Is InuYasha A Shojo Dragon Ball?

[Yosheets]

I was thinking this to myself lately... A lot of people say that InuYasha is DBZ for girls, so does that make it the Shojo version of Dragon Ball (because it's also written by a woman, even though it's written in Shonen Sunday)?

[VegettoEX]

It's just another "shonen" with a wide and diverse fanbase, no different from Dragon Ball, Naruto, One Piece, Saint Seiya, etc. The author's gender is irrelevant. Takahashi certainly has an immense female audience, but... so what, I guess?

I would recommend checking out this article from our 30th anniversary magazine. Shueisha in particular is well aware that their "shonen" audience isn't actually all boys.

(General reminder that "shonen" isn't a genre, but rather an intended demographic... and the actual resulting demographic doesn't always end up as expected!)

[ABED]

Supernatural is geared towards mainly males and yet its fanbase is overwhelmingly female. What you target and what you hit aren't always the same thing.

[JulieYBM]

Non-women write shoujo comics all the time. Nom-men can write shounen comics, too. Hell, 'men' writing shoujo comics is a tremendously huge reason why we have the 'bishoujo' character-type in the first place.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Also worth noting, Fullmetal Alchemist was written by a female author but it still fits the "shonen" demographic. Inuyasha is no different from it and Dragon Ball.

[JulieYBM]

I mean...they're also published within decidedly boys-aimed magazine.

[Metalwario64]

Supernatural is geared towards mainly males and yet its fanbase is overwhelmingly female. What you target and what you hit aren't always the same thing.

Like how the original Gundam targeted kids, but it was a hit with an older, teenage demographic.

[JulieYBM]

Supernatural is geared towards mainly males and yet its fanbase is overwhelmingly female. What you target and what you hit aren't always the same thing.

Like how the original Gundam targeted kids, but it was a hit with an older, teenage demographic.

I need to re-read the text I read this in to refresh my memory, but remember, this was in 1979-1981--the formative years of Otaku culture--the original Kidou Senshi Gundam was definitely a huge thing in re-runs and the 1980-1981 compilation film trilogy. Mecha Otaku loved the mecha and Otaku in general loved the characters. Hell, Uchuu Senkan Yamato was in a similar situation. The original series aired from 1974-1975 (twenty-six episodes) but it was the 1977 compilation film that really gave the series a boost, in particular because Otaku fell in love with the women.

[Dr. Casey]

I don't think Dragon Ball and Inuyasha really have much of anything in common at all, beyond the fact that they both have a lot of fight scenes.

[DragonBallFoodie]

I would call Sailor Moon the shojo (female-centred) counterpart to Dragon Ball.

[Locust]

I think the only reason, from what I've seen, that Westerners think Inuyasha is shoujo is because of there being romance featured in it - it's interesting to me how established manga/anime terms have become almost largely altered in other countries
Like I see a lot of Westerners think that shounen is a genre of action manga, rather than just a label for age demographics

I don't know where I'm going with this, but it just genuinely is interesting to me how these terms have evolved in other cultures

[JulieYBM]

I think the only reason, from what I've seen, that Westerners think Inuyasha is shoujo is because of there being romance featured in it - it's interesting to me how established manga/anime terms have become almost largely altered in other countries
Like I see a lot of Westerners think that shounen is a genre of action manga, rather than just a label for age demographics

I don't know where I'm going with this, but it just genuinely is interesting to me how these terms have evolved in other cultures

Unfortunately, I think it has to do with a lot of shounen animated series airing on Toonami, which was a block on Cartoon Network that considered itself 'action', first and foremost..

[Locust]

I think the only reason, from what I've seen, that Westerners think Inuyasha is shoujo is because of there being romance featured in it - it's interesting to me how established manga/anime terms have become almost largely altered in other countries
Like I see a lot of Westerners think that shounen is a genre of action manga, rather than just a label for age demographics

I don't know where I'm going with this, but it just genuinely is interesting to me how these terms have evolved in other cultures

Unfortunately, I think it has to do with a lot of shounen animated series airing on Toonami, which was a block on Cartoon Network that considered itself 'action', first and foremost..

Ah yeah that would make sense - I did see some older archived ads for DBZ when it first started airing in America/Europe - I'll be honest a part of me liked the overall energy of like ... "yeahhh look at these INTENSE FIGHTS WOOOOO hardcore" kinda vibe - but I love American action films, so there's that lmfao

Little did those kids know - the real intense fight was fighting through the filler

[JulieYBM]

I think the only reason, from what I've seen, that Westerners think Inuyasha is shoujo is because of there being romance featured in it - it's interesting to me how established manga/anime terms have become almost largely altered in other countries
Like I see a lot of Westerners think that shounen is a genre of action manga, rather than just a label for age demographics

I don't know where I'm going with this, but it just genuinely is interesting to me how these terms have evolved in other cultures

Unfortunately, I think it has to do with a lot of shounen animated series airing on Toonami, which was a block on Cartoon Network that considered itself 'action', first and foremost..

Ah yeah that would make sense - I did see some older archived ads for DBZ when it first started airing in America/Europe - I'll be honest a part of me liked the overall energy of like ... "yeahhh look at these INTENSE FIGHTS WOOOOO hardcore" kinda vibe - but I love American action films, so there's that lmfao

Little did those kids know - the real intense fight was fighting through the filler

To this day I still have a harder time getting through Dragon Ball GT than filler. At least the filler has way better music and sometimes good directing and the like.

But yeah, wow, Dragon Ball was and is still market in a strange, strange way, completely off from the series itself.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Isn't this just a punchline from an old VGCats comic?

https://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=190

[DBZAOTA482]

Sailor Moon has more in common with Dragon Ball than Inuyasha and even calling that "Shoujo Dragon Ball" is a stretch.

[Mewzard]

Sailor Moon has more in common with Dragon Ball than Inuyasha and even calling that "Shoujo Dragon Ball" is a stretch.

It's way closer to a Shoujo Saint Seiya.

But yeah, Inuyasha is 100% a Shonen series.

Look at Osamu Tezuka, he wrote several Shoujo works during his life, like Princess Knight, Twin Knight, and Storm Fairy (which was a collection of Shoujo short stories). He also wrote Shonen stuff, Seinen material, works for super young kids, and pretty much everything possible during his 43+ year career.

Who the creator is doesn't define the genre of what they write. It's the work itself.

[Peach]

I've always considered Sailor Moon to be more of a Shojo Dragon Ball. It was Dragon Ball Z's sister series on Toonami.

Oh My Goddess and Cutie Honey are the only other two action based shojos i can think of that were popular in the 90's.

[FireFly]

I've always considered Sailor Moon to be more of a Shojo Dragon Ball. It was Dragon Ball Z's sister series on Toonami.

Oh My Goddess and Cutie Honey are the only other two action based shojos i can think of that were popular in the 90's.

Oh My Goddess runs in a seinen magazine. It's not Shojo.

[Adamant]

I've always considered Sailor Moon to be more of a Shojo Dragon Ball. It was Dragon Ball Z's sister series on Toonami.

Oh My Goddess and Cutie Honey are the only other two action based shojos i can think of that were popular in the 90's.

Oh My Goddess runs in a seinen magazine. It's not Shojo.

Same with the 90s Cutie Honey series, and all later series. In the 70s Honey ran concurrently in 5 different magazines with 3 different artists, two of which were shojo ones, but the main series was the Shonen Champion one drawn by Nagai himself. The franchise has always been primarily aimed at males.