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myOtaku.com: kidotaku

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

word look up time!!!
The Japanese words "shounen" and "ai" individually mean "boy" and "love," which is exactly what shounen-ai means, boy-love. It refers to anime and manga that focus on love and romance (as opposed to sex) between boys or men (typically bishounen).

Some shounen-ai is pornographic but much of it is not. Examples of shounen-ai include Gravitation, Seimaden, Earthian, and Mirage of Blaze.

Of late, it has become increasingly popular in North America for shonen-ai titles to be labelled "yaoi," both by fans and distributors.

Shoujo-ai : —ˆ¤ y‚µ‚å‚¤‚¶‚å-‚ ‚¢z

Literally "Girl - Love", Shoujo-ai refers to stories that feature romantic ties between female characters. Not to be confused with Yuri, which refers to lesbian pornography. The differences are that Shoujo-ai focuses on the relationship and often does not contain any explicit material (the romantic relations may even exclude sex).

Shoujo : — y‚µ‚å‚¤‚¶‚åz

(n.) daughter; young lady; virgin; maiden; little girl.

Should not be confused with shojou (‘ó) which means a letter or note, or shoujou (Çó) which means the symptoms of a disease, or shojo (ˆ—) which means specifically "virgin" (while shoujo can mean virgin, shojo only means virgin). However, it is commonly spelled as "shojo" due to romanization issues.

"Shoujo" is a demographic indicator for anime and manga aimed at girls. However, among Western fans, it is often misinterpreted to mean "an anime with the stylistic qualities usually associated with shoujo". In other words, shoujo is associated with a visual and storytelling style rather than with a demographic. While it is true that shoujo anime and manga traditionally tend to have a strong focus on relationships and character development, it is far too diverse to be pigeonholed so neatly. Weiss Kreuz, for example, could at first glance be mistaken for a shounen anime with its good guys fighting bad guys. But the emphasis on bishounen (as well as the hordes of female fans) make it clear that this is an anime aimed at girls, and therefore shoujo. And while some shoujo can be totally devoid of any true antagonism, other will feature soul-blithering drama.

There is a popular subgenre of shoujo called mahou shoujo, or "magical girl". While there are many subgenres of shoujo, this one is predominant enough to warrant a special mention. In said subgenre the heroines receive magical powers, usually for the purpose of fighting evil in the name of love and justice. Elaborate transformation sequences and cute costumes are a staple of magical girls. This subgenre also tends to feature more action than traditional shoujo.

(n.) boys; juveniles.

Demographic indicator for anime and manga aimed at boys. The most obvious and common example of shounen is "fighting" anime, where extremely powerful warriors duke it out amongst each other with various forms of martial arts and superpowers. Typical examples of this include Dragon Ball Z, Flame of Recca and Rurouni Kenshin.

Giant Robots or "Mecha" are also a very common form of shounen. What began with Mazinger Z eventually evolved into Gundam and Macross. Even though they are huge hulking machines that should have limited mobility, mechas often display a flexibility and range of motion comparable to humans. For this reason, it has been commented that mechas are more an extension/extrapolation of the knight/samurai's armor than an anthropomorphization of tanks/war machines.

Despite a great increase in sophistication through the years, shounen anime remains largely centered on the resolution of conflicts through combat. However, that is not to say this is the only thing. If nothing else, this is proven by the large quantity of romantic comedy "harem" anime where a large cast of attractive females are vying for the attention of the (indecisive) male protagonist, like Tenchi Muyo! and Love Hina. Other examples of non-fighting shounen anime are the sports anime like Initial D that are starting to make an impact in the West.

Above violence or combat, one could say the overarching characteristic of shounen anime is a fast-paced story where action and adrenalin are privileged over plot. Of course, there are exceptions to this, like the serious romantic stories of Oh My Goddess! and Boys Be...

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