My Posts (1)
The Isekai Genre Is Falling Off, And Here's Its Replacement
The majority of what’s listed aren’t shoujo at all (Horimiya, My Dress Up Darling, Kaguya love is war, Komi Can’t Communicate, yakuza fiancé) - they all have distinct tropes that make them geared to a male audience and are in fact either shounen or seinen romances. These have always still dominated the romance anime genre.
Recent shoujos or Joseis are A condition called love, Yamada kun level 999, cherry magic, sign of affection, a perfect marriage - and the obvi the fruits basket and sailor moon reboots.
I’d say in the last few years shoujo is getting more adaptions but are still way more under represented compared to their counterparts. I think recent shows like Skip and Loafer, Dan Da Dan and Apothecary Diaries (and horimiya a tad) are all great examples of shounen/seinen that have good crossover because despite how they were marketed - have a distinct shoujo influence/ feel and i think people are really becoming more drawn to the care put into those romances / plots as it feels different than a typical shounen romance.
This isn’t to bash shounen romance but the male gaze is prominent and seeing something edging on egalitarian with room for a female gaze POV really adds an additional layer to romance anime that’s been missing / marginalized consistently with anime releases since the 2000s when adaptions were more equal.