Shōjo Manga

is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent girls and young adult women. It is, along with manga (targeting adolescent boys), manga (targeting young adult and adult men), and manga (targeting adult women), one of the primary editorial categories of manga. manga is traditionally published in dedicated manga magazines, which often specialize in a particular readership age range or narrative genre.

manga originated from Japanese girls' culture at the turn of the twentieth century, primarily (girls' prose novels) and ( lyrical paintings). The earliest manga was published in general magazines aimed at teenagers in the early 1900s and began a period of creative development in the 1950s as it began to formalize as a distinct category of manga. While the category was initially dominated by male manga artists, the emergence and eventual dominance of female artists beginning in the 1960s and 1970s led to significant creative innovation and the development of more graphically and thematically complex stories. Since the 1980s, the category has developed stylistically while simultaneously branching into different and overlapping subgenres.

Strictly speaking, manga does not refer to a specific style or a genre but rather indicates a target demographic. While certain aesthetic, visual, and narrative conventions are associated with manga, these conventions have changed and evolved over time, and none are strictly exclusive to manga. Nonetheless, several concepts and themes have come to be typically associated with manga, both visual (non-rigid panel layouts, highly detailed eyes) and narrative (a focus on human relations and emotions; characters that defy traditional roles and stereotypes surrounding gender and sexuality; depictions of supernatural and paranormal subjects).

Terminology

''Shōjo''

The Japanese word (少女) translates literally to "girl", but in common Japanese usage girls are generally referred to as and rarely as . Rather, the term is used to designate a social category that emerged during the Meiji era (1868–1912) of girls and young women at the age between childhood and marriage. Generally this referred to school-aged adolescents, with whom an image of "innocence, purity and cuteness" was associated; this contrasted the '' moga'' ("modern girl", young unmarried working women), with whom a more self-determined and sexualized image was associated. continued to be associated with an image of youth and innocence after the end of the Meiji era, but took on a strong consumerist connotation beginning in the 1980s as it developed into a distinct marketing category for girls; the ''gyaru'' (ギャル) also replaced the ''moga'' as the archetypical independent woman during this period.

''Shōjo'' manga

Strictly speaking, manga does not refer to a specific style or a genre, but rather indicates a target demographic. The Japanese manga market is segmented by target readership, with the major categories divided by gender ( for girls, '' shōnen'' for boys) and by age ('' josei'' for women, ''seinen'' for men). Thus, manga is typically defined as manga marketed to an audience of adolescent girls and young adult women, though manga is also read by men and older women.

''Shōjo'' manga is traditionally published in dedicated manga magazines that are directed at a readership of , an audience that emerged in the early 20th century and which has grown and diversified over time. While the style and tone of the stories published in these magazines varies across publications and decades, an invariant characteristic of manga has been a focus on human relations and the emotions that accompany them. Some critics, such as Kyoto International Manga Museum curator Kayoko Kuramochi and academic , emphasize certain graphic elements when attempting to define manga: the imaginative use of flowers, ribbons, fluttering dresses, girls with large sparkling eyes, and words that string across the page, which Honda describes using the onomatopoeia ''hirahira''. This definition accounts for works that exist outside the boundaries of traditional magazine publishing but which nonetheless are perceived as , such as works published on the Internet.

History

Before 1945: Context and origins

Origins of ''shōjo'' culture

As the Japanese publishing industry boomed during the Meiji era, new magazines aimed at a teenage audience began to emerge, referred to as '' shōnen''. While these magazines were ostensibly unisex, in practice the editorial content of these magazines largely concerned topics that were of interest to boys. Faced with growing demand for magazines aimed at girls, the first ''shōjo'' magazines were published, and ''shōnen'' magazines came to target boys exclusively. The first exclusively ''shōjo'' magazine was ', first published in 1902. This was followed by '' Shōjo Sekai'' in 1906, '' Shōjo no Tomo'' in 1908, '' Shōjo Gahō'' in 1912, and '' Shōjo Club'' in 1923. These magazines focused primarily on '' shōjo shōsetsu'' ( "girls' novel", a term for illustrated novels and poems aimed at an audience of girls) and only incidentally on manga.

''Shōjo shōsetsu'' nevertheless played an important role in establishing a ''shōjo'' culture, and laid the foundations for what would become the major recurrent themes of ''shōjo'' manga through their focus on stories of love and friendship. Among the most significant authors of this era was Nobuko Yoshiya, a major figure in the Class S genre whose novels such as ''Hana Monogatari'' centered on romantic friendships between girls and women. The visual conventions of ''shōjo'' manga were also heavily influenced by the illustrations published in these magazines, with works by illustrators Yumeji Takehisa, Jun'ichi Nakahara, and featuring female figures with slender bodies, fashionable clothing, and large eyes. Japanese artists who studied in France at the time were influenced by the methods of expression of Art Nouveau and early pin-up artists.

