Seinen
Encyclopedia
is a subset of manga
that is generally targeted at a 20–30 year old male audience, but the audience can be older with some manga aimed at businessmen well into their 40s. In Japanese, the word Seinen means "young man" or "young men" and is not suggestive of sexual matters. (The female equivalent to seinen manga is josei manga.)
It has a wide variety of art styles and more variation in subject matter, ranging from the avant-garde
to the pornographic
. Seinen manga is distinguished from shōnen
, or boys' manga, by having a stronger emphasis on realism. Because of the emphasis on storyline and character development instead of action, some seinen series are often confused with shōjo, or girls' manga. This is especially true of seinen comedy series such as Chobits
, and Chi's Sweet Home
, or seinen drama such as Twin Spica
. Other examples of seinen manga include: Gantz
, Battle Royale
, 20th Century Boys
, Monster
, Blame!
, Ghost in the Shell
, Akira
, Berserk
, Battle Angel Alita
, Drifters
and Elfen Lied
. Rumiko Takahashi
's Maison Ikkoku
is sometimes classified as seinen, although this is disputed by some fans.
A common way to tell if a manga is seinen is by looking at whether or not furigana
is used over the original kanji
text: if there are furigana on all kanji, the title is generally aimed at a younger audience. The title of the magazine it was published in is also an important indicator. Usually Japan
ese manga magazines with the word "young" in the title (Weekly Young Jump
for instance) are seinen. Other popular seinen manga magazines include Ultra Jump
, Afternoon
, and Big Comic
.
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
that is generally targeted at a 20–30 year old male audience, but the audience can be older with some manga aimed at businessmen well into their 40s. In Japanese, the word Seinen means "young man" or "young men" and is not suggestive of sexual matters. (The female equivalent to seinen manga is josei manga.)
It has a wide variety of art styles and more variation in subject matter, ranging from the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
to the pornographic
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
. Seinen manga is distinguished from shōnen
Shonen
The term refers to manga marketed to a male audience aged roughly 10 and up. The Kanji characters literally mean "few" and "year", respectively, where the characters generally mean "comic"...
, or boys' manga, by having a stronger emphasis on realism. Because of the emphasis on storyline and character development instead of action, some seinen series are often confused with shōjo, or girls' manga. This is especially true of seinen comedy series such as Chobits
Chobits
is a Japanese manga created by the Japanese manga collective Clamp. It was published by Kodansha in Young Magazine from February 2001 to November 2002 and collected in eight bound volumes....
, and Chi's Sweet Home
Chi's Sweet Home
is a New York Times best-selling manga series written and illustrated by Kanata Konami. It has been serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Morning since 2004. The manga has been licensed for North American distribution by Vertical Inc. To date, it has been collected in eight volumes,...
, or seinen drama such as Twin Spica
Twin Spica
is a Japanese seinen manga series written and illustrated by Kou Yaginuma. The "realistic, slice-of-life science fiction series" tells the story of a group of Japanese high school students training to become astronauts in the early 21st century after the country's first human spaceflight launch...
. Other examples of seinen manga include: Gantz
Gantz
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroya Oku. Gantz tells the story of Kei Kurono and his friend Masaru Kato who die in a train accident and become part of a semi-posthumous "game" in which they and several other recently deceased people are forced to hunt down and kill aliens...
, Battle Royale
Battle Royale (manga)
is a serialized manga, written by Koushun Takami and Masayuki Taguchi. It is based on the novel of the same name, and was published in Japan by Akita Publishing. The manga consists of 15 volumes and is distributed in English by Tokyopop. There is a second manga called Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale...
, 20th Century Boys
20th Century Boys
is a science fiction-mystery manga created by Naoki Urasawa. It won the 2001 Kodansha Manga Award in the General category, an Excellence Prize at the 2002 Japan Media Arts Festival, and the 2003 Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category. The last two volumes of the story were serialized under...
, Monster
Monster (manga)
is a seinen manga written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa, published by Shogakukan in Big Comic Original between 1994 and 2001, and reprinted in 18 tankōbon volumes. It was adapted by Madhouse as a 74-episode anime TV series, which aired on NTV from April 7, 2004 to September 28, 2005...
