Trying to get men, even anime content creators, to try to read ONE shojo manga is like pulling teeth lol it’s a real turn off when men in the anime community don’t take you seriously just because you’re a woman who likes shojo. So I think this video will reach a lot more men, and I hope it will get them to pick up at least one shojo manga or anime. I thought this video was really well put together, and very accurate
@@camcam794 Thanks for the compliment and yeah I agree, trying to prove to people that Shojo is more than high school romance (even though Shojo romance is still way better lol) is always so tiring. Im hoping this video does get at least a few more people into it
@@FencingMessiah if you saw the chart at the beginning of the video, girls in Japan, are more likely to have read Shonen and shojo. Vs boys are less likely to have read shojo. From what I’ve read, it’s the same in the west. That tells me, women are taking media, for the male audience, seriously. So why aren’t men doing the same? I’m just talking about manga and anime.
@@FencingMessiahi grew up with a dad who watched Sex in the City, and grandparents and uncles who watched telenovelas, (Spanish soap operas), a brother who liked Sailor Moon, and a sister who like Dragon Ball Z. Media based around gender was never really important. It was always what can you learn from this piece of media?
I highly recommend Princess Tutu. Obligatory note: yes, the name sounds silly. But it is a story about the importance of emotion and about storybook characters fighting the author to decide their own fates. It is well worth your time.
to break the societal idea that female-centric interests aren't worth pursuit, men need to overcome their egos just enough to look beyond their prejudices. it takes real strength of mind to admit being wrong about some previously-held beliefs, which is unfortunately being discouraged in the current social climate. i wish more men went into these things without being ridiculed by peers or by their own inner voices.
"to break the societal idea that female-centric interests aren't worth pursuit" Interesting. I'm Japanese but just like me you're living in a highly competitive capitalist society in which half of the consumers are women, right?
"to break the societal idea that female-centric interests aren't worth pursuit" Firstly, "female-centric" is so vague. Battle Angel Ailita, Soul Eater, Ghost In The Shell have female MCs, those literally have women at the center of their narratives and guys love those manga. They're just not shoujo. But maybe by "female-centric" you're talking about themes and presentation that are feminine-coded and are meant to appeal women. Well, umm, yeah, those works are _literally_ not meant for men, so of course most men wouldn't be interested. If women like shounen, that's on them; that doesn't make men obligated to like shoujo. Moreover, not being into something that literally isn't made to appeal to you, doesn't mean you don't think those interests are not worth pursuing, in general. If you ask most men, they'll tell you that they're not into shoujo, but most of us wouldn't have a problem with women or other men being into it. (Yeah, that stereotypical frat-boy 90s-movie bully who ridicules other guys for not liking what they like? That dude doesn't represent most men.) In other words, most men are capable of realizing that shoujo is valuable for other people. Which is why that whole spiel about men needing to overcome their ego rings so hollow to me, like some trite, terminally online, feminist cringe. And on a side note: isn't it funny how women (or feminists, male n female) are so against "mansplaining", yet at the drop of a hat, they're always ready to tell men what they need to do or what they ought to be like? The irony. Feminists have the biggest egos because they think they have men and women all figured out and know what's best for everybody. (Hint: men are all toxic and need to change except the gay or trans ones, but women are infallible and deserve unconditional praise and respect.)
@@PinkNymphetamine22 lmao now it's about egos and seemingly men are the only ones with prejudices. Maybe some men just don't like female centric narratives just like many women don't like male centric ones and think they're stupid. People need to move on and stop worrying about what kind of fantasy media someone watches and worry more about who a person really is.
@@FencingMessiah it's not an issue that anyone can watch/read whatever they want, the issue is the prejudice against a demographic and straight-up slander against it. There's a stupid number of guys/gals who dismiss shoujo and call it all superfluous or mid on the basis that it's aimed at girls/writen by women, even though they probably never picked it up. It's as if I said that all shounen is mid sausage fest just because I hate men or male-centric stories, which I think you'd agree is a shallow and dumb thing to say because I'd only be closing myself off some of the best things I've ever read. Same goes with shoujo. They're not even genres, they're demographics, and that's the issue!! My ass ain't gonna miss out on some of the best crime thriller mangas out there just because it was published in a magazine for girls, that's stupid!!
Honestly, trying to get men to watch or read ANYHTING feminine is ridiculously hard, shows like Fruits Basket, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Madoka Magica, and Nana have some of the best character writing and stories I've ever seen, but so many men just won't get to experience them because they refuse to go near anything they consider girly
@@w00rmz why does this matter? People who hate extreme violence and grape will never get to enjoy berserk. People who hate nihilistic themes will never get to enjoy death note. Like, there are plenty of manga and manga genres that people won't get to experience because of their hang ups
@FencingMessiah it's reasonable to not want to watch berserk bc of those things, because gore and sa can be really difficult (and sometimes even triggering) to watch, same for things with nihilstic themes, what I'm talking about is misogynistic men, who refuse to watch something, entirely because it's girly in nature, which isn't difficult to watch on it's own. These shoujo series that I listed also have depictions of sa, gore, and nihilism, them being catered towards women is the only thing stopping these men from watching them, which is what makes me so upset, they're missing out on really well told stories with similar themes entirely because of the femininety displayed.
@@w00rmz if you know they're misogynistic that's one thing, but just because a man doesn't want to read shoujo doesn't mean they are. Plenty of genres go unwatched and unread. Some people can't handle horror others are bored by art house stuff. Preoccupying yourself with whether or not someone likes the things you like is pointless. Not to mention theres plenty of misogynistic men and women that read shoujo
@@FencingMessiah you are purposely missing the point I am making, it's not that they don't like it that's the problem, it's that they aren't even bothering to TRY to like it, because they think it's stupid and couldn't possibly have a story with deeper themes, because they see shoujo and think exclusively "romance"
@@w00rmz I'm not missing the point. I'm saying even not trying it because you don't think you're gonna like it based on its target demographic is not misogynistic. I don't have to try certain foods to know they're probably not for me. There are many women that don't try certain media aimed at men and think that their themes and tropes are stupid. There's even women that don't take media aimed at women seriously. I don't take it personally
"Fictional Empathy drives real-life perspectives." Oh man, thank you SO much for this! I've been a big shoujo fan since I started getting deeper into collecting manga back in 2021, and that right there hits the nail on the head for why I want my guys to get into it. Learning to be okay with your emotions, big and small as well as the intense and difficult to understand alongside the smaller ones, is literally thr way to find who you are and accept that person, as well as initiate change. Your video and your style is so digestible but well thought out, and I loved this video so much that you're inspired me to finally take the plunge and start working on my own videos. Thank you, like for real thank you. Had no idea how much I was gonna need this video until now. :D
as an edgy tweenager I was obsessed with masculinity and avoided anything I deemed too sparkly. one day I picked up an old comic called Thomas no Shinzou and it kinda changed the trajectory of my entire self. that and the rest of hagio moto's work helped me figure out why i acted the way i did, putting a name to things i couldn't say. great perspective, really hope this video gets guys to go out and read the good stuff. also im pretty sure miura straight up said that kaze to ki no uta was a direct inspiration for the emotions of beserk and yeah... it shows. also glass mask fan 🤝pls update we're DYING
@@BroJo676 nothing wrong with masculinity itself necessarily, but the real issue was how destructive i acted toward feminine things. I was very emotionally closed off. i was told that femininity was weakness, so i began acting violently and talking down about anything i considered weak. Acted like a big man when i was actually scared of vulnerability. i still present masculine and i still like all the same manly things i did when i was a kid, but now i've recognized different facets of myself and am better for it.
I just read Thomas no Shinzou because of this comment and I am emotionally devastated. This manga gave me so much to think about. It's insane. I cannot thank you enough for recommending this
@@haruspicex I'm happy you enjoyed it and it affected you so deeply 🫂 I used to not understand Juli at all, but as an adult I can see I hated him because I was him lol. The rest of Moto's work is amazing too. Love the way her mind works.
Oh my god, same. I am a woman but I only read shounen - then I picked up a Moto Hagio's manga and wow - it was revolutionary. The way she narrates by introducing almost a false story-background and then revealing the real story only via small and then bigger clues - it blew my mind.
That's a very interesting video, and yeah, as many critics have said in general, male centric media tends to be the baseline. I find it fascinating when men talk about female centric media, because when I, as a woman who grew up with shounen manga and action cartoons, don't tend to have such a distance to the media made for the other gender, like men tend to have towards girly media. But I may be completely off base here. One kinda fascinating thing about shoujo manga is that there's tons of good horror, like Hell Girl, Vampire Princess Miyu, After School Nightmare, God Child (though I prefer Angel Sanctuary from Kaori Yuki because they also get to kill God), and so much more!
Pretty much the same thing for me. I grew up with Card Captor Sakura, Pokemon, Naruto, Mermaid Melody As long as the story is good and the drawing pretty, I'm in. I cant imagine reading like some men do aka "ew its girly, not for me"
I'd love to watch that three-hour video about your deep dive into men and shoujo. It's clear how you've taken so much time and consideration to make this video essay and I appreciate all of that effort
I've been a big male shoujo fan near my whole life and getting other dudes into shoujo equates to talking to the most ignorant mfs known to man sometimes.
Then just give them a synopsis of the story. Personally, I don't care a lot about Shojo. Merit or not, there is a reason Shojo and Josei are marketed as content for girl's consumption. I watched some of them (2 fully) and they do have enjoyable moments but whatever little experience that was, it wasn't undeniably great. Just something you'd watch to kill time or improve your mood. Maybe there are Shojo that will give me a great experience but I haven't found any as of yet.
@@ibrahimihsan2090 You simply don't understand the high levels of stubbornness petty mfs get when you recommend them something they think they wouldn't enjoy even if based on other things they like they obviously would
What annoys me are the guys that quizz the girls when they say they watch anime or read manga because they think they lie or they are doing this for attention. The thing is the only questions they ask are related with shounen anime and nothing else while most of the female fans read, watch and engage with any kind of genre. I think we should be the ones quizzing the guys and not the other way around
@@asagotchi men also read all those genres. It's just that more women read josei and shoujo and why would that make you a bigger fan? It actually just means the most popular stories are male centric
@@Ruby.Aurora correct. The majority of male manga fans do not test female manga fans on manga knowledge. It would be ridiculous if you actually thought that. That's a very specific trait that some fans have and I've seen it from men and I've seen it from women
I can’t begin to express refreshing it is to listen to a man talk about his time reading shojo, enjoying it, and imploring other men to just -give it a chance-
I always recommend Princess Tutu to folks looking to watch more shojo! It directly examines the importance of emotion and what it means to determine your own fate!
what's really irritating is that, at least from my point of view, all this refusal to engage with shoujo and actually _understand_ what it is has led to more than just "dudes avoiding feminine things for no good reason." it seems like it's _redefined_ what the word "shoujo" means to search engines. I was trying to google what shoujo anime are on Netflix, but it was like google fully replaced "shoujo" with "romance." I don't mean that all the resulting lists were of shoujo romance, I mean literally just ROMANCE, shonen included, when I specifically _did not want shonen/seinen._
it was really refreshing to hear a guy's take on shoujo and appreciating it on a deeper level! i really like what you had to say about ego and vulnerability btw
As a massive lover of shojo and josei it’s so lovely to hear a man’s thoughts on this media and have it be positive. So often are these stories pushed to the side as shallow or stupid when they’re actually explorations of the most common aspects of life that not only make us think in new ways but push us to be better people. You don’t need an epic story of battle and death to make something impactful, you just need to connect to people through meaningful ways.
