Shōjo sensibility and the transnational imaginaryNote
1 The socially marginal and developmentally liminal status of girls may have helped shōjo writers turn
to their interiority through dreamy imageries and magical stories. But it appears that there is a logical
leap in postulating its language—or the interaction among girls—is comparable to an experience in the
mother’s womb, where the patriarchal order has not yet fully set in. The very marginal nature of shōjo
comes from the very awareness of the patriarchal order that forces shōjo to adopt the heteronormativity.
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Figure 11.3 Rui walks away from the billboard image of his former lover Shizuka, visually juxtaposing
the shōjo/shōnen ideal in the same frame. Image is from the Japanese television drama
series, Boys Over Flowers (2005)