Week 5

What is the ‘shōjo’ and how does it often function in anime?

Shojo is a genre of Anime or Manga that has a primary target audience of young girls with a focus on relationships romantic and personal, Shojo can also be taken in the literal meaning of girl or young girl.

The function of the ‘shojo’ in anime, one could say that they serve as a symbol of the changes that occur in modern society Naiper (2005) while depending on the genre of the anime they serve different purposes in context of the show or manga just like western comics writers such as Herge wrote the females in limited capacity in tin tin and used as nuisances with the only female character of real note being Madam Castafiore, The same could be said for anime Shojo and Josei anime and manga focus closely on females and they’re personal relationships while Ecchi anime using them more for erotic purposes where their main purpose is providing Fan Service. Ecchi can be found in most Shonen or Seinen anime as they have a primarly male audience.

Shojo anime normally traverses through a girls first love one that springs to mind is Maid Sama! a light hearted romantic comedy shojo anime that i have personally watched 2 or 3 times it is an anime where the FML(Female Lead) is the MC(Main Character) and she is the Student Council President at a recently co-ed male school and is trying to clean up the schools image to get more females to attend maintaining a strict attitude with the male students being coined as a demon while also on the contrary working part time as a maid waitress due to her families financial situation where the ML(Male Lead) then finds out while having a bad reputation at school and keeps it a secret to toy with her as they slowly fall in love. The purpose of Shojo is to provide a relatable but simplified version of a female that one could relate to while giving a back seat for the male characters which in some cases will not exist in any real capacity such as Madoka Magicka which explores a more Physiological side with an all female cast.

Napier, S. J. (2005). Anime from Akira to Howl’s moving castle: Experiencing contemporary Japanese animation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.