@@UncleHuss1 an impactful show for me was karekano, the message of allowing the people you love to see the flawed sides of yourself and trust they’ll still love you is very dear to me.
I feel that many people in the comments outright generalize the majority of men as “manosphere addicts” for not liking shoujo, but i don’t think it’s as simple as saying that men don’t like reading shoujo because “woman stuff makes you gay”, but because the majority of men just outright look for insight into being more in control with their main driving emotions. Shoujo is more about the way that people connect and react to each other and their emotions, but i feel that most men just want to “master their emotions” and be “solid and resilient” when things go south. Which is why stories that focus on their trauma and the way that they open about their problems to others seem so unappealing to them, because it’s the equivalent of instead of repairing and reinforcing a dam you give in to the pressure. that’s kind of the reason i picked up on when looking at this topic. Idk i think it makes sense.
Honestly one of the best take Here and it funny that nobody Here is trying to debate you , make me Wonder if people really are just Here to feel like they right and not actually being right.
I think you're right, but I think the issue with that is that instead of dealing with their emotions and communicating their feelings in a healthy way, the emotions that get "dammed up" pour out all at once and result in a wall-punching temper tantrum for some men. Instead of being like a dam, they end up being like a balloon that pops. Even dams have spill ways that allow water to be released in a controlled fashion. And I think mature men realize this. My husband was the one who introduced me to sailor moon. I wouldn't have married him if he couldn't communicate (and certainly not if he punched holes in walls). Bottom line is that men would benefit if they could enjoy Shoujo.
feminazis and their simp army has started ideologically attacking obscure subjects like anime. i swear u can find these type of people everywhere even in the spaces that they dont belong
Great video with a very important message! I'm so thankful that my brother and I grew up watching shoujo and shounen anime together, branching out into different genres really helps with exploring all sorts of different facets of the human experience (coming to mind is the way that gender is expressed within OHSHC and how JJBA looks into masculinity + male friendships)
This video went so deep into some of the reasons why I love shoujo, you did an amazing job with this one. Thank you, you've just made my day, subbed immmediately.
While I do really wish Shoujo and Josei had wider appeal I would loathe for fan communities for these series to end up in a MLP “Brony” situation where alot of the men create a toxic atmosphere over a franchise that was, at one point, a space independent from that. Sometimes it feels like you can’t win I guess
Your take on Nana was so wonderful. It’s hard to see that although Hachi is the better of the two even when she I s extremely vulnerable and makes a lot of bad decisions. She has a possibility to learn and be better . It’s Nana who’s actually in a worse position. Her pride, confidence and morals attitude is admirable. It’s her pride that makes her avoid others and therefore avoiding to change. It’s important to have both pride and vulnerability. But while Hachi is willing to change, Nana is not causing her downfall. I never thought of it from a male/masculine perspective. It fits perfectly. Amazingly well done! Subscribed
I wonder if that's why I come across more people who love Nana as a character than Hachi.... Hachi makes more mistakes and can be frustrating for viewers so I get that since Nana on the surface comes off as more put together. But I think it's partly that and partly Nana having more masculine traits that drive her character whereas Hachi displays more typically feminine traits. Like most of the male Nana fans I've talked to have either Nana or Takumi as their favorite character and can be indifferent towards or even dislike Hachi's character. In other series too I find people liking female characters with more masculine traits and downplaying ones with more feminine traits (e.g. Tohru) regardless of how well they're written.
I'm one of those people who was highly frustrated by Hachi. And hearing that she is supposedly the better hero in this video stirred up that old annoyance. But I am willing to be persuaded to see things differently. (Waiting on the dedicated Nana video by the channel host) @blacksiren18135
There are bad shojo that piss you off with pointless drama and feeling of being wishfulments when male characters don’t realistic behavior and reactions. However to the surprise of no one this just as bad as the problem with shonen.
Exactly! You don't have to write off an entire demographic of manga magazines just because there's some trite wish-fufilly junkfood mixed in. Just avoid the series that are trying to make the reader self-insert.
this was amazingly well done. It is insane how some men will dismiss media catered towards women without giving it a chance. i even saw someone say they didn't wanna watch the apothecary diaries because it was a shoujo (even though it's a seinen!)
I hate crunchyroll and their idiotic categorizing, not only do they put seinen titles those under shojo they also have a ton of shojo that aren’t listed as such 🙄 isn’t there someone being paid to sort those 😮💨
im a shoujosei enjoyer myself and i dont necessarily think it's bad that shoujosei doesn’t appeal to guys as they aren't the target demographic. i'm not a very big fan of shonen and am more critical of a show before watching it if it's shounen. it just doesn’t appeal to me anymore. my issue is the straight up dismissal of shoujosei as sappy highschool romance stories when it's a lot more than that. plus, there is nothing wrong with those kinds of stories as long as it's well written. it's a little saddening to me how shoujo is not taken seriously. even by animation studios, and of course, the majority of what comes out is highschool romance so everyone begins to associate it with that. i don't blame a lot of shoujo fans for getting defensive about topics like this but there's no point lol. a person who has made up their mind not to engage with a certain type of media is not going to be convinced.
Another cool thing about women and manga is when you read stories written by women (including in Seinen and Shonen works) because they typically tend to write tragedy in a very subversive manner. Oftentimes I notice that when female mangaka write the tragic circumstances characters face it’s not always in your face (if that makes sense, also not that in your face tragedy is a bad thing either). I think Land of the Lustrous exemplifies this because Phos was a character who’s goal was to become stronger (which is a very typical trope of many shonen stories) but throughout the series it also shows that becoming “stronger” ended up becoming the thing that distorts Phos’s character. I think this could be because of how men and women socialize (with women typically tending to rely on subtext and non verbal social-cues) and how gender narratives effect the things we make, which is super cool and why people should be diversifying the media they consume.
What always drawn me to Shojo and Josei was the emotional aspect. How it dove into psychological and emotional complexities. It felt so raw to read and helped me understand myself better. It also had things that Shonen often lacked. The way it showed women as people and complex representations of gender identity for both men and women. In Shonen the female characters are often very neglected, so seeing female characters actually be written in such a complex way, and actually have their own stories, meant the world to me. Also a lot of my favorite Seinen mangaka are like this aswell. As you mentioned in your video the goat Urasawa. So yeah I think it would benefit a lot of men to get into more Shojo and Josei. These stories have impacted my life as a human being.
I'm not a man and it has ALSO taken time to get into shoujo or feminine works. Being more mature I've realized a lot of the men and male centered works I admired were trash. There was too much teeth in jokes to be funny or appropriate for friends. No growth or care on emotional vulnerability. And I copied it all. Now it is very easy for me to recognize these traits and I still don't know what to do. I don't want to be around adults who act like a seven year old, but I also know how isolated that person is feeling and goodbye it's 3am you're not reading this.
Tbh, it sounds like you are just making yourself miserable. Having emotional maturity doesn't just mean being a stick for the rest of your life; you can still play the fool and have fun.
As a male my favourite anime of all time is natsume and book of friends which is classified as shoujo. I loved how natsume and his struggles are portrayed which also made him my favourite character of all time.
Great analysis! Love to see more people discussing how men are portrayed in shoujo works. Something else I tend to ruminate on as a manga-primary nerd is that shoujo stories aren't as well-suited to the medium of anime, and that becomes a huge barrier for recommending them because so many folks (of all genders) only watch anime/rarely read manga. There aren't many shoujo anime I enjoy, and even fewer that I would ever recommend in place of their original works. Less action, more narration, and intricate line work/character designs all make for works that are less suited for an animated medium. And even the great manga that do get decent anime are rarely fully adapted, so the characters' full arcs are never done justice.
damn, I did not know I've been reading alot of Shoujo all these times. literally have read more than a half of the examples you gave away at the beginning. thing is, I'm not really a big fan of romance. and I dont think i'll ever touch that genre anymore, not after Oyasumi Punpun (that ending fcked me up badly). the only thing that kept me reading was how much BETTER the characters are written/interact than most other manga/manhwa I've read. and this realization really blew my mind, how did I not realize it sooner? thanks for this amazing video and putting a few more wrinkles on my smooth brain
Very good video! I really appreciate you making this video with the hope that more men start reading shoujo. Some of the best life lessons I’ve ever learned come from Shoujo stories, Fruits Basket being one that completely shaped me into who I am when reading it in middle school. And though there are Shonens out there that also left an impact on me, their stories pale in comparison to the interpersonal relationships shoujo creates in its world. These lessons I hold dear to my heart and hope that more people can be inspired by them as well.
This video was excellent 🙏🏼 the editing was also really insanely good and it just enhanced your explanation. Love all the series mentioned. Thank you for shedding some light on these absolute legendary shows/manga
Where has this video been all my life?! If you ever release the long version of the video I’d definitely watch it. Also surprise children of the whales jumpscare, it’s been ages since I found someone else that’s read the series
I am a girl, and I grew up consuming this anime media since my 2nd grade, as a little kid I mostly watched shounen animes rather than josei or shoujo as shonen felt more fun and exciting while shoujo was stuff I couldn't really understand but as I grew up the connection I ft towards shoujo/joseo grew, though I equally love shounen still now as these were a huge part of my childhood but the level of emotional connectivity and know how about the complexity many people can face which I have not yet, made me sometimes depressed and also sometimes lifted my spirits up. Fruits basket might've been the first shoujo, no not even shoujo but the first anime I've ever cried watching for emotionality, like I actually was able to connect to the characters and feel thier pain which made my heart ache and tohru honda just became one of my favorite female characters ever even though I was and am still biased towards this type of characters. I kinda was not very fond of very naive and happy og lucky, ditzy, clumsy, dumb kinda female characters who blushed over nothing constantly cause I felt that it was kinda a misrepresentation of real life girls and deluding people into fantasies and before reading fruits basket I had this prejudice with tohru too and even after reading the first few chapters my perception didn't change but slowly slowly I became to understand how she really was, though she still falls under the archetype of a clumsy, happy-go-lucky girl there was something more to it. Along with conforting and accepting every character in fruits basket I felt like she accepted my own weaknesses, flaws and everything. For the first time I found confort from a fictional character (emotionally) , it was like, though no one in this world accepts or understands me tohru was, and I came to respect her, I didn't ever aspired to became her cuz I knew I never could but she played a huge role in changing my perspective about how a girl or anybody doesn't have to be very intelligent, strong or beautiful or rich or anything out of the ordinary to be a infuencial person on someone's life.
Never in my life have I seen a man being this correct about both shojo and men's emotional development. Absolutely flawless video, and for the ones still wondering, i've read almost all of the mangas mentioned in the video, and they were all at least solid 8/10, so read them, they're worth your time.
it peeves me when guys dismiss liking shoujo because they think girls only like it because the guys are hot and the girl is some bland self-insert. Sure you'll find that kind of shoujo, almost as much as you see similar in shounen, but 9/10 times these guys never actually watched/read the piece of media to properly judge it. I really appreciate your insight about what the shoujo/josei media has to offer.
