Old anime had Moe aesthetic, too, often in works written by women (like Naoko Takeuchi of Sailor Moon or Rumiko Takahashi who did moe characters in the 70s). One of the oldest known Yuri works Sakura Namiki has characters with softened, exaggerated features and an art style that that feels like an illuminated manuscript from the Arts and Crafts movement. And you can see the influence of this softness on yuri works like the Rose of Versailles and Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Harder "adult" looking characters were always a Seinen thing, for boys growing out of Shonen works. But shonen has become basically the "universal" genre that eats up everything else. It's killing yuri by recentering a formerly queer space around a male audience and their tropes, with shoujo and josei magazines going out of business or being absorbed into their shonen/seinen counterparts. Male artists borrowing moe art styles from their female inspirations use the style to infantilize their subjects for the male gaze.
Rather than writing stories about female power, subversion of gender roles, or even just a story about a girl challenging a boy to grow up (as Takahashi tended to do), new Moe stories simply write girls as objects to be visually enjoyed, with very little complexity otherwise, or having their complexity talked down by the everyboy protagonist.
Moe style is still extensively used in Shoujo/Josei content but, there are subtle differences in the style. The softness is still there to some degree in mainstream works and often exaggerated in niche works. There is also a greater prevalence of works centering around boys with homoerotic subtext (because straight guys won't take it over and make it theirs). It's honestly difficult to find good stories about women these days. There's only so many isekai prince charming romances one can stand. :pathetic:
There's nothing I'd say is wrong about this, but I'd argue that it's nowhere as dire as you make it seem. The mainstream certainly is following the trends you describe, but there's plenty of good women-centred/women-written series still running today. Some good yuri/josei/etc magazines have folded but webmanga has more than made up for them in volume. Anime is certainly dominated by isekai and other stupid genres, but there's more yuri series getting adapted than ever before.
Like a lot of media, anime and manga are suffering from a stagnation of mainstream ideas resulting from more and more risk-adverse investments. But also like a lot of media, the sheer volume and diversity of material being produced is still increasing. I hope you'll still look for new series that could interest you :)
You're not wrong. Webtoons/comics seem to be where most of the new content is being made and I do browse those spaces.
Tbh, I think part of the problem is that the sheer weight of shonen advertising causes women gravitate towards shonen works (like MHA), until there's a general perception of anime in general being bad at fem characters, when it's mostly just a mainstream male writer thing. I also think the overwhelming number of poorly written fem characters isn't doing us any favors when it comes to inflating the egos of incels.
No matter what some particularly toxic treat defenders think of me on this site and what they might presume about me, I actually do like anime/manga as long as it has an interesting story and isn't cryptofascist propaganda, misogynistic incel wish-fulfillment power fantasy and/or kiddie creeping, or other kinds of hog feed.
bakuman is incredibly sexist, but i think it did provide some good examples of this. don't know if i'd go so far as to say it analyzes it, that implies too much criticism, but it seems pretty true to both what i've read and what you wrote
also i'd love recommendations for good yuri manga. any non-moe stuff would be welcome! (moe is also fine, but i can at least find some of that)
So, not Manga, if you liked Chinatop for the relationship dynamic, you might also like RAINBOW!. If you like the magical world related angst you might like The Greenhouse, which is one of the most emotional pieces of art I've ever read.
Old anime had Moe aesthetic, too, often in works written by women (like Naoko Takeuchi of Sailor Moon or Rumiko Takahashi who did moe characters in the 70s). One of the oldest known Yuri works Sakura Namiki has characters with softened, exaggerated features and an art style that that feels like an illuminated manuscript from the Arts and Crafts movement. And you can see the influence of this softness on yuri works like the Rose of Versailles and Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Harder "adult" looking characters were always a Seinen thing, for boys growing out of Shonen works. But shonen has become basically the "universal" genre that eats up everything else. It's killing yuri by recentering a formerly queer space around a male audience and their tropes, with shoujo and josei magazines going out of business or being absorbed into their shonen/seinen counterparts. Male artists borrowing moe art styles from their female inspirations use the style to infantilize their subjects for the male gaze.
Rather than writing stories about female power, subversion of gender roles, or even just a story about a girl challenging a boy to grow up (as Takahashi tended to do), new Moe stories simply write girls as objects to be visually enjoyed, with very little complexity otherwise, or having their complexity talked down by the everyboy protagonist.
Moe style is still extensively used in Shoujo/Josei content but, there are subtle differences in the style. The softness is still there to some degree in mainstream works and often exaggerated in niche works. There is also a greater prevalence of works centering around boys with homoerotic subtext (because straight guys won't take it over and make it theirs). It's honestly difficult to find good stories about women these days. There's only so many isekai prince charming romances one can stand. :pathetic:
There's nothing I'd say is wrong about this, but I'd argue that it's nowhere as dire as you make it seem. The mainstream certainly is following the trends you describe, but there's plenty of good women-centred/women-written series still running today. Some good yuri/josei/etc magazines have folded but webmanga has more than made up for them in volume. Anime is certainly dominated by isekai and other stupid genres, but there's more yuri series getting adapted than ever before.
Like a lot of media, anime and manga are suffering from a stagnation of mainstream ideas resulting from more and more risk-adverse investments. But also like a lot of media, the sheer volume and diversity of material being produced is still increasing. I hope you'll still look for new series that could interest you :)
You're not wrong. Webtoons/comics seem to be where most of the new content is being made and I do browse those spaces.
Tbh, I think part of the problem is that the sheer weight of shonen advertising causes women gravitate towards shonen works (like MHA), until there's a general perception of anime in general being bad at fem characters, when it's mostly just a mainstream male writer thing. I also think the overwhelming number of poorly written fem characters isn't doing us any favors when it comes to inflating the egos of incels.
deleted by creator
MeIrl
We see that handbag, citizen. We know what that ententac... WHAT THAT ENTAILS. :volcel-judge:
She just likes jellyfish in a wholesome and mildly neurodivergent way :soviet-huff:
Police overreacting to innocuous things and tackling people anyway :surprised-pika:
Btw, that story is good if you want to read about a femboy who befriends a bunch of femcels to fight rezoning/property development.
That actually is tempting.
No matter what some particularly toxic treat defenders think of me on this site and what they might presume about me, I actually do like anime/manga as long as it has an interesting story and isn't cryptofascist propaganda, misogynistic incel wish-fulfillment power fantasy and/or kiddie creeping, or other kinds of hog feed.
Tagging @UlyssesT, just had a feeling.
I was already here. :it-was-me:
bakuman is incredibly sexist, but i think it did provide some good examples of this. don't know if i'd go so far as to say it analyzes it, that implies too much criticism, but it seems pretty true to both what i've read and what you wrote
also i'd love recommendations for good yuri manga. any non-moe stuff would be welcome! (moe is also fine, but i can at least find some of that)
So, not Manga, if you liked Chinatop for the relationship dynamic, you might also like RAINBOW!. If you like the magical world related angst you might like The Greenhouse, which is one of the most emotional pieces of art I've ever read.
i will check them out!