Shoujo Romance Anime is Disappearing. This Might Be Why.

Full list of anime and manga mentioned below. After watching “The Decline of Shojo Anime” by Colleen’s Manga Recs, I was inspired to create this video breaking down more reasons why Shojo anime is becoming more rare, and why it might not ever make a full return.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro
0:51 What's Happening to Shojo & Josei Anime?
5:14 Shoujo Fans & Our Part to Play
11:52 Why Does Shoujo Anime Matter?
14:57 Is Shoujo Anime Profitable?
22:32 Is Their Any Hope for Shoujo Anime?

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My name is Phoenix and I dive into the world of visual storytelling in anime and sometimes manga on a weekly basis.
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I do not own any of the animated content in this video.

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[mademoiselle]

After the decline of shojo anime I’d like to point out that a lot of women found salvation in kdramas and a lot of kdramas are adapted from manhwas. Most kdramas are female gaze oriented and in the last 6+ years there’s been a huge surge of popularity in kdramas.

[comentamente]

For me the main reason isn't with shoujo and josei fans, but with the Male demographic. The fact is that men have a huge resistance to give female oriented content a try, and since women have no problem watching/reading male oriented romance for the production committees the shounen/seinen romance series is more of a sure bet. In the short term there is no solving this, the best that shoujosei fans can do is show that the show that are coming out are profitable and try show that shoujosei romance can be for everyone.

[MoonIceDream]

yona of the dawn deserves a season two. a lot of men and women love action, adventure, romance, comedy, and plot-driven anime and yona of the dawn is one of them. it also has a dedicated fanbase that's been begging for a season two. even a classic and well-loved anime like ouran deserves a reboot. the fact that the fruits basket reboot became successful is giving me the tiny hope that more shoujo will be adapted

[evakarin]

I remember the golden age of Shoujo for me was around 2004 to 2013 so many amazing mangas and animes like vampire knight, Ouren, kamisama kiss. And I remember so many amazing one shot mangas too. Now when I got to the book store I’m always shocked to see the series on the shoujo shelf were mostly ones I had read over then years ago. Hardly anything new was on the shelf

[moonkitty]

It’s so frustrating because so many shōnen and seinen (eg Horimiya, Toradora, Golden Time, Your Lie in April, Madoka Magica Skip and Loafer lol etc) that capitalise off of the potential success and borrow heavily from shōjo and josei to the point they could be shōjos with some (if any) tweaking- whether they mean to or not. Some shows are even purely shounen and seinen because of the publishers even though the demographic could be anyone. Yet chances are, if they’re published under shoujo and josei companies, they would not get nearly as good marketing as anime and thus be far less popular than they became. I just saw the trailer for My Happy Marriage and it looks BEAUTIFUL and so interesting but it hasn’t even got subtitles while a bad isekai is probably on its second trailer on Crunchyroll by now with subtitles. It’s so sad :(((( It would be better if there was a unisex demographic and people could just choose based on genre rather than what might be aimed towards them, I think there’s even a manga award category that’s unisex— the gender boxes just seem to be pointless for shows like madoka and fruit baskets etc

[chimchim]

this is why a lot of women watch kdraman now instead of shoujo anime... since there arent any left. i have two sisters who grew up watching so much shoujo anime. and now they only watch kdramas, they said the anime they want to watch no longer exist in this period😭

[campop]

I think one of the saddest parts is that we rarely get any shoujo romance that gets adapted that is ACTUALLY GOOD, which of course makes interest/demand for the genre be lower than say a shonen anime.

[sari]

It makes me so sad that there’s no shojo anime’s still being made. Anime’s like Kamisama Kiss and Fruits Basket mean the world to me. A good representation of the female gaze and sweet gentle love 😭

[xDeydeyxtartelette]

I feel like Shoujo anime died when sports anime became really popular with women around the 2010s (shows like Free!, Kuroko no Basket and Haikyuu). It's like producers thought "oh, girls like action now!" and ran with it since then. But let's be real, what we like about sports anime is not really the action, but more like the bishounen boys, the strong friendships, the different character tropes, the shipping, the talking about feelings and dreams and aspirations etc, which are all popular themes in Shoujo.

