How to support Shoujo & Josei content: A Guide
(Disclaimer: this isnât an expert opinion but just what Iâve seen work for other fandoms. Apologises as this will be a long post).
The problem is Shoujo and Josei doesnât get more attention. Anime adaptations are few and even though Shoujo Isekai mangas are amazing, most people in the anime community consider Isekai to be already oversaturated that they donât give it a chance. The question is: how do us fans get more anime adaptations? More light novels given manga adaptations? More anime convention panels? More official merch? Basically, more attention? The answer is
Watching new seasonal anime as soon as itâs available. Why? Because legal (yes guys unfortunately free sites donât count) streaming sites like Crunchyroll, Funimation, VRV etc. record the number of people who watch anime on their platform by episode and if they see that a particular anime gets views immediately a new episode is live, of course they are going to continue to support it and relay their stats to the original anime studio. I know these sites have lots of ads (I hate it too) and some only allow VIP subscribers to watch an episode as soon as it launches, thatâs fine as long as you can watch the episode when it becomes free for you. Pro tip: the more people the better! Message your friends, your cousins, anyone you know that can check the episode out for a few minutes. And rate the episode if you can after youâre done!
By trending. Do you know how many times Iâve logged in here and saw some manga trending and decided âMight as well check out what the fuss is aboutâ? Trending on any social media platform shows something interesting happened to the point that many people want to talk about it and this can attract new people to the fandom. Also, to be able to get so many people talking shows that the fandom is big or at least gives that illusion. It doesnât have to be written posts, even fanart, tagging a picture of merch you have that you like or any contribution regardless of if you think itâs good or not is better than nobody engaging.
Giving high ratings on MAL. Iâm pretty sure most have heard what happened to Chihayafuru Season 3 but if you havenât, to summarise Chihayafuru 3 had been given great ratings on My Anime List to the point that it became one of the top rated anime in the Autumn 2019 season. However, this irritated some who believed other anime deserved the spot more and they started giving 1 star ratings on purpose until it lost itâs spot. The MAL team had to work hard to delete these reviews and bring the balance back (which I think has been restored but donât quote me on that). MAL is a anime database that, just like Crunchyroll, records what anime/manga people are watching, plan to watch and already done with. Lots of people pay attention to their stats when they announce what the highest rated anime is etc. Therefore, giving high reviews to anime or manga you liked and making recommendations on the site wonât go unnoticed.
Buying light novels/manga volumes. Yeah, yâall knew this was coming. Supporting the authors financially is always the best way to draw more attention to a fandom because it shows the series is profitable. Notice how I didnât put this first? Because a lot of people may not have the money to support at a given time (Iâm a student so I only get to work during seasonal periods). English translations are also very hard to come by so when an official English translation is published, buy it if youâre able to, even if itâs just one volume you can afford. As far as reading online, I wish so much that Shojo Beat had its own app like Shonen Jump does, but only shoujo manga. Until that happens, there are others apps to read manga on. Particularly for Isekai, thereâs Webnovel, Tapas and Tappytoon. If youâre more interested in Chinese manhua Webcomics, WeComics and Mangatoon have more than other apps. In case smut is more you style Coolmic and Renta are what you need. I chose these apps because money spent there gets back to the authors but there are probably many more apps out there. Some these give daily currency so if you can get something to read if you log in frequently.
Watching convention panels and other streams. So thereâs a con on and you canât go. Doesnât matter! If there is a live broadcast, make sure to tune in and leave a comment. Views on each panel are recorded too so if lots of people tuned in for a panel, the planners would consider hosting a similar one the next time. But what if the panel is in a language you donât understand? Comment anyway! I feel that English speakers comment less because the speakers might not understand them. However, showing appreciation for the creator of your favorite series shows them that theyâve got more people out there rooting for them.
So there you have it. Thatâs all I can think of at the moment. Like I said this is just what Iâve personally seen and think works, if thereâs anything I missed please comment and if you already do all of this, I mean no insult or offence. Now back to my hermit hole!