That's been my experience, most female literature tends to be like 50 Shades of Grey, hyper attractive man that would probably never exist falling in love with bland self insert woman that would never in her wildest dreams be able to lock down a guy like that since this hypothetical man could have anyone. It's like a sexual power fantasy for women to somehow magically pull guys outside their league.
i'm a trans guy with a massive soft spot for shoujo and otome. my experiences are a little different so obviously i'm not the type of dude your video is talking about, but seeing other guys appreciate shoujo just warms my heart i've always thought limiting yourself to one genre was a shame-- even if you find ones you don't like, it doesn't hurt to give something out of your comfort zone a try
As soon as you said Punpun was inspired by shojo, giving it its emotional themes I was awe-struck and am going to start Nana and Fruits Basket. I sincerely hope you cover Punpun in a video probably about other manga that tackle themes like depression and a darker version of a coming of age story (Punpun (character and manga) 🔛🔝)
Found you from this video. Watched all the way through and saw that you like Yona of the Dawn ON TOP of the shoujo goats like Nana, FB, and KnT AND shounen goats like HxH. THEN I click on your channel and see you did a full review of Bleach AND it was good and you can tell you have a lot of respect for manga and anime in general and I just. I love you, okay? Instant sub. I can't wait to see the next thing you put out.
I really appreciate your inclusion of Kamisama Kiss! So much about that series harkens back to when I first saw InuYasha and it acted as my gateway to other series while massively informing my personal tastes, none the least of which includes Yona of the Dawn and Hikaru no Go - the latter of which surprisingly enough is a shounen series that is written with a shoujo sensibility, interestingly enough. I highly, highly recommend it if you're interested in that sort of spin. The author of the series, while it was illustrated by Obata, was actually Yumi Hotta, which is likely what made the difference in how the characters' relationships were written.
as a HUGE Vinland Saga fan, and someone for whom Fruits Basket holds a special place in my heart... I think Tohru could've handled Thorfinn at his season 1, but Thorfinn would deserve to know her at his season 2 and onward. and I mean, Thorfinn is basically also a male tsundere minus the romance plotline in season 1, and a ton of the revelations he goes through are so very about that core struggle to embrace vulnerability... idk, there are actually a lot of similarities between him and Kyo in some ways, and they're one of my favorite types of characters. I remember this part of Fruits Basket that really stuck with me, where everything is going well, but Kyo is massively uncomfortable. and it's basically because, whenever anything is too good, Kyo starts to get scared of how much it'll hurt if it goes away for some reason. he'd rather not get attached, or hope, or love anything, if it's just going to hurt him. I think Thorfinn goes through a version of this in season 2. the difference is that Kyo never did anything to deserve the abuses he suffered, and his fear comes from a lack of control. there was no bad thing that he could learn to avoid doing... his abuse was nonsensical, so there's no reliable way to keep it from happening again. instead, he just has to wait, and see if there's another shoe that's going to drop. and the longer it doesn't, the more agitated he gets, because he's been trained to expect there to be a catch. for Kyo, the answer to this is to trust the people around him. I mean, if he rejects someone like Tohru when she's done nothing wrong, then he'll just be putting her into the same confused sadness that he came from. she doesn't deserve that... and he does deserve what she's offering him. meanwhile, Thorfinn knows he probably deserves to have something bad happen to him. he's done horrible things all his life, and if anyone does anything to him now, he has no right to raise a hand in his own defense. maybe he should be hurt... maybe that would be fair. but that's still thinking with the same mindset that demanded the death of Askeladd. it's eye-for-an-eye thinking, and it demands repayment for one's crimes with pain of the same severity. if Thorfinn wants to live a good life, then he has to realize that improvement is how you repay the world. nobody has any use for your death, or pain, or blood. the world needs you to be a better person, so there will be one more good person in it. lord knows, after everything we've seen, we need all the good people we can get. we need them to know what Thorfinn knows, and we need them to survive. in both cases, being sad, or hurt, or scared, is a burden you bear a lot better when you have help from other people. but first, that requires you to trust them, and let them know you. and from there, it doesn't really help yourself or anyone else to just wallow in the misery of it all. you need other people to help pull you out of that pit, and there's something very rewarding when you realize that they might need you too, for the intrinsically good qualities that you have. if people are onigiri, sometimes the filling is on their back, where the person themselves can't see it. that's why you need others, to let you know it's there.
As someone who's hugely passionate about shoujo, I loved this video! The editing and pacing were amazing, the analysis was thoughtful, and the jokes were well-timed. The portrayal of masculinity is definitely something that stuck out to me in shoujo, especially since I enjoy reading shoujo manga that have male protagonists. There's a level of sensitivity and openness that's found within these characters that feels very unique. You already mentioned Children of the Whales and Natsume's Book of Friends, both of which are great examples of this. A couples other I like are Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty and Machida-kun no Sekai, which have slightly more grounded and slice of life settings.
just found the channel today and I jus wanted to say don’t stop posting. you may not be completely satisfied with the growth you’ve made, but trust when i say you have what it takes to blow up
This video slaps, and I love that you included clips from Natsume Yuujinchou. A series all about learning kindness and empathy through learning about others and giving kindness in return, and my favorite series of all time. I definitely need to check out Nana and Fruits Basket myself 😊
Honestly I’m not even exaggerating when I say nana changed my whole life perspective, as an 18 year old who just recently finished watching it, it was scary to see how easily all of their lives fell apart. It’s like all of my biggest fears regarding how my life will turn out are lived out by hachi
Shojo is a very interesting genre i have very little knowledge about but what i do love about it is that the characters show emotion in a way you might see irl making them way easier to root for and fall in love with since they do not feel just like a character
Loved the vid bro. I've always had a few Shoujo's I've cherished, but you make me want to explore the medium more. And tying that into the current state of masculinity online was *chefs kiss*. Earned a sub
A bit late to this one admittedly. But another great video Huss. Especially in the current state of the world, young men are steered towards closing their emotions, and in turn limiting their understanding of others. The focus on being overly masculine was a real detriment when I was growing up, and it seems like it will only get worse as social media becomes more influential. (I hope I’m wrong about that). I was only able to improve my mental state at the beginning of this year because I knew that holding in my feelings for some false sense of security was going to be my downfall. Anyway, I’ve ranted enough. Thank you for the effort you put into this video. I eagerly await your next one.
@@stephenjenkins7971 Why not? People find meaning in many different things. Do most readers of Shoujo or Shounen read it to find a life changing prospects in it? No. But people still find ways to improve themselves and their world view in these stories. I never claimed Shoujo to be the answer to the problem, only that it can present part of the solution.
@@JohnDoe-m4f6c Because reading something doesn't really change anything about a person. Its fiction. Sure, people can derive meaning from fiction, but its not the same as becoming different because of it. People who read Shonen don't suddenly become go-getters that fight for what they believe in no matter what. People who read Shoujo don't become deep empaths that try to understand the feelings of others. In fact, as shown in these comments, Shoujo readers aren't any more empathetic than anyone else. Most people here be unironically bashing men for not reading Shoujo and how men need to "do better" as if they have committed a crime. Doesn't seem very empathetic to me.
@@stephenjenkins7971 I disagree. These stories can present life changing ideas and values for some people. It is unlikely, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Someone doesn’t have to read a Shounen and become a go getter. They can read a Shounen and realize that maybe the way they’ve looked at things could be different. Or common tropes like the “power of friendship” makes them appreciate their friends more. There isn’t one lesson to be taken out of these stories. I do agree with your part about the comments. That is why I tried to steer away from that aspect when writing my comment, because we shouldn’t be blaming men for acting this way. We should blame the ideas and values that have made them act this way. A lot of it is nurtured (and equal parts nature, for others). You know?
as always not a single effort to understand why young guys close their emotions and pins the blame on the vague idea like masculinity instead of the actual problem that made them this way.
Fresh off the dandadan vid! im in tears that i have such a perfect vid to capture my frustration with shojo not being acknowledged. I keep telling ppl stuff is "soft shojo" because as a demograph a magazine targets, shojo doesnt sell, but as a collection of tropes shojo is insanely impactful to many of the greatest stories around.
Such a great video, so glad you mentioned Glass Mask!! I know you said you weren’t the fondest of 60s-70s shoujo, but if you haven’t already I highly recommend watching or reading Dear Brother by Riyoko Ikeda :)
Awesome video!! It's always great to see dudes who truly enjoy *all* of manga, regardless of demographic... if you want to read more GOATed shoujosei, I recommend: Basara, Don't Call It Mystery, Blank Canvas: My So-called Artist's Journey, and My Broken Mariko (if you haven't read these yet). Basara to me is the Berserk of shoujo. Blank Canvas is also one of my faves of all time, it's a gut-wrenching mangaka autobiography. Also, for anime: Revolutionary Girl Utena. A lot of people like to call it the EVA of shoujo... but honestly I think RGU is superior in terms of artistry. It's deep and abstract, with rich visual and storytelling symbolism.
hi there, biological female here! i feel like this video basically just answered all of my questions why i never really got that deep into shonen,, other than the amount of fan service. i dont feel an emotional connection with any of the characters in most shonen in general i see so many stories where the mc strives to improve to reach their goals (which isn’t a bad thing) but they tend to focus on improving this one thing too much that they lack the other,, basic empathy, etc etc. don’t get me wrong, these stories will definitely inspire someone to improve themselves but it would just make them more blind to other important aspects of life! most guys in my age have reached the point where working out is their primary focus, but as i talk to more of these “gym-bro” teenagers i notice how more insensitive they are i know a few boys my age who frequently watch shojo and honestly they’re the most emotionally mature teenagers i’ve met in this generation. they’re most willing to accept their mistakes and get humbled down when they’re too much. i really don’t get how people can say that anime doesn’t influence people but in reality, it really does.
one thing to note is society just expects us to not show emotion. I have a neglecting father. and he barely cares about how i feel and how I am doing but if one dare shows emotions he instantly shames them telling them they are little girls me and my brother so i didn't get to actually feel any emotion until recently when i started healing my trauma which is caused by suppressing so much emotions my family even dad an mom are emotionally immature and it's very obvious once you are a bit emotionally mature. our family all suffers from mental illness and I believe its just of our emotional neglect then my peers are no better once i was having a mental breakdown reached for a few friends they were like oh just deal with it and when i tell them im in fear they genuinely don't know what to do. lately watching some series focused around emotions i want to learn more about the prespectives about love i am amazed by how much people don't show emotions and love no wonder people feel lonely while having people around them. they aren't connected
Lol, those emotionally vulnerable boys are going to learn the hard way why men behave the way they do in out society, after they get chewed up and thrown away. I know because I was one of them. I believe I'm the whole" toxic masculinity is the real problem" and women are all victims and men need to do better and all the cause of all past suffering yadda yadda. Thankfully more and more boys are rejecting this way of thinking nowadays.
