[Ryuou]

Second Vexx's kawaii statement.

Originally Posted by Yukinokesshou

Is there no "happy medium"...

That's rather funny, don't you think? Art style demarcating a barrier between a popular and accepted mainstay of Japanese society, and a genre restricted to a subculture scorned by the rest of society.

Well, I would consider myself the "happy medium". I enjoy anime but I'm turned off by a lot of the otaku stuff.

Well the art style thing can have something to do with people reading what they're "supposed" to read.

Originally Posted by Yukinokesshou

Funny that Honestly, I don't read porn though and by "bishoujo", I meant stuff like, well, Chobits, Toradora or Shakugan no Shana... nothing more, nothing less.

How about a doctor in a white coat engrossed in one of these titles, startled by the sudden entrance of a patient into his clinic? What would that patient think, conflicted between the usual Japanese respect for doctors and natural tendency to label certain people "kimo-ota"? Or would such a doctor even face investigation from Japan's equivalent from Japan's equivalent of the General Medical Council on suspicion of being "unfit to practise"? Because I can imagine myself potentially becoming a doctor like that if I were Japanese and in Japan... -.-

Maybe you're mixing up bishoujo with just shoujo. Of which Shakugan no Shana is not one. Chobits and Toradora! could be argued as being shoujo due to the story style and creators behind them, but they're aren't like your normal shoujo titles.

I could actually see that doctor getting at the least reprimanded if word got around.

Originally Posted by aohige

Well then, you probably should rethink the usage of the word "bishoujo".

By bishoujo alone it simply means beautiful girl, but as a genre, it's used for pornographic (or adult) anime/game.
It started when adult game magazines started calling the adult game genre bishoujo game, instead of just eroge or 18kin game.

Although that's kind of what it primarily is these days, not all bishoujo has to be porn.