Categories:Audience: Difference between revisions

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 in Japan. The style also tends to be a more restrained, realistic version of shōjo, 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 different demographics that have different stylistic tendencies).<br>

In addition, unlike Shoujo, it portrays realistic romance (as opposed to idealized romance). A subset of josei comics are comics that are aimed at women about homosexual male relationships, called yaoi. Josei is also known for a very sexual edge; many of the magazines have some of the raunchiest porn produced in Japan.<br>

===Kodomo 子供===

is a style of anime and manga intended for boys. Shounen anime and manga is characterized by high-action, often humorous plots featuring male protagonists. The camaraderie between boys or men on sports teams, fighting squads, etc. is often emphasized. Unrealistically attractive female characters are also common (see fanservice), but are not a requirement—Dragon Ball Z for example has only a few unremarkable female characters. The art style of shounen also tends to be less flowery than that of shoujo, although there is significant variability by artist.<br>

In contrast to shounen, anime and manga for men (college age and up) is called seinen. Despite a number of significant differences, many Western fans don't make a distinction between shounen and seinen. This is due to the fact that very few seinen manga have been published outside of Japan. On the other hand, many older men in Japan read shounen magazines because of their ease of reading during commutes to and from work on trains. Consequently shounen magazines (including Shonen Jump) are the most popular manga magazines in Japan.

===Shoujo 少女===

is a style of anime and manga intended for girls and may have some crossover appeal to boys as well.<br>

Typically, "pure shoujo" manga revolves around love stories and strong female protagonists, however, some "shoujo anime/manga" are more plot/action oriented to attract a wider audience. For instance a lot of older salarymen were drawn to a manga called Banana Fish for its hard edged yakuza action (which is more often found in seinen manga). What kept female audiences interested in this work was a gentle relationship between two gay bishōnen lovers amongst all the violence.<br>

===Seinen 青年===

Sometimes it is classified as shojo or shonen, but it has distinct features, usually classified by a wider variety of art styles (particularly in manga) and more variation in subject matter, ranging from the avant garde to the pornographic.<br>

The female equivalent to seinen is josei.

==How to find the 'target audience'==