I'm just gonna say that CLAMP works is really opened my mind and comfort me for understanding what's this whole thing that you mentioned in your video, cuz i one of those kid who were already low in a social ladder, so i have fear that i'm gonna get my self esteem to get destroyed, cuz i'm doing something "out of norm for boys" and to make it even more toxic, they even call me gay for liking songs that sang by a woman, it's insane for me, but once my entire school life is ended, i start to get my self back to dive into shoujo content again to fulfill my curiosity that i've been hold for the longest time
This was SUCH a good video! Your Kyo analysis was spot on. I always thought that about the tsundere archetype being more aligned with men's behaviors so I'm glad to see someone else make that observation.
I really enjoyed this video essay. It was very well thought out. There is so much to appreciate in shoujo/josei. Thanks for your hard work, and i hope it encourages people to broaden their horizons. One of my favorite series is Honey and Clover about college students in art school.
wow, this was such a well-written video. i really love the bits of analysis you did, and the recs at the end. i definitely think men today need to go out of their way to engage with "female" media. there are so many beautiful and deeply rewarding shoujo and josei stories out there. i'm subbing just to see what you make in the future. cheers!!! + some quick recs for those reading: ANY kyoko okazaki manga (PINK is a famous one); kei toume's work is great too (sing yesterday for me is one i love).
I don’t normally comment, but I felt compelled to this time. I’ve been thinking of my own story, but hadn’t started drawing/writing it because the very beginning was lacking something that I couldn’t put my finger on, but now I understand after watching this video. What I needed was natural flaws being shown & a universal range of emotions along with a vulnerable moment, like the examples given in this video! It reminded me what I love within a story, & how I want that reflected into my own work. It needed to be something reflecting a part of myself that I can deeply relate to so that it resonates. This video is awesome, thanks for making it & sharing this perspective. If my story ever does become something, I’ll definitely refer people to this channel as part of my inspiration.
I swear that watching NANA so many times altered my brain chemistry, when you put the clip where the ending starts with the future Nana monologue, my eyes instantly started to tear up, and it happens ALL THE TIME that's like a switch for my tears
@@Sh12pen nah, but I know of it and saying a anime/manga would half the suicide rate of men is on its face ludicrous not taking into account the various ways a hyper-capitalististic environment is the cause and the solutions are based in material analysis as well as social change. Imo it's very insulting to say a war veteran with PTSD wouldn't commit suicide if he read a children's anime/manga series
6:31 Cipher mentioned!! Minako Narita works are so well done: Cipher, Alexandrite and Natural, I never going to get tired of recommending them. Thank you for the video, we need more content like this !!!
As a guy, i like my shonen/seinen series, like One Piece, Fairy Tail, Hunter x Hunter, etc; but i also really enjoy reading shojo manga. I genuinely believe that Fruits Basket and Nana have some of the best character writing in not just anime, but other media as well; which is maybe why both series were nominated as the best shojo series for their respective magazines. Their writing really made me realize a lot about myself, such as actions, consequences, feelings, trauma, and growth. People need to stop writing off Shojo series as “airhead girl likes guy” and look deeper at the interactions, chemistry, and relationships between each and every character. It will make you realize that SOME shonen characters are missing this level of depth.
Can I recommend you two shojo/josei from the bottom of my heart and guarantee that it will absolutely bang? Please read 'Basara' which is an absolutely beautiful epic and please read 'Ooku' which is single-handedly the best story on feminism I've ever read
It was very refreshing to hear a guy’s take on shojo. The unhealed men that adhere to the incel alpha male behavior can only yap so much until it becomes a blur. But again, this was Nice. I’ll be checking out your other stuff 💪🏻❤️🔥
Surprisingly enough my brother who also likes to read manga one day asked me to recommend a shoujo manga to him. He is mostly into seinen/shounen so I was pretty shocked but he said he wanted to try it out just to see what it was like. I think he also enjoyed it too and it just goes to show that guys can enjoy shoujo too its not meant to be confined to a "women only genre".
Keep making these videos I love all of them. Although personally this one resonated with me the most. Out of my own life experience and reflecting on it while watching this really made me realize how egoistical and closed off to other people I really am.
Amazing video!! I would also recommend looking into Moto Hagio's manga, she was one of the year 24 group that revolunionized shojo and - I am not sure what they put in her water, but reading her manga must be like being on drugs. I recommend "Barbara" in particular, and "Silver Triangle" I also think Berserk was inspired by Kaze to Ki no Uta, which kickstarter BL works in manga and was by Takemiya, another of the year 24 group (and Moto Hagio's housemate for a few years before their relationshio deteriorated).
wow this was a great video, i especially enjoyed your commentary on Fruits Basket and Nana. If i can recommend you more Shoujo/Josei then i would highly recommend Skip Beat, Basara, Hibari no Asa and Zankoku na Kami ga Shihai suru. The last two recommendations are very heavy and graphic, so check content warnings if you get uncomfortable with the topics brought up.
I am honestly surprised by how many men theses days don't read or watch shojo. Back in the the 2000s i knew knew alot of guys who watched shojo. The Internet really has divided us into smaller sub groups that don't interact with each other much.
The more ability people have to watch whatever they want, the more choosy they can be. I watched Sailor Moon a lot as a kid because that just showed up on Cartoon Network sometimes. Now I don't bother watching any shoujos because I am generally not interested.
So, even as a woman, I thought to myself lately, "I've been reading a lot of shoujo/josei lately, and I feel a bit ashamed, I can't just let people KNOW that. Why do you find comfort in this emotional vulnerability - you've been through so much worse, you can't let yourself be THIS weak" and man I'm DENSE. Thank you for this video. Recommendation: "Kimi wa Petto" aka "You're My Pet" aka "Tramps Like Us". From what comments I read, it marked a shift in dating standards in Japan at the time, but don't quote me on that. It's quite the read though. Also man, I should finally read Berserk.
I was excited to listen to a video that explored the nuances of shojo. Lean into that more please. I want to know the joys and trials of shojo artist, testimonies of its readers, the impactful stories, its history, its household names. I want to hear why shojo is compelling, I want to hear what itch it scratchs for its audience. I want to know its pitfalls. I want to know the prominent genres in shojo and especially the niche genres that may be underrated gems. You hit that at some parts but the constant comparisons to shonen soured it for me. The blanket statements about men, the implications that shounen or seinen somehow lacks key traits brought up that make a compelling story and deep characters is so goofy and prevents immersion with the good parts of your video. At some parts of the video I couldn’t tell if this was meant to be a video essay or just one of the homies rambling.. I really feel like this could have been a superb video essay on the wonders of shojo and a call to action on the value of broadening ones horizons. If you’re going for the video essay then show us the best sides of shojo. It’s good enough to stand on its own without a foil and I have a feeling you would agree with that. Best of luck with your vids man. Cheers, -Max
@@UncleHuss1 Of course man. I do want to affirm that I like overarching message of your video. It’s pertinent message and if you ever dive deeper into this topic I look forward to seeing it.
Wow, the editing on this video is so detailed. As an aspiring youtuber, I hope that I can one day have my editing be as good as this. Like I can tell this took ages.
I love shoujo because it's usually character driven instead of plot driven. Like, there can be few plot points, but the character interactions feel much more realistic and grounded. Shoujo is an underrated demography.
as much as I do not agree with why men do not read shoujo and how you went about it I understand where you are coming from and why people should open up to female-oriented media like shoujo or josei. first-time viewer. good video
I thank God the likes of Ouran High School Host Club steered me in the right direction as a young boy.
I know , Shoju series are amazing
Now you're a young girl
How did Ouran guide you?
@@eis2162
L
Trying to get men, even anime content creators, to try to read ONE shojo manga is like pulling teeth lol it’s a real turn off when men in the anime community don’t take you seriously just because you’re a woman who likes shojo. So I think this video will reach a lot more men, and I hope it will get them to pick up at least one shojo manga or anime. I thought this video was really well put together, and very accurate
@@camcam794 Thanks for the compliment and yeah I agree, trying to prove to people that Shojo is more than high school romance (even though Shojo romance is still way better lol) is always so tiring.
Im hoping this video does get at least a few more people into it
Theres plenty of women who don't take male media seriously or don't take female centric media seriously for that matter
@@FencingMessiah if you saw the chart at the beginning of the video, girls in Japan, are more likely to have read Shonen and shojo. Vs boys are less likely to have read shojo. From what I’ve read, it’s the same in the west. That tells me, women are taking media, for the male audience, seriously. So why aren’t men doing the same? I’m just talking about manga and anime.
@@FencingMessiahi grew up with a dad who watched Sex in the City, and grandparents and uncles who watched telenovelas, (Spanish soap operas), a brother who liked Sailor Moon, and a sister who like Dragon Ball Z. Media based around gender was never really important. It was always what can you learn from this piece of media?
No its not? Most people I know have watched atleast 2-3 shoujo anime.
i went from shonen to seinen to slice of life now its time i delve into the other half
@@Kaybee29523 let’s goooooooo
Gotta try all of them.
You should try some manhwa
I highly recommend Princess Tutu. Obligatory note: yes, the name sounds silly. But it is a story about the importance of emotion and about storybook characters fighting the author to decide their own fates. It is well worth your time.
@@kyoyameganebereznoff damn that sounds badass
The Berserk and Nana comparison is so true! I really enjoyed this video.
I'm glad you see the vision
to break the societal idea that female-centric interests aren't worth pursuit, men need to overcome their egos just enough to look beyond their prejudices. it takes real strength of mind to admit being wrong about some previously-held beliefs, which is unfortunately being discouraged in the current social climate. i wish more men went into these things without being ridiculed by peers or by their own inner voices.
"to break the societal idea that female-centric interests aren't worth pursuit"
Interesting. I'm Japanese but just like me you're living in a highly competitive capitalist society in which half of the consumers are women, right?
"to break the societal idea that female-centric interests aren't worth pursuit"
Firstly, "female-centric" is so vague. Battle Angel Ailita, Soul Eater, Ghost In The Shell have female MCs, those literally have women at the center of their narratives and guys love those manga. They're just not shoujo. But maybe by "female-centric" you're talking about themes and presentation that are feminine-coded and are meant to appeal women. Well, umm, yeah, those works are _literally_ not meant for men, so of course most men wouldn't be interested. If women like shounen, that's on them; that doesn't make men obligated to like shoujo. Moreover, not being into something that literally isn't made to appeal to you, doesn't mean you don't think those interests are not worth pursuing, in general. If you ask most men, they'll tell you that they're not into shoujo, but most of us wouldn't have a problem with women or other men being into it. (Yeah, that stereotypical frat-boy 90s-movie bully who ridicules other guys for not liking what they like? That dude doesn't represent most men.) In other words, most men are capable of realizing that shoujo is valuable for other people. Which is why that whole spiel about men needing to overcome their ego rings so hollow to me, like some trite, terminally online, feminist cringe. And on a side note: isn't it funny how women (or feminists, male n female) are so against "mansplaining", yet at the drop of a hat, they're always ready to tell men what they need to do or what they ought to be like? The irony. Feminists have the biggest egos because they think they have men and women all figured out and know what's best for everybody. (Hint: men are all toxic and need to change except the gay or trans ones, but women are infallible and deserve unconditional praise and respect.)
