Girls like shoujo, guys like shounen..tastes in anime/manga?

[Mirena]

Okay, the theme for this is the dividing of anime and manga into gender-based categories (shoujo-girl manga, shounen-boy manga, seinen- men manga).

Myself, I think it's okay with a division like that, since it'll tell what you're in for in most cases.. However, I think it's rather odd having them divided by gender.

I'm a girl and I can't STAND most of shoujo, be it anime or manga. Most of the time, it bores me to death.
Shounen and seinen manga, on the other hand, are usually more to my taste (though of course I can't like everything in that department as well). My sister likes both shoujo and shounen.

What are your preferences? Do they fit the gender stereotype? Your thoughts on this way of dividing things?

[Hime]

Okay, the theme for this is the dividing of anime and manga into gender-based categories (shoujo-girl manga, shounen-boy manga, seinen- men manga).

+ josei, manga for women.

Myself, I think it's okay with a division like that, since it'll tell what you're in for in most cases.. However, I think it's rather odd having them divided by gender.

I'm a girl and I can't STAND most of shoujo, be it anime or manga. Most of the time, it bores me to death.
Shounen and seinen manga, on the other hand, are usually more to my taste (though of course I can't like everything in that department as well). My sister likes both shoujo and shounen.

Well, I don't think the actual definition of for example shoujo would be girl manga/anime, but rather manga/anime aimed for girls. The genres are divided by supposed audience, not the actual audience. This is why, for example, many manga that have furigana (little kana characters by the kanjis so that the younger people can read it without knowing kanji) are depicted as shoujo or shounen even if they had content that would suit the adultery more, because as they have the furigana, they can be read by young people and so are aimed for young people. If we think about some generic shoujo (for example again), like Arina Tanemura's works, you can clearly see that they're aimed for girls, yet I know many guys watch or read them. It's just that the content is planned to suit girls, it doesn't mean that boys/men can't enjoy it.

Myself, I'm a girl and I prefer seinen a lot. I seldom enjoy shounen or shoujo, and I've encountred only one interesting josei series, though I haven't been trying very much of those either.

[papillon]

.... Since most things don't come with a giant stamp on them labeling 'THIS IS FOR GIRLS', how do you know exactly?

Is Full Metal Alchemist considered girly or boyish? Is Inuyasha? What about Kannazuki no Miko, which takes angsty schoolgirl lesbian romance and throws MECHA into it?

So I don't really know what dividing you're talking about... I certainly don't look at anime and immediately say "This is GIRL anime" or "This is BOY anime".

[Jake]

.... Since most things don't come with a giant stamp on them labeling 'THIS IS FOR GIRLS', how do you know exactly?

In fact, the opposite, in some cases. I have several Viz manga titles here with 'shôjo' written on the spine, and on the inside cover it's explained carefully:

shô•jo (sho'jo) n.
1. Manga appealing to both female and male readers.
...

Now, I'm no fluent Japanese speaker, but I had this crazy idea that the word was a little more specific than that.

[Deji]

I like Shounen and Seinen the most. That's pretty much what I watch/read, even if I don't watch/read anime/manga much.
Shoujo is nice, but it tends to bore me after a while... I don't like reading/watching romantic drama much and the flowers and sparkles everywhere sometimes make me sick. Every once in a while, thou, it doesn't hurt =3
Btw, I'm a girl.

[Ren]

I love shoujoooo!It never bores me :3Though I also love stuff like Hokuto no Ken, Saint Seiya and such such.And I absolutely go crazy over the old things:Tiger mask, Galaxy Express999, Cyborg009, Captain Harlock, Versailles no bara.
Oh, I'm a cat.

[Deji]

I love shoujoooo!It never bores me :3Though I also love stuff like Hokuto no Ken, Saint Seiya and such such.And I absolutely go crazy over the old things:Tiger mask, Galaxy Express999, Cyborg009, Captain Harlock, Versailles no bara.
Oh, I'm a cat.

I watched versailles no Bara when I was a lil kid and I barely remember it T_T.... I should rewatch it someday or gather some money to buy the manga >o<!
My first anime love (aware now of what anime was instead of "chinese big-eyed cartoons") was Saint Seiya at the age of 11 <3

And Hokuto no Ken hurts my eyes ;o;...

[Ren]

Haha, aww, but HnK is an anime that moves your heart;_;
Here, my love, Rei-chyan<3
http://www.hokutonoken.it/manga/gaiden/rei/200736l.jpg
You could try Soten no Ken, the drawings now are somehow more elegant. http://www.hokutodestiny.com/HokutoNoKe ... comic6.jpg

[papillon]

Despite my known weakness for Schoolgirl Lesbians, the one episode of Marimite I saw bored me silly. It was just too much sighing and angsting over every little gesture someone else made, and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENING.

