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It’s An Art Style
Genre Analysis of Shojou Anime
The eye-catching colors work in anime as a draw, a beautiful array of bright and dark tones that work together to engross itself into the imagination of the viewer, enriched with emotional story plots and well thought out characters. Not surprisingly, one of the most famous subgenres of anime, the shoujo anime, has brought itself much acclaim for its emotional quirky characters. In her book on girls surfing the internet Sharon Mazzarella defines shoujo anime “as a sub-genre of Japanese animation (anime) featuring strong female lead characters and targeted primarily toward female viewers” (7). As a cartoon shoujo anime provides the audience with the following schematic tropes: characters falling into archetypes, slow building of tension to heighten emotions, an art style that brings emphasis to the character’s quirks, and a music background to emphasize emotions. To provide evidence to this definition, I will examine four animes (Fruits Basket, Full Moon Wo Sagashite, Sailor Moon, and Skip Beat) to demonstrate how the four tropes clarify the understanding of this subgenre, regardless of any knowledge of the individual works.
The term shoujo as a subgenre conveys an association with teenage girls, portraying characters and stories that are relatable to that audience. While books have explored this topic (popularized with graphic novels in the late twentieth century), shoujo anime entered into the public domain with Mahoutsukai Sally, also known as Sally the Witch in English, in the year 1966. In the subsequent decades after Mahoutsukai Sally, the shoujo anime underwent movements into further genre distinction: romantic comedy (Skip Beat, Oran High School Host Club), mahou shoujo or magical girl (Sailor Moon, Sasami Magical Girls Club), drama (Fruits Basket, Full Moon Wo Sagashite), and more. Despite the distinction of different animes, the constant of shoujo animes remains in its ability to tell an emotionally intriguing narrative. According to Catherine Butcher, in her review of shoujo anime, she states, “Shoujo anime are associated with girls from around 10 to 18 years” (5).
These commercially successful cartoons develop through the trope of the character archetypes by incorporating an air head main character, a tsundere or emotionally defensive character, and normally a mentor character whom helps the other characters through their emotional traumas or obstacles in life. In the original graphic novels these animes are based upon, they usually give a character description at the beginning of each novel to identify what category the characters fall under; in the animes, each episode picks up from where the prior episode left off, which lets the viewer determine what archetype a character falls under through the characters’ actions. For example, the main character of Fruits Basket is a sixteen-year-old named Tohru Honda, who is hard working, kind, and giving. Similarly, the protagonist of Skip Beat is also a sixteen-year-old girl who puts everything she can into all her endeavors, but both these characters have negative traits such as being too kind. Both these characters like many other shoujo heroines put others needs before their own, which leads to these characters to get into more trouble than they otherwise would. These characters would work themselves to the point of sickness if it meant helping the ones they love. We might view these characters as naïve or too innocent, but we sympathize with their drive to do good in the world and are inspired by their pursuit of kindness. This trope allows for the character’s naivety to become their fatal flaw, allowing us the viewer to learn an important lesson: it is ok to take breaks and not to overwork oneself.
The slow build of character development throughout the animated stories allows the writers to invest more time into the emotional backgrounds of the characters, allowing the writers more time to stretch the content with slow building story arcs and heavy emphasis on character development, which eventually leads to the overall climax. Full Moon Wo Sagashite and Sailor Moon span over forty episodes, allowing the show to tell multiple story arcs. For example, Full Moon Wo Sagashite, features a twelve-year-old girl who wants to become a famous singer. However, she is sick and knows she will not live long enough to complete this dream, until she is visited by two death spirits who help her follow her dream with the time she has left. Each story arc in this piece adds more content to the overarching plot by watching the protagonist, Mitsuki, become more famous each episode and watching her will to survive become stronger. She begins the story having accepted the fact that she is dying, but by the end of the story she strives to survive. Each small story can stand alone, but all the stories throughout the episodes results in little bits of information given to the viewer overtime, instead of giving the main plot all at once.
Throughout the story of Full Moon Wo Sagashite the viewers follow the shenanigans of a little girl and two renegade death spirits, while gaining more plot content throughout each story arc. The show uses a mix of comedy, drama, and the supernatural to showcase all the emotions the characters are going through. These elements are found in the majority of the anime in the shoujo subgenre. Sailor Moon for instance, uses a mix of these elements in its portrayal of the story through the use of reincarnation as a supernatural element, the use of tension between the protagonist Usagi and her love interest Momarou, or Serina and Darian in the English dub, as a source of drama, and the interactions between Usagi and food for comedy. This trope allows for characters to build meaningful interactions with each other, while being relatable to the audience by using multiple elements since realistic interactions do not just depend on one tone. There are normally multiple, since not every conversation is serious nor is every conversation comedic.
