Why are shounen battle manga with DFC love interests not very popular?

[MisaoFan]

Why are shounen battle manga (original creations, not adaptations of novels or videogames) with DFC love interests not very popular enough? To clarify, I am not talking about manga that had love interests with B-cups like in Rurouni Kenshin, Fullmetal Alchemist and My Hero Academia, but ones that have main love interests with actual A or AA-cup chests, Rukia from Bleach (even though she's not a love interest, that was Orihime) to give an example of what I'm talking about. Sure series like Shaman King, Buso Renkin, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan and Twin Star Exorcists have them, but their level of popularity usually isn't Naruto or Bleach level at most and some even ended up falling into the abyss of commercial flops, even the ones that had love interests with big racks are more popular in comparison. So what make battle shounen manga with DFC love interests not so popular to begin with? The same could be said for romcom shounen manga I suppose.

[judasmartel]

For me, it's pretty simple. Sex sells, and what better way to sell it is to have Cup D+ love interests!

[MisaoFan]

Is there other factors about my OP criteria not doing well as well?
Then can you name some other recent battle shounen manga with DFC love interests that did well?

[Mad Pierrot]

From what I read so far, neither Oda, Kishimoto and Kubo wanted their mangas to focus on romance, thinking young readers wouldn't care about romance.

On the other hand, there was the manga Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, where the MC, Syaoran, was noted to be popular by Clamp themselves because he was developing a romantical relationship with Sakura. Then again, the plot became quite confusing at the end so I don't know how to judge it. Still, both Syaoran and Sakura are about 13 in that manga so there was nothing sexually.

[judasmartel]

Originally Posted by Mad Pierrot

From what I read so far, neither Oda, Kishimoto and Kubo wanted their mangas to focus on romance, thinking young readers wouldn't care about romance.

On the other hand, there was the manga Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, where the MC, Syaoran, was noted to be popular by Clamp themselves because he was developing a romantical relationship with Sakura. Then again, the plot became quite confusing at the end so I don't know how to judge it. Still, both Syaoran and Sakura are about 13 in that manga so there was nothing sexually.

Maybe they don't want readers to think DFC love interests look like guys, so they made sure all the women in their works are at least moderately endowed?

[MisaoFan]

Originally Posted by judasmartel

Maybe they don't want readers to think DFC love interests look like guys, so they made sure all the women in their works are at least moderately endowed?

Not really. Girls with flat chests are not visibly drawn to the uninitiated and even if you add some shading to their assets (maybe adding a few more bits of milk inside), its still not enough. Younger boys do not yet have specified preferences towards females so large rounded breasts is the only obvious choice for attention grabbing I suppose. That and breasts symbolizes health and fits the image of the shounen hero's love interest better.

Be aware in mind that not all battle shounen manga have moderately endowed females, as seen in series aimed at hit female audience like Black Butler where big-breasted females are a minority while the remainder are filled with medium assets or smaller. In the case of Naruto and Bleach, there is some diversity at least, with the former leaning more towards small breasts and the latter towards bigger assets. Whereas One Piece is unfortunately one of the rare manga of its genre where pretty much almost all female characters have the same kind of bust sizes.

[0cean]

One Piece got fluid bust size.

Images

Case in point

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Nami

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[MisaoFan]

Originally Posted by 0cean

One Piece got fluid bust size.

Images

Case in point

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Images

Nami

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Yet the size of their breasts have grown significiantly worse since the timeskip. Before that, pretty much every developed females have bust sizes that range from C-cup to E-cup (maybe B-cup if you pay enough lucky attention).

[Gintokifan22]

For me, it's how it's written. Bleach for example I did once upon a time support Rukia X Ichigo that's due to how the pairing was written in the beginning in the rescue Rukia arc was the best showing of the pairing in my opinion and actually I think that was the height of the pairings popularity.

It also depends how the character herself acts towards the male, Naruto for example good flipping Mike was Sakura just wow, so I supported Hinata X Naruto from beginning to end, she loved Naruto and treated him with respect and helped him whenever she would appear.

