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A Guy that likes Shojo. . .am I werid?


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ryusaki





PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 4:45 pm Reply with quote
Okay every one I'll be one of the first to admit it... I'm Guy.. age 14 ..I started reading manga when I was say 11.. but my taste started with Bebop,and Kenshin and other Jump titles but as I progressed... say maybe a year ago i readed Ceres and I was hooked..so yeah..mainly Watase's work such as FY,Alice 19th...and aloso MARS I really like too... but hey don't catch me on my backside ... I still have been reading shonen. Mainly I've been keeping up with RuroKen,also Saiyuki,Tsubasa,and recently Lagoon Engine. But yeah I'm going to be hooked ... and with viz coming out with Shojo Beat... I'll still be reading it for a long time. and I guess the real reason that I like it so much is....I just like a little romance and drama to spice things up Anime smile
-Ryusaki Strife
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Glory Questor



Joined: 28 Sep 2004
Posts: 456
PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 5:34 pm Reply with quote
You're not that wierd.

Actually, there are still many people who insist that the barriers are not there or really don't matter. If a story is good, it doesn't matter for what gender they were originally made for -- they are good stories, and that's all that matters in the end. Smile

For example, I like CLAMP stories, both the shounen stories (like X) and the shoujo stories (like Magic Knight Rayearth & Cardcaptor Sakura).

I also like Rumiko Takahashi, who also has many stories both shounen and shoujo that I really like reading.
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quincyarcher



Joined: 13 Oct 2004
Posts: 164
Location: Age of Paranoia
PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 8:25 pm Reply with quote
I'm so sick of guys who think that they're messed in the head for reading shoujo. Half the guys I know read shoujo. I know football players who've chased me across schools to get the next volume of Wedding Peach. Viz defines shoujo as such:

Quote:
shô•jo (sho'jo) n. 1. Manga appealing to both female and male readers. 2. Exciting stories with true-to-life characters and the thrill of exotic locales. 3. Connecting the heart and mind through real human relationships.


That definition rings quite true to me. Reading shoujo doesn't make you less of a guy, it just means that you like a deeper story and well-developed characters. Does reading Shounen Jump titles make you less of a guy because they're written for young boys?
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Alchemist449



Joined: 04 Aug 2004
Posts: 341
Location: LED ZEPPELIN! nuf said
PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 9:45 pm Reply with quote
You are not alone Anime cry !
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Shinotaku14
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 09 Aug 2003
Posts: 233
Location: Greenville or Rock Hill, SC
PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 9:54 pm Reply with quote
Nah, all tests come out negative for weird. I mean I just checked out 3 volumes of Mars from my school library earlier today. First day on the shelf and they're mine for a week.


(Although, that being said, the description for mars [from the library] does say, "will appeal to young women everywhere." and not young men.)
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Arkard



Joined: 15 Oct 2003
Posts: 677
Location: Poland
PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 12:15 pm Reply with quote
OK, I think you are misunderstanding here. As I see it, SHOUJO is not manga/anime FOR girls but more a story when a girl is the main protagonist (that is the majority of it). There is nothing wrong with liking shoujo, they do tend to have mroe depth than some shounen titles out there.
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alice20th



Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 74
PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 12:52 pm Reply with quote
Yes. You are weird and alone in the world...as part of a club containing probably 30-40% of shoujo readers.

The thing that is weird about you is that you are ignoring other people's gender assignments and enjoying a good story. Bad boy! Bad, bad boy! Go pick up a copy of Tough and sit in a corner!

You probably haven't heard what (normal) marketing people know: that America is divided up by demographics, and people who stray from the entertainment directed at the demographic in which they are assigned (14-18 year old males, for example) are breaking the rules and must be looked down upon. I mean if all these guys started reading Watase manga just because "it's a really great story with cool art"...then where will it end? You may start liking movies with Meg Ryan! Then how are they going to sell you car magazines and body building dietary supplements? It'd be total chaos!

Don't you realize you are ruining marketing demographics for advertisers?! Doesn't that make you ashamed?