Another trope heavily involved in shoujo anime is the art style. According to Jennifer Stockins in her article on anime and manga culture, “characters with a ‘wide eyed’ look […] gave them an infant-like appearance as their large eyes were not in proportion to the rest of their face” (22). Stockins further explains that this artistic choice was to help viewers identify the emotions the character is portraying. As anime is a Japanese cartoon style, they cannot portray the characters emotions through the actor’s expressions, so they must rely upon something different. In this case the characters in this genre portray their emotions through their eyes. The shoujo anime Skip Beat uses this trope with maximum efficiency. Skip Beat is about a girl who becomes an actress. Each one of the characters the protagonist portrays shows different emotions through her eyes. For example, when Kyoko, the protagonist of Skip Beat, plays an angel her eyes are drawn to portray kindness, which is completely different from how her eyes are drawn when she plays Mio antagonistic role. In that role her eyes are drawn to show anger and resentment. Similarly, shows such as Fruits Basket, Full Moon Wo Sagashite, and Sailor Moon to portray the characters’ emotions and personalities. In Fruits Basket the characters eyes are used to portray their excitement or in the protagonist, Tohru’s, case the fact she is spacey. The eyes are a major drawback in some cases, since some viewers are creeped out by the large eye art style, though it cannot be argued that the eyes are a major factor in portraying the characters emotions. In the above pictures one can see the more narrowed eyes make a character look more sophisticated while the larger rounder eyes make a character look more kind. This trope is easily reflective of the old saying the eyes are a window to the soul, anime just takes this saying in a literal sense.
Lastly, music is an important trope in anime. Like in many other works of media the music sets the tone of the piece. Adrian North in a book on music and manipulation states, “music can activate appropriate knowledge” (114). In other words, there is a cultural knowledge on how music effects the viewers’ interpretations of a work and that music can change the audience’s perspectives. For example, when Mio is portrayed by Kyoko in Skip Beat minor tones play in the background to give the viewer a feeling of uncertainty. The tone resonates in the ears of the viewer to cause a feeling of foreboding through all the sharp notes. Similarly, minor tones are played when Akito, the main antagonist in Fruits Basket, is introduced. The music enhances the experience of watching the show by engaging the oral mode. Having music along with the visuals helps immerse the viewers in the animated world. Also, every shoujo anime has an intro song and an ending song that helps set the mood for the show. During important scenes of the show the intro or ending music will play as a reminder that the section of story is important for character growth and development. For example, when Tohru brings Kyo back home during the season finally of Fruits Basket season one, the ending music is playing to indicate character growth for both Tohru and Kyo. In this scene you see Kyo finally accept himself for who he is, while you see Tohru struggle to internalize what she just witnessed. Before this episode in Fruits Basket Tohru happily accepted everyone, but seeing her friend turn into a grotesque monster she says, “I am scared. I don’t understand, but we can get through this together” (Ep. 24). Her honesty to Kyo allowed him to accept himself for the first time, because she did not ignore that form nor did she get disgusted by it. Overall this trope helps the audience sympathize with the characters and become more receptive to their feelings.
Understanding genre is important. It allows scholars and creators to develop content under limitations that do not impede creativity, because they give directions that relate to the expectations of the audience, and help the creator meet those expectations. An exceptional shoujo anime requires two important aspects: a strong female lead and complex characters. If either of these elements are missing the anime becomes trite. The plot needs complex characters to create the emotional depth needed to produce a shoujo anime, and the strong female lead is required to draw in the young female audience. The structure of genre allows us, as content creators, to play within its limitations, and create new innovative ways to create stories and artwork by pushing against the pre-established confines of a single genre.
To conclude, the subgenre of shoujo anime helps define genre through its tropes. Shoujo anime heavily relies upon the use of character archetypes in the creation of its characters. Normally the female lead is characterized as kind and hardworking, with the negative trait of being too naïve. The large eye art style showcased in anime and manga help the viewer determine the characters’ personalities and emotions. The complex characters allow for emotional storylines and character arcs. Lastly, music helps set the mood and tone of the show. In conclusion, the animes Fruits Basket, Full Moon Wo Sagashite, Sailor Moon, and Skip Beat all fall under the genre of shoujo anime.
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