| This is definitely not for young girls. I know it was published in a shoujo magazine, but it's not shoujo! Is there any way to change the genre on MAL? I'm quite new here, so I don't know how. |
| Why can't Banana Fish be Shoujo? it ran Bessatsu Shoujo comic witch is marked as a shoujo manga magazine! if it ran in a josei magazin it would have been labeled as josei lol. I think it's foolish to determine the story that it is suitable for a certain age tbh |
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| If you google the meaning of Shoujo, you'd get "a genre of Japanese comics and animated films aimed primarily at a young female audience, typically characterized by a focus on personal and romantic relationships." Typical examples of shoujo are Kimi ni Todoke, Ao Haru Ride, Toradora, and the like. On the other hand, Banana Fish explores very dark and adult themes. I, as an adult, already found myself adjusting my pain tolerance throughout the show. How much more a minor? Does it really matter what magazine it's published in? And okay, "age appropriateness" aside, Banana Fish still doesn't suit the Shoujo genre. |
| That's not how the "genres" thing works in Japan. Since this is based on a manga that ran in a shojo magazine, it's a shojo series. For example, Chi's Sweet Home, that actually ran in a seinen magazine (Morning, to be exact), therefore, it is seinen. My library puts Chi as one of maybe 5 manga that's in the children's section (as opposed to teen, where most of it is, and adult, where another good 1/3rd of it is), so they'll shelve it next to Pokemon. It doesn't mean the library is wrong, but it also doesn't change the fact that Chi is a seinen. There is a children's demographic magazine, but nope! Chi ran in Morning! Also, shojo, shonen, josei, and seinen are demographics, NOT genres. And plenty of series have cross-demographic appeal (like One Piece, or Haikyuu). But while Harry Potter can just be put into the children's literature section here (where we don't have a gender divide in books, but we do tend to have a genre divide in our libraries), manga kind of has to choose one of the 4 major demographics to get published. And Harry Potter does appeal to children. And adults. Nothing wrong with cross-demographic appeal! While I could still see the "age appropriateness" being an issue, some shojo magazines will skew younger and others will skew older, Betsucomi definitely skews older. Shonen magazines do that too, tailoring themselves to differentiate from their competitors and attract different types of stories. Josei and Seinen, same thing. People have different preferences, it makes sense for them to each carve a slightly different niche. It could be an age niche, it could be a genre niche, but starting with the biggest umbrella, demographic, makes the most sense. And just because Banana Fish ran in a shojo, it didn't mean they confiscated your "man-card" if any Japanese man attempted to buy it (in fact, it did have a very large cross-over appeal to your more typical seinen reader). And you know what? Banana Fish DID do very well with its intended demographic (both at the time and now), so clearly Shogakukan was correct to publish it in Betsucomi (as opposed to one of their seinen mags, like Big Comic). It's silly to say "it's not shojo" just because you don't think anyone in Betsucomi's demographic (more specifically, older girls and young women) could possibly enjoy it when they're clearly saying otherwise. There's such a thing as variety and every demographic has it. Also, I believe only mods (not sure exactly which sub-set of mods, but mods or content editors nonetheless) can change that sort of information on MAL, this isn't Wikipedia. They'll try to keep things as accurate to the information they can find as possible, I don't care if they got a massive million person petition to remove the tag "shojo" from this, it's not factual to do so, and thus, it's going to stay. |
| It's definitely not a "typical" Shoujo, but it's technically a Shoujo because it was serialized in a Shoujo magazine. simple as it is. I think it's important to note that not every stereotypically "manly" show is aimed at guys. just like not every stereotypically "girly" show is aimed at girls. for example, both K-On! and Lucky Stars are aimed at men, despite the fact that these shows are as girly as it could get, they're pretty much the equivalent of Barbie Dolls. Banana Fish could be considered a manly show because it features gangs, action and stuff, but it's still aimed at girls. the anime/manga medium can be pretty tricky when it comes to demographics. |
| To be brutally honest, I was thinking the same thing and delayed watching it thinking it’s was a “shoujo” anime since I’m very much not a fan of shoujo. |
| If I'm not mistake, it was serialized in Betsukomi, a shoujo magazine. |
laozuwei said: Lizonka said: this came out as mad sexist This is definitely not for young girls. I know it was published in a shoujo magazine, but it's not shoujo! Is there any way to change the genre on MAL? I'm quite new here, so I don't know how. Aah I posted this long ago, but I wasn't trying to be sexist. What I meant is that it's not for YOUNG girls because it had lots of mature themes, like rape. On that note, it's not for any young people at all. |
| "Betsucomi (ใใใณใ), formerly known as Bessatsu Shลjo Comic (i.e. a bessatsu or "special issue" of Shลjo Comic), is a monthly Japanese shลjo manga magazine published by Shogakukan, originally aimed at young girls, but increasingly marketed to older teens and young women" ๏ผWikipedia๏ผ |
Lizonka said: What I meant is that it's not for YOUNG girls because it had lots of mature themes, like rape. On that note, it's not for any young people at all. Why not? I actually think it's a good thing that finally a manga/anime targeted to younger audiences portrays such a serious theme with so much care and respect. Banana fish may spark very important discussions about consent, sexual abuse and the trauma that follows it, which are welcome. It may help raise their awareness and since this is a very actual topic unfortunately, that can only be for the good. |
| it is for young people, main character is 17 years old. If it weren't for that I gave this series a chance... very tired of anime always having kids as their protagonists, these type of stories requires an older MC for realistic and relatable purposes. |
| I know this is a suuper old post, I don’t know what your view on the subject matter is rn but Banana fish is 100% officially a shoujo anime because of where it was published. Japan’s content aimed at young people are a lot more hardcore compared to the Western. Let me know if your thoughts on this changed 3 years later. |
| Maloween 2020 candies Main candies:         |
| It's not dependant on MAL but on Japan. For some reason Banana Fish was advertised as shoujo, so it has shoujo tag. Same thing applies to Date a Live and it's baffling and out of place mecha tag. |
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