| I just finished watching the whole season and despite the premise of a reverse harem with a twist that the MC doesn't want to indulge in any of the typical shoujo romance tropes, it still very much falls into those tropes. For example, Anzu DOES end up developing genuine feelings for the LIs, specifically one guy. And it still has the tropes of typical shoujo: sparkles, LIs, romance, a female MC, comedy, etc. The only thing I could find that explains that it's a shounen is because it was published in Shonen Jump+, but that means literally nothing when the story itself is still so clearly targeted towards a female demographic. If it's because the main MC isn't like "other girls/MCs", then I'm not sure how that counts as a valid argument seeing as girls and women come in all different personalities. Does no one remember the MC in Lovely Complex? Idk, one of the only things I can think of is that maybe it's trying to advertise itself as a shounen to get more eyes on it because of the prejudice towards shoujo. But I'd like to hear arguments for the contrary if you've got anything, because as of right now I'm confused as hell, lol. |
| Demography is just the kind of public of the original magazine of the manga. It's irrelevant to the plot. This was published in Shounen Jump + so its shounen. |
pastelfeelings said: I just finished watching the whole season and despite the premise of a reverse harem with a twist that the MC doesn't want to indulge in any of the typical shoujo romance tropes, it still very much falls into those tropes. For example, Anzu DOES end up developing genuine feelings for the LIs, specifically one guy. And it still has the tropes of typical shoujo: sparkles, LIs, romance, a female MC, comedy, etc. The only thing I could find that explains that it's a shounen is because it was published in Shonen Jump+, but that means literally nothing when the story itself is still so clearly targeted towards a female demographic. If it's because the main MC isn't like "other girls/MCs", then I'm not sure how that counts as a valid argument seeing as girls and women come in all different personalities. Does no one remember the MC in Lovely Complex? Idk, one of the only things I can think of is that maybe it's trying to advertise itself as a shounen to get more eyes on it because of the prejudice towards shoujo. But I'd like to hear arguments for the contrary if you've got anything, because as of right now I'm confused as hell, lol. Because the original source material is shounen, in fact if you look at the manga panels it does have more of a shounen aestetic even though the story appealed more to girls, but the anime's style definitely has more of a shoujo vibe |
| It's because the manga was serialised on a shounen magazine. It's not the first time something like this has happened. |
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deg said: K-on is not a seinen though. Neither the manga nor the anime has seinen tag on it. Also the reason Kaguya sama is seinen is because it was serialised in Young Jump which is a seinen magazine.demographics like Shonen and Seinen are irrelevant, like why K-ON and Kaguya Love is War both Seinen? so it does not matter this is the most common myth among anime fans |
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MegamiRem said: It's because the manga was serialised on a shounen magazine. It's not the first time something like this has happened. Yeah I mentioned that in my original post, but again if we're going by the definition of shounen/shoujo and not where it was published (so shounen meaning for a boy demographic and shoujo for girls), then this is clearly a shoujo. It's like saying that if Naruto was published in Shojo Beat it would classify it as a shoujo, which like, idk doesn't feel like that fits to me (mainly/especially with how it writes its female characters, but that's a whole other can of worms lol). |
pastelfeelingsOct 30, 2022 1:28 PM
MegamiRem said: It's just MAL being MAL. K-On was also serialized in a seinen magazine: a well known at that, most CGDCT series/adaptations are from it or its sister magazines. deg said: K-on is not a seinen though. Neither the manga nor the anime has seinen tag on it. Also the reason Kaguya sama is seinen is because it was serialised in Young Jump which is a seinen magazine.demographics like Shonen and Seinen are irrelevant, like why K-ON and Kaguya Love is War both Seinen? so it does not matter this is the most common myth among anime fans |
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pastelfeelings said: The definition has always been to do with the place of publication and never the content. Sure, it's common practice to use the terms anyway to refer to the majority of works of said demographics, and people will tend to generalize, but that's the thing with generalizations: they're imprecise. As it stands this is clearly a shounen. Do you think it seems a shoujo based on what you see on it? Well, that's nothing more than an anecdotal observation. MegamiRem said: It's because the manga was serialised on a shounen magazine. It's not the first time something like this has happened. Yeah I mentioned that in my original post, but again if we're going by the definition of shounen/shoujo and not where it was published (so shounen meaning for a boy demographic and shoujo for girls), then this is clearly a shoujo. It's like saying that if Naruto was published in Shojo Beat it would classify it as a shoujo, which like, idk doesn't feel like that fits to me (mainly/especially with how it writes its female characters, but that's a whole other can of worms lol). |
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| Why Banana Fish is considered a shoujo and Fuufu Ijou considered as seinen? |
 “Once you've been loved once and have loved once, you cannot forget it.” ― Natsume Takashi |
