Shoujo series - good for readers, not as good for watchers?

angelx03 · Post by **angelx03** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 10:40 am

There's something that's been bugging me with the shoujo/josei market. It's obviously aimed for girls, but that tends to be case for the manga side and not too much on the anime side. There's no sense in fooling ourselves that there is a insane glut of shoujo manga out there (that's including shounen-ai and yaoi titles).

But for the anime side, there's not much anime DVDs. Hell, there's been instances where there's actual production troubles when R1 companies are dealing with shoujo titles. Recently I heard the status for the zany, shoujo comedy Kodocha may be in limbo because it's becoming a rather poor seller to a point FUNimation only worked on the first 2 seasons.

Then there's ADV where there was an EXTREME limbo of the second season of Super GALS because the first season sales tanked badly (luckily Right Stuf saved it at the expense of making it sub-only). Princess Tutu was in danger as well since there was a long delay between the first volume and its subsequent volumes.

And then there's Viz's release of Full Moon wo Sagashite where they decided to release one volume every three months which is really slow considering it is a 52-episode series (interestingly to note that Hikaru no Go had the same release plan, but now it's bumped up for having a bi-monthly release because its popularity grew a bit).

So the one thing I question is that are these situations caused by the fact that casual fangirls are not much DVD watchers? Do they prefer reading the titles rather than watching the ones that they're based on? Obviously there's something in the female psyche which I don't understand.

gravityrules · Post by **gravityrules** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 2:34 pm

My personal explanation for this:

Generally what makes an anime more attractive to me than the manga it's based on it the fact that there is movement, color, sound, etc. Shoujo stories don't need action, color, etc. to be good, they just need drama, cute guys, whatever, which can be acheived well in manga form and sometimes better than in anime form (where artwork often suffers). A shounen series on the other hand tends to need all the action and noise to be interesting, which I why I tend to like shounen anime but shoujo manga. Basically, in a shoujo manga the fun is in reading as fast or as slow as you like and pausing on pages with good artwork. It's irritating and awkward to pause an anime just so you can look at the cute guy longer. In shounen manga on the other hand, it seems to me that the action is just like a freeze frame. It needs the movement in anime to be intersting and you need the sound. Of course there are series that don't fit this patern. I personally love the Kodocha anime because I think you need to see Sana's insane hyperness to really appreciate it. I like the anime versions of La Corda d'Oro and Nodame Cantabile because you need the sound for those stories to work. This is kind of the same thing with Full Moon, except the manga is very different than the anime, and much shorter. I've seen about ~20 episodes and I got bored because I had to watch it at the speed it was shown, which seemed kinda slow to me.

Did that make sense?

It does make me a little sad that good shows like Kodocha are getting phased out.

Orwell · Post by **Orwell** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 3:16 pm

Well, that's an R1 company though. Does the appeal of shoujo manga excel on both sides of the pacific? I would guess that the anime dvds recieve about as much love as the manga do here from the female market. Of the few times I've been in a shop specialing in anime/manga *shudder*, I've seen a lot of the material aimed at males. Sure, the title may feature some stuff for both sexes, but on the whole it's probably going to be bought by a guy.

DTJB · Post by **DTJB** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 6:37 pm

It's unfortunate that stuff such as this has to happen. As much as I enjoy anime and manga, I don't purchase too much of it all at once. I tend to get a volume of a series I like, watch it, and then buy a volume of a completely different series. It gets to be a while before I get back to that first series.

This kind of buying pattern seems to fail for me on shoujo it looks like. I'm still buying the CCS anime and the Kodocha manga, but I've noticed that some of the volumes for each are getting harder and harder to find. Not only do I enjoy these titles, another problem is that I have some AMV ideas I want to use for CCS (same for Kodocha). Not having easy access to all of the footage would mess up my plans. Personally, I hope the Kodocha anime doesn't phase out, been excited about getting it at some point, just waiting for some box sets or something (can ya blame me? It's a long series).

Too bad this sort of thing has to happen, but it's not surprising. Most R1 companies go for a series that's guaranteed to generate sales, and there is always that certain type of series that the masses are looking for. It's not just shoujo, a lot of the older titles share the same fate. As much as I enjoy watching a series like Rose of Versailles, I realize there's no way in hell it's going to be picked up for a stateside release.

Cornwiggle · Post by **Cornwiggle** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 4:31 pm

DTJB wrote: Personally, I hope the Kodocha anime doesn't phase out, been excited about getting it at some point, just waiting for some box sets or something (can ya blame me? It's a long series).

It doesn't, it follows the manga first for the first 20 or episodes, then there's about 20 or episodes of filler (though it's filler that expands on the characters and some loose ends that were never touched upon) then it continues with the manga. So yeah, it doesn't phaze out, even the filler is enjoyable.

Cornwiggle · Post by **Cornwiggle** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 4:46 pm

Cornwiggle wrote:
DTJB wrote: Personally, I hope the Kodocha anime doesn't phase out, been excited about getting it at some point, just waiting for some box sets or something (can ya blame me? It's a long series).

It doesn't, it follows the manga first for the first 20 or episodes, then there's about 20 or episodes of filler (though it's filler that expands on the characters and some loose ends that were never touched upon) then it continues with the manga. So yeah, it doesn't phaze out, even the filler is enjoyable.

Grr, sorry, I was in another state of mind, I see what you mean now. I wouldn't count on it phazing out, FUNi got it, they usually stick with series, even if they are long. They did DBZ (more than once), DB, YYH, Shin-chan, yeah they'll release them all. Don't worry about that.