As a guy, i can say that these dudes are the same people who say they want a girlfriend that likes anime and to watch anime with. One way to give off negative rizz
ok and? they are correct. this girls never criticize shoujo anime, the type of anime that has terrible badly written male characters and focus only on female characters and how to write them to appeal to female audience and the female gaze. This is the problem. that anime made for boys is constantly under criticism while anime made for girls is perfect and without any flaw.
I found you by your viral video about shounen females. As a girl who doesn't have many friends who watch anime I was so glad someone shared my thoughts! It is really frustrating watching these shows and not really having a good role model to look up to. And we are allowed to have that opinion! Putting yourself in a position to be critiqued on youtube is never easy and I really hope you don't let these troll gate keeping a**holes make you stop expressing your opinions! Female characters in all media DO deserve to be good characters despite the demographic and there's nothing hateful with saying that! Anw rant over love your videos :)
@@coldeed lol even a good female villain would be great but that's also hard to come by in some anime. And who says a good role model has to be the same gender? But I bet most people who like naruto for example would not have liked it NEARLY as much if all the characters were gender swapped. We'd get cool characters like female kakashi, naruto and itachi and cool fight scenes while all you get is tsunade :) Easy to bitch about people complaining when you don't experience it.
@AlbarnWinter999 I'm not coping, you just define minor characters in stories. You literally do not make a story better by jumping into the backstory of every unimportant person to the story. It's bad writing to try to make every character a spiritual "main character".
@@Katmiobeth it's funny because you asked me who's saying that they need to be the same gender as people for them to relate, then say people wouldn't relate if they were not the same gender. I'm going to level with you cuz I don't think what you said is stupid or wrong. Part of the thing being shonen is that it is about men or it focuses on male interests and experiences/perspectives. In reality, being a man and being a woman are two different things. It's gonna lead to things aimed at one or the other to be focused on that gender. There is nothing wrong with you liking or relating to things outside the norm, but asking it to cater to a genuine minority isn't doing anything but making less of a thing you supposedly like, and making it worse to the majority of your fellow fans. It's exactly why it be a bad thing if all the shojo stuff that exists would be changed to appeal to men more. You just end up destroying the actual distinctions between the two and no longer have any variety. You have genuinely attached yourself to a male focused thing, and want to change it to suit your feminine desires. It shouldn't. Make a new genre if you want to make stuff more like shonen but focused on the girls. You don't have to change what men really like to make the thing your saying you want to exist. That's literally the reason shonen does exist.
@@coldeed I know shounen is geared towards men and I see what you're saying. Obviously there's a lot of tropes in shoujo because its target audience is teen girls. But those tropes in shounen is things like a lot of battles. I don't see how having good female characters in a story geared towards men would 'change it to suit feminine desires'. How do complex and realistic female characters in a story targeted towards you take away your enjoyment? o.O I wouldn't want to watch a shoujo or josei if all the male characters were crap tbh and I don't see why that doesn't go both ways? A good story has well written characters period. And you should want good anime to have that? Why would weak and poorly written female characters be something geared towards a male audience. So I really don't see what the problem is with wanting these shounen anime to put a bit more effort into their character building. Imo full metal alchemist and attack on titan have great female characters and they're viewed as two of the best anime of all time so you can have the best of both worlds. This doesn't need to be a debate or an argument.
“Shonen is made for boys” don’t boys deserve good female characters too? Like is that suddenly a bad thing? We should have more characters who are well written and happen to be x gender
It's really ironic that people will gatekeep shounen anime and say "it's for boys" not realising that arguably the greatest shounen ever made was made by a woman (FMA). I love the argument that shonen is for boys so that excuses poorly written female characters. Like just asking for better written characters is somehow wrong now. As a man, just getting a better written character, no matter what sex, would be an amazing prospect. Thank god modern shounen has been getting better written female characters. chainsaw man and hells paradise have made some of my favourite female characters.
@@Anika9691 bro are you not part of the anime community?? FMAB is right now 1st on MAL, now i know the only reason it has stayed on top is because it's toxic fans review bomb any other show when its about to steal it's position, but that just proves that for many people it is the best shonen anime out there. Also I don't understand the second part of your comment, are you saying she is herself the problem and that the Twitter trolls are not?
@@arubi012 i know, that why i said 'arguably' in my comments, because it is the best anime for many people and for other's it's not. personally it doesn't even crack my top 10
ok and? the point is that women complain about anime made for men but never criticize or see the huge amount of flaws that exist in anime targeted for women. You wanna know why? because you are bias. You only see badly written characters when they are female or made to appease men. When they are made to appease you you can't identify the huge and problematic flaws those characters have. That's the issue here.
@@paulogaspar8295 complete lie, why are you acting like you know what the shoujo community talks about ☠ if u did interact with it you'll easily see that it talks about the toxic and romanticised portrayals of toxic relationships, age gaps, etc all the time☠☠
@@patriciasilva5292 i have watched enough manga collection and manga/anime videos on youtube made by girls to know that they absolutely will never critcize boys love or shoujo manga/anime. not in the way they constantly complain about shounen. somehow if its for boys/men its always a big problem. while all the overs**ualized boys love (i call them g** fetish) manga and shoujo manga are never a problem. its exactly like paulo said. women only see problems when its made for men. i have never seen a yt video, made by a guy or a girl titled -men/boys in anime are a problem- there are soo many videos like that about women in anime...women are blind when it comes to shoujo/boys love. they may critique these manga but they will never see it as a problem like they see it with shounen.
I HATE when men tell me to watch stuff for my demographic. Mostly because I do, I watch romance mostly but that genre has been taken over by shows targeted towards men, hell look at romance anime, that aren't harems, from before 2010 and they're all shoujo and then suddenly something happened and most of the ones that were made were targeted towards men. There are so many examples of this, just look at my dress up darling, the adaptation for Komi can't communicate (specifically the anime, I love the manga), rent a girlfriend, literal every harem. Every single one of those men is ridiculous for saying to "make content about shoujo" because shoujo manga and anime barely existent anymore, people just don't make girly shows anymore. Shounen MIGHT be targeted towards boys but it doesn't mean only boys can watch it, hell i watch quite a few shounen, mostly things like attack on titan and chainsaw man, oh hey, two shows with women who are written very well.
Yes. Colleen explains that very well on Colleen's Manga Recs. People mistakenly think that shoujo means romance, and often do not realize that both shoujo and shonen have a ton of genres inside of them, rather than translating to romance and adventure respectively.
Some guys on the internet when a girl sayq she doesn't like a shounen anime: "huh it's not for you, who cares?" Also them when theh see a shoujo: "ayo this is so sh*t who watches that??" Like, bruh
Shojo is catered towards young girls and doesnt represent man correctly either, so yeah we don't watch that. If you have problem with shonen then don't watch it? Simple.
@@Anika9691 the problem is that as she said in her video, inakyu (and i too) actually like shounen, criticising a media doesn't mean you dislike it, and it's important to say it when some parts are bad, this concerns shoujo too!!! The problem is that shounen is way more popular rn, even amongst female audience, and as inakyu said in her video, nothing exuses bad character writing, so every parts should work on making better characters.
“Go watch something for your own demographic!” says the men that are too old and from an entirely different culture than the demographic they’re, “defending.” The cognitive dissonance is real!!!
"Too old" for watching a cartoon in the current culture where these things are socially accepted and have become billion dollar industries. Different culture? Japan purposely exports it's media to make money. Pretty stupid comment.
"says the men that are too old and from an entirely different culture than the demographic they’re, “defending.”" And are they whining about it not being made for them? No. Christ, think for once in your life.
I see the correlation between those who say “go watch something for your own demographic” and those who are acting like Barbie is the worst movie of all time
I feel like you represent me, as a girl who's into anime and that's cool. Some folks have sorry lives that they don't have the balls to face and instead annoy us by saying something petty and misogynistic 😏😏
so have you had experiences like that too? because tbh here where i live (europe) being a girl that likes anime....guess what...its pretty normal. and nobody judges you for it. the people judging women for watching anime are the same that judge men that watch anime here. its non anime watchers lol. i have never seen a guy here critique a girl for watching anime or reading manga. as a guy that would be a dream of mine to have a gf that is into anime/manga. i also know many guys who found their girlfriends on anime conventions or through the anime/manga community. so i really havent experienced things like that in real life (or online). maybe its an american thing.
You are not alone! I'm a 26 year old female Anime Fan and I love shounen and shoujo. Why should I miss out on something so cool? And I found your channel through your shounen-girls video and I was hooked. Beacause you are rigth!! Don't listen the the haters. You were right! And ich love a good female point of view on my favorite shounen animes. They are often new and refreshing and well thought out. And I love gushing about them with you all. I look forward to your next video.
@@Anika9691 It dependes on your criticism. I finde a lot yaoi and bl fetishize gay men and reduce them to stereotypes of girly fem bottom and stoic protective top. You can tell many of these writers never actually met any gay men, let alone do any research on our community. Criticism along that line would show an interest in the genere and a want to better it. If your criticism was "gays iky" than that would make you a homophobe. Hope this helps
Ray Mona's channel is also great for anime lost media, and just lost media in general! And yeah it's kind of a bummer that the algorithm really only picks up female anitubers that either talk about hentai, or are already associated with bigger male anitubers. Honestly these days I find it hard to find *any* anituber I think is worth watching but your content, (and all the channels you mentioned) are so worth it! Ignore all the hate and keep going!
@@inakyu No problem! As an anituber myself, I try to seek out as many cool creators as I can but it can be hard to filter through all the "text to speech anime recaps" and stuff like that so I'm genuinely glad there's some cool people out there making cool content :)
Maaan fr all the popular anitubers are SO cringe... They make anime look like it's a perverted thing, always glorifying the same annoying regurgitated cliches. I'm getting too old for this
fr i grew up on marvel movies so i like all the action and stuff and shoneun offers that so its no wonder i got attached to the genre so quickly and then to be told that i should go back to shojo bc i dont belong here. dont get me wrong i freaking love romances and girly things and mermaids and fairies, because before marvel movies i was running entirely on barbie and disney princesses, and i’m not saying those are bad and childish bc i still really like them to this day and think they’re great, but come on. why should i be locked to only one type of content just because i’m a woman. i dont get it.
“Go make shoujo content” as if these incels don’t also go and hate on the content of shoujo creators, pathetic. There is no talking to them they just hate non women then complain when they can’t get a gf who likes anime. These recs are awesome, I left the only anime club I have ever been in when I was in university because of a creepy predatory dude. I’m happy that we are carving out our own spaces.
@@outlaster3431 That's actually not true. Guys do watch and read Shoujo. However, since SHounen occupies a larger chunk of the sales and the Pareto distribution is such that only 20% of the best selling manga/anime get talked about the most, which obviously, just happen to be Shounen. So people often get the impression that every guy only likes Shounen. But like I said, the salt from some among the shoujo tribe, like Inakyu is not matched from the people from the Shounen tribe saying totalizing and generalizing stuff like "shoujo men are trash", and then complaining incessantly when they get pushback.
@@billjack1857 they dont watch shoujo as much as shounen , so the same thing happening here, that shounen girls are trash and then getting pushback, i dont watch shoujo so i cant really judge their male characters, so whether there is merit to their complaints isnt something i can say
@@outlaster3431 True. Guys don't watch as much shoujo, but the same is the case for girls and shounen. However, guys aren't making content like hers'.(She has all the right to make them, just get ready for ripostes about hypocrisy which is just as valid as her critique.) It's just that the Inakyu types are the mkst vocal regarding archetypes in shounen and are possibly trying to get mangaka and production houses to bowdlerize art coz it offends them or something.