Early ''shōjo'' manga

Early ''shōjo'' manga took the form of short, humorous stories with ordinary settings (such as schools and neighborhoods) and which often featured tomboy protagonists. These works began to develop in the 1930s through the influence of artists such as Suihō Tagawa and Shosuke Kurakane; this period saw some female ''shōjo'' artists, such as Machiko Hasegawa and Toshiko Ueda, though they were significantly less common than male artists.

Among the most influential artists of this era was Katsuji Matsumoto, a lyrical painter influenced in ''moga'' culture and the artistic culture of the United States. Having grown tired of depicting typical innocent ''shōjo'' subjects in his illustrations, he pivoted to drawing manga in the 1920s, where he was able to depict ''moga'' and tomboys more freely. His style, likely influenced by American comic book artists like George McManus and Ethel Hays and American cinema of the era, introduced sophisticated and avant-garde innovations in ''shōjo'' manga, such as the art deco-inspired ''Poku-chan'' (1930), the cinematic ''Nazo no Kurōbā'' (1934), and his most famous work ''Kurukuru Kurumi-chan'' (1938).

With the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, censorship and paper rationing hindered the development of magazines, which either folded or were forced to merge to survive. The magazines that continued to published were reduced to a few pages of black and white text, with few or no illustrations. 41 total magazines remained in publication in 1945, two of which were shōjo magazines: ''Shōjo Club'' and ''Shōjo no Tomo''.

1945–1970: Post-war rise

1950s: Formalization as a category

With the end of the war, Japan entered into a period of large-scale artistic production in cinema, radio, and publishing. Fiction novels enjoyed a surge of popularity, while the number of published magazines grew from 41 in 1945 to 400 by 1952; the number of publishing companies grew from 300 to roughly 2000 during the same period. While not all of theses magazines and companies published children's literature, publications for children constituted a significant percentage of publishing output. Contemporaneously, '' kashi-hon'' ( book rental stores) experienced a boom in popularity. These stores rented books for a modest fee of five to ten yen, roughly equivalent to half the cost of a subway ticket at the time. This had the effect of widening access to books among the general public and spurring additional manga publishing.

''Shōjo'' manga artists who had been active prior to the war returned to the medium, including Shosuke Kurakane with '' Anmitsu Hime'' (1949–1955), Toshiko Ueda with ''Fuichin-san'' (1957–1962), and Katsuji Matsumoto resuming publication of ''Kurukuru Kurumi-chan''. During this period, Matsumoto developed his art into a style that began to resemble the ''kawaii'' aesthetic that would emerge several decades later. New manga artists, such as Osamu Tezuka and other artists associated with Tokiwa-sō, created works that introduced intense drama and serious themes to children's manga using a new format that had become popular in ''shōnen'' manga: the "story manga", which depicted multi-chapter narratives with continuity rather than a succession of essentially independent vignettes. ''Princess Knight'' (1953–1956) by Tezuka is credited with introducing this type of narrative, along with Tezuka's innovative and dynamic style, to ''shōjo'' magazines.

At the same time, ''shōjo'' on the ''kashi-hon'' market developed its own distinct style through the influence of ''jojōga'' ( lyrical painting). ''Jojōga'' artists Yukiko Tani and Macoto Takahashi drew cover illustrations for ''shōjo'' manga anthologies such as ''Niji'' and ''Hana'' before transitioning into drawing manga themselves. Rather than following Matsumoto's trajectory of moving away from the visual conventions of lyrical painting, Tani and Takahashi imported them into their manga, with works defined by a strong sense of atmosphere and a focus on the emotions rather than the actions of their protagonists. Takahashi's manga series ''Arashi o Koete'' (1958) was a major success upon its release, and marked the beginnings of this ''jojōga''-influenced style eclipsing Tezuka's dynamic style as the dominant visual style of ''shōjo'' manga. Not all ''kashi-hon'' ''shōjo'' conformed to this lyrical style: one of the most popular ''shōjo'' ''kashi-hon'' anthologies was , which launched in 1958 and ran for more than one hundred monthly issues. As its name implies, the anthology published supernatural stories focused on ''yūrei'' and ''yōkai''. Its success with female readers resulted in other generalist ''shōjo'' anthologies beginning to publish horror manga, laying the groundwork for what would become a significant subgenre of ''shōjo'' manga.

As manga became generally more popular over the course of the decade, the proportion of manga published by ''shōjo'' magazines began to increase. For example, while manga represented only 20 percent of the editorial content of ''Shōjo Club'' in the mid-1950s, by the end of the decade it composed more than half. Many ''shōjo'' magazines had in effect became manga magazines, and several companies launched magazines dedicated exclusively to ''shōjo'' manga: first Kodansha in 1954 with ''Nakayoshi'', followed by Shueisha in 1955 with ''Ribon''. From this combination of light-hearted stories inherited from the pre-war era, dramatic narratives introduced by the Tokiwa-sō, and cerebral works developed on the ''kashi-hon'' market, ''shōjo'' manga of this period was divided by publishers into three major categories: , , and .

