Shnen manga

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Shnen, shonen, or shounen manga (

shnen manga) is manga aimed at a
young male audience. The age group
varies with individual readers and different
magazines, but it is primarily intended for
boys between the ages of 8 to 18.[1] The
kanji characters () literally mean "boy"
(or "youth"), and the characters ()
mean "cartoon" or "comic". Thus, the
complete phrase means "young person's
comic", or simply "boys' comic"; its female
equivalent is shjo manga. Shnen manga
is the most popular form of manga.[2][3]

Summary
Shnen manga is typically characterized
by high-action,[4] often humorous plots
featuring male protagonists. The
camaraderie between boys or men on
sports teams, ghting squads and the like
is often emphasized. Main characters may
also feature an ongoing desire to better
themselves.[3]

Such manga often portray challenges to

the protagonist's abilities, skills, and
maturity, stressing self-perfection, austere
self-discipline, sacrice in the cause of
duty, and honorable service to society,
community, family, and friends.[5][6]

None of these listed characteristics are a

requirement, as seen in shnen manga like
Yotsuba&!, which features a female lead
and almost no fan service or action; what
most denes whether or not a series is
shnen are things like the magazine it is
serialized in or the time slot it airs on
television. After the case of Tsutomu
Miyazaki, depictions of violence and
sexual matters became more highly
regulated in manga in general, but
especially in shnen manga.[7] The art
style of shnen is generally less "flowery"
than that of shjo manga, although this
varies greatly from artist to artist, and
some artists draw both shnen and shjo
manga.

Different shnen manga stories may

feature different themes, such as martial
arts, robots, science ction, sports, terror,
and mythological creatures.[3]

Shnen manga today

Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball (19841995)

is credited with setting the trend of
popular shnen manga from the 1980s
onward, with manga critic Jason
Thompson in 2011 calling it "by far the
most influential shnen manga of the last
30 years."[8] Many currently successful
shnen authors such as Eiichiro Oda,
Masashi Kishimoto, Tite Kubo, Hiro
Mashima and Kentaro Yabuki cite him and
Dragon Ball as an influence on their own
now popular works.

History
Before World War II
Manga has been said to have existed
since the eighteenth century,[9][10] but
originally did not target a specic 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 Shnen Sekai,
Shjo Sekai, and Shnen Pakku (a kodomo
manga magazine).[10] Shnen Sekai was
one of the rst shnen 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
shnen manga we experience today, of
which boys and young men were among
the earliest readers.[5] During this time,
Shnen manga focused on topics thought
to interest the archetypical boy: sci-tech
subjects like robots and space travel, and
heroic action-adventure.[11] Osamu Tezuka,
creator of Astro Boy is said to have played
an influential role in manga during this
period.[9][12][13] Between 1950 and 1969, an
increasingly large readership for manga
emerged in Japan with the solidication of
its two main marketing genres, shnen
manga aimed at boys and shjo manga
aimed at girls.[14]

The magazine Weekly Shnen Jump began

production in 1968,[10] and continues to be
produced today as the best-selling manga
magazine in Japan.[15] Many of the most
popular shnen manga titles have been
serialized in Jump, including Dragon Ball,
Captain Tsubasa, Slam Dunk, One Piece,
Naruto, Bleach, and others.

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.[16] However, in 2010 the
Tokyo Metropolitan Government passed
the controversial Bill 156 to restrict
harmful content despite opposition by
many authors and publishers in the manga
industry.[17][18]

Women's roles in shnen

manga
In early shnen 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 shnen 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 shnen 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 bishjo or
"beautiful young girl."[19] 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 Ksuke Fujishima and Shao-
lin from Guardian Angel Getten by Minene
Sakurano.[20] In other stories, the hero is
surrounded by such girls and women, as in
Negima! Magister Negi Magi by Ken
Akamatsu and Hanaukyo Maid Team by
Morishige.[21] 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.[22] 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.[23][24]

However, since the 80s, there have been

increase in female protagonists in
shounen, albeit lesser in number. They are
often portrayed as central characters or
characters with important roles in manga.
Some examples include Fullmetal
Alchemist,[25] Inuyasha, Attack on Titan,
Ranma , Fairy Tail, Gunslinger Girl, The
Qwaser of Stigmata, WataMote, Nisekoi,
Strawberry Marshmallow, Soul Eater and
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

List of shnen manga

Ashita no Joe
Astro Boy
Attack on Titan
Black Jack
Bleach
Captain Tsubasa
Cutie Honey
D.Gray-man
Death Note
Detective Conan
Dr. Slump
Dragon Ball
Fairy Tail
Fist of the North Star
Fullmetal Alchemist
GeGeGe no Kitar
Gin Tama
Hajime no Ippo
Hunter Hunter
Inuyasha
 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Kimagure Orange Road
Kindaichi Case Files
Kinnikuman
Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Ken-
mae Hashutsujo
Love Hina
Mazinger Z
Naruto
One Piece
Ranma
Rurouni Kenshin
Saint Seiya
Slam Dunk
 Space Pirate Captain Harlock
Speed Racer
Tetsujin 28-go
Touch
Urusei Yatsura
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yu Yu Hakusho

