shoujo = young girl
Josei = woman

I think, literally we can say "shoujo + mature = josei"
But is that right in manga worlds?
What do u think?

P.S: some examples that lead me to this thought:
Nana: Comedy Drama Mature Romance Shoujo Slice of Life Tragedy
Kaze Hikaru: Action Gender Bender Historical Josei Romance

In definition of those 2 genres, Shojo "usually involves a lot of romance and strong character development"; while Josei "unlike shoujo the romance is more realistic and less idealized."
According to that, should Nana rather be Josei?

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I believe as it is defined on MU, shoujo or josei is determined by the stated demographic of the publication in which the story is printed.

Perhaps this topic about publications and demographics will help?
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=9924

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Demographics such as Shoujo and Josei are not determined by those factors.
They are determined by the magazine that they were serialized in.
That topic is a good place to read up on it.

That is the reason why Nana is listed as Shoujo.
:]
Question answered~

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I think you'd also find this article interesting
http://comicsworthreading.com/2008/06/23/josei-manga-in-the-u s/ (It mentions that Nana's recent plot twists are beginning to cause it to lean more towards a Josei classification.)
I initially thought of Josei as 'mature shoujo' also, but then I read Josei titles such as Kimi Wa Petto, Nodame Cantabile and Gokusen, and my opinion changed (haha).
I guess from my experience, I'd say manga classified as Josei involves characters in their 20's, who are out of high school, the usual setting of the majority of shoujo (which makes sense, as Josei's target audience is women aged 18-30.) When you think about it this way, to appeal to this target market, the romance would need to be more mature, as generally women out of high school don't want to read shoujo romances (just like they don't generally want to read magazines aimed at teenagers).
So I guess, in a loose sense, Josei could be defined as 'mature shoujo'. But, as in the case of Nana, it goes more on the mangaka's chosen demographic, and the magazine the series was published in, as earlier mentioned.



Last edited by GunslngrGal92 at 3:36 am, Jan 2 2010

I run a reviewing site and had trouble choosing between the two.

I think it really has to do with mental maturity.

I read Crazy Love Story when I was younger (14 or 15).
I found it to be a load of BS and regretted buying it.
Two years later (big amount of time for a teen) I fell in love with it. The intricacies amazed me. I was able to understand things better because I typically experienced more things. I understand the series better through real life experience and reading other series.

There are a lot of shoujo that are mature.
Aimed at teenage girls like Gakuen Ouji

It really depends on mental maturity I feel.

But as well, as the others said before me the site classifies things based on the magazine they are run in.

Hope this helps.

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shoujo with mature subjects doesn't = josei. Josei is when the main character is of legal age of 18+. While shoujo is marketed toward 17 and under here in the US.

I've seen some pretty racy shoujo, 16+. But you have to remember where manga comes from. Sure the japanese keep their love lives behind closed doors, but they are considered more mature at a younger age.

They are? You find all the same racy stuff in books for teenage girls in English; it's just not in picture form.


As for demographics, there are two real definitions:
1. Whatever the Japanese publisher made up.
2. Whatever the American/foreign publisher made up.

Those two don't always match up even when they're using the same shoujo/josei/shounen/seinen terminology. The Japanese one is the demographic of the whole magazine. This may influence the decision to print or not print someone's work, but it has nothing to do with how mature the series ends up being--the decision is made before the series is published. The American/foreign publisher, unlike the Japanese one, often has the chance to look at the completed series and decide how to market it ahead of time.

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Wait... what? That must be the most ridiculous explanation of josei I've ever heared.

Well, it's certainly not the defining characteristic, and I thought legal age was either older or younger than that in Japan (depending on which laws you're looking at), but it is often true that josei stories feature older characters.

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naaa
Shoujo + mature is probably a mature story about a girl in highschool
Josei I've read had much older ladies
shoujo + mature doesn't have that josei feel
sometimes it does most times no
It's all about audience some shoujo is I read is aimed at elementary - middle school
while others are for highschoolers

Maybe it's just me, but most of the josei i read usually involves the office and office ladies. Nah just kidding. Though i still wonder why Nodame Cantabile was serialized under the demographic josei lol. It seemed pretty shoujo-ish to me.

I think the difference between josei and shoujo is that josei is slightly (even if little so) more down-to-earth, which means no weird stuff that would never happen in real life [save me, honestly, do you actually think the hottest guy in school will fall in love with nerdy and meek backbone-less characters in shoujo?]. Like duhhh? (don't flame me)
And shoujo usually chronicles life in high school.
An observation - do josei females have more backbone than shoujo females in general?

The demographic for the magazine serialized in aside, i do agree with Shoujo + Mature = Josei... but it depends on what the 'mature' stands for...

Oh another observation - josei or shoujo, big fat bitchy characters are alwayssss there!!

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