| I was curious about the ratio of males vs females on Mal, and after researching a bit I found this: https://myanimelist.net/advertising. As it turns out, It's a 75/25 ratio with boys taking the massive lead. So I got to thinking, why is that? I feel like many anime are definitely targeted toward boys with the main characters of most Isekai and such almost always being male. But what came first? Since anime was more popular with boys did the industry make more anime with males as the protagonist? Or more anime was made catered toward men so that's the reason why many females didn't watch as much? It's kinda like the "What came first, the chicken or the egg?" I honestly have no idea, so I was hoping the MAL community would help me out. |
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| It's not 75/25, it's more 55/45 male/female with the staff of anime being around 40/60 male/female. |
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Jaeger_bomb said: Well I'm a female and I watch anime and I know other females who do as well...🤔 Anime isn't catered to just guys if so shoujo, josei Y̶a̶o̶i̶ won't exist No, no, I definitely get that many females do enjoy anime. But you can definitely see that more males do watch it than females and I'm just curious about the source of that. Whether it was the industry fault or if males always took the majority of the community. I think @bossboy summed it up really well. As to your josei point, yeah it does exist but It's also standing at 98 made while shounen which I think is more for males has almost 20x as many at 1,998. So It's much in minority. |
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Hoppy said: It's not 75/25, it's more 55/45 male/female with the staff of anime being around 40/60 male/female. Are these assumptions? Or do you have the original source for this? |
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| OP, are the following the sorts of reasons you want to hear? - Men on average are more "visual" than women. Anime, like video games, are a more visual form of entertainment. - Anime tropes cater towards more juvenile mindsets. - Women are more reluctant to try activities that have a stigma of being associated with men, perpetuating the cycle. - Anime is associated with "losers" in which women are less likely to want to be identified as in a social circle. - Women are more likely to be harassed in online communities that do not exclusively cater towards women. |
| Currently the score is exactly 50/50, I'm loving this. |
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| There's a lot of women who watch anime, a lot of them just don't publicly admit it or want to congregate in these anime spaces or communities. I was reluctant to for a long time, while I still enjoyed anime very much. |
| A couple of observations here... It seems to be the case for virtually all "geek fandoms" that males outnumber females, in some cases by a pretty wide margin. This applies to anime, gaming, sci-fi, fantasy, comics, Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, furries, bronies, and probably others I'm forgetting. It may also be the case that among anime fans, males are more likely than females to engage in fandom activities (become active on websites, attend conventions, etc.) which may lead to males having more visibility and feeding the perception that they outnumber females more than they actually do. |
A møøse once bit my sister... |
| I personally always knew more girls who liked anime than guys, but that might just be my environment... |
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Opticflash said: OP, are the following the sorts of reasons you want to hear? - Men on average are more "visual" than women. Anime, like video games, are a more visual form of entertainment. - Anime tropes cater towards more juvenile mindsets. - Women are more reluctant to try activities that have a stigma of being associated with men, perpetuating the cycle. - Anime is associated with "losers" in which women are less likely to want to be identified as in a social circle. - Women are more likely to be harassed in online communities that do not exclusively cater towards women. Hmmm, I'm not sure what you're implying but there is no answer I specifically want to hear. Just the truth. I know this isn't the best place to ask if I want facts but maybe the community can give me some insight since I'm not to sure. Also, I don't really think any of those reasons are it. Though some of those may play a role I don't think that's the big picture of why the majority is male. Altho I'm pleasantly surprised that there are more females on this thread then male going by the poll ha ha. |
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mwalimu said: A couple of observations here... It seems to be the case for virtually all "geek fandoms" that males outnumber females, in some cases by a pretty wide margin. This applies to anime, gaming, sci-fi, fantasy, comics, Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, furries, bronies, and probably others I'm forgetting. It may also be the case that among anime fans, males are more likely than females to engage in fandom activities (become active on websites, attend conventions, etc.) which may lead to males having more visibility and feeding the perception that they outnumber females more than they actually do. Huh, that's actually a really good point. So many it is more even than we really believe. I do indeed find it pleasantly interesting that the poll is showing more females than males at this point since It's not what I expected😆 It kinda proves your theory even more since maybe this thread brought some of the females out to see what peoples thoughts were on this subject, leading it to be even. |
