Quote:
Originally Posted by totoum
Just look at anime news network,in their encyclopedia (that's used by quite a lot of people) when you look up the genre of an anime "shonen" won't ever be listed.I'm french and I've just checked a few french website such as animeland,manga-news and manga-sanctuary and they clearly differenciate demographic and genre as well.
Of course there are others like myanimelist and baka-updates that do list shonen (and any other demographics as well) as genres,I won't deny that but to me there is no consensus yet.
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Well, there will always be dissenters, but as long as the majority accepts its usage as such, the term will remain. Now, if the ones who use the term "incorrectly" aren't in the majority, then there's no point in worrying since the term will eventually fade into obscurity. It's like natural selection, but with words instead of organisms.
Remember that language and the words that comprise it are merely mediums for the purpose of communication. From a pragmatic point of view, it is more efficient to make use of terms with meanings that are shared by more people within the group in which it will be used.
Again, this all hinges on the assumption that the ones who refer to "shounen" as a genre comprise the majority (or at least a significant portion) of the English-speaking anime community.