Shojo Manga and
There are many things shojo, on the whole, does badly.
Healthy relationships, for example. Ne~ver seen one. (Granted, I have a feeling they would be boring.)
Basic medical likelihoods, also. Much like any media, shojo doesn't know that you don't give CPR to someone who's only gone unconscious. It has a more unique fondness for having girls (and sometimes boys, too!) pass out from anemia. Like. :snap: That.
But some of the writers of the genre are very talented at what they do, and excel. One writer I would like to highlight today gets girl friendships SO right.
Senko appears as a slightly antagonistic classmate here. She and Kazuha argue and snipe at each other. This could have turned into a classic envy leads to tension relationship. But instead, you know before too long that they have fun with each other. And when it turns out that Kasuha is going to go out with the object of Senko's desire, they treat it like a problem between friend, that actually ends in the deepening of respect between them.
And instead of letting the friends be just fill-in-the blanks characters, she's made them fascinating in their own right. For example, the girl she is more fondly friends with is wicked cute--and a terrible schemer.
One thing that shojo comics capitalize on is that even deep friendships are not stasis. This doesn't just apply to female friendship, but is more widely capitalized there. Friends can be your worst enemies, unexpected, especially if you haven't taken the time to see things from their perspective.
And that is an awesome thing for a writer to keep track of.
I think that even in most YA, fleshing out the friends of the heroines is something neglected more than not.
Rosemary Clement-Moore's series starting with Prom Dates from Hell does both things I mention--the friend "D&D Lisa" is a full character of her own, and her friendship with Maggie Quinn is in flux, while her motives complicate the plot.
I can't think of other books right now that do that. Probably because in YA, it's about the Boys and the Girls, mostly.
The other books to come to mind as having friendship, in a realistic manner, as part of the life and story of the heroines, is Jane Austen. Who is clearly peerless. Because she makes it onto every list of How to Do Things Right...
Any thoughts?
Titles you think qualify?
I'm sure there are plenty I'm not thinking of. Like Magic or Madness, Spindle's End. To be honest, this was abig part of why Harry Potter is good, too. I just thought it was interesting, realizing that friendship is something shojo manga is better at in general than some other forms of stories...
Healthy relationships, for example. Ne~ver seen one. (Granted, I have a feeling they would be boring.)
Basic medical likelihoods, also. Much like any media, shojo doesn't know that you don't give CPR to someone who's only gone unconscious. It has a more unique fondness for having girls (and sometimes boys, too!) pass out from anemia. Like. :snap: That.
But some of the writers of the genre are very talented at what they do, and excel. One writer I would like to highlight today gets girl friendships SO right.
Senko appears as a slightly antagonistic classmate here. She and Kazuha argue and snipe at each other. This could have turned into a classic envy leads to tension relationship. But instead, you know before too long that they have fun with each other. And when it turns out that Kasuha is going to go out with the object of Senko's desire, they treat it like a problem between friend, that actually ends in the deepening of respect between them.
And instead of letting the friends be just fill-in-the blanks characters, she's made them fascinating in their own right. For example, the girl she is more fondly friends with is wicked cute--and a terrible schemer.
One thing that shojo comics capitalize on is that even deep friendships are not stasis. This doesn't just apply to female friendship, but is more widely capitalized there. Friends can be your worst enemies, unexpected, especially if you haven't taken the time to see things from their perspective.
And that is an awesome thing for a writer to keep track of.
I think that even in most YA, fleshing out the friends of the heroines is something neglected more than not.
Rosemary Clement-Moore's series starting with Prom Dates from Hell does both things I mention--the friend "D&D Lisa" is a full character of her own, and her friendship with Maggie Quinn is in flux, while her motives complicate the plot.
I can't think of other books right now that do that. Probably because in YA, it's about the Boys and the Girls, mostly.
The other books to come to mind as having friendship, in a realistic manner, as part of the life and story of the heroines, is Jane Austen. Who is clearly peerless. Because she makes it onto every list of How to Do Things Right...
Any thoughts?
Titles you think qualify?
I'm sure there are plenty I'm not thinking of. Like Magic or Madness, Spindle's End. To be honest, this was abig part of why Harry Potter is good, too. I just thought it was interesting, realizing that friendship is something shojo manga is better at in general than some other forms of stories...