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Shōnen manga (少年漫画,lit. "boys'comics", alsoromanized asshonen,shounen orsyônen) is an editorial category ofJapanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent boys and young men. It is, along withshōjo manga (targeting adolescent girls and young women),seinen manga (targeting young adults and adult men), andjosei manga (targeting adult women), one of the primary demographic categories of manga and, by extension, ofJapanese anime.Shōnen manga is traditionally published in dedicatedmanga magazines that often almost exclusively target theshōnen demographic group.
Of the four primary demographic categories of manga,shōnen is the most popular category in the Japanese market. Whileshōnen manga ostensibly targets an audience of young males, its actual readership extends significantly beyond this target group to include all ages and genders. The category originated from Japanese children's magazines at the turn of the 20th century and gained significant popularity by the 1920s. The editorial focus ofshōnen manga is primarily onaction,adventure, and the fighting of monsters or other clearly defined forces of evil. Though action narratives dominate the category, there is deep editorial diversity and a significant number of genres and sub-genres withinshōnen manga, especially compared to other comic cultures outside of Japan, includingcomedy,crime,romance,slice of life, andsports.
The Japanese wordshōnen (少年, /ɕoːnen/lit. "few years"), meaning "young boy",[1] historically referred to juveniles in a general sense and was used by the Japanese publishing industry until the end of the 19th century to designate publications aimed at children and young people. The word shifted to its current usage of referring specifically to media aimed at adolescent boys, beginning with the practice of segmenting periodicals (especially manga magazines) by sex and age-specific target groups, which was established at the beginning of the 20th century and accelerated starting in the 1960s. This segmentation system is now openly used as a categorization system by manga publishers[2][3] and extends into works that are adapted from manga, such asanime.[4]
Shōnen manga refers tomanga aimed at an audience of adolescent boys, with the primary target audience alternately defined as 10 to 19 years old[5] and as 12 to 21 years old.[6] It is the most popular category in the Japanese market of the four primary demographic categories of manga (shōnen,shōjo,seinen, andjosei).[7][8]
The actual readership ofshōnen manga, as is the case for all demographic categories of manga,[8][9] extends significantly beyond this adolescent male target group to include all ages and genders.[10] For example, a 2006 survey of female manga readers found thatWeekly Shōnen Jump was the most popular manga magazine among this demographic, placing ahead of magazines that specifically target a female readership.[3] The target group orientation ofshōnen manga is particularly evident in the non-manga content ofshōnen manga magazines, which include advertising and articles on topics tailored to the interests of young males, such asvideo games. Non-manga content often corresponds to a major manga series in a given magazine, for example, advertisements for a video game adaptation of the series or articles about an animated film adaptation of the series.[8][11]
Children's magazines with sex-segregated readerships have existed in Japan since the early 1900s. While early youth magazines were ostensibly unisex –Shōnen Sekai was the first youth magazine in Japan in 1895, targeting a readership of both boys and girls[3] – in practice, the editorial content of these publications largely concerned topics that were thought to be of interest to boys.[12] This provoked the emergence of first exclusivelyshōjo (girls) magazines in 1902, andshōnen magazines subsequently began to exclusively target a male audience.[3] Initially, these magazines did not publish manga;[13] the firstshōnen magazine to do so wasShōnen Pakku, first published in 1907. This was followed byShōnen Club in 1914 and laterYōnen Club. Among the most successful and influential manga series in these earlyshōnen magazines wereNorakuro bySuihō Tagawa, which follows the life of ananthropomorphic dog soldier, andTank Tankuro byGajo Sakamoto, about a robot-like character who can change his appearance.[14]
Shōnen magazines enjoyed significant popularity during the 1920s and 1930s, withYōnen Club selling over 950,000 copies. During theSecond Sino-Japanese War andSecond World War, magazine sales declined and publications were used increasingly forwartime propaganda purposes. The manga content in these publications was reduced,[15] and the series that remained typically focused on patriotic and militaristic themes, such as stories aboutsamurai. In other stories, robots were depicted as fighting in the war against the Allied forces, as analogous to westernsuperhero comics that depicted superheroes fighting the Axis powers during this same period.[15]
