shojo manga

M

midge

Completely Average High School Student
im doing abit of research for my dissertation on shojo manga. I was wondering if anyones come across any good resources at all.

Also Im curious as to how many people here read whats technically classed as 'shojo' and if your gender is either male or female. Also why do you choose to read Shojo manga whats its appeal for you ?

Personally I'm a girl who enjoys reading shojo manga, I enjoy the stories and art styles I think its got something different to offer readers other than superheroes or action comics. I also really like how Shojo is about different types of love and isnt always confined to nessarily 'romance' stories.
 
Yeah i read Shoujo, i would have to say it's my favourite kind of manga. Like you have already said, i like the stories, and often the romance. Also i often prefer the art and the character designs, and being the sort of bishounen crazy sort of person i am, i find the men mostly more attractive in Shoujo compared to Shounen, which of course isn't designed for girls to swoon over. And i just think Shoujo can be very well done in manga, which gives you time to read and pause, and take in all the emotion; as opposed to some action based stories which can be difficult to pull of without the aid of movement
 
Shoujo manga:

Cardcaptor Sakura
DN Angel
Fruits Basket
Full Moon wo Sagashite
Kare Kano
Kodocha (Kodomo no Omocha/Childs Toy)
Mars

Just a couple. Though some people tend to try to define shoujo by drawing style or content, the most accepted definition of shoujo manga is manga targeted at girls. The most reliable indicator of that is when the manga appears in a shojo anthology.
 
I noticed this months NEO magazine has an interesting 3 page (i think it is) article about romantic manga, if you can get your hands on it pretty interesting.
 
Laughing Manji said:
the most accepted definition of shoujo manga is manga targeted at girls.
Click to expand...
... well duh? I mean, when something literally translates as "girls manga", you kind of have to accept the likelihood that it's aimed at girls don't you... :p

One interesting mistake I find when people start trying to classify what is Shojo or not: the idea that Romance Manga = Girls Manga. I've seen people claim that Chobits, Love Hina, Ranma, Ai Yori Aoshi and their ilk are "Shojo". They're not. In fact, they couldn't be more Shonen if they tried. Manga like these clearly serve male egos, usually featuring a Male central character who is fawned over by 40 different girls in various states of undress. In many ways, they're simply not smart enough to be Shojo.

Edit:
subedii said:
Maison Ikkoku is something I'd class as Shoujo personally. I really loved that one.
Click to expand...
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... php?id=354 <- Says here it's Shounen originally targeted at a Manga magazine for 20-25 men.

TBH, I kind of dislike the distinction. Both Shonen and Shojo works get trivialised because they're often seen as serving silly stereotypical needs (Shonen Manga is for silly little boys who like watching fighting, Shojo manga is for silly little girls who like whimsical fantasies). If the distinction wasn't there, people could just get on with finding good Manga, rather than Manga that serves the needs that society tells us we have (because I sure as hell refuse to accept that males and females are different in that way for some kind of biological reason).
 
kupoartist said:
Laughing Manji said:
the most accepted definition of shoujo manga is manga targeted at girls.
Click to expand...
... well duh? I mean, when something literally translates as "girls manga", you kind of have to accept the likelihood that it's aimed at girls don't you... :p
Click to expand...

Ah, wrong. The very important thing that you misquoted from me was the targeting aspect. The act of serializing it in an anthology marketed to a girls demographic is what makes it shojo manga. Not the content, or the likelihood that it will appeal to girls.
 
Laughing Manji said:
Ah, wrong. The very important thing that you misquoted from me was the targeting aspect. The act of serializing it in an anthology marketed to a girls demographic is what makes it shojo manga. Not the content, or the likelihood that it will appeal to girls.
Click to expand...
Misquoting is a very different accusation to simply leaving something out. The fact is, that you wrote the following line:
Laughing Manji said:
the most accepted definition of shoujo manga is manga targeted at girls.
Click to expand...
Which I, constantly inclined to sarcasm and poking fun at anyone who comes across as too serious, couldn't help but pick out for its utter redundancy. For which I apologise, to a debateable degree of sincerity.
 
kupoartist said:
Edit:
subedii said:
Maison Ikkoku is something I'd class as Shoujo personally. I really loved that one.
Click to expand...
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... php?id=354 <- Says here it's Shounen originally targeted at a Manga magazine for 20-25 men.

TBH, I kind of dislike the distinction. Both Shonen and Shojo works get trivialised because they're often seen as serving silly stereotypical needs (Shonen Manga is for silly little boys who like watching fighting, Shojo manga is for silly little girls who like whimsical fantasies). If the distinction wasn't there, people could just get on with finding good Manga, rather than Manga that serves the needs that society tells us we have (because I sure as hell refuse to accept that males and females are different in that way for some kind of biological reason).
Click to expand...

