Forum - View topicNEWS: New Shoujo Manga Magazine for Boys
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4555 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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What's an oxymoron?
-A phrase that contradicts itself. That's an oxymoron. -Like Progressive Conservative. A real oxymoron. -Or Jumbo Shrimp. Another oxymoron. -What about... boys' shoujo? (apologies to Bowser & Blue...) I don't see the big deal... they've had shoujo-esque shounen comics for years, with the most obvious example off the top of my head being Izumi Matsumoto's Kimagure Orange Road. And a lot of people think that the seinen Oh My Goddess! is actually shoujo. |
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lianncoop
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1705 Location: Indiana |
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Yes, I was thinking that too that it was just a strange concept. Like explain it to me...shoujo aimed towards a more male audience. Wouldn't that be more like...shounen? Chobits=shounen, right? But, there are shoujo aspects to it...so...what's the difference between shounen and boys shoujo?
Gah, after re-reading my post...I commend myself for being dumb and just reiterating Tenchi's point. |
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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yes, intresting... concept. But I guess it makes sense for someone to want to make shonen comics that focus more on a great story. Like what was said previously, there's tons of shoujo type manga that fits into this category. It just leads to more genre crossing stuff. Genre crossing is fun.
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CorneredAngel
 Posts: 854 Location: New York, NY |
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Ugh, all it points to, really, is that *nobody* has any idea what "shoujo" actually means anymore.
I mean, it's hard enough to be a non-Japaneese fan and decide whether what determines whether a title is shoujo based on stated authorial intent, core audience, the magazine the manga appears in, or specific things in the text itself...and this comes along and makes things even *more* confusing... |
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michelle
 Posts: 29 Location: Canada |
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Maybe this magazine will be like bishoujo games: the characters are all girls, but girls who are designed to titillate the male viewer/reader. Voyeurism. A bit like the ever popular "harem" genre. Why not make an entire magazine dedicated to "male-oriented" stories about lots of cute girls? It's sound business sense.
Perhaps I'm being pessimistic, but initially the idea of a magazine about girls that's marketed to boys comes off a wee bit pervy =) There's all that potential for the innocent shower scenes, pseudo-lesbian scenes, young girls in school uniforms, girls trying to be more "feminine" to win the guy. Some of which are already present in shoujo manga, but take on an entirely different meaning when it's all adolescent guys reading it *nudge nudge* Hm. If they're going for a "Sho-comi" type of magazine and want to expand readership, why not just market it to both girls and boys? |
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CorneredAngel
Posts: 854 Location: New York, NY |
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...you've *clearly* not seen the number of fangirls at any given con nowadays orgasming over Naruto. Or One Piece. Or Full Metal Alchemist. All of which are fairly proper shounen titles...
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Tenchi
Posts: 4555 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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Eh, one can claim that both this magazine and CLAMP's shounen forays like Angelic Layer, Chobits, and XXXHolic, are blurring the lines between shoujo and shounen, but, really, the lines have been blurred for years and "shoujo" and "shounen", for a lot of titles "in the middle, somewhere", are just arbitrary designations based solely on the magazines in which the comics appear. I'm trying to figure out what male-oriented shoujo would entail... my best guess is that they'll take certain specific style elements more common to shoujo, like large-eyed girls, symbolic flowers, thinner lines, and minimalist-shading (yes, I know there are shoujo manga that don't use those vague rules), but they'll change the mathematics of the situation, so that, instead of reverse-harems (a lot more guys than girls, like in Fushigi Yuugi or Fruits Basket) or rough equilibriums (about the same number of guys and girls, like in GALS! or Marmalade Boy), we'll have... erm... reverse-reverse-harems, or, more simply, "harems" (one guy, many girls... like... umm... Tenchi Muyo, but more flowery). Maybe they'll also tone down the yaoi relationships and bring the ambiguous friendships between females up a notch or two. Unless they figure, and I have no idea one way or the other whether or not this is true, that a disproportionately high number of the male readers of shoujo are gay or bisexual (or "fluid"... or plain old "bi-curious"), in which case, I suppose, they'd keep the yaoi content more or less the same but try and make the relationships a little more reflective of the true experiences of the gay/bi male reader and not just cater to the fantasies of the yaoi fangirls. (Note that I said "disproportionately high", by which I mean, compared to the incidence of homosexuality or bisexuality in the general population, not "the majority of male readers" or even "the plurality". In any event, I said that I have no idea, I was just floating that scenario.) Or they'll have stories like Marmalade Boy, but told from the point of view of the guy (in which case it would be like the half-hour Marmalade Boy "movie"). Or maybe just stories where the protagionist is a female, but one guys can relate to; strong-headed and independent and not going around whining about Tamahome all the time... a heroine whom is more Ran Kotobuki (or Utena Tenjou) than Miaka Yuuki. |
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cookie
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 2460 Location: Do not contact me for support. |
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Hmmm.... I'm not sure that's it... Besides, that already exists -- it's called "bishoujo", like you said. There's plenty of manga out there already dedicated to it. :) No, I think this is sort-of like "Bottle Fairies". Sure, it's _harmless_ and _cute_ (and vapid besides), but it's intended for a _male_ audience. There aren't any significant shonen elements to it, and (in fact) It has a lot of shoujo-stylings about it, but it's still intended for a male audience. The question is: Will anyone read these "boyish" girls comics? .. and I think the audience that's being targetted is the same sort of male audience who likes Azumanga Daioh, Bottle Fairies, and such. These shows have female protagonists in a neutral (or shoujo-esque) world, doing neutral (or shoujo-esque) things. It's "shoujo" in the sense that the most important part of the manga is the _character development_ rather than the action/character design/storyline/etc... but it's "shonen" in the sense that what is being told still appeals primarily to a male audience. At least, that's how I think it will be. :p |
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WoQuiNonCoin
Posts: 12 Location: Cincinnati =_( |
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Umm, I don't see this as a hard concept to understand.