During the post-waroccupation of Japan, the Japanese publishing industry was rebuilt under initially strict guidelines. Stories focused on war, combat, and most competitive sports were banned with the aim of discouraging belligerence and hindering the use of manga for pro-Imperial propaganda.[16] Manga developed during this period under the influence of artistOsamu Tezuka, with series such asAstro Boy andKimba the White Lion.[17][18] Tezuka was inspired by Americancartoons, and pioneered the so-called "story manga": long-running manga series with a cinematic style andcontinuity across multiple chapters, contrasting what had previously been a medium defined by one-off comic strips.[10]Science fiction stories about robots, space travel, and heroic space-faring adventures enjoyed popularity during this period;[19][16] many sci-fi stories took themes and concepts from war comics and re-imagined them with pacifist ideals, such asTetsujin 28-go byMitsuteru Yokoyama.[16]
One of the first newshōnen manga magazines of the post-war period wasManga Shōnen, which launched in 1947 and published works by Tezuka,Leiji Matsumoto, andShōtarō Ishinomori.[20][8] As post-war censorship codes were repealed and Japan entered a period of significant economic development in the 1950s, sales of manga and the number of manga magazines increased significantly, andshōnen andshōjo manga came to further establish themselves as distinct categories.[10] The first works ofsports manga also emerged fromshōnen manga during this time; notable early works includeIgaguri-kun [jp] byEiichi Fukui as the first manga series in the genre,[10] andAshita no Joe byAsao Takamori andTetsuya Chiba, which became one of the most commercially successful works in the genre.[16] 1959 saw the launch ofShōnen Sunday andWeekly Shōnen Magazine, the first weeklyshōnen manga magazines.[21][8] Other weeklies, such asShōnen Champion,Shōnen King, andShōnen Ace, emerged in the 1960s.[10][16]Weekly Shōnen Jump was first published in 1968, and would establish itself as the best-selling manga magazine across demographic categories, a position it holds to this day. Many of the most popular and commercially successfulshōnen series originated inWeekly Shōnen Jump, includingDragon Ball byAkira Toriyama,Naruto byMasashi Kishimoto,Bleach byTite Kubo,One Piece byEiichiro Oda, andSlam Dunk byTakehiko Inoue.[8]
Seinen manga became formalized as a category of manga aimed at an older male audience in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and manyshōnen artists associated with the realistgekiga movement migrated toseinen manga. The demise of thekashi-hon (rental manga) market led manykashi-hon artists to move into magazine publishing, includingshōnen manga, bringing their distinct themes and style with them. As a result,shōnen manga came to deal with more serious and political themes, and saw an increase in depictions of violent and explicit subjects, as well as an increase in profanity. Significant artists of this era includeShigeru Mizuki,[21] creator of the horror seriesGeGeGe no Kitarō; andGeorge Akiyama, whoseshōnen manga seriesAshura depicts cannibalism, child abuse, and mass murder.[22] Although this provoked a public backlash, it did not lead to the decline for the industry: series with anarchic, offensive humor became popular inshōnen andseinen manga alike, withCrayon Shin-Chan byYoshito Usui becoming an internationally famous example of this phenomenon.[10] Manga artistGo Nagai originated the sexually-chargedecchi genre withHarenchi Gakuen, which was serialized inWeekly Shōnen Jump.[23]
The stylistic and thematic differences betweenshōnen andshōjo began to narrow considerably beginning in the 1980s, with widespread exchange of stylistic devices and themes. For example, the characteristiclarge eyes ofshōjo manga became common inshōnen manga to convey the emotions of characters, and female characters have enjoyed greater prominence as both supporting and primary characters inshōnen manga. Other graphic storytelling techniques that originated inshōjo manga, such as montages of multiplepanels, were imported intoshōnen manga and have become common stylistic devices.[24] In the 1980s, combat-focused "battle manga" stories became popular, withDragon Ball andFist of the North Star emerging as representative works of this development. Manga criticJason Thompson credits the success ofDragon Ball, first published in 1984, as originating a trend that has persisted to contemporaryshōnen manga of favoring cartoonish art styles over the more mature art styles ofshōnen titles such asCity Hunter andFist of the North Star.[25]
