is an editorial category of
Japanese comics targeting an audience of both adolescent boys and young men. It is, along with
manga (targeting adolescent girls and young women),
manga (targeting young adults and adult men), and
manga (targeting adult women), one of the primary demographic categories of manga and, by extension, of
Japanese anime
is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
. manga is traditionally published in dedicated
manga magazines that often almost exclusively target the demographic group.
Of the four primary demographic categories of manga, is the most popular category in the Japanese market. While manga ostensibly targets an audience of young males, its actual readership extends significantly beyond this target group to include all ages and genders. The category originated from Japanese children's magazines at the turn of the 20th century and gained significant popularity by the 1920s. The editorial focus of manga is primarily on
action,
adventure
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...
, and the fighting of monsters or other clearly defined forces of evil. Though action narratives dominate the said category, there is deep editorial diversity and a significant number of genres and sub-genres within manga, especially compared to other comic cultures outside of Japan, including
comedy
Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium.
Origins
Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...
,
crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...
,
romance,
slice of life, and
sports
Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...
.
Terminology and etymology
The Japanese word , meaning "young boy", historically referred to juveniles in a general sense and was used by the Japanese publishing industry until the end of the 19th century to designate publications aimed at children and young people. The word shifted to its current usage of referring specifically to media aimed at adolescent boys, beginning with the practice of segmenting periodicals (especially manga magazines) by sex and age-specific target groups, which was established at the beginning of the 20th century and accelerated starting in the 1960s. This segmentation system is now openly used as a categorization system by manga publishers and extends into works that are adapted from manga, such as
anime
is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
.
manga
manga refers to
manga
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 history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
aimed at an audience of adolescent boys, with the primary target audience alternately defined as 10 to 19 years old and as 12 to 21 years old. It is the most popular category in the Japanese market of the four primary demographic categories of manga (,
,
, and
).
The actual readership of manga, as is the case for all demographic categories of manga, extends significantly beyond this adolescent male target group to include all ages and genders. For example, a 2006 survey of female manga readers found that ''
Weekly Shōnen Jump
is a weekly Shōnen manga, ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump (magazine line), Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many Action (fiction), action scenes and a fair ...
'' was the most popular manga magazine among this demographic, placing ahead of magazines that specifically target a female readership. The target group orientation of manga is particularly evident in the non-manga content of manga magazines, which include advertising and articles on topics tailored to the interests of young males, such as
video games. Non-manga content often corresponds to a major manga series in a given magazine, for example, advertisements for a video game adaptation of the series or articles about an animated film adaptation of the series.
History
Pre-war and wartime era
Children's magazines with sex-segregated readerships have existed in Japan since the early 1900s. While early youth magazines were ostensibly unisex – ''
Shōnen Sekai'' was the first youth magazine in Japan in 1895, targeting a readership of both boys and girls – in practice, the editorial content of these publications largely concerned topics that were thought to be of interest to boys. This provoked the emergence of first exclusively (girls) magazines in 1902, and magazines subsequently began to exclusively target a male audience. Initially, these magazines did not publish manga; the first magazine to do so was ''
Shōnen Pakku'', first published in 1907. This was followed by ''
Shōnen Club'' in 1914 and later ''
Yōnen Club''. Among the most successful and influential manga series in these early magazines were ''
Norakuro'' by
Suihō Tagawa, which follows the life of an
anthropomorphic dog soldier, and ''
Tank Tankuro'' by
Gajo Sakamoto, about a robot-like character who can change his appearance.
magazines enjoyed significant popularity during the 1920s and 1930s, with ''Yōnen Club'' selling over 950,000 copies. During the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...
and
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, magazine sales declined and publications were used increasingly for
wartime propaganda purposes. The manga content in these publications was reduced, and the series that remained typically focused on patriotic and militaristic themes, such as stories about
samurai
The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
. In other stories, robots were depicted as fighting in the war against the Allied forces, as analogous to western
superhero comics that depicted superheroes fighting the Axis powers during this same period.
Post-war era
During the post-war
occupation of Japan, the Japanese publishing industry was rebuilt under initially strict guidelines. Stories focused on war, combat, and most competitive sports were banned with the aim of discouraging belligerence and hindering the use of manga for pro-Imperial propaganda. Manga developed during this period under the influence of artist
Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu'', – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist and animator. Considered to be among the greatest and most influential cartoonists of all time, his prolific output, pioneering techniques an ...
, with series such as ''
Astro Boy
''Astro Boy'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. It was serialized in Kobunsha's ''Shōnen'' from 1952 to 1968. The 112 chapters were collected into 23 volumes by Akita Shoten. Da ...
