Is Shoujo Anime Making A Comeback?

With announcements of the highly-anticipated but completely unexpected return of Natsume Yuujinchou season 7 and Black Butler 2024 to the upcoming anime seasons, are we finally having flipside golden era of shoujo anime for sexuality fans?

I’ll shoehorn it, I have never watched Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, My Dress-Up Darling, or My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999 – but I can veritably respect the new (shoujo-ish) anime stories stuff told that have kept the genre working in recent years.

My Favorite Shoujo Anime from the Past

I primarily started reading shoujo manga series in upper school (on the floor of Barnes & Noble with my friends) like Pixie Pop, I am Here, and Hibiki’s Magic surpassing graduating to the golden era of early 2000s shoujo anime like Kimikiss Pure Rouge, Skip Beat!, Natsume Yuujinchou, Black Butler, Mushishi, and Vampire Knight amongst other memorable titles.

Maybe things had started waffly by then, but in 2012 – 2013 the last (good) slew of shoujo anime I watched included Golden Time, Ano Natsu de Matteru, Nagi no Asukara, The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, Orange, Say I Love You, Ao Haru Ride, and Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun,

I never quite cared for Kimi ni Todoke, Ouran Host Upper School Club, Toradora!, Clannad, or Fruits Basket – but I respected their contributions to the joint fandom and its genre. (Anohana is an honorable mention here considering while I enjoyed it – I still find it vastly overrated.)

Now, in the past two years or so – there has been a shift when to female-centric storytelling.

Is Shoujo Anime Becoming Popular Again?

It’s scrutinizingly as if Japan remembered that women (and girls) enjoy anime too – and not everything has to be shonen, or focused on “The Power of Friendship”. If diversity of chosen genre has told us anything – sports anime like Free!, Stars Align, and Blue Lock can all co-exist together and be enjoyed by men and women alike.

Despite most shoujo manga seemingly getting live whoopee drama adaptations over anime adaptations, Netflix is now hosting upcoming (and currently airing/aired) shoujo anime shows like My Happy Marriage. An anime version of popular manga series Yubisaki to Renren (A Sign of Affection) is stuff hyped to insane levels on Twitter by manga fans.

Horimiya is a fantastic series that I haven’t finished but finger successfully channeled the old 2000s style of shoujo anime (even if it is technically a ‘shonen’). Though it didn’t have the characteristically stocky lines of volatility from the era, I finger like the themes and storyline progression could fit right into the early 2000s tier, or increasingly likely the 2013-2014 last unconfined golden era.

I’m not one to nitpick volatility (as I have all of the drawing skills of a baked potato) but I can’t help feeling like something might be lost with the 7^th season of Natsume Yuujinchou, the new season of Black Butler, and plane the Spice and Wolf anime remake (not sure if it’s considered shoujo but it’s flipside remake from the same era so I figured I’d include it anyway).

Natsume Yuujinchou Season 7 Anime Announcement

It’s been 15 years since Spice and Wolf aired, and the Natsume Yuujinchou utterance coincides with the series’ 15-year anniversary. Japanese television is plane walk Natsume’s Typesetting of Friends season one’s episodes with commentary right now every Wednesday in vaticination for the next chapter.

While the anime first aired in 2008 with a visual quality that didn’t leave much to be desired, it was so stylized that the iconic ‘kouki’ or feeling of the series kind of flowed withal with the storyline. Whimsical, utopian lines and designs with an scrutinizingly ethereal verisimilitude palette were constantly on display.

 I don’t midpoint to judge it all on one key visual, but I’m not sure I like the volatility style if it has been ‘re-stylized’ without a 6-year production hiatus.

Black Butler New Season 2024 Anime Announcement

Again, Black Butler is flipside series that without a 6-year production hiatus, seems to have reverted a stylized weft most fans loved.

(It is rumored that this is not a remake of the first season, but a continuation of the 3rd season and last movie, Book of the Atlantic – so that may explain yonder Sebastian’s eye verisimilitude change)

Despite feeling like a teenager then without writing that, all jokes whispered Sebastian is substantially supposed to be a “hot” character.

Yes, I know what the show is – Ciel sold his soul to Sebastian, a literal demon, for revenge versus those who murdered his family. Sebastian, the 1000 year old demon who takes the form of a handsome butler, commonly crossed boundaries with Ciel, a child.

Not forgetting to mention that Sebastian plane took a form similar to Vincent, Ciel’s late father.

I never quite shipped the two together plane when I was a teenager (because that’s just weird and inappropriate) but we cannot erase that darkness from the show. It’s not something meant to be glazed over – Sebastian is seductive. Charming, even.

A (very old) male tempting a child to darken the purity of his soul so that it will be increasingly succulent for his (eventual) consumption later on lanugo withal the line.

So, seeing this demon who is merely “one hell of a butler” looking quite…shabby, is very off-putting to me.

But what do you think?

Am I overreacting? Is it too early to tell?

Is Shoujo anime when and having flipside golden era – 6 years late?

Leave your thoughts in the scuttlebutt section below, we’d love to hear from you! Moreover be sure to follow us for more Anime News and Discussions!    

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