ShÅjo manga
Shōjo manga (Japanese少女 漫画, girl comics) are Japanese comics that are drawn specifically for adolescent girls around the age of six to eighteen.
Definition
The cultural anthropologist Matt Thorn classifies a Japanese shōjo manga comic as if he has appeared in a shōjo manga magazine. In what manga category, a manga magazine that specializes announce the publishers of the respective magazines. For example, Akimi Yoshida's action accentuated Thriller Banana Fish drawn in a for shōjo manga rather atypical, realistic and clear style that is similar to the works of Katsuhiro Otomo's, but appeared still in Bessatsu Shōjo Comic, whose target group are girls in middle and high school age.
The male counterpart to the shōjo manga forms of shōnen manga.
History
From the beginning of the 20th century published in Japanese girls magazines such as Shōjo Club first comics for girls. These were drawn by men and were still acting as " Yonkoma manga ", as entertaining comic strips. For the monthly magazine Shōjo created shosuke Kuragane example, in 1949, the comic strip series Anmitsu -hime, in deriving the name of the main character and all the other characters of candy.
Successful girl manga were, however, only in the form of long comics with continuous action, in the form of story manga. The first story manga for girls created Osamu Tezuka 1953-1958 with Ribon no Kishi for shōjo Club. It's about the Princess Sapphire who is raised as a boy because of the cunning of an angel who has given her the heart of a man with the world. The angel is sent by God on earth to the sapphire heart take away again, so that she can marry the prince of the neighboring kingdom. Tezuka was influenced for Ribon no Kishi of the female Takarazuka theater group and drew the comic by the same means that had already brought him to the success of manga for a male target group - with close to cinematic narrative and one influenced by Disney films character design.
Other male cartoonists created after the model Ribon no Kishi in the 1950s also shōjo manga, often because they were not accepted in the shōnen manga. Some of these signatories, such as Tetsuya Chiba, Leiji Matsumoto and Shotaro Ishinomori, and later to extremely well-known authors of Shōnen manga were.
1962 and 1963 also first weekly manga magazines were founded for girls, Margaret by Shueisha Publishing and Shōjo Friend from the Kodansha publishing house. In 1955, the monthly manga magazine Ribon and Nakayoshi were founded by these two publishers. Margaret and Shōjo Friend turned to a slightly older audience than their monthly counterparts.
Although already Machiko Hasegawa had worked with her comic strip series sazae -san since 1946 for newspapers, women established in the shōjo manga scene later. In the 1960s, Toshiko Ueda, Hideko Mizuno, Miyako Maki, Masako Watanabe and Chikako Urano influenced by and by the setting, shōjo manga are comics by women. Chikako Urano gained with their Volleyball Series No Attack. 1 (1968-1971) popularity and paved the way for sports in the girls' manga. Sumika Yamamoto created with Ace wo Nerae! 1972-1980 a very successful tennis manga.
The Girl Manga revolutionized in 1969, the group of 24er to Moto Hagio, Yumiko Oshima, Keiko Takemiya and Riyoko Ikeda. The few women who had published until then shōjo manga, had followed the pattern set by the men. The 24er this changed with the introduction of new topics and unconventional, focused on aesthetics drawing techniques. Riyoko Ikeda noted in its 1800 - page work, The Rose of Versailles ( 1972-1973 ) in the context of the French Revolution, a fictional female figure at the French court exercises a man's job as general and eventually die for the revolution. In Moto Hagios Manga no Shinzō Thomas (1973-1975) is about a homosexual love affair in a European boy school. Keiko Takemiya reached the same motif also in their bestseller Kaze to Ki no Uta ( 1976-1984 ). The popularity of these homoerotic stories influenced many other female mangaka, led to the creation of own magazines such as June and ultimately to the establishment of its own genre ( Boys Love ). With the success of the 24er women took the final shōjo manga and only sporadically were male artist to prevail in the girls' manga ( such as Shinji Wada, Mitsuru Adachi and Maya Mineo ).
With magazines like Mimi, which turned to adolescent girls at the age of fourteen to 21, came from the mid-1970s to more mature shōjo manga, which led in the early 1980s to the development of Josei manga. One of the most important titles in Mimi was Waki Yamato manga implementation of the classic tale of Genji.
In the 1980s, it was mainly everyday stories with self- irony, which prevailed in the shōjo manga. Mangas like Momoko Sakura Chibi Maruko - chan ( since 1987) about the life of a sassy primary school pupil and Noriko Sasaki vet series Dobutsu no Oisha -san ( 1989-1994) sold several million copies. Towards the end of the 1980s made many illustrators who had first worked in the amateur manga scene, professional publications, including Yun Kouga, Minami Ozaki and the artist team CLAMP.
From 1992 to 2004 Yōko Kamio Hana Yori Dango created with the best-selling with sales of 55 million girls manga in Japan. This is a girl from a poor family in the foreground, the change to a rich private school and finds himself there in love entanglements. A comic series about girls who turn into superheroes with magical abilities, Naoko Takeuchi created with Sailor Moon (1992-1997). Sailor Moon reached international fame.
Stylistic devices
Topics treated are often the first love, heartbreak and friendship. The male characters often meet the bishonen called Japanese ideal of a young man. Female characters are often depicted with oversized, shiny eyes. The eyes are often used as a kind of " graphic mirror " in which the feelings of the figure are shown.