@@PinkNymphetamine22 lmao now it's about egos and seemingly men are the only ones with prejudices. Maybe some men just don't like female centric narratives just like many women don't like male centric ones and think they're stupid. People need to move on and stop worrying about what kind of fantasy media someone watches and worry more about who a person really is.
"Not all men" ahh replies
@@FencingMessiah it's not an issue that anyone can watch/read whatever they want, the issue is the prejudice against a demographic and straight-up slander against it. There's a stupid number of guys/gals who dismiss shoujo and call it all superfluous or mid on the basis that it's aimed at girls/writen by women, even though they probably never picked it up.
It's as if I said that all shounen is mid sausage fest just because I hate men or male-centric stories, which I think you'd agree is a shallow and dumb thing to say because I'd only be closing myself off some of the best things I've ever read. Same goes with shoujo. They're not even genres, they're demographics, and that's the issue!!
My ass ain't gonna miss out on some of the best crime thriller mangas out there just because it was published in a magazine for girls, that's stupid!!
Honestly, trying to get men to watch or read ANYHTING feminine is ridiculously hard, shows like Fruits Basket, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Madoka Magica, and Nana have some of the best character writing and stories I've ever seen, but so many men just won't get to experience them because they refuse to go near anything they consider girly
@@w00rmz why does this matter? People who hate extreme violence and grape will never get to enjoy berserk. People who hate nihilistic themes will never get to enjoy death note. Like, there are plenty of manga and manga genres that people won't get to experience because of their hang ups
@FencingMessiah it's reasonable to not want to watch berserk bc of those things, because gore and sa can be really difficult (and sometimes even triggering) to watch, same for things with nihilstic themes, what I'm talking about is misogynistic men, who refuse to watch something, entirely because it's girly in nature, which isn't difficult to watch on it's own. These shoujo series that I listed also have depictions of sa, gore, and nihilism, them being catered towards women is the only thing stopping these men from watching them, which is what makes me so upset, they're missing out on really well told stories with similar themes entirely because of the femininety displayed.
@@w00rmz if you know they're misogynistic that's one thing, but just because a man doesn't want to read shoujo doesn't mean they are. Plenty of genres go unwatched and unread. Some people can't handle horror others are bored by art house stuff. Preoccupying yourself with whether or not someone likes the things you like is pointless. Not to mention theres plenty of misogynistic men and women that read shoujo
@@FencingMessiah you are purposely missing the point I am making, it's not that they don't like it that's the problem, it's that they aren't even bothering to TRY to like it, because they think it's stupid and couldn't possibly have a story with deeper themes, because they see shoujo and think exclusively "romance"
@@w00rmz I'm not missing the point. I'm saying even not trying it because you don't think you're gonna like it based on its target demographic is not misogynistic. I don't have to try certain foods to know they're probably not for me. There are many women that don't try certain media aimed at men and think that their themes and tropes are stupid. There's even women that don't take media aimed at women seriously. I don't take it personally
"Fictional Empathy drives real-life perspectives." Oh man, thank you SO much for this! I've been a big shoujo fan since I started getting deeper into collecting manga back in 2021, and that right there hits the nail on the head for why I want my guys to get into it. Learning to be okay with your emotions, big and small as well as the intense and difficult to understand alongside the smaller ones, is literally thr way to find who you are and accept that person, as well as initiate change. Your video and your style is so digestible but well thought out, and I loved this video so much that you're inspired me to finally take the plunge and start working on my own videos. Thank you, like for real thank you. Had no idea how much I was gonna need this video until now. :D
Not how it works
as an edgy tweenager I was obsessed with masculinity and avoided anything I deemed too sparkly. one day I picked up an old comic called Thomas no Shinzou and it kinda changed the trajectory of my entire self. that and the rest of hagio moto's work helped me figure out why i acted the way i did, putting a name to things i couldn't say. great perspective, really hope this video gets guys to go out and read the good stuff. also im pretty sure miura straight up said that kaze to ki no uta was a direct inspiration for the emotions of beserk and yeah... it shows.
also glass mask fan 🤝pls update we're DYING
Hello, you sparked my curiosity! What was wrong with you and your performance of masculinity?
@@BroJo676 nothing wrong with masculinity itself necessarily, but the real issue was how destructive i acted toward feminine things. I was very emotionally closed off. i was told that femininity was weakness, so i began acting violently and talking down about anything i considered weak. Acted like a big man when i was actually scared of vulnerability. i still present masculine and i still like all the same manly things i did when i was a kid, but now i've recognized different facets of myself and am better for it.
I just read Thomas no Shinzou because of this comment and I am emotionally devastated. This manga gave me so much to think about. It's insane. I cannot thank you enough for recommending this
@@haruspicex I'm happy you enjoyed it and it affected you so deeply 🫂 I used to not understand Juli at all, but as an adult I can see I hated him because I was him lol. The rest of Moto's work is amazing too. Love the way her mind works.
Oh my god, same. I am a woman but I only read shounen - then I picked up a Moto Hagio's manga and wow - it was revolutionary. The way she narrates by introducing almost a false story-background and then revealing the real story only via small and then bigger clues - it blew my mind.
That's a very interesting video, and yeah, as many critics have said in general, male centric media tends to be the baseline. I find it fascinating when men talk about female centric media, because when I, as a woman who grew up with shounen manga and action cartoons, don't tend to have such a distance to the media made for the other gender, like men tend to have towards girly media. But I may be completely off base here.
One kinda fascinating thing about shoujo manga is that there's tons of good horror, like Hell Girl, Vampire Princess Miyu, After School Nightmare, God Child (though I prefer Angel Sanctuary from Kaori Yuki because they also get to kill God), and so much more!
Pretty much the same thing for me. I grew up with Card Captor Sakura, Pokemon, Naruto, Mermaid Melody
As long as the story is good and the drawing pretty, I'm in. I cant imagine reading like some men do aka "ew its girly, not for me"
I grew up on shows that were "made for boys" too, like Ninjago and Adventure Time. The same went for my tastes in anime and comics when I was younger.
more manga to read
Because Shoujo and female centric shows aren’t as popular as the male centric ones it’s that simple
I'd love to watch that three-hour video about your deep dive into men and shoujo. It's clear how you've taken so much time and consideration to make this video essay and I appreciate all of that effort
Thanks and I appreciate you watching🙏
I've been a big male shoujo fan near my whole life and getting other dudes into shoujo equates to talking to the most ignorant mfs known to man sometimes.
Proud of you 🥺
@@whybhavi Thanks bro
@@projectmessiah ✌
Then just give them a synopsis of the story.
Personally, I don't care a lot about Shojo. Merit or not, there is a reason Shojo and Josei are marketed as content for girl's consumption.
I watched some of them
(2 fully) and they do have enjoyable moments but whatever little experience that was, it wasn't undeniably great.
Just something you'd watch to kill time or improve your mood.
Maybe there are Shojo that will give me a great experience but I haven't found any as of yet.
@@ibrahimihsan2090 You simply don't understand the high levels of stubbornness petty mfs get when you recommend them something they think they wouldn't enjoy even if based on other things they like they obviously would
What annoys me are the guys that quizz the girls when they say they watch anime or read manga because they think they lie or they are doing this for attention. The thing is the only questions they ask are related with shounen anime and nothing else while most of the female fans read, watch and engage with any kind of genre. I think we should be the ones quizzing the guys and not the other way around
@@biancateslaru that thing we don't like and constantly complain about that a few men do I think we should do that more.
"few men" lol
Men only read shounen/seinen
Women read shounen/seinen AND shoujo/josei
...therefore women are bigger manga fans
@@asagotchi men also read all those genres. It's just that more women read josei and shoujo and why would that make you a bigger fan? It actually just means the most popular stories are male centric
@@Ruby.Aurora correct. The majority of male manga fans do not test female manga fans on manga knowledge. It would be ridiculous if you actually thought that. That's a very specific trait that some fans have and I've seen it from men and I've seen it from women
I can’t begin to express refreshing it is to listen to a man talk about his time reading shojo, enjoying it, and imploring other men to just -give it a chance-
I see Kyo Sohma I click…
omg that hetalia profile picture gave me a whiplash
I always recommend Princess Tutu to folks looking to watch more shojo! It directly examines the importance of emotion and what it means to determine your own fate!
Thanks for reminder
Yes!! Shoujo deserves to be read by a lot more guys, and I think you did great on the video!
what's really irritating is that, at least from my point of view, all this refusal to engage with shoujo and actually _understand_ what it is has led to more than just "dudes avoiding feminine things for no good reason." it seems like it's _redefined_ what the word "shoujo" means to search engines. I was trying to google what shoujo anime are on Netflix, but it was like google fully replaced "shoujo" with "romance." I don't mean that all the resulting lists were of shoujo romance, I mean literally just ROMANCE, shonen included, when I specifically _did not want shonen/seinen._
You criticize men for avoiding shōjo, but you do exactly the same?
it was really refreshing to hear a guy's take on shoujo and appreciating it on a deeper level! i really like what you had to say about ego and vulnerability btw
As a massive lover of shojo and josei it’s so lovely to hear a man’s thoughts on this media and have it be positive. So often are these stories pushed to the side as shallow or stupid when they’re actually explorations of the most common aspects of life that not only make us think in new ways but push us to be better people. You don’t need an epic story of battle and death to make something impactful, you just need to connect to people through meaningful ways.
You articulated this so well!
I completely agree, Fruba in particular completely changed my outlook on life when i was a teenager
@@UncleHuss1 an impactful show for me was karekano, the message of allowing the people you love to see the flawed sides of yourself and trust they’ll still love you is very dear to me.
Personally imo I find it boring. But that's just me.
Real Men Cry 🗿🗿🗿
So real
No we don't
@@theking4978 you definitely don't belong to the 'we' you think you do
broke: man showing emotion is weakness
woke: fear of showing emotion is weakness
bespoke: emotion is neither weakness nor strength, it simply is
@@theking4978 bro Baki cries like 20 times whenever he has to fight his dad
People in Baki cry all the time for the most specific things
instantly checked out a shoujo anime
love to see it
Your avatar makes this otherwise normal comment really funny. 😂
I recommend code realize guardians of rebirth, reverse harem (light) but really damn good if I say so myself
A SIGN OF A AFFECTION MENTIONED??? W VIDEO BESTIE
I love your view on vulnerability
Appreciate it goat
I feel that many people in the comments outright generalize the majority of men as “manosphere addicts” for not liking shoujo, but i don’t think it’s as simple as saying that men don’t like reading shoujo because “woman stuff makes you gay”, but because the majority of men just outright look for insight into being more in control with their main driving emotions.
Shoujo is more about the way that people connect and react to each other and their emotions, but i feel that most men just want to “master their emotions” and be “solid and resilient” when things go south. Which is why stories that focus on their trauma and the way that they open about their problems to others seem so unappealing to them, because it’s the equivalent of instead of repairing and reinforcing a dam you give in to the pressure.
that’s kind of the reason i picked up on when looking at this topic. Idk i think it makes sense.
Yeah that's what I was thinking but you put it succinctly.
Honestly one of the best take Here and it funny that nobody Here is trying to debate you , make me Wonder if people really are just Here to feel like they right and not actually being right.
