, also known as or , is a term that refers to the target demographic of
mangaManga consist of comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century...
created mostly by women for late teenage and
adultThe term adult has at least three distinct meanings. It can indicate a biologically grown or mature person. It may also mean a plant, animal, or person who has reached full growth or alternatively is capable of reproduction, or the classification legal adult, generally determined as a person who...
female audiences. The male equivalent to josei is
seinenis a subset of manga that is generally targeted at an 18–30 year old male audience, but the audience can be much older with some comics aimed at businessmen well into their 40s. It has a wide variety of art styles and more variation in subject matter, ranging from the avant-garde to the...
. In Japanese, the word
josei means simply "female" and has no manga-related connotations at all. Manga branded as "Ladies' Comics" has acquired a reputation for being low-brow and the term josei was created to move away from that image.
The stories tend to be about everyday experiences of women living in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Though there are some that cover
high schoolHigh school is the name used in some parts of the world, particularly in Scotland, Northern America and Oceania, to describe an institution that provides all or part of secondary education...
, most cover the lives of adult women. The style also tends to be a more restrained, realistic version of shōjo manga, 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).
Josei comics can portray realistic romance, as opposed to the mostly idealized romance of shōjo manga. A famous example of a Josei is
Honey and Cloveris a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Chika Umino. It is also known as and H&C. It is published by Shueisha, initially serialized from June 2000 to July 2006 in the magazines CUTiEcomic, Young YOU, and Chorus, and collected in ten bound volumes...
, which was animated, which is unusual for josei comics. Josei tends to be both more explicit and contain more mature storytelling, although
yaoi[In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, .] is a popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by female authors...
, which are comics for women featuring idealized homosexual love between beautiful men, would be put more into the
shojoThe term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10 and 18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 , literally: "young girl". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction often with a strong...
category because, although it is usually explicit in sexual content, the romance and male body-types are very idealized and thus, shojo manga.
Circulations
The reported average circulations for some of the top-selling josei manga magazines in 2007 are as follows:
| Magazine Title |
Reported Circulation |
| You |
194,791 |
| Be-Love |
194,333 |
| Kiss Kiss is a Japanese josei manga magazine published by Kodansha.-External links:...
|
167,600 |
| Chorus |
162,916 |
| Elegance Eve |
150,000 |
| For Mrs. |
150,000 |
| Romance White Paper Pastel |
150,000 |
| Dessert |
149,333 |
| The Dessert |
141,664 |
| Office You |
117,916 |
For comparison, here are the circulations for the top-selling magazines in other categories for 2007.
| Category |
Magazine Title |
Reported Circulation |
| Top-selling shōnen manga refers to manga marketed to a male audience roughly between the ages of 10 and 18. Examples include Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Rurouni Kenshin, InuYasha, Yu Yu Hakusho, Flame of Recca, Naruto, Bleach, Detective Conan, One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh and Fullmetal Alchemist....
magazine |
Weekly Shōnen Jumpis a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of July 2, 1968, and it is still circulating. One of the longest-running manga magazines in Japan, it has a circulation of 2.7 million readers...
|
2,778,750 |
| Top-selling seinen manga is a subset of manga that is generally targeted at an 18–30 year old male audience, but the audience can be much older with some comics aimed at businessmen well into their 40s. It has a wide variety of art styles and more variation in subject matter, ranging from the avant-garde to the...
magazine |
Weekly Young Magazine |
981,229 |
| Top-selling shōjo manga magazine |
Ciao is a Japanese shōjo manga magazine published by Shogakukan for young girls . The first issue was launched in 1977. As of 2007, the circulation was 982,834. Formerly, the magazine attached paper crafts, but now attaches various goods that are different every month...
|
982,834 |
| Top-selling non-manga magazine |
Monthly The Television |
1,018,919 |
(Source for all circulation figures: Japan Magazine Publishers Association)
List of josei manga
- Please see the category Josei for a list of josei manga.
See also
- Kodomo: intended for children
- Shōnen manga: intended for boys
- Shōjo manga: intended for girls
- Seinen
is a subset of manga that is generally targeted at an 18–30 year old male audience, but the audience can be much older with some comics aimed at businessmen well into their 40s. It has a wide variety of art styles and more variation in subject matter, ranging from the avant-garde to the...
: intended for adult males
- List of Josei manga magazines