Who reads shojo manga?

[Matsuura-kun]

I realize a lot of people don't mind reading shojo manga. I asked a
Japanese friend and he says that not many of his Japanese friends or him
reads shojo manga. And he thinks not many guys at all read shojo manga
in Japan. Is this true? If it is, maybe it's because of the difference
in sexual equality that allows us to say "it's okay to read girl comics
and for girls to read guy comics" where as it might sound a bit strange
to say this in Japan...
I don't know... any feedback as to who reads shojo?

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Lawrence Wan |Brown Japanese Culture Association Anime Coordinator
PO Box 3054 |
Brown University | A Dedicated Member Of The
Providence, RI 02912| *** Arimi Fan Club ***
tel. (401) 863-6884 | ****************
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[Anna DeWitt]

Matsuura-kun <Y...@brown.edu> wrote:

> I don't know... any feedback as to who reads shojo?

I do on occasion, if I like the art or it's been recommended to me.
I'm male, mid 30s, some college.

SKJAM!
(borrowed account)

[Enrique Conty]

In article <4ki3qg$q...@cocoa.brown.edu> Matsuura-kun <Y...@brown.edu> writes:
>
> I realize a lot of people don't mind reading shojo manga. I asked a
>Japanese friend and he says that not many of his Japanese friends or him
>reads shojo manga. And he thinks not many guys at all read shojo manga
>in Japan. Is this true?

Just like in the US, there *is* kind of a social stigma associated with it.
I mean, I know many otherwise sensible guys who would balk at walking
out of the comic shop holding a comic book labelled "Flower Comics"
with some willowy-looking fellow on the soft pastel cover...

> I don't know... any feedback as to who reads shojo?

I do, if it's good.

Aside: anyone else see "Love Story" in the latest Manga Vision?
Rather disturbing "dark side of love" type story... @_@;;
--
Enrique Conty | co...@cig.mot.com | http://www.mcs.net/~conty
NuVista+ Mac genlock/video capture board for sale | Wargame stuff for sale!
Check out Anime Central, http://www.mcs.net/~docangst/3w/ac/
Down with Daylight Savings Time!

[Freday!!!]

>
> > I don't know... any feedback as to who reads shojo?

> I do on occasion, if I like the art or it's been recommended to me.
> I'm male, mid 30s, some college.
> SKJAM!
> (borrowed account)
>

I do, usually! I'm a girl, but I admit I read more shonen manga than Shoujo
manga.

-Freda
-------MR.CHILDREN MR.CHILDREN MR.CHILDREN MR.CHILDREN MR.CHILDREN--------

Freday!!!
University of California, Irvine
E-mail: fl...@uci.edu

---B'Z B'Z B'Z B'Z B'Z B'Z B'Z B'Z B'Z B'Z B'Z B'Z B'Z B'Z B'Z B'Z B'Z----

[Edmund Yee]

In article <4ki3qg$q...@cocoa.brown.edu>, Matsuura-kun <Y...@brown.edu> says:

> I realize a lot of people don't mind reading shojo manga. I asked a
>Japanese friend and he says that not many of his Japanese friends or him
>reads shojo manga. And he thinks not many guys at all read shojo manga

>in Japan. Is this true? If it is, maybe it's because of the difference
>in sexual equality that allows us to say "it's okay to read girl comics
>and for girls to read guy comics" where as it might sound a bit strange
>to say this in Japan...

> I don't know... any feedback as to who reads shojo?

>Lawrence Wan |Brown Japanese Culture Association Anime Coordinator

Possibly that not many male Japanese would admit to reading Shojo manga.
I know a few who do but they are my friends so they could admit it to
me personally (one of them is a huge CLAMP fan btw). The shonen market
seems to be rather stable/static while the shojo market is still growing.

