Shojo in Anime: Pretty Girls, Pretty Boys, Complex Relationships
When you know that you like your main characters cute, your plotline to be full of emotion and the male leads to be pretty, you may find that you are interested in shojo anime! People who are familiar with the genre will know that the characteristics that have just been listed are just some generalizations that can be made about the subject of this genre as a whole, but this can help you get started in recognizing this extremely popular, widely watched kind of animation. The word “shojo” is Japanese for girl or young girl, and that describes the main demographic that this type of anime is targeted towards.
To begin with, the main characters of shojo anime are almost always young girls and during the course of the story’s run, they can face a wide variety of problems. Shojo anime, as mentioned above, is a genre that covers a large amount of territory. A roughly analogous example in Western terms would be looking at romance movies, where some are comedic and some are tragic. Shojo anime can run the gamut from being cute and sweet to being quite dark.
You will find that shojo anime can cover a lot of different topics, but for the most part, it is non-explicit and non-graphic, even when it strays into darker territory. Some anime in this category will feature young girls with mystical destinies and magical traditions, while others will feature girls who are quite ordinary getting through life in their own way. At the heart of the story is typically a young girl growing up and learning more about herself and the world around her.
If you are new to shojo anime, you will find that there are a few stylistic quirks that will set it apart from other types of animation. The girls, especially the more innocent main character, will be drawn fairly childishly. She will have extremely large eyes and with a round, almost babyish face. Older or more mature characters will be drawn with sharper features and narrower eyes. You can compare this to the male lead, who will almost always be a boy or young man who is a few years older than the main character and usually quite pretty himself.
One classic example of a darker shojo anime would be Revolutionary Girl Utena, where a girl is rescued by a prince when she is a child. The prince tells her to stay brave and stay pure and she decides that she should become a prince herself. Utena struggles at a strange and menacing school where duels are staged by the Student Council to fight for possession of Anthy Himemiya, the so-called Rose Bride. Though there are very adult themes (including incest, sexual encounters and violence) these are mostly glossed over quickly.
On the other end of the spectrum are the adventures of Sakura Kinomoto, in Cardcaptor Sakura. The series is mostly upbeat and cheerful as Sakura taps into her special powers to catch the Clow Cards that she accidentally released. She does magical battle with each of the cards and is helped by a wide variety of friends and rivals.
Take a look at everything that is offered in shojo anime. There are plenty of options to choose from, so find a title that you are curious about and give it a shot!
