6. What is the ‘shōjo’ and how does it often function in anime?
Shōjo, literally translated as ‘young woman’ in English, is a genre of anime and manga that focuses on romantic relationships between leading characters and the emotions of characters. The term shōjo is often designated to girls that age between 12 and 13, however, it also alludes to the fine line between adulthood and childhood during a person’s development. This is seen with how a lot of protagonists within shōjo are distinctly in this age range and are predominantly female. Despite the genre being design specifically for an audience of young female teenagers, adult males surprisingly make up a significant proportion of the shōjo audience and readership. A possible reason for this as stated by Susan J. Napier is that shōjo stories “embody the potential for unfettered change and excitement that is far less available to Japanese males, who are caught in the network of demanding workforce responsibilities” (Napier, 2001, p. 119). For these Japanese males, shōjo stories are effectively a form of escapism from their everyday lives in the workplace where they undertake stressful jobs.
This is somewhat emblematic of the entire shōjo genre, it is primarily a form of escapism, featuring a highly romanticised version of reality. Many worlds depicted in shōjo have a dream-like quality to them and are incredibly fantastical, Dani Cavallaro describing them as “serenely dreamy and bathed in an atmosphere of magic and wonder” (Cavallaro, 2006, p. 11). These worlds found within shōjo are in clear contrast to the more grounded, graphic, and grittier ones in other anime works with stories revolving around war and technology. A variation on the shōjo found within anime, making it even more magical and dream-like, would be the mahō shōjo which translates to magical girl. This subgenre has a heightened focus on magical and fantasy elements.
Within anime, the shōjo functions predominately as a highly romanticised and emotional love story in which the shōjo protagonist who is often depicted as very feminine, falls in love with the lead male character. Despite often having a female lead, which is fairly uncommon in anime, they lack agency and the male lead will typically be the one to approach them and progress their relationship further in the anime. This is the core of most shōjo anime, they attempt to engross the viewer in an emotional romance. However, there is also common subversion of the shōjo where despite having the appearance of one, the lead heroine is more in line with their male counterparts found in shōnen anime in terms of the agency they have. An example would the young protagonists of Hayao Miyazaki’s works due to his heroine’s age and appearance being representative of shōjo. But instead of them acting as a passive being in a romanticized reality, they are incredibly independent and massively courageous, Dani Cavallaro mentions that they “transcend stereotypical notions of femininity and masculinity” (Cavallaro, 2006, p. 11). There are also other examples of anime that take the common idea of the shōjo and inject them into anime that deal with more complicated ideas, changing the functionality of the shōjo.
References
Cavallaro, D. (2006). The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki. London: McFarland & Company.
Napier, S. (2001). Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke. New York: Palgrave.
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