Shōnen manga

Shōnen, shonen, or shounen manga (å°'年漫ç"», shōnen manga) is manga aimed at a male audience. It appeals to a large age group, though its primary audience stays roughly between the ages of 10 and 18. The Kanji characters (å°'å¹´) mean "boy" or "youth"; the characters (漫ç"») mean "cartoon" or "comic". The complete phrase literally means "young person's comic" or simply "boys' comic". Shōnen manga has been said to be the most popular form of manga. The female equivalent to shōnen manga is shōjo manga.

Summary

Shōnen (å°'å¹´) manga (漫ç"») is typically characterized by high-action, often humorous plots featuring male protagonists. The camaraderie between boys or men on sports teams, fighting squads and the like is often emphasized. Attractive female characters with exaggerated features are also common, such as Bulma from Dragon Ball or Nami from One Piece (see fan service). Main characters may also feature an ongoing desire to better themselves.

Such manga often portray challenges to the protagonist's abilities, skills, and maturity, stressing self-perfection, austere self-discipline, sacrifice in the cause of duty, and honorable service to society, community, family, and friends.

None of these listed characteristics are a requirement, as seen in shōnen manga like Yotsuba&!, which features a female lead and almost no fan service or action; what most defines whether or not a series is shōnen are things like the magazine (see Weekly Shōnen Jump) it is serialized in or the time slot it airs on T.V. After the case of Tsutomu Miyazaki, depictions of violence and sexual matters became more highly regulated in manga in general, but especially in shōnen manga. The art style of shōnen is generally less "flowery" than that of shōjo manga, although this varies greatly from artist to artist, and some artists draw both shōnen and shōjo manga.

Different shōnen manga stories may feature different themes, such as martial arts, robots, science fiction, sports, terror, and mythological creatures.

Shōnen manga today

Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball (1984â€"1995) is credited with setting the trend of popular shōnen manga from the 1980s onward, with manga critic Jason Thompson in 2011 calling it "by far the most influential shōnen manga of the last 30 years." The influence and popularity of the series had reached many currently successful shōnen authors such as Eiichiro Oda, Masashi Kishimoto, Tite Kubo, Togashi Yoshihiro, Akira Amano, Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro and Hiro Mashima, who continue to pay homage to his impact and influence in their own works.

History

Before World War II

Manga has said to exist since the eighteenth century, but originally did not target a specific gender or age group. By 1905, however, a boom in publishing manga magazines occurred, and began targeting genders as evidenced by their names, such as Shōnen Sekai, Shōjo Sekai, and Shōnen Pakku (a kodomo manga magazine). Shōnen Sekai was one of the first shōnen manga magazines, and was published from 1895 to 1914.

Post-Occupation

The post-World War II occupation of Japan had a profound impact on its culture during the 1950s and beyond (see culture of Post-occupation Japan), including on manga. Modern manga developed during this period, including the modern format of shōnen manga we experience today, of which boys and young men were among the earliest readers. During this time, Shōnen manga focused on topics thought to interest the archetypical boy: sci-tech subjects like robots and space travel, and heroic action-adventure. Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム, Tetsuwan Atomu, "Mighty Atom," lit. "Iron Arm Atom") is said to have played an influential role in manga during this period. Between 1950 and 1969, an increasingly large readership for manga emerged in Japan with the solidification of its two main marketing genres, shōnen manga aimed at boys and shōjo manga aimed at girls.

The magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump began production in 1968, and continues to be produced today as the best-selling manga magazine in Japan. Many of the most popular shōnen manga titles have been serialized in Jump, including Dragon Ball, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Slam Dunk, Captain Tsubasa, and others (see List of series run in Weekly Shōnen Jump).

With the relaxation of censorship in Japan in the 1990s, a wide variety of explicit sexual themes appeared in manga intended for male readers, and correspondingly occur in English translations; however, in 2010 the Tokyo Metropolitan Government passed a bill to restrict harmful content.

Women's roles in shōnen manga

In early shōnen manga, men and boys played all the major roles, with women and girls having only auxiliary places as sisters, mothers, and occasionally girlfriends. Of the nine cyborgs in Shotaro Ishinomori's 1964 Cyborg 009, only one is female, and she soon vanishes from the action. Some recent shōnen manga virtually omit women, e.g. the martial arts story Baki the Grappler by Itagaki Keisuke, and the supernatural fantasy Sand Land by Akira Toriyama. By the 1980s, however, girls and women began to play increasingly important roles in shōnen manga. For example, in Toriyama's 1980 Dr. Slump, the main character is the mischievous and powerful girl robot Arale Norimaki.

The role of girls and women in manga for male readers has evolved considerably since Arale. One class is the pretty girl (bishōjo). Sometimes the woman is unattainable, and she is always an object of the hero's emotional and/or sexual interest, like Belldandy from Oh My Goddess! by Kōsuke Fujishima and Shao-lin from Guardian Angel Getten by Minene Sakurano. In other stories, the hero is surrounded by such girls and women, as in Negima by Ken Akamatsu and Hanaukyo Maid Team by Morishige. The male protagonist does not always succeed in forming a relationship with the woman, for example when Bright Honda and Aimi Komori fail to bond in Shadow Lady by Masakazu Katsura. In other cases, a successful couple's sexual activities are depicted or implied, like in Outlanders by Johji Manabe. In still other cases, the initially naive and immature hero grows up to become a man by learning how to deal and live with women emotionally and sexually; examples of heroes who follow this path include Yota in Video Girl Ai by Masakazu Katsura and Train Man in Train Man: Densha Otoko by Hidenori Hara. However, since the 90s, women have acquired a heightened role in various manga, albeit lesser in number. They are often portrayed as central characters or characters with important roles in manga. Some examples include InuYasha, Ranma ½, and Fairy Tail.

Examples of shōnen manga that feature female protagonists include Soul Eater and It's Not My Fault That I'm Not Popular!

List of shōnen manga

Examples of shōnen manga include Shaman King, Baka and Test, Fist of the North Star, Death Note, Dragon Ball, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Beyblade, One Piece, Naruto, Astro Boy, Pandora Hearts, Rurouni Kenshin, Kinnikuman, Saint Seiya, Dr. Slump, Gin Tama, Fighting Spirit, Detective Conan, YuYu Hakusho, Code Geass, Hunter × Hunter, Reborn!, Bleach, Soul Eater, Air Gear, Slam Dunk, Zatch Bell!, Fairy Tail, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Fullmetal Alchemist, Ranma ½, Attack on Titan, Blue Exorcist, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Sket Dance, Kuroko's Basketball, Deadman Wonderland, Toriko, D.Gray-man, Pokemon Adventures, and InuYasha.

See also

• Children's manga: Manga intended for children
• Shōjo manga: Manga intended for adolescent girls
• Seinen manga: Manga intended for adult men
• Josei manga: Manga intended for adult women

References

External links

• Anime for boys (Japanese)
• Anime for men (Japanese)
• Shōnen-in, reformatory (Ministry of Justice site) (Japanese)