We don’t get long-running shoujo series like Sailor Moon anymore.
Summary:
Shoujo anime has been on a decline for a while — it feels like there’s less of them now.
The demographic is pretty loosely defined, and many female-oriented anime aren’t labeled as shoujo.
A lot of modern shounen series have a lot of female fans, indicating a change in mindset.
The currently airing A Sign of Affection (Yubisaki to Renren) has unexpectedly become popular with the general audience. The acclaim is well-deserved, but it’s somewhat unusual for a shoujo manga adaptation to become almost mainstream these days. Especially if you consider the fact that shoujo series aren’t that popular anymore.
There used to be a lot of shoujo anime
Shoujo series have been around for a long time. Many older fans may remember growing up with anime like Cardcaptor Sakura and Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, which we don’t see anymore.
For those who got into anime later, the 00s had a lot of shoujo series like Ouran High School Host Club (Ouran Koukou Host Club), Kaichou wa Maid-sama! and Nana. We rarely get adaptations of new shoujo romance manga now — even the recently-released Fruits Basket is adapted from an older manga that already had an anime in 2001.
The issues with shoujo anime
Shoujo, like shounen, is a very broad demographic — the target audience is just “young girls”, implying any age between elementary and high school. The anime for younger girls is much less widespread now, at least with most Western otaku.
Precure is among the most popular franchises in Japan and pretty much pushed most of the competition. Besides, there’s just not many long-running anime anymore.
Anime like A Sign of Affection — which are made for an older, but still shoujo, audience — indeed are a rarity nowadays. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s less anime for female audiences now. After all, labels like “shounen” and “shoujo” only apply to manga adaptations.
Demographic labels aren’t everything
Many fans have also noticed that more and more female fans watch shounen anime these days. While that always has been true for some authors (like Rumiko Takahashi with her shounen series InuYasha and Ranma ½), now, almost every mainstream shounen has a huge female fanbase.
Good examples of shounen series with huge female fanbases are Jujutsu Kaisen and Haikyuu!!. These seem to be more popular with female otaku than many actual shoujo series — indicating the change in mindset.
One thing shoujo manga has always been criticized for is how tropey it often is. Series like Fruits Basket and A Sign of Affection are clear outliers here.
In reality, the trend isn’t bad per se. We need to focus less on the intended audience and more on the qualities of the series itself, and the demographic labels might disappear in the future altogether.
We don’t get long-running shoujo series like Sailor Moon anymore.
Summary:
Shoujo anime has been on a decline for a while — it feels like there’s less of them now.
The demographic is pretty loosely defined, and many female-oriented anime aren’t labeled as shoujo.
A lot of modern shounen series have a lot of female fans, indicating a change in mindset.
The currently airing A Sign of Affection (Yubisaki to Renren) has unexpectedly become popular with the general audience. The acclaim is well-deserved, but it’s somewhat unusual for a shoujo manga adaptation to become almost mainstream these days. Especially if you consider the fact that shoujo series aren’t that popular anymore.
There used to be a lot of shoujo anime
Shoujo series have been around for a long time. Many older fans may remember growing up with anime like Cardcaptor Sakura and Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, which we don’t see anymore.
For those who got into anime later, the 00s had a lot of shoujo series like Ouran High School Host Club (Ouran Koukou Host Club), Kaichou wa Maid-sama! and Nana. We rarely get adaptations of new shoujo romance manga now — even the recently-released Fruits Basket is adapted from an older manga that already had an anime in 2001.
The issues with shoujo anime
Shoujo, like shounen, is a very broad demographic — the target audience is just “young girls”, implying any age between elementary and high school. The anime for younger girls is much less widespread now, at least with most Western otaku.
Precure is among the most popular franchises in Japan and pretty much pushed most of the competition. Besides, there’s just not many long-running anime anymore.
Anime like A Sign of Affection — which are made for an older, but still shoujo, audience — indeed are a rarity nowadays. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s less anime for female audiences now. After all, labels like “shounen” and “shoujo” only apply to manga adaptations.
Demographic labels aren’t everything
Many fans have also noticed that more and more female fans watch shounen anime these days. While that always has been true for some authors (like Rumiko Takahashi with her shounen series InuYasha and Ranma ½), now, almost every mainstream shounen has a huge female fanbase.
Good examples of shounen series with huge female fanbases are Jujutsu Kaisen and Haikyuu!!. These seem to be more popular with female otaku than many actual shoujo series — indicating the change in mindset.
One thing shoujo manga has always been criticized for is how tropey it often is. Series like Fruits Basket and A Sign of Affection are clear outliers here.
In reality, the trend isn’t bad per se. We need to focus less on the intended audience and more on the qualities of the series itself, and the demographic labels might disappear in the future altogether.