, Blame!
Blame!
, pronounced "blam", is a ten-volume 1998 cyberpunk manga by Tsutomu Nihei published by Kodansha. A six part original net animation was produced in 2003, with a seventh episode included on the DVD release.- Plot :...
, Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell
is a Japanese multimedia franchise composed of manga, animated films, anime series, video games and novels. It focuses on the activities of the counter-terrorist organization Public Security Section 9 in a futuristic, cyberpunk Japan ....
, Akira
Akira (manga)
is a manga series by Katsuhiro Otomo. Set in a post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo, the work uses conventions of the cyberpunk genre to detail a saga of turmoil. Initially serialized in the pages of Young Magazine from 1982 until 1990, the work was collected in six volumes by Japanese publisher Kodansha...
, Berserk
Berserk (manga)
is a manga series written and illustrated by Kentaro Miura. Set in a medieval Europe-inspired world, the story centers around the characters of Guts, an orphaned mercenary, and Griffith, the leader of a mercenary band called the...
, Battle Angel Alita
Battle Angel Alita
Battle Angel Alita, known in Japan as , is a manga series created by Yukito Kishiro in 1990 and originally published in Shueisha's Business Jump magazine. Two of the nine-volume comics were adapted into two anime original video animation episodes titled Battle Angel for North American release by...
, Drifters
Drifters (manga)
is a fantasy, alternate history Japanese manga written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano. The manga started serialization in Shōnen Gahosha's magazine, Young King Ours on April 30, 2009...
and Elfen Lied
Elfen Lied
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Lynn Okamoto. A thirteen-episode anime television series adaptation was produced by the studio ARMS and broadcast on TV Tokyo from July to October 2004. The anime was later licensed in North America on DVD by ADV Films...
. Rumiko Takahashi
Rumiko Takahashi
is a Japanese manga artist.Takahashi is one of the wealthiest individuals, and the most affluent manga artists in Japan. The manga she creates are popular worldwide, where they have been translated into a variety of languages...
's Maison Ikkoku
Maison Ikkoku
is a Japanese seinen manga written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi and serialized in the manga magazine Big Comic Spirits from 1980 through 1987. Maison Ikkoku is a bitter-sweet comedic romance involving a group of madcap people who live in a boarding house in 1980s Tokyo...
is sometimes classified as seinen, although this is disputed by some fans.
A common way to tell if a manga is seinen is by looking at whether or not furigana
Furigana
is a Japanese reading aid, consisting of smaller kana, or syllabic characters, printed next to a kanji or other character to indicate its pronunciation. In horizontal text, yokogaki, they are placed above the line of text, while in vertical text, tategaki, they are placed to the right of the line...
is used over the original kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
text: if there are furigana on all kanji, the title is generally aimed at a younger audience. The title of the magazine it was published in is also an important indicator. Usually Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese manga magazines with the word "young" in the title (Weekly Young Jump
Weekly Young Jump
, launched in 1979, is a weekly Japanese magazine that publishes various seinen manga in each issue. It is published by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines.- History :...
for instance) are seinen. Other popular seinen manga magazines include Ultra Jump
Ultra Jump
is a Japanese monthly seinen manga magazine published by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. Originally, the magazine was a special issue of Weekly Young Jump which first issued in 1995. On October 19 of 1999, the special issue became the new monthly publication Ultra Jump...
, Afternoon
Afternoon (magazine)
is a Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Kodansha. It is a monthly anthology, and each issue typically has around thirty ongoing stories by various authors and runs about 800 pages...
, and Big Comic
Big Comic
is a semimonthly seinen manga magazine published since 1968-02-29 by Shogakukan in Japan. It was originally launched as a monthly magazine, but switched to twice monthly on the 10th and 25th beginning in April 1968. It is paired with sister magazine Big Comic Original, going on sale in the weeks...
.
See also
- Shōnen manga: intended for boys
- Shōjo manga: intended for girls
- Josei manga: intended for adult women
- Children's manga: intended for children
- List of seinen magazines