I think you're right, but I think the issue with that is that instead of dealing with their emotions and communicating their feelings in a healthy way, the emotions that get "dammed up" pour out all at once and result in a wall-punching temper tantrum for some men. Instead of being like a dam, they end up being like a balloon that pops. Even dams have spill ways that allow water to be released in a controlled fashion. And I think mature men realize this. My husband was the one who introduced me to sailor moon. I wouldn't have married him if he couldn't communicate (and certainly not if he punched holes in walls). Bottom line is that men would benefit if they could enjoy Shoujo.
@@Kat-bq8dc I disagree tbh.
feminazis and their simp army has started ideologically attacking obscure subjects like anime. i swear u can find these type of people everywhere even in the spaces that they dont belong
Great video with a very important message! I'm so thankful that my brother and I grew up watching shoujo and shounen anime together, branching out into different genres really helps with exploring all sorts of different facets of the human experience (coming to mind is the way that gender is expressed within OHSHC and how JJBA looks into masculinity + male friendships)
Damm this video pumped me to start a shojo manga .Great video by the way, hope you are doing well
@@darksiders2468 Thanks man I appreciate it
Yh I’m good bro and I I hope you’re doing good too!
@@UncleHuss1what is you favorite shoujo manga
@@Axza00 it’s a bit of a basic answer but probably fruits basket😭
I also really like Natsume's Book of Friends, Yona of the dawn and Nana
Togashi has been married to the author of Sailor Moon (Naoko Takeuchi) since the late 90s. Wonder if that's something relevant.
Maaaaaaaaan i wish i mentioned that in my video, good catch!
banger vid, i will read more shoujo now.
@@mugen9211 love to see it
if you need help with starting shoujo I would highly recommend Fruits Basket or Nana, (I would recommend watching Nana first then fruits basket)
I won't.
This video went so deep into some of the reasons why I love shoujo, you did an amazing job with this one. Thank you, you've just made my day, subbed immmediately.
Thank you so much!
spectacularly well written, the berserk/nana parallels are especially true!!! made me very excited bc those are my two favorites like ever lol
Happy to see so many people agreeing
While I do really wish Shoujo and Josei had wider appeal I would loathe for fan communities for these series to end up in a MLP “Brony” situation where alot of the men create a toxic atmosphere over a franchise that was, at one point, a space independent from that. Sometimes it feels like you can’t win I guess
Fandom generally tend to be toxic when it grows wide, and id rather have that than small fanfom but thats bcs i dont rly interact with fandoms 😂
Bro, you cooked. Looking forward to see what you do next!
Your take on Nana was so wonderful. It’s hard to see that although Hachi is the better of the two even when she I s extremely vulnerable and makes a lot of bad decisions. She has a possibility to learn and be better . It’s Nana who’s actually in a worse position. Her pride, confidence and morals attitude is admirable. It’s her pride that makes her avoid others and therefore avoiding to change. It’s important to have both pride and vulnerability. But while Hachi is willing to change, Nana is not causing her downfall. I never thought of it from a male/masculine perspective. It fits perfectly. Amazingly well done! Subscribed
Thank you so much!
I really wanna make a video about just Nana one day because I feel like I have so much more to say😭
I wonder if that's why I come across more people who love Nana as a character than Hachi.... Hachi makes more mistakes and can be frustrating for viewers so I get that since Nana on the surface comes off as more put together. But I think it's partly that and partly Nana having more masculine traits that drive her character whereas Hachi displays more typically feminine traits. Like most of the male Nana fans I've talked to have either Nana or Takumi as their favorite character and can be indifferent towards or even dislike Hachi's character.
In other series too I find people liking female characters with more masculine traits and downplaying ones with more feminine traits (e.g. Tohru) regardless of how well they're written.
@@UncleHuss1 Would love to see a video from you just on Nana! This video was excellent and I can never have too many Nana analysis videos haha.
@UncleHuss1 Please do! Although I dont much of it, you make it more interesting.
I'm one of those people who was highly frustrated by Hachi. And hearing that she is supposedly the better hero in this video stirred up that old annoyance. But I am willing to be persuaded to see things differently. (Waiting on the dedicated Nana video by the channel host) @blacksiren18135
There are bad shojo that piss you off with pointless drama and feeling of being wishfulments when male characters don’t realistic behavior and reactions. However to the surprise of no one this just as bad as the problem with shonen.
Exactly! You don't have to write off an entire demographic of manga magazines just because there's some trite wish-fufilly junkfood mixed in. Just avoid the series that are trying to make the reader self-insert.
Agreed, i like shojo but some feel like a bad wattpad story. For shounens, some are made just for incels.
@@naivnaibwhat shonen for example?
this was amazingly well done. It is insane how some men will dismiss media catered towards women without giving it a chance. i even saw someone say they didn't wanna watch the apothecary diaries because it was a shoujo (even though it's a seinen!)
Saw people doing the same thing with Skip and loafer :(
I hate crunchyroll and their idiotic categorizing, not only do they put seinen titles those under shojo they also have a ton of shojo that aren’t listed as such 🙄 isn’t there someone being paid to sort those 😮💨
im a shoujosei enjoyer myself and i dont necessarily think it's bad that shoujosei doesn’t appeal to guys as they aren't the target demographic. i'm not a very big fan of shonen and am more critical of a show before watching it if it's shounen. it just doesn’t appeal to me anymore.
my issue is the straight up dismissal of shoujosei as sappy highschool romance stories when it's a lot more than that. plus, there is nothing wrong with those kinds of stories as long as it's well written.
it's a little saddening to me how shoujo is not taken seriously. even by animation studios, and of course, the majority of what comes out is highschool romance so everyone begins to associate it with that.
i don't blame a lot of shoujo fans for getting defensive about topics like this but there's no point lol. a person who has made up their mind not to engage with a certain type of media is not going to be convinced.
Another cool thing about women and manga is when you read stories written by women (including in Seinen and Shonen works) because they typically tend to write tragedy in a very subversive manner. Oftentimes I notice that when female mangaka write the tragic circumstances characters face it’s not always in your face (if that makes sense, also not that in your face tragedy is a bad thing either). I think Land of the Lustrous exemplifies this because Phos was a character who’s goal was to become stronger (which is a very typical trope of many shonen stories) but throughout the series it also shows that becoming “stronger” ended up becoming the thing that distorts Phos’s character. I think this could be because of how men and women socialize (with women typically tending to rely on subtext and non verbal social-cues) and how gender narratives effect the things we make, which is super cool and why people should be diversifying the media they consume.
What always drawn me to Shojo and Josei was the emotional aspect. How it dove into psychological and emotional complexities. It felt so raw to read and helped me understand myself better. It also had things that Shonen often lacked. The way it showed women as people and complex representations of gender identity for both men and women. In Shonen the female characters are often very neglected, so seeing female characters actually be written in such a complex way, and actually have their own stories, meant the world to me. Also a lot of my favorite Seinen mangaka are like this aswell. As you mentioned in your video the goat Urasawa. So yeah I think it would benefit a lot of men to get into more Shojo and Josei. These stories have impacted my life as a human being.
you get it
I'm not a man and it has ALSO taken time to get into shoujo or feminine works. Being more mature I've realized a lot of the men and male centered works I admired were trash. There was too much teeth in jokes to be funny or appropriate for friends. No growth or care on emotional vulnerability. And I copied it all. Now it is very easy for me to recognize these traits and I still don't know what to do. I don't want to be around adults who act like a seven year old, but I also know how isolated that person is feeling and goodbye it's 3am you're not reading this.
@@obviouslyyoucareRead
Tbh, it sounds like you are just making yourself miserable. Having emotional maturity doesn't just mean being a stick for the rest of your life; you can still play the fool and have fun.
What works
As a male my favourite anime of all time is natsume and book of friends which is classified as shoujo. I loved how natsume and his struggles are portrayed which also made him my favourite character of all time.
Natsume is peak
Great analysis! Love to see more people discussing how men are portrayed in shoujo works.
Something else I tend to ruminate on as a manga-primary nerd is that shoujo stories aren't as well-suited to the medium of anime, and that becomes a huge barrier for recommending them because so many folks (of all genders) only watch anime/rarely read manga. There aren't many shoujo anime I enjoy, and even fewer that I would ever recommend in place of their original works. Less action, more narration, and intricate line work/character designs all make for works that are less suited for an animated medium. And even the great manga that do get decent anime are rarely fully adapted, so the characters' full arcs are never done justice.
その通りです。
人気がある少女マンガでアニメにならない作品はたくさんあります。
細かい美しさがある作品はアニメにすることが難しい。
原作を読んでほしいです。
damn, I did not know I've been reading alot of Shoujo all these times. literally have read more than a half of the examples you gave away at the beginning.
thing is, I'm not really a big fan of romance. and I dont think i'll ever touch that genre anymore, not after Oyasumi Punpun (that ending fcked me up badly). the only thing that kept me reading was how much BETTER the characters are written/interact than most other manga/manhwa I've read. and this realization really blew my mind, how did I not realize it sooner?
thanks for this amazing video and putting a few more wrinkles on my smooth brain
my pleasure
Very good video! I really appreciate you making this video with the hope that more men start reading shoujo. Some of the best life lessons I’ve ever learned come from Shoujo stories, Fruits Basket being one that completely shaped me into who I am when reading it in middle school. And though there are Shonens out there that also left an impact on me, their stories pale in comparison to the interpersonal relationships shoujo creates in its world. These lessons I hold dear to my heart and hope that more people can be inspired by them as well.
I relate to this so much😭
I’m so happy I got to experience Fruba
This video was excellent 🙏🏼 the editing was also really insanely good and it just enhanced your explanation. Love all the series mentioned. Thank you for shedding some light on these absolute legendary shows/manga
Glad you enjoyed it!
Where has this video been all my life?! If you ever release the long version of the video I’d definitely watch it. Also surprise children of the whales jumpscare, it’s been ages since I found someone else that’s read the series
Bro returned with another banger video
I am a girl, and I grew up consuming this anime media since my 2nd grade, as a little kid I mostly watched shounen animes rather than josei or shoujo as shonen felt more fun and exciting while shoujo was stuff I couldn't really understand but as I grew up the connection I ft towards shoujo/joseo grew, though I equally love shounen still now as these were a huge part of my childhood but the level of emotional connectivity and know how about the complexity many people can face which I have not yet, made me sometimes depressed and also sometimes lifted my spirits up.
Fruits basket might've been the first shoujo, no not even shoujo but the first anime I've ever cried watching for emotionality, like I actually was able to connect to the characters and feel thier pain which made my heart ache and tohru honda just became one of my favorite female characters ever even though I was and am still biased towards this type of characters.
I kinda was not very fond of very naive and happy og lucky, ditzy, clumsy, dumb kinda female characters who blushed over nothing constantly cause I felt that it was kinda a misrepresentation of real life girls and deluding people into fantasies and before reading fruits basket I had this prejudice with tohru too and even after reading the first few chapters my perception didn't change but slowly slowly I became to understand how she really was, though she still falls under the archetype of a clumsy, happy-go-lucky girl there was something more to it. Along with conforting and accepting every character in fruits basket I felt like she accepted my own weaknesses, flaws and everything. For the first time I found confort from a fictional character (emotionally) , it was like, though no one in this world accepts or understands me tohru was, and I came to respect her, I didn't ever aspired to became her cuz I knew I never could but she played a huge role in changing my perspective about how a girl or anybody doesn't have to be very intelligent, strong or beautiful or rich or anything out of the ordinary to be a infuencial person on someone's life.
