Neither do I get why the Evangelion spinoff, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Gakuen Datenroku, is published in a Shoujo manga magazine.
I’ve been reading the manga ever since the first volume was released nearly a year ago, and have even bought the 2 currently released volumes of the series. Still, it was only until today, while I was reading the latest chapter on my iPhone and getting squashed by the mass of bodies on the train home, when it came to my knowledge that it’s categorized under Shoujo and published in Monthly Asuka. I guess this speaks quite a bit about my ignorance.
With this new knowledge now in mind, I began a little question and answer session in my mind while I was still on the train. Why the series was in a Shoujo publication when the targeted crowd appears to be more of Shounen instead? Look at the dim plot, the battles between the Angels and Nerv, the Persona-resemblance and maybe even the character designs.
The manga seems to be the type that’s likely to be released in a Shounen genre publication more than any other genres. After all, the manga has much in similar to the original manga it was based on, and the original’s published in Shounen Ace. Or at least it was. I’m not sure when the heck the latest chapter was released. 2 years ago, maybe?
I’ve always thought that Shoujo manga was more of the romance, cute ponies, pretty unicorns and stuff that the youthful females love, filled with bishounen art. However, a brief glance at the Wikipedia entry of Monthly Asuka made me question myself on that. If it’s the CLAMP titles and others such as D.N Angel, I can totally agree that it’s well-categorised under Shoujo. But titles such as Cowboy Bebop? How exactly is that Shoujo?
As such, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m totally clueless about what exactly the Shoujo genre stands for, despite reading explanations as to what it is over and over again. I think it’s as confusing as the Assembly Language I’ve been trying to make even the slightest sense out of during the past few days at work. Somebody save me!
Anyway, Shoujo or not, I think ultimately, it doesn’t matter. As long as the plot’s to my liking, I’ll just read it. Still, it’ll be great if my brain could understand the boundaries of the genre. Or are there none?
I haven’t read it but it’s classified under shoujo? The artstyle, at least, doesn’t really fit my stereotype of the whole shoujo genre LOL. I mean, looking at the image, I wouldn’t see girls reading it for the same reasons they’d read typical shoujo manga like er, Skip Beat.
I’m guessing that if there is more preoccupation with romance, then probably it might be classified as shoujo but looking at Bakuman (which is heavy on romance to an extent) I doubt that’s like, a real factor…
XD I want to read this now!
thats shoujo?
that picture has shounen written all over it. I did not know of this new Evangelion manga, I should pick it up
darker is black is shoujo too. Didn’t realise until I bought the manga. the rest laughed at me ._.
What the heck? Darker than Black too? The mystery never ends…
maybe it’s shojo due to some ShinjixKaworu?
Wait WHAT? Darker than Black is shoujo?! I’m very sure that no girls think that it’s shoujo!!
Shoujo means prettier art and none of that crap about leveling up and the power of friendship.
@Soshi: The MANGA is shoujo, it doesn’t follow the story of the anime.
> Shoujo means prettier art and none of that crap about leveling up and the power of friendship.
It doesn’t.
Shoujo is not a genre. Shoujo means girl. Shoujo manga are manga aimed at girls. There are shoujo manga of all genres.
Yeah… shoujo manga is just typically targeted at females.
That’s all… haha it’s so cute you made an ENTIRE blog about the meaning of “shoujo manga.” Was it bothering you that much…?
But like you said at the end: Manga’s still just manga, no matter what category you put it in…
yeah, it’s true that shoujo is really is really just a “girl manga” made up of a bunch of sub-genres, but i disagree that manga is just manga, you shouldn’t take it to heart all serious like but sometimes a story, character, concept, creator or even the art can be mesmorised by what has been done. take it to heart or not how you see it is how you read it.
i’m a guy and i like shoujo, i read things like “Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days” and i love it, but i also enjoy mangas like “Berserk” by Kentaro Miura.
That looks Shoujo to me. The boys are drawn to a woman’s taste too much for anything else. When a series tries to rope in both genders, the guys will look like more of a mix between “fujoshi bate” and “cool guy”, like in “Prince of Tennis”.
Genres clash so much these days, so who really cares who publishes it? There are very smart, dark, and graphic series that are Shoujo, but there are less of them then romance stories about a girl trying to end up with her boyfriend of choice. I think what it shows is how expansive the taste of the female reader is.
I totally agree with your last paragraph…Preferences and liking matters huge. Whatever genre the anime might belong to, as long as you enjoy reading/watching it, it’s not such a big deal.