Shojo and Anime For Girls
Anime, Japan's stylish animated storytelling is a big hit in many countries these days, and you can't turn around without hearing of a new anime series surfacing on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim or at your local Blockbuster. One of the big stereotypes of anime however, is that it's all for boys and nothing could be farther from the truth!
Shojo (sometimes spelled shoujo) anime is made for a younger, female audience with the emphasis being placed on personal relationships rather than world-shaking battles or politics. Whether you're looking for gift for a younger female cousin, or your friend feels that all anime is about men fighting in robot suits, there are a lot of different shows that will be perfectly suitable for even your girliest friend.
Fruits Basket
This series is one of the hottest sellers in the United States and with good reason! The story focuses on Tohru Honda, an orphaned high school girl who runs into a cursed family. Whenever a member of the wealthy mysterious Sohma family is hugged by a member of the opposite sex, they transform into one of the animals of the Chinese zodiac. As Tohru struggles to break the curse, the audience will be enjoy strong plotlines, engaging characters and hilarious situations.
Fushigi Yuugi
In this anime, which is often translated into "The Mysterious Play," a young girl falls through a portal in a book that takes her to ancient China. Once there, she is declared a priestess who must save the world by collecting the Celestial Warriors of the country and invoking a god. While Miaka is trying to do this, she must contend with being dragged back to her own world and dealing with mundane things like exams as well!
Angel Sanctuary
This dark, gothic story features a young boy who is the reincarnation of a rebellious angel. As both heavenly and infernal forces move to shape his awakening powers for their own ends, Setsuna Mudo must come to terms with his own conflicting emotions and find out what it is that he is willing to protect and fight for. This anime is not really suited for younger viewers, as it involves very adult themes.
Princess Tutu
If the idea of the protagonist starting out as duck who wants to save her prince appeals to you, than check out Princess Tutu. Ahiru is a young girl at a ballet school who has a crush on the quiet male lead dancer, Mytho, but she's also a duck... and a magical superheroine! This occasionally surreal, always adorable anime is ideal for both younger viewers and those who can't resist good animation and wonderful storytelling.
Here Is Greenwood
Getting away from the supernatural, Here Is Greenwood is the tale of a young student at boarding school for the first time. Kazuya Hasukawa is possibly the unluckiest boy ever; he falls in love only to have the object of his affections turn around and marry his brother. With a dorm full of fascinating characters that Kazuya just finds annoying and his double-crossing brother turning out to be the head of the infirmiry, Kazuya's in for a wild semester!
Girl Animes
Anime cartoons have become the new thing for most people to watch. Following the great adventures on each show that your characters go through is one of the highlights of your day. You will also find that many people have started to enjoy girl animes pictures.
These girl animes usually depict real characteristics that people enjoy seeing. The girls on these animations look very realistic with the bodies curved to suit real women. Sailor moon is one such show that has girl characters in different shapes and sizes. What the animators work on for the girl animes is the eyes which are usually large eyes which are either a bright blue, green, brown and some even red. These girl animations are not left behind when it comes to action sequences and you will find that there are even some anime cartoon series where the ladies are the main characters of the show.
The anime cartoons usually depict the girls with short skirts and maybe a sexy look, so as to differentiate them from the male characters. But there are some girls who dress like the male characters to show that maybe she is a tom boy or to depict her lack of woman upbringing. If you like you could download pictures of these girl animations which are colorful and the design work is always a work of art. Several of the anime websites provide these girls pictures and you will find that there sites that deal with just pictures and shows of girl animes.
The woman is a beautiful being and these girl animations depict just that. The role of the woman is brought out in these animations and you also get to see the stronger side of the girl characters as well as the softer side.
Cute Anime Cartoons - Top 10 Anime Cartoons You Should See
10. Lucky Star.
Lucky star has no plot, as plain as that. It's purely a comedy series. The series is only driven by the most popular character of the series, Konata, even if you don't like the comedy in it, if you're an otaku (anime nerd.) you'll like her.
