What is your opinion on other peoples attitudes to otome games and joseimuke?

nerim-w · Aug 10, 2026

As a female dominated space I feel like otome and joseimuke in general is often downplayed as shallow and boring media and it tires me to see how shounen is so favoured as the superior genre. People seem to believe that female oriented media lacks any depth and that women who enjoy it lack any nuanced or critical thinking.

I'm not going to deny that some of it is just self insert slop, but look at shounen, its very much the same

but we dont latch onto those things and appreciate that shounen also contains alot of really moving and well written stories. Why cant people do the same for female oriented media? I swear people learn its joseimuke they immediately dismiss it and take it less seriously. Our space is really such a spectacle to alot of people it seems

bravelyflee · Aug 11, 2026

It's just sexism. Women-targeted media is looked down upon by a lot of men and a sad number of women. It's the same for games, movies, manga, all of it. Even before modern media female hobbies like sewing were devalued.

Sexism is everywhere, it's not right but it's reality. Being able to see it is the first step towards changing it.

I'm glad everyone here in this forum can see past the prejudice and enjoy whatever joseimuke they like.

ninnikuryona · Aug 11, 2026

pure violence. i despise people who, despite not knowing anything about stuff theyre talking about, still process to shit on it because "haha those crazy women"

and its only ever female-oriented media that gets targeted. gay couples? lets throw them in otome (despite them directly going against the entire genre)! male protagonists? lets ask otome devs for those (despite both bl and galge still existing, even though blge are on their last leg because fujoshi dont buy them)! weird kinks? oh nonono, cant have that! women are just too silly (immature) and confused (stupid) to realize how wrong these things really are<3

i really hope jp girlies will start to push back more on these behaviours, even if it means becoming rude and biting back when attacked. the genre is already extremely shaky due to both rabid fujoshi AND clueless game/cd companies who still think all female otaku are fujoshi by default. no, i want to see pretty dudes falling in love with ME, not each other! if i wanted to see all focus on males and male romances id just pick up bl!! and its not like being rude is bad at all. yumejoshi will just get attacked or labelled as crazy no matter what, so might as well justify the tag LOL

and yes, i do believe that its only otome that ever gets blasted. remember when people were praising mhyk by saying "its not some otome game, so its fine!"? remember when fujoshi stated that they would HATE a female protagonist in a twst anime because it will make the entire anime seem like some shitty reverse harem? same was with mhyk anime, where people discarded it from the start simply because the protagonist was a woman. yeah, sorry but i have zero compassion for those people, and i do genuinely believe they NEED to be called out and ridiculed. misogyny is gross, after all!

fr4pp3cinn · Aug 11, 2026

Women's hobbies have always been devalued, it's not a surprise it happens around joseimuke stuff. It's an extension of the misogynistic views around female-oriented media, like boy bands, "chick-flicks", the romance genre, etc. Especially for a genre like otoge, that focuses on romance and appeals to self-inserting (but when men self-insert, no one bats an eye

)

The thing that particularly irks me is how people (and, sadly, many women as well) will pile on female hobbies for being "degrading" or "problematic", as if we're stupid and can't notice it's fiction. I never see those criticisms around male hobbies; even if some people say they criticize male media, you only ever see they post about the female spaces. Just look at how people give leeway to popular works with badly written male characters, but ridicule genres like dark romance that are written by and for women

ninnikuryona · Aug 11, 2026

fr4pp3cinn said:
The thing that particularly irks me is how people (and, sadly, many women as well) will pile on female hobbies for being "degrading" or "problematic", as if we're stupid and can't notice it's fiction. I never see those criticisms around male hobbies; even if some people say they criticize male media, you only ever see they post about the female spaces.

funnily enough even yaoi (which is female-oriented) doesnt get criticised for this stuff either. rape in yaoi? nice and cool. rape in otome? oh my god its normalization of romantization of violence against women! grooming teacher/student yaoi? very hot. grooming teacher/student in otome/shoujo? oh my god, shut down the entire gaming/manga industry!! protect the stupid females!!!!!!

osanajimimi · Aug 11, 2026

I agree with the other comments. They take the joseimuke genre down, when if you think about it it's almost the same but inverted, if you compare with the danseimuke we use the same troupes with a difference that adapts to its target audience. But they devalue the genre, mostly the male audience, and for a strange reason male audience = general audience, which is???

raccoonNiko · Aug 11, 2026

I get simply not wanting to engage with something if you're not the target audience (though stepping out of their comfort zone would 100% do these people some good lol), but why go out of your way to pile on it? I don't think I'd categorize any media as slop as long as there are people who can connect over it and share their love for it. Hating on an entire genre is bizarre enough, but most of the time it's probably not even about the genre, but people who enjoy it, who are overwhelmingly women.

fr4pp3cinn · Aug 11, 2026

ninnikuryona said:
funnily enough even yaoi (which is female-oriented) doesnt get criticised for this stuff either.

