--- Aishuu Shadowweaver <mbsilvana@yahoo.com> wrote:

All I can say on the KKJ fic I recently sent is that
it is shoujo.  It is meant to read a bit cliche. You
have the heroine wallow in her angst, rebel against
her destined fate, and finally accept it, since she
has the hero to guide her; the hero, who as usual,
knows more about what�s going on then she does.  And
of course, she confesses her love and has it returned.

Shoujo is meant to be repetitive; how many series have
filler where how many-odd episodes you have the
heroine spending thirty seconds doing the SAME
transformation sequence?  I won�t defend my writing
style, since it�s obvious that it still needs work-
hell, I�m an editor in real life and deal with prima
donna writers enough that I don�t want to be one.  I
know I fall flat there- but I�m working on it, but
part of it IS style.  

I want to defend shoujo.

By all means defend shoujo.

Shoujo need not be repetitive.  If you have read Kakan
no Madonna (by Saito Chiho), the plot is not repetitive.

Shoujo does not need a male hero.  If you've seen Minky
Momo (I've only seen the first 30 eps or so), there is
no male hero.  Granted Minky Momo is more mahou shoujo
than what you are probably thinking of as shoujo, but
it is in the same genre.

In fact, if you consider Koko ha Greenwood to be shoujo
(note the bishonen), the female lead is also optional.

Generally, I find that shoujo tends to have lots of
stuff about fate and destiny.  But this is not always
the case.

I've read a manga where there are bousouzoku, and a
middle school female, and a fair amount of fighting.
(It was actually a fairly old manga, but I did like it
quite a bit.)

The male heroes are optional, the repetitiveness is
also optional.  Dumb or incompetent main characters are
optional.

I generally find repetitive stories boring, shounen or
shoujo.  I can stand only certain types of angst in
limited quantities.  I want strong characters, good
conflict (in the literary sense), and a snappy pace.
Not all of these are required for me to enjoy a piece
of fiction.  Shoujo is no exception.

Frankly speaking a lot of the stuff that has been
thrown at me as shoujo on the market has been fluff.
Fluff some females (and males) may enjoy, but fluff
none the less.  I don't respect KKJ much more than
I respect DBZ (i.e. not a lot).

I don't mind shoujo (or crossover works), but I'm
not going to let someone tell me what shoujo is,
when I'm fairly sure that shoujo can be better than
the definition presented to me.

Shoujo manga is aimed at females, generally from
grade school into early high school.  (Take a look
at the age of many of the heroines.)  It is usually
told from a female prespective, with lots of
emphasis on emotions.  Common themes include fate,
destiny, reincarnation, and romance.

Billing and cooing is optional.  Sending males
screaming out of the room clawing at their eye
sockets is also optional.

Response is more likely of people know the series.
If you want to write shoujo, do so.  But you will
always have better luck when the series have been
commercially released outside of Japan.  Otherwise,
they may go in expecting something familiar and
be treated to something they weren't expecting.

If you do want to write shoujo, try the following
series: Koko ha Greenwood, Kaitou St. Tail, Vampire
Princess Miyu, Ayashi no Ceres, or Angel Sanctuary.
Most of them are commercially released in the US.

Or take characters from a popular shounen series
with whatever you think are the appropriate
attributes (repetiveness, destiny, and a romantic
male lead, I think your criteria were), and write
a story using those characters in a shoujo style.

You are almost guaranteed to get "feedback" if you
use the second method.

So have people scared me off?  Hell no.  There�s still
things I won�t send (there�s WAY too many men here for
me to send my yaoi lemon CLAMP fics, and I have a WAY
too fluffy Sailor Moon fic I know no one will
appreciate), but I�m going to keep ramming shoujo down
people�s throats.  Why?  Because- someone might
appreciate it.

Send what you want, label it appropriately, and people
might suprise you.  You may also want to mark the SM
fic as based on the manga continuity.

-- Anand



__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos & More
http://faith.yahoo.com

             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'