'' and ''
Kimba the White Lion''. Tezuka was inspired by American
cartoon
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...
s, and pioneered the so-called "story manga": long-running manga series with a cinematic style and
continuity across multiple chapters, contrasting what had previously been a medium defined by one-off comic strips.
Science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
stories about robots, space travel, and heroic space-faring adventures enjoyed popularity during this period; many sci-fi stories took themes and concepts from war comics and re-imagined them with pacifist ideals, such as ''
Tetsujin 28-go'' by
Mitsuteru Yokoyama.
One of the first new manga magazines of the post-war period was ''
Manga Shōnen'', which launched in 1947 and published works by Tezuka,
Leiji Matsumoto
was a Japanese manga artist, and creator of several anime and manga series. His widow Miyako Maki is also a manga artist.
Matsumoto was famous for his works such as ''Space Battleship Yamato'' and ''Galaxy Express 999''. His style was chara ...
, and
Shōtarō Ishinomori. As post-war censorship codes were repealed and Japan entered a period of significant economic development in the 1950s, sales of manga and the number of manga magazines increased significantly, and and manga came to further establish themselves as distinct categories. The first works of
sports manga
is a genre of Japanese manga and anime that focuses on stories involving sports and other athletic and competitive pursuits. Though Japanese animated works depicting sports were released as early as the 1920s, sports manga did not emerge as a di ...
also emerged from manga during this time; notable early works include ' by
Eiichi Fukui as the first manga series in the genre, and ''
Ashita no Joe'' by
Asao Takamori and
Tetsuya Chiba, which became one of the most commercially successful works in the genre. 1959 saw the launch of ''
Shōnen Sunday'' and ''
Weekly Shōnen Magazine'', the first weekly manga magazines. Other weeklies, such as ''
Shōnen Champion'', ''
Shōnen King'', and ''
Shōnen Ace'', emerged in the 1960s. ''
Weekly Shōnen Jump
is a weekly Shōnen manga, ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump (magazine line), Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many Action (fiction), action scenes and a fair ...
'' was first published in 1968, and would establish itself as the best-selling manga magazine across demographic categories, a position it holds to this day. Many of the most popular and commercially successful series originated in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'', including ''
Dragon Ball'' by
Akira Toriyama, ''
Naruto'' by
Masashi Kishimoto, ''
Bleach'' by
Tite Kubo, ''
One Piece'' by
Eiichiro Oda, and ''
Slam Dunk
A slam dunk, also simply known as a dunk, is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air, controls the ball above the horizontal plane of the rim, and scores by shoving the ball directly through the basket with on ...
'' by
Takehiko Inoue.
Modern era
manga became formalized as a category of manga aimed at an older male audience in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and many artists associated with the realist movement migrated to manga. The demise of the (rental manga) market led many artists to move into magazine publishing, including manga, bringing their distinct themes and style with them. As a result, manga came to deal with more serious and political themes, and saw an increase in depictions of violent and explicit subjects, as well as an increase in profanity. Significant artists of this era include
Shigeru Mizuki, creator of the horror series ''
GeGeGe no Kitarō''; and
George Akiyama, whose manga series ''Ashura'' depicts cannibalism, child abuse, and mass murder.
Although this provoked a public backlash, it did not lead to the decline for the industry: series with anarchic, offensive humor became popular in and manga alike, with ''
Crayon Shin-Chan
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshito Usui. ''Crayon Shin-chan'' made its first appearance in 1990 in a Japanese weekly magazine called ''Weekly Manga Action'', which was published by Futabasha. Due to the death of ...
'' by
Yoshito Usui becoming an internationally famous example of this phenomenon. Manga artist
Go Nagai originated the sexually-charged genre with ''
Harenchi Gakuen'', which was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump''.
The stylistic and thematic differences between and began to narrow considerably beginning in the 1980s, with widespread exchange of stylistic devices and themes. For example, the characteristic
large eyes of manga became common in manga to convey the emotions of characters, and female characters have enjoyed greater prominence as both supporting and primary characters in manga. Other graphic storytelling techniques that originated in manga, such as montages of multiple
panels, were imported into manga and have become common stylistic devices. In the 1980s, combat-focused "battle manga" stories became popular, with ''Dragon Ball'' and ''
Fist of the North Star'' emerging as representative works of this development. Manga critic
Jason Thompson credits the success of ''Dragon Ball'', first published in 1984, as originating a trend that has persisted to contemporary manga of favoring cartoonish art styles over the more mature art styles of titles such as ''
City Hunter'' and ''Fist of the North Star''.
