Not many females are reading/watching anime and manga (PLEASE READ)

Unfortunately not many females are reading/watching anime and manga I got one friend and a cousin that are girls and we both love anime and manga but I want to have MORE "girl"friends that loves anime and manga but you don't see much of them :'( so what do you think and especially you boys is it hard to find a girlfriend/lover/wife that loves anime and manga? but what I think is they're girls that loves anime and manga they're just afraid to tell their friends (just like me but I founded out my friend watches anime and manga because of her profile picture xD) even teenagers because they're friends are into facebook and thinks that anime and mangas are for babies and I've seen lots of males that loves anime and manga but not many females should we encourage them? what's you point of view :)?

To be honest, I don't think it's a question of gender but it has more to do with the culture. The first Japanese anime I watched was when I was 5-6 years old and I can tell you that it had a lot of success with both, boys and girls, despite the fact that these anime were mainly from Shonen mangas and that the main heroes were male characters.

However, they became even more successful when Sailor Moon appeared... It's only 10 years later that I've started to read the mangas of the anime I used to watch as a kid. And I'm sure I will still love them until my last breath.

My girlfriend for instance comes from a place where not so much Japanese anime were shown on TV + there is not even one shop in her hometown which sells mangas or which is specialized in Manga. So, she did not grow up with that. Although I tried and I tried to bring her to this marvelous world, she is still not interested.   

The only thing she really knows and appreciate from Japanese anime are some classics like Princess Mononoke (Miyazaki Hayao). My sister and my cousin who know anime and mangas, are die-hard fans of them. That's why I think it has more to do with how much contact someone had with the manga/anime world which determines if he/she would love it or ignore it.

I don't think there's a shortage of girls/women watching anime or reading manga. It depends on what a person wants to read/watch and what the person knows exist. Of my lady friends, I'm the only one who is interested in "action-oriented" things and I'm the only one that can't stand "slice of life" things (whereas that's what they like). They'll watch/read an anime/manga based on their tastes and I do the same for my own. However, there are still many people who don't watch animated shows or refuse to read comics. That's true for both genders, especially when "grown up"--though it's becoming less common of a stigma.

Now, if you live someplace that's a bit more "strict" with "old-time gender roles" then you might have a different perspective. It's similar to how I felt like I was the only girl who actually liked to play sports because of the 20-something girls I dealt with in elementary school. Once I got into a bigger school and met a lot more girls (hundreds of them), what I liked to do was no longer just a "me" thing and I found quite a few interested in sports (and a different group of girls interested in cartoons/comics).

Yamasaki Akaiko wrote:I don't think there's a shortage of girls/women watching anime or reading manga. It depends on what a person wants to read/watch and what the person knows exist. Of my lady friends, I'm the only one who is interested in "action-oriented" things and I'm the only one that can't stand "slice of life" things (whereas that's what they like). They'll watch/read an anime/manga based on their tastes and I do the same for my own. However, there are still many people who don't watch animated shows or refuse to read comics. That's true for both genders, especially when "grown up"--though it's becoming less common of a stigma.

Now, if you live someplace that's a bit more "strict" with "old-time gender roles" then you might have a different perspective. It's similar to how I felt like I was the only girl who actually liked to play sports because of the 20-something girls I dealt with in elementary school. Once I got into a bigger school and met a lot more girls (hundreds of them), what I liked to do was no longer just a "me" thing and I found quite a few interested in sports (and a different group of girls interested in cartoons/comics).

Yes that's true my friend is into shojo and I don't really like shojo but love shonen and yes I have a kinda strict family I'm not allowed to have a boyfriend untill I finished my studies Dxand can't hand out with my friends untill I'm 16 but when I watch/read animeand manga my parents don't mind (my parents are christian) beacuse I'm a loud chatty person and when I read/watch anime and manga they don't mind at all because reading mangas helps my reading/writing skills (yep it's true)

I have to agree with Irielo on this one...where I'm from there is little to no exposure to anime/manga (literally no place to buy manga here   ) so because of this anyone seeing it just lumps it together with regular cartoons. This happens with more females (All my life here I only know of one girl that is seriously interested in Naruto and followed it) than males but I still have male friends that think they're just childish cartoons and comics. That being said where I am its definitely  hard to find a girl that's interested in this sort of stuff but it would be awesome to have something else like this in common...I've been trying to get my current girlfriend to get into it slowly but surely... however I have a feeling she's just giving it a try for my sake and doesn't really enjoy it so I don't push anymore