1960s: Emergence of female artists

In the 1950s, ''shōjo'' manga was a genre that was created primarily by male authors, notably Leiji Matsumoto, Shōtarō Ishinomori, Kazuo Umezu, and Tetsuya Chiba. Though some creators (notably Tezuka, Ishinomori, and Umezu) created works focused on active heroines, most ''shōjo'' stories of this era were typically focused on tragic and passive heroines who bravely endured adversity. Beside Toshiko Ueda, several female manga artists started working during the 1950s, notably Hideko Mizuno, Miyako Maki, Masako Watanabe and Eiko Hanamura, most of them debuted within the ''kashi-hon'' anthology . While they constituted a minority of ''shōjo'' manga creators, the editorial departments of magazines noted that their works were more popular with female readers than works created by their male peers.

By the 1960s, the ubiquity of television in Japanese households and the rise of serialized television programs emerged as a significant competitor to magazines. Many monthly magazines folded and were replaced by weekly magazines, such as '' Shōjo Friend'' and ''Margaret''. To satisfy the need for weekly editorial content, magazines introduced contests in which readers could submit their manga for publication; female artists dominated these contests, and many amateur artists who emerged from these contests went on to have professional manga careers. The first artist to emerge from this system was Machiko Satonaka, who at the age of 16 had debut manga ''Pia no Shōzō'' ("Portrait of Pia", 1964) published in ''Shōjo Friend''.

The emergence of female artists led to the development of ''roma-kome'' (romantic comedy) manga, historically an unpopular genre among male ''shōjo'' artists. Hideko Mizuno was the first to introduce romantic comedy elements to ''shōjo'' manga through her manga adaptions of American romantic comedy films: '' Sabrina'' in 1963 as ''Sutekina Cora'', and '' The Quiet Man'' in 1966 as ''Akage no Scarlet''. Other artists, such as Masako Watanabe, Chieko Hosokawa, and Michiko Hosono similarly created manga based on American romantic comedy films, or which were broadly inspired by western actresses and models and featured western settings. Contemporaneously, artists such as Yoshiko Nishitani became popular for ''rabu-kome'' (literally "love comedy") manga, focused on protagonists who were ordinary Japanese teenaged girls, with a narrative focus on themes of friendship, family, school, and love.

While early romance ''shōjo'' manga was almost invariably simple and conventional love stories, over time and through the works of manga artists such as Machiko Satonaka and Yukari Ichijō, the genre adopted greater narrative and thematic complexity. This gradual maturity came to be reflected in other subgenres: horror manga artist Kazuo Umezu broke ''shōjo'' artistic conventions by depicting female characters who were ugly, frightening, and grotesque in his 1965 series '' Reptilia'' published in ''Shōjo Friend'', which led to more ''shōjo'' artists depicting darker and taboo subject material in their work. ''Shōjo'' sports manga, such as Chikako Urano's '' Attack No. 1'' (1968–1970), began to depict physically active rather than passive female protagonists. In 1969, the first ''shōjo'' manga sex scene was published in Hideko Mizuno's '' Fire!'' (1969–1971).

By the end of the decade, most ''shōjo'' magazines now specialized in manga, and no longer published their previous prose literature and articles. As the ''kashi-hon'' declined, so too did their manga anthologies; most folded, with their artists and writers typically migrating to manga magazines. Most ''shōjo'' manga artists were women, and the category had developed a unique visual identity that distinguished it from ''shōnen'' manga.

1970s: "Golden age"

By the early 1970s, most ''shōjo'' manga artists were women, though editorial positions at ''shōjo'' manga magazines remained male-dominated. Over the course of the decade, ''shōjo'' manga became more graphically and thematically complex, as it came to reflect the prevailing attitudes of the sexual revolution and women's liberation movement. This movement towards narratively complex stories is associated with the emergence of a new generation of ''shōjo'' artists collectively referred to as the Year 24 Group, which included Moto Hagio, Keiko Takemiya, Yumiko Ōshima, and numerous others. Works of the Year 24 Group focused on the internal psychology of their characters, and introduced new genres to ''shōjo'' manga such as adventure fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and historical drama. The art style of the Group, influenced by Machiko Satonaka and Yukari Ichijō, came to pioneer new visual standards for ''shōjo'' manga: finer and lighter lines, beautiful faces that bordered on exaggeration, and panels that overlapped or were entirely borderless.

