Forum - View topicWhat do you think of the shoujo classics?
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yotsubafanfan
 Posts: 653 |
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I like them very much, I used to only watch animes that are comedy but I started steadly enjoying more of the Shoujo animes beginning with a more recent anime Ouran High School Host Club and Kaleido Star and I loved both of them very much. So I started watching what people consider a shoujo classic, "Marmalade boy" earlier this summer and I'm only a few episodes away from completing it and I'm enjoying every minute of it. I also started watching Kodocha at the end of last year but I can't find the DVD set for the final season anywhere! What do you think of these animes? What do you consider a shoujo classic? Do you think any anime companies can make another "Classic", and what qualifies it to be a "Classic". I can't wait to hear your oppinions!
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Saffire
 Posts: 1256 Location: Iowa, USA |
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Can there be more? Sure; Kimi ni Todoke finished in 2010 and is a huge shojo property. Chihayafuru is josei, but is pretty similar to a lot of shojo and made quite a few waves. Big shojo anime are overwhelmingly adapted from manga (unless it's magical girl), so as long as something's making it big there, it'll move into the anime sphere eventually.
Unfortunately, that also means I prefer shojo manga over anime, but an easy candidate is Skip Beat!, which is available streaming. It's about a girl who has her heart broken by a major idol, so she enters show biz to get revenge by upstaging him. |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7988 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Shoujo and Jousei aren't exactly my forte since I'm a guy, but that hasn't stopped me from seeing a few at least, maybe about 50. I have a hard time distinguishing demographic sometimes though, since lots of anime are deliberately ambigious in order to appeal to the max amount of viewers, so a lot of those are me guessing based on the content and cast's gender.
I wouldn't know about classics but some stuff I enjoyed a lot were Bunny Drop, Haibane Renmei, Bokura ga Ita, Hanasaku Iroha, His and Her Circumstances, Inu X Boku: Secret Service, Kobato, Library War, Twelve Kingdoms, and Zakuro. All of which were really good in my opinion. One advantage to shoujo or jousei series is that the art is usually noticeably better. If we're talking manga, I'm reading Black Bird at the moment and the Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances) manga makes up a good chunk of my manga collection. Romance or comedy manga are usually my favorite type of manga since other genres that require movement like action are not done justice in still frames and black and white. |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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Hmm...the ones I'd call 'classics' would be as follows:
Glass Mask: Did not see this one yet. Rose of Versailles: Ditto. Akazukin Chacha: Seen very little but love it. So cute.
Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon: Hate the dub, love the sub. Wedding Peach: IT'S STUPID. Can't say I like it much.
Here's Greenwood: Never liked it. Too....odd. Fushigi Yuugi: Used to love it. hate it now Marmalade Boy: Ditto^ Revolutionary Girl Utena: Pretty to look at....but a bit overrated. Card Captor Sakura: Loved it. Still love it. Kodomo No Omocha: Loved it. Still love it. Most of the second season is horrible though. Should have stuck to the manga's plot. |
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Riddley
 Posts: 536 Location: Ireland |
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I'm a man and I prefer josei anime to any other type, even seinen. Primarily because the themes are more realistic and adult in terms of the relationships. Seinen are good, but often times I find they focus on fighting/honor/etc which is pretty much the same themes as shonen and get boring very quickly for me. I've seen enough of that crap in our Western entertainment, I don't need the Japanese spin on it
I highly recommend Chihayafuru and Usagi Drop, even though their josei. I would consider Anohana more shoujo/josei even though the manga is considered shonen. It's a definite must-see either way imho. |
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Melanchthon
 Posts: 550 Location: Northwest from Here |
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The term shoujo is so vague it doesn't really mean anything. I mean, both Kimi ni Todoke and Hell Girl are shoujo, but there is nothing in common between the two. And if you say shoujo is anime aimed at girls, well then, is Sengoku Basara a shoujo anime? And the same thing with the term classic. Are we talking really good, or are we talking really popular, or what? If there is a classic that nobody watches, is it still a classic? And what the sound of one hand clapping?
