×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
Is it taboo for adults to enjoy shonen/shojo series in Japan? Particularly males liking Sailor Moon?


Goto page Previous  1, 2

Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Anime
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Jose Cruz



Joined: 20 Nov 2012
Posts: 1767
Location: South America
PostPosted: Sat Jul 22, 2017 5:19 pm Reply with quote
Well, for other mediums it's true that children's stuff tends to be more popular and well known than adult stuff: Harry Potter and Jaws are much more popular in the West than adult stuff like Bergman or Nobokov. Children's stuff has universal appeal and is in general more acessible, adult stuff is in general for more specialized audiences.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
niji9t



Joined: 12 Jul 2017
Posts: 18
PostPosted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 7:04 am Reply with quote
Jose Cruz wrote:
Well, for other mediums it's true that children's stuff tends to be more popular and well known than adult stuff: Harry Potter and Jaws are much more popular in the West than adult stuff like Bergman or Nobokov. Children's stuff has universal appeal and is in general more acessible, adult stuff is in general for more specialized audiences.


Jaws, as in the shark movie? If so, than I would never consider it as a kids movie. I saw it as a kid at a very young age and it scared the shit out of me.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Spawn29



Joined: 14 Jan 2008
Posts: 550
PostPosted: Sat Jul 29, 2017 1:01 pm Reply with quote
Jaws is rated PG which is why it is consider to be a family film by most people.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Jose Cruz



Joined: 20 Nov 2012
Posts: 1767
Location: South America
PostPosted: Sun Jul 30, 2017 6:53 pm Reply with quote
My favorite movies when I was 8-9 were movies like Independence Day, Commando, Universal Soldier and Jurassic Park. My favorite TV shows I think were Captain Tsubasa, Yu Yu Hakusho and Dragonball. Oh yeah, that was back in 1998 or so (yes, I am an anime fan since I was 4).

So I regard movies like those, despite being violent movies with adult characters (although Jurassic Park has the children's fun time with the velociraptors), to have similar appeal to shounen manga like Dragonball and Yu Yu Hakusho. Well, Dragonball Z is a violent show featuring adult characters beating each other up.

I guess my tastes haven't changed much from those days. Wink

Edit: Anyway, Spielberg's movies is basically the US equivalent to shounen manga while stuff like Titanic are basically shoujo movies. I would regard stuff like Stanley Kubrick's and Scorsese's movies to be the equivalent of seinen manga and I don't think Western film/TV has anything equivalent to josei stuff. Maybe Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives are roughly equivalent to josei manga.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
niji9t



Joined: 12 Jul 2017
Posts: 18
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 10:17 am Reply with quote
Spawn29 wrote:
Jaws is rated PG which is why it is consider to be a family film by most people.


mind-blown, I thought you had to be way older to watch this lol guess I was wrong. Scared me enough as a kid though. Same with Jurassic Park.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Spawn29



Joined: 14 Jan 2008
Posts: 550
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 1:40 pm Reply with quote
Watership Down is both a kids movie and book, and it has a lot of blood in it. Something for kids can be dark and violent. The Indiana Jones movies were aim to kids in the 80's too.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
st_owly



Joined: 20 May 2008
Posts: 5234
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 2:10 pm Reply with quote
Spawn29 wrote:
Watership Down is both a kids movie and book, and it has a lot of blood in it. Something for kids can be dark and violent. The Indiana Jones movies were aim to kids in the 80's too.


Did you ever watch the animated series? Bits of that were brutal.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Unicorn_Blade



Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 1151
Location: UK
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 3:34 pm Reply with quote
Jose Cruz wrote:


Edit: Anyway, Spielberg's movies is basically the US equivalent to shounen manga while stuff like Titanic are basically shoujo movies. I would regard stuff like Stanley Kubrick's and Scorsese's movies to be the equivalent of seinen manga and I don't think Western film/TV has anything equivalent to josei stuff. Maybe Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives are roughly equivalent to josei manga.


While I agree with the highlighted, they have different status I think. I think even in Japan, for many people reading manga or watching anime is not something to boast about. I think it was also discusses in another thread on this forum, possibly in the comments under a news item or Answerman. None of my Japanese friends watch anime and they kind of look down on it. Of course there would be others who enjoy it, but many people keep this interest to themselves.
At the same time, I know no one who would keep such a secret in their closet that they enjoy Indiana Jones. Watching adventure films is not frowned upon.

So all in all, I don't think it's taboo, but it's not something people would openly share, unlike interest in cinema in the West.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Usagi-kun



Joined: 03 Jul 2013
Posts: 877
Location: Nashville, TN
PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 3:02 pm Reply with quote
Spawn29 wrote:
Watership Down is both a kids movie and book, and it has a lot of blood in it. Something for kids can be dark and violent. The Indiana Jones movies were aim to kids in the 80's too.


Watership Down is a great book at that. I was also really into the Alien franchise when I was younger, and actually still today. I still have my Kenner figures, but I remember at the time being six or seven when I started watching the films. At the time (i.e. before Resurrection came out and made things...weird. 3 was also directed by some guy who had only previously worked on 80's music videos--all the welding makes sense now, doesn't it?) I loved those movies and how cool the monsters were, how unstoppable, and Ripley being such a badass. Being outside of the target demographic and being afraid never even occurred to me.

Basically, enjoy what you enjoy. There is nothing really wrong about being shy about it either; just don't change your behavior because you are worried about someone else. All franchises have things we love or hate. People are not so black and white, though. You can be that weird girl on the playground with alien monster toys, or that boy who thinks the magical girl transformations in shojo manga are breathtaking. You do you.

tl;dr: We are all different and enjoy our own tastes. Don't worry about that other person on the train, because chances are, they have a clown costume in their brief case.

Edit: Grammar. Again.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
_Dog



Joined: 30 Jul 2017
Posts: 11
PostPosted: Sun Aug 20, 2017 12:44 am Reply with quote
Hehe, I don't think so. For example, there's no way this official Sailor Moon art wasn't aimed at a male audience:
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Anime All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2
Page 2 of 2

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group