Japanese popular culture Japanese popular culture includes Japanese cinema, cuisine, television programs, anime, manga, video games, music, and doujinshi, all of which retain older artistic and literary traditions; many of their themes and styles of presentation can be ...

, a , also romanized as ''bishojo'' or ''bishoujo'', is a cute girl character. ''Bishōjo'' characters appear ubiquitously in media including

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

, and computer games (especially in the ''bishojo'' game genre), and also appear in advertising and as mascots, such as for

maid café are a subcategory of cosplay restaurants found predominantly in Japan. In these cafés, waitresses, dressed in maid costumes, act as servants, and treat customers as masters (and mistresses) in a private home, rather than as café patrons. The f ...

s. An attraction towards ''bishōjo'' characters is a key concept in ''

otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in ''Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorativ ...

'' (manga and anime fan) subculture. The development of the ''bishōjo'' aesthetic in manga of the early 1980s marked a departure from previous realistic styles, and the emergence of the aesthetic of "cute eroticism" (''kawaii ero'') and '' moe''.

History

The ''bishōjo'' character type emerged in the ''

lolicon In Japanese popular culture, is a genre of fictional media in which young (or young-looking) girl characters appear in romantic or sexual contexts. The term, a portmanteau of the English phrase "Lolita complex", also refers to desire and a ...

'' boom of the early 1980s, particularly in the works of manga artist

Hideo Azuma was a Japanese manga artist. Azuma made his professional debut in 1969 in the Akita Shoten manga magazine '' Manga Ō''. He was most well known for his science fiction ''lolicon''-themed works appearing in magazines such as '' Weekly Shōnen ...

. Azuma's characters combined the round bodies of

Osamu Tezuka Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu''; – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, and animator. Born in Osaka Prefecture, his prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such ...

characters and the round and emotive faces of ''shōjo'' manga. At the time, the dominant style in seinen and pornographic manga was ''

gekiga , literally "dramatic pictures", is a style of Japanese comics aimed at adult audiences and marked by a more cinematic art style and more mature themes. ''Gekiga'' was the predominant style of adult comics in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. It is ...

'', a realistic style characterized by sharp angles, dark hatching, and gritty lines; in contrast, Azuma's work displayed light shading and clean, circular lines. In doing so, Azuma developed "cute eroticism" (''kawaii ero''), a form of eroticism based on manga-style characters. ''Lolicon'' (derived from "Lolita complex") was one of several terms referring to this expansion in cute characters in manga and anime, and a corresponding attraction to and affection for such characters. Synonyms include " two-dimensional complex" (''nijigen konpurekkusu''), "two-dimensional fetishism" (''nijikon fechi''), "two-dimensional syndrome" (''nijikon shōkōgun''), "cute girl syndrome" (''bishōjo shōkōgun''), and simply "sickness" (''byōki''). Several characters created by

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widel ...

are considered icons of the ''bishōjo'' boom, particularly Clarisse from the film '' Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro'' (1979), Lana from the TV series ''

Future Boy Conan , also known as ''Conan, The Boy in Future'', is a Japanese post-apocalyptic science fiction anime series. It is an adaptation of American science-fiction writer Alexander Key's 1970 novel ''The Incredible Tide''. It was broadcast for twent ...

'' (1978), and Nausicaä from his manga and film ''Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'' (1984). Another creator strongly associated with the boom was

Rumiko Takahashi is a Japanese manga artist. With a career of several commercially successful works, beginning with ''Urusei Yatsura'' in 1978, Takahashi is one of Japan's best-known and wealthiest manga artists. Her works are popular worldwide, where they have ...

, whose character Lum from her manga ''

Urusei Yatsura is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in Shogakukan's ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' from September 1978 to February 1987. Its 366 individual chapters were published in 34 ''tankōbon'' volum ...

'' (1978–1987) gained immense popularity. Cultural critic

Hiroki Azuma (born May 9, 1971) is a Japanese cultural critic, novelist, and philosopher. He is the co-founder and former director of Genron, an independent institute in Tokyo, Japan. Biography Azuma was born in Mitaka, Tokyo. Azuma received his PhD in ...

identifies Lum as a key development in fan interaction and response to ''bishōjo'' characters:

Features

''Bishōjo'' characters are typified by design elements (such as personality archetypes, clothing, and accessories) that are known and acknowledged by the audience.

Media

''Bishōjo'' characters appear in almost all genres of

and

and in many video games, especially in dating sims and

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

s, sometimes to get more players or simply just to make a game look good. Bishōjo characters tend to attract males. Bishōjo characters sometimes are the most popular female characters as most people like anime, manga, dating sims, and visual novels more when the art stands out, looks pretty, and has beautiful females.

''Bishōjo'' games

Games that are made with the intent of featuring ''bishōjo'' characters are known as ''bishōjo'' games. Because

visual novels A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

are considered games as well, ''bishōjo'' games also encapsulate

made with the intent of featuring ''bishōjo'' characters. Although ''bishōjo'' games are made with a male audience in mind, they can extend to a female audience as well, such as the Touhou project.

Confusion regarding terminology

Although ''bishōjo'' is not a genre but a character design, series which predominantly feature such characters, such as harem anime and

, are sometimes informally called ''bishōjo'' series. The characters and works referred to by the term ''bishōjo'' are typically intended to appeal to a male audience. Since one of the main draws of these series is typically the art and the attractive female characters, the term is occasionally perceived negatively, as a genre which is solely dependent on the marketability of beautiful characters rather than the actual content or plot. The word ''bishōjo'' is sometimes confused with the similar-sounding '' shōjo'' ("girl") demographic, but ''bishōjo'' refers to the gender and traits of the ''characters'' it describes, whereas ''shōjo'' refers to the gender and age of an ''audience'' demographic – manga publications, and sometimes anime, described as "''shōjo''" are aimed at young female audiences. ''Bishōjo'' is not to be confused with

bishōnen (; also transliterated ) is a Japanese term literally meaning "beautiful youth (boy)" and describes an aesthetic that can be found in disparate areas in East Asia: a young man of androgynous beauty. This word originated from the Tang dynasty ...

– beautiful boy. It is also not to be confused with moe – which is a definition for a genre of entertainment which features cute/adorable girls rather than "sexy" girls.

References

Works cited

* Female stock characters in anime and manga Japanese slang Girls {{Anime-stub