Categories:Audience: Difference between revisions

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==Josei 女性==
==Josei 女性==
<span style="color: #00007F">A subset of anime and manga created mostly by women, for late teenage/adult female audiences.
<span style="color: #00007F">A subset of anime and manga created mostly by women, for late teenage/adult female audiences.
<br>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 demographics that have different stylistic tendencies).
<br>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 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>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>The male equivalent to josei is seinen.</span>
<br>The male equivalent to josei is seinen.</span>


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==The readership of the manga==
==The readership of the manga==
A lot of anime is made off the back of a successful manga - as well as providing the material for story it guarantees a fan base. Obviously it would be possible to take an original work and make a completely different anime out of it, but in practice this doesn't happen as the captive audience is part of the reason it's worth taking the large financial risk. As most successful manga is serialised in magazines aimed at particular demographics, the easiest way to find the target audience for an anime is to see what publication the manga it's based on ran in. If it's a Shounen Jump manga, you can be pretty sure that the anime can be labelled 'Shounen' as well.
A lot of anime is made off the back of a successful manga - as well as providing the material for story it guarantees a fan base. Obviously it would be possible to take an original work and make a completely different anime out of it, but in practice this doesn't happen as the captive audience is part of the reason it's worth taking the large financial risk. As most successful manga is serialised in magazines aimed at particular demographics, the easiest way to find the target audience for an anime is to see what publication the manga it's based on ran in. If it's a Shounen Jump manga, you can be pretty sure that the anime can be labelled 'Shounen' as well.
One possible exception I'll raise here. The Rurouni Kenshin manga was serialised in Shounen Jump from 1994 to 1999. The tv series and movie released from 1996 to 1998, despite being pseudo historical and somewhat more serious than other adventure anime, are quite clearly shounen too. However the ovas, released from 1999 to 2001 seem clearly aimed at the Kenshin fans who, having been reading the manga for 5 years, are perhaps now more interested in the maturer themes, and would be more accurately marked as seinen.
One possible exception I'll raise here. The Rurouni Kenshin manga was serialised in Shounen Jump from 1994 to 1999. The TV series and movie released from 1996 to 1998, despite being pseudo historical and somewhat more serious than other adventure anime, are quite clearly shounen too. However the OVAs, released from 1999 to 2001 seem clearly aimed at the Kenshin fans who, having been reading the manga for 5 years, are perhaps now more interested in the maturer themes, and would be more accurately marked as seinen.


==The content of the anime==
==The content of the anime==
Basically this is *the* way to tell, but can be deeply misleading if you're not familiar with the conventions. You often see westerners saying seinen must be shoujo, because it has romance in it, or shoujo must be shounen because it's got loads of action, or shounen must be seinen because it's too ecchi for younger boys. In short, a good indicator, but make sure there's some discussion on the off chance you've got the wrong end of the stick.
Basically this is *the* way to tell, but can be deeply misleading if you're not familiar with the conventions. You often see westerners saying seinen must be shoujo, because it has romance in it, or shoujo must be shounen because it's got loads of action, or shounen must be seinen because it's too ecchi for younger boys. In short, a good indicator, but make sure there's some discussion on the off chance you've got the wrong end of the stick.


==The 'genre' on anidb, ANN or other english fansites==
==The 'genre' on AniDB, ANN or other English fansites==
Generally suffer from the problem indicated above of judging on content, so some kind of discussion is still probably helpful. Though perhaps not always, going by the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Seinen wikipedia seinen talk page]...
Generally suffer from the problem indicated above of judging on content, so some kind of discussion is still probably helpful. Though perhaps not always, going by the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Seinen wikipedia seinen talk page]...


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==Useful links==
==Useful links==
* Ulitmate Manga Guide [http://users.skynet.be/mangaguide/magazines.html magazines page] (some data quite old)
* Ultimate Manga Guide [http://users.skynet.be/mangaguide/magazines.html magazines page] (some data quite old)
* Japanese Magazine Publishers Association [http://www.j-magazine.or.jp/FIPP/FIPPJ/F/menu.htm circulation figures for 2003], categorised by demographic (Japanese)
* Japanese Magazine Publishers Association [http://www.j-magazine.or.jp/FIPP/FIPPJ/F/menu.htm circulation figures for 2003], categorised by demographic (Japanese)
* Translation of the above [http://completelyfutile.blogspot.com/2004_09_01_completelyfutile_archive.html on blog] (scroll down)
* Translation of the above [http://completelyfutile.blogspot.com/2004_09_01_completelyfutile_archive.html on blog] (scroll down)
* [http://cal.syoboi.jp/ TV schedual], useful as backup for anime post ~2002
* [http://cal.syoboi.jp/ TV schedule], useful as backup for anime post ~2002


[[Category:Definitions]]
[[Category:Definitions]]
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