I'm glad someone came over and mentioned you. Can I just say that your storytelling is impeccable? It's GOALS. Honestly being a woman/femme presenting in the anime community is soooo isolating sometimes. There's way too much hate. But getting all of these recommendations made the community feel a little bit bigger. Which honestly being a part of the community was what drew me to anime in the first place. Thanks so much for speaking on this topic.
Years back when I was on an anime forum, there was a guy with Alphonse avatar that literally was telling women to stick with shojo. The comments on there were quick to point out that FMA was created by a woman, but he refused to believe it. Some guys really are wildly sexist.
I find it hilarious that men gatekeep female fans and content creators but will then complain that girls don't like anime or the anime they like. 🙃 Thank you for your content and the recommendations, I love your channel and appreciate the knowledge you share with us. Keep up the great work!
Men want women to like 'their' anime. What they do not want is for women to 'change' it. They essentially see it as the beast and they don't want it turned back into Prince Adam.
@@morgannyan2738well, shojo can be viewed by a male since there are not shots of the bulge of the boy every three seconds and when there is a bit of fanservice it is not to cover an horribly written character, since it is not enough to disguise it.
The funny thing about people getting mad at criticisms of shows etc. is that they want anime to be treated like a serious artform by everybody else and are very elitist about it - but the moment you start treating it like art (aka critical analysis & criticism) they lose their shit because they realize they've tied their entire identity and self-worth to their hobby in a very unhealthy way, which makes any kind of criticism of their fav shows feel like a personal attack to them. Add to that that you're *holds breath dramatically* A WOMAN *sighs* and you threaten to disrupt their "boys-only" safe-space (and i hope i don't have to tell anybody that openly available media-art isn't a "only for" kind of thing - everybody can enjoy and engage with it), a aggressive response is pretty much guaranteed. Anyway, ur videos are good, don't worry about the haters, they're - sadly - an integral part of the internet ...
I don't necessarily think people generally get mad at criticism in general. But in this instance, it's more about how (generally) men and women consume media and stories. Over the past 5 to 10 years, massive changes have happened in western media to franchises that men perceived to be largely masculine focused. When women come in with the critiques that are natural to them, men feel threatened because they do not want media that is literally categorized as being for males to undergo the same process.
Do you really believe that shounen should be criticized the same way high art is? It's schlock, and whining about it not containing enough character studies is dumb.
I love AnimeTea and Colleen! I’ve recently have started making more anime content but I’ve always been nervous/scared to talk about serious issues in the anime community bc of some of the backlash I’ve seen other girl animetubers get, so my content is just reviews and very light hearted. Anime is in my blood, I’ve been watching anime since I was in elementary school! (I’m 26 now) and I don’t see me ever stopping. It’s creators like you that give me courage to talk about what the hell i want and if have ppl have negative stuff to say so be it, it’s the internet. I’ve taken a break from YT bc of a lot of personal issues and then finding out I’m pregnant 😅 this video has sparked that light in me again! So thank you for sharing your story :)
Screw them haters, I jumped on when the women in chainsaw man video came out. It was great, I feel like you should do you, youve got people who will watch what you want to make
Congrats on 30K Ina! This video hit me in the feels, I relate so much with what you shared. It took RUclips wayyyy too long to recommend your channel and so many others that I’ve come to love. I recommend Mac Loves Manga and MeowTavern for deep dives on anime and manga! Thanks for just existing and continuing to create your incredibly well edited videos ❤️
Shonen is a demographic for teen boys but at the same time the stories that some of our favorite mangakas can speak to so many people.Shonen Shoujo Seinen Josei, the demographic doesn’t matter just give me a good and fun and interesting story to read and I am hooked Also you named so many goated channels, I’m aiming to one day have my channel as good as Hazel and Lines in motion who btw videos are addictive,same with Colleen good job on the video
My girlfriend and I really liked your Chainsaw Man video a couple days ago. This is my second video of yours I got around to. Ironically earlier tonight I showed my gf all the Tropes vs. Women videos and she got angry that all that discourse that happened during GamerGate was about a person who was so responsible with her language and tone. I literally spent a good chunk of today in a Twitter argument about how gaming spaces can feel unwelcoming towards women. You have done nothing wrong. Your takes are thoughtful, well constructed and insightful. We're rooting for you to be able to find that balance. Find what you're comfortable with and do that. If it's an animated avatar ala Sphere Hunter or Extra Credits, do that. If it's still appearing on camera, you're stronger than me by a country mile, I'm so camera shy and no one has said anything about me (cause I haven't made any content!). Whatever you end up doing, just know that the sane, adult people who find your content are in your corner. Sorry that we as a society let teenagers on the internet, lol. It seems to be the source of it all.
@@Anika9691I think he meant toward toxic internet people who criticized her for watching Shonen claiming "Shonen are for boys and Shojo are for girls".
First off, congrats to 30K subscribers! It's a cool accomplishment and I hope you feel proud of what you've achieved so far! Secondly, I totally get what you mean. Being a girl in the anime scene is definitely weird. I made my two hour love letter to Berserk but because I had a few criticisms of the series in it, I had to deal with comments upon comments telling me I didn't clearly get it and that it's not made for girls like me. It's such a weird thing. I grew up with a lot of this stuff. I grew up super into Shonen and manga that has always been seen as "boy-centered" and the idea that I don't understand it or can't criticize it or even like it simply because of my gender rubs me the wrong way. I hope you don't let it all discourage you from making the content you want to make and saying how you truly feel about things. The more voices in this scene, the better imo Also thirdly your editing is SO GOOD oh my GOD this was put together so well lol
I found you recently on my quest to find more female anitubers! I watch Akidearest but otherwise realized I don't have any other female anitubers I follow. I watched a few of your videos and I love your perspective and your wide range of anime that you talk about. Your opinions are valid and it's okay to critique things, that doesn't make it hate. Thank you for making so much great content! And for talking about this issue in the anime community. It's very disgusting when someone tells you to "stay in your lane and watch what's meant for you". Being a man or a women shouldn't dictate our ability to enjoy a good story and characters.
Imagine hating on Ina for (checks notes) wanting anime to be good. Maybe if shonen anime had some good female characters, then shonen fans would know how to treat real-life women like people.
I'm so grateful to have found this video today! It speaks to a lot of what I've been thinking about lately. I recently started shifting my YT content from general writing/editing videos to specifically talking about anime in the context of writing advice. While doing preliminary research to see what was already out there, I found that YT wouldn't show me anything other than white, male anime creators unless I specifically looked for other demographics. Hrm. (Plus side: Looking specifically for female creators led me immediately to your channel, so yay!) I also learned very quickly that you take your own life in your hands if you dare suggest that a popular shounen anime has both strengths AND weaknesses. I can't confirm that there's a gender bias there, but there definitely seems to be a "you aren't qualified to critique this, despite being a professional writer and editor, because you Just Don't Get It(TM)" vibe. Anyway, point is: Thanks for making this video. It's absolutely a conversation worth having, and I'm glad to know I'm not the only one thinking about this stuff and looking to expand my knowledge re: all the amazing creators out there. I'm only just getting started, but knowing there are folks such as yourself being both funny and insightful makes me feel like maybe it's worth it to keep making stuff no matter what.
Old Aggressive Misogynists👏👏👏🫠🫠🫠😡😡😡 You’re awesome!!! I like your recommendations. Really happy to see more female anime RUclipsrs.🥳🥳🥳 We need more female voices and gaze 👸👸👸
I'm sad that you have to go through this. Looks like people in general have a difficult time understanding that there is no perfect show, and good criticism do not inttend to make a piece of media look bad, it just points ways to make it even better next time. If it is of confort, I am starting as a content creator in Brazil, and as a girl who loves fantasy stories and shounen anime I look up to you a lot as a storyteller. Your scripts are amazing and the way you show your oppinions without hurting others is reassuring. Thank you for existing on internet 🥰
I love how "Shounen is for boys" is an automatic catch all excuse. Also, while we're on the topic of "made for boys", what exactly does that mean? We use that term as if that's a super niche, super specific classification of likes/dislikes that would allow you to pin-point a super precise set of characteristics that categorize a story as a "shounen" What do boys like? Big guns? War stories? Demons? Super heroes? Giant boobs? Excessive violence? Coming of age stories? Sports? Music? I could go on. Shounen as a genre is so vast that it can include literally anything. Just think about it for a second, Dragon Ball and Attack on Titan are both shounen manga, what do those two stories have in common? Now, I do understand that most (all?) shounen main characters are males and that makes sense to me. If the target audience is "young males" (as generic and vast as that audience may be it's still a target) it's easier to imagine that they would be more interested in a character they can relate with (aka a young male of similar age). Also, people will naturally care more about the main character than a bunch of side characters, that also makes sense, it's just how the story is presented. So I understand that fleshing out a female side character might be seen as a waste of time because at the end of the day most people will tend to relate more with the main character anyways. I get that. I also get that it's not specifically related to the gender of the character, it's more of a Main character vs Side character issue (the issue is worse with female side characters, but male side characters also suffer from this, just look at My Hero Academia) However this isn't an excuse, it's an explanation. I'm explaining why I didn't flesh out my side characters (male, female or both) and the explanation is "I didn't want to spend time on that aspect of the story" and not "Shounen is for boys so if I did that it would've ruined the story". Am I a bad writer because of this? Am I lazy? That's debatable and it's up to the reader to decide. What's not debatable however is that "Shounen is for boys" is a cheap excuse, often used to wave away actual criticism and divert from the actual issue (aka lack of effort from the writer)
I get what you're saying. I understand that authors dont want to waste time on side chatacters that don't mean much. The problem though is when a character (usually female) only exists for things like sex appeal or to be a love interest for the main character and are thus treated with no respect. I get that they are fictional, but your writing is what makes those characters real to us. So why does the author treat them like toys or objects more than humans? As a female audience member it is so frustrating. You can have a character that's hot and sexy, but please treat her with respect and not make it her only point of existence.That is my perspective.
@@Muyuyu439 i dont agree this is a demographic probleme not a "sexism" or "mysoginy" , most if not all people watch anime or read manga do it to escape from reality , the authors have complete freedom to write whatever they want and restricting them whit our society,s rules and ideologies will defeat its purpose, thats why there is lots of divisions/audiences , imagine going to watch a hentai anime and complain about why women are treated like animals , thats where the "stick to your demographic" comes from , writers have freedom to write and people have freedom to criticize , but its logical to hate critique if its out if its place saying "why are women badly written on a shonen" is like a vegan going to a shawarma restaurant and saying " why is everyone eating meat"
@@Muyuyu439 the shonen writers are not focusing on making goodly written female characters actually even side characters at least most of them , i do agree whit you that its lazy but shoujo isnt any better , i mainly made my previous point about how manga writing is and should be free of our society,s red lines
@@xanax9771 I don't think a critique directed at badly written characters is ever out of place. It sucks that people just accept bland, useless, paper-thin side characters because "that's how shounen is made" and if you try to go against this idea people are hostile and attack you, even if what you're critiquing would be an objective improvement to the story. Do shounen fans actually like to only have an interesting main character while the rest of the cast is just barely there? There are examples of good side characters, both male and female, but it's almost as if people actively push back against "raising the bar" when it comes to writing interesting characters. Chainsaw Man has amazing side characters. I won't go into spoilers about the recent stuff but Power is a side character and yet she has depth, she grows as a person and has a meaningful role in the story while not being the protagonist. She's not just "there", she's not "the MC love interest" and she's not "eye candy and nothing else". Why are people against more characters being like her? Hell, just asking this question would probably earn me the hostility of some shounen readers, it's almost as if it's taboo to even talk about this stuff, let alone actually do it
I love your content. Please keep up the good work. I'm in the process of creating stories of my own; and videos like yours are priceless pockets of insight into the market. Even if someone is not part of a creation team's target market, it's vital to understand what chances they'll have at making sales to that demographic. Hearing diverse perspectives and critiques ensures minor and even major changes are possible, if a creator wishes to branch into wider audiences.
