No one else wants to play acafan okay fine

[canis_m]

Can anyone think of shoujo series or other by-women, marketed-to-women anime/manga (including BL, josei, and yuri) that have generated substantial fandom activity in Japan? By "substantial fandom activity" I mean not just discussion or attention but a decent body of doujinshi or other fanwork, fansites, etc. (edit: NOT limited to textual fanwork

Comments

[greenapple2004]

I think the easy answer to why they don't have more fan activity is that most BL and shojo is specifically designed to satisfy the kinds of emotional and erotic needs that fan activity goes for. Why bother hooking up the characters yourself, or digging deeper for emotional connections, when the author's already doing that for you, right? The stuff that does get more activity are the series like Ouran and Fruits Basket, where there are lots of other side relationships to explore and/or the relationship that the author is developing isn't the one you're most interested in, or Saiyuki (or Peacemaker, or Loveless, etc.) that aren't your average shojo with your standard romance going on.

That's surely an oversimplification, since not all fan activity is romance/erotica-based, and I think factoring fan activity like cosplay and pinup art rather than doujinshi/fanfic would greatly expand the shojo/BL category (although it's still smaller than shonen--but then it's just a numbers game in that there are just plain more shonen fans than shojo/BL). But I don't think it's all that much more complicated.

[canis_m]

Yeah, I've been trying to account for the discrepancy in production levels of all types of fanwork, including gen stuff like character art, not just romance/erotica-based textual fanwork--but maybe you're right and it is more a question of readership numbers (although I had the vague impression, possibly wrong, that at least the really top bestselling shoujo series had readerships comparable to those of bestselling shounen series? ahaha the truth is I have no idea and am totally making this up based on fleeting glimpses of amazon.co.jp manga bestseller lists).

[final_account]

No idea, but based on magazine circulation, the top selling shounen mag WJ has 2,778,750, the top selling seinen mag has 981,229 (per week)

The top selling shoujo magazine is Ciao, with 982,834, followed by Nakayoshi, 400,000 and Ribon, 376,666.

http://nebs66.livejournal.com/945878.html Also has some possibly relevant info.

[canis_m]

Thanks for these! I was vaguely conscious that WJ led the pack, but had no idea about the rest.

Huh, so Nana's the only shoujo that made top 10 by volume....

[acchikocchi]

'S worth pointing out that the relevant volume of Nana was a Major Series Event as well - death/fallout of a major character, etc.

I had no idea Mei-chan no Shitsuji was so popular, goodness. Had barely even heard of it outside of noting there was a dorama adaptation. But apparently it's running in Margaret? Also worth noting that Kuroshitsuji made the list as well, and the more I look into it the more I am convinced that it is even less "shounen" than TRC. (Quick rundown: young bishounen of noble family in Victorian England loses everything he holds near and dear, acquires tall seme demon butler to help him exact revenge/run family corporation. art sample 1, art sample 2. Shounen, yeah, uh-huh.)

Mei-chan at #6 overall, Kuroshitsuji at #10. Conclusion: Japan likes butlers??