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Concealed_Light said: Opticflash said: OP, are the following the sorts of reasons you want to hear? - Men on average are more "visual" than women. Anime, like video games, are a more visual form of entertainment. - Anime tropes cater towards more juvenile mindsets. - Women are more reluctant to try activities that have a stigma of being associated with men, perpetuating the cycle. - Anime is associated with "losers" in which women are less likely to want to be identified as in a social circle. - Women are more likely to be harassed in online communities that do not exclusively cater towards women. Hmmm, I'm not sure what you're implying but there is no answer I specifically want to hear. Just the truth. I know this isn't the best place to ask if I want facts but maybe the community can give me some insight since I'm not to sure. Also, I don't really think any of those reasons are it. Though some of those may play a role I don't think that's the big picture of why the majority is male. Altho I'm pleasantly surprised that there are more females on this thread then male going by the poll ha ha. The numbers are fake. Many male weebs here like to role play as girls (profile picture and everything). |
| Those numbers are specifically for the MAL community. People who actually spend time watching anime compared to a true casual (ones who don't know what "onii-chan" or "baka" means). The same people who spend time on the forums, the discord, the reviews, doing actual weeb associated shit that not many would do in the first place. Then again, I have no counter stats to say you are wrong, but I find it hard to believe that the relationship between the ratio on MAL and real life is linear. |
NextUniverse said: Those numbers are specifically for the MAL community. People who actually spend time watching anime compared to a true casual (ones who don't know what "onii-chan" or "baka" means). The same people who spend time on the forums, the discord, the reviews, doing actual weeb associated shit that not many would do in the first place. Then again, I have no counter stats to say you are wrong, but I find it hard to believe that the relationship between the ratio on MAL and real life is linear. While your argument is completely reasonable I did find this: "A 2020 survey conducted in the United States found that anime movies were generally more popular among men than women, with 13 percent of male respondents reporting that they found anime to be very favorable, compared to nine percent of women who said the same. Women were also less likely to have heard of anime in general or to have any particular opinion on the genre. And in the end you have to admit that more anime does seem to be catered toward the male audience which does lead me to believe that more males to watch anime than females. But that's just an assumption at the end of the day. |
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Concealed_Light said: Yeah, what you have put out is true, but as said, it isn't as one-sided as 75/25, more near 50/50 biasing male side. Most anime are catered to males, but that is like when you dive into the medium. Mainstream stuff is what I had in mind. But yeah, I get what you mean.NextUniverse said: Those numbers are specifically for the MAL community. People who actually spend time watching anime compared to a true casual (ones who don't know what "onii-chan" or "baka" means). The same people who spend time on the forums, the discord, the reviews, doing actual weeb associated shit that not many would do in the first place. Then again, I have no counter stats to say you are wrong, but I find it hard to believe that the relationship between the ratio on MAL and real life is linear. While your argument is completely reasonable I did find this: "A 2020 survey conducted in the United States found that anime movies were generally more popular among men than women, with 13 percent of male respondents reporting that they found anime to be very favorable, compared to nine percent of women who said the same. Women were also less likely to have heard of anime in general or to have any particular opinion on the genre. And in the end you have to admit that more anime does seem to be catered toward the male audience which does lead me to believe that more males to watch anime than females. But that's just an assumption at the end of the day. |
| because anime appeals to the male fantasy |
| I mean it makes sense if you consider the current state of Anime: Tropes -The "Pervert" character -When the guy trips and grabs a girl's breast -Fanservice as a whole -Heavy action shonen bias (Not that females can't enjoy action, but it isn't really for most people) These are the reasons why it took me so long to get my friend into Anime, who is a girl. Granted, not all Anime is like this, and there are always great starter Anime to get females into that break these tropes: -Madoka Magica -Fate/Zero -JJBA -Fruits Basket (Well, it's in reverse) -etc. |
| "Did you forget already? In my word the color "red" doesn't exist. These must be...my tears. Ever since I woke up from my coma...I think I've been waiting for this very moment. You'd do well to remember this, Maya. The only time a lawyer can cry is when it's all over." (Ace Attorney T&T: Bridge to the Turnabout) "I'm my worst critic." (Kendrick Lamar)  |