Tbf BL used to get flack for it from 2018~2021 when people used to say the evil women were invading men's spaces (lmao), but nowadays it shifted to favour BL and pile on otoge (UtaPuri fiasco last week lol)... but one thing remains: it's only the girls that get attacked, never the male demographic! And the companies fuel the fighting by neglecting genre labels and mixing everything. I'm tired of this! ;(

ninnikuryona · Aug 11, 2026

fr4pp3cinn said:
but one thing remains: it's only the girls that get attacked, never the male demographic!

dudes will try to insist that a couple of annoying yuri shippers on twitter is a personal attack against them and their hobby and literally manocide, despite male-targeted games still staying in their own niche and not attracting much attention.. like, at all. all the while those who yell about otome being homophobic will never attack a single galge, because i guess women are much less likely to fight back, and if they do, its way easier to label them as -phobic and -ist. i am once again asking girls to become meaner and naster and more rude. i hope jp girls take a page out of cn girls' book in how to handle criticism..

Qroha · Aug 11, 2026

I used to get annoyed and sad about this matter. The sheer dislike just because the media was female oriented made me angry many times. But nowadays I am cool with this. I just understand that their opinion does not concern me and matter for me. I don't see any reason to argue with such people. I just block them and that's it

bravelyflee · Aug 11, 2026

osanajimimi said:
and for a strange reason male audience = general audience, which is???

Exactly! Well said. I see this all the time and it's ridiculous.

dogiwall · Aug 11, 2026

It's just misogyny all around, and as pointed earlier, men-oriented media gets less flack. It's very easy for people to make fun of things made for women in general without getting attacked, and it really sucks that there's women themselves who's willing to partake on that. I honestly don't get the point of mocking things that they don't like and know literally nothing about rather than putting that time and energy on things they like.

I just block and mute these kinds of people and move about my day, I don't have the time and energy to deal with them lol. Highly doubt that they even have the money or influence to make a difference to joseimuke media and otome games even if there's some Youtubers with decent followings make videos just to make fun of them. Seen some bought the games themselves so good job to them on giving them their money and wasting their time on something they're going to make fun of, I guess.

margaret07 · Aug 11, 2026

I think it's because otome games are about romance.
People who aren't familiar with otome games might think they are just about the MC being loved by ikemen

However, in Japan, we don't really get criticized by people who don't play them.
I think they simply have no interest in it.

RedLipsSourApples · Aug 11, 2026

It still pisses me off how much people detest media for women, especially ones featuring explicit content. It's 2026 but women still can't goon apparently and anyone who engages in such content is vile and disgusting. Not to mention the constant disrespect and expectation for us to adjust lol its so silly how no one complains about the lack of wlw content in straight male targeted vns (which are a dime a dozen) but suddenly its a massive problem with otome games (which is a lot more niche in comparison).

ninnikuryona · Aug 11, 2026

RedLipsSourApples said:
its so silly how no one complains about the lack of wlw content in straight male targeted vns (which are a dime a dozen) but suddenly its a massive problem with otome games (which is a lot more niche in comparison).

whats interesting is that there are tons of yuri sex scenes in eroge, especially old ones, but like. its not comparable in the slightest, because men didnt even believe in women being able to love each other genuinely. and female characters to them are just toys for entertainment/jerk off material, which is why there are several eroge with a dude "fixing" a lesbian character with his dick. its just fetish. and, funnily enough, nowadays men DONT want to see yuri fanservice in their games, eroge or not, because now its too "woke" for them. so, while going backwards, they accidentally progressed a bit.. in the sense that they now believe actual non-fanservice lesbians exist..??

but anyway, id love to see people who cry about how "homophobic" otome is (disliking bl doesnt make you a homophobe mind you) fight actual dudes and danseimuke media. theyd definitely have their brains fried lol

SweetTranq · Aug 11, 2026

They always do this: "Because it's mainly enjoyed by women, it must be lowbrow; and because the people who like it are women, they must lack good judgment."

