Ok I don't really ant to go to in depth about this, I just want to make a statement.

As all people who read mangas know, Seinen and Shounen are defining the target demographic of a title. I would like to say that is almost correct. I say this because once people think of Shounen and Seinen, they think of one being dark themed and the other being heroic making it pretty cliche. This mentality of sorts is pretty much caused by the style of the manga, so it's no wonder this happens a lot.

To actually tell who is the demographic of one series, it just depends on what magazine it is published on. Not the company, NOT the content, but the magazine/s. It's just as simple as that, just check on the manga's magazine. For example, Death Note (This is the easiest to think of so go easy on me) is published in the magazine Shounen Jump, thus it is a shounen manga. Magi, people say its Shounen but has seinen qualities (haha... idiots). Magi is published in Shounen Sunday. As the name implies its shounen. How about Infinite Stratos (manga), published in Comic Alive (Media Factory) and Sunday GX (Shogakukan). Both are Seinen magazines so its seinen. You guys already get the idea.

So to not sound so ignorant, try checking where its published before stating its shounen and seinen.
Who knows maybe in the process you might get another new read. Cheerio to all...

BTW, Just found this thread topic where Mr. NeoFireHawk approves this. Well, NeoFireHawk started this, i just put it here to raise... awareness?

Anyways here's the link to his thread, which is locked.

MPD Psycho is shounen, not seinen

Here is a link to show the magazines categorized in their demographic done by candyloop.

List of Magazines & Their Target Audience

P.S. candyloop really out did his/herself.


Please research before stating useless banter.

Last edited by C Rank Hero at 8:25 am, Nov 10 2013

Well I'm not too sure if this is entirely correct but I do want to say that I agree with you, about 90 - 95% which I obviously mean in a good way. First of all I do agree most people do not know the fact that it is THAT easy to tell the difference between a Shounen and Seinen manga.
Why argue I say. Being Shounen or Seinen doesn't stop it from being a goo story story.

Wow, if more fans knew that there would a little more paece between us manga fans. Heck we wouldn't have to run into chats and forums and see fans bickering on and on saying whether "this manga" is "that manga" or "that manga" is "this manga" in a non-stop never ending cycle. Now wouldn't that bring our heart rate level downa little. ( haha )

Although I do say this I must digress. There are times (rarely but do happen)when series get shifted from shounen magazines up to seinen magazines or vice versa. Even when publishing companies buy rights to a series before it gets serialized. Thus it become a "this manga" in "that manga" type magazine. Not ever losing its actual demographic feeling. We even find times when a female type manga is published in a male type magazine. That doesn't make it shounen/seinen that manga is still targeted toward a female audience inside that male-orientated mangazine.

But like a stated before it rarely happens. The Majority of the time its just like C Rank Hero said it really is that simple. So dont be a fool and just check where that manga came from who are its publishers/authors and even artist and what are they known for.
woah i didnt even notice it was thi s long...sorry didnt mean to post a useless rant

I have this argument with my friends quite often, who typically don't recognize the difference. But probably even more often over whether a series is shoujo or seinen, as they're more likely to be confused.

I agree that the magazine is one of the major deciding factors, especially when it's hard to tell from the story itself, but I find some major thematic elements that tend to distinguish the two. I would also argue that many manga could easily fall into either category, and I've heard many stories where a seinen manga was actually first pitched by the author to Shounen Jump or other shounen magazines before ending up in a seinen one.

It also makes for laughs when people try to decide what to list various webcomics as. Noblesse at one point was listed as shounen AND shoujo at the same time. It seems now it's listed as seinen. IMO it's probably a female targeted action series, but it doesn't have the themes associated with shoujo or josei.

Bottom line, someone of any demographic can love a series of any other demographic no matter who it was 'intended' for. I'm a female who almost exclusively reads shounen and seinen and I don't know any little girls who watch MLP FIM. As such I feel trying to define a definite demographic for a series is kind of a moot point to begin with, so you might as well just stick with what the magazine says.

Yes i agree this cant really fall for webcomics or maybe even manhwa because theyre not the typical manga we often see. Yes i acknowledge the fact that some mangas tend to transfer magazines but just like Terr0rCakess mentioned it rarely happens. Some reasons could've been that the route of the manga is becoming too mature for the young audience to handle, but some shounen titles tend to take the mature route yet maintain its publish in shounen magazines. A lot can be found in Shounen Ace. This is just an opinion so i could be wrong.

The reason why some titles get shounen/seinen/shoujo in their tags is either because some people uploading it base it on style or because they just know it can be for this demographic. Webcomics dont really have a certain magazine categorized by demographic, well not that i know of (maybe Square Enix's Gangan Joker i think, if it can be considered a magazine for online mangas).

Thanks for sharing...

i think demographic is good to know what kind of manga to read, but one shouldn't limit oneself! some manga are just too good it doesn't matter what its intended demographic are, because it resonate across all age and gender