Favorites What Demographics Do You Read?

[Kusachu]

Yeah I'm not dissing the art in shoujo really, I just don't normally like it. To me a lot of it isn't pleasing to look at, so I never even take the time to read the story. Though, the ones i do like the art in I generally love the story. It's a visual medium after all, and the visuals are important to tastes. Unfortunately a good story isn't a prerequisite for good art and visa versa, but the art is "the foot in the door". At least, for me.

I'll even admit that I would never have read Fruits Basket, no matter how many times I heard how good it was, until after I had watched the anime, which I didn't really like and only watched because it was free and nothing else was on Anime Netwok On Demand. I skipped the first 30 or chapters because I didn't like it, but i was curious how it was continued after the anime, so i trudged on, and around chapter 60 or so I really got into it and the pretty art style grew on me.

The early story was just too "kiddy" for me and it didn't get interesting until

Spoiler

Kyou turned into the cat demon.

I also forund many of the characters to be extremely annoying and would skip over whole pages with them because I didn't like them and didn't care about their roles in the story, but when those characters matured I grew to really like most of them.

Maybe it's just because I'm an adult who hated high school drama that I don't find high school drama manga very interesting.

 

[LilaChan]

A couple of years ago, all I read was shoujo manga, especially the elementary school ones. I adore the sparklely artwork that's all pretty and detailed. Even now, I usually prefer shoujo artwork then shounen artwork despite I complain alot about shoujo artwork.

Many shounen fans love the artwork in Naruto and One Piece, I couldn't get myself to read them because the art felt very bland (they are good artist and have unique art style) compared to what I was used to. I managed to read about 100 chapters of Bleach but got bored. I managed to read the Tsubasa after chapter 100 to the end. Finally, there's one long running shounen I read the whole thing through. Reborn, reason being the art was 'pretty' (Bleach and Tsubasa already had prettier artwork then typical shounen manga). It had the details of shoujo manga but also the clean lines from shounen. The pretty art made me forgive some of the flaws it has, hence I managed to finish it to the newest chapter.

Both shounen and shoujo have their flaws, it depends whether you can cope with their flaws. I can barely finish a manga that's longer then 3 volumes, shounen's long length is a definite flaw for me that I can't get over. I can get over the sparkly eyes of shoujo and the army of screen tones that makes the page looks too busy.

*I'm using the word 'pretty' to describe artwork. Meaning they're detailed and look 'shiny'. Pretty =/= good unique artwork

I want to shoot myself for enjoying Moe Kare and Suki Desu Suzuki-kun, both being wishfullfillment shoujo manga. They are corny and unoriginal and medicore artwork. I'm also reading Watashi XX Shinasai, which I want to bang my head on the wall for liking it

unique artwork thats usually seen in shojo

Eh? Shoujo? Unique artwork? Does not make sense...The only shoujo artwork I actually found original is Ai Yazawa. Maybe I have read too much shoujo...

 

[shaheer]

@ LilaChan i was speaking of the slender male, flower petals here,esp in anime the walls pink colored . and every panel tidied up and you know the Bi shonen stuffs , there is a difference betwn the shojo artwork and shonen artwork (not always) i dont like most of the the elements that makes the difference ...well hard to explain

 

[LilaChan]

@ LilaChan i was speaking of the slender male, flower petals here,esp in anime the walls pink colored . and every panel tidied up and you know the Bi shonen stuffs , there is a difference betwn the shojo artwork and shonen artwork (not always) i dont like most of the the elements that makes the difference ...well hard to explain

Ah, you meant the bishie sparkles and the pink bubbles backgrounds? Unfortunately that's shoujo artwork for you, I think it has been used at least from the 80's. I guess that is what makes a shoujo manga a shoujo manga. Girls like pretty stuff .

But I think there a poll couple of years ago, that girls' favourite manga magazine is Shounen Jump. I don't think demographics really mean much nowadays. Just like clothes, it's quite common for girls to read shounen manga but it's slightly unusual that a guy reads shoujo manga.

