tsurara

I'm currently reading Hagio Moto's "After Us an Angry God", a sprawling melodramatic Boy's Love/shoujo saga about an abused boy falling in love with his stepbrother and the ridiculous amounts of heartbreak and chaos it causes. At the end of volume 7, I was a little surprised to see that the essay written in tribute was by Hiromu Arakawa, the author of Fullmetal Alchemist. Titled "Under the Kotatsu with Hagio Moto", it details the mangaka's fond memories of Hagio Moto's work "Marginal".

Granted, Hagio Moto is probably something that EVERY Japanese manga fangirl over the age of 18 has read (if not devoured) at one point in her life... but it surprises me that a shounen author would write such gushing praise or that they would have been asked to.

So there you have it: The author of Fullmetal Alchemist reads Boy's Love.

I wonder if her own works will ever "cross over to the dark side" :P

Sorry boys. Hiromu Arakawa belongs to the fangirls now, and you can never have her back.

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Hassun

As you said yourself:

Why wouldn't Arakawa be one of them? Thank goodness she writes shōnen.

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tsurara

I thought Hiromu Arakawa was a man for the longest time... It's a man's name and I don't subscribe to GanGan or anything, so how was I to know?! ^_^; And even after I found out he was a she, I tend to lump female shounen authors into groups a) half-hearted prettyboy crap obviously fishing for doujinshi and group b) women with 5 o'clock shadow who chew tobacco and shave with skinning knives...

The idea of someone female writing shounen that doesn't suck AND being a fan of shoujo/boy's love is difficult for be to wrap my mind around.

Though they've been telling us for the longest time that the genre is changing (more women buy shounen magazines than men now) and that in my lifetime, manga and anime will become very much the realm of women. Both as an audience and a pool of creators.

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Hassun

Really? I still see many males reading manga on trains/subways as well. Both young and old.

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tsurara

They're saying that Japanese men are no longer a commercially viable audience (With the exception of hardcore "otaku" who are, at the moment, the most interested in dating sims, moe, and pornography).

Studies are showing that women are reading more magazines, buying more comics and most importantly buying more merchandise than ever. They're apparently less likely to rely on internet/manga cafes or read comics in the store. They're apparently also more loyal to franchises and authors and have created a self-sustaining constant (and most importantly free) promotion machine with doujinshi, unions and web conclaves. Guys lean more toward anonymous instant-gratification communities like 2ch while women create most "fansites" and run most events. Comiket is INCREDIBLY female dominated recently and the doujinshi output by women is at least 3 times that of men (2 of the 3 days in Comiket are devoted to mainly boy's love doujinshi).

Women have more free time to "consume" since, in the culture, it is traditionally a man's place to work almost constantly and for a woman to stay at home raising children. There is a huge untapped market of bored housewives with their husbands' paychecks to blow.

Shounen Jump now has more female subscribers than male... and shounen Jump is the #1 magazine with women.

Recently comic monthlies have been losing circulation numbers across the board... mens', boys' and girls': the only niches currently seeing any new publications -- josei, yuri and boys love (all genres designed to appeal to adult women).

A major Women's Comic/Doujinshi tower has just opened in Akihabara (a previously male-dominated otaku community) and Otome Road is getting a slew of Butler Cafes.

Everyone seems to be predicting that women are going to be the "hot new market". I doubt that means men are going to stop being an audience (especially for manga, which will ALWAYS be a big seller to everyone)... but we're likely to see a major shift in the more "expensive" product ranges - games, anime, figures, etc.

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Hassun

Well I don't mind if the manga continues to be on the level of the FMAs and the Hellsing's out there.
Maybe more female readers will make for deeper stories? Who knows. Just as long as they don't all turn into 'dorama' or 'lovey dovey' watery excrement.

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AngelMage

Oh wow that is intresting but I'm not too surprised since it seems that boy's love manga are very popular or just read alot in japan but then again I don't really know much about japan so eheheh.-^u^-;