From: dareka@inter7NS.jp   
      
   Travers Naran wrote:   
   > Rastus wrote:   
   >   
   >>> two related articles on Japan shota/lolicon problems   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> The bit that concerns me is when the large mainstream authors are   
   >> following this same trend. A prime example is Ken Akamatsu who crossed   
   >> the line of decency agewise with his hugely successfull Negima series.   
   >   
   >   
   > Moe is big business apparently.  30% of the market, if I remember   
   > correctly.   
   >   
   >> The biggest breath of fresh air I read/viewed in a long time was   
   >> Kiyohiko Azuma's Yotsuba for releasing an innocent and non predatory   
   >> series featuring children.   
   >   
   >   
   > Azuma-sensei seems to be a pretty decent person. Even Azumanga Daioh   
   > wasn't even particularly predatory for high school girls compared to   
   > most other high school comics (*cough* Joushi Kousei *cough*).   
      
   I beg to differ. Even though there are a lot of gratuitous   
   exposures of the skin and underwear and it's a fact that the   
   manga was/is serialized in magazines which are targeting male   
   adults, I think it can be said that Joshikousei has rather   
   been inheriting orthodox shoujo manga style of its category.   
   Mangas in this category have a gang/group of high school girls   
   and the story focuses on the *reality* of their lives and   
   interactions. Shoujo mangas in this settings or style had   
   become a bit popular in the early '80s and those mangas had   
   been apparently influenced by a certain manga by Matsunae   
   Akemi. As for Joshikousei, while using this settings, if I'm   
   obliged to find some good points for this manga, I think   
   things that make this manga interesting and different from   
   older mangas in this category are complete exaggerations of   
   how high school girls think stupid and act stupid, and the   
   raciness which has gone where no other stories had gone   
   before, especially for male readership. In my opinion, the   
   anime version has lost these only good points the manga has,   
   their stupidness and raciness. On the other hand, it seems to   
   me that Azumanga is adopting this style and girls are somewhat   
   tried to be depicted as real life figures on their own when   
   compared to other mangas but they are still basically   
   idealized figures for men; I mean they could never be real   
   threats to the male otaku readers in any way, or the girls are   
   not a projection of the author's (created) peers but perhaps a   
   projection of his moe fancy.   
      
   Anyway in short, my point is that I think the target   
   readership of Azumanga( and Yotsubato) manga is apparently   
   male otaku while it doesn't necessarily apply to Joshikousei   
   manga.   
      
   >   
   > Also, I think Yotsubato! is aimed at a younger demographic because it   
   > uses furigana in the Japanese edition (I only see that for manga aimed   
   > at grade schoolers).   
      
      
   --   
      
   dareka   dareka@inter7NS.jp   
      
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