So, in my perusing of various volumes of Manga, I've noticed another common trait among shonen and seinen manga; "Fan Clubs"

By fan clubs, I mean a group of people devoted to a certain person, usually males devoted to a female, not necessarily organized. This group of people are incensed by the appearance of a suitor/boyfriend/whatever near their idol, and get extremely jealous, plot assinations, etc.

My commentary is that dudes are not generally like that. As stupid and misogynistic as it sounds (oh, the irony), dudes are extremely territorial. Most dudes don't try and intrude on other dude's territory if it's a person whom they know, at least in my experience.

Also, dudes seem to more ambivalent towards individuals, for better or worse, with respects to potential mates. Another observation from a few years experience.

So, a synopsis would be to say I think this phenomena is another complete fabrication of the manga world. Any takers?

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I thought it was only common in shoujo.
My first encounter with this was in Fruits Basket...
Though I don't remember coming actoss many such fan-clubs since.

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It's a common element. Male protagonist gets friendly with female protagonist, and static characters around the two get jealous. Sometimes it's used as a gag (most of the time).

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Yeah I've noticed 'fan clubs' as well.

I don't normally apply what happens and people's personalities in manga to the real world most of the time, but yeah, it's mostly done as a comedy thing , just to give some other characters reason to be there XD

I've never come across behaviour like that before in real life though.

Quote from ahoaho

My commentary is that dudes are not generally like that. As stupid and misogynistic as it sounds (oh, the irony), dudes are extremely territorial. Most dudes don't try and intrude on other dude's territory if it's a person whom they know, at least in my experience.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Who's intruding in whose territory?

Also, dudes seem to (be) more ambivalent towards individuals, for better or worse, with respects to potential mates.

Could you rephrase, or elaborate on, this one as well? I really don't follow.

Quote from Mo-Dean

Quote from ahoaho

My commentary is that dudes are not generally like that. As stupid and misogynistic as it sounds (oh, the irony), dudes are extremely territorial. Most dudes don't try and intrude on other dude's territory if it's a person whom they know, at least in my experience.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Who's intruding in whose territory?

Also, dudes seem to (be) more ambivalent towards individuals, for better or worse, with respects to potential mates.

Could you rephrase, or elaborate on, this one as well? I really don't follow.

A) Encroaching upon one's mate is encroaching upon one's territory. In a very primal, animalistic way.

B) Dudes are generally more ambivalent towards potential mates in the early stages of courting, from my experience. I.E. dudes tend to play the field a lot before picking a long term mate.

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I personally don't understand the concept of worshiping other human beings. (note that the term worshiped here is used in a very extreme kind) This is why I'm horribly annoyed by depictions of idols in anime/manga in shounen and how about half the school want a piece of her and/or have a fan club dedicated to each beauty spot on her arm (okay that is an exaggeration). If its for comedy then fine, but to me its never funny, actually I find it a pretty week attempt to make a certain female love interest seem of a 'higher status' then the male lead. It just makes pointless hurdles in the so called shounen romance genre (which I personally think isn't done well...mostly).

Now to stop bantering about my hate for a lot of shounen romance ecchi stuff, I myself would fine it difficult to share my affection for somebody else (I'm talking about a girl here). I get jealous very easily which is kinda reasonable for someone who has always been the introvertive type.

But to answer your question, I do have experience with people who are a part of an idol worship in my country (Female Idols and these people are mostly men). I was thinking that it was an Asian thing but to be honestly Idol worship in my book is really only a few steps ahead of saying things like "Megan Fox is the sexist women eva!!11!"
Stuff like that really just happen everywhere, some people are more likely to share their affection if they know its remotely impossible to obtain. Saying that I think that my friend's favorite actress has certain nice body parts will have either a reaction of agreement or jokes. But its all serious business when you talk about the girl he wants to date. Maybe since Idols are so far apart from our real lives we tend to have little attachment and hence any idea of real possession of the idol's affection and we don't feel like she is 'my' territory.

Edit: I actually think, otakus who are far removed from reality probably have more attachment to idols than most, since they find it hard to differentiate between reality and very unlikely events they are more prone to being attached to an idol in a territorial manner. One of my friends gets VERY angry if you insult his Lora Croft or Jill Valentine. Talk about obsession ¬.¬

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I've never seen it with idol or celebrities
But football fans...they're pretty crazy...those nutters...

I've noticed the 'Fan Club' thing for a while and it weirds me out most of the time. If it is far too excessive, it usually turns me off the manga. However, on a mild level it fits but it's mostly a plot device to create conflict.