Female manga artists also began to enjoy increasing critical and commercial success asshōnen manga creators.[26] As a result of the combined influence ofecchi and the rise of female artists,romance emerged as a subgenre ofshōnen manga, especiallyromantic comedy.[27][28] When manga began to emerge in the Western world in the early 1990s, theshōnen category was so dominant in these new markets that it came to shape the image of manga as a whole.[24] Whileshōjo made gains in popularity by the 2000s,shōnen remains the most popular category of manga, both in Japan and internationally.[27]
This thematic orientation ofshōnen manga is readily inferred from the formalvalues or slogans thatshōnen manga magazines assign themselves: for example, "friendship, perseverance, and victory" forWeekly Shōnen Jump,[29] and "courage, friendship and fighting spirit" forCoroCoro Comic.[30] The editorial focus ofshōnen manga is primarily onaction,adventure, and the fighting of monsters or other forces of evil.[31] Action stories are so dominant inshōnen manga that some manga and non-manga works are occasionally designated asshōnen not because of their ostensible target group, but because of their content focus on action and adventure.[32] Though action narratives dominate the category, there is deep editorial diversity and a significant number of genres and subgenres withinshōnen manga, especially when compared to other comic cultures outside of Japan.[16] This includes but is not limited tocomedy,crime,romance,slice of life, and stories about activities such assports and the lives of different types of working professionals.[8]
The action genre is itself is expressed through a variety of subgenres, fromhistorical and contemporary drama toscience fiction andfantasy.[8]Shōnen war fiction has been alternately jingoistic or critical of militarism and violence, withBarefoot Gen byKeiji Nakazawa as a notable example of the latter.[33]Samurai appeared frequently as idealized role models for boy readers in earlyshōnen, analogous to representations ofcowboys in western comics; samurai stories shifted to comedy and sportsmanship in the post-war period, before returning to themes of idealized themes of good versus evil.[34] Thoughshōnen manga typically attempts to convey a message of peace, the category has been criticized by individuals such as directorHayao Miyazaki for promoting overly simple good/evil dichotomies.[35]
Ashōnen protagonist is often characterized by contradictory qualities: short-tempered and cool, mischievous and rebellious, serious and cynical, clumsy and infallible, or who appears as a good-for-nothing but possesses hidden abilities. In some cases, the contradiction takes on a literal form in the form ofhenshin (変身,lit. 'transformation'), where the hero is able to switch between two personas with different appearances and personalities; examples of this device includeYu-Gi-Oh byKazuki Takahashi andSamurai Deeper Kyo byAkimine Kamijyo. Transformation abilities are often linked with bonds to a spirit, monster or robot.[8] A major narrative device inshōnen manga is rivalry between the protagonist and his opponent,[36] with a fight or a quest often appearing as a central element;Dragon Ball is among the most popular and commercially successful examples of this archetypal story.[37]
Typically, ashōnen protagonist is an outsider, or in some way disadvantaged compared to others, but who through training, perseverance, and willpower eventually succeeds against all odds.[16] Plots typically follow the basic structure of thehero's journey, with much of the story focused on the protagonist's training and transformation into a hero, and on characters who earn their status as heroes through effort and tenacity rather than by virtue of birth or assignment. For long-running series, the hero's journey repeats itself; as a newstory arc begins, the enemy becomes more powerful and the danger to be overcome becomes greater.[27] In addition to these external conflicts, ashōnen protagonist often also faces internal conflicts, typically focused around maturity and growing older.[27] In contrast toshōjo manga, which often focuses on the thoughts andinterior monologue of the hero,shōnen typically advances plot through dialogue and action.[24][36]Happy endings are common inshōnen manga, but are not obligatory,[8] with writers expressing the happy ending fitting for the demography even if it not comes up as a suitable.[38][39]
Comics theoristNeil Cohn regards the art style ofshōnen as generally "edgier" than that ofshōjo manga, and notes how most regular manga readers are able to easily distinguish betweenshōnen andshōjo based on visual appearance alone.[40] Visually, ashōnen protagonist often possesses what manga criticJason Thompson describes as "insanely spiky hair" that distinguishes the protagonist'ssilhouette from that of other characters.[8] The eyes ofshōnen characters in the post-war period aresignificantly smaller than those of characters inshōjo manga; large eyes are used inshōjo manga to better convey the emotions of the characters, an aspect which has historically been given less focus inshōnen manga.[36] A common visual device inshōnen action scenes is to depict the contours of figures with rough, coarsemotion lines to give the appearance of movement.[41]
