspiring.
yeah... i play barbie with my cousin and always put the doll in awkward positions, skirts flipped up of course =) no problems there
Where did i hear that befor? oh yeah right..
"HES DIFFRENT!... GET HIM!"
I'm not sure how playing with pretty girls makes something gay, even if they are plastic. Heck, most girls out there are plastic anyway.
hey you can strip their clothes
that's totally normal
just like miniaturized sex doll
yup, since tons of figure shown here are boys toys right?
When I was a kid my little sister busted me stripping her Barbie in a suggestive way, told my mother, who told my father who commenced to beat the shit out of me. Bitches have no sense of humor :-(
You should have trolled them by doing that to Ken the following week.
No, it's more like saying pretending to be gay would let girls drop their guards.
Shoujo manga has a lot of sexual themes seen through the girl's eyes. One would think on this website, it'd already be moe material, but ooooh no, it's about being a MAN.
Also, most guys here watch mahou shoujo manga. That's like saying Barbie sucks but Fairy Princess Barbie is awesome when you're on Sankaku.
Interesting comment from one of the girls interviewed above; shounen is better cause there's more touching/physical contact involved in relationships.
female commentor
I prefer shounen manga myself, but I can understand why a guy would like shoujo manga.
The GOOD shoujo mangas often take place in the real world and are based off of more realistic events. They focus on natural feelings and over exaggerated conflicts. If you're looking for a real life drama then a good shoujo is the way to go. Bad shoujo is just repeatative shit. A good shoujo writter can introduce new events and ideas to make the story interesting,
Shounen manga can have dramatic moments like in shoujo manga but usually there is more violence and more of a supernatural theme. People can gain powers and abilities and do the unimaginable. Also they have more plot than the everyday shojo manga and the drawing style is usually more intense and unique than shojo.
Also it feels everyone and there grandma tries to write a shoujo atleast once so there's alot of crap out there. And often times the art sucks and the charecters have eyes that engulf more than half thier face...
Second that. Shoujo can be just as interesting to a guy as shounen. You don't need to be gay to enjoy Paradise Kiss or Nana.
You don't need to be gay, but you need to be interested in pointless stories about annoying girls.
Reply to Anon 8:08:
Yeah, but in shonen manga the heroes are triying to save the world instead of buying a new dress.
Reply to Anon 20:57:
Because every shoujo manga is about buying dressess?... That doesn't even make sense.
Oh, I'm pretty sure shounen heroes are much more annoying than anyone in shoujo manga.
MAMORU
@
GAMBARU
Hey, just because you are saving the world doesn't mean you have to be a fashion disaster! Nobody is going to like you and you won't get the girl if you wear an orange jumpsuit, even if you do save the world.
But Paradise Kiss and NaNa (by the same author) are *jousei*, which is aimed at mature woman. I really look forward to more jousei works.