LoganMcClure21 said: Basic answer is the author says it’s meant for a Shoujo audience and the magazine it’s in is now changing it’s demographics to have a bunch at once but it was once a shonen only magazine so it’s labeled as one I think this is the most clear answer I've been given, or at least the one that makes the most sense to me. Thank you! kindakobrossly said: Cause unlike shoujos, the mc doesn’t want love and doesn’t develop any romantic feelings for anyone yet, and romcoms are in most cases shounens. All demographics (shounen, shoujo, josei, seinen) can be rom-coms, so I don't think that's a good point. And shounens can be romances (dress up darling, rent a girlfriend, etc), so having romantic feelings isn't a deciding factor on which demographic it's made for. As for why those examples I provided are considered shounen/seinen and not why I would consider Romantic Killer as such brings me to my next point: Natsuki_SanJuan said: Why Banana Fish is considered a shoujo and Fuufu Ijou considered as seinen? I haven't seen any of those two shows/mangas, so I can't tell you definitively why I think one belongs to the other, however when looking up Fuufu Ijou, I feel like the overt sexualization of the female lead is a big point as to why it's considered for men. Just look at every single volume cover for an example. With Romantic Killer, one of the reasons I would consider it a shoujo rather than a shounen when in relation to this particular topic is because the shots in the anime don't sexualize the female characters even when it has a chance to do so. Take the scene in episode 1 for example where Anzu falls down the stairs of the subway in front of Kazuki. There's a shot from behind her where she's on her knees and arguing with Riri, but the framing of the shot avoids showing her butt where shounen/seinen anime would typically do just that. I'm not saying that this specific point is the deciding factor on why it's a shoujo, just something to consider. |
pastelfeelingsNov 1, 2022 9:44 AM
| This show is what you get if you take a cliché shoujo premise, put a comedic twist on it, and then turn it into a shounen series instead. Of course there's going to be elements reminiscent of shoujo, that's the whole idea, but that doesn't mean it isn't clearly a shounen series in terms of execution. I would have felt lied to if you tried to tell me this series was "literally" a shoujo, and that it was just being mislabeled as a shounen, this is simply not the case. Granted, it's ambitious to make a shounen out of a reverse harem premise, even if it's largely comedic/parody oriented, but the reverse harem stuff here is largely inoffensive to straight males, this portrayal would be pretty disappointing in an actual shoujo. |
LostSpectreNov 1, 2022 10:26 AM
| If you reply back to me and I never respond, I lost interest and don't care. Sorry about that. |
LostSpectre said: This show is what you get if you take a cliché shoujo premise, put a comedic twist on it, and then turn it into a shounen series instead. Of course there's going to be elements reminiscent of shoujo, that's the whole idea, but that doesn't mean it isn't clearly a shounen series in terms of execution. I would have felt lied to if you tried to tell me this series was "literally" a shoujo, and that it was just being mislabeled as a shounen, this is simply not the case. Granted, it's ambitious to make a shounen out of a reverse harem premise, even if it's largely comedic/parody oriented, but the reverse harem stuff here is largely inoffensive to straight males, this portrayal would be pretty disappointing in an actual shoujo. I can see where you're coming from, but concerning that last comment of this portrayal being disappointing if it were shoujo, I have to disagree very much on that -- at least on a personal level. I've consumed many typical shoujo content and I'd consider myself a big fan, and in my mind seeing as I consider this a shoujo over a shounen, I'm not disappointed at all. In fact it very much fits the mould of a shoujo still. The whole base of the story is the same as any other otome/shoujo, with just the comedic twist of the main girl not wanting to fall in love, but she still very much does in the end which is why I think bringing up the twist is a moot point. It's still a romance, it's still a reverse harem, the girl still falls in love, the guys are still hot/cute/sweet/appealing to a female demographic, etc, etc. I know this may not be what you were implying so I'm just saying this as a general point, but shoujo stories/romance can still be enjoyed by/considered inoffensive to straight men and still be considered shoujo. It doesn't have to become or be considered shounen for straight men to find enjoyment in it. |
pastelfeelings said: I already said it's basically a shoujo premise, and I didn't say that the twist makes it a shounen, it's a shounen because the execution is easily more similar to a shounen than a shoujo, but maybe we need some real shoujo experts to weigh in. It's not that shoujo fans couldn't appreciate this series, they just might be disappointed if they expected to find a "true" shoujo. As for the second part, I'm just being practical, the majority of straight males probably don't want to see a more "intense" romantic/sexual focus on male characters who are presented in a way that is intended to appeal to heterosexual women, so that's why I found it relevant to comment on the "inoffensive" nature of the reverse harem aspect here. LostSpectre said: This show is what you get if you take a cliché shoujo premise, put a comedic twist on it, and then turn it into a shounen series instead. Of course there's going to be elements reminiscent of shoujo, that's the whole idea, but that doesn't mean it isn't clearly a shounen series in terms of execution. I would have felt lied to if you tried to tell me this series was "literally" a shoujo, and that it was just being mislabeled as a shounen, this is simply not the case. Granted, it's ambitious to make a shounen out of a reverse harem premise, even if it's largely comedic/parody oriented, but the reverse harem stuff here is largely inoffensive to straight males, this portrayal would be pretty disappointing in an actual shoujo. I can see where you're coming from, but concerning that last comment of this portrayal being disappointing if it were shoujo, I have to disagree very much on that -- at least on a personal level. I've consumed many typical shoujo content and I'd consider myself a big fan, and in my mind seeing as I consider this a shoujo over a shounen, I'm not disappointed at all. In fact it very much fits the mould of a shoujo still. The whole base of the story is the same as any other otome/shoujo, with just the comedic twist of the main girl not wanting to fall in love, but she still very much does in the end which is why I think bringing up the twist is a moot point. It's still a romance, it's still a reverse harem, the girl still falls in love, the guys are still hot/cute/sweet/appealing to a female demographic, etc, etc. I know this may not be what you were implying so I'm just saying this as a general point, but shoujo stories/romance can still be enjoyed by/considered inoffensive to straight men and still be considered shoujo. It doesn't have to become or be considered shounen for straight men to find enjoyment in it. |
| If you reply back to me and I never respond, I lost interest and don't care. Sorry about that. |
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