Numerous artists contributed to innovation in ''shōjo'' manga during the 1970s. Takemiya and Hagio originated a new genre, ''shōnen-ai'' (male-male romance), with Takemiya's '' Sunroom Nite'' (1970) and Hagio's '' The November Gymnasium'' (1971). The historical drama ''The Rose of Versailles'' (1972–1973) by Riyoko Ikeda became the first major critical and commercial success in ''shōjo'' manga; the series was groundbreaking in its portrayal of gender and sexuality, and was influential in its depiction of ''bishōnen'' (literally "beautiful boys"), a term for androgynous male characters. Ako Mutsu and Mariko Iwadate led a new trend of '' otomechikku'' manga. While works of the Year 24 Group were defined by their narrative complexity, ''otomechikku'' manga focused on the ordinary lives of teenaged Japanese protagonists. The genre waned in popularity by the end of the decade, but its narrative and visual style made a lasting impact on ''shōjo'' manga, particularly the emergent aesthetic of ''kawaii''. Veteran ''shōjo'' artists such as Miyako Maki and Hideko Mizuno began developing new manga for their formerly child-aged readers who were now adults. Although their attempts were commercially unsuccessful, with short-lived magazines such as ''Papillon'' (パピヨン) at Futabasha in 1972, their works were the origins of ladies comics before the category's formal emergence in the early 1980s.

By the end of the 1970s, the three largest publishing houses in Japan (Kodansha, Shogakukan, and Shueisha) as well as Hakusensha established themselves as the largest publishers of ''shōjo'' manga, and maintained this dominant position in the decades that followed. The innovation of ''shōjo'' manga throughout the decade attracted the attention of manga critics, who had previously ignored ''shōjo'' manga or regarded it as unserious, but who now declared that ''shōjo'' manga had entered its "golden age". This critical attention attracted a male audience to ''shōjo'' manga who, although a minority of overall ''shōjo'' readers, remained as an audience for the category.

1980s and 1990s: Subgenre development

Since the 1970s, ''shōjo'' manga has continued to develop stylistically while simultaneously branching out into different but overlapping subgenres. This development began with a shift in characters and settings: while foreign characters and settings were common in the immediate post-war period, stories began to be set in Japan more frequently as the country began to re-assert an independent national identity. Meiji University professor Yukari Fujimoto writes that beginning in the 1990s, ''shōjo'' manga became concerned with self-fulfillment. She intimates that the Gulf War influenced the development of female characters "who fight to protect the destiny of a community", such as '' Red River'' (1995–2002), '' Basara'' (1990–1998), '' Magic Knight Rayearth'' (1993–1996), and ''Sailor Moon'' (1991–1997). Fujimoto opines that the ''shōjo'' manga of the 1990s depicted emotional bonds between women as stronger than the bonds between a man and a woman.

"Ladies comics" and ''shōjo'' for adults

In 1980, Kodansha published '' Be Love'' as the first manga magazine aimed at an audience of adult women. It was quickly followed by a wave of similar magazines, including '' Feel Young'' at Kodansha, ''Judy'' at Shogakukan, and ''You'', ''Young You'' and ''Office You'' at Shueisha. This category of manga, referred to as "ladies' comics" or ''josei'' manga, shares many common traits with ''shōjo'' manga, with the primary distinguishing exception of a focus on adult protagonists rather than teenaged or younger protagonists. Sexuality is also depicted more openly, though these depictions in turn came to influence ''shōjo'' manga, which itself began to depict sexuality more openly in the 1990s. Several manga magazines blur distinctions between ''shōjo'' and ''josei'', and publish works that aesthetically resemble ''shōjo'' manga but which deal with the adult themes of ''josei'' manga; examples include ''Kiss'' at Kodansha, '' Chorus'' and ''Cookie'' at Shueisha, and ''Betsucomi'' at Shogakukan.

Horror and erotica

Niche ''shōjo'' publications that eschewed typical ''shōjo'' manga conventions emerged in the 1980s, particularly in the horror and erotica genres. This occurred in the context of the decline of ''kashi-hon'' publishing, where publishers survived market shifts away from book rental by offering collected volumes of manga that had not been previously serialized in magazines. Hibari Shōbo and Rippū Shōbo were among the publishing companies that began to publish ''shōjo'' horror manga in this format, typically as volumes that contained a mix of ''kashi-hon'' reissues and original creations. Horror ''shōjo'' manga published by ''kashi-hon'' publishers was typically more gory and grotesque than the horror manga of mainstream ''shōjo'' magazines, in some case prompting accusations of obscenity and lawsuits by citizens' associations. These publishing houses folded by the end of the 1980s as they became replaced with mainstream ''shōjo'' manga magazines dedicated to the horror genre, beginning with '' Monthly Halloween'' in 1986.

In the 1990s, a genre of softcore pornographic ''shōjo'' manga emerged under the genre name teens' love. The genre shares many common traits with pornographic ''josei'' manga, with the distinguishing exception of the age of the protagonists, who are typically in their late teens and early twenties. Teens' love magazines proliferated at smaller publishers, such as Ohzora Publishing, which published a wide range of both ''josei'' and teens' love manga. The genre gradually migrated from small publishers to larger ones, such as ''Dessert'' and Shogakukan's mainstream ''shōjo'' magazines.

