This demographic IS SHOUJO. Change my mind?

NephieLuvsYou said:
It’s josei. I didn’t understand existentialism like that as a child.

Chiibi said:
So um....

I'm fighting with someone about this right now. xD Stupid, yes. But I say Princess Tutu was definitely made for a young female audience and I will die on this hill.

This other person insists "it's shounen anime because the LATER manga adaptation is a shounen manga." That's not a wise way to determine a demographic...I mean that awful fanservice-filled manga is NOTHING like the beautiful show. And anime demographics and manga demographics don't ALWAYS match up either.

Take Shinigami No Ballad; it's a seinen anime based on a seinen light novel...but then a shoujo manga of it was written too. Does that make the anime suddenly 'shoujo'? No. No, it does not.

Pretty Cure and Ashita No Nadja are anime original series. They are shoujo. Princess Tutu is surely the same as these.
I feel a website doesn't HAVE to tell you a demographic in order for you to know what it is. All you have to do is use your eyes and brain, really.

First off, there's the art style. Show me a SHOUNEN anime that's as wide-eyed and girly-looking as Tutu is. Really, show me just one. This is not 'moe-style' either. I'm sure a lot of you can tell the difference between 'shoujo' and 'moe'. This doesn't look like Madoka or Devil Hunter Youko. This looks like Sailor Moon (same designers so yeah) Notice nobody has giant bouncing breasts or thick thighs; they are all slender and fragile-looking like porcelain dolls, practically. Everything from the way they walk, pose and dress is very elegant. The guys are just as pretty as the girls are. Fakir himself gets more fanservice shots than everyone...even Ahiru who ends up naked a lot but it's never done in a lewd or sexual way and you see nothing.

Then there's the story: a little duck becomes a ballet-dancing girl becomes a magical princess to restore a prince's heart because she 'loves' him. But he has a girlfriend whom the heroine also admires so she does not confess her feelings. Meanwhile the mean boy whom she thought she hated turns out to be a nice guy who is getting feelings for her too...and all four have to fight against the story they were written into to change a tragic ending into a happy one. The tropes of shoujo are piled sky-high, am I wrong?

Then there's the romance...sure, shounen anime have romance too...but I'm certain not a single episode goes by without someone saying the word "love" at least once. It's a very romantic anime. There's also a lot of 'slashy stuff' with Fakir and Mytho at the beginning of the series...so much so that one could really misunderstand their relationship before the truth is revealed.

Then there's the airing times. Looking on Wiki, I found that this anime aired on Saturday mornings; basically THE TIME for shoujo anime to air. Certainly not late at night like Madoka Magica.

THEN after I visited the Official Princess Tutu website, I saw a page there titled "It's Easy! Learn ballet!" with images of the same ballet steps the characters do in the show. Icing on the girly cake is a gif of Tutu saying "You too, can become the prima donna!"

"Prima Donna" in ballet terms...the star female ballet dancer.

So yeah...tell me, if Princess Tutu is for boys, why would they have the heroine saying to them "You can become a female star?" xD

That makes no freaking sense.

Which is why I think labeling this super-girly anime that was so obviously made for girls (and I mean that in the BEST way) "shounen" is completely whack.