If that's 'shoujo' then it's a little too tame for me. Might work better as a book (too bad I can't read the novels)

I can handle Strawberry Panic because it doesn't take itself so seriously... It's *amusing* even if it's lacking in substance. (I generally describe it as 'fluffy' and tell my boys that they do not have to watch. )

But really, I like a good mix of emotion and action. If it's all action I will be bored. If it's all angst I will probably be bored.

[dreamer]

Sorry... can't login. I'm on a public terminal and most of em have keyloggers for some reason.

shoujo/shojo= young girl. Let viz call it whatever they want.
I like any anime whether its shoujo/bishoujo/shounen or whatever as long as I there is something about the individual show that appeals to me. Of course, I do have a preference for philosophical anime like Kino's Journey. Also, the light-novel "Calling You" published by Tokyopop. How would that be classified. It consists of three short-stories involving main characters from different gender and age-groups.

[DaFool]

Not surprised that most girls here like seinen. After all, that's where all the bishoujo game adaptations and most moe stuff out there are.

Most of josei becomes live-action drama. That's why theres so few of them, and it's hard to distinguish between shoujo/ josei.

[dizzcity]

Well, even though I should be reading/watching seinen by now, I find myself reading all four major audience categories - shounen, shoujo, josei and seinen. Heck, I've even read kodomo (children... eg. Doraemon) once in a while. Generally-speaking, shounen series are the simplest and least complex (Naruto, Love Hina, etc.) in terms of character relationships, but they are usually fast-paced and plot-centric (and fanservice-heavy too). Shoujo series (Hana Yori Dango, Fushigi Yuugi, etc.) don't care too much about the plot, but go much deeper into character dynamics than shounen series do... to the point of melodramatic angst at times. Josei series (eg. NANA, Itadakimasu, etc.) tend to be more layered and subtle in their character interactions, toning down the angst and becoming thematic in nature. They usually deal with a specific theme or subject, and focus on not just a young woman's relationships, but also her goals in life, her principles, and her struggles with making it in the world. Seinen series (eg. Death Note, Monster, Beck, etc.) again usually tone down the fast-paced and plot-centric nature of shounen series and become thematic in nature, focusing on societal, political or moe-tic issues as well as having more depth to the character interactions. There are also art conventions distinctive to each of the four audiences.

Personally, though, I'm still a big favourite of shounen series, with a healthy dose of shoujo to cater for deeper characters. They're just relaxing and fun to read. Seinen and josei are too troublesome.

But having said that, though, audience classification isn't the only way to categorise manga/anime. Sometimes a series can be made to have broad-based appeal to a wide variety of audiences, but fit into a particular genre instead (romantic comedy, action/adventure, food, sports, mecha, etc). Many of the older generation of manga/anime have this... Sailormoon is obviously a mahou-shoujo (magical girl) series, but both sexes enjoy watching it. Ranma 1/2 is a martial-arts gender-bender romantic comedy... but again, people of all ages and genders enjoy it. I find that a blend of both audience and genre descriptors can help me in identifying what series I will probably like and dislike... but they're just guidelines, not hard-and-fast categories.

-Dizzy-

[monele]

Why wouldn't we just say "romance, action, psychologial horror, comedy" and so and so, instead of limiting it to "for guys, for girls"? People have very varied tastes in spite of gender... especially nowadays.
I watch/read stuff like Dragon Ball Z, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, Love Hina, Ouran Highschool Host Club, Gravitation, Slayers, FLCL, Jungle wa Itsumo Hale nochi Guu, Potemayo. Action, comedy, romance, cutesy. Certainly not limited to "just guy stuff" ^^;...

[Vatina]

I'm not always sure, since I don't consider much what genre I'm actually reading ^^; But I think I like a little of everything. Like with music - I'm not a fan of a single or a few genres, I just like anything that I find "good".

For instance I really like the shoujo manga Full Moon, but reading a lot of shoujo can get on my nerves. A little here and a little there ^^;
Another huge fav of mine is the Excel Saga manga. I don't really know what that is <_<;; It's definitly not shoujo...... (I think Viz just wrote 'action' inside the cover?)

[chronoluminaire]

When I was first introduced to the classifications, I was told "shoujo has plot and characters, shounen has fighting and bouncing breasts". I fairly naturally preferred the shoujo ^^;

But as I've seen more and more, I've discovered I can like some things from each of the target-audience classifications (shoujo, shounen, josei and seinen). A number of my favourite series are shounen, which I still feel faintly embarrassed about (Evangelion, Full Metal Panic, and a number of shounen romance like I"s and Love Hina). But I also like a number of shoujo romances and adventures, and Death Note is superb.

And then there are series which kind-of transcend the shounen/shoujo division. Escaflowne has a shoujo manga and a shounen manga ( ); there are a number of shoujo romances that have mecha and fighting; and how would you classify something like Serial Experiments Lain, Read or Die, .hack//SIGN or Jungle wa Itsumo Hare Nochi Guu?

So overall, the distinction is a useful one, not for telling me whether I'm going to like something (since I like things in all the categories), but for letting me know what to expect, and perhaps what I want to read when I'm in a particular mood.