>>85925188Important to understand:
Shoujo is about self-inserting, which means it's about selling you an inaccessible fantasy.
Usually the person self-inserting doesn't need or care about an established relationship between characters, because one of the characters is them. And they must already like the boy, or else they wouldn't be here consuming the fantasy.
So straightforward lovey dovey stuff is boring, because it's just retreading ground. They don't need to be shown how the MC falls for the sweet, caring accessible guy because that's all just intuitive to them. They want something unreal, something scary, something bad but presented in a way that's persuasively good. They want to be shown something kinky, brazen and fresh to alleviate the burden of imagining those things themselves.
There's no place for the real in escapist fiction.
And conversely when a woman says that she likes childhood friend romance and slowburn, what they're really telling you is that they don't take it for granted that they could ever love someone and be loved in return. Those are the femcels.