9. K-on.
K-on is an anime about high school girls in a club together, yay! I am sure there won't be any extreme boredom. So in case you haven't guessed it's not that interesting, but they're all in a band together, thanks to the Light and Music Club. The series starts off with only four members of the band, and later on at the end of the first season we get a new character, sadly she is not interesting either. Now don't get me wrong, the music their band makes is good, but the characters are, well, dull. The show follows them in their normal life practicing, making new songs, and wait for this one - buying food! But never the less it's still cute, I guess.
8. Azumanga Daioh.
Well, it's, different. Okay this show is insane, admittedly you have to wait a bit for it to get really funny. It's about a bunch of girls in High School, and what makes the show cute is the little girl who skipped a couple of grades to be in High School. But I must warn you, if you do want to watch it, don't watch it all in one go. It will turn your mind to mush.
7. Card Captors. (Card Captor Sakura.)
Card Captors is about a girl called Sakura, she opened a book one day and then a whole bunch of cards came out and flew around the city and stuff. Now she has to get them back. But she also has to contend with a douche-bag love interest. Yay! Plus I think she's ten so that's where we get the cute from.
6. Gakuen Alice.
Gakuen Alice is about a girl that goes to a school for people with super powers! But she's ten or something so we don't get to see much fighting. Did I mention she's dense, pure, and incredibly kind. So if that's what she's like than yes you guessed it, her love interest is a douche. It has a very simplistic art style, nothing great or new, but at least the manga is better, go read that if you can find it.
5. Sgt. Frog
Sgt. Frog is about a group of space frogs, trying to conquer Earth. They live with a human family and are only allowed to stay because the Mother of the family is a manga artist who likes to use them for ideas. If isn't clear already, the space frogs suck at their job. The art style is surprisingly childish, don't show this to a kid because they won't get the pop culture references.
4. Shugo Chara.
First, go read the manga. The anime does not compare.
So it's about a girl called Amu who is eternally dubbed as 'Cool and spicy'' Yeah, I don't know what that means either. So she's the cool emotionless person in her school, but in actuality, she's rather shy, not dense, shy. Never-the-less if you do annoy her of or embarrass her, she will explode in anger. Her character isn't ground breaking but she's at least interesting. The story comes from her wanting to be herself at school, and with this desire she sort of - gives birth to three, well, Easter eggs? Right. So these eggs contain three of her would be selves, there is also a club at her school that contains other people who also have these eggs. She eventually joins them, is given a weird key pendant thing, and has to stop the evil Easter corporation from harnessing the power of eggs that have given up on their dreams, I think. Just go read it or watch it. Also she has two main love interests. One is a total pussy who is ashamed of his would be self who wants to take over the world and be a ruthless tyrant. (he's surprisingly lame.) Her other love interest is really the only one with a back story, he's not emo around Amu and is actually rather playful, the only problem is Amu is only 12 and he is 17. His name is Ikuto.
3. Pre Tear.
Pre Tear is about a girl who gains magical powers and has to fight monsters with tentacles. I don't really know why I like this show so much but if you're looking for something fluffy that talks about family rather than boring old friendship then this is your thing, plus douche-bag love interest!
2. Fruits Basket.
Fruits Basket is about Tohru Honda who, after a series of events, comes to live in a house with three men two of whom go to her school. The twist is that these three guys are subject to a curse where if they're hugged by the opposite sex they turn into an animal of the zodiac. So yeah, this is actually really funny, touching, and a little inspiring. But if you watch for the romantic sub-plots, then forget about the anime until you have read the manga.
