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marie-antoinette
Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 4136
Location: Ottawa, Canada
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:54 am
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My anime club apparently is abnormal, because we have a very definite female majority. Of people who regularily attend meetings, only 2 of them are male, compared to about 10 who are female. There are more that only occasionally attend meetings, but there are also more girls who do that too.
Of course, the university I go to have a 60:40 spilt between females and males which probably adds to it.
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LydiaDianne
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
Posts: 5634
Location: Southern California
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:07 am
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While I am severly depressed with my age groups .4% showing (female, 35-49), I also realize that people my age who are anime fans more than likely started with VHS fansub tapes. Probably, please forgive any generalizations.
I was a late bloomer, anime/manga wise and didn't discover it until Cartoon Network aired Sailor Moon and it caught my attention one day while channel surfing. Instant addiction!
Since then, anime/manga has grown and bloomed and have attracted more and more fans, so logically, there are not going to be that many in MY age group but more amongst the 10 to 24 year-olds.
Now, what would be interesting to see is a Poll five years or so down the road and seeing what the age demographics will be then.
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Kelly
Joined: 17 Nov 2003
Posts: 868
Location: New York City
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:41 am
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As mentioned before when this subject comes up, I think part of the matter is also the cold, hard fact that females in general are more likely to be willing to crossover than males - an issue that is magnified in a niche market. We gals are often up for a good action story, or comedy if it isn't too offensive, but the average guy will run screaming at the thought of weepy tearjerkers and other more female-oriented stories. Until alot more guys are willing to watch more relationship oriented anime as well as action and comedy titles, the male-oriented action titles and slapstick comedies are always going to be much more profitable. That's what's going to show up on television, and of course the female fandom is going to be alot smaller if they constantly have to buy the anime they're interested in seeing - that is, if they even get licensed at all.
That being said, I do think things are getting a little better, and more true 50/50 crossover titles seem to be showing up.
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Asako
Joined: 02 Jan 2005
Posts: 751
Location: Hawaii
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:01 pm
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... argh, my percentage is low too...
I know I've seen a lot of older folks reading manga. At least they look my age (but someone said I look 18-20... it's an evil asian curse). Maybe they don't frequent forums?
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Murasakisuishou
Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 1469
Location: NE Ohio
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:09 pm
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Heh, my percentage is the highest one up there for girls.
I think it's all a matter of where you live. My anime club has three guys and upwards of 12 girls in it. Then again, the anime we watch is usually more shoujo (although recently we've been going through more 'boy' oriented series like GitS and Cowboy Bebop.)
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Momoko_Yumi
Joined: 05 Mar 2007
Posts: 98
Location: Heidenheim, Germany
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 6:52 pm
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In Germany the manga scene really began with the girls, because of "Sailor Moon". "Sailor Moon" was the first Anime Series who brought young people to Japan culture. And of course it was watched bye the girls. The boys came later when "Pokemon" and "Dragonball" hit German TV. Now you can say it's 50/50 between boys and girls in Germany.
But the most anime/manga fans are much younger than here. The ordinary anime/manga fan is in Germany between 12-14 years old.
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bluepita
Joined: 18 May 2005
Posts: 465
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:16 pm
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Haha, there were 33 of us then, but watch out we soccer moms multiply. Soon we will take over the worlllllddd!!
Um, I mean soon we will take over the forum!!!
Seriously though, my 'anime' friends are both older women too. The only two men I know outside of casual aquaintances who watch anime are casual viewers, wouldn't go so far as to declare them big time fans.
Last edited by bluepita on Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:27 pm; edited 1 time in total
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
Joined: 27 Nov 2005
Posts: 2362
Location: San Francisco
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:24 pm
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bluepita wrote: | but watch out we soccer moms multiply |
This reminds me, I should make this clear before it's too late
My username is frentymon. Not frentymom. Frentymon. Yes, that's an n, not an m.
Get it? Got it? Good.
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Noy
Joined: 12 Mar 2007
Posts: 30
Location: Heart of California.
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:41 pm
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frentymon wrote: | My username is frentymon. Not frentymom. Frentymon. Yes, that's an n, not an m. |
What exactly is a frentymon?
frentymon wrote: | Get it? Got it? Good. |
Oh, so you can actually hold it?
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Wolverine Princess
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 1100
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:12 pm
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Noy wrote: | What exactly is a frentymon? |
Maybe it's a nervous Digimon?
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ikillchicken
Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 7272
Location: Vancouver
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:14 pm
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Interesting,
for Highscool age fans, its pretty much equal.
But for college age, Males are more than 2x as much as females.
for older fans its about 2x as well.
it suprises me that much younger fans girls outnumber guys by about 2x
The trend:
Anime is watched by guys of all ages. Infact, guys are more likely to get into Anime as they get older.
Females on the other hand become increacingly less likeley to be into Anime as they get older.
This kinda makes sense. I can sorta see where guys would get more into Anime as they get older, where as Girls would move on and get into other things. Also, not to say its bad for Girls to like Anime, but in most people's view it would probably seem more acceptable for guys to be into it than girls, especially as you get into older age groups.