Boobs have nothing to do for me with my favorite pairings in these type of series. I also support Luffy X Hancock from One Piece for similar reasons.

[MisaoFan]

Another question that bothers me recently is why the hell people think a lot of shounen have the MC ends up with someone other than the main girl when it isn't very common, let alone if said girl has shy/clumsy/quiet personality alike.

[0cean]

Originally Posted by MisaoFan

Another question that bothers me recently is why the hell people think a lot of shounen have the MC ends up with someone other than the main girl when it isn't very common, let alone if said girl has shy/clumsy/quiet personality alike.

This is rather easy to figure out. There are four Shounen in existence that people know. Naruto, Bleach, One Piece and Dragon Ball. In Naruto the side girl with the quiet personality wins. Dragon Ball also ditches the main girl for some random character that showed up that one time and then suddenly marries Son Goku.

So that's two out of four where the main girl loses. I don't remember any girl in Bleach or One Piece winning (but I dropped Bleach, so who knows). What are people to take away from this? Side girl wins in Shounen, that's what. Meaning Luffy probably won't end up with Nami and Ichigo probably won't end up with Rukia.

[MisaoFan]

Originally Posted by 0cean

This is rather easy to figure out. There are four Shounen in existence that people know. Naruto, Bleach, One Piece and Dragon Ball. In Naruto the side girl with the quiet personality wins. Dragon Ball also ditches the main girl for some random character that showed up that one time and then suddenly marries Son Goku.

So that's two out of four where the main girl loses. I don't remember any girl in Bleach or One Piece winning (but I dropped Bleach, so who knows). What are people to take away from this? Side girl wins in Shounen, that's what. Meaning Luffy probably won't end up with Nami and Ichigo probably won't end up with Rukia.

In Bleach Ichigo ends up with Orihime.

Not as common as main girls winning 7 times out of 10.
See: Kenshin, Inuyasha, Fullmetal Alchemist and titles mentioned in the OP.

[0cean]

The point is most people don't know about those ancient series anymore. Also, it's not like Kenshin, Inuyasha or FMA even had a side girl. Or I guess you could argue, that Winry more or less was a side girl. She didn't get much screen time anyway. And Inuyasha, yeah, now that I think about it that Kikyou girl was Inuyashas first girl, right? So Kagome more or less was just a stand-in and always pushed to the side whenever Kikyou showed up. I don't remember all that much about Kenshin - has it been 20 years already? Anyway, I do remember that he had a first love, too (who was already dead, just like with Inuyasha, only without the ghost part) and that I was mildly surprised with how that later OVA about later in his life played out. The TV-series never gave me vibes about romance going on.

[Eisdrache]

Originally Posted by 0cean

This is rather easy to figure out. There are four Shounen in existence that people know. Naruto, Bleach, One Piece and Dragon Ball.

This is so true. In almost any case when someone is comparing a recent show to another one they illustrate it with an example of Bleach or Naruto. Just look at the reply a couple of posts above.

Originally Posted by MisaoFan

See: Kenshin, Inuyasha, Fullmetal Alchemist and titles mentioned in the OP.

I feel old for having watched/read all of these ...

[pervypig]

I thought FMA was incest BL... wait, you mean Winry's a girl?

[MisaoFan]

Originally Posted by pervypig

I thought FMA was incest BL... wait, you mean Winry's a girl?

You obviously answered your question.

[pervypig]

Does Shakugan no Shana count in ur list of shounen battle anime? main gal wins, A-cup, fuckin' tsundere...

[MisaoFan]

Originally Posted by pervypig

Does Shakugan no Shana count in ur list of shounen battle anime? main gal wins, A-cup, fuckin' tsundere...

We're talking about shounen manga adaptations (original works and not adaptations) and Shakugan no Shana is a light novel, but it does fit my OP criteria somehow.

[Archon_Wing]

It's to appeal to teenage boys that don't know any better who think an attractive female requires tumor-like growths on her chest or else bust. Sadly, some may never grow up given this tendency to go far beyond shounen battle anime and those have no excuse.

[Haak]

I think DFC is an adult thing.

A specific type of adult...