Forum - View topicNEWS: New York Times article on girls' manga
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Wow, this is a really interesting article. It's amazing to watch as anime slowly expands to take over the world
Being a great shoujo fan myself, I'm especially enjoying the recent attention given to fans of the genre, especially females. It's always nice to see our numbers rising. |
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holl.e.rama
Posts: 102 Location: California |
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You know, the article is sort of giving shoujo a bad rap. But seriously, girls can read things with just as much sex in it in regular ol' books.
 Look at the best-selling series "Gossip Girl" aimed at teenage girls. There are plenty of shoujo that don't have anything that racy in it, including most of those series in that top 10 list they have in their article.
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alangaruku
 Posts: 35 |
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"Alot of U.S. anime/manga articles like to tell, the "bad stuff" in it, where there are just as bad, (if not worse) in U.S. media. I don't understand why they do that. Besides that, the article was ok. 
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potassium
 Posts: 102 |
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this was actually a really good article. i've been waiting for an article that didn't look like it was slapped together by just reading the backs of manga (like a recent one that began with, "manga, pronounced 'main-ga'"). i don't think it was trying to point out the bad things about shoujo manga (it pointed some good things as well) so much as it was pointing out what would be really controversial if more people knew about it.
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Ialdaboth
Posts: 94 |
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Best quote of the article :
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Kal
 Posts: 130 Location: USA |
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You think? The line where they described online manga translations as "fanlations" made me rolled my eyes a bit. Lol. I've never even heard of scanlations being refered to as that ^^
But yea, overall, the article wasn't too bad -- although they didn't quite touch base on the idea that not every series is aimed towards a more younger audience -- therefore the racier scenes and yadda. Hopefully the article isn't correct that the PTA or the like will get involved in the future and complain -_-; Because ya know, like Hollerama said, there are worser stuff that can be found elsewhere. |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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I think I may have heard fanlations once or twice...but scanlations is the much more prevalent term.
There was a bit too much focus on the nudity and sex, though admittedly that is a part of a fair amount of the stuff out there, which is why people should pay attention to the ratings. At least with manga it's not quite as bad as the animes themselves, since North American attititudes about comics are don't have the whole "they must be for kids" idea attached to them. They have ratings for a reason and they usually seem to be fairly deserved, at least in everything I've read. And at least the sex seems to usually be handled in a tasteful manner, rather than just stuck in for the sake of having sex, like so many things in North America. |
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a_lonewolf
 Posts: 34 |
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Yes. I agree. When sex is featured in the manga I've read...it is always done tastefully and for the purpose of advacing the plot. It has never felt just thrown in for the sake of titillation.
I thought the article was pretty well written and not too inaccurate. Usually I'm less than impressed with articles about anime or manga written by mainstream newspapers because they are so horribly inaccurate. This was refreshing. Also...I'm a 20-something female who loves manga (both shoujo and shonen) so I do hope others my age and gender will become more of a market force in the manga/anime genre. |
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pandorina
 Posts: 43 Location: USA |
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Not a bad article. A little rough around the edges. But I am pleased that this one was more acurate, compared to the Fox news article from last month.
They focused mostly on the racy shojo titles, though they seemed to forget there are more shojo comics out there with no sex or violence(other than comic violence al la bug bunny) in them at all. Well that's not entirely true they did have Fruits Basket (but it gets emotionally violent here and there). $125 million manga sales last year.  pretty awesome.
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Cowpunk
Posts: 168 Location: Oakland - near the Newtype Lab |
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Some of the librarians the author spoke with have mentioned on the GNLib list (an email list on graphic novels for librarians) that the author knew very little when she started her research.
