Summary
Shojo and josei anime explore universal themes such as relationships and identity beyond gender-targeted audiences. Josei offers a deep seinen-like storytelling experience, focusing on complex themes with a mature perspective. Shojo anime has evolved, becoming increasingly essential to the anime industry, blurring genre boundaries and offering diverse stories.
I've read manga and watched anime since I was a child and into adulthood, but with such a wide entertainment medium, there are always surprises. As a grown man in my thirties, I continually love shounen stories and include more and more seinen stories in my daily reading and viewing. Yet, perhaps subconsciously, I've always limited myself from other great storytelling that doesn't specifically target my gender.
Even though it took me until my thirties to come to terms with it, over the past year, I've kept going Immerse yourself in shojo and josei anime, and I became rich because of it. Shojo and josei anime have traditionally been marketed towards women, yet their series are becoming increasingly popular as long-standing icons in the anime zeitgeist.
Shojo, marketed to teenage readers, often deals with complex themes related to relationships, sexuality, identity, and aesthetics, while josei anime deals with more mature extensions. of many topics. Given their pervasiveness in the human experience, it would be a mistake not to test these just because you are not the target demographic, because shojo and josei anime are increasingly dominant and offer timeless experiences.
I've always been interested in Shojo Anime but I didn't know
Many fans didn't realize the difference until recently
Growing up in the 1990s, anime had a different presence for me when it first started to explode. Anything that isn't Dragon Ball Z, GTA, Sailor Moon, Ranma 1/2 or Cowboy Bebop is not well known, and The term shounen is not in the dictionary; all I saw were exceptional characters and glorious action. So when Teletoon began airing Madhouse's North American localization of Cardcaptor Sakura in 2000, then called Cardcaptors, I was fascinated by its premise that tarot-like cards unleash terrible threats on the world and the English dub theme song represents the central conceit of the series for me.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, part of Cardcaptors' appeal to male audiences is largely due to the amount of content that has been altered or censored, including toning down feminine elements and other aspects. like BL romance.
I didn't know that Cardcaptor Sakura is considered one of the most iconic shoujo anime ever, featuring stylistic contributions from artist supergroup CLAMP that I haven't seen in a long time. Soon after, Shonen Jump magazine began to be published in North America, introducing me to the meaning of the word Shonen. I am the target audience for many of my all-time favorite shows, including Naruto and Hikaru no Go. Then I learned that the shojo version includes series such as Cardcaptors or Sailor Moon, which explains why it is heavily marketed, such as clothing for girls, to the extent that I regret leave it behind.
Abandoning shojo because of gender would hinder the opportunity to enjoy great art for arbitrary reasons.
Living in rural Ontario, children are often especially harsh with each other for anything outside of their gender. I've already received enough disparaging comments when enjoying manga, so I don't need to take the extra abuse when I enjoy a series “for girls”. But when I rewatch Cardcaptor Sakura later, I'll learn that abandoning shojo on gender grounds hinders the opportunity to enjoy great art for arbitrary reasons. With anime and manga becoming mainstream now, If the medium appeals to you, check out everything you canbecause they have more familiar and relevant content than you might expect.
Josei was an important storytelling experience for me
Seinen and Josei play an important role in understanding the minds and souls of Anime characters
Unlike shojo anime, josei stories largely flew over my head until adulthood, although the signs were all around me. Nana Osaki's fashion style is so pervasive in my social circle that I know several people who follow her fashion sense, including her love of cigarettes, strawberry cakes, necklaces, and armor rings. hers. However, I was introduced to seinen early on, with familiar series like Berserk, Akira, and Vagabond being insights into more challenging moral and philosophical stories. While seinen frequently explores this in action, Josei explores similar themes with drama.
Of course, Nana was the first time I learned about Josei manga, and it's a profound and relatable experience that's easy to apply to anyone struggling in their twenties, regardless of gender. It explores a grounded and intense approach to themes such as feminism, expressed through contrasting female characters, one prioritizing her dreams, the other pursuing romance, and even the setbacks and heartache that endure. Josei is not the optimal movie for young audiences, but when you're ready, I promise it will be at the top of your watch list, along with many others.
For those craving a light yet profound experience comparable to Nana, author Ai Yazawa previously created Neighborhood Story, a shojo romantic comedy that focuses heavily on its slice-of-life structure rather than Nana's dramatic storytelling.
But beyond typical offerings like Nana, there are plenty of josei series worth appreciating, and they're impressively inclusive of many different walks of life. Princess Jellyfish is Josei's incredible coming-of-age journey that explores the experiences of being a woman in nerd culture along with humanist Kuranosuke's exploration of his sexual identity . Those acts of longing can still be experienced in josei anime, such as 07-Ghost, which has a gothic aesthetic and only slightly more androgynous male heroes than typical shounen series. There is something for everyone in Josei anime, in many ways.
Shojo and Josei anime opened up a world of stories I never thought of
Yaoi and Yury series should be considered by all audiences
I initially resisted the idea of watching yaoi and yuri series, not because of any bias but because I felt like I wasn't the target audience, but again, it was okay. prove wrong. Yaoi often features a cast of beautiful, mostly male characters, often motivated or united by common interests. In the case of perhaps the best yaoi anime, Given, it's rock music, and in the case of Sasaki and Miyano, it probably goes meta and shows their shared appreciation for BL manga. By many ways, These characters bond together over common interests or occupations.
Yaoi refers to Boys' Love, or manga that primarily focuses on relationships between male and gay individuals. Yuri mentioned Girls' Love instead focusing on lesbian relationships.
The Shojo and josei series explore these as an expression of a shared desire to love and be loved, along with acceptance, coping with loss or trauma, and understanding one's identity. It can manifest itself in slow-paced yaoi dramas or charming yuri comedies like She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat, where the premise is simply that of a character with a passion. The cuisine is so big that they create too many things for them to eat alone. These are stories that are relatable, plausible yet unique, and feature LGBTQIA+ characters in a wholesome way.
So while I don't necessarily relate to all the stories told in specific shojo series like Zetsuai 1989, I can still appreciate the incredible artwork and drama within. Many of the themes in these stories are universal, with relatable characters like Given's Mafuyu Sato, who begins the series as a musician so green you'd swear he came from a yuri story, finally pursuing his passion. Meanwhile, the shoujo hits continue, such as The Guy She Was Interest in Wasn't a Guy at All, a quintessential 'green' yuri and recently announced release in North America that received many international compliments.
Shojo Anime is one of my favorite shows of 2023
Although not dominant, you will find them increasingly difficult to ignore
Some of the best anime of 2023 are the first signs that I'm even more drawn to shojo. My Happy Marriage shocked me with its elegant animation and deep romantic plot. Although neither shojo nor josei, Oshi no Ko has elements of both in its complex revenge plot, just as mainstream shounen and seinen films such as Frieren: Beyond Journey's End and The Apothecary Diaries are The story is led by a female lead, blurring the lines even further. Not only are shojo series like My Love Story with Yamada-kun in Lv999 seeing more and more important works directed by veterans like Madhouse, but also assumptions about Shonen series are being shaken.
This means viewers like me can expand and experience these complex and fascinating characters without tying ourselves up as anime continues to explode. I don't need to look back fondly on Cardcaptor Sakura as my only experience with shojo, since I carry new stories with me, such as when revisiting the manga in the future or enjoying new chapters excellent. The main mistake I made with shojo, and initially with josei, was that they didn't realize their enormous potential. as a source of iconic entertainment. I encourage you not to make the same mistake.