Type of Manga

Manga


Josei Manga

If You Totally
Love 

Josei manga (女性?, lit. "woman", pronounced [dʑosei]), also known as "ladies" (レディース redīsu?) or "ladies' comics" (レディコミ redikomi?, lit. "LadyComi"), is a term that refers to the target demographic of manga created mostly by women for late teenage and adult female audiences. Readers range from 15-44. In Japanese, the word josei means simply "female" and has no manga-related connotations at all.
The stories tend to be about everyday experiences of women living in Japan. Though there are some that cover high school, most cover the lives of adult women. The style also tends to be a more restrained, realistic version of shōjo manga, keeping some of the wispy features and getting rid of the very large sparkly eyes. There are exceptions in the style described above, but what defines josei is some degree of stylistic continuity of comics within this particular demographic (the same is true with different demographics that have different stylistic tendencies).


Josei comics can portray realistic romance, as opposed to the mostly idealized romance of shōjo manga, but it does not always have to be. A famous example of a josei is Honey and Clover, which was animated, which is unusual for josei comics.[original research?] Josei tends to be both more sexually explicit and contain more mature storytelling, although that is not always true either. It is also not unusual for themes such as NTR and rape to occur in josei manga target specifically towards more mature audiences. Some other famously popular josei series include Yun Kouga's Loveless, Ai Yazawa's Paradise Kiss, and the award-winning works of Erica Sakurazawa.


more...



Shonen Manga

BLEACH

Shōnen (少年?), shonen, or shounen, is a Kanji word literally meaning few years and generally referring to a typical boy, from elementary school through grade school age. It is used in everyday conversation when referring to the period of youth, including in legal wording referencing youth, without regard to gender. Shōnen manga is a popular genre of Japanese comics, generally about action/fighting but often contains a sense of humor and strong growing friendship-bonds between the characters.


According to Japanese law, the term "shonen" refers to "a person from the time they enter elementary school until the time they are 15 years of age" , and "Any person who has not reached the age of 15 years" 
 more...




Seinen Manga

My Sweet Kaicho

Seinen manga (青年漫画?) is a subset of manga that is generally targeted at a 20–30 year old male audience, but the audience can be older with some comics aimed at businessmen well into their 40s. In Japanese, the word Seinen means "young man" or "young men" and is not suggestive of sexual matters. The female equivalent to seinen manga is josei manga. It has a wide variety of art styles and more variation in subject matter, ranging from the avant-garde to the pornographic. Seinen manga is distinguished from shōnen, or boys' manga, by having a stronger emphasis on realism. Because of the emphasis on storyline and character development instead of action, some seinen series are often confused with shōjo, or girls' manga.[citation needed] This is especially true of seinen comedy series such as Chobits, and Chi's sweet home, or seinen drama such as Twin Spica. Other examples of seinen manga include: Gantz, Battle Royale, 20th Century Boys, Monster, Blame!, Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Berserk, Battle Angel Alita, Hellsing, Drifters, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Elfen Lied. Rumiko Takahashi's Maison Ikkoku is sometimes classified as seinen, although this is disputed by some fans.


A common way to tell if a manga is seinen is by looking at whether or not furigana is used over the original kanji text: if there are furigana on all kanji, the title is generally aimed at a younger audience. The title of the magazine it was published in is also an important indicator. Usually Japanese manga magazines with the word "young" in the title (Young Jump for instance) are seinen. Other popular seinen manga magazines include Ultra Jump, Afternoon, and Big Comic.


more...


Shojo Manga

Ouran High School
Host Club

The term shōjo, shojo, or shoujo manga (少女漫画 shōjo manga?) refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10 and 18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 (shōjo), literally: "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama, to boys' love, to science fiction — often with a strong focus on human and romantic relationships and emotions. Strictly speaking, shōjo manga does not comprise a style or a genre per se, but rather indicates a target demographic. Examples include Ouran High School Host Club, Fruits Basket, Fushigi Yuugi, Sailor Moon, Vampire Knight, Romeo x Juliet, Princess Ai and Tokyo Mew Mew.


more...