W5: Questions

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

Shoujo (romanised as shōjo) literally translates to English as “young woman.” A genre designed to aim itself at the female demographic which, “Unlike boys’ and men’s manga [known as shounen (or shōnen)], which tend to revolve around action or humor, shōjo manga are intensely personal in nature.” (Thorn, 2005.) Shoujo manga and anime usually cover subject genres like romance and slice of life within a realistic setting.

Now the line can be very thin in deciding which genre certain manga and anime fall into, as an example ‘My Hero Academia’ is about a young boy who is born enters a new school with his new “quirk” (which is the world’s term for a superpower). He meets other teens with their own unique quirks as they become a team to protect the innocent people of this world. Versus ‘Beyond the Boundary,’ which follows a high-school boy who is genetically half-demon and his encounters with a girl of a ‘cursed blood’ clan. Together, they battle the demons of their world and their personal problems.

‘My Hero Academia’ falls into the shounen line because the arcs focus more on the action battles and how the characters will escape unscathed. They have strong bonds with each other- focusing big on the strained relationship between Midori Crane and Katsuki Bakugo- and certain episodes will focus on their interactions with one another. However, the big draw in is the action. All of their quirks and how they play into the fights, how the animation will show them in all their glory.

Whereas, ‘Beyond the Boundary’ arcs focus more on the character’s relationships rather than the worldly risks. The biggest being the relationship between Akihito Kanbara and Mirai Kuriyama, and how the two naturally progress into a romantic relationship.

All in all, Shoujo stories are likely those from the romance genre focusing specifically on young love, such as From Me to You (Kimi ni Todoke), Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun (Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun), and Saint Tail (Kaitou Saint Tail). Or has a focus on female friendships, like Sound! Euphonium (Hibike! Euphonium), and A Place Further Than The Universe (Sora yori mo Tooi Basho).

References:

Toku, M. (2005). Shojo manga: Girl power! Chico Statements Magazine. https://web.archive.org/web/20111010233300/www.csuchico.edu/pub/cs/spring_06/feature_03.html

Thorn, R. M. (2001). What are Shoujo manga? The Japan Quarterly. https://web.archive.org/web/20070219032133/matt-thorn.com/shoujo_manga/japan_quarterly/index.html

Scully, R. (2015). What is Shoujo? SourceFedNERD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-8jpZ2GEOs