Much Ado About Everything

A few months ago there was a discussion between my friends regarding some articles on the web that analyzed the market for shonen-ai manga (essentially gay love) and claimed that majority of those are straight females. Without going into details and all the philosophical justifications, I decided to test whether the reverse is also true. Do straight guys like shojo-ai (lesbian love)?

In order to test that, I first needed to find me a shojo-ai series to watch. This proved rather difficult – I watch only mainstream stuff so I didn’t even know where to search for “deviant” content. I was only aware of one series in that category, a shonen-ai show Gravitation which I not quite coincidentally watched right after those discussions took place. While I didn’t have any issues watching it, I didn’t rate it any higher than just above average. Around that time I noticed amongst previews for spring season that there was a new show Kashimashi: girl meets girl which was categorized as shojo-ai.

Right on, so I decided to watch it and see if it would appeal to me in the similar fashion that shonen-ai appeals to women. Probably not for same reasons, as women and men aren’t really fully compatible when it comes to expectations from a relationship and likewise their imagination differs quite a bit too.

I watched two episodes initially but was then caught up in other series and lost track of this one. Eventually about a week ago I decided to finish what I started (I have an obsessive feeling of duty to finish movies and games that I start watching or playing for some reason, as if it were my job).

Anyhow, this series is probably about as good (or bad) as the Gravitation was, overall quality wise. I quite liked the ending song, while the opening was a mixed bag. Regarding the love content, you will only see a few kisses which are so ultra-romantically set up that there’s no doubt this is shojo.  As for character design, if you thought women watch shonen-ai for all the pretty guys (bishonen), you can safely say guys could watch shojo-ai for pretty girls (bishojo). What I find funny is that they refer to one girl as tomboyish; her character is certainly more man-like in many ways, but physically? Take a look and tell me you think she looks like a guy.

Now, the following girl actually was a guy before an incident in the very first episode. Her perfect gender change – while her soul remains intact – is what perhaps can be used as a justification why other girls like “her” – because she used to be him, and they used to like “him”. So it’s not really lesbian love, right? Riiight. But why the pretense? It’s japan, and it’s 21st century – no need to justify relationships such as these.

And finally, there’s one more “main” character. Poor girl cannot see men – they appear as fuzzy shapes to her. She’s also the reason why aliens are involved…

Now as you can see, they look more like middle school students rather than 16-17 y/o high schoolers which they are. They have the super cute design that you usually see in shojo-manga targeting younger girls. The enitre show is full of such cute and romantic things, which makes sense given the target audience I guess.

There’s lot of usual anime trappings – girls beating on boys that attempt to sneak a peek, adult women beating on adult men that try to do the same, cute but completely useless and unnecessary mascot character (and alien at that!), wierd-dressing adult that looks very much like the creator of Chobits in Angelic Layer (alien too!), beach episode, amusement park episode.  As I said, I’m torn between giving it 2.5 or 3 stars – it does have a nice soundtrack and character design, so perhaps 3 is in order?  But my reviews are starting to get skewed toward higher ratings so it may not be quite right.
In the end, did I enjoy it? I guess this kind of sweet, pure, idealistic relationship is supposed to appeal to guys if the theory is to hold? I don’t know. If shonen-ai is about cute boys being open about their feelings, then shojo-ai is about cute girls being open about their feelings… before the relationship has started. Hearing girls confess first is nice. Girls not relying on their “assets” to get the attention is also refreshing. Well, at least once in a while.  There’s also very few male characters in the whole story, and they only serve the purpose of punchbags anyway.  So what’s left is cute, romantic girls confessing pure love. That is kind of nice to watch – I always liked shojo manga so it shouldn’t come as a surprise.  It’s like shojo distilled.  But just like icewine, it’s good to have it sometimes and in small quantities; but try to drink it too often and you’ll get sick of all the sweetness.  Realistic romances carry much more impact after all – but they are hard to get right.

Hm… I am really not satisfied with this at all.  I don’t think I’ve managed the answer the question I wanted to.  So perhaps I will watch another shuojo-ai show, say Strawberry Panic.  You know what happens when you are trying to make up your mind about how good a slice of cake is?  You keep eating piece by piece until all is gone… then you ask for another slice.  Heh heh.  But no, seriously, I cannot make up my mind at this point.