Ed Yee

[Lianne Burwell]

In article <4ki3qg$q...@cocoa.brown.edu>, Matsuura-kun <Y...@brown.edu> says:
>
>
> I realize a lot of people don't mind reading shojo manga. I asked a
>Japanese friend and he says that not many of his Japanese friends or him
>reads shojo manga. And he thinks not many guys at all read shojo manga
>in Japan. Is this true? If it is, maybe it's because of the difference
>in sexual equality that allows us to say "it's okay to read girl comics
>and for girls to read guy comics" where as it might sound a bit strange
>to say this in Japan...
> I don't know... any feedback as to who reads shojo?
>

OK, so I'm female. But I read mainly Shoujo manga. I started with
Shonen, since it was all I could find for a while. Then I found a
Canadian store I could special order from, and my reading gradually
became pretty much exclusively Shoujo.

I started with CLAMP, then added From Eroica With Love and
Chie Shinohara's horror (Umi no Yami, Tsuki no Kage etc..), Chiho
Saito's romances, PSME, Here is Greenwood, Yun Kouga...

The last shonen manga I bought was Silent Mobius #7 last summer.
There just aren't many that appeal to me any more, which is also
why my translated manga buying has dropped to about nil.

Lianne Burwell
lbur...@cyberus.ca

[Shawn Hagen]

In article <4ki3qg$q...@cocoa.brown.edu>, Matsuura-kun <Y...@brown.edu>
says:

> I realize a lot of people don't mind reading shojo manga. I asked a
>Japanese friend and he says that not many of his Japanese friends or him
>reads shojo manga. And he thinks not many guys at all read shojo manga
>in Japan. Is this true? If it is, maybe it's because of the difference
>in sexual equality that allows us to say "it's okay to read girl comics
>and for girls to read guy comics" where as it might sound a bit strange
>to say this in Japan...

Well I haven't really been paying attention to who buys what in
what section of the stores.
Hmmm, maybe it would be worth asking the clerks what they think?
What I do notice is that no one ever gives me a second look when I
buy Shojo stuff beyond the first look I get just for buying anything
in the first place. Well one of my students thought it was pretty
funny that I was reading Rayearth but other than that....

Nobody is there. Nobody Knows what that is. Nobody knows where
they are going. But Everyone knows that everything is chaos.
-The Analysis of Ghost in the Shell
Shawn Hagen (ha...@gol.com)

[miyuki fukuma]

>.
>.
I don't know if guys actually buy them in Japan (I can only wish I
lived there), but I do know, to my surprise, that they do read them.
For example the author of "Here Is Greenwood" has commented that
half of her readers are guys. The same I think goes for Sailormoon.
It's just that many of the guys seem to borrow them from other people
i.e, younger sister. Might be the macho image thing eh? It's just
that shojo manga tend to be "wimpy" love stories, if I interpret a guy's
way of thinking correctly.

Miyuki Fukuma

[Matsuura-kun]

miyuki fukuma <XPJ...@MUSICB.MCGILL.CA> wrote:
>In article <4l0chb$3...@gol2.gol.com> ha...@gol.com (Shawn Hagen) writes:
>>In article <4ki3qg$q...@cocoa.brown.edu>, Matsuura-kun <Y...@brown.edu>
>>says:
>>
>> I realize a lot of people don't mind reading shojo manga. I asked

>>Japanese friend and he says that not many of his Japanese friends

>>reads shojo manga. And he thinks not many guys at all read shojo manga
>>in Japan. Is this true?
>>

>> Well I haven't really been paying attention to who buys what in
>>what section of the stores.
>> Hmmm, maybe it would be worth asking the clerks what they think?
>

>Might be the macho image thing eh? It's just
>that shojo manga tend to be "wimpy" love stories, if I interpret a guy's
>way of thinking correctly.
>

Heh... I know that a lot of my Asian girl friends who like the cute
style read shojo, and those who like the alternative cool style pass it
as sissy girl stuff (feminine movement thing?) This is a generalization,
though. But there is a trend that girls are using guy speech more now,
just to be cool, tough, etc...

=========================================================================

Lawrence Wan |Brown Japanese Culture Association Anime Coordinator