Historically, the protagonists ofshōnen manga were almost exclusively men and boys; women and girls appeared primarily in supporting roles as sisters, mothers, or girlfriends, if at all. This was especially true ofecchi stories that developed out ofshōnen manga beginning in the 1970s, withThe Abashiri Family by Go Nagai as one of the earliest representative works of this development, as well as an early example of ashōnen manga with a female protagonist. Since the 1980s, women and girls have played a more active role inshōnen manga, fighting alongside male characters and not merely as passive support.[42]Dr. Slump byAkira Toriyama was an early representative work of this development, with its mischievous child protagonistArale Norimaki being among the firstshōnen manga to depict this type of archetypal character as a girl rather than a boy. The 1980s also saw femaleshōnen manga artists rise to greater prominence: notably horror manga artistKei Kusunoki, andRumiko Takahashi with her romantic comediesUrusei Yatsura andRanma ½.[43]
Especially inshōnen series that are aimed at an older audience, female characters are often presented in a manner that is attractive to the male target audience asbishōjos (literally "beautiful young girls"). They exist as objects of romantic or sexual desire not merely for the male characters, but also for the ostensibly heterosexual male reader as a form offan service.[44] While these objectifying tropes have persisted inshōnen manga, women have also developed more active roles in these fan service-oriented stories. A common romantic comedy trope inshōnen manga since the 1980s has been to pair a weak male protagonist with a strong female love interest who is not only the target of his romantic and sexual desire, but also his good friend and confidante.[42] In theharem genre, which originated fromshōnen manga, a male protagonist is surrounded by several female characters who desire him, and who are often more confident and assertive than he is; examples includeNegima! Magister Negi Magi byKen Akamatsu andHanaukyo Maid Team byMorishige. In other cases, the male protagonist is unsuccessful in his attempts to woo the female character, or the story is focused around the originally naïve and infantile male protagonist maturing and learning how to develop healthy relationships with women.[45]
For certainshōnen series, a female readership who read in or interpret subtextualhomoerotic relationships between canonically heterosexual male characters constitute a significant proportion of the series' audience; this is especially true of series featuring male characters who arebishōnen (literally "beautiful boys"), or who are perceived as such by readers. This reading ofshōnen manga is expressed in the form offan works such asdōjinshi (self-published amateur manga) and theboys' love (BL) genre of manga and anime, which includes both original andderivative works. Manga scholarYukari Fujimoto notes in her analysis of the female readership of theshōnen titlesOne Piece,Naruto, andThe Prince of Tennis that homoerotic interpretations ofshōnen manga tend to be most common among titles that do not include prominent female characters that a female readership is able to identify with.[46]
Shōnen manga is traditionally published in dedicatedmanga magazines that specifically target an audience ofshōnen. At the industry's peak in the mid-1990s, there were 23 totalshōnen magazines, which collectively sold 662 million copies in 1995. The total manga magazine market that year included 265 magazines, with a total of 1.595 billion copies sold.[30]
A manga magazine is typically several hundred pages long, and contains over a dozen series orone-shots.[47] The largest Japaneseshōnen magazines in terms of circulation areWeekly Shōnen Jump byShueisha,Weekly Shōnen Magazine byKodansha, andWeekly Shōnen Sunday byShogakukan; these publishers are also the largest publishers of manga generally. The fourth largest magazine, albeit by a significant margin, isWeekly Shōnen Champion byAkita Shoten, which was among the most popular manga magazines in the 1970s and 1980s. The magazinesCoroCoro Comic and the now-defunctComic BomBom technically belong to thekodomo (children's manga) demographic, but are often counted asshōnen magazines as they target an audience of school-aged boys.[8][30] A list of the topshōnen magazines by circulation as of 2015 are listed below:[48]
| Title | Circulation |
|---|---|
| Weekly Shōnen Jump | 2,380,000 |
| Weekly Shōnen Magazine | 1,110,000 |
| CoroCoro Comic | 920,000 |
| Monthly Shōnen Magazine | 540,000 |
| Weekly Shōnen Sunday | 370,000 |
| Jump Square | 260,000 |