Thanks for putting all these cool creators in 😍 I'm always looking for different kind of people that are in the youtube animespace that bring another perspective to the weird world of anime to the table other than just the norm 😍
@@Anika9691 so maybe don’t watch yaoi then?? And there’s other yaois out there not all of them are like that you just have to seek them out I personally don’t watch yaoi or yuri just not for me even being a pansexual just doesn’t interest me but I have friends who are interested in those genres not every character is portrayed that way.. there’s tons out there don’t overgeneralize and why watch it if it causes you mental distress?? Seems counterproductive I’ve seen you comment this on numerous other comments that people have made on this video like stop torturing yourself buddy take a break find something else to watch…
Your Gift really resonated with me. I’m a vocaloid P from Japan, wanting to learn more about how anime culture is affecting the global community. I subscribed to everyone you recommended. Thank you for what you do, Inakyu🙏✨
i've been into anime for a long time and i started watching youtube videos about anime (i guess just like everyone else) to listen to other people's opinions and to get recommendations. I remember thinking "why aren't there any female youtubers?". I'm very glad that i found your channel and all the others you mentioned, it may seems like it's nothing, but when on the internet girls and "girls stuff" have constantly been underappreciated or treated as less interesting/not deserving of attention, trust me that you and your channel just like any other woman who shared their anime youtube content did A LOT. The anime community has always been misogynist, homophobic and racist and this seriously needs to change.
I’m so glad you made this vid and shouted out other women ani youtubers. I would also say give Noralities a watch as well, she also does deep dive on magical girl animes and talk about problems with animes in general. She went through a hard pushback from the anime community on the topic of Lolis awhile back… Her Kiki delivery service vid is a much watch so would definitely recommend her.
I’d also like to recommend Bess! She’s most known for her video essays on Higurashi and they’re really interesting given her criminology background. She’s obviously also made videos on other anime like Sound Euphonium and stuff, but as a vocaloid fan, I must say my favourite video by her is her personal retrospective on Vocaloid. She’s at 14k subs rn and hasn’t been very active but I find her perspective on things in particular just fascinating.
I would love to see a video essay about how the Shonen genre has changed over time. Obviously I know that it directly translates to "young boys" but I'd argue that with the popularity boom and globalization of anime, the Shonen genre itself has shifted into being more about action than catering to a male exclusive audience. Anyone can enjoy an action show just like anyone can enjoy a romance show. At their core, these genres are not gender specific. I'd go as far to say that most mainstream anime like MHA, One Piece, Naruto, AOT, etc. are geared towards a gender neutral audience, despite being classified as Shonen. I believe a lot of modern manga/shows are actively striving to appeal to people of all ages and genders because the wider the audience, the more potential for popularity. Therefore, I'd say modern Shonen is no longer a gendered genre, it's purposefully gender neutral.
Your video about girls in shounen was the first I saw and I thought you made really points. I hope negative comments don't bum you out too much. Some fans tend to be too sensitive about any criticism of shows they like.
Inakyu! I'm glad that there's a new video of yours up! I've been watching your stuff since before you became twitter famous, and I love your videos. I feel like you have the most normal content, and by normal, I mean... like... idk, I can just watch your stuff, relate, think, and relax, and also go "WHYY!!! Do they do that, I don't know either!!!" along with you. It's always a nice day when you put a new video out, and I think that your demenor being so calm has a calming effect on me too. Anyway, don't let idiots get you down. 🕊
Loved hearing your perspective on this and glad you're here making the content from your point of view! Hearing opinions on anime from different types of people will only make anitube better! Sorry that you had to get hate like that for literally just sharing your opinion, hope to see you continue to grow! Keep on moving forward!
Been subbed for awhile now, absolutely adore your content and takes. Congratulations on 30k subs🎉, here's to 300k. And yeah anyone throwing hate your way and saying things like"shonen is for boys or stick to shoujo" is super cringe and sad man. But hey some people just have terrible takes. Always feel free to vent
Not a girl but I really enjoy your videos especially your viral one. I have watched anime most my life but its only when I started dating my gf I started to hear these different views for a lot of my old favs. Keep up the good work and fuck the haters
The crappy representation of women in most anime I saw was what kept me out of anime for the longest time. You pointing out your issues with it was a breath of fresh air. Also checked out some of the wholesome LGBT anime you recommended. Didn't enjoy them all, but more LGBT anime is always good imo.
I remember I started watching anime when I was 6 years old without me realizing it was anime, it was just some cartoons that happened to be on tv at the time I arrived from school so I was really into it. Pokemon was definitely like my first anime, I started to wanna know more about it, collect cards and figures etc, but I was also having a rough time in school being bullied and I was very shy, fr I almost never spoke so I wanted to change myself so I could fit, that took me almost 3 years so I stopped watching anime but deep down I missed it. When I started high school I started to change again and realized that I needed to do what I like no matter what ppl say, I f i fit or not, and then here I am, being happy.
I'd highly recommend Internet Pitstop! His videos are a whole vibe and really well done. I would also recommend Omnibus Collector and Mangatama for more manga stuff. Great video! Congrats on 31k!
I loved your shouen women video. You almost mirrored a conversation I had with my BF about demon slayer. He didn't see it, but I did. Chalk it up to a different perspective. I was looking for content like urs. And to be honest u were like the first lady anituber I can across. Thanks for the recommends
Sorry to hear about that. Hope you stay strong and may you have more support from more fans 💖 I appreciate the recommended channels 🙂 I'm more into webtoons than anime recently... I'll try to be more active in anime/manga stuff in the future.
Ever since I first got into anime I never understood why online spaces are so cruel & gatekeepy to women. As if women haven’t made anime & manga for decades across many genres. When I first got into anime it was female friends in highschool who introduced me to wider series Id never heard of. Yet male anime fans act like women don’t watch anime or don’t make anime and even try and bark off women from spaces for discussion. I don’t get it. Ina, I loved your first video and a lot of it was criticism Ive felt in my bones about anime for years. Just because I like shonen anime doesn’t mean we can’t criticize or note flaws in them. The notion one cant be a fan and not also note problems is absurd. Don’t ever feel like you were wrong because assholes online harassed you. They were mad because you were right and they don’t like to be challenged. Idk if it means much, but this male anime fan is inspired by what you do and I am glad you bring sensibility & community for female anime fans. We need more figures like you and thank you for the recommendations.
In my opinion, you are such a honest and sweet person who tells her opinions straightforward. I liked that you admitted that you used some clickbait titles and that's ok! You are very cool in my opinion. Shounen girls are not developed well and your speaking out was very much needed! The overse&$@ualisation that minor girls get is disgusting and i, for the first time, liked an anime youtuber. Seriously, your videos are a joy to watch with how clear your understanding of character is.
Your content is great and very well explored. Please don't let the haters get to you! Fans truly can be their worst enemies when they get blinded by how much they enjoy their shows. They lash out at anyone who tells them about its flaws. Please do not let them have an impact on you
Ina you’re one of the most passionate people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting when it comes to this platform, keep grinding GOAT. Don’t let dumb people bring you down
Well said!! ✊😎 I really enjoy watching your videos. Has soo much depth and I can resonate easily just watching your content bc the way you explain and express yourself in doing so. In simple words “you’re doing great!” :)
You're a great content creator Ina. Screw those haters. Watching content like yours helps men/boys like me understand the women/girls we interact with in the anime community. Thank you for sharing all these other channels, I will def. look into them.
i went out and bought a bulma sticker for my pc just because you brought up the attention to me that bulma was a well written fem character among the slew. i'm a retroactive bulma fan now. thank you for pointing her out!! i would really hope you can point out other great female characters or at least even try to tackle the best points that even poor fem depictions get. thank you for becoming an anituber.
you got me with One Piece essays, absolutely going to see and subscribe MelonTeee (and the others 😁); also bad faith commentary sucks, glad that you are working on processing and turning it into something that supports female anime creators, and totally excited to see whatever else you put out
Just came here from that video and I too wrote a comment about shounen basically. Part of the problem is that your version of improving traditionally feminine characters is "make them more masculine", which isn't authors' intent. Even women in general are more interested in twilight and 50 shades of grey which plays exactly into "strong masculine guy, feminine girl" even though with a twist. I love Jolyne but iI think it's obvious, it would change dynamic if someone like her would be put as a romantic interest of a main guy in a shounen. That video got attention on twitter because it's a heated topic and basically women who don't want to be purely feminine ask "why can't you write more masculine women". and there is a backlash to it :)
Girl!! You had me at Link Click. I love the show so much. You can’t mention non-male anitubers without mentioning @TheAnimeTea; such an amazing channel. Thank you Inakyu🙏🏽.
I don't understand how anime has to do anything with a specific gender watching it. Like come on, when a girl watches shounen anime it's considered weird but when a guy watches a Disney princess movie it's most of the time "normal". We're in the 21st century, gender equality exists. You're epic, girl. Keep doing what you're doing. The people who hate you are just giving you views and growing your channel, like how you mentioned at the beginning of the video.
Thanks for making the content that you do! You're finding your voice and I think that's awesome! Unfortunately, some of the incredible dumb and negative comments will be there, but I hope the everything is much more supportive and understanding moving forward!
As a girl that’s recently gotten into anime and wants to make anime content on RUclips, this video was very insightful. I’m totally going to check out these girls you promoted and I’m glad you popped up on my timeline! Looking forward to watching more of your videos! :)
I love anime too, but I always had to turn off my brain when I saw female characters in shounen... Thank you for talking about and bringing more awareness to the pretty horrendous characterization of female characters in shounen! Love your content! Keep doing you, inkayu! :)
can't remember if i've left a comment on one of your vids yet but comming back to this video after seeing the On the rise thumnail video feels like a nice easter egg
Ever since I’ve found your videos in my recommended, I’ve been finding other women ani-tubers in my feed! Lines in Motion being one of them!! I’m loving all your content so far and honestly it’s kind of inspiring me to make my own content ❤❤
If you read a lot of manga I DEF recommend checking out Banzai Sura, her manga videos are addicting, I just love the vibes and atmosphere of her videos and her editing!
