Anime [Anime Blog Muyo!] Shoujo's Got the Mojo

One of the more interesting comments to come out of AnimeBoston this past weekend originated during the "State of the Industry" panel, in which reps from ADV, Bandai, and Geneon all agreed that shoujo is the fastest growing genre in the North American anime market.

Recent licenses and releases most definitely support this statement. For example, who would have expected we'd be seeing Marmalade Boy on DVD? Or Boys Over Flowers? Princess Tutu? Even shoujo standard Kodomo no Omocha - pretty much the most elusive of anime licenses for years - has been snatched up by Funimation. And, of course, there's Pretear, Kaleido Star, Super GALS!, His and Her Circumstances; the list goes on and on.

Of course, given the growing popularity of shoujo manga and the increasing number of female fans discovering the world of anime, it shouldn't come as much surprise domestic studios are snapping up new shoujo titles and dusting off old properties long forgotten. All things considered, shoujo anime is still a relatively untapped market in North America - a financial Spindletop waiting to blow.

But the increasing popularity of shoujo anime series presents new challenges for domestic studios. Many have high episode counts, forcing studios to examine more efficient ways to release DVDs, such as digipaks or small boxsets. Shoujo also presents new marketing challenges due to shifting demographics and the genre's appeal among new fans with less predictable buying habits compared to their more experienced counterparts. Furthermore, the TV-friendly, serial nature of many shoujo titles may mean we'll be seeing more on television in the future - which would be an admirable development given the general aversion to female-oriented programming that has marked the American children's cartoon market for so many years.

Are we entering an era in which Cardcaptors would never have come to be? Perhaps so.

Now, if a studio would just hurry up and license Full Moon wo Sagashite...

Click here to read this story
http://www.radicalbender.com/animeblog/archives/000940.php