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Interview: Studio Bones President Masahiko Minami

Sometimes I get the feeling that people really want to reject the idea that a show they like might possibly be appealing to fujoshi. I don't know. It seems weird to me that so many people take issue with the term and question it every time someone brings it up. Like everyone has to separate themselves from it. Just because it appeals to fujoshi(and it does, you're kidding yourself if you don't think so), doesn't mean it can't have broader appeal outside of that. What's the harm in calling it a fujoshi show? I really don't get it. I like Bungou, I like BBB, I like a lot of shows with exceptionally hot guys. It doesn't bother me that a lot of the merchandise and fanwork for it is clearly for people who like hot guys, often hot guys doing each other. And I really think the term is more of a catch all for the fanbase that appreciates hot guys in general, not necessarily just yaoi. I realize a lot of people reject that definition, but the way that many in the industry, and most critics I follow, like Jacob, use it, it applies to hot guy shows, in general.

If hot guys is all it takes for a show to be fujoshi, wouldn't that make many shows out there fujoshi?. I wouldn't try and pretend that a show I like isn't fujoshi. My only issue really would be the stigma, you know how the internet works. I once mentioned Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, and got the reply that it was just "fujoshi shit", so it is reasonable that a person would want to underplay that part of the show.

I think that fujoshi has sort of become a catch-all term for any shows targeting the female audience that have relatively hot guys, which is how I always interpret it when a critic uses the term. I don't really think it's nearly as big of a deal as a lot of people seem, but whatever.

Did you not read the full interview? Right after that answer, Jacob explains why he sees those as "fujoshi shows": because the merchandise for them is clearly aimed at the female audience.

relyat08 wrote:

[(edited your quotation, since it was wrongly addressing someone else)]I think that fujoshi has sort of become a catch-all term for any shows targeting the female audience that have relatively hot guys, which is how I always interpret it when a critic uses the term. I don't really think it's nearly as big of a deal as a lot of people seem, but whatever.

It's kind of a big deal as far as I'm concerned, because for one, "fujoshi" has a pretty clear definition that does not stop at "female"? See: people seeing an otome game adaptation and immediately start talking about how it's "fujoshi trash".

Also it's still not a cute, fun term, it's still a derogatory term, both to the women and BL. (No, just because the actual women themselves have reclaimed it for doesn't mean it's not derogatory when used by others.) Maybe it doesn't matter to you when you don't see the kanji but it's not a very nice thing to refer to someone as "rotten" with the implication of "she's not a proper woman" just because she happens to be into BL (which here you assume is disgusting by default), and that the things she is into is trash by default (also see the discussion above...) And then you go and extend this to all female anime viewers...?

CrowLia wrote:

Did you not read the full interview? Right after that answer, Jacob explains why he sees those as "fujoshi shows": because the merchandise for them is clearly aimed at the female audience.

Except as said above 1) "fujoshi" =/= "female audience" which someone writing for a site like ANN interviewing a Japanese industry person should really be aware of (and if he did say "fujoshi" in Japanese I really wonder what Minami thought at hearing it), and 2) that still makes no sense whatsoever.

At this point I'm just waiting for someone to call the upcoming LoGH anime (or hell, the old OVA) a "fujoshi show"...

Nearly every western anime critic I follow, many of whom are professional, use the term to some extent, and it doesn't seem to be quite that negative in their context. It's no more than a descriptive term for a show with lots of hot guys most of the time. I sort of feel like we have some power over it's interpretation ourselves. It doesn't need to be a derogatory term at all. Just like Otaku shouldn't be(and largely isn't within the community anymore. Especially in the west.). It's just a community of people with a specific interest.

Sorry about the misfired qutation.

relyat08 wrote:

Nearly every western anime critic I follow, many of whom are professional, use the term to some extent, and it doesn't seem to be quite that negative in their context. It's no more than a descriptive term for a show with lots of hot guys most of the time. I sort of feel like we have some power over it's interpretation ourselves. It doesn't need to be a derogatory term at all. Just like Otaku shouldn't be(and largely isn't within the community anymore. Especially in the west.). It's just a community of people with a specific interest.

1. Given how many western anime critics still use a "yaoi"/"shounen ai" distinction that has never existed and is fully the invention of western anime fandom based on a flawed understanding of various terms (never mind the fact that "BL" has been the umbrella term for ages), I'm not sure this is a particularly reassuring argument...

2. "Otaku" isn't all that negative within the community (mostly because it's not all that often used anymore, having been mostly replaced by derivations and whatnot), but outside the community it's absolutely not an innocent term when referring to someone. It does have derogatory overtones.

To make it worse, in case of "fujoshi" the word itself is a slur. It literally means "rotten woman" and has, aside of the obvious, the connotation of "inferior as a woman/human being", similarly to the connotations of otaku. Just because a lot of western anime fans are not aware of this (and apparently even pro anime critics can't spend five minutes to research what a word means before using it) doesn't mean it's an awesome thing to see it used all over the place as if it was just a cute nickname for female anime fans in general.

Great interview! I always like hearing from Minami! BONES is my favorite anime studio and I've watched almost everything they've done but Eureka Seven is my absolute favorite! So it's nice to see that he shares this opinion with me. I hope someday that they can do an original 4 cour series again, but I know that will probably never happen...

And I also don't see how BBB and Noragami can be considered fujoshi. The one Bones title for women, that was not mentioned in the interview, is Snow White with the Red Hair.