By the time she intervewed me a few days before her deadline she knew her stuff pretty well. My hope is that this article gets more adults reading manga. Gilles - I love Hot Gimmick - Poitras |
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Starwind Amada
Posts: 981 Location: Easton, PA, USA |
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Can you say bullshit? This woman obviously has never even touched one shoujo manga in her life and just bases her opinion on what fanatical Christian soccer moms say. She should shut her damn mouth and go back to selling coloring books and other kiddie crap. |
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Angel_White_Wings
 Posts: 40 Location: Up Above |
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I don't agree with what she said either, but she's entitled to her own close-minded opinion. "Uplifting as I think literature should be"? Has she even touched the story of Romeo and Juliet? Whether English or Japanese literature, violence can be found. Perhaps she doesn't enjoy manga titles and their plots, but the same could go for an award-winning book. ^^;;And I have no idea where I'm going with this...
I must say it's a shame not to have them assigned. We would certainly enjoy our homework if it was.
 Wow. Is that statistic true? That's amazing. I find that surprising. Rock on with the women dominating over the percentage. I'm just kidding. But that is quite a jump...
I wasn't interested in this article too much. I think it focused primarily on sex, nudity, and violence rather than covered the more amazing features of manga like pandorina previously stated. However, I'm biased because I'm in love with my little buddies! *huggles her manga* But I'm not a fan of the article. It seemed as if the writers of this article were trying to only capture the bad points of manga. There's plenty of drool-worthy manga out without sex, nudity, and/or violence. However, people tend to focus on the bad rather than the good. |
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RabbitRevolution
 Posts: 218 |
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Well, instead of the "girls are actually reading comics" story that every other newspaper seems to have done, they're now moving on to the "girls are reading smutty comics" stories. Which may be partially true.
 I'm a female teen, and I do in fact read a lot of the "racy" manga mentioned in the article. However, I really don't like the whole "scandal sells" vibe of the article. The journalist clearly wanted to focus on the controversial aspects of shoujo manga, and presented it in a pretty negative light, IMHO. Not that the journalist should be expected to support to shoujo manga in the US, but I don't think that a shoujo manga fan can point to this article with any sort of pride.
This is a pretty serious understatement. There is plenty of 13 and up manga (shoujo or otherwise) published in the US that is appropriate for its rating. American TV and movies bearing the PG-13 rating have shown far worse. I will agree that this article is one of the more well-researched articles on the US manga fan base out there. However, the heavy focus on the controversy just left a bad aftertaste. |
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[RPI]Shinsengumi
Posts: 2 |
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Just a thought - Is it me or have there been quite a few articles here on ANN about shojo manga & anime? Maybe I'm referring more to the NYT & other major news sources that look at things that are happening & OVERANALYZE them to death. The only shojo that I have partaken in is "Fruits Basket," which I, like many, enjoyed very much. So fill me in, those who are knowledgeable about the subject.... Is shojo really that profane? Am I led to believe that these stories border on hentai? Or is this just some highfalutin news conglomerate's scare tactic against anime & manga in general? I say this because an earlier news article from the Times had to highlight "Elfen Lied," "SaiKano" and "Gunslinger Girl" as a suddenly NEW shonen trend of "psycho-killer girls." Now, the Times, of course, has to highlight in its article, when describing some of the shojo, explicit sex scenes..... OOOOOHHHH
 , which only occur, from what I saw, in 1 out of 8 volumes! Seriously, shojo can't be all that bad, can it? I though "Elfen Lied" was a great story, and there are many who agree with me. I would imagine that the world of shojo also contains great stores. Of course, however, the Times can't help but highlight the violence/homosexuality/transgenderism/etc. Personally, I've lost some trust for the Times if these two articles that I've mentioned are the best commentary they can give on manga & anime. Oops I wrote too much - my apologies for ranting on a little.... 
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Karala
Posts: 43 |
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That article had a few things wrong in it, the only one I can think of right now is the common comment that Shuichi is in high school, which I can't help find annoying to read over and over again in summaries.
I don't know why a genre has to be dissected like it's some great mystery, or why they had to point out all the controversial things about shoujo series. Not only that, but I've never seen the question asked "why do males like lesbians?"  Over all, I didn't like what it had to say about shoujo manga.
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