Forum - View topicA question about shonen and shojo
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jetz
 Posts: 2148 Location: Manila, Philippines |
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This is a bit embarassing but it may have something to do with the fact that I haven't watched anime for two years until January this year.
I seem to be having trouble telling shonen and shojo apart, and I was wondering if I'm the only one who's having this problem. Up until now, I thought "Boys Be" was shojo until I learned that it was shonen from reading about it in Wikipedia. I also thought that "Midori Days" and "Karin" were both shojo. I thought the topics were girly so I automatically assumed those titles were all shojo. I also learned that "Weiss Kreuz" was actually shojo when I read about it in Wikipedia. The plot was something that girls wouldn't naturally like, at least in my opinion (although I understand that some girls would like to watch assassins do their dirty work, and that includes me). So I'm really confused. Is there any clear cut way to tell if an anime series is shojo or shonen? |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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The usual stand-by is looking at what magazine the original manga was serialized in. If it was a shoujo magazine, than it will be considered shoujo, and likewise if the magazine was shounen. Sometimes you will find that some very odd serialization choices have been made, but either way it will show you who the intended audience was decided to be.
My personal opinion on things however is that it really doesn't matter. Labeling something shoujo or shounen doesn't change the content, so whatever. |
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jetz
Posts: 2148 Location: Manila, Philippines |
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Well the thing is I've been wondering why people in the other forum have been referring to me as a shonen fan when all this time I thought I've been watching shojo 
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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In general if the male protagonist is an a goofy teenager who has problems relating with women it will be a shounen title. If the main protagonist is a pretty boy who excels in many fields it is a shoujo series. I am always amazed at how many people think X is a shounen manga since it feels so shoujo to me. There are some interesting exceptions like Saint Seiya which was originally published in a shounen (Jump I think) publicataion, but managed to (not suprisingly) find popularity among many females. |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Probably because they are deciding for themselves what is shounen and what is shoujo. Honestly, I do that too myself, though I expect that most of the time I am lining up with the "real" categorizations. The line between shounen and shoujo can be tricky so really it's best not to obsess about it too much. Those calling you a shounen fan are probably right though, because the shows you like are closer to the shounen norms than the shoujo ones, but that obviously doesn't mean you can' t like something that is classified as "shoujo" or that a shoujo fan can't like shounen (studies have shown that Shounen Jump is very popular with female readers, after all). |
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Moobkrad
Posts: 33 Location: California, US |
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It supposed to be the type of anime. In the past it was easier to pick one from the other. But now, as anime gets more and more complex. Stronger and thicker storylines, with characters with a deep background, actual relationships between characters, and action packed. Is really hard to tell them apart.
Shounen are supposed to be those anime with fighting and action themes, poorly storyline. Shoujo was more in the terms of relationships and emotional themes, richer storyline. Now as another poster said, just look at in what magazine it came out first. That's how you define them. |
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Randall Miyashiro
Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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The above mentioned Boys Be came out in 1991. Video Girl Ai came out in 1989. Orange Road was 1987. To-Y came out in 1985. These are just a few titles from publishers with the word Shounen in their title that I would consider older. They all have great storylines and are not based around fighting. I don't see the ratio that different from the 80s or 90s.
Likewise the famous girls publisher Nakayoshi is famous for titles like Cardcaptor Sakura, Ray Earth, and of course Sailor Moon which are all from the 90s and seem to have a good amount of action and fighting. Of course there is a huge ratio of horror (some are really twisted) manga from shoujo publishers which is a really old tradition. |
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Moobkrad
Posts: 33 Location: California, US |
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As everything there are exceptions. I was not trying to generalize with what I said before. But for the most part, you could easily tell which was which. Nowadays, is lot more difficult to discern one from the other.
