While I’m glad that they continue to make more Fist of the North Star anime and manga, I strongly question the effectiveness of their attempts to try and get girls to watch them. Gackt performing the songs (and doing a rather terrible job voicing the villain) in New Fist of the North Star didn’t seem to make the maniacal J-Rock/fujoshi hordes pay it a second glance. Or even a first one, for that matter.

If you ask me, it’s because Fist of the North Star is a REAL shonen title and as such doesn’t have anything intentionally put into it to appeal to female audiences. By contrast, pretty much every single allegedly shonen work made from Saint Seiya onwards intentionally does take female readers into consideration when designing characters and the like. I refer to these as “neo-shonen.” I know, I just made that term up, but for the full manifesto, refer to the Fullmetal Alchemist feature in the latest issue of Otaku USA! I’m not saying “neo-shonen” is inherently worse. I’m just saying the formula’s changed.