Shōnen is a demographic term for manga and anime aimed mainly at early to late teen boys. Basically, between ages 12 and 18. They tend to be Fighting Series focused more on action than relationships, with romance generally either perfunctory or Played for Laughs. Some battles can be sublimated into a form such as a sports competition or even a Tabletop Game.
While there was a time where protagonists could be adult men the target audience would look up to, it's more common for the title character, and most of the cast, to be predominantly teenage or young adult male, equally capable of action and ham. Lots and lots of ham. This mainly serves to make the characters relatable to the targeted readers.
Note that while the term shōnen tends to be used to refer to a few standard genres, and many shonen works tend to have several tropes in common, it isn’t technically a genre as it actually refers to the target demographic (and in Japan, generally refers strictly to manga, rather than animenoteLight Novels are often marked with a generic male or female demographic.). Its more mature counterpart is seinen, although both are enjoyed by other audiences as well. The Distaff Counterpart to shōnen is called shōjo.
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There is no definite marker for a series being or not being shōnen. Though the magazine it runs in is a good indicator, many shōnen magazines aim for the huge seinen Periphery Demographic that also purchases them. Some of this is a natural result of the franchise Growing the Beard together with the audience: many series that are popular with the seinen demographic (and marketed towards such in omnibus tankoubon volumes) have run in Shōnen magazines when they were serialized. Some long running series will graduate to a magazine for an older demographic to follow its aging audience. While the same can't usually be said of series with a strong shōjo and josei periphery, some authors throw a bone their way by writing exclusive installments for magazines of those demographics.
Themes are not a definite indicator either: while most Shōnen works (particularly the action fighter types) tend to fall in the idealist side on the scale of idealism vs. cynicism, there are also plenty of works with Darker and Edgier elements and outright Deconstructions that can easily be mistaken for a seinen series and evoke a What Do You Mean, It's for Kids? reaction (
Are some of the notable examples). That being said, light and fluffy/dark and moody romance, serious female-led dramas, and cute art styles aren't limited to shōjo manga either, as stories like
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Due to Values Dissonance, many shōnen series feature content that most Westerners would not consider appropriate for younger teenagers, such as frequent gory violence and scenes of titillating fanservice which may include nudity (many works labeled Ecchi run in shōnen magazines). As such, they are often marketed towards adult fans in the West, sometimes leading localizers to insert more adult language into the translated version. One of the most illustrative examples of this is
: a highly idealistic Hot-Blooded, bright and cartoonish Super Robot series that aired as the equivalent of a Saturday Morning Cartoon in Japan, but debuted on Adult Swim in the US. In fact, most of [adult swim]'s anime lineup consists of shōnen series.
This is because it is, perhaps, the genre most similar to heavily actionized, Rated M for Manly Western Animation shows of The '80s, also largely geared towards teenage males with swaths of Multiple Demographic Appeal. (Pure shōjo bounces between the realms of cutesy and too melodramatically scandalous for most Media Watchdogs, so it does not get shown in the West as much.)
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If you want to write a shōnen series, here's a good place to start. If you want to see the Chinese grandfather of most shōnen, see Wuxia and its more spiritual counterpart in Spirit Cultivation Genre or Xianxia.When talking about anime and manga, there are a lot of Japanese terms thrown around that may be more than a little confusing to the uninitiated. But perhaps the most important of these to know refer to some of the different types of anime and manga.
Each of these five types — shonen, shojo, seinen, josei, and kodomomuke — is focused on a specific target demographic. They are not genres (action, romance, coming of age, etc). Rather, they are just labels for who the intended audience is. So while the anime and manga that fall into each of the types can technically be of any genre, knowing which anime and manga you like fall into which type serves as a good road map for finding other similar titles you might enjoy.
Literally meaning “few years, ” “shonen” (少年) typically refers to young boys under the age of fifteen. Thus, shonen anime and manga are aimed at that demographic. A lot of these anime and manga have a young male hero and are focused on action, adventure, and fighting. However, comedies and series with female protagonists are becoming more and more common. Shonen works often have more than a fair share of fanservice as well. Some popular examples of shonen anime and manga are
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“Seinen” (青年), on the other hand, refers to young men between the ages of 15-24. Seinen anime and manga tend to be of a more violent and/or psychological nature than shonen series — though, of course, there are seinen comedies as well. They can also have content of a pornographic nature (though this is not the focus of the work). Famous seinen anime and manga include such titles such as Berserk, Ghost in the Shell,
“Shojo” (少女), which is often translated as “young girl, ” is the female counterpart to shonen, and anime and manga of this type are aimed at girls between the ages of ten and eighteen. These tend to focus on romance and interpersonal relationships — though this does not mean they are necessarily without action or adventure. Shojo works almost always have a female lead; however, many male homosexual love stories fall into the shojo category as well. Popular Shojo works include
Anime and manga of the “josei” (女性) variety are aimed at adult women. Josei series are often slice-of-life or romantic tales featuring adult women, though, in recent years, shonen-like action-adventures have become popular as well. In general, these works tend to contain more realistic interpersonal relationships (as opposed to shojo’s often idealised ones) and can cover darker subjects like rape and infidelity. While many josei anime and manga have female main characters, many others have male characters. Male leads are usually of the pretty-boy variety and stories featuring them often have homosexual undertones. Popular josei series include
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Literally meaning “directed at children, ” “Kodomomuke” (子供向け) anime and manga are exactly that. Kodomomuke works tend to be simple, imaginative stories that teach morals and other core values to young readers. Sometimes they are original stories while other times they are adaptations of Western classical literature. Popular children’s series includeWe and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page..
I recently talked about a big problem that plagues shonen anime and manga. Now, I want to talk about another problematic trope: neglecting side characters.
There are some awesome side characters in anime that often get neglected in some way. Let's look at one of my favorites from
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, Chad. Chad is introduced and Tite Kubo starts making him really interesting. He is given powers so he can help fight hollows, he seems to be invincible in a fist fight, he gets a great emotional backstory that shows he’s a gentle giant, and all of this shows that he’s a valuable ally to Ichigo, but then he is always cheated. In the Soul Society arc, his first opponent of any importance is Shunsui, Captain of Squad 8, and Chad is quickly defeated. Meanwhile, Ishida barely wins against a Captain himself, and Ichigo fights some more prominent foes and wins all the time because he’s the main character. Can’t Chad get a moment of actual glory? Maybe have him beat a Lieutenant and then lose to a Captain?
In the next arc, Chad trains with Renji to grow stronger and goes to Hueco Mundo with Ichigo. It is then hinted that his powers are closely related to hollows, while Chad fights the bad guy equivalent of
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