By the 2000s, this niche ''shōjo'' manga, particularly the teens' love genre, had largely abandoned printed formats in favor of the Internet, in response to the rise of mobile phones in Japan.

2000s–present: Restructuring and influence of anime

Cross-media ''shōjo'' manga

In the 2000s, publishers who produced manga aimed at a female audience faced a changing market: ''josei'' manga had declined in popularity, girls increasingly preferred television dramas over printed of entertainment, and the manga market generally had slowed. Many major publishers restructured their ''shōjo'' manga magazine operations in response, folding certain magazines and launching new publications. The majority of the newly launched magazines during this period were commercial failures.

In 2008, the publishing house Fusosha, which had previously not published manga, entered the manga market with the ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Malika''. The magazine was unconventional compared to other ''shōjo'' manga magazines of the era: in addition to publishing manga by renowned female authors, it featured contributions from celebrities in media, illustration, and design; the magazine also operated a website that published music and additional stories. The magazine was a commercial failure and folded after six issues, but came to be emblematic of a new trend in ''shōjo'' manga: cross-media marketing, where works are published across multiple mediums simultaneously.

Early ''shōjo'' manga successes in this cross-media approach include '' Nana'' (2000–2009) by Ai Yazawa, '' Lovely Complex'' (2001–2006) by Aya Nakahara, and '' Nodame Cantabile'' (2001–2010) by Tomoko Ninomiya, all of which were alternately adapted into films, television dramas, anime series, video games, and series-branded music CDs. Older manga series, such as ''Attack No. 1'' and ''Boys Over Flowers'', found renewed success after being relaunched with cross-media adaptations.

''Moe'' in ''shōjo'' manga

The ''shōjo'' magazines '' Asuka'' and ''Princess'', which distinguished themselves by publishing a diversity of narrative genres such as fantasy and science fiction, saw new competitors emerge in the 2000s: ''Monthly Comic Zero Sum'' in 2002, ''Sylph'' in 2006, '' Comic Blade Avarus'' in 2007, and ''Aria'' in 2010. These new magazines explicitly targeted an audience of anime and boys' love (male-male romance) fans by publishing manga that closely resembled the visual style of anime, featured ''bishōnen'' protagonists in fantastical environments, and which deliberately played with the visual and narrative conventions of ''shōjo'' manga. In sum, the magazines represented the integration of '' moe'' in ''shōjo'' manga: a term describing an expression of cuteness focused on feelings of affection and excitement that is distinct from ''kawaii'', the more child-like and innocent expression of cuteness typically associated with ''shōjo'' manga.

''Moe'' was additionally expressed in ''shōjo'' manga through the emergence of so-called "boys ''shōjo manga''", beginning with the magazines '' Comic High!'' in 2004 and ''Comic Yell!'' in 2007. Magazines in this category publish manga aimed at a male readership, but which use a visual style that draws significantly from the aesthetics of ''moe'' and ''shōjo'' manga.

In the English-speaking world

English-language translations of ''shōjo'' manga were first published in North America in the late 1990s. As the American comic book market was largely oriented towards male readers at the time, ''shōjo'' manga found early success by targeting a then-unreached audience of female comic book readers; English translations of titles such as ''Sailor Moon'', ''Boys Over Flowers'', and ''Fruits Basket'' became best-selling books. The English manga market crashed in the late 2000s due to the 2008 financial crisis, and when the medium regained popularity in the 2010s, ''shōnen'' manga emerged as the most popular category of manga among English-language readers. Nevertheless, every major English-language manga publisher maintains a robust line of ''shōjo'' manga; Viz Media in particular publishes ''shōjo'' manga under its Shojo Beat imprint, which it also published as a serialized manga magazine in the mid- to late-2000s.

Style

Context and general elements

The visual style of ''shōjo'' manga was largely similar to that of ''shōnen'' manga until the late 1950s, a function of the fact that both ''shōjo'' and ''shōnen'' manga were created by the same, mostly male, artists. During the pre-war period, these artists were especially influenced by the modernist style of George McManus, while in the post-war period the dynamic style of Osamu Tezuka became the primary reference point for manga. While ''shōjo'' manga inherited some of these influences, the unique style that emerged at the end of the 1950s which came to distinguish ''shōjo'' manga from ''shōnen'' manga was primarily derived from pre-war '' shōjo shōsetsu''.