 

[Kaiten]

Sparkles and bubbles are a shojo stereotype. Most of the newer material released by the three big publishers (Shueisha, Shogakukan, Hakusensha) keep them to a minimum. Stereotypical shojo art went out of style years ago. There's still some, where it serves a narrative purpose. The very skinny bishie is also going out of style. The way the men in Skip Beat and Fruits Basket look is hardly typical. And like every other demographic, each magazine has it's own style.

 

[Crude]

I'd love to see a shounen series with art like D. Gray-Man's. That would be awesome!

 

[Pantsutastic]

I'd love to see a shounen series with art like D. Gray-Man's. That would be awesome!

Defense Devil has a D.Gray-Man feeling to it.

 

[L0ki]

Seinen, shonen, shojo and josei in that order. First one I read was Ranma 1/2 I think.

 

[CBlitz]

Seinen mostly. Outside of the big 3, I don't read that much shounen.

 

[kewl0210]

I mostly just read shounen. I read one or two seinen series, but they tend to be too concerned in being "realistic" or filled with mindless action or exposition to be interesting. And Shoujo I tend to find... boring. Also all the Edited Manga groups tend to have yaoi pictures all over...

 

[M3J]

I mostly read shounen with some seinen. Shoujo is rare, and I don't recall reading shoujo the past few months, even Kimi ni Todoke due to its irregular release and bad Manga Editor. Most of my manga on my current reading list are shounen, and the rest are seinen. Josei, I don't think I've read, but I can't be too sure of that.

Don't give a shit about yaoi or yuri though.

 

[thatguy3331]

Admittinly shounen with some seinen on the side. Thanks to tonari no Kaibutsu kun I may try out some shoujo series, howere I do most of my "Horizion broadining" with Anime XD

 

[yukihime03]

I mostly read shoujo manga, though I read shounen sometimes. For me, shounen is more interesting in anime, and josei is more interesting in light novel.

 

[Doraku]

I think I'm pretty balanced with Shounen and Seinen, though I admit that for the last two years my reading are mostly belong to the Seinen category. I never read Shoujo besides Orange, I suppose. Josei is more delicate for my taste.

 

[Galactic Tomahawk]

Shounen and Seinen about equally, though I've been trying to get in to Josei more as of late.

 

[cearon]

i read almost every demo. but shoujo is less and the others more. in a percentage i will go 35% shounen 30% seinen 30% josei 5% shoujo. josei series i read r mostly ambiguous thou.

 

[Asarii]

Here's a breakdown of my reading list. Shonen outweighs the others in comparison, but I'm hoping for more variety in what I pick up.

Shonen: 60.6%
Seinen: 21.2%
Shoujo: 9.09%
Other: 9.09

I understand the division between what's age appropriate and what isn't, but I wish that demographics weren't so gendered: not all girls like shoujo, and not all boys like shonen. Gender is socially constructed so having something classified as something because people think that's what that particular gender is supposed to like/aspire to is archaic IMO. [/two cents]

 

[jakensama]

I read Seinen mostly, storytelling is often more mature and tends to go into deeper themes and approach riskier topics. Occasionally I'll check out really good shounen as well. Other genres not so much.

 

[Asclepius]

Most mangas that i read are Shounen ai/yaoi. I read 5 Shounen ones right now.
I try to read shoujo here and there, but so far, i only read two series till the end, the rest was dropped after a few chapters.

 

[SharkBait]

I used to primarily read shonen and shonen-ai/yaoi focused manga, but the new shojo series with all male casts got me to explore the shojo and josei areas. I usually dont read those without doing extensive research on them though, unlike yaoi Ill go right ahead and read just because. Shonen also really specific on its genres, and seinen I have to wait for impressions because often times seinen action series end up dark and such and Im not really in manga for that.