1. Princess Tutu.
Princess Tutu is about a Prince called Myto. He shattered his heart in order to enslave a raven thing. He actually belongs in a story, but due to the story's writer, who had magical powers, he entered the real world and so did the raven thing. The prince Myto is now attending a ballet school, as this is the only thing he really knows how to do after he shattered his heart. Fakir, a reincarnation of the knight from the story, protects him. Fakir tends to be very protective of Myto as Myto has no emotions, and apparently can't feel pain. Losing his emotions apparently shut off his pain receptors. While the story is about the prince, it actually follows a duck who was turned into a girl by the story's writer, and all this girl called duck wants to do is restore the Prince's heart and see him smile. (Aww. Isn't that precious?) Of course by the second season things get pretty cool and prove that the title that was given to it was really stupid. The art style is cute and pretty with lovely pastel colours to make you feel at home. All in all this anime as well deserving of the number one spot, even if the name is terrible. (Remember to just give it a couple of episodes to get really good, maybe up to the second season.
Shoujo Anime - Magical Girls, Romance, Butlers and Ducks
At the most basic level, shojo anime is Japanese animation that is specifically intended for young girls. It can cover a wide variety of topics, ranging from idealized romantic relationships to girls who fight crime and monsters with their magical powers. The animation style that is typically used in shojo anime is very pretty, and many shojo anime tend to use the "big eyes, small mouth" convention of art. The truth is that even though shojo anime is aimed at young girls between the ages of eight and thirteen, it is actually a genre that can be enjoyed by fans of any ages. For instance, Sailor Moon was one of the very first anime imported and widely distributed in America, and it has a cult following that covers fans of every type!
When looking at shojo anime, you may be a little bit surprised at the diversity of topics. For instance, one common type of shojo anime is the magical girl story, where a young girl realizes that she has magical powers and must use them to fight evil and to save the world. Sailor Moon is one anime that falls neatly into this type, though there are certainly others. Another common theme that you might see is a more realistic story about a young girl who deals with romance and friendship in a familiar setting like a junior high school. One example of this type of anime includes Hana Yori Dango, also known as Boys Over Flowers, where Makino Tsukushi, a working class girl, attends an elite academy and must deal with both bullying and her first real relationship.
Interestingly, some anime do not deal with girls as main characters at all, and are merely directed at young girls. One example of this would be Kuroshitsuji, or Black Butler, which is set in Victorian England and features the adventures of a young boy named Ciel, who investigates crimes for the queen and is assisted by his demonic butler.
Though each anime is different, and though there are exceptions to every rule, shojo anime tends to be focused more on emotions and feelings over action. There is special emphasis on how the characters behave and what they think, and though all of the series listed above have action sequences, there is a fair amount of time spent on what those actions mean and what the consequences might be.
One terrific example of a great shojo anime is Princess Tutu, which tackles love, relationships, responsibility and fairy tales! In this anime, a small duck called Ahiru is granted her wish to become a girl and to dance with the "prince," a beautiful silent boy named Mytho. She realizes that his heart has literally been shattered and that she must restore it, which can she can do by touching an amulet and becoming Princess Tutu. The story takes place at a ballet school, and Ahiru slowly learns that nothing is as it seems, and that the ones she originally believed were enemies are nothing of the sort.
Shojo anime is a wonderful genre to explore and if you have ever wanted a great story with plenty of drama and lots of great artwork, search the shojo anime titles out there and see what your options might be!
Anime Females
Anime females are a phenomenon themselves -- they represent the ideal female, and thus tend to be more attractive than girls in real life. They offer the best of both worlds: blessed with great looks and an endearing personality. Who would not find an anime girl's curvy hourglass figure, large breasts, and a refined feminine personality attractive?
Why would you find them hot and cute?
In a perfect world, all girls would be hot and cute with endearing personalities, and males of all ages wouldn't worry about having a shortage of beautiful girls, or perfect 10's. Unfortunately, that is not the case -- in the dating world, there are the so-called "alpha males" and "bad boys" who date the most beautiful of females, leaving the less-than ideal girls to the betas and omegas. Also, males are expected to be the initiator of the relationship. Unfortunately, there are guys out there who have bad luck when it comes to relationships, especially among the shy and those who are repeatedly rejected.
