Neo-Shonen Fujoshi Speaks!

I've finally figured out what kind of otaku I am.

I'd been wondering about it, since - despite being what I thought was one hundred percent female my whole life - once I became an anime and manga fan, I discovered that I am actually part-teenage boy.

Because nothing else would explain why I liked this kind of anime so much:






I'm really into shonen animes. Giant mecha grappling with each other, ships firing laser beams and blowing stuff up, people throwing each other into mountainsides a mile off in the distance... that's my kind of anime.

When reading novels, I like psychological stories, ones that really get into the heads of the characters. My mystery novel, Portola Bay, is a psychological story. I'm a literary type of writer, myself. But when it comes to anime, I prefer to see huge sprawling battle scenes, with people fighting like there's no tomorrow, utilizing bizarre and fantastical weapons and powers.

The way I see it, this hyper-violence is fantasy; it's not real, so I can just enjoy it as fantasy. It's the reason samurais are so easily romanticized today - because none of them actually exist anymore. If they did, you and I would be running in the opposite direction as fast as our little feet could take us: because those guys were fierce. As soon as something is taken out of the realm of reality, it becomes safe to enjoy. For me, shonen manga and anime is about guys engaging in lots of exciting fight scenes; and speaking as a fujoshi, or yaoi fangirl, it's even better that most of them are bishonens.

But it didn't use to be that way. Once, shonen was another kind of animal altogether.

The best panel I saw at this year's Otakon was "Kenshiro to Kenshin: The Neo-Shonen Revolution," presented by Daryl Surat, host of the Anime World Order podcast and contributor to Otaku USA magazine. In a smart, crisply-delivered and humor-filled hour, Surat outlined the history of shonen manga - and it was extremely disturbing.

Referring to shonen stories from the past like Fist of the North Star and Violence Jack, Surat's talk included illustrations showing what shonen used to be about. In a word: ultraviolence. And not just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill ultraviolence. In a genre intended to be read - incredibly enough - by young prepubescent boys, Japanese shonen manga used to display the most graphic violence imaginable.

Here were two examples given. First, a villain keeps two rape slaves, one male and one female - turning them into quadruple amputees so as to leave them completely defenseless. And second: a battle scene where naked women and children, including babies, are imprisoned in see-through plastic bubbles attached to the villain's giant mecha: meaning the hero has to choose whether to let the villain go (and allow him to enslave all of civilization), or to destroy the villain and his mecha - and kill all of the innocent women and children.

The hero goes ahead and destroys the mecha.

Surat deadpanned: "You wouldn't see Ichigo (from Bleach) doing this."

Well, no... you sure wouldn't. And you wouldn't have me as a fan watching it if you did. The creators of shonen manga finally figured it out: you'll get the female fans - if you take care not to completely and utterly alienate them to begin with. Not only were female fans grossed out by gruesome scenes like the ones described above, but they were turned off by the sheer look of shonen heroes. Think Arnold Schwarzenegger in his bodybuilding days - on super-steroids - and that's what these old-school shonen heroes looked like. These were shonen heroes for boys, not for girls and women:




And so, as Surat concluded, the people behind shonen manga and anime made some deliberate changes. Today we have "neo-shonen" manga and anime: shonen for everyone, girls and women included. Starting with Rurouni Kenshin, shonen creators realized that girls were in fact interested in shonen stories, but were not enticed by the mutant-ish appearance of shonen heroes. So Kenshin was made less beefy, less muscular, with a pretty, girly face, so as to draw in the female audience:




His actions too were made less... genuinely samurai-like... and more like what we now see today with Naruto and Ichigo Kurosaki. It's the kinder, gentler brand of shonen hero. A neo-shonen hero.

Surat's excellent presentation made me appreciate the history of shonen and more importantly, what shonen has evolved into today. The decision to make shonen more accessible and attractive to females paid off handsomely not only for its creators, but for all of us fangirls who live on the BL/yaoi side of the tracks. At the end of his presentation, Surat showed a picture of Ed from Fullmetal Alchemist brandishing his metal arm, noting dryly that while women in the audience were probably looking at Ed's face, the only thing he cared about (as a guy) was that cool metal arm. ;)

To each his or her own... Shonen stories becoming girl-friendly has made it possible for myself and innumerable other female fans to enjoy shonen anime as much as the guys do. You don't necessarily have to be a fujoshi either (though I would argue it's more fun that way).

And so that's the kind of otaku I am - I am a yaoi fangirl who loves the new shonen heroes.

It's good being a neo-shonen fujoshi. ;)