As a 37-year-old female from Internet 1.0, I approve of this message. However, I have to say, my time as a female anime and video gaming fan has been interesting. Being around for the olden days when anime first did its big migration over to America was never as wild to me as it is now. That's mainly because none of the males I'd befriended online as a kid ever gave a shit about whether or not I liked shounen OR shoujo. Probably had better things to do. 😅 It seems as if more and more men care about it now because of the perceived "threat" that women's opinions pose against things like male fanservice. But I grew up with that stuff and felt like the fact that I didn't care for it didn't mean it had to be removed. After watching the sheer amount of it in the OG Naruto series, it was just a thing. That's all. The problem, at least in my admittedly strange perspective, was never about the male fanservice or the female side characters being written poorly. It was always about this question: WHO is a main character? Is Naruto the only MC? No, definitely not. He's the biggest focal point, but Sasuke was very much an MC from the beginning. And if you've got a female lead that's even recognized as the intended "heroine" of the story by the mangaka himself, the expectation should be simple. Sakura is the quintessential image of a poorly written female character -- one who was SO problematic that those calling her trash were mostly males. It became THE anime meme back in the day. Hating on Sakura was like breathing air, it was that prevalent. The only problem with that bandwagon is how hating on her went to extremes that neglected any progress she did make during the course of the series. But overall, Sakura remains a failed character who's a disappointment to all the female AND male fans who realize the key problem: She's a failed character who just so happens to be female. Her gender isn't the only thing about her, and it's not the only thing that's tied to her being a failure. Despite that, Kishimoto admitted he's bad at writing females to some extent, even though this is more so an issue of LEAD characters. After all, he wrote Tsunade and Kushina much better, just for instance. I'd even go so far as to say that his best love story was between Kushina and Minato, and it was a better romance than anything I've actually read out of shoujo too. In fact, when it comes to Naruto heroines, some people find Hinata to be much more likable as a character than Sakura -- including people who worked on the anime, if what I've heard is true. It was Hinata who turned out to be better suited as the LEAD female than Sakura to a lot of fans. I think Hinata turned out better than Sakura did too, although there were still plenty of writing changes that would've made it work out more appropriately. Her relationship with Naruto, at least to me, felt pretty rushed and forced given that the fans seemed to prefer it. That's part of why it had to happen. The majority did seem to prefer that ending because of how badly Sakura was handled. Besides this, Sakura and Naruto behaved more like contentious siblings to me than a couple from the very start of the series. Yelling in unison and arguing like they did, especially with Sakura's temper leading her to pretty much using him like a punching bag, never made their relationship feel like anything more than that of siblings to me. Even as the story diverted from their childhood bouts to their more serious conversations, they never felt like they should've been in a romantic relationship. Sakura was even used to explain things later on, likening Naruto's childish crush on her to just another part of his rivalry with Sasuke. In some part, it seemed like infatuation to me. But whereas the same infatuated sentiment Sakura had for Sasuke grew into love -- despite it being an unhealthy kind from my perspective -- Naruto's feelings for Sakura were ultimately shallow. The two were better represented as siblings by the end of the OG series from my perspective because that's how they always felt to me. I'm saying all this because THAT was the major issue. She's not just some side character who gets to be written as a weakling screaming for Naruto. She WAS the female MC of the story who became as strong as Tsunade and needed to be handled as such, whether or not the author and all his assistants wanted her to be an MC. You can't have it one way and then another and not anticipate your audience to have problems with the contradictory nature of a character's portrayal. Although it's true Sakura hadn't achieved enough prowess to fight Pain at the point where she's sobbing and screaming for Naruto in Shippudden, it still fails to suit her improvements after we see her fighting Sasori alongside Granny Chiyo. Those moments made it look as though she'd improved enough to NOT be portrayed quite so annoyingly helpless as before. So showing us her weaker side in front of Pain was jarringly inappropriate for a character so many fans had been struggling to like. Following all of that up with her "confession" to Naruto put the nail in her coffin for many fans, myself included. Apparently this was an attempt to make her MORE likable that utterly backfired, leaving Sakura looking like an idiotic lovesick traitor. She WAS lovesick for certain, but having her try to kill Sasuke and wimp out on even trying after lying about her true feeling to Naruto that way is one of the dumbest writing moves I've ever seen in anime. THAT was when she became my least favorite in the series. So, getting back to the bigger picture? Quite simply, NO story in shounen functions well when ALL the female characters are just side chicks and cannon fodder. That's not how writing works, even if some people want it to. However, that being said, this still means you can fail at writing plenty of characters who hold lesser positions in a story, just as seems the case in the Naruto series. But if your female character is effectively THE female lead, writing them the way that Sakura turned out is just. bad. writing. No exceptions. If we stop thinking of it as a gender-centric problem, though, we're better off in the long run. That's because the best way to write GOOD characters is to write good HUMANS whose identities aren't predicated on gender but rather ENHANCED by it. In order to see that in storytelling, you don't have to look far. Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender is a great example of putting the human element first and THEN allowing gender to have its place. Sakura, on the other hand, was clearly written as female from the onset with the specific role of the male love interest in mind. She was highlighted as such with her stereotypically pink-colored hair (because female lead, obviously) and then underscored as the male love interest by the titular character and his rival. All of this could've worked. It SHOULD have worked. But the same fatal writing flaw was adopted: Tokenization. Yes, Sakura is the token female used to create more plot between other characters. She was created for this very purpose. Therefore, the author DIDN'T mitigate her lackluster role by developing her characterization, working on WHO she actually was as a human being first and foremost in order to build up her reason for existing. Had Kishimoto treated Sakura as a human character first and THEN highlighted her position as a love interest, he wouldn't have accidentally ended up highlighting how uselessly contrived she felt. That's how you get a trash character that even males who don't care all that mcuh will complain about having in their shounen. Rather than excusing the poor writing with gems like "because it's a shounen lolll" so they can feel a false sense of satisfaction in telling women it's not meant for them. In reality, though, terms like "shounen" describe a TARGET demographic rather than some kind of bizarre "BOYZ ONLY" sign on the front door of a fandom. It's for marketing purposes, not this ridiculously childish gatekeeping behavior that's largely coming from people who don't know anything about marketing. Heck, most of these people who feel the need to gatekeep their fandoms -- no matter their gender -- probably have no clue how many females actually watch shounen in the first place. These days, the viewer distribution between male and female viewers is about 50/50 rather than back when I was a kid watching Naruto AND Sailor Moon talking to guys online. Most of the fans were male, but there were also females like myself. And because I tend to just get on better with male friends, the ones I normally encountered didn't give a shit if I liked a thing or not. As long as I didn't give a shit that they liked a thing too. Mostly. Except that one guy who hid how much he liked DBZ just because I didn't... It's just that I never cared if he liked Vegeta. I mean, Vegeta was cool and made me watch for a bit, but things were way too long and drawn out for my taste. Other anime were too, but all that grunting and glowing just wasn't my thing. If boys liked DBZ AND Sailor Moon, that was fine. If I liked Naruto AND Sailor Moon, that was fine. It was all good back then, but now we've got people stroking their fandoms like it's the One Ring around here and I'm just... wishing people would chill. I don't know, but the olden days seemed less contentious... Maybe it's just me, though. Maybe I found the good ones, huh? Length. It's long. Should've realized it would be, but as per my usual statements on comment sections, I'll admit that I type fast and talk too much. Not so good at self-editing. Sorry. 😅
Wowowowowow! It’s an honor to be included in that list of anitubers (I freaking love MelonTeee)! Inakyu, thanks for thinking of me and thank you SO MUCH for the shoutout. Your channel was an inspiration when I started making videos, especially the artsy ones (I love your Tokyo Revengers review!). Haters follow success, I’m glad you’re not letting them deter you. Keep doing you, you’re wonderful and you’ve made my whole week! 🫰🏾
What also is a big no is being told that if you find an anime character to be attractive, you can't possibly watch it for the plot. Like, people, I CAN DO BOTH😂 I can watch AoT for the incredible storyline that it has but I can also enjoy seeing Levi on the screen🤷🏼♀️ I can't say how many times, when I commented something positive on Levi (on his person, not even his appearance), someone would be like "wEll, yOu aRe jUsT a fAnGiRl" only because I'm a girl😅 No, I'm making these comments because I am invested in the animes story and it's characters, thx😊✌🏼
I’ve always wanted to find the non-toxic side of anime fandom. So thank you for your videos and also for recommending all these other creators. I just subbed to all of them. Keep being you and creating that magic✨
About the thumbnail and stuff, you don't deserve the hate. I enjoy those series but they got more development in the manga/as the show went on. Except for Sakura but idc I still love the series shes in
i hate the whole "shoujo is for girls , shounen is for boys" like they are TARGETED to those YES. but it doesnt mean you cannot enjoy/watch the other. i'm a guy and i watch whatever. i dont care if its shoujo or shounen. ( some shoujo shows SLAP its just a sad reality that they dont always get the best adaptations that they deserve cause of low marketshare ☹) let people watch what they wanna watch and even more so , let people be critical of works regardless of their gender. ( i swear so many anime fans are such babies that cant handle a bit of criticism for shows they like, it is like they're all 12 ) by their logic then they shouldn't watch shonen if they're adults and only watch seinen because seinen is targeted towards adults and shounen for teens. but oh boy they will flip if you tell them shounen is for teens.
You give proper constructive critisim and respect to others opinions, and I enjoy watching your videos because I wanna study on how to write proper female character such as stories, subverting the stereotypical trope, compelling struggles and more. I hope you're doing well despite the hate comments on your videos.
Thank you guys so much for your support!. Check out my patreon!! ➔ patreon.com/inakyu
As a guy, i can say that these dudes are the same people who say they want a girlfriend that likes anime and to watch anime with. One way to give off negative rizz
Yeeeees
Exaclyy
like when a girl says "i like anime".
They get avoided like the plague for good reasons. Because they act like you 🤣
@Dan Kanerva Huh?! No that's some of y'all male anime fans treated us s*it. 😂😑.
ok and? they are correct. this girls never criticize shoujo anime, the type of anime that has terrible badly written male characters and focus only on female characters and how to write them to appeal to female audience and the female gaze. This is the problem. that anime made for boys is constantly under criticism while anime made for girls is perfect and without any flaw.
I found you by your viral video about shounen females. As a girl who doesn't have many friends who watch anime I was so glad someone shared my thoughts! It is really frustrating watching these shows and not really having a good role model to look up to. And we are allowed to have that opinion! Putting yourself in a position to be critiqued on youtube is never easy and I really hope you don't let these troll gate keeping a**holes make you stop expressing your opinions! Female characters in all media DO deserve to be good characters despite the demographic and there's nothing hateful with saying that! Anw rant over love your videos :)
Y'all are capping hard. Not every character is made to be a good role model. A good role model also doesn't need to be the same gender as you.
@@coldeed lol even a good female villain would be great but that's also hard to come by in some anime. And who says a good role model has to be the same gender? But I bet most people who like naruto for example would not have liked it NEARLY as much if all the characters were gender swapped. We'd get cool characters like female kakashi, naruto and itachi and cool fight scenes while all you get is tsunade :) Easy to bitch about people complaining when you don't experience it.
@AlbarnWinter999 I'm not coping, you just define minor characters in stories. You literally do not make a story better by jumping into the backstory of every unimportant person to the story. It's bad writing to try to make every character a spiritual "main character".
@@Katmiobeth it's funny because you asked me who's saying that they need to be the same gender as people for them to relate, then say people wouldn't relate if they were not the same gender.
I'm going to level with you cuz I don't think what you said is stupid or wrong. Part of the thing being shonen is that it is about men or it focuses on male interests and experiences/perspectives. In reality, being a man and being a woman are two different things. It's gonna lead to things aimed at one or the other to be focused on that gender. There is nothing wrong with you liking or relating to things outside the norm, but asking it to cater to a genuine minority isn't doing anything but making less of a thing you supposedly like, and making it worse to the majority of your fellow fans.
It's exactly why it be a bad thing if all the shojo stuff that exists would be changed to appeal to men more. You just end up destroying the actual distinctions between the two and no longer have any variety.
You have genuinely attached yourself to a male focused thing, and want to change it to suit your feminine desires. It shouldn't. Make a new genre if you want to make stuff more like shonen but focused on the girls. You don't have to change what men really like to make the thing your saying you want to exist. That's literally the reason shonen does exist.
