So you may be thinking to yourself, whats the difference between the aforementioned anime and Shoujo? Isn’t Shoujo the same, but for girls? (I mean come on there are shirtless guys all over the place). NO, thankfully Shoujo anime knows exactly where that line is and makes an effort to stay on one side (usually the more conservative side unless your reading Yaoi, then its all bets off).

Another thing that Shoujo anime does that the ecchi genre (a branch of Shonen) usually doesn’t succeed at is delivering an interesting and coherent storyline. There probably are some exceptions, but I can’t think of any right now. Shoujo anime also tends to focus more on the thoughts and emotions of the main characters and altogether does character development a lot better then its male counterpart.

Ouran was a success because it managed to deliver an interesting and progressive storyline, while at the same time pulling the viewer through a roller coaster of emotions. Ouran had its funny moments as well as its more somber ones. This variety is what allowed it to go on twenty six episodes without collapsing on itself. The characters where all very different in appearance (except the twins) and personality and each one was developed fairly equally. By the end of series, we knew a lot more about each person then we did before and it helped the viewer to create a more established connection with the show.

• A special group made up of a seven “elite” individuals (Seven seems to be the magic number).
• A focus on wealth and “family businesses”.
• The main character is a girl who should not, but does fit in with the rest.
• A secondary relationship. Ryuu and the twins and Honey / Mori.
• The leaders of both groups are the main love interests (They even look similar).
• Both are set in school atmospheres.
• Tamaki and Tadashi are both sons of the school director.

This list could go on and on as I get more specific, but I think I’ve made my point clear.

To me Special A feels like a less polished version of Ouran with the personalities of the main love interests (Haruhi / Tamaki and Kei / Hikari) swapped. Kei is the serious one in Special A while Hikari is the oblivious hardheaded do gooder that everyone takes advantage of. But I’m not saying that Special A is bad, it does have its moments and I’ve been watching it (if that means anything). However, it does suffer from something that plagues the majority of anime of this type of genre, repetition. But I suppose that if Hikari fell for Kei in one episode they would have nothing else to show for the rest of the series. This isn’t an ecchi anime after all.

All in all Shoujo provides an escape for male viewers from the now commonplace affliction known as too much fan service or “TMFS“. Haha woot a new acronym to add to the collection. For those times that you want to watch something with a more romantic feel that has an actual storyline to it without ridiculous naked antics you can always turn to Shoujo. (Provided that they don’t reuse the same ideas over and over again). But there is always a time and place for ecchi. ;D

Happy Viewing.
-exo