Favourite Bishoujo Show in 2005

[Njr Scrawl]

(In this forum to include all regions)

What was your favourite bishoujo show in 2005? Say why.

[perigee]

Girls Bravo because it doesn't try to be anything other than what it is, a harem show with light humor, an interesting plot twist and likable characters. I'm looking forward to seeing the final volumes in this year's release.

[Rhodes]

Shuffle

All 5 female leads with Ama, the Teach and you also have Mayumi if you like that look... flat as a board.

2nd would be My-Otome... hey more Shizuru is always a good thing.

3rd D.C.S.S. I like Nemu so sue me. You get Sakura back at the end and a mix of new blood for the show. I feel for this show, road kill to shuffle.

[something]

What are we defining as "bishoujo"? Flat out any show that has lots of cute girls in it, or does the label reflect something in terms of actual series content?

[treatment]

The dramatic story, the proper pacing, the music, the beautiful characters and character-designs (tv and movie), the excellent vocal-acting, the vivid backgrounds, the superb animation, etc, etc, etc.

Air is not just the best bishoujo of 2005, but it's the best anime of 2005.

[Suwako Moriya]

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disarm said:What are we defining as "bishoujo"? Flat out any show that has lots of cute girls in it, or does the label reflect something in terms of actual series content?

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I was about to ask the same thing. Plus it doesn't help that people have various opinions on what makes a girl cute. Plus the more anime that can count as bishoujo the harder it will be to decide. It also doesn't help that often the bishoujo aspect is just one part of the series. The bishoujo aspect is mixed with something else making some comparisons possibly apples and oranges. Unless your only criteria is how pretty the girls are.

[something]

[ QUOTE ]
Mimi Masuko said:
It also doesn't help that often the bishoujo aspect is just one part of the series. The bishoujo aspect is mixed with something else making some comparisons possibly apples and oranges. Unless your only criteria is how pretty the girls are.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right. A lot of shallow people who dismiss anything with lots of females as being stupid fanservice crap misuse the term "bishoujo" as a derogatory word. To them, Girls Bravo, Shuffle and My~HiME are all "bishoujo" and most of the time you know they haven't seen any of the three because they're all completely different.

But, omg! Cute girls! It's bishoujo crap!

Thus, I don't want to play into that by just taking "bishoujo" as the defining characteristic of just any show with cute girls in it.

[Suwako Moriya]

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disarm said:To them, Girls Bravo, Shuffle and My~HiME are all "bishoujo" and most of the time you know they haven't seen any of the three because they're all completely different.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well I haven't watched much of Girls Bravo. However yeah My~HiME without a doubt is completely different from SHUFFLE!. Okay well maybe not completely different since both series have bishoujo. However it takes a lot more than being in the same genre and/or sharing some traits for two shows to be the same.

[VanG]

DCSS is my favourite, such a nice ending...

[Rhodes]

bishoujo means pretty girl... so any show with lots of pretty girls would count. normally a bunch of girls around one guy. but i would say any show that is top heavy with girls vs boys. Or especially any show based on a bishoujo game like shuffle or dc. hime may not of been based on a bish game, but it has a bevy of pretty girls in it. love hina for instance isnt based on a bish game but it is similar.

[something]

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Rhodes said:
bishoujo means pretty girl... so any show with lots of pretty girls would count. normally a bunch of girls around one guy. but i would say any show that is top heavy with girls vs boys. Or especially any show based on a bishoujo game like shuffle or dc. hime may not of been based on a bish game, but it has a bevy of pretty girls in it. love hina for instance isnt based on a bish game but it is similar.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right, I get all that, but that says almost nothing about what the shows actually *are*. Saying "My~HiME is a better bishoujo show than Shuffle" is like saying "Grapes are better than CD-RWs"... it doesn't mean anything.

But ah well, I prefer the definition of "bishoujo show" that is closely linked to "harem", but it doesn't have to be 100%. For example, AIR is not harem but I'd say it's a bishoujo show. I don't consider HiME to be a "bishoujo show" at all, or at least not in any remotely meaningful way. I suppose any show based off a dating sim type game has a good chance of being a bishoujo show, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. A lot of romantic comedy is going to be bishoujo as well.

But again, my main hangup is that bishoujo can take on negative connotations of "fanboy fluff" which isn't necessarily true, even within the harem genre.

Anyway, putting aside those concerns and voting, I'd say AIR is certainly up there for shows I consider to have a strong "bishoujo show" element. Mahoraba might be next, although, I dunno, seems a bit different. Notable is that neither show is harem, even arguably.

