Quote from gwkimmy
Quote from shinobimystress
I can honestly say I hate most Josei. Most I've read or seen is pointless smut-driven plot. Bad characters and poor development. I prefer Shounen eye-candy. Itachi from Naruto, Byakuya from Bleach. I may like dark long hair and brooding types, but they are far from those wimpy ultra-fem men you see in shoujo or josei.
dude, what josei have you been reading o_o search for high rated josei that doesn't have the smut tag attached to it. there are plenty quality ones~
okay, so i love me some hot men too, but i really value confidence and passion above all else. therefore, near the top of my list is kuranosuke from Kuragehime. i would go lesbian for the female version of him, but i love his passion and drive for the fashion industry and on transforming tsukimi. LOVE. guh, i also have a thing for his much older but not-experienced-at-all brother shu AHHHH SO ADORABLE.
i also love takemoto from honey and clover ;_; so innocent!
A lot of Shinjo Mayu, which ranges from older teen to adult ratings. Says Shoujo on most of her work, but I'd classify it more as josei because the themes are more adult than actual shoujo. Most of the female leads are like 17-18, fresh out of HS and dumb. If I had a 16 yr old daughter reading that, I think I'd be mad. Its bad enough I have a 16 yr old niece who tries to snoop through my josei and smut manga.
I don't hate all Josei just most - I found a few based on books interesting. Could have been better drawn though. 'Silver' was ok and the male lead wasn't too bad to look at. I'd classify 'Red River' more Josei than Shoujo. It a supernatural-time travel story, but the female lead is just a teen and pretty much has to grow up fast in order to survive. Most of its themes are more grown up because in the USA, we are more conservative than Japan. That's why there are parental warnings all over Red River if you buy US english versions. The guys weren't too bad looking in that series.
It just seems that everytime a decent Josei starts getting translated, it either gets dropped by the scanning group, its ugly art or the story isn't that great, the scanners put it on hiatus or don't finish. And in rare cases such as NANA, the artist/author gets sick and can't finish. Or if it gets picked up by a USA publisher, it gets 'edited'.
Its really that I haven't found 'good-looking characters' it just that they usually don't draw me in unless they show depth.... and are of a proper age. And as an older reader, Its hard to find pieces in my age range where I don't look like a pedophile, a weirdo, or a cougar. Sigh- showing my age. I've been reading manga since I was a teen in HS. Bleach came out when I was like 22. (See what I mean.) But, this 'old lady' doesn't plan on separating from her manga or her anime collection anytime soon!