3/14/14 | 3 Comments | Top
It is actually pretty rare of me to post about something
other than graphics, right? But yes, since this blog is actually under a lot of
interest which my attention is revolved upon, you guys should expect some
similar posts in the future as well.
As the title implies, there’s one question in my mind: are
good shoujo shows are now near extinction?
As far as you have notice, as we grow up from teenagers to
our late teens and so on, our taste in anime genre changes. Yes, because mine
did and one thing that significantly affected the change that happened to me
was: there are no more interesting shows under the genre. Yes, and in this
post, we will talk about the ever popular genre, SHOUJO.
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| Log Horizon: Addicting shounen anime. |
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| Noragami: Another really good shounen. |
- Shoujo is being overshadowed by Shounen shows – this is actually because most of the viewers are after action. Believe it or not, no matter how I love drama in life, I’d still prefer action over anything else. Most Shounen shows are paired with the action genre while shoujo shows don’t. Which is why there are just less shoujo shows that are being produced.
- Jerk-ish Characters – trust me, in most shoujo shows that I have watched and manga that I have read, most of the characters are just being a jerk or just plain stupid. I get the feeling that whenever the author tries to prolong a romantic story between two characters in a shoujo (since most shoujo are paired with romance), the author ruins the characters! Not to be rude or anything at all but that is how I feel. It’s either the author murders the essence of the characters or just makes the characters stupid or even worse: pull off a really stupid idea of a relationship hurdle whenever the author has the chance. (See Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun & Say I Love You from last year) Why can’t they just end the show after they gotten together before this shit happens? Just see Clannad – even though the story continued after the main characters had gotten together, it wasn’t stupid. There wasn’t any forced obstacle thrown at them. Everything was normal. And may I just mention Vampire Knight that made every character expressionless half the show. The comedy at the manga didn’t even do any effect anymore, at all.
- Shoujo often overthrown with Comedy – as much as I do love comedy in a show, there is also a “too much” into everything. I know that most of the time, it is necessary to put comedy in a show but just… not too much! I have watched Golden Time and I enjoyed the first episode but the second episode just blew it up with too much forced comedy scenes for a seinen anime. Come on, xxxHolic just did fine as a seinen with good humor too.
- Most Shoujo shows now are being replaced by Mahou Shoujo (Magical Girl) – yes, technically, they are being replaced nowadays. No matter how much I love Magical Girls, there are just some times that I can get sick of them (let us just skip the ever popular ‘transformation cues’). But in a sense, there are also magical girl shows that deserve me attention: i.e. Cardcaptor Sakura had my attention into almost all episode and Mermaid Melody with no matter how many times I was pissed off with the transformation shit.
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1. Lastly, I just became a Yaoi fan. End of story.
I actually have more minor reasons why and the almost
oh-so-popular one among the girls is: it becomes weird shit.
Yes, I am talking about the exaggeration of boobs, the ominous
amount of fanservice and the fucking headphones.The three photos above are from Super Sonico The Animation.
Above all things stated above, I still have some interest in
Shoujo as a genre especially if it pairs with Comedy and Romance. There is this
one show that caught my eyes and interest despite I have long ditched shoujo
shows years ago: Inari Konkon Koi Iroha.
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| The lead character and her love interest. |
What’s different about this show than the other shoujo? No exaggerated fanservice even though there is an exaggeration of boobs on one of the characters. Not stupid characters. Good romance. Good sense of humor and definitely with a lot of lessons to learn from the show. This show is pure and reminded me a lot that I was once a great fan of the shoujo genre.
More Screenshots of the show:
They should release more shows like this. Ugh. OTL
I also would like to mention Red Data Girl, released also
last year. It was a bit boring but it had a good sense as a shoujo show as well
compared to other shows. It concentrated less on Romance too.
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| Taken from the last episode. Quite the scenery, imo. |
I believe that there are actually a lot of shoujo manga that
deserves an anime adaptation but with lacking funds for the production. And as
stated on my reason #1, people tend to prefer action over some boring romantic
shit you often see.
Well, rant’s over!
Labels: anime, bad shoujo shows, rant, shoujo, The Extinction of Good Shoujo Shows
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Interesting post. I've been noticing the drastic lack of shoujo lately too. I still watch the super cheesy stuff though because my realist values don't seem to come into play when bishounen are involved >_<; I'm a sucker. However, I have been reading Dengeki Daisy lately and it's so many volumes in and yet no talk of a possible anime??? It makes me crazy and frustrated! It's actually a pretty interesting story beside the typical doki moments. Also, the weird part is it's written by a guy (I would have never guessed). I understand the move from Shoujo to Shounen though, I've gone back and forth pretty frequently whenever I'm not watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer but that's a whole other story, haha. I even started watching Naruto again (I thought I gave up on that show but it's better than what I remembered) still can't get over that episode where Sakura actually becomes a strong, independent character. Also your mention of the extreme fan service made me think of Tales of Graces and their insane swimsuits but also, totally annoying, I agree with you. If I'm watching an anime and there's a scene with a panty shot or jiggling boobs I can't help but roll my eyes. Still, a shoujo I personally think they did perfectly would be Ouran Host Club (prefer the anime tbh) and it's a reverse-harem at that, which rarely do very good plot wise. I swear I've rewatched that anime 37463576 times. Sorry I just realized I'm just typing constantly now hahaha, better not get ahead of myself. | At March 14, 2014 at 6:52 AM
@Janus: I have also watched Ouran High and very much thankful that they decided to do a live action adaptation of it as well. I pretty much like Kaichou wa Maid-sama despite the very much exaggeration of Usui's "I don't want to involve you" character (I mean, it was over to the top and the author tried too much to make him cool).
Maybe I should do some reverse harem rant next time 'cause I had been a fan of that before and my interest to it bugged down later on too. hahahaha | At March 14, 2014 at 4:19 PM
o_o I didn't know they were making an adaptation! Yay! I loved Kaichou wa Maid-sama too (but yeah that can get annoying - they do that with Dengeki Daisy too =_=;) You definitely should. Maybe you have ^_^; I'm going to your latest post next. | At March 15, 2014 at 9:07 AM
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