Ofcourse the problem with this poll is: It just measures how many peoplve visit ANN. This may not be the best guage of actual fans. Also its really tested a relatively low number of people.
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Noy
Joined: 12 Mar 2007
Posts: 30
Location: Heart of California.
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:22 pm
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Wolverine Princess wrote: | Maybe it's a nervous Digimon? |
Might as well say its a second-rate Pokémon.
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digitalkikka
Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 462
Location: Chicago, Illinois
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:30 pm
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hentai4me wrote: | The guys tend to prefer the anime while the gals tend to prefer manga, but there is little difference in their buying habits regardless. |
That's what I've always noticed too. When I was in high school, we were lucky enough to have an anime/manga club (which masqueraded as a 'Japanese Culture' club) and I was the only girl there who was a regular anime watcher. The male to female ratio was even but most of the girls were there due to a love of manga and watched very little anime. The guys on the other hand, where nearly all anime-only. When I joined the anime club at my university, I noticed it was similar except there are far less female members. We have 22 guys and 5 girls. And once again, the girls are there mainly for manga (depite the fact that we're an anime club). I suppose it has to due with the anime and manga that gets licensed.
As for those poll results (thanks for the link Deltakiral) I'm not surprised to find my group at 11.6%. I am surprised however, to see how small the male 35-49 percent was. Somehow I thought that would be a larger group.
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Rakushun
Joined: 28 May 2004
Posts: 116
Location: Hawaii
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:35 pm
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ikillchicken wrote: | Interesting,
for Highscool age fans, its pretty much equal.
But for college age, Males are more than 2x as much as females.
for older fans its about 2x as well.
it suprises me that much younger fans girls outnumber guys by about 2x
The trend:
Anime is watched by guys of all ages. Infact, guys are more likely to get into Anime as they get older.
Females on the other hand become increacingly less likeley to be into Anime as they get older.
This kinda makes sense. I can sorta see where guys would get more into Anime as they get older, where as Girls would move on and get into other things. Also, not to say its bad for Girls to like Anime, but in most people's view it would probably seem more acceptable for guys to be into it than girls, especially as you get into older age groups.
Ofcourse the problem with this poll is: It just measures how many peoplve visit ANN. This may not be the best guage of actual fans. Also its really tested a relatively low number of people. |
That is one possible interpretation, ikillchicken, but there are other possibilities:
There are more older male than female anime fans because early anime available outside of Japan were targetted towards males (Gundam/Robotech and the like). Many recent licenses cater to young females, so they are catching up to young males in number.
Do older guys still get into anime? I'm in the 25+ male bracket, but I got into anime in my teens. I think we would have to ask "At what age did you get into anime?" to really find out.
Do gals get out of anime as they get older? Certainly tastes will change, but the same can be said of guys. There is also an increasing number of seinen/seijo that can cater to adult tastes without giving up anime.
I do agree that an ANN poll is not necessarily the most accurate poll. There may be some 60+-year old fans who are computer-illiterate, or female fans who don't like hanging out on anime websites. Has anyone actually tried to poll the anime-watching habits of a country as a whole? Maybe in Japan?
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Mephistophilus
Joined: 27 Feb 2007
Posts: 200
Location: Fresno, CA, United States
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:52 pm
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Kelly wrote: | As mentioned before when this subject comes up, I think part of the matter is also the cold, hard fact that females in general are more likely to be willing to crossover than males - an issue that is magnified in a niche market. We gals are often up for a good action story, or comedy if it isn't too offensive, but the average guy will run screaming at the thought of weepy tearjerkers and other more female-oriented stories. Until alot more guys are willing to watch more relationship oriented anime as well as action and comedy titles, the male-oriented action titles and slapstick comedies are always going to be much more profitable. That's what's going to show up on television, and of course the female fandom is going to be alot smaller if they constantly have to buy the anime they're interested in seeing - that is, if they even get licensed at all.
That being said, I do think things are getting a little better, and more true 50/50 crossover titles seem to be showing up. |
Though I may be one of a few outliers, I'll have to disagree that males don't "cross over" to the "female-oriented" stories. I like a good romance story ever so often, and I know other male viewers that aren't afraid to admit that they enjoy something that would be considered outside the general "male" sphere of entertainment.
In a general sense, in my experience the female fans overall are either less in number or less vocal, or perhaps a mixture of both. In my age group at least (high school), I don't see or know many female fans. We have an anime club, but there are few female members and they tend to read their own material rather than watch the generally shounen anime. I suppose it doesn't help that most anime are geared directly towards either younger kids of both genders or to older males from the college age and up. There aren't many anime aimed at older women that I've seen (would josei be the right word? The lexicon defines it as aimed at young women, though this definition doesn't seem to be quite clear enough because of the fact that "young women" can refer to a broad age group), and even those that I could call aimed at older women seemed to be a bit like the romance-novel type of entertainment that many older women seem to enjoy.
I suppose also the "crossover" aspect of women mentioned in this post comes into effect as well, as it does seem that female anime fans are more likely to enjoy a wider range of genres despite the few males that do try to keep a more open mind. Maybe this is an indication of female maturity? *blots the glomping incident out of his mind for a moment*
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