[dahyimi]

So, basically, the anime market has regressed to the old "femininity is uncool and anything 'girly' or targeted at women is lame" mentality, it seems. Back to the old days when it was disgraceful for guys to like "girly things" but cool for gals to like "macho stuff".

[aliciarose_art]

If anything, the recent Nana resurgence, the Rose of Versailles 50th anniversary movie and the Fruits Basket reboot are all good signs that there is definitely still an audience for shoujo and josei series. I'm desperately hoping for more in the future. I mean hey, it wasn't that long ago that I thought Fruits Basket would never get a reboot and here we are now! Ouran could be next!

[NinjaWieldingLimes]

I don't think this is gonna be The Thing To Save Shojou and Josei, but one thing I noticed is that a lot of shojou and josei can also appeal to an older demographic. I got my parents, both in their sixties now, into anime by introducing them to slice of life/comedy shojou and josei. Princess Jellyfish became one of my dad's favourite anime. I think it's important to talk about the issues within anime fanbases, but we can't discount the power of bringing in new fans of all demographics who don't have the same expectations and baggage.

[KatsuFlake]

This gives me flash backs on how Turning Red got slammed because men couldn't dare relate to girls

[Marley-.]

I find myself rewatching the classics over and over again cause I can hardly find wholesome, heartwarming shoujo anime like before. We need Shoujo back.

[nun_ya_bizz]

The idea that girls don't buy as much as their boy counterparts feels a little flat for a reason as to why they're not getting adapted, since girls in general are extremely profitable if marketed to. Things like twilight and boybands made and continue to make ridiculous amounts of money off of their female fanbase. As long as there is a product it will be bought.

[mr.beater]

I think this is why romance webtoons and kdrama got popular . Many shoujo fans got bored that shoujo manga are not available outside of Japan. So they started looking else where. Then they discovered webtoons and kdrama. Kdrama has the same feel as the shoujo romance.

[ranbowpancake]

I think lots of anime fans are getting really tired of watching the same ecchi romcam harem every season i do believe those fans even male fans are voicing their concerns over these ecchi animes I’m talking about the western fans idrk about the Japanese fandoms.

[saidrew]

I don't think this is an issue caused by a lack of female audience. Over the years there has been a huge surge in popularity of romance kdramas, light novel, manhwa, manga, and otomes. If you go on any manga, manhwa or kdrama site, romance media directed towards woman are on the top page. The issue is, anime studios just aren't interested in adapting romance anime as much as shounen anime anymore. Shonen garners more hype, so regardless of the number of girls interested, they'd rather take the easy route and continue to push out the same generic isekai instead

[ciqqomo]

As a librarian I already know the answer to why. Most males do not care to read or watch females leads while women will read and watch male leads. Thats literally what it breaks down to. Companies want the most money and so then appeal to the largest demographic. Shows that males and females will watch. Sadly shows with a female lead thats not completely sexualized will not appeal to men so they dont do it for fear of losing 50% of the demographic. Its sad but I cant tell you how many times I try to recommend series that are amazing but young males especially will absolutely not want to read it because a girl is the lead or how many grown men will go out of their way to HATE any show, movie, book, maga etc. because it has a female lead and appeals to women. Im not sure what the solution is, but maybe we need to collectively start taking our money, viewership as well as our talent to more female dominated series. Is there no female animators, authors, etc. that we can encourage to break off and create studios that will focus on adapting female oriented animes? I wish I was talented and could help. hell, I would help for free!

[TheGamingHarbinger]

As a male getting into anime in the early 90s, there were times I just didn’t know I was watching shoujo: Fushigi Yugi. But something like Sailor Moon…I knew what I was signing up for. As time passed I continued to stumble across other shoujo like Fruits Basket and Ghost Hunt which I absolutely adored. I even liked Vampire Knight. 😅

I told all my female friends about Jujutsu Kaisen when it came out. Lmao Sometimes you just know what your friends will like. Anyways, your theories and assumptions are all correct…especially that shounen fans are going to buy an insane amount of merch.

I hope we can continue to get more shoujo and Josei anime. I always found it refreshing seeing anime from a different perspective…so that’s why I have always dabbled in them. I have never seen Ouran…but I remember hearing about it so much in the early 2010s. That’s one I might watch some time. 😎