As a fan of Japanese entertainment, you obviously heard of manga and anime shounen, shoujo, and maybe seinen and josei. From following some shounen anime such as Naruto, One Piece, Boku no Hero Academia, and others you might think, “Oh shounen anime or manga is about fighting.” Or from Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura you thought that shoujo needs to have a girl as the main character. But the fact is not as simple as that!.

Shounen and the other three categories in an anime or manga are just a marker for the targeted audience by age/gender. This trend began in the 1900s with the publication of a manga labeled Shounen Sekai, Shoujo Sekai, and Shounen Pakku -- even when mangas has been published since the 1800s

Then what is the difference between shounen, shoujo, seinen, and josei? You must be curious right? Check the explanation in this Japan-cyclopedia.

1. Shounen yo, Kiite Kuree~

It means youth or boys, then shounen anime or manga is targeted for boys from elementary to highschool age, 10 to 18 years old. The themes used n shounen stories are about friendship and family, finding one's identity, and facing challenges.

The Demography that includes 40% manga being sold in Japan normally use these four genres: battle, sports, mecha, and love.

The battle genre normally has characters with superpowers or a martial art expert that fights one another and the manga Dragon Ball that’s published in 1984 is considered by manga critics Jason Thompson as a trendsetter for this genre. The influence can be seen from other famous works such as naruto, One Piece, Bleach; which their authors admit being inspired by Akira Toriyama, normally each character has one or more transformation to increase their power. 

Giant RObot series or Mecha started with a remote-controlled robot from the manga Tetsujin 28-go by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. Later the concept of giant robots is developed by Go Nagai through Mazinger Z, creating the first robot piloted by a human from the inside. From there Gundam, Macross, and others are born. 

The other popular genre is a love story. But the most sold romance shounen is harem story ( one boy chased by many girls) such as Love Hina, Ranma ½, or The World God Only Knows. A battle and harem can be combined like in Mahou Sensei Negima or Highscool DxD. But like it was shown in I’s and Boys Be series…., doesn’t mean there are no usual romance story.

2. Seinen, Sessesse Seinen, Seinen

Seinen meant young adult and is targetting high school, college, and office workers, from age 17 to 40 years old. This is why they have more ‘matured’ themes be it from how the violence is more explicit, a more complex plot, to the characters' relationship. 

There are many seinen manga or anime that have battles on it (berserk, Blade of the Immortal, Black Lagoon) but normally they have a much more realistic or consistent story. The pacing is not as intense as shounen and it has more dialogue that helps build the character such as Patlabor and Ghost in the Shell.

3. Shoujo Filled with Mahou

Similar to shounen, we have shoujo (girls) that are targeting girls from elementary to high school, aged 10 to 18 years old. Outside of Japan the term shoujo normally comes with flowery drawings and pastel-colored that focuses on a relationship or a love story, but actually the one indicator that tells you if an anime/manga is shoujo is from the character 

Take an example from Weiss Kreuz, the anime is about 4 police agents that are also a murderer that works in a flower shop. Because it has a battle/ fight scene many see it as shounen. But looking at the emphasis of the bishonen characters, it’s obvious that it is made for girls. That’s the reason why the genre for shoujo varies!

For sports there are Free! And Kaleido Star. They also have their own harem such as Ouran High School Host Club, Watashi ga Motete Dosunda? Fruit Basket, Hakuoki, and others. There is also a genre called mahou shoujo or magical girl which the character can transform to fight evil and often have more action scenes compared to other shoujo anime/manga, from the demography mahou shoujo can be enjoyed by both girls and boys.  

Just like mecha being popularized by Mazinger Z, mahou shoujo is popularized by Cutie Honey from Go Nagai. Some of the most popular mahou shoujo are Cardcaptor Sakura, Pretty Cure, and Symphogear

4. Josei Bizzare Adventure

Lastly, we have the rarest demography, josei, which is targeting adult females from the age of 17 to 40 years old and is rarely published outside of Japan -- the writer is quite convinced that a josei work that you guys know is Paradise Kiss, and Honey and Clover 

It’s rare not only because of the market is small (roughly 6,3% from total manga sold in Japan) but also because the theme is about the same-sex stories known as boy’s love or yaoi. While josei with adult themes normally called as ladies comic/LadyComi.

Josei itself meant woman, feminine, or womanhood.

But the thing that defines a manga is a part of shounen/shoujo/seinen/josei is which magazine they are being published. The story of Yotsuba in Yotsuba& in the example. Is it a shoujo work? No Yotsuba& is shounen because it’s being published by boys comic publisher, Dengeki Daioh

So does cutesy anime with a relaxing plot such as New Game! Or Himouto Umaru-chan. They are published by seinen publisher Manga Time Kirara Carat and Weekly Young Jump. Maybe the story about daily life like this is published to reduce the stress of college kids or young workers.

Repeating the first paragraph, shounen, seinen, shoujo, and josei is not a genre but rather the target in which an anime or a manga is published for, so they can’t be put in the same category that easily. 8 out of 10 best-seller manga of all time is shounen. Imagine if having a different gender or age makes a person not able to read One Piece

Source: Animenewsnetwork.com / Howtolovecomics.com

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