@@coldeed I know shounen is geared towards men and I see what you're saying. Obviously there's a lot of tropes in shoujo because its target audience is teen girls. But those tropes in shounen is things like a lot of battles. I don't see how having good female characters in a story geared towards men would 'change it to suit feminine desires'. How do complex and realistic female characters in a story targeted towards you take away your enjoyment? o.O I wouldn't want to watch a shoujo or josei if all the male characters were crap tbh and I don't see why that doesn't go both ways? A good story has well written characters period. And you should want good anime to have that? Why would weak and poorly written female characters be something geared towards a male audience. So I really don't see what the problem is with wanting these shounen anime to put a bit more effort into their character building. Imo full metal alchemist and attack on titan have great female characters and they're viewed as two of the best anime of all time so you can have the best of both worlds. This doesn't need to be a debate or an argument.
“Shonen is made for boys” don’t boys deserve good female characters too? Like is that suddenly a bad thing? We should have more characters who are well written and happen to be x gender
It's really ironic that people will gatekeep shounen anime and say "it's for boys" not realising that arguably the greatest shounen ever made was made by a woman (FMA). I love the argument that shonen is for boys so that excuses poorly written female characters. Like just asking for better written characters is somehow wrong now. As a man, just getting a better written character, no matter what sex, would be an amazing prospect. Thank god modern shounen has been getting better written female characters. chainsaw man and hells paradise have made some of my favourite female characters.
Who the fuck said it's greatest shonen ever made?
Btw her problem is she herself not the men bashing her tbh.
@@Anika9691 bro are you not part of the anime community?? FMAB is right now 1st on MAL, now i know the only reason it has stayed on top is because it's toxic fans review bomb any other show when its about to steal it's position, but that just proves that for many people it is the best shonen anime out there. Also I don't understand the second part of your comment, are you saying she is herself the problem and that the Twitter trolls are not?
@@kabirarya5381 Popularity doesn't make something great . FMAB is good anime but its not the best thing out there .
@@arubi012 i know, that why i said 'arguably' in my comments, because it is the best anime for many people and for other's it's not. personally it doesn't even crack my top 10
I am so hyped for Hell's Paradise, and I really enjoyed Chainsaw Man, too.
You're not alone. I love anime. I watch anime targeted to both genders. A lot of those guys feel insecure.
REAL
ok and? the point is that women complain about anime made for men but never criticize or see the huge amount of flaws that exist in anime targeted for women. You wanna know why? because you are bias. You only see badly written characters when they are female or made to appease men. When they are made to appease you you can't identify the huge and problematic flaws those characters have. That's the issue here.
@@paulogaspar8295 complete lie, why are you acting like you know what the shoujo community talks about ☠ if u did interact with it you'll easily see that it talks about the toxic and romanticised portrayals of toxic relationships, age gaps, etc all the time☠☠
@@patriciasilva5292 i have watched enough manga collection and manga/anime videos on youtube made by girls to know that they absolutely will never critcize boys love or shoujo manga/anime.
not in the way they constantly complain about shounen. somehow if its for boys/men its always a big problem. while all the overs**ualized boys love (i call them g** fetish) manga and shoujo manga are never a problem.
its exactly like paulo said. women only see problems when its made for men.
i have never seen a yt video, made by a guy or a girl titled -men/boys in anime are a problem-
there are soo many videos like that about women in anime...women are blind when it comes to shoujo/boys love.
they may critique these manga but they will never see it as a problem like they see it with shounen.
women can't let men be happy
I HATE when men tell me to watch stuff for my demographic. Mostly because I do, I watch romance mostly but that genre has been taken over by shows targeted towards men, hell look at romance anime, that aren't harems, from before 2010 and they're all shoujo and then suddenly something happened and most of the ones that were made were targeted towards men. There are so many examples of this, just look at my dress up darling, the adaptation for Komi can't communicate (specifically the anime, I love the manga), rent a girlfriend, literal every harem. Every single one of those men is ridiculous for saying to "make content about shoujo" because shoujo manga and anime barely existent anymore, people just don't make girly shows anymore. Shounen MIGHT be targeted towards boys but it doesn't mean only boys can watch it, hell i watch quite a few shounen, mostly things like attack on titan and chainsaw man, oh hey, two shows with women who are written very well.
Yes. Colleen explains that very well on Colleen's Manga Recs. People mistakenly think that shoujo means romance, and often do not realize that both shoujo and shonen have a ton of genres inside of them, rather than translating to romance and adventure respectively.
I hate that logic because I personally love rom coms, typically geared towards females lol
"Two shows with women who are written very well."
Except Mikasa and Founder Ymir.
Some guys on the internet when a girl sayq she doesn't like a shounen anime: "huh it's not for you, who cares?"
Also them when theh see a shoujo: "ayo this is so sh*t who watches that??"
Like, bruh
Exactly. Make it make sense
Shojo is catered towards young girls and doesnt represent man correctly either, so yeah we don't watch that.
If you have problem with shonen then don't watch it?
Simple.
@@Anika9691 the problem is that as she said in her video, inakyu (and i too) actually like shounen, criticising a media doesn't mean you dislike it, and it's important to say it when some parts are bad, this concerns shoujo too!!! The problem is that shounen is way more popular rn, even amongst female audience, and as inakyu said in her video, nothing exuses bad character writing, so every parts should work on making better characters.
@@myffisunn2919 true
“Go watch something for your own demographic!” says the men that are too old and from an entirely different culture than the demographic they’re, “defending.” The cognitive dissonance is real!!!
"Too old" for watching a cartoon in the current culture where these things are socially accepted and have become billion dollar industries. Different culture? Japan purposely exports it's media to make money. Pretty stupid comment.
"says the men that are too old and from an entirely different culture than the demographic they’re, “defending.”" And are they whining about it not being made for them? No. Christ, think for once in your life.
@@Ads-Cwomen exist in Japan also, sweetheart.
@@Ads-C I don't think you understand what he said
I see the correlation between those who say “go watch something for your own demographic” and those who are acting like Barbie is the worst movie of all time
I feel like you represent me, as a girl who's into anime and that's cool. Some folks have sorry lives that they don't have the balls to face and instead annoy us by saying something petty and misogynistic 😏😏
so have you had experiences like that too?
because tbh here where i live (europe) being a girl that likes anime....guess what...its pretty normal. and nobody judges you for it.
the people judging women for watching anime are the same that judge men that watch anime here. its non anime watchers lol.
i have never seen a guy here critique a girl for watching anime or reading manga. as a guy that would be a dream of mine to have a gf that is into anime/manga.
i also know many guys who found their girlfriends on anime conventions or through the anime/manga community. so i really havent experienced things like that in real life (or online). maybe its an american thing.
You are not alone! I'm a 26 year old female Anime Fan and I love shounen and shoujo. Why should I miss out on something so cool? And I found your channel through your shounen-girls video and I was hooked. Beacause you are rigth!! Don't listen the the haters. You were right! And ich love a good female point of view on my favorite shounen animes. They are often new and refreshing and well thought out. And I love gushing about them with you all. I look forward to your next video.
Bro if i watch yaoi and then complaint about gays, what does that make me?
@@Anika9691
It dependes on your criticism. I finde a lot yaoi and bl fetishize gay men and reduce them to stereotypes of girly fem bottom and stoic protective top. You can tell many of these writers never actually met any gay men, let alone do any research on our community. Criticism along that line would show an interest in the genere and a want to better it.
If your criticism was "gays iky" than that would make you a homophobe.
Hope this helps
Do you like seinen 😊
Ray Mona's channel is also great for anime lost media, and just lost media in general! And yeah it's kind of a bummer that the algorithm really only picks up female anitubers that either talk about hentai, or are already associated with bigger male anitubers. Honestly these days I find it hard to find *any* anituber I think is worth watching but your content, (and all the channels you mentioned) are so worth it! Ignore all the hate and keep going!
HER CHANNEL IS SO NEAT!! THANK YOU FOR THR KIND WORDS AND FOR SHARING HER!!
@@inakyu No problem! As an anituber myself, I try to seek out as many cool creators as I can but it can be hard to filter through all the "text to speech anime recaps" and stuff like that so I'm genuinely glad there's some cool people out there making cool content :)
Maaan fr all the popular anitubers are SO cringe... They make anime look like it's a perverted thing, always glorifying the same annoying regurgitated cliches. I'm getting too old for this
thankyou sm!
men dont let women enjoy things without criticism. thanks for all you do and speaking out on misogyny in this community
Well that's only men who are love shounen. Actually, many male weebs are even don't care with shounen and shoujo animes.
@@thepeakside Huh?!.
@@MiyakoPisces4.0 Yes ?
@@thepeakside no they do at least in Japan
@@mitsume_slay Why they do ?
As a girl who mostly enjoys shounen this is sad
What do you mean by this is sad?
fr i grew up on marvel movies so i like all the action and stuff and shoneun offers that so its no wonder i got attached to the genre so quickly
and then to be told that i should go back to shojo bc i dont belong here.
dont get me wrong i freaking love romances and girly things and mermaids and fairies, because before marvel movies i was running entirely on barbie and disney princesses, and i’m not saying those are bad and childish bc i still really like them to this day and think they’re great, but come on. why should i be locked to only one type of content just because i’m a woman. i dont get it.
@@renoirrr ok I was kinda confused I'm a guy so I don't have the same experience.
@@Thedollwizard. oh i was actually replying to the original comment but i’m glad it helped to see from a different perspective!
The fact that she made stupid criticisms and annoyed anime fans?
“Go make shoujo content” as if these incels don’t also go and hate on the content of shoujo creators, pathetic. There is no talking to them they just hate non women then complain when they can’t get a gf who likes anime. These recs are awesome, I left the only anime club I have ever been in when I was in university because of a creepy predatory dude. I’m happy that we are carving out our own spaces.
Uh huh, where is the "shoujo men are trash" video with 500K views again?
Most dudes domt critic shoujo because they dont watch it
@@outlaster3431 That's actually not true. Guys do watch and read Shoujo. However, since SHounen occupies a larger chunk of the sales and the Pareto distribution is such that only 20% of the best selling manga/anime get talked about the most, which obviously, just happen to be Shounen. So people often get the impression that every guy only likes Shounen.
But like I said, the salt from some among the shoujo tribe, like Inakyu is not matched from the people from the Shounen tribe saying totalizing and generalizing stuff like "shoujo men are trash", and then complaining incessantly when they get pushback.
@@billjack1857 they dont watch shoujo as much as shounen ,
so the same thing happening here, that shounen girls are trash and then getting pushback,
i dont watch shoujo so i cant really judge their male characters, so whether there is merit to their complaints isnt something i can say
@@outlaster3431 True.
Guys don't watch as much shoujo, but the same is the case for girls and shounen.
However, guys aren't making content like hers'.(She has all the right to make them, just get ready for ripostes about hypocrisy which is just as valid as her critique.)
It's just that the Inakyu types are the mkst vocal regarding archetypes in shounen and are possibly trying to get mangaka and production houses to bowdlerize art coz it offends them or something.
I'm glad someone came over and mentioned you. Can I just say that your storytelling is impeccable? It's GOALS. Honestly being a woman/femme presenting in the anime community is soooo isolating sometimes. There's way too much hate. But getting all of these recommendations made the community feel a little bit bigger. Which honestly being a part of the community was what drew me to anime in the first place. Thanks so much for speaking on this topic.
AAAA thank you! I ALSO LOVE YOUR CHANNEL!
Years back when I was on an anime forum, there was a guy with Alphonse avatar that literally was telling women to stick with shojo. The comments on there were quick to point out that FMA was created by a woman, but he refused to believe it. Some guys really are wildly sexist.
I find it hilarious that men gatekeep female fans and content creators but will then complain that girls don't like anime or the anime they like. 🙃 Thank you for your content and the recommendations, I love your channel and appreciate the knowledge you share with us. Keep up the great work!
