Shounen vs Shoujo storytelling styles

I agree with Hughes as far as real life is concerned, but as for there being a pattern in anime based on demographic categories.... hmm, can't say I've noticed. I did watch my fair share of shoujo and (battle) shonen and character growth tools like monologues, backstories and characters expressing themselves, describing their realisations and key development moments are present in both.

I kinda understand where you're coming from though, maybe it's more about the genres and that potentially some of them go in pair with shoujos more often than with shonen? Like, from the top of my head I would say "action" is a mostly shonen genre and not the focus of most shoujos that I can think of, and there certainly exist shows where fleshing out the characters is neglected and "actions speak louder than words" (ba dum tss). Just my two cents, haven't really gave this much thought before, so heads up for an interesting thread!

inb4 someone triggers another gender war

fma was written by a women for girls only read it for the interesting looking male characters. any male reading or watching this shit is a homosexual drama club theater kid. something being "shounen" doesn't make it for men which is why things like black butler and kusuriya exist.
That quote is basically "women writing male characters" ie they just assume some random nonsense or stereotype that is romanticised for the female audience.

fma was written by a women for girls only read it for the interesting looking male characters. any male reading or watching this shit is a homosexual drama club theater kid. something being "shounen" doesn't make it for men which is why things like black butler and kusuriya exist.
That quote is basically "women writing male characters" ie they just assume some random nonsense or stereotype that is romanticised for the female audience.

@Zarutaku honestly, same. I don't want another thread locked.

@zoomerReviewer
You are right about that. That quote was essentially a women writing what her idealized man would say. That being said I think fma did benefit from being a mass appeal series like frieren. The source was written by a woman, but the anime director was a man. That is a common theme of shoujo popular with men. Also, I think the concept of brotherhood hit well with the male audience considering the concept of bros has a positive connotation with most people.
I consider Apocrypha diaries and black butler to be full on shoujo.

@zoomerReviewer
You are right about that. That quote was essentially a women writing what her idealized man would say. That being said I think fma did benefit from being a mass appeal series like frieren. The source was written by a woman, but the anime director was a man. That is a common theme of shoujo popular with men. Also, I think the concept of brotherhood hit well with the male audience considering the concept of bros has a positive connotation with most people.
I consider Apocrypha diaries and black butler to be full on shoujo.

@rohan121 But they're not Shoujo...

@LuxuriousHeart
Both are written by women, and see a large female audience.

Women and men like different things. I generally favor shounen/seinen. It is rarer for me to like a shoujo though few exceptions exist. Some shoujo gets male directors that can make it more appealing to men like Sailor Moon and Old Cardcaptor Sakura.

It is pretty easy to tell male vs female catered anime.

Tall pretty boys usually means the audience is shoujo/josei/broad audience

A focus on variably breasted women is shounen/seinen

Shoujo/josei carry most lgbt stuff

Shounen/Seinen typicaply involves a hero's journey format

The biggest difference between the 2 is how love interests are handled

In shoujo the guy is always the hot #1 where he never has to prove himself over others.

Men like the format like Mario bros where the unlikely hero gets the girl.

@MoonBunny9297 I don't see how a thread about how storytelling styles can differ between demographics would start a gender war, but then again human stupidity has never failed to impress me, so i guess 🤞 the dumbdumbs don't show up and wreck stuff

@rohan121 they're still aimed at men. Winx was written by a man, believe it or not, but it's obviously aimed at girls.

There is nothing to overthink here. Women are simply very verbal and like to talk a lot. Men don't and are fine with remaining silent and not responding to everything.

It's more of the drawing style for me. Shoujo easily pulls you into the world. With some of the panels, you can almost picture an iMAX 3d effect of the panels jumping out at you. Shoujo emphasizes the emotional impact of scenes. Screen tones, eyes being the windows to the soul, even drawing styles can shift in a manga to portray tonal shift. Panels flow into each other.

With Shounen and Seinen, it's rather boxy and straight forward. Not as much emotional depth to the story.

I don't think shounen is more on the show don't tell aspect at all. i thought most of them like to externalise their emotions out loud with more direct actions on them. Show don't tell is more like showing the characters emotions through subtleties small nuances and body languages which I dont think most shounen do that. While shoujo anime shows more concern on their feelings rather than the actions. So they tend to internalize their feelings carefully and gently thus you would see more of the internalized monologues. In other words they are more introspective and less reckless or abrasive like most shounen do. And again shounen shows could also have monologues just like any demographic. One key different between them when it comes to the monologues is that shounen's ones tend to focus what kind of action they would take while shoujo mostly on what they feel at that moment.

A lot of visual novels do that, including those like Clannad and Fate that target a male audience.

@Lucifrost True, but also true visual novels are a different medium, i'd say exposition thru words is essential in a VN

A VN is a videogame genre, and videogame character tend to be a lot less expressive with simpler designs than say anime/manga as along with storytelling the main focus is also gameplay, so exposition thru words i'd say is key for a game that's goal is "choose your own story"

RPGs similarly rely on heavy exposition though more on the technical side than the emotional one

Then yes the new PS5 games have very detailed visulas all filmed in motion capture, but it's still quite different how the characters interact and express themselves from how a CGI show would look

Yes, but their anime adaptations often use the same forms of expression.

@zoomerReviewer
You are right about that. That quote was essentially a women writing what her idealized man would say. That being said I think fma did benefit from being a mass appeal series like frieren. The source was written by a woman, but the anime director was a man. That is a common theme of shoujo popular with men. Also, I think the concept of brotherhood hit well with the male audience considering the concept of bros has a positive connotation with most people.
I consider Apocrypha diaries and black butler to be full on shoujo.

@rohan121 This makes a lot of sense, especially with how Edward grows to 6 foot near the end of the series to finalise his character arc and make him a fully idealised perfected male.

Even if it’s feminine, the story has a lot of action and cool magical sht so young males will still be into it. Obviously not as hype as big 3 or smth like AoT/Death Note though

If that was the case FMA wouldn't be at top of MAL for such a long time and instead we would have a hype anime like "big 3 or smth like AoT/Death Note".

@JoeChip We all know FMA:B fans deliberately review bombed other series and alt spammed FMA:B. Other fanbases just didn’t do that nearly as much and besides AoT/Death Note are more popular on MALA, One Piece manga has higher rating and has more sales than FMA along with big 3 + AoT etc.

But that’s not what I’m arguing. None of these metrics have anything to do with hype. What I’m saying FMA:B is just one of those series you watch because it’s well written throughout, it just doesn’t have crazy hype scenes or mystery bait (not that this is necessarily good) like other popular shonen.

Yea, shonen go for overcoming one's struggles, usually during teen years, usually with plenty of action and NAKAMAAAAA power.

Shoujo go deeper on feelings, romance or relationship mechanics. They can be very emotional and very touching. Even a hybrid like Akatsuki no Yona does it better than your average shonen, and it delivers so well it's very enjoyable and memorable.

I've always found it easier to remember shoujo stories than shonen stories. There's not much to remember from shonen apart from the crucial battle with the very long build-up.

To be fair, there can be other fine elements to remember in shonen series, but world building or character depth are not unique to them...

@Eldinis

Unlike what you think not all shounen are battle shounen.

@JoeChip I never said the battle was outward.