blog好き

Sep 17 2005

Categories: anime, commentary

6 Comments »

I learned something today. I managed to confuse FUJOSHI with FUGAZI and hilarity ensued. Let’s just clear this up now:

FUJOSHI. Japanese slang for Female otaku into yaoi.
FUGAZI. Italian slang for fake or Japanese term for military deserters.

Trying to deciper the meaning of FUJOSHI, I stumbled across many discussions where girls wondered, “Geez, is there any shoujo out there that appealed to older girls beyond Fruits Basket?” Sadly, there isn’t much when people were recommending Bleach and Naruto to these troubled girls. The list of older appeal shoujo isn’t promising… Honey and Clover? Kyou Kara Mauo? Gravitation? Ayashi no Ceres? Fushigi Yuugi? Loveless? Peach Girl? X? Super Gals? Tsubasa Chronicle? Suzuka? That’s it?!? That’s like five years of non-magical girl shoujo series compared to the harem shows from the past year: Shuffle, Mahoraba, Da Capo SS, To Heart RMM, To Heart 2, He Is My Master, Girls Bravo, La Verite, Dear S, Amaenaideyo, Koi Koi 7, Final Approach, Futakoi w/o the Goat, Ultimate Girls, and, of course, Belldandy’s Tea Time… I’m probably missing a bunch too. And then there’s the shounen action series… the Toriyama series… and, well, as Yoda would say, “Out of balance, the Force is.”

If half the population is female, why are the anime choices so disproportionally male? Is it because guys have less restraint so we’ll buy stuff like $100 Gundam models, which makes it instantly more profitable for these types of series? Or, perhaps, the disparity is made up for in shoujo vs. shounen manga.

Well, I’m not here to discuss societial gender issues… I am here to promote anime. Of course, I salute anyone with two X chromosomes and somehow watched all of Koi Koi 7 and also salute any admitted male who blogs about Peach Girl. But you’re definitely in the minority. So here’s some shows that do a pretty good job appealing to both sexes, frog sexual harrashment aside.

• Keroro Gunso. Vastly underrated series that needs to get more US love. Plenty of humor, frog pr0n, and sexual harrashment for everyone.
• Yakitate Japan. Apparently, watching bread rise is pretty entertaining. Brad Pitt Kid also pops up from time to time.
• Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. Slice of life at its finest. For most people, either it’s absolutely engrossing due to its methodical pacing and lightness or absolutely boring because there’s no ninjas fighting against mobile suits. No in-between.
• Pita-Ten. Harem series with shoujo undertones, and let’s not forget the kawaii.
• Aa! Megami-sama. Belldandy and K1 4tw. In a semi-related note, I’m glad Dark Horse finally removed the quotes from women magazines and librarians on the back cover of the manga.
• Tsubasa Chronicles. Something like a weak form of shoujo Toriyama genre. Personal opinion: needs more Chii.
• Eureka Seven. Nothing like laughing at an awkward 14 year old entering puberty until you realize, “Hey, I was like that” and get all depressed and develop an eye twitch.
• Gundam Wing. Guys can watch for the mecha and make remarks like, “Heero’s a hax0r! Aimbot!” Girls can watch for the Y4L and make remarks like, “Relena is whiny for an ugly princess.”
• Full Metal Panic Trilogy. Along the same lines, as guys can debate about “Would you rather have a threesome with Chidori and Tess or Xia Yu Fan and Lan?” Girls can fawn after Sagara or Tess’s Y4L brother and wonder if the guys debating over the threesome have actual working brain cells.
• Super Gals. Blatantly shoujo series with para para something.. and with an ED that features the girls nakkid. Some episodes even have more fighting than an episode of Naruto.
• Ikkitousen Inu Yasha. Oops! Nonetheless, we’d love Inu Yasha and Kagome more if there was an actual ending.
• DNAngel. Vacillates between harem and Y4L. Daisuke x Dark or Risa x Riku, for starters.
• Cowboy Bebop. Who cares about the awesome fights, the stylish designs, or the engrossing story? It’s all about the Man-Faye!
• Escaflowne. Um, didn’t I just write like 2,500 words on this ten year old series?

There’s a lot more gender-friendly shows, but these were the first ones I thought of, so there ya go. Plenty of anime that can entertain everyone. Yes, I know, this list seems weird coming from a blog that features the current tagline, “Nekomimi Meido on My Mind.” If you have suggestions of your own, please feel free to add to the list.