gabeygabsterJan 12, 20216 replies749 viewseven though it's technically a shounen, i'll be completely real with you here: i've never heard of a guy who's watched this anime. most of the people ik who watch this anime are girls who usually fanboy over hanako or that one dude with yellow hair (forgot his name)
the art style reminds me of a mix of demon slayer, clear card, and made in abyss (without gore). i'm curious, though, if there are actually guys who do watch this anime, because this just really feels more like a shoujo than a shounen.
on the flip side, we have tonari no kaibutsu-kun, which classifies as a shoujo, but most people ik who watch it are guys
Sometimes the intended audience doesn't match the actual audience, just like this meme
true but i sort of wonder why hanako kun just appeals more towards girls
maybe because of the art style, although ik more guys who are into cardcaptor (and just clamp animes in general) despite most of them being appealing towards girls
Fujoshis are just scary man
Jokingly aside, I don't think it's only girls who read this manga, it's just that they are the ones who talk about it the most. Maybe the story just doesn't generate that much discussion from the general community, so the discussion mainly consists of fujoshis shipping Hanako with the blonde boy
Shounen, seinen and shoujo are just targets, so they means nothing. If a manga is serialized on a shounen magazine (Shounen jump for example is the most famouse) then is a shounen. Hanako-kun was serialized as a shounen, but those targets have no purpose for what regards the story, so we have a lot of seinen that are very childish of vice versa.
P.S. Maybe i'm a little bit fussy, but anime can't shounen or seinen
lots of my guy friends read jshk, but so do my female/enby friends
i've never really noticed this, actually
also don't disrespect my man kou
Yeah, really it just comes down to the publication the manga ran in that determines its demographic, and nothing more than that.
Now that said, while something can objectively be shounen, that's not to say that it can't borrow heavily from shoujo tropes and ideas, which Hanako-kun 100% does. There's so many big flowery romantic scenes here, essentially functions as a reverse harem (with one main girl and 3 or 4 other guys around here that all get their entertained as romantic partners), and definitely more of a focus on pretty boys being gay and pretty than in your...Narutos (and this isn't just "fujoshis being scary", there is no way that Mitsuba and Kou's arc is meant to be taken as a purely heterosexual "guys being dudes" thing).
Also should be noted that Hanako-kun was serialized in GFantasy, who also ran such shounen series as Black Butler, Pandora Hearts, Nabari no Ou, Aoharu x Machinegun, and The Royal Tutor, among others. I've always thought it was interesting that GFantasy is technically a shounen publication because so many of their series read like a shoujo than a shounen (and I do think the audiences do tend to be more female leaning).
But ultimately, does it really matter, I find the idea of categorizing shows by if their "boys/girls only", it's definitely a weird thing in anime. I guess if you think like "hell yeah brother I need some bad ass action shounens like my Attack on Titans" and only look at shounen then you may be shocked by the amount of variety allowed within the arbitrary confines of what's "for boys/girls/men/women" then it matters but otherwise...it's such a weird and pointless way to approach anime (and media in general)