This is where anime girls come in; they are designed to be perfect. Like most types of animation, anime was designed to immerse its audiences in an alternate world. What's beautiful is subjective, so there are a wide variety of girls to suit one's interests. Like large-breasted girls, or what about the little sister type of girl? What about tsundere girls, or girls that start out mean and eventually warm up to you? Have a fetish for ponytails? There are a huge variety of anime girls for any person.
Moe (mo-eh) is a concept found in Japanese anime, referring to a sense of desire among audiences. An anime female character can be considered moe because of her subjective attractiveness among her audience; this attractiveness would make one desire her -- desire to hang out with her, desire to be her boyfriend, desire to marry her, or even desire to be her father. If she happens to get emotional, we want to be with her to console her, telling her it's all right, we're there for her.
Anime girls allow us to experience a fantasy like no other. Visual novels (VNs) are a popular genre of game in Japan, usually featuring attractive anime girls and a single male protagonist aiming to win one of the girl's hearts. These girls are non-judgmental; they don't care what you look like or how you act, even if you're extremely shy. A girl doesn't care if you're alpha or beta male, or even an omega male. All she would like is to date you, and even become her boyfriend in the end.
Why would you not find them hot and cute?
An obvious reason why you might not find them hot and cute is that like cartoons, anime is drawn, and it's wrong to be sexually attracted "to pixels on a screen." Society pressures you to like real girls and not drawn girls; otherwise you're deemed a loser. Anime girls are not real, and you cannot physically cuddle with them, kiss them, or even have sex with them. Even alpha males who are hugely successful with real girls might tell you as such to "man up" and get a real girlfriend.
Feminism has deemed sexualizing females in various media to be shameful, from something innocent like displaying cleavage to full-blown nudity. Due to the nature of anime girls, they can be thought of as being sexist and objectifying. You've got the ubiquitous panty shot, harem anime, large-breasted girls, and even the bikini "wardrobe malfunction;" all those can be considered sexist and objectifying.
Rebuttal
Thinking anime girls are hot and cute is a harmless fantasy -- such fantasies provide for those who have difficulty attaining the things they desire in life. Even if you can't be physically there for them, the vicarious experience makes it almost seem as if it were real thanks to moe. It's not objectifying the female sex, because anime girls are complex as if they're real girls with personalities and emotions. Also, sexuality has been with us since the rise of man, and has been depicted in many works of art. There should be no shame in appreciating an art medium.
Online Games For Some Serious Girl Fun
At a loss of how to have some plain girl's fun online? Ever heard of say, an Avatar Sue game, or Bratz games ? When the intense gore of most virtual games turn you off, and you want to keep clear of anything that reeks of a twelve-year-old boy's imaginary girl, it's time to leave boy games to boys and instead go for girl games online.
Games for Girls
But it's really true that there are different sorts of games designed and made available online for the the fair sex to make use of. Here there are sometimes nothing at all of glitz and glam, but then again there are also no flying bullets, sulky monsters or insane car drivers.
Dress Up Games
Who doesnt know about a dress up game? This is perhaps one of the games most talked about among tweens and teens online. Here the players pick a type of character based on a theme, like princesses or fairies. Once you're done choosing, you enter an area where you get to have wardrobe and accessory options, like what you would do when dressing a real toy doll. The fun starts when you see that there are literally thousands of garments and trinkets available to come up with a unique creation.
The theme options are also endless, with dress up games on going to a rock band concert to a simple animal costume party. The bottom line is to create an online doll inspired by your own style decisions and designs.
Makeup Games
In the event clothing and accessories leave you wanting, then a makeup game can help you put make-up on an online doll, and you also get to view and compare the results of various styles. Make up games offer an impressive array of what you will need to beautify your princess, with everything from eyeshadow to various applications of mascara, even up to face paint.
