My Deep Not-So-Secret Secret: I Love Shoujo Romance

Here we go! My deep secret revealed. I LOVE SHOUJO ROMANCE! Here I get a little deep and personal. Since I was little, I was deemed a big intimidating tomboy that every boy ran away from. In my mind, I thought it made sense that I had to put on a façade of being a scary beast and hide away my deep overly sensitive self. What nobody knew, was that I would get home, and become a big wobbly fan of cute pink dresses and destined romance. Unlike my other posts where I tried to make an intelligent case about the works I read, this post is purely based on emotion. 

For this week, I could not decide on a show to watch or a manga to read. So before getting into why I picked Sakura Card Captor: Clear Card, I want to talk about my general views on romantic anime. 

Shoujo was specifically created to target the "girls" demographic, and as seen through the years, it successfully caught the attention of pre-adolescent girls who wanted relatable content. Although in today's time gender is blurred out and everyone can enjoy whatever they please, we need to take into account that in the past everything was heavily gendered. Mainly, stories were created just for "boys." Mangas showed heavily action packed heroes fighting enemies and being strong. But what if the girls not interested in this content wanted something different? That is where shoujo made an impact for me. I wanted something I could dream about and seemed potentially realistic. The potential of finding a partner and being happy. Something I enjoyed the most about shoujo is that a lot of them are not COMPLETELY idealistic. Yes, the destined couple ends up together, but before they are able to be in each others arms the couple has to go through issues to be together. I believe that is something that little girls need to realize; finding and keeping prince charming is not an easy task for both parties.

On that note, I chose Sakura Card Captor for this week because I resonated with her when I was little, and I find that I still do. The story does not focus entirely on her relationship with Syaoran, but instead it focuses on her fighting her own personal issues reflected on the Clow Cards. She is a strong middle schooler that finds herself in her own adventure along with her two best friends, Syaoran and Tomoyo. Her relationship with Syaoran is always present. I guess it is strange to say these middle schoolers are dating, but Sakura Card Captor keeps the kid's relationship pure and naive and it is a highly enjoyable thing to witness. Everything is tied together by the kids' fantastical roles and the intricate events and secrets that each of them hide. Overall, Sakura Card Captor maintains the love aspect of the shoujo genre but it also shows a strong female character with the goal of protecting her city.