Forum - View topicAnime Gender Biased?
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Hagakure
Posts: 111 Location: Connecticut |
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I got in a disscussion with a friend about this. Do you guys think that anime is slanted towards a particular gender?
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GATSU
Posts: 15572 |
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Only when they have a bishounen in an anime for NO REASON!
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Vicious
 Posts: 97 |
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I think that 95% of all anime is aimed towards teenage males, at least judging by what gets liscensed and fansubed in english. In any case it depends on the anime which is usually aimed towards one or the other, hence the terms shounen(Boy) anime and shoujo(girl) anime. Some series have more of a universal appeal, but I think the creators are always thinking of their demographic when they make a show.
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Jlbkwrm
Old Regular
Posts: 94 |
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Anime, as a genre, has no inherent gender bias. Individual shows have their target audience, but there doesn't seem (to me, at least) to be an overkill of male-aimed anime.
Now, if we're talking what's available in North America--the releases are heavily male-oriented. These are what get brought over most often, these are what are perceived as the big money makers. But this isn't even anime-specific; American animation that tries to extend beyond appeal to children usually goes for the older-male demographic (Titan AE, Atlantis, etc). It's not representative of anime as a whole, so much as it is the state of animation in North America. That said, there's been a huge increase in the amount of female-aimed anime released in the US over the past couple of years (Marmalade Boy got liscenced, which seems to defy all conventional belief). Most companies have at least one non-magical-girl shoujo title to their name. So perhaps the domestic bias will lighten up a bit. |
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LordByronius
ANN Columnist
 Posts: 861 Location: Philippe for America! He is five. |
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The fandom is pretty much 50/50 males and females at the moment. You'd never guess that from looking at this forum, though...
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Case
Posts: 1016 |
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I mostly concur with Jlbkwrm.
95%-teen-male-oriented may describe the anime industry ten years ago, but it seems pretty balanced now. I sometimes wonder if shoujo isn't starting to dominate the genre. Just think about all of the shoujo titles that have been released in recent months and years: Weiss Kreuz, Yami No Matsuei, Ayashi no Ceres, Chobits, Magic Users Club, Saint Tail, X, Shamanic Princess... Maybe the girls are just catching up. I dunno. But at any rate, they don't seem to be too bad off. 
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GATSU
Posts: 15572 |
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"95%-teen-male-oriented may describe the anime industry ten years ago, but it seems pretty balanced now."
I guess you haven't been to Anime Love. |
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3904 Location: CO |
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Anime in Japan has traditionally been gender-biased, what with its shoujo anime and shounen anime, and etc. In recent years, however, shounen anime has begun to be very popular with girls, and some shoujo titles have begun to be popular with guys. To take an example, Kenshin was created as a shounen title, but it's fanatically popular amongst females. Fushigi Yuugi is quite popular with the males that have seen it and have admitted to seeing it.
Am I the only female on this forum? |
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cookie
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 2460 Location: Do not contact me for support. |
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330 Matches Found Out of 1929 Total (17.1%) Thus sayth Anime-Love.com (which is not to be confused with animelove.com, which is a pr0n site) Most of the anime club panels @ cons I've been to seem to imply that somewhere between 40% and 60% of the audience is male, with the remaining %age being female. At ACen2k's con panel (er, is that the right con?) there were a few clubs where the males were whining that they were outnumbered by females. I know my anime clubs fall in that range (one's 55/45 [20 people] and the other's 50/50 [40 people]) also, cons %age of female attendees has been increasing faster than that of males, as I recall. I'll ask around to see if I can obtain some reasonably accurate numbers. As I recall, tho, cons have never fit the "traditional" anime fan profile. (and, of course, groups that attend cons shouldn't be considered representative of anime fandom as a whole..) .. but nonetheless, i think a-l's representation is a _little_ lower than the actual anime fan average. (in other news: I finally got a ps2 memory cart, and can now 0wn j00 at DDR MAX) |
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Jlbkwrm
Old Regular
Posts: 94 |
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I think whether or not anime is gender biased depends on how you take the term. To me, gender biased indicates that anime, in and of itself, would lean towards a particular gender. I don't think this is the case. Random Show X being anime doesn't dictate it's target audience. Which genre it falls into will, though. If, however, you take 'gender-biased' to mean that most anime have a specific target gender, then I'd agree that it is.
Nope, I am too. |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10460 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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That's the percentage of girls at Anime Love?
I think it's a given that when 40%-60% are male the remainder are female 
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Vicious
Posts: 97 |
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I don't know, hard to say where those guys dressed as sailor moon fall under :) |
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3904 Location: CO |
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Hoo, boy. I've never been sure what's scarier to see at a convention, men with full beards and unshaven legs dressed as Digi Charat girls, or 500 lb male Lums. I admire their courage, however.
D00d, j00 wi11 |\|3v312 0wnz3 |\/|3 47 DDR 45 10|\|g 35 j00 1iv3... Actually, you probably could. I can do well on doubles, unison, maniac, etc, but I have to be staring at the screen. (Me and my boyfriend are 99% in unison! Ha! *cough* Not like it's anything spectacular to be proud of.) My freestyling skills are virtually nill, as I'm still too self-conscious to bust out any mad action at arcades without looking like an ass. *rubs the bruises on both her knees where she tried to drop on Dam Dariram* |
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LordByronius
ANN Columnist
Posts: 861 Location: Philippe for America! He is five. |
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Under the dark of night, he prowls MBs to re-use old pics he unleashed upon PREVIOUS MBs! Go! Champion of Justice! |
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Slim Shinji
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 263 |
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 Brrr! I had a feeling Fat-man-in-sailor-suit pics were gonna end up on this thread....and no matter how many times I see them they always give me chills!
Here's an interesting tangent: Though I'd say most anime (at least what's officially released over here) is geared toward males, I find it interesting that the characters that populate them are more often than not female. Just looking through my collection I find most titles either have female protagonists (Ghost in the Shell, Dirty Pair, Bubblegum Crisis) or feature a male protagonist surrounded by a mostly-female cast (Evangelion, Tenchi Muyo, Outlaw Star). |
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