Let's talk about Shoujo

[pieisexactlythree]

I've been watching a lot of shoujo drama and comedy lately, and I've found it holds my attention better than action or shonen comedy.  Specifically, Since last summer, I've seen:

Utena
Furuba
Snow Fairy Sugar
Card Captor Sakura (which I subsequently purchased)
Emma; a Victorian Romance
Aishiteru ze Baby

The latter particularly surprised me as it's really a show all about relationships and what it takes to get along with others.  I did not expect to find this kind of subject matter so compelling.  Also, Emma was downright brilliant.  I'm afraid to finish it because the wait for the second season to start will be torturous.  

What are your favorite shoujo dramas or comedies, and why do you like them?

[CardCaptorConnor-EX]

Wow...too many to count!  My favorites include Full Moon o Sagashite, MeruPuri and Ultramaniac for manga.  They seem too have everything I like- comedy, romance, some extremely kawaii parts, etc.  As for anime, His and Her Circumstances is defintely my No. 1 shojo.  It mixed tons of elements I like, does it in every way I could ever enjoy, and I just love it!  Only one more volume to go before I finish so I'm excited!

[Pie Row Maniac]

Fruits Basket remains one of my favorite animes to date, despite being a 'girly' show. The characters are deep enough, the seiyuu do such an excellent job of delivering their roles and the comedy hits so perfectly that any time a shoujo moment comes up I can just roll my eyes and wait for the funny appear moments later.

[pieisexactlythree]

I've begun to spot some interesting cliches of the genre.  Yesterday, while watching the last couple eps of Aishiteruze Baby, I noticed that for particularly dramatic scenes, they'd trot out the "shoujo bubbles."  The background dissolves into a color field and the foreground is filled with dreamy bubbles while the characters kiss.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, and now I feel a bit more in on the joke when, for example, Kaorin in Azumanga Daioh has her creepy Sakaki freakouts. I guess the bubbles are the shoujo conterpart to speedlines in shonen action shows.

[Pie Row Maniac]

I guess the bubbles are the shoujo conterpart to speedlines in shonen action shows.

Funny thing is, whatever is surrounded by the bubbles or lines usually doesn't even move.

Let the background imply the emotion for you!

[Kimiski]

Ai man... Shoujo is my main interest, so I love ALOT.

Sailor Moon
Utena
Fushigi Yugi
Furuba
Himiko-Den
Hot Gimmick
Ect.


I just started reading Aishiteruze Baby and Skip Beat. But right now my favorite manga has to be W Juliet by Emura.... About a guy Makoto who has to go through High School as a girl in order to escape his fathers demand of him inheriting the dojo so he can be an actor, but a tom boy girl named Ito finds out and then they become close friends and eventually fall in love.

Ito is the only girl in her family of guys with a dead mom and she hates being treated special cause shes a girl among other things so thats why shes a tom boy, but later on as the series goes by they slolwy start to change each other as they go through all this crazy funny stuff just to insure Makoto's secret is kept tell graducation, and gahhh theres only one volume left coming out at the end of January... T.T

[pieisexactlythree]

About a guy Makoto who has to go through High School as a girl...

Last time I saw that series, it was called I, My, Me, Strawberry Eggs!  Well, not quite, but I am intrigued.  

My main interest, if you could say that I have one in the anime genre, is what I can best describe as David Lynch anime.  I.e., what an anime series would look like if Lynch produced one.  Think Paranoia Agent, Texhnolyze, etc.

[totemo_oishii]

I'm very fond of Nana.

Recently I watched "Diamond Daydreams", which is an anime of a computer SIM game (in which you're the male) ... I hear there are lots of those games transitioning into anime, and this one wasn't too bad.

...Is Ouran considered shoujo?

[Negima]

...Is Ouran considered shoujo?

I think it is.
I think it's kind of funny how a show like Ouran is considered Shoujo when it has 1 girl and 6 guys while another series like Love Hina has 1 guy and 6 girls but is considered Shonen.

Let's see... I like-
Ultra Maniac
Full Moon
Ouran
Saint Tail
Cardcaptor Sakura
And my personal favorite will always be: "Mintona bokura" made by the same person who did Ultra Maniac and is one of her earlier works.

[pieisexactlythree]

I think it's kind of funny how a show like Ouran is considered Shoujo when it has 1 girl and 6 guys while another series like Love Hina has 1 guy and 6 girls but is considered Shonen.

You've got to be kidding me!  It's all about the fanservice and the fantasy.  

Most guys just love the cuties in Love Hina (though I'm sure most would not fantasize about being clobbered constantly, as Keitaro is) and I can't imagine the ladies don't feel the same way about the dreamy dudes in Ouran.  

Moreover, now that I think about it, I'm not really sure it's correct to classify Emma as shoujo at all.  It seems to fall somewhere outside the shonen/shoujo dichotomy.  What do y'all think?

[superjaz]

i got some fruits basket manga for chrismas and bought some more now i'm up to vol 8 , and i'm bugging chris to download it for me , nut i like the swift cutesy 'we turn to animals when you hug us' then the mysterious akito who beats kisa black n blue
i love hatsuharu and his way to prove his natural hair color

[Pie Row Maniac]

My main interest, if you could say that I have one in the anime genre, is what I can best describe as David Lynch anime.  I.e., what an anime series would look like if Lynch produced one.  Think Paranoia Agent, Texhnolyze, etc.

Lain, Evangelion, the Magnetic Rose portion of Memories, Perfect Blue

I've yet to see Lain actually. Heard good things though, so I'll probably get around to it eventually.

[pieisexactlythree]

Yeah, Pie, Lain is really wonderful.  Like a lot of the anime I like, it is really about an idea, and incidentally has a plot and characters to facilitate communication of that idea.  This is what drew me to the medium in the first place.  The same is true of Ghost in the Shell II which absolutely requires you to do some homework if you're going to enjoy it or get any meaning from it at all.  I wouldn't have enjoyed it one bit if I hadn't read Gabby Wood's Living Dolls, which explains the nature of artificial life as a cultural construct reflecting western society's understanding of the nature of the human physical condition (and, of course, our insecurities pertaining thereto).

Back on-topic, who's seen Snow Fairy Sugar?  ...and how about Bottle Fairy?  Is it any good?

[Negima]

I think it's kind of funny how a show like Ouran is considered Shoujo when it has 1 girl and 6 guys while another series like Love Hina has 1 guy and 6 girls but is considered Shonen.

You've got to be kidding me!  It's all about the fanservice and the fantasy.  

Oh I know.  I still find it funny though.

[pieisexactlythree]

Oh I know.  I still find it funny though.

Kind of like how in Japan, most gay pr0n is consumed by women.

[TomtheFanboy]

I actually was talking with Vallie about this the other night on the way home from the Robotech debut.

She said "I sat there wondering why every one of these female characters has huge boobs, and then I realized. 'Duh, it's shonen!' This is for boys!"

At which point I went off about giant robots and made a point about Harahui in Ouran. I also made sure to joke about how the only human woman was much more modestly endowed than the other three.
One was a hybrid, one was an alien that had evolved more, and the other was an android from a "more evolved race". I explained "The last two especially are going to have much large breasts, they're more advanced beings!"

For some reason, she didn't appreciate my expalainations.

[Lin]

The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are Cheeky Angel, Tails of the Moon, and Kare Kano!