Anyway, here is a short list of good shows that deal with relationships and emotions and sappy stuff. Call it whatever you like. Earl and Fairy: Viz is releasing the manga, but the anime is really good it's own right. Basically, this plain country girl who can talk to fairies get swept up with a dashing rogue who is mostly likely a murderer and assassin, but he seems nice. They go off seeking legends while she tries to decide if she is really in love with him or if she's going to end up in a shallow grave. The writing is very strong. The Daughter of Twenty Faces: This show gets no love, but it is a really, really good show. It's got 1920's style in spades. A young heiress is slowly being poisoned by her aunt and step-uncle so they can inherit the fortune when she is rescued by a gentleman thief know as Twenty Faces (Think Arsene Lupin, but the first, not the third). She goes off on adventures with him only to have disaster strike, and then, abandoned and alone, she decides to seek out the truth behind Twenty Faces. It's a really good show about a girl that uses brains and wit to survive. Shion no Ou: A girl's parents are murdered one night, and the only clue to the criminal was that he was a shougi player. So she enters the world of competitive shougi to try to track this man down. I have no idea how shougi is played, but the dramatic tension is so high you don't need to know to appreciate this show. Plus Shion lost her voice due to trauma from the murder, so she 'speaks' with a notebook, which is ERMYGAWD moe. Lovely Complex: Tallest girl in class falls for the shortest boy. He rejects her. Unbelievable emotional rollercoaster follows. This is the romance anime--all others are merely wish they could be this good. Utena: You don't need me to talk about Utena, you've already watched it. And if you haven't watched it, GOOD GOD, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! Go, watch it right now. The internet can wait. Tenshi na Konamaiki: The manga was released stateside as 'A Cheeky Angel', which is a very unfortunate name, in my opinion. The anime is solid. Basically, this kid one day find a magic book with a wish granting Jester. However, the Jester grants the opposite of what go wish for. So the kid wishes to be the greatest man in the world. Flash forward seven years, and now the kid is a teenage girl, seeking to undo the wish, while trying to avoid falling in love with a guy. Plus the main character is voiced by Hayashibara Megumi. Strawberry Panic: If Lovely Complex is the romance anime, SP is the yuri one. It gets really soap opera melodramatic at times, but that be a good thing, too. Kamichu: A girl wakes up one day to discover she's become a Shinto goddess. She also falls in love with the most blockheaded boy on the planet. Extremely cute hijinks occur. Oniisama e...: Imagine, if you will, a sweet, kind, innocent girl, who only wants to be loved. Take that girl, and then spend 39 episodes repeatedly punching her in the face (emotionally speaking that is). This show is brutal. It's like watching a baby seal being clubbed by an overweight Canadian lumberjack. And it is one of the greatest shoujo shows made. Plus it just looks gorgeous.
Akazukin Chacha is, my humble opinion, the greatest anime ever made. Mostly because I strongly self-identify with Shiine-chan. I mean, a smart, socially awkward boy inserts himself into his crush's circle of friends in order to romance her, but is too nice to actually make any moves and is stuck in the 'friend zone'? Mien Gott, it's like looking into a mirror! |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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Usually these demographic categories -- shounen, shoujo, seinen, josei -- depend on the magazine in which the original material was released. By that token, both Shion no Ou and Daughter of Twenty Faces are seinen. They are both still excellent, and quite under-appreciated, shows.
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Mai Yukino
 Posts: 217 |
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Rose of Versailles-This was the best one I've seen, especially with such a great heroine like Oscar to the fantastically written love stories. I love this series and I highly reccommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it.