No hobby should be defined by prejudice. Games aimed at women are often dismissed or stigmatized, but that's just a double standard — male-oriented harem games are just accepted as "normal." As long as no one gets hurt, respecting different preferences should just be basic decency.

What really feels unfair to me isn't that some people like shonen manga — it's that one type of media is automatically treated as having "depth," while the other has to constantly prove it's not shallow.

nerim-w · Aug 11, 2026

SweetTranq said:
What really feels unfair to me isn't that some people like shonen manga — it's that one type of media is automatically treated as having "depth," while the other has to constantly prove it's not shallow.

There are some really questionable stories in shounen media but people still praise and love shounen because there are so many other amazing stories out there despite those bad apples. But if a joseimuke is not the pinnacle of literary mastery with life changing political commentary, its brushed under the carpet like all other joseimuke

this isnt to say that joseimuke doesnt have that kind of media, but joseimuke has to constantly work harder to seem palatable and acceptable to the broader society compared to shounen which is seen as the default already..

SweetTranq · Aug 11, 2026

nerim-w said:
this isnt to say that joseimuke doesnt have that kind of media, but joseimuke has to constantly work harder to seem palatable and acceptable to the broader society compared to shounen which is seen as the default already..

It's sad, but that's just the reality of society — anything related to women always seems to require twice the effort just to be taken seriously.

0123456789 · Aug 12, 2026

If they aren't interested or don't understand, they could simply ignore it; I don't understand why they attack or try to exclude it instead.

maya_chan1 · Aug 12, 2026

I definitely agree. I think female-oriented media gets dismissed way too easily, as if being made primarily for women automatically means it can't have depth.

Of course there are plenty of shallow otome/joseimuke games, but you can say the same about pretty much any genre. I don't think people judge shounen by its weakest or most generic titles, so I don't understand why female-oriented media is often treated that way.

Personally, I've found some really interesting and emotionally complex stories through otome and BL VNs. There are definitely games that are just fun and don't try to be deep, and that's fine too. Not everything has to be "serious" to be worth enjoying.

SmallEagle · Aug 12, 2026

I think that people *cough*men*cough* always belittle and scorn against anything regarding romance (Probably because they don't want women having standards). Add to that, that, even on this day and age, people still find cringe "otaku" culture.

I've been liking things that where considered cringe for more than a decade, so I really couldn't care less what people think, even more so on the internet.

q1w3e5 · Aug 12, 2026

Aren't otome games essentially the same as galgames? Actually, some people look down on galgames too, but it's hard to say about joseimuke because it covers a wide range of genres, such as yuri, yaoi, or some of today's mobile games.

Now that there are male-oriented mobile games corresponding to these, they should be comparable, right?

It's just that audiences from different camps look down on each other. If fans of shonen manga look down on otome games… I'd guess they probably look down on galgames too, right? Since the core audiences are completely different. But I don't really care what other people think—they can think whatever they want.

I like reading shoujo manga, but I'm often looked down on by female readers who prefer shonen manga.

Even though I don't understand it at all.

Megha · Aug 12, 2026

someone commented that it's just sexism, and I totally agree with that. And I normally avoid games the moment I see the FMC being harrased or something like that.

Fussi141925 · Aug 13, 2026

To be honest, I've never really discussed titles aimed at women with anyone other than fellow fans online, so I'm not entirely sure how the people around me react to it. Then again, I've never made an active effort to share my interest in this genre with those outside the fandom; perhaps that attitude of mine contributes to the strange looks I get from others. Even so, I don't really feel like actively promoting this genre to the general public. It serves as a precious sanctuary in my life—a place where I can take a breather—and I'd hate to see it trampled upon.

nerim-w · Aug 13, 2026

Fussi141925 said:
Even so, I don't really feel like actively promoting this genre to the general public. It serves as a precious sanctuary in my life—a place where I can take a breather—and I'd hate to see it trampled upon.

And i totally understand that! Its a no brainer why women are so protective of these spaces when mainstream media is so full of the male gaze and male dominated spaces, especially in japanese media specifically.

I personally have enjoyed shounen all my life, but its tiring being in that space all the time in a genre and fandom that obviously doesnt think kindly to women. Otome is my safe space away from that toxic environment, with people that are much more similar to me and who actually respect female media for what it is

What is your opinion on other peoples attitudes to otome games and joseimuke?

Active member

Member

Elite Member

Active member

Elite Member

Active member

New member

Active member

Elite Member

Active member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Elite Member

Member

Active member

Member

Active member

New member

Member

Member

New member

New member

Active member