''Shōjo shōsetsu'' is characterized by a "flowery and emotional" prose style focused on the inner monologue of the protagonist. Narration is often punctuated with non-verbal elements that express the feelings of the protagonists; writer Nobuko Yoshiya in particular made extensive use of multiple ellipsis ("..."), exclamation points, and dashes in the middle of sentences, the lattermost of which were scattered across pages in a manner resembling verses of poetry. Prose is accompanied by illustrations by lyrical painters, which are characterized by a sentimental style influenced by Art Nouveau and '' Nihonga''. Particular attention is paid to representations of ''shōjo'', who are depicted as well-dressed and possessing large, very detailed eyes that have star-shaped highlights.

This narrative and visual style began to influence ''shōjo'' manga towards the end of the 1950s; Macoto Takahashi, a lyrical painter and manga artist, is regarded as the first artist to use this style in manga. The style was quickly adopted by his contemporaries and later by ''shōjo'' artists who emerged in the 1960s, while in the 1970s artists associated with the Year 24 Group developed the style significantly. According to manga artist, academic, and Year 24 Group member Keiko Takemiya, ''shōjo'' manga was able to develop this distinct style because the category was seen as marginal by editors, who consequently allowed artists to draw stories in whatever manner they wished so long as reader response remained positive. Stylistic elements that were developed by the Year 24 Group became established as visual hallmarks of ''shōjo'' manga; many of these elements later spread to ''shōnen'' manga, such as the use of non-rigid panel layouts and highly detailed eyes that express the emotions of characters.

Layout

Beginning in the 1970s, panel layouts in ''shōjo'' manga developed a new and distinct style. In his 1997 book ''Why Is Manga So Interesting? Its Grammar and Expression'', manga artist and critic Fusanosuke Natsume identifies and names the three major aspects of panel construction that came to distinguish ''shōjo'' manga from ''shōnen'' manga. The first, ''naiho'' ("panel encapsulations"), refers to the use of layouts that break from the traditional comic approach of a series of sequential boxes. In this style, elements extend beyond the borders of panels, or the panel border is removed entirely. Intervals between panels are also were modified, with sequential panels that depicted the same event from different angles or perspectives. Second is ''kaiho'' ("release"), referring to the use of decompression to create more languid and relaxed sequences. Oftentimes in compositions without panel borders, text is removed from speech balloons and spread across the page, especially in instances where the dialogue communicates the thoughts, feelings, and internal monologue of the speaker. Third is ''mahaku'' ("break"), referring to the symbolic use of white space.

Large eyes

A defining stylistic element of ''shōjo'' manga is its depiction of characters with very large, detailed eyes that have star-shaped highlights, sometimes referred to as . This technique did not originate in ''shōjo'' manga; large eyes have been drawn in manga since the early 20th century, notably by Osamu Tezuka, who drew inspiration from the theatrical makeup of actresses in the Takarazuka Revue when drawing eyes. A large central star that replaces the pupil dot began to appear at key moments in ''shōjo'' manga by Tezuka and Shotaro Ishinomori in the mid-1950s, though these details generally trended towards a realist style rather than the emotive style of later ''shōjo'' manga.

Contemporaneously, the art of Jun'ichi Nakahara was significantly influencing ''kashi-hon'' manga artists, especially Macoto Takahashi. Takahashi incorporated Nakahara's style of drawing eyes into his own manga – large, doll-like eyes with highlights and long lashes – while gradually introducing his own stylistic elements, such as the use of dots, stars, and multiple colors to represent the iris. At the end of the 1950s, Takahashi's style was adopted by Miyako Maki – one of the most popular manga artists at the time – which led to its widespread adoption by mainstream ''shōjo'' manga magazines.

From this point on, experimental eye design flourished in ''shōjo'' manga, with features such as elongated eyelashes, the use of concentric circles of different shades, and the deformation of the iris to create a glittering effect. This focus on hyper-detailed eyes led manga artists to frame panels on close-ups of faces, to draw attention to the emotions being expressed by the eyes of the characters. Eyes also came to serve as a marker of gender, with female characters typically having larger eyes than male characters.

Themes

Interpersonal relationships

Among the most common concepts in ''shōjo'' manga is that of , which refers to interpersonal relationships between characters and the interaction of their emotions. Relationships between characters are central to most ''shōjo'' manga, particularly those of friendship, affection, and love. Narratives often focus on the interiority of their protagonists, wherein their emotions, feelings, memories, and inner monologue are expressed visually through techniques such as panel arrangement and the rendering of eye details. When conflict occurs, the most common medium of exchange is dialogue and conversation, as opposed to physical combat typical in ''shōnen'' manga.

Manga scholar Yukari Fujimoto considers that the content of ''shōjo'' manga has evolved in tandem with the evolution of Japanese society, especially in terms of the place of women, the role of the family, and romantic relationships. She notes how family dramas with a focus on mother-daughter relationships were popular in the 1960s, while stories about romantic relationships became more popular in the 1970s, and stories about father figures became popular in the 1990s. As ''shōjo'' manga began to focus on adolescents over children beginning in the 1970s, romantic relationships generally become more important than family relationships; these romantic relationships are most often heterosexual, though they are occasionally homosexual.

