11 Facts About Josei manga

Josei manga is traditionally printed in dedicated manga magazines which often specialize in a specific subgenre, typically drama, romance, or pornography.

The category became stigmatized in the late 1980s as it came to be associated with pornographic Josei manga, but gained greater artistic legitimacy in the 1990s as it shifted to social issue-focused stories.

Josei manga has been regularly adapted into anime since the 2000s.

Consequently, the readership of shojo Josei manga widened from its historical audience of children to incorporate teenagers and young adult women.

Contemporaneously, new Josei manga magazines aimed at adult women in their early twenties emerged: Young You in 1987, Young Rose in 1990, and Feel Young in 1991.

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Manga published in these magazines came to be referred to as "young ladies" Josei manga, originating from the word "young" appearing in the title of all three magazines, and was positioned in the Josei manga market as an intermediate category between shojo and ladies comics.

Young ladies Josei manga grew in popularity as shojo artists who wished to create Josei manga for an older audience while avoiding the stigma associated with ladies' comics migrated to the category.

The term josei manga emerged during this period, used primarily by academics to distinguish manga aimed at adult women from shojo manga.

At the editorial level, there is no consistent standard for segmenting Josei manga aimed at a female audience, with terminology and categories varying across decades, publishing houses, and magazines.

Since the 2000s, some large publishers such as Shueisha and Kodansha have grouped all Josei manga magazines aimed at a female audience under a single category.

Formatting of tankobon bound volumes, where larger and more expensive books are traditionally reserved for titles aimed at an adult audience, similarly follow no formal rules, with adult Josei manga sold in small and inexpensive formats and youth Josei manga sold in large formats.