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The Rise and Fall (And Possible Rise?) Of Girls Comics, Part Three

Hi all! Thanks to Charles for compiling these fascinating 3-parters, and as a contrib to the 3rd part I'm really happy they have been embraced.

Watton pointed me to Anime Babes, which really helped part of my argument and is also a fascinating bit of history in its own right. Anime used to be a Not For Women thing.

To clarify, 90's anime distribution in the UK used to be a Not For Women thing, we adapted to what we could (namely Project A-Ko, 3x3 Eyes, even though that was a cert 18!) and left the more violent/sexy stuff to everyone else who was not a 14 year old girl :(

One of the more interesting things I learned (in relation to a forthcoming list) is that the Gundam anime series initially was mainly popular with women. Yoshiyuki Tomino himself said that it was the female fans who watched the series and went to the earliest conventions while male fans didn't get into it until the model kits started to become popular.

Absolutely, it may be because of the appeal of Char Aznable in that show? But also media franchises are doing more cross-over market appeal in the 2000s, like Death Note contained some very pretty boys, despite being serialised in a shonen/boys magazine.

I always think of how the Pokémon franchise (which, remember, has a blank slate protagonist you're meant to project yourself on) never thought to add a female option until the expansion to the second generation - which is absolutely baffling considering the gender balance of its OG fans as you can see on the modern internet.

Mega-baffling! And 50% loss of market until someone did something about it, crazy business angle. Also as a 90s anime fan, it went from "eurgh you're a girl into sex and violence Manga Videos "to "ugh you're a girl who likes babies stuff like Pokemon". We could NOT catch a break.

I find it fascinating just how into anime the wife used to be growing up in 90s Wolverhampton.

I wonder if I knew her, I grew up in Halesowen where I was when I co-contributed to Anime Babes! If not please pass by my table when we can all go to comic cons again if you attend, always great to say hi to Midlander comics/anime fans :)
 
To clarify, 90's anime distribution in the UK used to be a Not For Women thing, we adapted to what we could (namely Project A-Ko, 3x3 Eyes, even though that was a cert 18!) and left the more violent/sexy stuff to everyone else who was not a 14 year old girl :(

I guess that's when the early Manga Entertainment dubs of things like Angel Cop and Mad Bull were going out of their way to "fifteen" the shows (which were already incredibly trashy) by adding loads of gratuitous cursing to make the viewers feel like they were getting away with something by watching it (always a reliable way to sell something to the young and somewhat immature).

I listened to a relatively recent episode of Sonic the Comic the Podcast where they ran across this anime video mail order advertisement in an issue of STC and were quite surprised to see things like Urotsukidōji: Legend of the Overfiend just sitting happily in the list alongside things like Urusei Yatsura and the Slayers movies.
 
I suspect that i probably watch more or at least 50/50 Shojo and Otome (female targetted) anime as male targeted anime.

Like I said in my own thread a while ago, the interesting comparison to draw in my mind is between CardCaptor Sakura or Sailor Moon and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. The former two were created by women with a female audience in mind (the manga were in any event; the Sailor Moon anime was notably directed for most of its run by Kunihiku Ikuhara) whereas the latter, from what I can tell, was created by men and mostly seems to be popular with a male audience. For some time, I've felt like there's a sort of lascivious undercurrent to Nanoha which I just don't think exists in the other two.
 
I think the most obvious thing about how there is a well established female Otaku culture in Japan is how there are two anime/manga areas. One which is primarily male aimed and one that is more female named. (And tbh a more pleasant place really)
 
I think the most obvious thing about how there is a well established female Otaku culture in Japan is how there are two anime/manga areas. One which is primarily male aimed and one that is more female named. (And tbh a more pleasant place really)

Indeed, and I have heard that there has been criticism of both groups in the sense that the people making the manga tend to pander to them at the expense of the wider audience, but quite honestly that could be said of any comics anywhere in the world.
 
Indeed, and I have heard that there has been criticism of both groups in the sense that the people making the manga tend to pander to them at the expense of the wider audience, but quite honestly that could be said of any comics anywhere in the world.
Yeah pandering exists everywhere its just easier.

And tbh the way that the financial model for these sort of things are structured in Japan makes pandering pretty essential.
 
And tbh the way that the financial model for these sort of things are structured in Japan makes pandering pretty essential.

That's a surprise because I've gotten used to hearing how Manga Sells Loads - but then last year I learned a lot of bandes dessins (sic) don't sell that great and the creators get paid crap, but there's enough that do sell loads, so why wouldn't manga have similar masses of product on thin margins? (See also not just Anglophone comics but also books, films etc)
 
That's a surprise because I've gotten used to hearing how Manga Sells Loads - but then last year I learned a lot of bandes dessins (sic) don't sell that great and the creators get paid crap, but there's enough that do sell loads, so why wouldn't manga have similar masses of product on thin margins? (See also not just Anglophone comics but also books, films etc)
Tbh i think manga is more mass market at least with the compilation magazines or the volumes.

But anime, for a Blu-ray of Something like Kaguya-sama love is war. Which was a popular show a year ago, it is £120 for the 12 episodes and some things go for more. It very much seems to become squeezing as much money out of dedicated fans as possible, which is also true in some parts of the music industry and streaming.
 
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