[treatment]

[ QUOTE ]
disarm said:
[ QUOTE ]
Rhodes said:
bishoujo means pretty girl... so any show with lots of pretty girls would count. normally a bunch of girls around one guy. but i would say any show that is top heavy with girls vs boys. Or especially any show based on a bishoujo game like shuffle or dc. hime may not of been based on a bish game, but it has a bevy of pretty girls in it. love hina for instance isnt based on a bish game but it is similar.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right, I get all that, but that says almost nothing about what the shows actually *are*. Saying "My~HiME is a better bishoujo show than Shuffle" is like saying "Grapes are better than CD-RWs"... it doesn't mean anything.

But ah well, I prefer the definition of "bishoujo show" that is closely linked to "harem", but it doesn't have to be 100%. For example, AIR is not harem but I'd say it's a bishoujo show. I don't consider HiME to be a "bishoujo show" at all, or at least not in any remotely meaningful way. I suppose any show based off a dating sim type game has a good chance of being a bishoujo show, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. A lot of romantic comedy is going to be bishoujo as well.

But again, my main hangup is that bishoujo can take on negative connotations of "fanboy fluff" which isn't necessarily true, even within the harem genre.

Anyway, putting aside those concerns and voting, I'd say AIR is certainly up there for shows I consider to have a strong "bishoujo show" element. Mahoraba might be next, although, I dunno, seems a bit different. Notable is that neither show is harem, even arguably.

[/ QUOTE ]

I always follow this self-rule for a bishoujo-anime to be a bishoujo-anime:

ren-ai game-conversions series (game-to-anime)

Examples:

KimiNozo, Kanon, Air, DC/DCSS, Lamune, Canvas2, ToHeart/TH-2, Shuffle, etc, etc.

Makes it much easier to make distinction from manga-series (orthodox, shoujo, rom-com, seinen) and/or original anime-production. One can include Hentai, but that's already an established genre by itself.

[Splitter]

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treatment said:

Air is not just the best bishoujo of 2005, but it's the best anime of 2005.

[/ QUOTE ]

Damn, someone said it before me...

[Fencedude]

For the record, My~HiME defines itself as a "Bishoujo Action Romance"...

[something]

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Fencedude said:
For the record, My~HiME defines itself as a "Bishoujo Action Romance"...

[/ QUOTE ]

Well aware, but it's still nothing like the traditional defition of a "bishoujo show"... not in the least.

[Suwako Moriya]

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disarm said:
Well aware, but it's still nothing like the traditional defition of a "bishoujo show"... not in the least.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well the fact still remains the Bishoujo element is usually mixed with another element. One common mixture is "Bishoujo Harem". So it's kind of hard to decide what to exclude because of that. Although to be honest I'm still not sure what the traditional definition is supposed to be sometimes.

[Rogueman_8]

[ QUOTE ]
disarm said:
[ QUOTE ]
Fencedude said:
For the record, My~HiME defines itself as a "Bishoujo Action Romance"...

[/ QUOTE ]

Well aware, but it's still nothing like the traditional defition of a "bishoujo show"... not in the least.

[/ QUOTE ]

true true, oh and it's "bishoujo gakuen action romance" to be exact /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif.

[martod]

Mahoraba, because it's cuuuuuuuute. Really, that's enough for me. /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

[Suwako Moriya]

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marko said:Mahoraba, because it's cuuuuuuuute. Really, that's enough for me. /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I love that series. So many cute girls and it was kind of fun to. Plus it has Tamami, you have to love it just because of that.

[Njr Scrawl]

Shows where the girls look & are dressed prettily - to look attractive & they sound & behave sweetly. Usually with mainly nice/adorable personalities.

I was thinking more of series written around characters as much as ones such characters might be a part of - if that makes sense. /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

[Rhodes]

Bishoujo isnt a 4 letter word. Hime/Otome being Bish isnt bad. One of my favorite all time shows is Bishoujo... Sailor Moon!

Just cause a show is bish doesnt mean it cant also be another type... seldom does a show only fill 1 catagory.

[something]

[ QUOTE ]
Rhodes said:
Bishoujo isnt a 4 letter word. Hime/Otome being Bish isnt bad. One of my favorite all time shows is Bishoujo... Sailor Moon!

Just cause a show is bish doesnt mean it cant also be another type... seldom does a show only fill 1 catagory.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, I know, but a lot of people use it as a derogatory word to put down a show and ignore it. Besides, I just don't define "bishoujo show" like you do, it seems. Having pretty girls in a show isn't meaningful enough to make a show a bishoujo show for me.

[martod]

I define "bishoujo ahow" as being a show where there's notably more cute girls than guys in the show(as in there are many more girls than guys, not 4 girls and 3 guys). There doesn't have to be fanservice(see Mahoraba) or a male main character(see Popotan).