| I mean it makes sense if you consider the current state of Anime: Tropes -The "Pervert" character -When the guy trips and grabs a girl's breast -Fanservice as a whole (With the exception of Monogatari which is ecchi satire, there really is no excuse) -Heavy action shonen bias (Not that females can't enjoy action, but it isn't really for most people) These are the reasons why it took me so long to get my friend into Anime, who is a girl. Granted, not all Anime is like this, and there are always great starter Anime to get females into that break these tropes: -Madoka Magica -Fate/Zero -JJBA -Fruits Basket (Well, it's in reverse) -etc. |
| "Did you forget already? In my word the color "red" doesn't exist. These must be...my tears. Ever since I woke up from my coma...I think I've been waiting for this very moment. You'd do well to remember this, Maya. The only time a lawyer can cry is when it's all over." (Ace Attorney T&T: Bridge to the Turnabout) "I'm my worst critic." (Kendrick Lamar) |
| The real answer, those advertising statistics are way out of date and you shouldn't take them at face value. Look at the age demographic breakdowns for example, it would lead you to believe there isn't a single under 18 person using this site, which is obviously untrue. Apparently the stats page isn't actually the true demographic data that advertisers get when they are inquiring about buying ads. (Did you think all those stats really broke down into nice even rounded numbers lmao) Concealed_Light said: Hoppy said: It's not 75/25, it's more 55/45 male/female with the staff of anime being around 40/60 male/female. Are these assumptions? Or do you have the original source for this? Hoppy is correct, those numbers are not correct, they are a vague ballpark and the advertisers only get real data when they are seriously trying to buy ads. If you're interested in the actual data you would need to book some ad space on here. |
ACasualViewerNov 22, 2021 3:48 PM
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| I am male. More males watch it since males are often far more introverted than females given how they are treated in society (exceptions with chads). Introverts are naturally more hardcore gamers and weebs. |
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| I think there are more males watching anime because in at least western society more males are in these types of online communities. Like on platforms like youtube and twitch, their communities are majority male users. Even gaming is male-dominated. |
| Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines. |
| There's a lot of female anime viewers, it's not really important that men watch more anime, but creators should try not to alienate female viewers. |
| If you reply back to me and I never respond, I lost interest and don't care. Sorry about that. |
| I think part of it is just that women in Japan prefer manga over anime and since there isn't much of an audience for anime aimed at women not many get made, which obviously results in fewer women over here getting into anime even though they might have it more things were made that were targeted towards them. As it stands now the kind of women who are able to get into anime are women who are interested in anime that were originally targeted towards a male audience. Anime made for women are few and far between and I feel like there's also fewer women who watch anime made for little girls than there are men watching those shows (although there are still some women who watch those). |
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| I think there's a very rough split of men and women watching anime, but yeah, it can look like more guys watch them than girls. One reason could be the type of shows that became popular over time. These thoughts are based on my personal experiences. I can be wrong, haha. Anime that aired on live tv overseas were often the shows that targeted male audiences over female audiences. For example, Naruto and Dragonball Z aired on tv overseas for many years. In addition, they've also become well-known within mainstream media/pop culture over time. Shows that are considered mainstream anime nowadays are usually ones targeted at male audiences. One anime that comes to mind is Demon Slayer. I think people who haven't watched any anime before are more likely to notice those shows, and there's the possibility they may or may not associate them with male audiences. There could be cases where there are more female fans than male fans for a particular mainstream anime that targets male audiences, but I don't have any meaningful information to support that claim. I've noticed a few general attitude changes towards watching anime. More people have become accepting/neutral of others that watch anime, talk more openly about anime, and are also more open-minded to watching one. So on a surface level, it may seem like more men than women watch anime. On a deeper level, it's a likely different story in reality, but it's hard to say based on experience alone. |
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_Maneki-Neko_ said: At every convention I have been, it has been pretty much 50-50. Maybe it's different in other countries, but it's definitely not true here. Conventions are usually for the most social part of the fandom with lots of spare money. |
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Opticflash said: OP, are the following the sorts of reasons you want to hear? - Men on average are more "visual" than women. Anime, like video games, are a more visual form of entertainment. - Anime tropes cater towards more juvenile mindsets. - Women are more reluctant to try activities that have a stigma of being associated with men, perpetuating the cycle. - Anime is associated with "losers" in which women are less likely to want to be identified as in a social circle. - Women are more likely to be harassed in online communities that do not exclusively cater towards women. Women are actually even more visual than men, and many dating website statistics support this data. Also, it is apparent in shoujo/josei genre. Not saying men are not visual though. |
