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In shoujo anime and manga such as Vampire Knight, Special A, and Kaichou wa
Maid-sama, the male love interests (or Zero in the case of Vampire Knight) are
shown to be top scorers in the class. Is there a known reason for this to be
so common?


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2013-02-10T00:37:28.177
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2016-05-15T13:03:17.467
2016-05-15T13:03:17.467
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tropes
Why are the male love-interests of shoujo often portrayed to be top scorers?


In stories—regardless of the medium—the main characters invariably have at
least one stellar or likeable quality. They might be really smart (id est, top
scorers), highly talented, very popular, really funny, or simply very hard-
working. If a protagonist does not have such a quality, s/he will develop it
as the story goes along. This is simply the way _feel-good story structures_
work and shoujo and shounen are all about feeling good.

Shoujo's target audience is girls and therefore the male protagonists are
often one or more of rich, good-looking, _successful_ , talented, funny, etc.,
etc.; all qualities that girls typically like in boys. They are not always
top-scorers: for e.g., in _Kimi ni Todoke_ , it is Sadako who is specifically
shown to be really smart while Kazehaya is more of the popular nice guy, or
IOW, he is based off a different archetype. You won't normally find the female
lead falling for a loser male in shoujo; that is more likely to happen only in
josei.

Asian cultures do tend to place more importance on academics than Western
cultures. I expect that the fact that there is also no real equivalent to
anime and manga which are set in schools is also a factor on why traits such
as academic excellence don't register as much. That said, novels such as Lucy
Maud Montgomery's _Anne of Green Gables_ do use academic performance as a
character attribute or plot point. It is no surprise that Montgomery's book
has been adapted into an anime, _Akage no Anne_.


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2013-02-15T15:37:40.387
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2013-02-17T20:00:48.773
2013-02-17T20:00:48.773
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