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Kouji
 Posts: 978 |
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Nagisa
Moderator
 Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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The simplest answer is not to worry about it. Really, of all the Japanese terminology adopted by English-speaking anime fans, "shounen" and "shoujo" have to be, by far, the most overused, the most incorrectly used, and the most outright abused of them all. English-speaking anime fans seem to have this thing that ALL anime and manga have to be classified by gender, when really, the majority of the anime and manga out there were NOT made to conform to these stupid labels. Most anime and manga, even those that appear in "Shounen ____ Magazine" or "Shoujo _____ Weekly," were made more with age groups (for kids, for adults, for college folks) or niche fanbases (housewives, gamers, fellow otaku) or real genres (romance, horror, etc.) in mind than whether they were made more for grade-school boys or grade-school girls, which is what "shounen" and "shoujo" actually refer to 99% of the time. Usually, debates on whether a title is "shounen" or "shoujo" are absolute bunk, because said titles were neither to begin with. X, for example, is better described as a fantasy drama aimed at a general teenage audience than as a strictly "shounen" or "shoujo" title. To call Hellsing "shounen" is inaccurate; it's better described by simply saying it's a horror title or just good 'ole ultraviolence for the bored college kids and twenty-somethings on their way to work. Inu-Yasha's best described as a family-friendly fantasy romance than by something as vague and overly simplistic as "shoujo." |
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Randall Miyashiro
Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I don't think Cardacptor, Sailor Moon, and Ray Earth are the exceptions to 90s Nakayoshi manga, and will go as far as say that they were they were amongst the most popular titles in Nakayoshi. I'd like to add that there is nothing wrong in liking both genres, as many of us here do. I for one have a large collection of Wings back when RG Veda was running in it, and will go as far to say that I own more shoujo than shounen manga. The labeling is really less important, since the quality of the work will speak for itself. I just wanted to point out that I don't think that the grey area between the two is any more pronounced than it was in the 80s and 90s. The publishers tend to lean towards a particular type of manga. Jump for example, like Nakayoshi, seems to have a higher ratio of action based series. This is currently the situation with Jump and has been ever since I can remember, |
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jetz
Posts: 2148 Location: Manila, Philippines |
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I think I see your point. It is kind of silly to categorize anime as shonen or shojo, cause sometimes it can be/is beyond that. Thanks for explaining that so well, Nagisa!
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Iritscen
 Subscriber Posts: 795 |
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As you've seen from the responses, that's not a dumb question. And I think the above posts have already made it clear that it's better to look at an anime as "action/adventure" or "horror" or "sci-fi" than shounen or shoujo. But here's two anecdotes that show that, sometimes, the creator doesn't even know whether their property is for boys or girls. Konomi-san, the creator of Prince of Tennis, said that he thought his manga would be popular with the boys, but has been surprised by how many girls are into his work (I would have thought it would be obvious that girls would be into those bishies!). Although an American cartoon, if the creators of He-Man were Japanese they would certainly have called it shounen. They decided to try to recreate the success of He-Man with a girl's version, so they created She-Ra and started focus-testing it with girls. The girls' comments often were, "This is like a girl He-Man?" It turned out that most of the girls were already big He-Man fans. |
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
 Posts: 2362 Location: San Francisco |
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Another well-known example of this is Rurouni Kenshin, where at one point female readers vastly outnumbered male readers, which greatly surprised Watsuki-sensei. Rumor has it that some of the things he did in the later volumes were specifically made to reel in more boys to read the manga, not that he didn't appreciate his female audience. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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I've been deeming what is shojo and what is shonen by what magazine they're running in. And just because it's got action doesn't mean it's shonen, or because it's got drama doesn't mean it's shojo. People can make a mistake on that part.
Notable shonen magazines: Shonen Jump, Shonen Sunday, Shonen Magazine, Shonen Champion, Shonen Gangan Notable shojo magazines: Hanatoyume Comics, Margaret Comics, Ciao, Nakayoshi, Cookie Edit: Added title. Last edited by fighterholic on Thu May 24, 2007 12:57 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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