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| Because most girls are stinky poopy heads who don't like to watch anime >:( |
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| I'm just speculating, and some of what I say may accidentally be offensive stereotypes, but here's my theory. The best kind of anime, in my opinion, is either hyperviolent, nonsensical, or thought-provoking. I want comedy, yes, but preferably as a large supplement to a combination of those three styles. Those three styles aren't easily enjoyed as background noise. Men, such as myself, have a one-track mind. We're able to focus on one thing at a time. It's easy for me to fix a bowl of beanless chili, sit down in front of my TV, and watch thirty minutes straight of Evangelion, and then lay in bed thinking about what it means later that night. The mind of a woman, on the other hand, seems to focus on millions of things at once. This contributes to a low attention span, and thus, entertainment is best consumed in the background while doing other, more productive things. None of the above three "best kinds" of anime really work for a housewife mindset, nor does the fact that you have to read subtitles. Of course, there is one genre of anime that works for that: the mind-numbing slice-of-life genre. Because nothing screams "quality entertainment" quite like a group of high-school girls living a completely ordinary life with maybe a few drawn-out jokes and perhaps a brief fight against the most out-of-place looking dragon at the very end of the season. The closest thing to a middle-ground (as in, the only thing that both my sister and I really enjoyed) would be the isekai genre. Re:Zero, in particular, managed to be violent, thought-provoking, and genuinely funny. The problem is, the isekai genre is also one of the most polarizing genres in the history of anime, with many bashing them as boring, predictable, and basically another way of doing a slice-of-life without being conformed to, well, real life. This is the conclusion I've come up with. Sorry if I offended any women. EDIT: Oh wait, I forgot. My sister and I both liked Assassination Classroom. |
Fishb0iNov 23, 2021 12:36 AM
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| most western women don't care about cartoons in general, that's why. |
| 馬鹿げた倫理 全部ガラクタで |
| There really aren't many anime that are designed for girls, and those that are, guys just watch anyway. Also, I think that more men are tapped into their inner child as opposed to women, so even though lots of anime aren't for children, there's still a loose connection. |
"Molly Ringwald" out right now - check my Linktree!  |
| i guess there was always more male creators in the industry .. anime, manga, ln, games.... leading to a kind of snowball effect |
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| from what i've seen, it depends on where do you live or the environment, i literally went to a manga store today and all of the people i've met there are girls, when i use social media the majority of users are obviously guys |
| Because the average female doesn't need escapism as much as the average male. P.S. before quoting me with something like "I know a lot of female anime fans", please explain why 90% of hikikomori and 80% of suicides are male |
NirinboNov 23, 2021 4:39 AM
| Because the anime industry mainly targets boys because it were it makes money the most, that's it, no more, no less. |
| Have you taken a glance at MAL's threads? They are clearly directed at straight males, to the point we have an entire subgenre of threads in CD dedicated to talk about how weird girls are. Online presence, and particularly online presence in MAL, means nothing for the actual stats of the fandom, because through threads like these and general attitudes MAL is not exactly perceived as a place where girls are supposed to be. There's other more welcoming communities out there, and some other circumstances that make other places more attractive for the female fandom. Like a lot of the female BL manga/manhua/manhwa fans I know use mainly Anilist because it has a more extensive database on that specific aspect. And also take into account that the percent of people who use forums among the fandom is very low, most interact through other social networks or don't at all. |
jal90Nov 23, 2021 5:20 AM
| A couple of posters have mentioned that in Japan, anime is more popular among females than males. Even if that's true, it's possible that internationally, what gets hyped and promoted the most are shows that skew more toward male viewers than is the case at home. |
| A møøse once bit my sister... |
mwalimu said: A couple of posters have mentioned that in Japan, anime is more popular among females than males. Even if that's true, it's possible that internationally, what gets hyped and promoted the most are shows that skew more toward male viewers than is the case at home. While partially true, the female fandom of many of those popular and hyped shows "for males" is really big. Kimetsu no yaiba, Jujutsu Kaisen or Boku no Hero have huge female followings and in some places they dominate. In MAL you don't even see a fraction of this. Also, for the guy saying that girls only watch unfocused or inconsequential fiction: a damn lot of women love horror and disturbing. Like it's probably more popular among them than among men. There's a reason why Junji Ito serializes some of his works in shojo magazines. On the other hand, most CGDCT slice of life shows are seinen. |
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