Anime Games
Some female anime characters have actually come to gain a large following. Some dress up games may involve characters from, say, Sailor Moon, but there are also flash games where you get to take characters through adventures and missions on dangerous challenges.
Cooking Games
If the kitchen is your comfort zone, then there are online cooking games to help you put some elan into your skills. The game will usually be like trying to beat the clock in cooking the best virtual burger possible or wracking your nerves over the most ineffable steak. Let off some steam and hopefully don't overheat due to stress!
Bratz Games
Bratz dolls are the ten inch-tall "passion for fashion" dolls, sporting features faintly similar to some anime and manga cartoon characters. Thus you get disproportionately large heads and eyes that heighten the facial expression. The dolls also have rather cute noses and very feminine torsoes. But the full lips is a the factor that the creators of Bratz infused into the Japanese technique they borrowed. This is certainly a break away from the Japanese standard of almost invisible lip sketches.
The online craze of Bratz games have eagerly followed versions of dress up games as well as various Flash based challenges. Try to assemble together a winning ensemble-accessories and trinkets included-- that will outstyle what your Bratz character already owns.
Bishoujo and Moe Characters - The Ideal Female in Japanese Anime and Videogames
"Bishojo" is a Japanese term literally meaning "beautiful girl," and usually refers to genres of anime and video games that are centered on them. What is considered to be bishojo is subjective to its artists and audiences; such characters can have but are not limited to:
- Large, endearing eyes to convey her emotions -- a characteristic of the anime-art style
- An ideal female body shape -- the hourglass figure
- An emphasis of the breasts by making them large, giving her sex appeal
- A wide array of hairstyles, even those that seem impossible in real life
- Have a wardrobe that includes skirts, blouses, and dresses
- Moe characteristics
"Moe," pronounced "mo-eh," literally referring to a budding plant, is an informal Japanese term meaning a type of feeling towards anime female characters. The moe character exudes an aura of innocence, through her appearance and quirky personality; we might be attracted to her so much that we desire to be with her -- to protect her, to be her boyfriend, to be her father, because in our minds she represents the ideal female.
Take the anime series, "K-On!" for example -- it can be considered bishojo and moe anime. Mio Akiyama, among fans of the series, is a popular character because she displays moe characteristics. Though she is shown to be serious, we also see her embarrassed and frightened; she generates her audience's desire to console her as well as protect her from her friend Ritsu Tainaka, who happens to tease her frequently. Mio can also be bishojo due to her hime (hii-may) cut hairstyle; though, all of the female characters of K-On! can be bishojo because the school uniforms they wear make them look cuter (subjective).
Visual novels (VNs) are a popular genre of game in Japan, and are another major source of bishojo and moe characters aside from anime series. The majority of VNs involve romance between a male protagonist and several female romantic prospects. Usually the male protagonist is depicted as a young Japanese or Asian, as it's assumed that whoever plays such VNs is a male of Asian descent, giving him someone to identify with. A player sees the world in his view, and eyes a girl whom he deems bishojo and moe. He desires to be with her maybe because of her beautiful long black hair and clumsy personality, or he identifies her with a girl he has known in real life -- he thus plays the game to vicariously have a relationship with her. In the end, he can have sex with her (in adult-oriented VNs), and/or marry and have children with her.
One might argue that bishojo and moe characters are objectifying the female sex mostly because of the nature of the anime art style. However, others argue it's not -- she offers herself for him to protect, offers herself for him to be with her, and most importantly offers her eternal love and support, not as an object but as if she were a real human female. She can represent a girl a guy has loved, and offer him a second chance with her, giving him a fantasy he cannot otherwise achieve in real life.
The world is an imperfect place and is filled with many broken hearts and loneliness. Bishojo and moe characters offer a perfect fantasy for male, as well as female, audiences to escape the harshness of the real world. It's a potent concoction that can elicit feelings of longing and nostalgia.
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