Gender and sexuality

Characters that defy traditional roles and stereotypes surrounding gender and sexuality have been a central motif of ''shōjo'' manga since its origins. Tomboy protagonists, referred to as , appear regularly in pre-war ''shōjo'' manga. This archetype has two primary variants: the "fighting girl" (as in Katsuji Matsumoto's ''Nazo no Kurōbaa'', where a girl takes up arms to defend the peasants of her village), and the " crossdressing girl" (as in Eisuke Ishida's ''Kanaria Ōjisama'', where a princess is raised as a prince). Osamu Tezuka's ''Princess Knight'' represents the synthesis of these two archetypes, wherein a princess who is raised as a prince comes to face her enemies in combat. These archetypes were generally popular in ''shōjo'' war fiction, which emerged in tandem with the militarization of Japan in the 1930s, while an emphasis on cross-dressing arose from the popularity of the cross-dressing actresses of the Takarazuka Revue. ''Otenba'' grew in popularity in the post-war period, which critic Yoshihiro Yonezawa attributes to advancements in gender equality marked by the enshrinement of the equality of the sexes in the Constitution of Japan in 1947.

By the end of the 1960s, sexuality – both heterosexual and homosexual – began to be freely depicted in ''shōjo'' manga. This shift was brought about in part by literalist interpretations of manga censorship codes: for example, the first sex scenes in ''shōjo'' manga were including by covering characters having sex with bed sheets to circumvent codes that specifically only forbade depictions of genitals and pubic hair. The evolution of these representations of gender in sexuality occurred in tandem with the feminization of ''shōjo'' manga's authorship and readership, as the category shifted from being created primarily by men for an audience of young girls, to being created by women for an audience of teenaged and young adult women; since the 1970s, ''shōjo'' manga has been written almost exclusively by women.

Homosexuality

Though they compose a minority of ''shōjo'' stories overall, male-male romance manga – referred to as ''yaoi'' or "boys' love" (BL) – is a significant subgenre of ''shōjo'' manga. Works in the genre typically focus on androgynous men referred to as ''bishōnen'' (literally "beautiful boys"), with a focus on romantic fantasy rather than a strictly realist depiction of gay relationships. ''Yaoi'' emerged as a formal subgenre of ''shōjo'' manga in the 1970s, but its portrayals of gay male relationships used and further developed bisexual themes already extant in ''shōjo'' manga. Japanese critics have viewed ''yaoi'' as a genre that permits its audience to avoid adult female sexuality by distancing sex from their own bodies, as well as creating fluidity in perceptions of gender and sexuality by rejecting socially mandated gender roles. Parallels have also been drawn between ''yaoi'' and the popularity of lesbianism in pornography, with the genre having been called a form of "female fetishism".

Female-female romance manga, also known as '' yuri'', has been historically and thematically linked to ''shōjo'' manga since its emergence in the 1970s, though ''yuri'' is not strictly exclusive to ''shōjo'' and has been published across manga demographic groups. A relationship between ''shōjo'' culture and female-female romance dates to the pre-war period with stories in the Class S genre, which focused on intense romantic friendships between girls. By the post-war period, these works had largely declined in popularity in favor of works focused on male-female romances. Yukari Fujimoto posits that as the readership of ''shōjo'' manga is primarily female and heterosexual, female homosexuality is rarely addressed. Fujimoto sees the largely tragic bent of most ''yuri'' stories, with a focus on doomed relationships that end in separation or death, as representing a fear of female sexuality on the part of female readers, which she sees as also explaining the interest of ''shōjo'' readers on ''yaoi'' manga.

Paranormality

''Shōjo'' manga often features supernatural and horror elements, such as stories focused on ''yūrei'' (ghosts), ''oni'' (demons), and ''yōkai'' (spirits), or which are otherwise structured around Japanese urban legends or Japanese folklore. These works are female-focused, where both the human characters and supernatural beings are typically women or ''bishōnen''. Paranormal ''shōjo'' manga gained and maintained popularity by depicting scenarios that allow female readers to freely explore feelings of jealousy, anger, and frustration, which are typically not depicted in mainstream ''shōjo'' manga focused on cute characters and melodramatic scenarios.

Mother-daughter conflict, as well as the fear or rejection of motherhood, appear as major motif in paranormal ''shōjo'' manga; for example, stories where mothers take on the appearance of demons or ghosts, daughters of demons who are themselves transformed into demons, impious pregnancies resulting from incestuous rape, and mothers who commit filicide out of jealousy or insanity. The social pressure and oppression borne from a patriarchal Japanese society also recurs as a motif, such as a curse or vengeful ghost that originates from a murdered woman or a victim of harassment. In these stories, the curse is typically resolved by showing compassion for the ghost, rather than trying to destroy it. Stories about Japanese urban legends were particularly popular in the 1970s, and typically focus on stories that were popular among Japanese teenaged girls, such as Kuchisake-onna, Hanako-san, and Teke Teke.