Never in my life have I seen a man being this correct about both shojo and men's emotional development. Absolutely flawless video, and for the ones still wondering, i've read almost all of the mangas mentioned in the video, and they were all at least solid 8/10, so read them, they're worth your time.
it peeves me when guys dismiss liking shoujo because they think girls only like it because the guys are hot and the girl is some bland self-insert. Sure you'll find that kind of shoujo, almost as much as you see similar in shounen, but 9/10 times these guys never actually watched/read the piece of media to properly judge it. I really appreciate your insight about what the shoujo/josei media has to offer.
Well what can I do about it, shoujo just look unappealing.
@@JuliAuditoreif you didn't read it then you dont have right to judge the genre.
@@daxanna212 I red a little bit but it was unappealing, but this was a long time ago.
That's been my experience, most female literature tends to be like 50 Shades of Grey, hyper attractive man that would probably never exist falling in love with bland self insert woman that would never in her wildest dreams be able to lock down a guy like that since this hypothetical man could have anyone. It's like a sexual power fantasy for women to somehow magically pull guys outside their league.
i'm a trans guy with a massive soft spot for shoujo and otome. my experiences are a little different so obviously i'm not the type of dude your video is talking about, but seeing other guys appreciate shoujo just warms my heart
i've always thought limiting yourself to one genre was a shame-- even if you find ones you don't like, it doesn't hurt to give something out of your comfort zone a try
As soon as you said Punpun was inspired by shojo, giving it its emotional themes I was awe-struck and am going to start Nana and Fruits Basket. I sincerely hope you cover Punpun in a video probably about other manga that tackle themes like depression and a darker version of a coming of age story (Punpun (character and manga) 🔛🔝)
Found you from this video. Watched all the way through and saw that you like Yona of the Dawn ON TOP of the shoujo goats like Nana, FB, and KnT AND shounen goats like HxH. THEN I click on your channel and see you did a full review of Bleach AND it was good and you can tell you have a lot of respect for manga and anime in general and I just. I love you, okay? Instant sub. I can't wait to see the next thing you put out.
Ah man I really appreciate this comment😭🙏
I’ll make sure to keep working hard
A sign of affection really hooked me right away. The art. The characters. And yes the cuteness even.
I really appreciate your inclusion of Kamisama Kiss! So much about that series harkens back to when I first saw InuYasha and it acted as my gateway to other series while massively informing my personal tastes, none the least of which includes Yona of the Dawn and Hikaru no Go - the latter of which surprisingly enough is a shounen series that is written with a shoujo sensibility, interestingly enough. I highly, highly recommend it if you're interested in that sort of spin. The author of the series, while it was illustrated by Obata, was actually Yumi Hotta, which is likely what made the difference in how the characters' relationships were written.
I got you
as a HUGE Vinland Saga fan, and someone for whom Fruits Basket holds a special place in my heart... I think Tohru could've handled Thorfinn at his season 1, but Thorfinn would deserve to know her at his season 2 and onward. and I mean, Thorfinn is basically also a male tsundere minus the romance plotline in season 1, and a ton of the revelations he goes through are so very about that core struggle to embrace vulnerability... idk, there are actually a lot of similarities between him and Kyo in some ways, and they're one of my favorite types of characters.
I remember this part of Fruits Basket that really stuck with me, where everything is going well, but Kyo is massively uncomfortable. and it's basically because, whenever anything is too good, Kyo starts to get scared of how much it'll hurt if it goes away for some reason. he'd rather not get attached, or hope, or love anything, if it's just going to hurt him.
I think Thorfinn goes through a version of this in season 2. the difference is that Kyo never did anything to deserve the abuses he suffered, and his fear comes from a lack of control. there was no bad thing that he could learn to avoid doing... his abuse was nonsensical, so there's no reliable way to keep it from happening again. instead, he just has to wait, and see if there's another shoe that's going to drop. and the longer it doesn't, the more agitated he gets, because he's been trained to expect there to be a catch. for Kyo, the answer to this is to trust the people around him. I mean, if he rejects someone like Tohru when she's done nothing wrong, then he'll just be putting her into the same confused sadness that he came from. she doesn't deserve that... and he does deserve what she's offering him.
meanwhile, Thorfinn knows he probably deserves to have something bad happen to him. he's done horrible things all his life, and if anyone does anything to him now, he has no right to raise a hand in his own defense. maybe he should be hurt... maybe that would be fair. but that's still thinking with the same mindset that demanded the death of Askeladd. it's eye-for-an-eye thinking, and it demands repayment for one's crimes with pain of the same severity. if Thorfinn wants to live a good life, then he has to realize that improvement is how you repay the world. nobody has any use for your death, or pain, or blood. the world needs you to be a better person, so there will be one more good person in it. lord knows, after everything we've seen, we need all the good people we can get. we need them to know what Thorfinn knows, and we need them to survive.
in both cases, being sad, or hurt, or scared, is a burden you bear a lot better when you have help from other people. but first, that requires you to trust them, and let them know you. and from there, it doesn't really help yourself or anyone else to just wallow in the misery of it all. you need other people to help pull you out of that pit, and there's something very rewarding when you realize that they might need you too, for the intrinsically good qualities that you have. if people are onigiri, sometimes the filling is on their back, where the person themselves can't see it. that's why you need others, to let you know it's there.
and for that you need the people, if you can’t have any, good night
As someone who's hugely passionate about shoujo, I loved this video! The editing and pacing were amazing, the analysis was thoughtful, and the jokes were well-timed.
The portrayal of masculinity is definitely something that stuck out to me in shoujo, especially since I enjoy reading shoujo manga that have male protagonists. There's a level of sensitivity and openness that's found within these characters that feels very unique. You already mentioned Children of the Whales and Natsume's Book of Friends, both of which are great examples of this. A couples other I like are Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty and Machida-kun no Sekai, which have slightly more grounded and slice of life settings.
just found the channel today and I jus wanted to say don’t stop posting. you may not be completely satisfied with the growth you’ve made, but trust when i say you have what it takes to blow up
This video slaps, and I love that you included clips from Natsume Yuujinchou. A series all about learning kindness and empathy through learning about others and giving kindness in return, and my favorite series of all time. I definitely need to check out Nana and Fruits Basket myself 😊
Honestly I’m not even exaggerating when I say nana changed my whole life perspective, as an 18 year old who just recently finished watching it, it was scary to see how easily all of their lives fell apart. It’s like all of my biggest fears regarding how my life will turn out are lived out by hachi
Dude, this video is so fricking good!!!!
Shojo is a very interesting genre i have very little knowledge about but what i do love about it is that the characters show emotion in a way you might see irl making them way easier to root for and fall in love with since they do not feel just like a character
Loved the vid bro. I've always had a few Shoujo's I've cherished, but you make me want to explore the medium more. And tying that into the current state of masculinity online was *chefs kiss*. Earned a sub
Male shojo enjoyer ! Glad to see a video about this. Kyos true form reveal in fruits basket 2019 is my fav anime scene of all time
I'd still love to watch that 3 hour long love letter to shoujo haha. But this video was amazing!
A bit late to this one admittedly. But another great video Huss. Especially in the current state of the world, young men are steered towards closing their emotions, and in turn limiting their understanding of others. The focus on being overly masculine was a real detriment when I was growing up, and it seems like it will only get worse as social media becomes more influential. (I hope I’m wrong about that).
I was only able to improve my mental state at the beginning of this year because I knew that holding in my feelings for some false sense of security was going to be my downfall. Anyway, I’ve ranted enough. Thank you for the effort you put into this video. I eagerly await your next one.
Reading shoujo isn't going to change that. No more than reading Shounen makes people more competitive. Your rant is just hilarious in that respect.
@@stephenjenkins7971 Why not? People find meaning in many different things. Do most readers of Shoujo or Shounen read it to find a life changing prospects in it? No. But people still find ways to improve themselves and their world view in these stories. I never claimed Shoujo to be the answer to the problem, only that it can present part of the solution.
@@JohnDoe-m4f6c Because reading something doesn't really change anything about a person. Its fiction. Sure, people can derive meaning from fiction, but its not the same as becoming different because of it. People who read Shonen don't suddenly become go-getters that fight for what they believe in no matter what. People who read Shoujo don't become deep empaths that try to understand the feelings of others.
In fact, as shown in these comments, Shoujo readers aren't any more empathetic than anyone else. Most people here be unironically bashing men for not reading Shoujo and how men need to "do better" as if they have committed a crime. Doesn't seem very empathetic to me.
@@stephenjenkins7971 I disagree. These stories can present life changing ideas and values for some people. It is unlikely, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Someone doesn’t have to read a Shounen and become a go getter. They can read a Shounen and realize that maybe the way they’ve looked at things could be different. Or common tropes like the “power of friendship” makes them appreciate their friends more. There isn’t one lesson to be taken out of these stories.
I do agree with your part about the comments. That is why I tried to steer away from that aspect when writing my comment, because we shouldn’t be blaming men for acting this way. We should blame the ideas and values that have made them act this way. A lot of it is nurtured (and equal parts nature, for others). You know?
as always not a single effort to understand why young guys close their emotions and pins the blame on the vague idea like masculinity instead of the actual problem that made them this way.
Fresh off the dandadan vid!
im in tears that i have such a perfect vid to capture my frustration with shojo not being acknowledged. I keep telling ppl stuff is "soft shojo" because as a demograph a magazine targets, shojo doesnt sell, but as a collection of tropes shojo is insanely impactful to many of the greatest stories around.
black nana vs pink nana 😂
😭
Such a great video, so glad you mentioned Glass Mask!! I know you said you weren’t the fondest of 60s-70s shoujo, but if you haven’t already I highly recommend watching or reading Dear Brother by Riyoko Ikeda :)
I've been meaning to check out more of Riyoko's works so I appreciate the recommendation!
DEAR BROTHER MENTIONED!!! ❤️❤️❤️
Awesome video!! It's always great to see dudes who truly enjoy *all* of manga, regardless of demographic... if you want to read more GOATed shoujosei, I recommend: Basara, Don't Call It Mystery, Blank Canvas: My So-called Artist's Journey, and My Broken Mariko (if you haven't read these yet).
Basara to me is the Berserk of shoujo. Blank Canvas is also one of my faves of all time, it's a gut-wrenching mangaka autobiography. Also, for anime: Revolutionary Girl Utena. A lot of people like to call it the EVA of shoujo... but honestly I think RGU is superior in terms of artistry. It's deep and abstract, with rich visual and storytelling symbolism.