Female manga artists also began to enjoy increasing critical and commercial success as manga creators. As a result of the combined influence of and the rise of female artists,
romance emerged as a subgenre of manga, especially
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...
. When manga began to emerge in the Western world in the early 1990s, the category was so dominant in these new markets that it came to shape the image of manga as a whole. While made gains in popularity by the 2000s, remains the most popular category of manga, both in Japan and internationally.
Characteristics
Themes and genres
This thematic orientation of manga is readily inferred from the formal
values or slogans that manga magazines assign themselves: for example, "friendship, perseverance, and victory" for ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'', and "courage, friendship and fighting spirit" for ''
CoroCoro Comic''. The editorial focus of manga is primarily on
action,
adventure
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...
, and the fighting of monsters or other forces of evil. Action stories are so dominant in manga that some manga and non-manga works are occasionally designated as not because of their ostensible target group, but because of their content focus on action and adventure. Though action narratives dominate the category, there is deep editorial diversity and a significant number of genres and subgenres within manga, especially when compared to other comic cultures outside of Japan. This includes but is not limited to
comedy
Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium.
Origins
Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...
,
crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...
,
romance,
slice of life, and stories about activities such as
sports
Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...
and the lives of different types of working professionals.
The action genre is itself is expressed through a variety of subgenres, from
historical and contemporary drama to
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
and
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures.
The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
. war fiction has been alternately jingoistic or critical of militarism and violence, with ''
Barefoot Gen'' by
Keiji Nakazawa as a notable example of the latter.
Samurai
The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
appeared frequently as idealized role models for boy readers in early , analogous to representations of
cowboys in western comics; samurai stories shifted to comedy and sportsmanship in the post-war period, before returning to themes of idealized themes of good versus evil. Though manga typically attempts to convey a message of peace, the category has been criticized by individuals such as director
Hayao Miyazaki for promoting overly simple good/evil dichotomies.
Narrative conventions
A protagonist is often characterized by contradictory qualities: short-tempered and cool, mischievous and rebellious, serious and cynical, clumsy and infallible, or who appears as a good-for-nothing but possesses hidden abilities. In some cases, the contradiction takes on a literal form in the form of , where the hero is able to switch between two personas with different appearances and personalities; examples of this device include ''
Yu-Gi-Oh'' by
Kazuki Takahashi and ''
Samurai Deeper Kyo'' by
Akimine Kamijyo
is the pen name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to m ...
. Transformation abilities are often linked with bonds to a spirit, monster or robot. A major narrative device in manga is rivalry between the protagonist and his opponent, with a fight or a quest often appearing as a central element; ''Dragon Ball'' is among the most popular and commercially successful examples of this archetypal story.
Typically, a protagonist is an outsider, or in some way disadvantaged compared to others, but who through training, perseverance, and willpower eventually succeeds against all odds. Plots typically follow the basic structure of the
hero's journey, with much of the story focused on the protagonist's training and transformation into a hero, and on characters who earn their status as heroes through effort and tenacity rather than by virtue of birth or assignment. For long-running series, the hero's journey repeats itself; as a new
story arc
A story arc (also narrative arc) is the chronological construction of a plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing narrative, storyline in episode, episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strip ...
begins, the enemy becomes more powerful and the danger to be overcome becomes greater. In addition to these external conflicts, a protagonist often also faces internal conflicts, typically focused around maturity and growing older. In contrast to manga, which often focuses on the thoughts and
interior monologue of the hero, typically advances plot through dialogue and action.
Happy endings are common in manga, but are not obligatory, with writers expressing the happy ending fitting for the demography even if it not comes up as a suitable.
Visual style

Comics theorist
Neil Cohn regards the art style of as generally "edgier" than that of manga, and notes how most regular manga readers are able to easily distinguish between and based on visual appearance alone. Visually, a protagonist often possesses what manga critic
Jason Thompson describes as "insanely spiky hair" that distinguishes the protagonist's
silhouette
A silhouette (, ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhouett ...
from that of other characters. The eyes of characters in the post-war period are
significantly smaller than those of characters in manga; large eyes are used in manga to better convey the emotions of the characters, an aspect which has historically been given less focus in manga. A common visual device in action scenes is to depict the contours of figures with rough, coarse
motion lines to give the appearance of movement.