Boy's shoujo is just like romance or other shoujo theme geared toward... boys... okay, maybe it is a bit hard to understand... but still, i'm glad, because I thought I was the only boy who reads... um, Happy Mania, Marmalade Boy, MARS, Paradise Kiss, (one volume of) Wild Act, and the list goes on and on... eheh..  Now all that's left to do is find a male who writes romance manga. I mean, call me a n00b, but who's seen a romance manga written by a boy? or have I not been looking hard enough?
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littlegreenwolf
Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Ah! My Goddess Ai Yori Aoshi *that's a guy who did it, right?* Love Hina *people keep insisting it's romantic* Video Girl Ai Full Metal Panic? And allthough Utena's manga was drawn by Chiho Saito, the storyline was created together by a team which involved Saito and 2 other guys. Ikuhara is into romantic themes, and he put his own twists into the anime. Yeah, I know, weak list. But there are some out there, though I can't... think of many at the moment. |
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Diedrupo
Posts: 58 |
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I don't think it's an oxymoron, mostly for the fact that there is a growing number of males interested in comics aimed at girls.
People are mistaking all sorts of genres and story types for shoujo, shoujo is NOT drama, romance, romantic comedies, etc. Shoujo is simply comics aimed at girls, and there are various elements that appeal to girls ranging from art style, character design, flowery petals, and more. Specific story elements could be common in shoujo, but they are not the end all to the genre. Someone said in another post that Clamp's shounen works blur the line between shounen-shoujo. I think that is incorrect. Clamp's shounen works are clearly shounen, running in shounen magazines, and the emphasis on pretty girls makes them obviously appealing to guys. That said, I am simply expecting these comics will just be stories with female leads (as expected of the majority of shoujo) and stories done by female artists, except they will be marketed to guys. I would simply expect a lot of Banana Fish or Fruits Basket-style stories (two examples of shoujo works that were popular with guys). The only real difference here is going to be the marketing. BTW has anyone seen that Yuri anthology and does anyone know if it's aimed at guys or girls? (Check out the fansubbers of Marimite's site for links to translations of stories from it) EDIT: OK I actually went to the source of this article and read it, and at this time I don't know if this anthology will have true "shoujo" comics or whether the stories will simply be stories that heavily feature girls. That is still different from the so-called "bishoujo" stories, because those star a male lead and typically have a harem or love triangle as the theme. |
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Diedrupo
Posts: 58 |
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shoujo does not equal romance. Unless you want to tell me that X and Banana Fish are romance stories.
Judging from the source article, it sounds like these stories will just be about girls, not necessarily romance. Romance has never been exclusive to girls. |
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littlegreenwolf
Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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I think the more "common" difference between shonen and shoujo is how big of a role the story plays in the manga. With shoujo, mostly, the story is the main focus. Shoujo manga have stories that are very detailed, and can pull pretty much anyone in easily with the story. That, and the stories of shoujo usually focus on the relationships with the characters. Shonen manga is mainly focused on action and fanservice. Action that can sometimes go across many chapters before adding anymore to the story, or characters. CLAMP does blur the lines between shonen and shoujo in these terms. Take their two latest works Tsubasa RC, and Chobits. Tsubasa RC is a guy running around different worlds, and usually fighting for magic memorty feathers to save a girl he likes. It has fights, fights, and more fights, and in between you can get a chapter or two that focuses on the story. This is plain shonen, with no blurs on shoujo. Chobits on the other hand is different. It starts out with really no focus on story, just lots of fanservice, and cuteness hijinks to entertain the readers. Many shonen manga are nothing but this. Slowly though, CLAMP pops in a very well made and detailed story, and the manga turns away from the distracting fanservice, and focuses back on story, thus comes the "Shoujo" elements, especially when it comes to a focus on the relationships of the characters. |
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Mou Kaoru
 Posts: 298 Location: Simple minds are easily amused. |
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Also, what of the demographic? I haven't read any of those manga, but I'm guessing they're roughly aiming it at 15-25?
Agreed. You see alot of titles now that are beginning to blur the two and in a way, makes it more appealing to the general audience, whether your into shoujo, shounen, or both (like myself).
Both? Yuri seems to be more popular with girls than boys (I could be wrong but that's how I see it) because they have those "shoujo" elements that appeal more to females, like yaoi. Then again there are males who enjoy yuri for the same reason females enjoy yaoi. So I guess manga is generalized by the elements of the story and not to who the manga is aimed at. |
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Diedrupo
Posts: 58 |
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greenwolf, although you are stating that heavy story focus is a common element in shoujo and heavy action focus is a common element in shounen, that in no way means that just because Chobits has heavy story elements later on, that it blurs the line between shoujo-shounen. You are still essentially stating that story:shoujo and action:shounen, which is for the most part, untrue.
While the majority of shoujo works will be flowery romance or drama, there will always be shoujo works that seem like they belong in shounen categories but have elements that make them shoujo. Look at Banana Fish, which is a pulpish gangster story, but because the main characters are homosexual, and because it ran in a shoujo anthology, done by a well-established shoujo artist, it's still shoujo. So that said, Chobits is still shounen, and having heavy story elements does not make it more "shoujo" than it's supposed to be. There's plenty of shounen works that are very heavy on story after all. It basically boils down to, while we can say in general what elements are appealing to boys and to girls, that is constantly changing, as we are seeing more girls get into action stuff and more guys get into drama, and that could explain why we're getting a "shoujo" magazine for boys (which means it's technically not shoujo, but it could literally be shoujo). |
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