A lot of people have recommended it to me after posting this vid so ill be sure to check it out!
hi there, biological female here! i feel like this video basically just answered all of my questions why i never really got that deep into shonen,, other than the amount of fan service. i dont feel an emotional connection with any of the characters in most shonen
in general i see so many stories where the mc strives to improve to reach their goals (which isn’t a bad thing) but they tend to focus on improving this one thing too much that they lack the other,, basic empathy, etc etc. don’t get me wrong, these stories will definitely inspire someone to improve themselves but it would just make them more blind to other important aspects of life! most guys in my age have reached the point where working out is their primary focus, but as i talk to more of these “gym-bro” teenagers i notice how more insensitive they are
i know a few boys my age who frequently watch shojo and honestly they’re the most emotionally mature teenagers i’ve met in this generation. they’re most willing to accept their mistakes and get humbled down when they’re too much. i really don’t get how people can say that anime doesn’t influence people but in reality, it really does.
one thing to note is society just expects us to not show emotion. I have a neglecting father. and he barely cares about how i feel and how I am doing but if one dare shows emotions he instantly shames them telling them they are little girls me and my brother so i didn't get to actually feel any emotion until recently when i started healing my trauma which is caused by suppressing so much emotions my family even dad an mom are emotionally immature and it's very obvious once you are a bit emotionally mature. our family all suffers from mental illness and I believe its just of our emotional neglect
then my peers are no better once i was having a mental breakdown reached for a few friends they were like oh just deal with it and when i tell them im in fear they genuinely don't know what to do. lately watching some series focused around emotions i want to learn more about the prespectives about love i am amazed by how much people don't show emotions and love no wonder people feel lonely while having people around them. they aren't connected
Lol, those emotionally vulnerable boys are going to learn the hard way why men behave the way they do in out society, after they get chewed up and thrown away. I know because I was one of them. I believe I'm the whole" toxic masculinity is the real problem" and women are all victims and men need to do better and all the cause of all past suffering yadda yadda. Thankfully more and more boys are rejecting this way of thinking nowadays.
I'm just gonna say that CLAMP works is really opened my mind and comfort me for understanding what's this whole thing that you mentioned in your video, cuz i one of those kid who were already low in a social ladder, so i have fear that i'm gonna get my self esteem to get destroyed, cuz i'm doing something "out of norm for boys" and to make it even more toxic, they even call me gay for liking songs that sang by a woman, it's insane for me, but once my entire school life is ended, i start to get my self back to dive into shoujo content again to fulfill my curiosity that i've been hold for the longest time
glad to see some shojo appreciation from a male perspective🫡🫡 great video, dropped some really important lines !!!
Appreciate that
This was SUCH a good video! Your Kyo analysis was spot on. I always thought that about the tsundere archetype being more aligned with men's behaviors so I'm glad to see someone else make that observation.
Kimi ni todoke is my favourite, excellent rec !!!
I really enjoyed this video essay. It was very well thought out. There is so much to appreciate in shoujo/josei. Thanks for your hard work, and i hope it encourages people to broaden their horizons.
One of my favorite series is Honey and Clover about college students in art school.
Honey and Clover has been on my watch list for aaaaages, definitely need to check it out!
wow, this was such a well-written video. i really love the bits of analysis you did, and the recs at the end. i definitely think men today need to go out of their way to engage with "female" media. there are so many beautiful and deeply rewarding shoujo and josei stories out there. i'm subbing just to see what you make in the future. cheers!!! + some quick recs for those reading: ANY kyoko okazaki manga (PINK is a famous one); kei toume's work is great too (sing yesterday for me is one i love).
Judge Holden was the absulute LAST character I expected to see in the thumbnail of a video essay about shoujo.
This is gonna be a good one.
I don’t normally comment, but I felt compelled to this time. I’ve been thinking of my own story, but hadn’t started drawing/writing it because the very beginning was lacking something that I couldn’t put my finger on, but now I understand after watching this video. What I needed was natural flaws being shown & a universal range of emotions along with a vulnerable moment, like the examples given in this video! It reminded me what I love within a story, & how I want that reflected into my own work. It needed to be something reflecting a part of myself that I can deeply relate to so that it resonates. This video is awesome, thanks for making it & sharing this perspective. If my story ever does become something, I’ll definitely refer people to this channel as part of my inspiration.
Thank you so much, I’d love to read your stuff one day I’m sure it’ll be amazing❤️
I swear that watching NANA so many times altered my brain chemistry, when you put the clip where the ending starts with the future Nana monologue, my eyes instantly started to tear up, and it happens ALL THE TIME that's like a switch for my tears
The dialogue is some of the best I’ve ever seen
I think male suicide rates would half if they watched princess tutu.
for real
@@gunnamarta9096 that's a pretty reductive and extremely goofy thought
@@FencingMessiahhave you watched princess tutu
@@Sh12pen nah, but I know of it and saying a anime/manga would half the suicide rate of men is on its face ludicrous not taking into account the various ways a hyper-capitalististic environment is the cause and the solutions are based in material analysis as well as social change. Imo it's very insulting to say a war veteran with PTSD wouldn't commit suicide if he read a children's anime/manga series
@@FencingMessiah that last part is rather reductive/demeaning of the artistic efforts put into creation of such shows but go off I guess
Truly impactful video
6:31 Cipher mentioned!! Minako Narita works are so well done: Cipher, Alexandrite and Natural, I never going to get tired of recommending them.
Thank you for the video, we need more content like this !!!
Was looking for videos on Chihayafuru and came across this. I agree brother, fucking love Shoujo and Josei I can't get enough of that shit.
@@rastyisanerd3686 literally can’t stop talking about Chihayafuru lmao😭
Even mentioned it in my sports vid
@@UncleHuss1 alright then, gonna give that video a watch too.
As a guy, i like my shonen/seinen series, like One Piece, Fairy Tail, Hunter x Hunter, etc; but i also really enjoy reading shojo manga. I genuinely believe that Fruits Basket and Nana have some of the best character writing in not just anime, but other media as well; which is maybe why both series were nominated as the best shojo series for their respective magazines. Their writing really made me realize a lot about myself, such as actions, consequences, feelings, trauma, and growth. People need to stop writing off Shojo series as “airhead girl likes guy” and look deeper at the interactions, chemistry, and relationships between each and every character. It will make you realize that SOME shonen characters are missing this level of depth.
Can I recommend you two shojo/josei from the bottom of my heart and guarantee that it will absolutely bang? Please read 'Basara' which is an absolutely beautiful epic and please read 'Ooku' which is single-handedly the best story on feminism I've ever read
Basara?
Deshi deshi, basara basara
Deshi deshi, basara basara
Deshi deshi, basara basara
🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇
@@wickedarctiinae4132Is this a reference to something
It was very refreshing to hear a guy’s take on shojo. The unhealed men that adhere to the incel alpha male behavior can only yap so much until it becomes a blur. But again, this was Nice. I’ll be checking out your other stuff 💪🏻❤️🔥
Surprisingly enough my brother who also likes to read manga one day asked me to recommend a shoujo manga to him. He is mostly into seinen/shounen so I was pretty shocked but he said he wanted to try it out just to see what it was like. I think he also enjoyed it too and it just goes to show that guys can enjoy shoujo too its not meant to be confined to a "women only genre".
Keep making these videos I love all of them. Although personally this one resonated with me the most. Out of my own life experience and reflecting on it while watching this really made me realize how egoistical and closed off to other people I really am.
Thank you!
Glad to hear this, I think it’s something that everyone needs to work on tbh including me
@@UncleHuss1 yeah, and even tho I read a little bit of shoujo manga I think after this video I will almost definitely give more of them a try.
you hit the nail on the head. Its so nice to see a guy finally hyping up shoujo stories.
Amazing video!! I would also recommend looking into Moto Hagio's manga, she was one of the year 24 group that revolunionized shojo and - I am not sure what they put in her water, but reading her manga must be like being on drugs. I recommend "Barbara" in particular, and "Silver Triangle"
I also think Berserk was inspired by Kaze to Ki no Uta, which kickstarter BL works in manga and was by Takemiya, another of the year 24 group (and Moto Hagio's housemate for a few years before their relationshio deteriorated).
Tohru Honda makes you want to become a better person. I love her so much ❤
wow this was a great video, i especially enjoyed your commentary on Fruits Basket and Nana. If i can recommend you more Shoujo/Josei then i would highly recommend Skip Beat, Basara, Hibari no Asa and Zankoku na Kami ga Shihai suru. The last two recommendations are very heavy and graphic, so check content warnings if you get uncomfortable with the topics brought up.
Skip beat and Basara have been on my raider for a while now
I am honestly surprised by how many men theses days don't read or watch shojo. Back in the the 2000s i knew knew alot of guys who watched shojo. The Internet really has divided us into smaller sub groups that don't interact with each other much.
The more ability people have to watch whatever they want, the more choosy they can be. I watched Sailor Moon a lot as a kid because that just showed up on Cartoon Network sometimes. Now I don't bother watching any shoujos because I am generally not interested.
So, even as a woman, I thought to myself lately, "I've been reading a lot of shoujo/josei lately, and I feel a bit ashamed, I can't just let people KNOW that. Why do you find comfort in this emotional vulnerability - you've been through so much worse, you can't let yourself be THIS weak" and man I'm DENSE. Thank you for this video.
Recommendation: "Kimi wa Petto" aka "You're My Pet" aka "Tramps Like Us". From what comments I read, it marked a shift in dating standards in Japan at the time, but don't quote me on that. It's quite the read though.
Also man, I should finally read Berserk.
I was excited to listen to a video that explored the nuances of shojo. Lean into that more please. I want to know the joys and trials of shojo artist, testimonies of its readers, the impactful stories, its history, its household names. I want to hear why shojo is compelling, I want to hear what itch it scratchs for its audience. I want to know its pitfalls. I want to know the prominent genres in shojo and especially the niche genres that may be underrated gems.
You hit that at some parts but the constant comparisons to shonen soured it for me.
The blanket statements about men, the implications that shounen or seinen somehow lacks key traits brought up that make a compelling story and deep characters is so goofy and prevents immersion with the good parts of your video.
At some parts of the video I couldn’t tell if this was meant to be a video essay or just one of the homies rambling.. I really feel like this could have been a superb video essay on the wonders of shojo and a call to action on the value of broadening ones horizons.
If you’re going for the video essay then show us the best sides of shojo. It’s good enough to stand on its own without a foil and I have a feeling you would agree with that.
Best of luck with your vids man.
Cheers,
-Max
@@maxwellmarzolf2752 appreciate the criticism 🙏
@@UncleHuss1 Of course man.
I do want to affirm that I like overarching message of your video. It’s pertinent message and if you ever dive deeper into this topic I look forward to seeing it.
@@maxwellmarzolf2752 I got you bro, it's hard to get good constructive criticism when making videos so i do actually appreciate this
Wow, the editing on this video is so detailed. As an aspiring youtuber, I hope that I can one day have my editing be as good as this. Like I can tell this took ages.
it was a lot of work haha
great video!! I adore Fruits basket and its psychology
I love shoujo because it's usually character driven instead of plot driven. Like, there can be few plot points, but the character interactions feel much more realistic and grounded.
Shoujo is an underrated demography.
Beautiful video!Thanks for sharing!It would be cool if you used the “love letter to Shojo” stuff you cut out for another video.
as much as I do not agree with why men do not read shoujo and how you went about it I understand where you are coming from and why people should open up to female-oriented media like shoujo or josei. first-time viewer. good video