Just you think about that young man!
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Acolyte



Joined: 29 Sep 2004
Posts: 100
Location: Searching high and low for my missing waist line.
PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 1:20 pm Reply with quote
A guy can't/shouldn't like Shoujo. Yeah, that's about as true as "guys shouldn't cry". It's called bologne.
Sure there are some folks out there who will brand you as wierd for liking what they see as, "girlie stories", but who the hell cares.
To me it's more about how much you enjoy the story-line than about what demographic catagory the title falls under.
I'm a 41y/o father of two (girls) and my favorite title right now, hands down, is Fruits Basket.
I also notice that several of my manga fall under the "romance" genre. The first manga I ever purshased was Ai Yori Aoshi, (not the most macho of stories), and I'm an avid follower of Cheeky Angel, which is trans-gender. Would that be "wierd" as well?
I guess what it boils down to is, does it bother you. If it does, don't read shoujo. If it doesn't, forget about labels like "wierd" and just enjoy the story.
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xjadedragon750x



Joined: 28 Jun 2004
Posts: 263
Location: Chinatown
PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 2:05 pm Reply with quote
It's a typical stereotype...boys read boys' comics, girls read girls' comics.

I am a girl, and yet I tend to enjoy Shounen titles and not shoujo titles. IF it's as you say, then I must be weird too. But, there's no rule that says you should stick to what is directed to you. Because I have read all kinds of things I tend to like things that appeal to my imagination and fuel it, and you can hardly find that in shoujo manga. Moreover, I don't find myself in those situations and cannot relate to them.

Of course you aren't weird. Reading shoujo manga when you're a guy doesn't make you a "sissy" or whatever you may be called, nor does reading shounen manga when you are a girl make you a tomboy.

Share the joy! Er, interests!

animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7840


Last edited by xjadedragon750x on Sat Mar 12, 2005 2:34 pm; edited 1 time in total
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spider-moose



Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 137
Location: Ontario, Canada
PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 2:30 pm Reply with quote
* goes off to read Kare Kano *
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Inu_Yasha_jr.



Joined: 05 Jun 2004
Posts: 168
Location: A far away place in time...
PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 10:00 pm Reply with quote
It's not weird at all. I know lots of guys at my school who go off to read "Kare Kano" too! lol And I don't know how many guys I've seen with a "Sailor Moon" manga in their hands. Very Happy
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quincyarcher



Joined: 13 Oct 2004
Posts: 164
Location: Age of Paranoia
PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 10:49 pm Reply with quote
Inu_Yasha_jr. wrote:
It's not weird at all. I know lots of guys at my school who go off to read "Kare Kano" too! lol And I don't know how many guys I've seen with a "Sailor Moon" manga in their hands. Very Happy


Very Happy I've come to the conclusion that Sailor Moon is absolutely universal. I honestly have never met anyone between seven and twenty who hasn't at least seen part of an episode. That includes both guys and gals.
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Kagemusha



Joined: 20 Feb 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 12:50 am Reply with quote
I've read quite a few shojo works and I don't thing any guy should consider it weird tha they read something originally writen for a girl (after all, no girl is embarrassed to read Shonen Jump). Of course sometimes the cliches that appeal in many works get annoying (as do the shonen ones), but good manga is good manga.
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darkhunter



Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2992
Location: Los Angelas
PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:16 am Reply with quote
Everyone is so idealistic when it comes to this subject. Yeah, everyone know that you can like whatever you want, we got guys playing with barbie and guys watching day time soap opera all day long.

I read some and like some, but I found most of them not being my taste. If you're a guy and all you read is shojo and nothing else and you're in love with it, than that's kinda weird to me. And I do know guys like that way back in high school, when they had hentai pics of sailor moon and stuff and always write romance fiction.

Sometimes our judgement are clouded by our bias belief. There are guys that read shojo titles, but that doesn't mean they go around telling the whole world they love it. Most japanese guys (non-otaku) do read it, but they wouldn't be caught browsing the shojo section.Also shojo titles are popular among the middle age men, they love thier high school girl's romance story, that's no surprise.

Even though there are good shojo titles, I would pick a good sienen over any shojo, any day: Gantz, IWGP, Berserk, Samurai Exectuioner and so on. Growing up and playing sport, Playing sport always taught me to be aggressive, so those are more my type of manga. But again reading too much of one type is kinda unhealthy and narrowminded,, so I still do read shojo and like some of them.

The most universal manga are the comedy ones. Those are the one that usually appeal to both guys and girls evenly.
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Slayer



Joined: 19 Jul 2004
Posts: 273
PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:03 pm Reply with quote
Theres nothing wrong with a guy liking shojo nothing at all so enjoy it all you want...as long as you dont start playing with barbies and putting on dresses..just kidding. Like some people said above just because its shojo doesnt mean its only for girls
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