Fashion

The relationship between ''shōjo'' culture and fashion dates to pre-war ''shōjo'' magazines, where artists such as Jun'ichi Nakahara illustrated fashion catalogs that included written instructions on how readers could make the depicted garments themselves. As manga grew in popularity in the post-war period, ''shōjo'' magazines continued their focus on fashion by publishing works featuring characters in elaborate outfits, or through promotional campaigns that offered clothes worn by manga characters as prizes. Notable manga artists associated with this trend include Macoto Takahashi, Masako Watanabe, and Miyako Maki, the lattermost of whom had their designs serve as the foundation for the popular Licca-chan doll in 1967.

By the 1970s, consumer trends shifted from making clothes to shopping for them; ''shōjo manga'' followed this trend with the appearance of stories centered on the careers of clothing designers. Manga in the '' otomechikku'' subgenre of ''shōjo'' manga emphasized ''kawaii'' fashion inspired by Ivy League style; the ''otomechikku'' aesthetic was later adopted by women's fashion magazines such as '' An An'' and ''Olive''. Some women's fashion magazines began to publish their own ''shōjo'' manga in the 1980s, such as ''CUTiE'' (which published ''Tokyo Girls Bravo'' by Kyōko Okazaki and ''Jelly Beans'' by Moyoco Anno) and ''Zipper'' (which published '' Paradise Kiss'' by Ai Yazawa and ''Teke Teke Rendezvous'' by George Asakura). Cosplay began to influence ''shōjo'' manga in the 1990s, leading to the development of titles like ''Sailor Moon'' that directly appealed to an ''otaku'' readership. This led to a split in ''shōjo'' representations of fashion between works that depicted realistic everyday fashions, and those that depicted fantastical outfits that could be cosplayed. The fashion world itself began to take an interest in ''shōjo'' manga in the 2000s, with fashion shows showcasing pieces influenced by ''shōjo'' manga or which were drawn from costumes in popular ''shōjo'' franchises such as ''Sailor Moon''.

Generally, the clothing worn by characters in ''shōjo'' manga reflect the fashion trends of the era in which the series was produced. Nevertheless, some common traits recur across eras: clothing adorned with ribbons or frills, and outfits that are especially feminine and child-like. Cute and ostentatious outfits are generally more common than outfits which are sexualized or modest. Major inspirations include Victorian fashion for girls – as embodied by Alice from ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', who is often invoked by Japanese manga, magazines and brands – and ballet costumes, especially tutus.

Culture

Marketing and reader feedback

Manga in Japan is serialized in manga magazines before being published as books and collected volumes. To encourage repeat readership, magazines seek to foster a sense of community with their readership; this is especially true of magazines aimed at an audience of younger reader aged ten or younger, sometimes referred to as . Magazines seek to appeal to this young readership by publishing content related to anime, video games, and toys in addition to manga. Supplemental materials, typically low-cost novelty items such as stickers, posters, and pens decorated with manga characters, are also used to attract readers, with the items placed in plastic bags that are attached to the magazines themselves. Larger novelty items are occasionally offered by mail order in exchange for coupons that readers can clip out of the magazine.

In the case of both ''imōto'' and magazines aimed at older readers, referred to as , readers are invited to submit their opinions on current manga serials through letters and polls. Often, a random survey respondent will receive a prize. Publishers use insights collected from these polls to change plotlines, highlight a secondary character, or end a series that is unpopular. These polls are also used when determining which manga to adapt into derivative works, such as anime and video games.

In addition to survey responses, letters from readers are used as a means to gauge audience opinion and develop a sense of community. These letters are sent to publishers, but addressed directly at the authors themselves. The content of these letters ranges from questions for the author, anecdotes from their daily lives, and drawings; some letters are published in the magazines themselves. Meetings between readers and authors also occur regularly. These may be organized by the publisher, who select a group of readers to bring to their offices on a prize trip, or as a field trip organized by schools. In both cases, these visits strengthen the bond between reader and publisher, while also providing the publisher with insights into their readership.

Talent development

Manga publishers often discover new authors through their readership, who are actively encouraged to submit stories and receive feedback from the magazine's editors. This system of talent discovery and development is not unique to ''shōjo'' manga, though the practice originates in pre-war girls' magazines, where female readers were invited to submit novels and short stories. ''Imōto'' magazines develop this system from a young age with the aim of having adult artists one day publish manga in the magazines they read when they were children, while ''onēsan'' magazines typically have readers and artists who are of a similar age. By developing a system the authors of manga in a magazine were formerly readers, the distance between the two is reduced and a sense of community is fostered.

See also

* Romance comics
* British girls' comics

References

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{{Authority control

Anime and manga terminology
Women in Japan
Women's entertainment
Girls