Seinen manga (é'年漫ç"») is manga marketed to a male audience aged roughly 17 on into their 40s. In Japanese, the word seinen means "young man" or "young men." Seinen manga are distinguished from the more sex-focused seijin-muke manga (æˆäººå'ã'漫ç"»), which is often misclassified in the west as 'hentai', although there is sexual content of a softcore nature in some seinen series. The female equivalent to seinen manga is josei manga.
Seinen manga have a wide variety of art styles and variation in subject matter, ranging from the avant-garde through sports, games, business or action/adventure on to the erotic. Examples of seinen series include: Akira, Berserk, Battle Royale, Ghost in the Shell, Hellsing, Battle Angel Alita and Maison Ikkoku.
A common way to tell if a manga is seinen is by looking at whether or not furigana is used over the original kanji text: if there are furigana on all kanji, the title is generally aimed at a younger audience. The title of the magazine it was published in is also an important indicator. Usually Japanese manga magazines with the word "young" in the title (Weekly Young Jump for instance) are seinen. There are also mix shÅnen/seinen magazines like Champion Red, Gangan Powered and Comp Ace. Other popular seinen manga magazines include Young Magazine, Weekly Young Sunday, Big Comic Spirits, Business Jump, Ultra Jump, and Afternoon.
History
One of the earliest manga magazines published in Japan was a seinen manga: Weekly Manga Times first released in 1956. It was aimed squarely at middle-aged men with erotic fiction and manga and tales of yakuza. It was only in 1959, that two of the main shÅnen manga titles appeared, Weekly ShÅnen Magazine and Weekly ShÅnen Sunday. Then in 1967, the first of the magazines aimed at younger men appeared Weekly Manga Action appeared scoring big hits with Lupin III and Lone Wolf and Cub, and later Crayon Shin-chan. Big Comic followed in 1968, perhaps best known for its series Golgo 13. 1972 saw the addition of Big Comic Original which featured Tsuribaka Nisshi about two older men who enjoy fishing which was made into a series of popular movies. In 1979, the publisher Shueisha known for its Ribon and Margaret girls manga and Weekly Shonen Jump for boys, entered the seinen market with Weekly Young Jump. Many of the Young Jump series have been adapted into anime or live action TV programs, e.g. Elfen Lied, Gantz, Hen, Kirara, Liar Game, Oku-sama wa Joshi KÅsei and Zetman.
Magazines
A list of the top Japanese seinen manga magazines by circulation in the timespan from 1 October 2009 to 30 September 2010.
List of seinen manga
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