In Anime, Girls Rule and Boys Drool
…But then, anyone who has noticed that girls are more happy to watch “shounen” series than guys are to watch “shoujo” stuff already knew that. Or those of us who have noticed all the yaoi (and near-yaoi) titles doing so well. Or anyone who has ever had the thought “geez, why is there slash of lke EVERYTHING EVER on the Internet?” And people who– well, you get the idea.
Still, the Daily Yomiuri had a talk with Trulee Karahashi, the new CEO of the SPJA (the group that runs Anime Expo). She notes that in the U.S. particularly, the aforementioned “shounen” series like Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece have more female fans than male.
I’d just like to note that it seems to me that women are more involved in fandom than men in the U.S. Not that the guys aren’t there, but when it comes to creating fanfiction and fanart and the like are more female-dominated. And those are fandom subsets that I think play a huge role in getting and keeping people interested in a series– hell, sometimes a series’ fanfic world becomes more popular than the series itself. (Again, not that there aren’t plenty of male fanartists and fanfic writers; I just tend to see more vagina-havers doing it.)
Tags: shoujo, shounen, spja, trends
September 20th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
I think that’s kinda of awesome. I really don’t know but I think more women like to write more than most men anyways.
As a man, I’m glad to see that women are getting recognized when it comes to anime.
September 20th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
@scott: you chauvinist, you. Also I like to write more than most women.
September 20th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Overall, I think you are right.
Being Floridians, my friends and I are inevitably opposite to…pretty much everything. I have little tolerance for shonen stuff in general and my guy friend reads all my shoujo manga. He gets this Batman voice and says “What? I’m secure.” as he reads Paradise Kiss.
September 20th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Men like to watch pretty girls, women like to watch pretty boys-
I don’t think there’s any more to it.
September 21st, 2007 at 3:46 am
Mmmm, shoujo manga.
September 21st, 2007 at 1:18 pm
When it comes to what I read, I’ve never been very good at figuring out what’s intended for boys or girls, so I just read whatever I like. However, when they start putting Shounen Jump and Shoujo Beat on the spine, I start to get tipped off. Still, things seem to be pretty equal on my shelf.
As for fan-fic: I’m just completely creeped out at the thought. (•_•)
October 15th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
When you say Ike, do you the one from FE:PoR ’cause that’s the one I was thinking of when you said the slash of Ike with everything.
October 15th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Who said Ike, wha?
October 17th, 2007 at 4:38 am
hey ^_^