[kupoartist]

Like all things pushed into neat little categories, the Shonen / Shojo divide is always broken by some people. The titles don't reflect the entire make-up of the audience, just who they generally target. I think anime in recent years has been trying ever more to female viewers to Shonen shows (and vice versa, but to a lesser extent) with secondary elements. After all, the more viewers you have, the better and if you can sell even more merch via new and previously unavailable avenues (a larger market for plush dolls, or male character statues) that's great.

Gundam is a good example: they took what had been viewed as a macho anime and attempted to grab female viewers by upping the bishonen factor to 205% for series like Wing and Seed. Extra points gained for Shonen-Ai hints. (browse for 5 seconds at Gundam Wing fanfiction. Once you realise that 1x2x3 isn't an easy mathematical problem, you'll understand what I mean ) They also reformed the female characters to concentrate on making more femanine characters (those characters that aren't just plain useless in UC Gundam, are a bit too butch for most of the female audience). Unfortuantly, someone equates feminitity with utter-uselessness, so they kind of shoot themselves in the foot by making the girl characters useless damsels most of the time.

I made a bit of a goofy mistake a while back by identifying Prince of Tennis as a Shojo series, because I was aware exclusively of its female following rather than its actual content. Same principles at work here: a show aimed at guys, hooks girls in with pretty-boys.

I have to say though, a Girl who likes Shonen is generally accepted rather more than a Guy who likes Shojo This just reflects the way society works as a whole. Girls liking Guy things is fine, but Guys liking Girl things is malignant and wrong. Perhaps not quite to the same extent as normal social movements, but only because 9/10 people have no idea what the difference is between Shojo and Shonen. In fact, I think we'll find that our Western defintion is different in itself to the Japanese.

Originally Posted by merylsilverburg

- the main character is a male
- the mangaka is male
- it's main elements are almost sports-like and romance (if any) is a secondary element
- a major focus is on the main character Azuma Kazuma's (lol) skill which are his special hands, which ties in with the competition/winning/sports tone of the series

These are usually good indicators. A pretty good one to consider is if there is a Manga version, what publications was it serialised in? You wouldn't expect to see shonen in Hana to Yume, or shojo in Shonen Jump...

edit: and Yakitate Japan! was serialised in "Shonen Sunday".