Men want women to like 'their' anime. What they do not want is for women to 'change' it. They essentially see it as the beast and they don't want it turned back into Prince Adam.
@@kathycoleman4648 So women are fine with men changing the things they like too then right?
@@morgannyan2738 do men change things women like
@@morgannyan2738well, shojo can be viewed by a male since there are not shots of the bulge of the boy every three seconds and when there is a bit of fanservice it is not to cover an horribly written character, since it is not enough to disguise it.
@@Gabry4777 Women ogling shirtless guys and bulges in Free = Good, Guys ogling womens breasts = bad. Rules for thee but not for me, is that it?
i apologize on behalf all of the men in this toxic community
Women are awesome!!!
BASED!!!
REAL
period
Yeah Women are the coolest. I just wish they were real :(
@@justsomedinosaur9440This is a joke right?
as a teenage boy i really like your opinions and i find them very interesting.
Nah brah her opinions are shit lol
imma pray for you. A lot of these misogynists might call you a simp
That's heartening
That’s good. I’m sure you will become an even more better person, keep it up :)
Congrats for 30k!
Thank you so much 😀
The funny thing about people getting mad at criticisms of shows etc. is that they want anime to be treated like a serious artform by everybody else and are very elitist about it - but the moment you start treating it like art (aka critical analysis & criticism) they lose their shit because they realize they've tied their entire identity and self-worth to their hobby in a very unhealthy way, which makes any kind of criticism of their fav shows feel like a personal attack to them. Add to that that you're *holds breath dramatically* A WOMAN *sighs* and you threaten to disrupt their "boys-only" safe-space (and i hope i don't have to tell anybody that openly available media-art isn't a "only for" kind of thing - everybody can enjoy and engage with it), a aggressive response is pretty much guaranteed.
Anyway, ur videos are good, don't worry about the haters, they're - sadly - an integral part of the internet ...
I don't necessarily think people generally get mad at criticism in general. But in this instance, it's more about how (generally) men and women consume media and stories. Over the past 5 to 10 years, massive changes have happened in western media to franchises that men perceived to be largely masculine focused. When women come in with the critiques that are natural to them, men feel threatened because they do not want media that is literally categorized as being for males to undergo the same process.
Do you really believe that shounen should be criticized the same way high art is? It's schlock, and whining about it not containing enough character studies is dumb.
@@Ads-Cbut it’s still art and art gets criticized? Why are you mad people apply their brain cells to media they consume 😂
@@ryenguy real like how dare people think about the media they consume smh ☹️☹️☹️
I love AnimeTea and Colleen!
I’ve recently have started making more anime content but I’ve always been nervous/scared to talk about serious issues in the anime community bc of some of the backlash I’ve seen other girl animetubers get, so my content is just reviews and very light hearted. Anime is in my blood, I’ve been watching anime since I was in elementary school! (I’m 26 now) and I don’t see me ever stopping. It’s creators like you that give me courage to talk about what the hell i want and if have ppl have negative stuff to say so be it, it’s the internet.
I’ve taken a break from YT bc of a lot of personal issues and then finding out I’m pregnant 😅 this video has sparked that light in me again! So thank you for sharing your story :)
Screw them haters, I jumped on when the women in chainsaw man video came out. It was great, I feel like you should do you, youve got people who will watch what you want to make
thank you!! 🥺💜 excited to check out everyone else mentioned in the video!
Congrats on 30K Ina! This video hit me in the feels, I relate so much with what you shared. It took RUclips wayyyy too long to recommend your channel and so many others that I’ve come to love. I recommend Mac Loves Manga and MeowTavern for deep dives on anime and manga! Thanks for just existing and continuing to create your incredibly well edited videos ❤️
Shonen is a demographic for teen boys but at the same time the stories that some of our favorite mangakas can speak to so many people.Shonen Shoujo Seinen Josei, the demographic doesn’t matter just give me a good and fun and interesting story to read and I am hooked
Also you named so many goated channels, I’m aiming to one day have my channel as good as Hazel and Lines in motion who btw videos are addictive,same with Colleen good job on the video
My girlfriend and I really liked your Chainsaw Man video a couple days ago. This is my second video of yours I got around to. Ironically earlier tonight I showed my gf all the Tropes vs. Women videos and she got angry that all that discourse that happened during GamerGate was about a person who was so responsible with her language and tone. I literally spent a good chunk of today in a Twitter argument about how gaming spaces can feel unwelcoming towards women.
You have done nothing wrong. Your takes are thoughtful, well constructed and insightful. We're rooting for you to be able to find that balance. Find what you're comfortable with and do that. If it's an animated avatar ala Sphere Hunter or Extra Credits, do that. If it's still appearing on camera, you're stronger than me by a country mile, I'm so camera shy and no one has said anything about me (cause I haven't made any content!).
Whatever you end up doing, just know that the sane, adult people who find your content are in your corner. Sorry that we as a society let teenagers on the internet, lol. It seems to be the source of it all.
As a guy I enjoy both Shojo and shounen Anime and manga. People on the internetwebs believe they have so much power. 😂
She started it lol.
If she will act like she is getting oppressed by a tv show then idk what is wrong in saying that.
@@Anika9691 ?
@@Anika9691I think he meant toward toxic internet people who criticized her for watching Shonen claiming "Shonen are for boys and Shojo are for girls".
@@hteteaindraykyaw996 Yes that's exactly what I meant by it. I see it everywhere Sadly
this is what happens when people make a show their whole personality lmao
First off, congrats to 30K subscribers! It's a cool accomplishment and I hope you feel proud of what you've achieved so far!
Secondly, I totally get what you mean. Being a girl in the anime scene is definitely weird. I made my two hour love letter to Berserk but because I had a few criticisms of the series in it, I had to deal with comments upon comments telling me I didn't clearly get it and that it's not made for girls like me. It's such a weird thing. I grew up with a lot of this stuff. I grew up super into Shonen and manga that has always been seen as "boy-centered" and the idea that I don't understand it or can't criticize it or even like it simply because of my gender rubs me the wrong way. I hope you don't let it all discourage you from making the content you want to make and saying how you truly feel about things. The more voices in this scene, the better imo
Also thirdly your editing is SO GOOD oh my GOD this was put together so well lol
AAAA thank you so much!! Been watching you for a while so hearing this means so much
Inakyu, if you're reading this, please don't let those harsh words from haters get to you
Thank you so much!
I found you recently on my quest to find more female anitubers! I watch Akidearest but otherwise realized I don't have any other female anitubers I follow. I watched a few of your videos and I love your perspective and your wide range of anime that you talk about. Your opinions are valid and it's okay to critique things, that doesn't make it hate. Thank you for making so much great content! And for talking about this issue in the anime community. It's very disgusting when someone tells you to "stay in your lane and watch what's meant for you". Being a man or a women shouldn't dictate our ability to enjoy a good story and characters.
congrats on 30k!!
Imagine hating on Ina for (checks notes) wanting anime to be good. Maybe if shonen anime had some good female characters, then shonen fans would know how to treat real-life women like people.
I'm so grateful to have found this video today! It speaks to a lot of what I've been thinking about lately.
I recently started shifting my YT content from general writing/editing videos to specifically talking about anime in the context of writing advice.
While doing preliminary research to see what was already out there, I found that YT wouldn't show me anything other than white, male anime creators unless I specifically looked for other demographics. Hrm. (Plus side: Looking specifically for female creators led me immediately to your channel, so yay!)
I also learned very quickly that you take your own life in your hands if you dare suggest that a popular shounen anime has both strengths AND weaknesses. I can't confirm that there's a gender bias there, but there definitely seems to be a "you aren't qualified to critique this, despite being a professional writer and editor, because you Just Don't Get It(TM)" vibe.
Anyway, point is: Thanks for making this video. It's absolutely a conversation worth having, and I'm glad to know I'm not the only one thinking about this stuff and looking to expand my knowledge re: all the amazing creators out there. I'm only just getting started, but knowing there are folks such as yourself being both funny and insightful makes me feel like maybe it's worth it to keep making stuff no matter what.
Old Aggressive Misogynists👏👏👏🫠🫠🫠😡😡😡
You’re awesome!!! I like your recommendations.
Really happy to see more female anime RUclipsrs.🥳🥳🥳
We need more female voices and gaze 👸👸👸
"We need more female voices and gaze "
>But you already have them
@@Blaze72sHyeah that's why they said more
@@yaaeerrgghhh we have "more". More than enough actually.
@@Blaze72sH nah
I'm sad that you have to go through this. Looks like people in general have a difficult time understanding that there is no perfect show, and good criticism do not inttend to make a piece of media look bad, it just points ways to make it even better next time. If it is of confort, I am starting as a content creator in Brazil, and as a girl who loves fantasy stories and shounen anime I look up to you a lot as a storyteller. Your scripts are amazing and the way you show your oppinions without hurting others is reassuring. Thank you for existing on internet 🥰
I love how "Shounen is for boys" is an automatic catch all excuse. Also, while we're on the topic of "made for boys", what exactly does that mean? We use that term as if that's a super niche, super specific classification of likes/dislikes that would allow you to pin-point a super precise set of characteristics that categorize a story as a "shounen"
What do boys like? Big guns? War stories? Demons? Super heroes? Giant boobs? Excessive violence? Coming of age stories? Sports? Music? I could go on. Shounen as a genre is so vast that it can include literally anything. Just think about it for a second, Dragon Ball and Attack on Titan are both shounen manga, what do those two stories have in common?
Now, I do understand that most (all?) shounen main characters are males and that makes sense to me. If the target audience is "young males" (as generic and vast as that audience may be it's still a target) it's easier to imagine that they would be more interested in a character they can relate with (aka a young male of similar age). Also, people will naturally care more about the main character than a bunch of side characters, that also makes sense, it's just how the story is presented.
So I understand that fleshing out a female side character might be seen as a waste of time because at the end of the day most people will tend to relate more with the main character anyways. I get that. I also get that it's not specifically related to the gender of the character, it's more of a Main character vs Side character issue (the issue is worse with female side characters, but male side characters also suffer from this, just look at My Hero Academia)
However this isn't an excuse, it's an explanation. I'm explaining why I didn't flesh out my side characters (male, female or both) and the explanation is "I didn't want to spend time on that aspect of the story" and not "Shounen is for boys so if I did that it would've ruined the story".
Am I a bad writer because of this? Am I lazy? That's debatable and it's up to the reader to decide. What's not debatable however is that "Shounen is for boys" is a cheap excuse, often used to wave away actual criticism and divert from the actual issue (aka lack of effort from the writer)
I get what you're saying. I understand that authors dont want to waste time on side chatacters that don't mean much. The problem though is when a character (usually female) only exists for things like sex appeal or to be a love interest for the main character and are thus treated with no respect. I get that they are fictional, but your writing is what makes those characters real to us. So why does the author treat them like toys or objects more than humans? As a female audience member it is so frustrating. You can have a character that's hot and sexy, but please treat her with respect and not make it her only point of existence.That is my perspective.
@@Muyuyu439 i dont agree this is a demographic probleme not a "sexism" or "mysoginy" , most if not all people watch anime or read manga do it to escape from reality ,
the authors have complete freedom to write whatever they want and restricting them whit our society,s rules and ideologies will defeat its purpose,
thats why there is lots of divisions/audiences , imagine going to watch a hentai anime and complain about why women are treated like animals ,
thats where the "stick to your demographic" comes from , writers have freedom to write and people have freedom to criticize , but its logical to hate critique if its out if its place
saying "why are women badly written on a shonen" is like a vegan going to a shawarma restaurant and saying " why is everyone eating meat"
@@xanax9771 Women being badly written because its a "shonen anime" is a poor excuse for bad writing. I hope you'll understand that.
