Forum - View topic[Can men enjoy Shoujo?]
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Wolverine Princess
 Posts: 1100 |
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I'm looking at the back of a volume of the Fruits Basket manga, and it clearly says "Comedy/Romance". Whether you like it or not, Fruits Basket is a shoujo romance, and I happen to know many men that enjoy it. |
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IvoryBirch
 Posts: 137 Location: a distant northern land |
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Ah, guys and their insecurities about masculinity. This is something that truly puzzles me - if I read something aimed at guys, I certainly feel no less of a woman than before. Well, I would certainly call Fruits Basket neither a soap opera nor a melodrama, though it can have its melodramatic moments. Having a wide web of characters =/= soap opera, and the drama isn't over-the-top; it's more well-executed and subtle than your typical shoujo drama, at least. Anyhow, it has quite a bit of comedy (especially in the beginning), and while it's not strictly a romance (since Fruits Basket doesn't really stick to any one genre), romance certainly drives a great deal of the story, so I don't really see your point. |
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bluepita
 Posts: 465 |
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Sure men can enjoy shojo. Now I only know four men who like anime, but out of those three of them have recommended both shojo manga and anime. I was actually introduced to shojo by men.
I tend to talk to many people at conventions also and have noticed that many men know as many girly titles as I do. I've seen it in all ages too, although I freely admit I don't talk to the younger teen crowd as much as the older. Apparently I am becoming a geezer at the ripe old age of 29. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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They may classify it as such, but as of volume 14, there hasn't been much of it. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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You forgot Iori Shigano and Kotomi Aoki.  Aoki's BokuImo has sold over 3.5M volumes and a live-action movie will be premiered in Japan next January.
Boy, their manga are steamy enough to make me (a male soon to be 28) blushing. Somehow I really wonder who their target readers are.
Define "shoujo romance," dude. Personally I'm okay with FuruBa but not loving it, mainly because of its art style and pacing, not its story.
Same here, by a Coast Guard senpai who kept a figure of Sakura Kinomoto on his cell phone. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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Not to get off topic but my introduction to shojo was actually watching the Fruits Basket anime on television. Then I started buying the manga, and for a time that was the only kind I had seen. Up until about three months ago I hadn't read any other shojo titles but then I read Life, Angel Sanctuary and Never Give Up! And soon I'll be checking out Love Con! also. |
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Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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I can't see how you could not call it melodramatic unless your comparing it to something like Hot Gimmick (which you practically need to build up a tolerance level for). Most of the character development consists of sappy internal dialogue (which to be fair is a storytelling device I'm not a fan of), not to mention currently the story is pretty ridiculous, though it's nothing compared to what's on American daytime. While I'm not a huge fan of Furuba and I think there are plenty of crap shojo titles out there just like every other kind of manga, I think the notion that males cannot enjoy manga aimed at girls is stupid. My personal tastes fall more towards seinen or josei, but good cartooning is good cartooning. Like many people I was first introduced to shojo through Yuu Watase, and I continue to like her works. My current favorites are Lovely Complex, Koukou Debut, Ultra Maniac and especially Nodame Cantable. As for works I'd recommend to guys, Yuu Watase is always a good choice, in particular Alice 19th for people who mostly read shonen titles. Ai Yazawa is probobly one of the best out there, and could appeal to older audiences with titles like Nana in particular. A couple of my absolute favorites happen to have wide appeal with males audiences: Nodame Cantable and Honey and Clover. Both are exellent slice-of-life titles with great humor that doesn't completely revolve around homoerotic gags. I also second dormcat's recommendation of Miho Obana. Kodocha and Partner are both great reads; I agree that Partner is probobly the darkest shojo manga I've ever read, much more so than anything by Kaori Yuki. Another forgotten classic is Banana Fish, which was also one of my first forays into shojo. |
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coolerimmortal
Posts: 522 |
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Can men enjoy shoujo? Sure, they can.
Do I, personally, enjoy shoujo? No. I have yet to come across a shoujo that isn't utter trash. The art appears to be universally terrible, the characters are always irritating, the situations are...ridiculously idiotic. I'm not a big fan of shonen manga, either...Seinen is the way to go. I will say, though, that Fruits Basket is...beyond horrid. I've read many, many manga in my time, and it is by far the worst I have ever read. |
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tsukinoken
 Posts: 91 Location: canada foo |
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 Isnt that that statment a little Biased?
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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I'm very interested in how "many" is your "many." If the number of titles you've read completely is lower than 500 (TITLES, not VOLUMES) then buzz off. |
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IvoryBirch
Posts: 137 Location: a distant northern land |
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Heh, I'm not forgetting, but I think the OP is talking about shoujo in America, so he doesn't have to worry about other mangaka (yet...). Hm, I've read too much smutty shoujo than I would like to admit... BokuImo, or, as I like to call it, "twincest smut." Nice artwork, but didn't care too much for the story.
Well, I suppose you could say I've read a lot of shoujo, so Fruits Basket doesn't seem melodramatic too me at all (meaning, I don't roll my eyes at the drama). Hot Gimmick, though, I consider a fairly legitimate shoujo soap (it's one of my guilty pleasures).
Well, I suppose everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but I honestly can't see how you could label Fruits Basket "beyond horrid," unless you have really high standards or something. I could certainly understand a dislike for the series (I didn't care for it much at first), but you must have not read much bad manga (and there is lots of crap out there if you look hard enough) to consider it the worst you have ever read. |
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Ashen Phoenix
 Posts: 2917 |
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Well, in my opinion, as a girl and as a fan of both Shoujo AND Shounen mangas, I believe it's very simple: If you like something, like it. If you don't, don't. There's no right or wrong to it, whether you're male or female. If you enjoy something and want to keep enjoying it, that's all there is to it. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. 
Some of my favorite Shounen manga are BLEACH, Shaman King, Fullmetal Alchemist, Black Cat, and Saiyuki. |
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Ashen Phoenix
Posts: 2917 |
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Please forgive the double-post mistake.
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coolerimmortal
Posts: 522 |
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Biased? Certainly. It's my opinion. Who said the posts here need to be free of bias?
One must have read 500 different titles for you to consider their opinion valid? That's relatively sad.
Simply put, I found absolutely nothing worthwhile in it. The "art" was awful, the dialogue made me want to bash my head in, the characters were all irritating, and the plot was dreadfully uninteresting. All in all, I found it to be utter rubbish. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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Wow, I sure would like to see your ratings on some of your other manga that you've read. If Fruits Basket is the worst you've seen, what about the ones below that? |
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