See also
Children's manga: Manga intended for
children
Shjo manga: Manga intended for
adolescent girls
Seinen manga: Manga intended for
adult men
 Josei manga: Manga intended for adult
women

References
1. "What you need to know about the
Shonen genre" . Jappleng University. 2009-
02-23. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
2. Aoki, Deb. "What is Shonen Manga?" .
About.com. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
3. Kamikaze Factory Studio (2012). Shonen
Manga. HarperCollins. p.8.
ISBN9780062115478.
4. "Short anime glossary [
- ]".
anime*magazine (in Russian) (3): 36. 2004.
ISSN1810-8644 .
5. Schodt, 1986, op. cit., chapter 3, pp. 68-
87.
6. Brenner, 2007, op. cit., p. 31.
7.
http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/mc
lelland.htm
"One result was a new regime of self-
regulation among manga producers and
distributors who began to reign in the more
violent and sexual images that
characterized some genres, particularly
manga directed at shnen (male youth)."
8. Thompson, Jason (March 10, 2011).
"Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga
Dragon Ball" . Anime News Network.
Retrieved 2014-01-31.
9. Thorn, Matt (June 1996). "A History of
Manga" . Matt-thorn.com. Retrieved 18
March 2013.
10. "Everything about Shounen (Shonen
) Genre" . Jappleng.com. 14 March 2013.
Retrieved 18 March 2013.
11. Schodt, 1986, op. cit., chapter 3;
Gravett, 2004, op. cit., chapter. 5, pp. 52-73.
12. intnashonaru, Kdansha (1999). Eibun
nihon shjiten: Japan Prole of a nation
(Revised ed., 1. ed.). Tky: Kdansha
Intnashonaru. pp.692715. ISBN4-7700-
2384-7.
13. Schodt, Frederik L. (2007). The Astro
Boy essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom,
and the manga/anime revolution. Berkeley,
Calif.: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN978-1-
933330-54-9.
14. Tezuka, Frederik L. Schodt. Foreword by
Osamu (1988). Manga! Manga!: the world
of Japanese comics; [includes 96 pages
from Osamu Tezuka's "Phoenix", Reiji
Matsumoto's "Ghost warrior", Riyoko Ikeda's
"The rose of Versailles", Keiji Nakazawa's
"Barefoot gen" (Updated paperback ed.).
Tokyo;New York: Kodansha Internat.
ISBN978-0-87011-752-7.
15. "2009 Japanese Manga Magazine
Circulation Numbers" . Anime News
Network. 2009-01-18. Retrieved 2013-11-
30. The bestselling manga magazine,
Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, rose in
circulation from 2.79 million copies to 2.81
million.
16. Perper, Timothy; Cornog, Martha (1
March 2002). "Eroticism for the masses:
Japanese manga comiss and their
assimilation into the U.S.". Sexuality and
Culture. 6 (1): 3126. doi:10.1007/s12119-
002-1000-4 .
17. "Comic fans protest 'extreme sex'
manga bans" . The Sydney Morning Herald.
Agence France-Presse. 2010-12-15.
Retrieved 2015-08-23.
18. "Writers, Lawyers Oppose Revised
Youth Ordinance Bill" . Anime News
Network. 2010-11-27. Retrieved 2015-08-
23.
19. For multiple meanings of bishjo, see
Perper & Cornog, 2002, op. cit., pp. 60-63.
20. Guardian Angel Getten, by Sakurano
Minene. Raijin Graphic Novels/Gutsoon!
Entertainment, Vols. 1-4, 2003-2004.
21. Negima, by Ken Akamatsu. Del
Rey/Random House, Vols. 1-15, 2004-2007;
Hanaukyo Maid Team, by Morishige. Studio
Ironcat, Vols. 1-3, 2003-2004.
22. Outlanders:
http://www.angelre.com/anime/mangate
mple/outlanders.html .
23. Train Man: Densha Otoko, Hidenori
Hara. Viz, Vols. 1-3, 2006.
24. Perper, Timothy and Martha Cornog.
2007. "The education of desire: Futari etchi
and the globalization of sexual tolerance."
Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime,
Manga, and Fan Arts, 2:201-214.
25. Thompson, Jason (2013-06-06). "Jason
Thompson's House of 1000 Manga -
Fullmetal Alchemist" . Anime News
Network. Retrieved 2015-08-22.

External links
Anime for boys (in Japanese)
Anime for men (in Japanese)
Shnen-in , reformatory (Ministry of
Justice site) (in Japanese)

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