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Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

shojo manga

Linkblogging: Stuck on Shojo

September 13, 2010 by MJ 4 Comments

So, just as I thought I’d satisfied my obsession with shojo-centric conversation in the manga blogosphere, Deb Aoki posts the transcript from her recent interview with Moto Hagio, rendering me fully obsessed all over again.

The transcript begins with Hagio’s panel appearance at San Diego Comic-Con, and moves into a private interview Deb was able to catch with her later on. Not only does Deb ask wonderful questions (along with SDCC panel attendees), but Hagio’s responses (interpreted by Matt Thorn) and her account of her own career are, frankly, inspiring. This transcript is a must-read for all manga lovers and any woman in the arts, in my opinion. Please check it out!


Now, for a brief recap of all the conversation that’s been happening online… comments exploded in response to David Welsh’s Thursday thoughts, inspiring this response from Brigid Alverson at Robot 6. Part of the premise of Brigid’s post was to refute my assertion that Fruits Basket and Boys Over Flowers have very little in common (an opinion I still hold, by the way, and which I’ll be happy to explain at length for anyone who cares).

Having been called out, I reacted pretty strongly in comments to what I felt was a pretty reductive argument. And though I stand by my reaction, after reading the discussion in comments, I don’t believe Brigid actually meant to dismiss shojo, and I’m distressed by the heat she’s taken for it overall. On the other hand, nobody’s taken as much heat as Chris Mautner, who received a scathing response to his review of A Drunken Dream and Other Stories from passionate editor Matt Thorn.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, Erin Ptah takes issue with my post about female fans (though I think the argument she actually objects to is one I quoted from an earlier post), and Kate Dacey confesses (in comments) to her own internal conflict over wanting to defend shojo manga against dismissive arguments made by male critics while not really feeling the love for much of it herself. This comment (among others) inspired me to talk about why my love still stands strong.

Lastly, in comments to my original HU post, discussion with a reader named Tacto prompted me to provide a list of shojo and what I’m calling “youth-oriented josei” (focusing on older teens and twenty-somethings finding themselves and so on) from my personal collection, with a view towards illustrating the diversity and quality available in titles that have been translated into English. My collection is laughable compared to what I know some of you own, so feel free to add on!


In the end, though? Go back to Moto Hagio. If you read just one link about shojo manga today, that should be it. It will make your day, I promise.

Filed Under: DAILY CHATTER Tagged With: moto hagio, shojo manga

Shojo manga: navel-gazing edition

September 12, 2010 by MJ 19 Comments

With all the recent discussion of shojo manga that’s been going on, it should be no surprise that I’ve had shojo on the brain. Some of the comments that have struck me most in all the din have come from adult women who find themselves in the position of wanting to defend shojo manga and its readers, while being forced to acknowledge the fact that they’ve lost interest in most shojo (and its more persistent tropes) themselves.

While this doesn’t reflect my own experience, I can certainly understand how awkward that must be for them amidst the current discussion. And I have to admit that it’s led me to question why it is, at the age of forty-one, I’m not in the same boat. “Shouldn’t I be over shojo?” my inner adult asks. After all, I’ve publicly chalked up my disinterest in the Twilight series to cynical middle-age. So what exactly is it that’s got me going out on a limb to defend the honor of Fruits Basket?

One of the things that has astonished me most, as I look back at a life that includes several major moves (featuring a 9-year span or so in the middle that best resembles nomadism), a series of total career shifts, numerous relationships of many kinds, and a general lack of conventional stability, is really how little my life has changed over the years, or at least how little I have. While it’s true that I’ve learned a great deal throughout the course of my life so far, and have developed a few attitudes and opinions that could be considered jaded or even cynical, for the most part, my core personality has remained intact, year in and year out.

As a child, the trait I most tragically lacked was guile (and the ability to see through anyone else’s), so I spent most of my teen years utterly bewildered by the actions of my peers, who seemed able to make friends and drop them without so much as a thought, and whose skill with a cutting remark or personal insult often left me stunned and bleeding (figuratively, for the most part) on the hallway floor. Though I’ve developed somewhat more sophisticated social skills over the years, and a few simple methods of self-protection, overall, I’m still cursed with what Chris Mautner might view as an “overly sincere, heart-on-the-sleeve-style” personality.

With only that in mind, I think I can perhaps understand some of the reasons why shojo manga (and shonen manga, for that matter) might appeal to me, in particular, and why even some of the most melodramatic stories published for that demographic often ring very true to me. Even more to the point, however, I find that many of the struggles faced by the heroines of shojo manga (or the older-but-still-young heroines in series such as NANA)–particularly in terms of personal relationships and finding one’s place in the world–are struggles I still face daily in my adult life.

Who am I? Who do I want to be? Whom can I trust? Does this person love me? These are all questions that still loom large in the life of this forty-something. When I cried for a half an hour after reading volume four of We Were There, it wasn’t because it reminded me of the pain of adolescence. It was because it reflected pain I was experiencing right then at the time. When I see Shugo Chara!‘s Amu struggling to reconcile the variations in all her would-be selves, it speaks to my ongoing career angst and the many decisions I have not yet made, even at my age.

While there are certainly shojo series that win me over with nostalgia (Please Save My Earth, for example, which is practically a perfect imprint of my 12-year-old mind), many more are favorites because they resonate with the current me. And though there are seinen and josei series that stimulate me much more on an intellectual level, they rarely address the unresolved issues at the core of my own life. Who am I? Who do I want to be? Whom can I trust? Does this person love me? Ask me a question about politics, religion, philosophy, the arts, human rights–on these grown-up concerns I have hours worth of fully-formed thoughts, all ready for discussion and debate. Ask me the others… well, I’m still there with Amu, Nanami, Nana, and Hachi, struggling to figure it all out.

If my life was more settled into a normal “adult” groove, would I still find such resonance in these kinds of books? It’s hard to say. On one hand, I think remaining in close touch with my younger self may just be a part of my personality. Perhaps I’d still enjoy these series as nostalgia pieces, even if I was truly sitting at the grown-up table. But with this in mind, I can certainly understand why a lot of other women might have difficulty finding many of them compelling. And though I think that trivializing them based on that is fairly problematic, I have a great deal of appreciation for women who are trying really hard not to.

I’m well aware that there are plenty of adult women who still enjoy (or perhaps even enjoy for the first time) young adult fiction, including things like shojo manga, so I know I’m not alone. I also know that their reasons for connecting with it may or may not be anything like my own, so this little post can only serve as personal account and nothing more. Take it as you will.

Filed Under: DAILY CHATTER Tagged With: shojo manga

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