Inspired by comments from 10 Most Rewatchable Shonen Anime Series, Ranked
Here are a few examples that I know of:
| title | expected | actual |
|---|---|---|
| Frieren | non-shounen (seinen?) | shounen |
| Attack on Titan | seinen | shounen |
| The Apothecary Diaries | shoujo | seinen |
| Umamusume: Cinderella Gray | shounen | seinen |
| 100 Girlfriends | shounen | seinen |
What are other instances of misidentified demographic you have seen?
Quick and dirty definitions of anime demographics:
- shoujo - girls
- shounen - boys
- josei - ladies
- seinen - men
AFAIK the target demographics are determined not by the eventual audience, but by the publishers. So if they think it would appeal to shounen, it gets classified as shounen.
Personally, I can see why Frieren gets classified as shounen even after discounting the fight scenes. I find that the characters’ thinking lack a certain depth / maturity / complexity of seinen and josei anime.
The reason Frieren is classified as shounen is because the manga is serialized in Weekly Shounen Sunday.
It’s also important to note that shounen encompasses a lot more than just battle shounen, that’s one subgenre under a wider umbrella. And even then, Frieren’s fight scenes do check all the boxes of a battle shounen, it’s all there, it’s just that the series encompasses a lot of other elements too.
Today I learned the “shounen” label is useless for categorization lol. Sounds like “Netflix show” or “Amazon Prime show” lol
Six of one, half a dozen of the other. It’s like the fact that you cannot create a category that includes all “fish” that doesn’t also include humans (or, if you want to exclude humans by way of things like body plan or living on land, then you have to include cetaceans and start excluding things like lungfish).
To use your example, most people would probably say there are actually pretty clear expectations of tone & pacing between “a Netflix show” vs. “an HBO show” vs. “a syndicated television show (from before streaming services)” despite them all being the same on the surface.
I wouldn’t exactly say that. It’s a broad category, but it is a fairly well defined category. Frieren ticks pretty much every shounen box.
Yeah it’s definitely half battle shounen. But “battle shounen” is a genre, while “shounen” does not appear to be a genre. It’s just the groupings by age and gender (at least according to OP) or publication (according to you). But they’re only decided by the company that prints them, and determined before the actual fanbase is found, and don’t change according to reception.
Doesn’t seem very meaningful or useful for us fans. I always thought it was a description, but it just seems to be an origin. The genre names based on/inspired by it seem fine, like “battle shounen” because the fans have the final say if it is or isn’t. Even if the companies are always right, I’d rather not let them have the final say in our categorizations.
It’s both. It’s telling you “hey, if you’re a teenage boy you’re more likely to like this.” It’s also telling you that the writing is less likely to be difficult to read or understand. Once you’re familiar with what gets published for these demographics it tells you all sorts of things, really.
I cannot remember the title off the top of my head, but I remember reading about at least one manga that changed the magazine it was originally serialised in to reach a different market segment.
Disagree. I found it useful.
After watching a substantial amount of anime, I noticed - based on my AniList stats - that I enjoy seinen anime more than those of shounen and shoujo. (You can guess which demographic I am a part of.)
This made it easier for me to seek out anime that fit my taste - though it certainly is a self-reinforcing loop.
I’d still check shounen / shoujo anime out; they simply have a higher bar to clear.
Vinland Saga did this. There are others, but that’s the one that comes to mind.