I have been reading loads of shounen/seinen manga since the days I began reading manga (long time ago, like over 16 years ago). I never felt awkward reading manga "for men". Or should I feel awkward? O_o

Actually I didn't really have much of a sense of demographic back then before the Internet age. I read Mai, the Psychic Girl, Mermaid Saga and Cat's Eye and even thought they were shoujo, but later found out that they were actually shounen. XD I enjoyed them and didn't feel awkward at all.

In my opinion, demographic really doesn't matter. It is determined by the magazine that the manga is in. A demographic has different genres and styles of manga. For example, if I want mystery, I can find mystery manga from all four demographics. What matters is whether the actual story is interesting to me, not the demographic. I think many guys are like me when choosing manga. Why does one have to feel awkward reading a story and genre he/she likes?

Of course, if the genre you are after is ecchi, you probably can't find it in many shoujo and josei manga. However, there are a few shoujo manga with something similar to light ecchi in shounen manga (e.g. Gakuen Ouji, Boku to Kanojo no XXX, Kedamono Damono). But I am not sure whether you will like them since their plots are very different from the usual shounen/seinen ecchi manga's.

Last edited by base_coat at 5:17 pm, Jun 25 2009

Ah thanks for the clarification. Since I've never read a shoujo manga I was kinda hesitant to see how it would roll out. Who knows, I might actually like it! Now just gotta look for a story that jumps at me...

Thanks for the suggestions on the shoujo mangas that have a similarity to ecchi in shounen/seinen I'll give them a read!

^ ^
I was just giving some examples. IMO they are either too fangirl-oriented or having art/story that's too cutesy/girly. Not sure whether they will attract guys but I guess it really depends on the person.

Ecchi is fanservice for guys so it's not easy to find it in girls' manga. But why look for that in girls' manga? There is plenty of something else that might interest different readers. So I suggest using the genre search and ignore demographics when searching for manga.

I guess this doesn't work equally on both sides. For girls it isn't disgraceful to like stuff for boys (it is even good at some point). But for boys it's kinda shameful to be fond of girly stuff.

Whatever catches my attention....
And I don't care if that's shounen, shoujo, seinen or josei.

Girl that reads shounen/seinen here.

Don't read shoujo, and thats because of the art. Just doesn't work for me. At all.

If you see my reading list, it's romance, comedy, shounen. Like the thing that everyone puts down as being repetitve and stuff, I read it all

Don't particularly care if it's considered for guys. I've always had a bit of a tomboy streak in me, like prefering comic heroes to Barbie and other girly things.

I'm a guy and I mostly read seinen. (that sounded like a wow add...)

Used to read stuff from every genre except yaoi. After a while some get repetitive though (cue action shonen), and I'm picky when it comes to corny stuff.
I can stand romance only if it's mixed with comedy, which makes a lot of shoujo stories hard to read for me.

Not all shoujo/josei manga are girly. And lots of guys manga are girly, even more girly than a some girls' manga, for example, those manga with large doses of moe madness. Those dragging shounen romance manga with unbelievably awkward characters who don't even know how to say a sentence properly (which usually makes the manga drag XD) don't sound very manly either. Why are they not shameful liking such girly stuff? It's an interesting topic, probbaly even has to do with psychology. That a manga is labeled "shoujo/josei" or "shounen/seinen" doesn't determine its content. It's pretty sad that one is put off by those demographic labels and assumes something is necessarily girly.

Also I think when one is talking about the manga he/she likes with friends or relatives, what really matters is the content of the manga. When you can make a sensible conversation about what you like no matter what its demographic is, I don't think you will feel shameful in front of them.

BTW, I remember I knew some guys who assumed Kimagure Orange Road was shoujo and therefore didn't read/watch it. But it's actually shounen.

Last edited by base_coat at 9:01 am, Jun 26 2009

I don't really see the point of reading in just one genre. As for me, I read shoujo, shounen, josei, and even seinen manga. I just have the tendency to read seinen stuff since I think some of them are intellectually stimulating. Being a female seinen fan, is it weird to read manga not geared towards my age? I find that highly unusual (my taste in manga, that is).


I don't see any problem with it.

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Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust,
Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust.

Same as this.

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A guy

I don't care about the genre ( there are some exception though ( 1% ).. )

I read whatever [b] the art that intrigues me [ [/b] , ( yaoi and shounen-ai are NO since 99% of the art doesn't interest me ( only 1% or maybe 1% from 1% though.. that catches... ) also meaningless sex...bores me very fast ]

Don't really care about the demographic either.
1.Like the cover, 2.like the artwork, 3.read the sypnosis,
Come the
:: Conclusion ::
1.LIKE = read on, DISLIKE = stay away from them.

That's it. That's all.

In particular I don't think that it's the fact that I might feel disgraced by reading a shoujo manga. I was wondering how that general genre would appeal to me because I'm a guy. I was curious if other guys read them too.

So is josei a more mature version of shoujo? <-- I think I might know the answer here but I guess I need clarification.

Also how is josei more different than shoujo? In terms of art I think they're the same but what can I expect in most plots? (cliche/most common plot type)

I'm female and have recently gotten into reading shounen and seinen manga i'v never been into shoujo much exept for a few titles i never finished reading but i'm mostly into yaoi are shonen ai but not yuri the shoujo series i'v been reading as of late is vampire knight and platinum garden

I read every genre. I mean every genre. It doesn't matter the genre as long as the story is good to me.

Although I mainly read Shoujo, I read manga in many other genres like Shounen and a bit of Seinen. The only genre of manga I won't read is hentai.

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I read so much mangas, I'm too lazy to watch anime!

Manga I'm loving ATM: Heart no Kuni no Alice