@@Muyuyu439 the shonen writers are not focusing on making goodly written female characters actually even side characters at least most of them , i do agree whit you that its lazy but shoujo isnt any better , i mainly made my previous point about how manga writing is and should be free of our society,s red lines
@@xanax9771 I don't think a critique directed at badly written characters is ever out of place.
It sucks that people just accept bland, useless, paper-thin side characters because "that's how shounen is made" and if you try to go against this idea people are hostile and attack you, even if what you're critiquing would be an objective improvement to the story.
Do shounen fans actually like to only have an interesting main character while the rest of the cast is just barely there?
There are examples of good side characters, both male and female, but it's almost as if people actively push back against "raising the bar" when it comes to writing interesting characters.
Chainsaw Man has amazing side characters. I won't go into spoilers about the recent stuff but Power is a side character and yet she has depth, she grows as a person and has a meaningful role in the story while not being the protagonist. She's not just "there", she's not "the MC love interest" and she's not "eye candy and nothing else".
Why are people against more characters being like her? Hell, just asking this question would probably earn me the hostility of some shounen readers, it's almost as if it's taboo to even talk about this stuff, let alone actually do it
I just wanna say that your Chainsaw Man video is great.
Ayy I appreciate it! thank you!
I love your content. Please keep up the good work.
I'm in the process of creating stories of my own; and videos like yours are priceless pockets of insight into the market.
Even if someone is not part of a creation team's target market, it's vital to understand what chances they'll have at making sales to that demographic.
Hearing diverse perspectives and critiques ensures minor and even major changes are possible, if a creator wishes to branch into wider audiences.
Thanks for putting all these cool creators in 😍 I'm always looking for different kind of people that are in the youtube animespace that bring another perspective to the weird world of anime to the table other than just the norm 😍
The guys that say "shounen is for boy" are the same who get super pissy about shirtless man on Free!
Bro i am so offended that they make all boys in shojo so pretty and not like real men, it gives me mental trauma 😢
@@Anika9691 so maybe don’t watch yaoi then?? And there’s other yaois out there not all of them are like that you just have to seek them out I personally don’t watch yaoi or yuri just not for me even being a pansexual just doesn’t interest me but I have friends who are interested in those genres not every character is portrayed that way.. there’s tons out there don’t overgeneralize and why watch it if it causes you mental distress?? Seems counterproductive I’ve seen you comment this on numerous other comments that people have made on this video like stop torturing yourself buddy take a break find something else to watch…
I love all your theories, so never give into the hate.
Your Gift really resonated with me. I’m a vocaloid P from Japan, wanting to learn more about how anime culture is affecting the global community. I subscribed to everyone you recommended. Thank you for what you do, Inakyu🙏✨
i've been into anime for a long time and i started watching youtube videos about anime (i guess just like everyone else) to listen to other people's opinions and to get recommendations. I remember thinking "why aren't there any female youtubers?".
I'm very glad that i found your channel and all the others you mentioned, it may seems like it's nothing, but when on the internet girls and "girls stuff" have constantly been underappreciated or treated as less interesting/not deserving of attention, trust me that you and your channel just like any other woman who shared their anime youtube content did A LOT.
The anime community has always been misogynist, homophobic and racist and this seriously needs to change.
I’m so glad you made this vid and shouted out other women ani youtubers. I would also say give Noralities a watch as well, she also does deep dive on magical girl animes and talk about problems with animes in general. She went through a hard pushback from the anime community on the topic of Lolis awhile back… Her Kiki delivery service vid is a much watch so would definitely recommend her.
I’d also like to recommend Bess! She’s most known for her video essays on Higurashi and they’re really interesting given her criminology background. She’s obviously also made videos on other anime like Sound Euphonium and stuff, but as a vocaloid fan, I must say my favourite video by her is her personal retrospective on Vocaloid. She’s at 14k subs rn and hasn’t been very active but I find her perspective on things in particular just fascinating.
Bess is so fun to watch. I really love her higurashi vids, They're so in depth.
I would love to see a video essay about how the Shonen genre has changed over time. Obviously I know that it directly translates to "young boys" but I'd argue that with the popularity boom and globalization of anime, the Shonen genre itself has shifted into being more about action than catering to a male exclusive audience. Anyone can enjoy an action show just like anyone can enjoy a romance show. At their core, these genres are not gender specific. I'd go as far to say that most mainstream anime like MHA, One Piece, Naruto, AOT, etc. are geared towards a gender neutral audience, despite being classified as Shonen. I believe a lot of modern manga/shows are actively striving to appeal to people of all ages and genders because the wider the audience, the more potential for popularity. Therefore, I'd say modern Shonen is no longer a gendered genre, it's purposefully gender neutral.
I'd say naruto is definitely made for guys given that all their female characters suck ass
Your video about girls in shounen was the first I saw and I thought you made really points. I hope negative comments don't bum you out too much. Some fans tend to be too sensitive about any criticism of shows they like.
Inakyu! I'm glad that there's a new video of yours up!
I've been watching your stuff since before you became twitter famous, and I love your videos.
I feel like you have the most normal content, and by normal, I mean... like... idk, I can just watch your stuff, relate, think, and relax, and also go "WHYY!!! Do they do that, I don't know either!!!" along with you.
It's always a nice day when you put a new video out, and I think that your demenor being so calm has a calming effect on me too.
Anyway, don't let idiots get you down.
🕊
Loved hearing your perspective on this and glad you're here making the content from your point of view! Hearing opinions on anime from different types of people will only make anitube better! Sorry that you had to get hate like that for literally just sharing your opinion, hope to see you continue to grow! Keep on moving forward!
Aaa thank you so much ip!
Been subbed for awhile now, absolutely adore your content and takes. Congratulations on 30k subs🎉, here's to 300k.
And yeah anyone throwing hate your way and saying things like"shonen is for boys or stick to shoujo" is super cringe and sad man. But hey some people just have terrible takes. Always feel free to vent
Not a girl but I really enjoy your videos especially your viral one. I have watched anime most my life but its only when I started dating my gf I started to hear these different views for a lot of my old favs. Keep up the good work and fuck the haters
The crappy representation of women in most anime I saw was what kept me out of anime for the longest time. You pointing out your issues with it was a breath of fresh air. Also checked out some of the wholesome LGBT anime you recommended. Didn't enjoy them all, but more LGBT anime is always good imo.
I remember I started watching anime when I was 6 years old without me realizing it was anime, it was just some cartoons that happened to be on tv at the time I arrived from school so I was really into it. Pokemon was definitely like my first anime, I started to wanna know more about it, collect cards and figures etc, but I was also having a rough time in school being bullied and I was very shy, fr I almost never spoke so I wanted to change myself so I could fit, that took me almost 3 years so I stopped watching anime but deep down I missed it. When I started high school I started to change again and realized that I needed to do what I like no matter what ppl say, I f i fit or not, and then here I am, being happy.
That mob psycho hoodie goes unbelievably hard. Also, lines in motion's videos are all bangers, such good thumbnails and visuals
I'd highly recommend Internet Pitstop! His videos are a whole vibe and really well done.
I would also recommend Omnibus Collector and Mangatama for more manga stuff.
Great video! Congrats on 31k!
4:19 it astounds me that these boys are apparently fine with poorly written characters
I loved your shouen women video. You almost mirrored a conversation I had with my BF about demon slayer. He didn't see it, but I did. Chalk it up to a different perspective. I was looking for content like urs. And to be honest u were like the first lady anituber I can across. Thanks for the recommends
I was gonna comment that you're not alone but considering the 10 anituber girl recommendations, i think you got that 😂
Stay determined!
You're amazing, so honest and comforting, love you and your videos🧡 keep going girl, we support you✊🏻
mfs be saying anime shouldnt be ridicularized and its for everyone and then hate on women who watch it and point ou mistakes
When I'm in a Negative Rizz competition and my opponents are RUclips commenters: 💀
Sorry to hear about that.
Hope you stay strong and may you have more support from more fans 💖
I appreciate the recommended channels 🙂
I'm more into webtoons than anime recently... I'll try to be more active in anime/manga stuff in the future.
Ever since I first got into anime I never understood why online spaces are so cruel & gatekeepy to women. As if women haven’t made anime & manga for decades across many genres. When I first got into anime it was female friends in highschool who introduced me to wider series Id never heard of. Yet male anime fans act like women don’t watch anime or don’t make anime and even try and bark off women from spaces for discussion. I don’t get it.
Ina, I loved your first video and a lot of it was criticism Ive felt in my bones about anime for years. Just because I like shonen anime doesn’t mean we can’t criticize or note flaws in them. The notion one cant be a fan and not also note problems is absurd. Don’t ever feel like you were wrong because assholes online harassed you. They were mad because you were right and they don’t like to be challenged.
Idk if it means much, but this male anime fan is inspired by what you do and I am glad you bring sensibility & community for female anime fans. We need more figures like you and thank you for the recommendations.
In my opinion, you are such a honest and sweet person who tells her opinions straightforward. I liked that you admitted that you used some clickbait titles and that's ok! You are very cool in my opinion. Shounen girls are not developed well and your speaking out was very much needed! The overse&$@ualisation that minor girls get is disgusting and i, for the first time, liked an anime youtuber. Seriously, your videos are a joy to watch with how clear your understanding of character is.
I really love your video
Your content is great and very well explored. Please don't let the haters get to you! Fans truly can be their worst enemies when they get blinded by how much they enjoy their shows. They lash out at anyone who tells them about its flaws. Please do not let them have an impact on you
Ina you’re one of the most passionate people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting when it comes to this platform, keep grinding GOAT. Don’t let dumb people bring you down
Please continue doing what you love! And as you said, hate will come but please keep pushing through!
Well said!! ✊😎 I really enjoy watching your videos. Has soo much depth and I can resonate easily just watching your content bc the way you explain and express yourself in doing so. In simple words “you’re doing great!” :)
You're a great content creator Ina. Screw those haters. Watching content like yours helps men/boys like me understand the women/girls we interact with in the anime community. Thank you for sharing all these other channels, I will def. look into them.
As a girl who loves anime and manga, I love your videos!! Your opinions are interesting!!
i went out and bought a bulma sticker for my pc just because you brought up the attention to me that bulma was a well written fem character among the slew. i'm a retroactive bulma fan now. thank you for pointing her out!! i would really hope you can point out other great female characters or at least even try to tackle the best points that even poor fem depictions get.
thank you for becoming an anituber.
you got me with One Piece essays, absolutely going to see and subscribe MelonTeee (and the others 😁); also bad faith commentary sucks, glad that you are working on processing and turning it into something that supports female anime creators, and totally excited to see whatever else you put out
Just came here from that video and I too wrote a comment about shounen basically. Part of the problem is that your version of improving traditionally feminine characters is "make them more masculine", which isn't authors' intent.
Even women in general are more interested in twilight and 50 shades of grey which plays exactly into "strong masculine guy, feminine girl" even though with a twist.
I love Jolyne but iI think it's obvious, it would change dynamic if someone like her would be put as a romantic interest of a main guy in a shounen.
That video got attention on twitter because it's a heated topic and basically women who don't want to be purely feminine ask "why can't you write more masculine women". and there is a backlash to it :)
POC is a problem, stop bring those things to anime.
@@KamiDionysusJapanese people are POC.
I really love your analyses of things and how chill you are, I'd love to see more of your anime takes in the future!
Girl!! You had me at Link Click. I love the show so much.
