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
I have to counter your point about not having cute boys doing cute things. There’s Kimi to Boku, Daily Lives of High School Boys and I’d probably even throw in Hetalia just to name a few off the top of my head.
I have only seen the first episode of Kimi to Boku and am not familiar with Hetelia from memory, but Daily Lives of High School Boys is a prime example about how boys centric show would generally follow more raunchy themes. If the other two shows are different and genuninely show innocent themes, then I would call them outliers more than the rule. Same as with outliers to girls being depicted as innocent. Sure there are girls that play on the gap-moe bit those are the outliers (and lets be honest here, they are more often then not just there to deliver some innuendo joke).