You're probably right, but I still like MI anyway. The reason I would class it as more Shoujo is that unlike shows like Love Hina it doesn't go overboard on the fanservice and seems to genuinely try to tell a romance story. It could be said that it's more Shounen since it has a male protagonist to focus on, but I know a fair few women who like it as well, so I guess at the extreme I would class it as a unisex title.

Unisex manga, good grief, the wierd things I come out with.

In any case, you're definitely right about stuff like Love Hina and Chobits being targetted more for 'shounen' demographic, if you could call it that. Personally, I don't like Manga like that, they tend to be about as shallow as a puddle, and subtle like a hammer.
 
subedii said:
Unisex manga, good grief, the wierd things I come out with.
Click to expand...
I've always thought of a show like Escaflowne as a good example of an anime that is Unisex. The Mangas of course ruined all that... There are plenty of Anime / Manga that never get distinguished between the genders they target on sites like animenewnetwork, and that's the way it should be.
 
kupoartist said:
subedii said:
Unisex manga, good grief, the wierd things I come out with.
Click to expand...
I've always thought of a show like Escaflowne as a good example of an anime that is Unisex. The Mangas of course ruined all that... There are plenty of Anime / Manga that never get distinguished between the genders they target on sites like animenewnetwork, and that's the way it should be.
Click to expand...

I would tend to agree with that. Sometimes genre classifications can be helpful, but other times they automatically limit the scope of a title because the author(s) have tried to stay within the boundaries of that specific audience. Either that or they just try and market a product to a specific audience, instead of just trying to make it good and letting whoever wants to like it, like it.
 
t0ffe3m4n^ said:
Im also a little curious about the content of shoujo anime. Can anyone give me some examples of some series which are classed as Shoujo?
Click to expand...

"Nana" & "Paradise Kiss". :shock: they definitely are shoujo mangas and liked by young people regardless of genders. Anyone reading these two series?
 
I find kupoartist to be the single greatest member this forum has: cynically intelligent, brutally honest, and at the end of the day, very funny.

Anyway:

midge said:
Also Im curious as to how many people here read whats technically classed as 'shojo' and if your gender is either male or female. Also why do you choose to read Shojo manga whats its appeal for you ?
Click to expand...

I read “Shojoâ€
 
I think its all pretty pointless to label anything "shoujo" or "shounen". Im female and theres plenty of shoujo manga and anime I like, and plenty of shounen anime and manga I like. Your gender is irrelevant when it comes to reading manga or watching anime really, all that matters is if the story or characters etc.. is to your tastes.
 
Neon-Noir said:
I find kupoartist to be the single greatest member this forum has: cynically intelligent, brutally honest, and at the end of the day, very funny.
Click to expand...
Aww shucks :oops: :cry: As a student, I can't offer you any cookies at the moment. It'll have to be stale Sainsbury's own Bourbons... :/
 
Mangaminx said:
I think its all pretty pointless to label anything "shoujo" or "shounen". Im female and theres plenty of shoujo manga and anime I like, and plenty of shounen anime and manga I like.
Click to expand...
As far as I can tell, the shounen/shoujo labels only specify that the anime/manga in question is targeted at a male/female crowd. It doesn't mean that guys can't like shoujo or girls can't dig shounen. It's just a label. All labels do is make categorizing and organizing easier. In the end, a label is only as meaningful as you make it - if that makes any sense. :p
 
Travis Radisson said:
Mangaminx said:
I think its all pretty pointless to label anything "shoujo" or "shounen". Im female and theres plenty of shoujo manga and anime I like, and plenty of shounen anime and manga I like.
Click to expand...
As far as I can tell, the shounen/shoujo labels only specify that the anime/manga in question is targeted at a male/female crowd. It doesn't mean that guys can't like shoujo or girls can't dig shounen. It's just a label. All labels do is make categorizing and organizing easier. In the end, a label is only as meaningful as you make it - if that makes any sense. :p
Click to expand...

Yes it makes sense, but I feel a lot of people do make the labels meaningful. I often see people proclaim on other anime forums "ewww shoujo" if they are male and occasionally "ewww shounen" if they are female purely when they are told that a series is shounen or shoujo without any information as to what its about.
 
Mangaminx said:
I often see people proclaim on other anime forums "ewww shoujo" if they are male and occasionally "ewww shounen" if they are female purely when they are told that a series is shounen or shoujo without any information as to what its about.
Click to expand...
Their loss, I guess. But generally it's just another classification to help you find what you're after, and in that respect it works fine.
I tend to read shounen stuff mostly, although that doesn't stop me from checking out shoujo series like Fruits Basket. There're also some series like Saikano and Death Note that don't really fit into either classification.
As to why I read shoujo - well, I guess the artwork is usually superior... but probably because it's good to read a variety of genres - sometimes you just want to read something with some different characters and emotions in it.
Oh, and I'm a guy btw.
 
Back
Top