You can’t mention non-male anitubers without mentioning @TheAnimeTea; such an amazing channel. Thank you Inakyu🙏🏽.
I don't understand how anime has to do anything with a specific gender watching it. Like come on, when a girl watches shounen anime it's considered weird but when a guy watches a Disney princess movie it's most of the time "normal". We're in the 21st century, gender equality exists. You're epic, girl. Keep doing what you're doing. The people who hate you are just giving you views and growing your channel, like how you mentioned at the beginning of the video.
Thanks for the channel recommendations
Thanks for making the content that you do! You're finding your voice and I think that's awesome! Unfortunately, some of the incredible dumb and negative comments will be there, but I hope the everything is much more supportive and understanding moving forward!
As a girl that’s recently gotten into anime and wants to make anime content on RUclips, this video was very insightful. I’m totally going to check out these girls you promoted and I’m glad you popped up on my timeline! Looking forward to watching more of your videos! :)
I love anime too, but I always had to turn off my brain when I saw female characters in shounen... Thank you for talking about and bringing more awareness to the pretty horrendous characterization of female characters in shounen! Love your content! Keep doing you, inkayu! :)
can't remember if i've left a comment on one of your vids yet but comming back to this video after seeing the On the rise thumnail video feels like a nice easter egg
Ever since I’ve found your videos in my recommended, I’ve been finding other women ani-tubers in my feed! Lines in Motion being one of them!! I’m loving all your content so far and honestly it’s kind of inspiring me to make my own content ❤❤
Love the video and love the recs! Congrats on 30k🎉
AYY TYSM😊
If you read a lot of manga I DEF recommend checking out Banzai Sura, her manga videos are addicting, I just love the vibes and atmosphere of her videos and her editing!
As a 37-year-old female from Internet 1.0, I approve of this message. However, I have to say, my time as a female anime and video gaming fan has been interesting. Being around for the olden days when anime first did its big migration over to America was never as wild to me as it is now. That's mainly because none of the males I'd befriended online as a kid ever gave a shit about whether or not I liked shounen OR shoujo. Probably had better things to do. 😅
It seems as if more and more men care about it now because of the perceived "threat" that women's opinions pose against things like male fanservice. But I grew up with that stuff and felt like the fact that I didn't care for it didn't mean it had to be removed. After watching the sheer amount of it in the OG Naruto series, it was just a thing. That's all. The problem, at least in my admittedly strange perspective, was never about the male fanservice or the female side characters being written poorly. It was always about this question: WHO is a main character?
Is Naruto the only MC? No, definitely not. He's the biggest focal point, but Sasuke was very much an MC from the beginning. And if you've got a female lead that's even recognized as the intended "heroine" of the story by the mangaka himself, the expectation should be simple. Sakura is the quintessential image of a poorly written female character -- one who was SO problematic that those calling her trash were mostly males. It became THE anime meme back in the day. Hating on Sakura was like breathing air, it was that prevalent.
The only problem with that bandwagon is how hating on her went to extremes that neglected any progress she did make during the course of the series. But overall, Sakura remains a failed character who's a disappointment to all the female AND male fans who realize the key problem: She's a failed character who just so happens to be female. Her gender isn't the only thing about her, and it's not the only thing that's tied to her being a failure.
Despite that, Kishimoto admitted he's bad at writing females to some extent, even though this is more so an issue of LEAD characters. After all, he wrote Tsunade and Kushina much better, just for instance. I'd even go so far as to say that his best love story was between Kushina and Minato, and it was a better romance than anything I've actually read out of shoujo too. In fact, when it comes to Naruto heroines, some people find Hinata to be much more likable as a character than Sakura -- including people who worked on the anime, if what I've heard is true.
It was Hinata who turned out to be better suited as the LEAD female than Sakura to a lot of fans. I think Hinata turned out better than Sakura did too, although there were still plenty of writing changes that would've made it work out more appropriately. Her relationship with Naruto, at least to me, felt pretty rushed and forced given that the fans seemed to prefer it. That's part of why it had to happen. The majority did seem to prefer that ending because of how badly Sakura was handled.
Besides this, Sakura and Naruto behaved more like contentious siblings to me than a couple from the very start of the series. Yelling in unison and arguing like they did, especially with Sakura's temper leading her to pretty much using him like a punching bag, never made their relationship feel like anything more than that of siblings to me. Even as the story diverted from their childhood bouts to their more serious conversations, they never felt like they should've been in a romantic relationship.
Sakura was even used to explain things later on, likening Naruto's childish crush on her to just another part of his rivalry with Sasuke. In some part, it seemed like infatuation to me. But whereas the same infatuated sentiment Sakura had for Sasuke grew into love -- despite it being an unhealthy kind from my perspective -- Naruto's feelings for Sakura were ultimately shallow. The two were better represented as siblings by the end of the OG series from my perspective because that's how they always felt to me.
I'm saying all this because THAT was the major issue. She's not just some side character who gets to be written as a weakling screaming for Naruto. She WAS the female MC of the story who became as strong as Tsunade and needed to be handled as such, whether or not the author and all his assistants wanted her to be an MC. You can't have it one way and then another and not anticipate your audience to have problems with the contradictory nature of a character's portrayal.
Although it's true Sakura hadn't achieved enough prowess to fight Pain at the point where she's sobbing and screaming for Naruto in Shippudden, it still fails to suit her improvements after we see her fighting Sasori alongside Granny Chiyo. Those moments made it look as though she'd improved enough to NOT be portrayed quite so annoyingly helpless as before. So showing us her weaker side in front of Pain was jarringly inappropriate for a character so many fans had been struggling to like.
Following all of that up with her "confession" to Naruto put the nail in her coffin for many fans, myself included. Apparently this was an attempt to make her MORE likable that utterly backfired, leaving Sakura looking like an idiotic lovesick traitor. She WAS lovesick for certain, but having her try to kill Sasuke and wimp out on even trying after lying about her true feeling to Naruto that way is one of the dumbest writing moves I've ever seen in anime. THAT was when she became my least favorite in the series.
So, getting back to the bigger picture? Quite simply, NO story in shounen functions well when ALL the female characters are just side chicks and cannon fodder. That's not how writing works, even if some people want it to. However, that being said, this still means you can fail at writing plenty of characters who hold lesser positions in a story, just as seems the case in the Naruto series. But if your female character is effectively THE female lead, writing them the way that Sakura turned out is just. bad. writing. No exceptions.
If we stop thinking of it as a gender-centric problem, though, we're better off in the long run. That's because the best way to write GOOD characters is to write good HUMANS whose identities aren't predicated on gender but rather ENHANCED by it. In order to see that in storytelling, you don't have to look far. Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender is a great example of putting the human element first and THEN allowing gender to have its place.
Sakura, on the other hand, was clearly written as female from the onset with the specific role of the male love interest in mind. She was highlighted as such with her stereotypically pink-colored hair (because female lead, obviously) and then underscored as the male love interest by the titular character and his rival. All of this could've worked. It SHOULD have worked. But the same fatal writing flaw was adopted: Tokenization. Yes, Sakura is the token female used to create more plot between other characters. She was created for this very purpose. Therefore, the author DIDN'T mitigate her lackluster role by developing her characterization, working on WHO she actually was as a human being first and foremost in order to build up her reason for existing.
Had Kishimoto treated Sakura as a human character first and THEN highlighted her position as a love interest, he wouldn't have accidentally ended up highlighting how uselessly contrived she felt. That's how you get a trash character that even males who don't care all that mcuh will complain about having in their shounen. Rather than excusing the poor writing with gems like "because it's a shounen lolll" so they can feel a false sense of satisfaction in telling women it's not meant for them.
In reality, though, terms like "shounen" describe a TARGET demographic rather than some kind of bizarre "BOYZ ONLY" sign on the front door of a fandom. It's for marketing purposes, not this ridiculously childish gatekeeping behavior that's largely coming from people who don't know anything about marketing. Heck, most of these people who feel the need to gatekeep their fandoms -- no matter their gender -- probably have no clue how many females actually watch shounen in the first place.
These days, the viewer distribution between male and female viewers is about 50/50 rather than back when I was a kid watching Naruto AND Sailor Moon talking to guys online. Most of the fans were male, but there were also females like myself. And because I tend to just get on better with male friends, the ones I normally encountered didn't give a shit if I liked a thing or not. As long as I didn't give a shit that they liked a thing too. Mostly.
Except that one guy who hid how much he liked DBZ just because I didn't... It's just that I never cared if he liked Vegeta. I mean, Vegeta was cool and made me watch for a bit, but things were way too long and drawn out for my taste. Other anime were too, but all that grunting and glowing just wasn't my thing. If boys liked DBZ AND Sailor Moon, that was fine. If I liked Naruto AND Sailor Moon, that was fine. It was all good back then, but now we've got people stroking their fandoms like it's the One Ring around here and I'm just... wishing people would chill.
I don't know, but the olden days seemed less contentious... Maybe it's just me, though. Maybe I found the good ones, huh?
Length. It's long. Should've realized it would be, but as per my usual statements on comment sections, I'll admit that I type fast and talk too much. Not so good at self-editing. Sorry. 😅
Wowowowowow! It’s an honor to be included in that list of anitubers (I freaking love MelonTeee)! Inakyu, thanks for thinking of me and thank you SO MUCH for the shoutout. Your channel was an inspiration when I started making videos, especially the artsy ones (I love your Tokyo Revengers review!). Haters follow success, I’m glad you’re not letting them deter you. Keep doing you, you’re wonderful and you’ve made my whole week! 🫰🏾
Wait Inakyu your outfits are FIRE. I love that Mob hoodie!!
What also is a big no is being told that if you find an anime character to be attractive, you can't possibly watch it for the plot. Like, people, I CAN DO BOTH😂
I can watch AoT for the incredible storyline that it has but I can also enjoy seeing Levi on the screen🤷🏼♀️
I can't say how many times, when I commented something positive on Levi (on his person, not even his appearance), someone would be like "wEll, yOu aRe jUsT a fAnGiRl" only because I'm a girl😅 No, I'm making these comments because I am invested in the animes story and it's characters, thx😊✌🏼
I’ve always wanted to find the non-toxic side of anime fandom. So thank you for your videos and also for recommending all these other creators. I just subbed to all of them. Keep being you and creating that magic✨
What’s funny is if women made anime, the way men make anime…..boys would be calling it a hate crime!!!!
You make good videos
Loved this video and the recognition of other creators. Thank you for your videos
About the thumbnail and stuff, you don't deserve the hate. I enjoy those series but they got more development in the manga/as the show went on. Except for Sakura but idc I still love the series shes in
i hate the whole "shoujo is for girls , shounen is for boys" like they are TARGETED to those YES. but it doesnt mean you cannot enjoy/watch the other. i'm a guy and i watch whatever.
i dont care if its shoujo or shounen. ( some shoujo shows SLAP its just a sad reality that they dont always get the best adaptations that they deserve cause of low marketshare ☹)
let people watch what they wanna watch and even more so , let people be critical of works regardless of their gender. ( i swear so many anime fans are such babies that cant handle a bit of criticism for shows they like, it is like they're all 12 )
by their logic then they shouldn't watch shonen if they're adults and only watch seinen because seinen is targeted towards adults and shounen for teens.
but oh boy they will flip if you tell them shounen is for teens.
You give proper constructive critisim and respect to others opinions, and I enjoy watching your videos because I wanna study on how to write proper female character such as stories, subverting the stereotypical trope, compelling struggles and more. I hope you're doing well despite the hate comments on your videos.
I love your videos! Don’t let those creeps tell you what to do. They’re just mad that girls have opinions ant it hurts their small brains.