Chapter 2: Discussion

Chapter 2

DISCUSSION

     Why some boys prefer shojo while some girls prefer shounen?

Definition and Differences between Shojo and Shounen

Definitions of shojo include the differences of one another. Shojo is literally translated into English means “little girl” or “young girl”. They are aimed towards the female audiences. These mangas always contain romance, sometimes with a touch of fantasy with a heroine as a protagonist. Shojo are also called slice of life manga, as they portray the human life and emotions. However, manga and anime can also be called shojo by its art style.

The Manga Coma has an online page simply titled “How to tell between Shounen vs Shojo” which was intended to help the readers in shounen and shojo. The written page states, “Shounen and Shojo can be sometimes hard to tell apart, but once you realize exactly what they are, you will get it.”(http://mangacoma.com/70/shounen-vs-shojo). This proves that sometimes it’s hard to tell apart each genre, but soon you will just realize what kind of genre it 

is.

Most shojo manga and anime focuses more on the people, and draw little to no background in most of the scenes. Female characters have large eyes and long legs while the males have longer faces, narrower eyes and usually have spiky or longer hair. Thus, the characters can also have long slightly pointed fingers that often lack finger nails.

Fortunately shounen is aimed towards the male audience the plots of shounen manga are usually full of action, sometimes with funny plots, with the male hero as the protagonist. In fact, shounen is the most popular genre of manga in Japan, and it makes up almost 40% of the world’s total sale of manga magazines. Most shounen manga out there have been transformed into an anime, or vice versa due to the popularity. But, popular shounen manga don’t always stop at anime.

Therefore, these are the differences between shojo and shounen. First is its plot, shounen is typically characterized by high action, humorous plots and importantly featuring a male protagonist. It is also common to have attractive female characters with exaggerated features. Shounen magazines are extremely popular in Japan, with the most popular of them being Shonen Jump. This is a monthly magazine that is translated directly from Japanese. It can be found at any book store and in time to grab one before they are all gone.

A writer who goes by, “Mustang” has an online page simply titled, “Shonen Vs Shojo: What’s the Difference?” which discusses shounen and shojo’s differences. The written page says, “There are also more categories that go towards kids, and much older adults. The world of anime is full of of many different categories, from shounen to shojo.” (http://mustang87.hubpages.com/hub/Shonen-Vs-Shojo-Whats-The-Difference)

In Japan, it is not uncommon to see several people reading the newest edition of Shonen Jump in a train or subway. Like what is stated earlier, shounen manga don’t always stop at anime. A lot of shounen manga have been transformed into video games, and were snapped up by awaiting fans. However, shojo does not usually make it to the video game level.

As with shounen, many shojo manga have been made into anime. D.N angel and Fruits Basket were made into anime after being manga. There are hardly any video games out there that are based from a shojo manga or anime. Since shojo does not have much action as shounen does to base a game off of. However, there are some shojo games that are not based off anything such as Princess Debut.

Compared to shounen magazines, shojo also have manga magazines, the most popular of which is Shojo Beat, which was published by Shounen Jump’s sister. Varities of manga magazines can be found at bookstores and online like shounen does.

Factors influencing in preferring Shounen and Shojo

A. Plot

Most shojo manga these days typically seems to be all the same like high school girls trying to date a cool guy they like and that emotional drama ensues. Shounen plots can be pretty diversed compared to shojo plots. At times, there may be too much fighting in shounen manga that are usually more exciting to most fans. Also look at a series Bleach, which has a huge number of both male and female fans.

The Animesuki created a forum simply entitled, “It seems that a lot of girls read shounen manga.” which was intended in clarifying girls reading shounen manga. Misao fan says that, “Though it could just come down to this: shounen plots are just plain better than shojo plots.” (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=109107) This proves that shounen manga seems to have a fair share of teenage characters that appeal to a wide audience that more and more girls are interested in reading shounen manga than shojo manga.

 The rising appreciation of shounen type stories by girls due to the increasing number of bishounen type characters in those, not to mention the proliferation of cool guys doing cool things in such stories. For instance, Black Butler is a shounen manga but at the same time it also quite marketed towards female readers over male ones that sells better as shounen rather than shojo.

B. Perfection

It seems nowadays, many females read shounen manga just to see attractive looking male characters were looked hot.  Another supposed reason is that females are less concerned being feminine compared to males who are trying to be hot and manly.

The Animesuki created a forum simply entitled, “It seems that a lot of girls read shounen manga.” which was intended in clarifying girls reading shounen manga. Lc says that, “The focus on attractiveness and overall perfection of the male lead leaves me a bad taste in my mouth.” (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=109107) This proves that most shounen stories seem to capture others attention more than shojo does.

Jealousy and possessiveness are idealized a lot. These are often found in the relationships in shounen and seinen to be more crafted and interesting rather than shojo relationships. But obviously, not all shounen are good and not all shojo are bad.

C. Romance

Shounen romances are much deeper than ones in shounen while shojo romances are anything but shallow – they are much closer of the two on displaying the idea of true love over true lust. They’re all about heart instead of sexual tension built from fan service and awkward touching. Generally, more are drawn to shounen, but the romance and emotions of most shojo is always a fun counterpart to machoness and strength of average shounen.  

The Animesuki created a forum simply entitled, “It seems that a lot of girls read shounen manga.” which was intended in clarifying girls reading shounen manga. Chiibi says that, “I dare say, shounen love comedies are shameless when it comes to being ‘shallow’ with their ‘romance’.” (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=109107#) That’s what lots of shounen romances do.

They are plenty of shojo series with a ton depth, character growth, and gripping plots. When someone states something as outrageous as shojo is about shallow romances, be prepared to get a rant back, especially from someone who takes romantic writing very seriously. Some relationships in action manga like Naruto and Bleach are very well developed, even if they aren’t explicitly considered romantic yet.

D. Boredom

Many male readers just read shojo manga as long as it’s not boring. They say that those big googly eyes and fairies or florals all over the place are too much for their manly eyes. They read shojo manga as long it’s interesting, not making them bored at the same time. Because boys are usually into action, fighting scenes, hero like characters. But some boys prefer shojo because they find it interesting and able to know more about teenage love that is.

The MyAnimelist created a forum simply entitled, “For the guys: Do you ever read shojo manga?” which was intended for guys who read shojo manga. Corleone says that, “One time in my life I’ve read shojo, and it was a cliché one shot, but anyways I got nothing against shojo and I do not put a cross on it.” (http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=299700) This explains that he find it interesting and just discovered by accident that it’s shojo, but that will not bother as long he’s not a shounen fag declaring that the boys who are enjoying shojo are gay.

Males admit that bubles and flowers are sorta grate on their nerves but hankfully they aren’t used in too much excess. The art styles never bothered them as long as it’s not boring they’ll just read it because they find it good also able to know a good love story that includes shojo.