Role of women
Historically, the protagonists of manga were almost exclusively men and boys; women and girls appeared primarily in supporting roles as sisters, mothers, or girlfriends, if at all. This was especially true of stories that developed out of manga beginning in the 1970s, with ''
The Abashiri Family'' by Go Nagai as one of the earliest representative works of this development, as well as an early example of a manga with a female protagonist. Since the 1980s, women and girls have played a more active role in manga, fighting alongside male characters and not merely as passive support. ''
Dr. Slump'' by
Akira Toriyama was an early representative work of this development, with its mischievous child protagonist
Arale Norimaki being among the first manga to depict this type of archetypal character as a girl rather than a boy. The 1980s also saw female manga artists rise to greater prominence: notably horror manga artist
Kei Kusunoki, and
Rumiko Takahashi with her romantic comedies ''
Urusei Yatsura'' and ''
Ranma ½''.
Especially in series that are aimed at an older audience, female characters are often presented in a manner that is attractive to the male target audience as (literally "beautiful young girls"). They exist as objects of romantic or sexual desire not merely for the male characters, but also for the ostensibly heterosexual male reader as a form of
fan service. While these objectifying tropes have persisted in manga, women have also developed more active roles in these fan service-oriented stories. A common romantic comedy trope in manga since the 1980s has been to pair a weak male protagonist with a strong female love interest who is not only the target of his romantic and sexual desire, but also his good friend and confidante. In the
harem
A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...
genre, which originated from manga, a male protagonist is surrounded by several female characters who desire him, and who are often more confident and assertive than he is; examples include ''
Negima! Magister Negi Magi
''Negima! Magister Negi Magi'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ken Akamatsu. It was serialized in Kodansha's Shōnen manga, ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from Febru ...
'' by
Ken Akamatsu and ''
Hanaukyo Maid Team'' by
Morishige. In other cases, the male protagonist is unsuccessful in his attempts to woo the female character, or the story is focused around the originally naïve and infantile male protagonist maturing and learning how to develop healthy relationships with women.
For certain series, a female readership who read in or interpret subtextual
homoerotic relationships between canonically heterosexual male characters constitute a significant proportion of the series' audience; this is especially true of series featuring male characters who are (literally "beautiful boys"), or who are perceived as such by readers. This reading of manga is expressed in the form of
fan works such as (self-published amateur manga) and the
boys' love
, also known by its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that depicts Homoeroticism, homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for a female audience, distinguishing it fro ...
(BL) genre of manga and anime, which includes both original and
derivative works
In copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major copyrightable elements of a first, previously created original work (the underlying work). The derivative work becomes a second, separate work independent from t ...
. Manga scholar
Yukari Fujimoto notes in her analysis of the female readership of the titles ''One Piece'', ''Naruto'', and ''
The Prince of Tennis
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takeshi Konomi. The manga was serialized in Shueisha's ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from July 1999 to March 2008, with its chapters collected in 42 volumes. Viz Media licensed t ...
'' that homoerotic interpretations of manga tend to be most common among titles that do not include prominent female characters that a female readership is able to identify with.
Magazines
manga is traditionally published in dedicated
manga magazines that specifically target an audience of . At the industry's peak in the mid-1990s, there were 23 total magazines, which collectively sold 662 million copies in 1995. The total manga magazine market that year included 265 magazines, with a total of 1.595 billion copies sold.
A manga magazine is typically several hundred pages long, and contains over a dozen series or
one-shots. The largest Japanese magazines in terms of circulation are ''
Weekly Shōnen Jump
is a weekly Shōnen manga, ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump (magazine line), Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many Action (fiction), action scenes and a fair ...
'' by
Shueisha, ''
Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' by
Kodansha, and ''
Weekly Shōnen Sunday
is a weekly manga magazine published in Japan by Shogakukan since March 1959. Contrary to its title, ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' issues are released on Wednesdays. ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' has sold over 1.8billion copies since 1986, making it ...
'' by
Shogakukan
is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan.
Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...
; these publishers are also the largest publishers of manga generally. The fourth largest magazine, albeit by a significant margin, is ''
Weekly Shōnen Champion'' by
Akita Shoten
is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Teio Akita in 1948. As of May 2023, the company's president is Shigeru Higuchi. The company is known for publishing the manga magazine '' Weekly Shōnen Champ ...
, which was among the most popular manga magazines in the 1970s and 1980s. The magazines ''
CoroCoro Comic'' and the now-defunct ''
Comic BomBom'' technically belong to the (children's manga) demographic, but are often counted as magazines as they target an audience of school-aged boys. A list of the top magazines by circulation as of 2015 are listed below:
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shonen Manga
Anime and manga terminology
Boys
Men in Japan
Men's entertainment