Sure, Shounen Is Good But Have You Tried Shoujo?

By Ester.

Before I begin, let me define what Shounen and Shoujo mean for those who may not know.

What is Shounen?

Shounen is demographic genre of anime/manga that is targeted to young boys between the ages of 12-18. Shounen anime contains a lot of humour and extraordinary plots with an overly loud male protagonist (however this is not often the case), that tends to voice their distress or happiness very often. Shounen anime usually focuses on the growth (both inner and outer growth, but emphasis on the outer growth) of the male protagonist. As a society men a raised to look for their place in the world and being the “man of the house” by getting a job and providing for their family. This explains why the main character in Shounen anime are always after a concrete goal e.g. becoming an hokage (Naruto) or being the number one hero (My Hero Academia).

The art style tends to be less flowery (compared to Shoujo anime), composed of darker colours and is usually sharper and more defined. It has more action sequences with many dynamic angles and poses.

What is Shoujo?

Shoujo is targeted to young women between the ages of 12-18. There are plenty of different genres for this type of anime however these are the main ones: those involving romance, typically set in high school; those featuring magical girls trying to save the world; and those who focus on male characters, which doesn’t always involve romance.

Shoujo focuses on both inner and emotional growth. Shoujo also highlights the importance of friendship, family and love. The focus on Shoujo anime is the main character trying to grow and emotionally develop into the person they desire to be. Most Shoujo characters tend to be battling with their self-esteem or their introvertedness. These are things that teenage girls typically tend to struggle with this (although this is not the case as any gender can experience the same issues).

The art style tends to be more flowery with an exaggerated tone. The female characters are usually drawn with big eyes and lashes and the male characters usually have smaller eyes with broad shoulders and stereotypical 'manly' features. Shoujo is usually composed of having lighter colours (as compared to Shounen, however that is not always the case).

Why should Shounen fans give Shoujo a chance?

There is a common misconception when it comes to Shoujo anime, it’s not only about romance!

People forget that Shoujo is a demographic so there’s a lot of sub-genres that are under it, including historical series, romantic comedies, stories about aspiring ballerinas, artists, actresses, athletes, occult and horror series.

It also explores different themes on issues that many people face today such as mental health, personal growth, hardships that people face in schools or their daily lives - such as friendships and relationships. It has a true-to-life theme which can make the watcher relate more to the characters. The film - A Silent Voice, portrays some of these hardships. The main character learns how to live and deal with his mental health by learning more about himself whilst amending past relationships.

I’d also like to encourage Shoujo fans that haven't watched Shounen to do so.

Watching Shoujo anime can be tiring at times and even repetitive (however this can be the case for any genre). Shoujo explores and emphasizes the idea of inner personal growth, whereas Shounen gives you a different perspective, focusing more on physical growth. The main characters tend to have an ongoing desire to better themselves, and often face challenges to their abilities, skills and maturity, where self-perfection, self-discipline, sacrifice in the cause of duty and honorable service to society, community, family and friends are themes that are stressed about in shounen anime.

For example, in My Hero Academia the main character Izuku Midoriya is trying to become a number one hero, in a world were 90% of the people have powers known as quirks. Although Izuku originally didn't inherit quirk (no spoilers here! - if you haven't yet, go watch My Hero Academia to find out how he achieves this goal), that doesn't stop him from working hard towards his goal of becoming the number one hero.

This concludes the end of my post. Although an anime or a genre might not be appealing because it’s not initially targeted to you, it shouldn’t stop you from watching it. Be open to expanding your horizons, you never know what gems you may find. We need a good balance of both, watching one specific type of anime can get boring (especially when you've watched quite a lot of it).

I recommend to watch Toradora, Fruits Basket or Maid Sama! if you want get into Shoujo and Keroro Gunso, Demon Slayer or Dororo if you want to start watching Shounen anime.

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