What’s your opinion on this?
I know this is gonna be unpopular, but I genuinely think a lot of modern shoujo is insanely overrated.
Before anyone gets mad, if you love these series, good for you. I can absolutely see why they click for people. But personally? I don't get the hype.
Stuff like Studio Cabana, Fall in Love, You False Angels, A Condition Called Love, and From Me to You gets praised like they're the peak of romance, and I just end up wondering. am I reading the same thing?
A lot of these stories either have weird misogynistic undertones or they're just not written that well. So many female leads are expected to endlessly forgive, be patient, ‘fix’ emotionally unavailable guys, or accept behavior that would be a giant red flag in literally any other context. Then the male lead gets excused because he's "complicated," "traumatized," or attractive. Apparently being hot is a personality trait now.
And don't even get me started on the fandom defenses. Every time someone criticizes a male lead who treats the female lead like garbage, there are fifty essays explaining why he's actually misunderstood and why his emotional abuse is secretly romantic. At some point it stops being complexity and starts being bad writing.
Then there's the adaptation discourse. I genuinely don't understand why some of these manga are getting anime adaptations. Maybe it's just because they're popular, maybe it's the hype, but there are so many better written shoujo manga that never get animated while the same handful of titles keep getting pushed.
And every single time a shoujo adaptation gets announced, people start posting stuff like, "The larpers are coming," as if there's about to be some massive invasion of fake fans. I promise you... nobody cares as much as you think they do. Most people are just watching an anime.
I just wish we'd get more shoujo with genuinely compelling female protagonists, healthy relationship dynamics, and male leads who don't have to treat women terribly for the story to convince us they're interesting. Romance doesn't have to rely on toxicity to create tension.
Maybe I'm just picky, but I really don't think the current "most hyped" shoujo represents the best the demographic has to offer. What are your opinions on this?
Messages
Just to add to this, another trope that is endlessly annoying to me is when they force in another dude that's worse just so the ml doesn't look as bad. But that's a trope that's been around forever in shoujo.
This is literally what happens in fall in love you false angels and boys over flowers lol
Ugh my hate for Boys Over Flowers is neverending. Every iteration of it is ass. The ml is a pos. He made mc's life hell and she still chose him? In no world is that realistic.
Yeah the ml and all the secondary mls were an ass, it’s nostalgic though. The authors recent work love through a prism is a masterpiece compared to it
Would you recommend it? I haven't read a good shoujo in a long while.
Yes, I honestly thought it was really good. The animation is amazing and all the characters are complex. Super inclusive too, there are characters of multiple ethnicity/races which is rare in anime. also didn’t catch any misogynistic undertones infact I found it to be empowering, only criticism I have is that the ending was pretty rushed but other than that I recommend it!
Ty! I'll give it a go!