Idol Densetsu Eriko-This was such a beautiful and inspirational series, the lead heroine Eriko is what I would call a good role model for girls, she never lets fame go to her head and remains the friendly, sweet girl she always has been to her closest friends and family. I definitely love this series, especially for all the fun songs it has too. Sailor Moon-Used to love it, now I dislike it, I hated all the stupid monster-of-the-week themed episodes that seemed to plague every season of the series. Chibi Usa annoyed me quite a bit too and the SuperS TV series and the movie was god-awful. Hopefully the remake planned for next year will be a much needed improvement the series needs. Marmalade Boy-I love this series, the romance between Yuu and Miki was sweet when they had their special moments together, although they had their ups and downs in their relationship, spoiler[I was happy when they were able to overcome those obstacles and have their happy ending.] |
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Kruszer
Posts: 7988 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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That's really the trouble though. How does a non-Japanese person unable to read Japanese, with no knowledge of these magazines because they really don't read manga all that much, let alone in Japan, know what demographic they serve? The sometimes unreliable Wikipedia perhaps? Not to mention the manga section here is often neglected in contrast to the anime section. I try to at least add the stuff I do know to it, when I think of it.
Is there is list somewhere of what magazines publish what type of material? |
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LKK
 Posts: 426 Location: Virginia, USA |
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@ Kruszer: For my money, the most comprehensive manga encyclopedia is Baka-Updates Manga. It's a little cumbersome to find out what magazine publish what type of material as you asked but it can be done. It's much easier to work with specific titles or categories though. I suggest you wander through the site and see what it offers.
http://www.mangaupdates.com/index.html |
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Kruszer
Posts: 7988 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Thanks I'll check it out.
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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What does it matter what demographic some publisher in Japan thinks a show should serve? I watch shows intended for little kids (e.g., Chi's Sweet Home) and ones intended for older folks like myself (e.g. Bartender). I watch shows for girls (Tweeny Witches) and women (Hataraki Man) and ones aimed at boys (Hikaru no Go) and men (Monster). I like strong plots and strong characterizations; the intended demographic being served is way down the list of things that I consider when choosing what to watch. |
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cl-shojo
Posts: 70 Location: New York |
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Well, I consider pretty much any shojo series from before the 1990s classic...but 90s shojo series hold a special place in my heart. My favorite two series are Kodocha and Boys Over Flowers - both feature great characters and are utterly addictive. Many people would consider Cardcaptor Sakura a classic shojo series, and while I do like it, there's just something about shojo romantic comedies that can't be beaten. And while Nana isn't exactly old enough to be a classic, imo, it is probably the most realistic, heartbreaking, and engrossing series I've read (Ai Yazawa's stuff is amazing. It's sad more of her stuff hasn't been licensed). Also, some of the titles that have been mentioned here aren't exactly shojo - Kobato may seem cute and girly but it actually ran in a magazine aimed at males, while many people (including myself) tend to lump shojo and josei series together.
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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It doesn't matter all that much but I think it helps to know the demographic target. When I stumble onto a series, I always want to know who it's intended for. I don't know why it's so important to me.
Sometimes they're just really confusing. I wasn't sure if Usagi Drop was seinen, shoujo, or josei. I could only tell it was absolutely not a shounen series.
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4750G
 Posts: 546 |
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I don't know how you would define a classic, but if it were me, a shoujo classic would be a love story through and through. For that reason I choose Marmalade Boy as a shoujo classic. The story was focused on Yuu and Miki's relationship. Sure, there's the whole thing about their families, but from the get go until the end, it was just cheesy romance. Other shoujo titles do have a romantic angle but the focus is somewhere else, like Fushigi Yuugi or Magic Knight Rayearth (it's so long ago, I'm not even sure if Magic Knight Rayearth had a romantic side to it). I watch shoujo mainly because of the romance. Even though I've seen every cliche ever used, that's what I look for. That sickeningly cute love-hate (or love-love) relationship between the protagonists whose love only grows deeper and deeper with each episode... that's shoujo for me. I don't mind the additional themes involved, but then again, I'll never consider them classics. There are a lot of shoujo shows that answer my demands. Will I consider them classics? Well... if they're from the 90s, why not?
Side note, you will always find a story that's purely about love if you look at manga rather than anime. That's how I get my healthy dose of to-die-for sweetness at least. |
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