Wait, NGE isn't Seinen already?
I wouldn't say Death Note though, IMO it has to explain a lot of the plot to the reader, as if it they knew the manga's general audience would be too young to understand some of it without the explanation.

I wouldn't really know. The thing is, Japanese people have different values. And shounen is targeted towards teenagers mostly. And an older teenager can be fairly mature and able to handle darker stuff.

NGE is serialized in Shounen Ace, so it's definitely shounen, despite the massive amounts of content that's clearly far above its target demographic's head -_-;;.

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I think it's right for NGE to be a shounen. Its target it's teenagers, of course there are other levels of understanding that could be above them, but that happens very often. For instance, one of the most complex literature work, The Little Prince, is presented as a kids fable.

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What I like in Trivial Pursuit style. Pick your category:

Xblade......theres blood, murder, nudity......it's got pretty mature content, don't really know why it's in a shounen magazine

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I can't say that gore should be a defining reason for manga being classified as seinen [or at least should have been], otherwise we're going to find someone trying to classify Naruto as seinen just because it has mindlessly worthless fighting.



I do agree with the people that say that the gore level of Doubt makes it highly inappropriate for little kids, but that's still not enough to make it seinen. Characters die off fast with little to no development. I do enjoy reading this one but no matter how many characters are killed, it has no impact on me. I would go so far as to say that Angel Sanctuary [which is shoujo] is more seinen just because it has a higher maturity level.

If you compare Doubt to something like Gantz, you'll see a major difference here. In Gantz, there are characters that one the surface seem like worthless twits that do have qualities that make them worthwhile human beings as you get to know them. It's not just violence, gore, nudity and sex.

It's a tiny bit gory, but other than that, it pretty much fits the shounen mold. It's gore or nudity doesn't come close to most seinens. There's also only a tiny bit of nudity, it's more like a "darker" shounen if you ask me.

If I had to pick, I'll have to say NHK ni Youkoso!. It's a bit strange, and if a younger person reads it, then they might not understand the story very well...It goes a bit deep into psychological issues, and mix it up with some dark yet light humor, there you have it. The whole story overall is pretty dark, with just a little bit of comedy to ease it up.

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XBlade, Highschool Of The Dead, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Fist Of The North Star, Air Gear, Kurohime, Negima!, but these are just my opinions.

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I say Air Gear is borderline Seinen. They should just go all the way, so they can go even farther.

Death Note, Air Gear, and Kurohime is close (you know, either action seinen, or deeper shounen), but yes, Mirai Nikki

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Lalala~

This really depends entirely on whether we're talking 'relative' Seinen, or simply Seinen. Frankly, from everything I've seen over my 4-5 years religious reading manga/watching anime... Fan service that's borderline hentai and violence nearing that of Berserk are becoming more and more common amongst Shounen titles. The only difference I really see at this point is that the violence/blood/dark themes/nudity tends to be far more prevalent in a Seinen, whereas in a Shounen equivalent it comes in short bursts, and tends to be mixed in with a heavy dose of comedy (something that is lacking among the type of Seinen being addressed.) I mean, in Berserk you don't have someone's head getting chopped off, and then one of the main protagonists jump on a stage proclaiming how he is 'bigger' than everyone else. In proper seinen, when someone gets their head chopped off, people go "Wtf?!"

As for Mirai Nikki. My god, whoever labeled that as Shounen is nucking futs. The last time I read/saw something that demented would've been the School Days manga/anime or the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni anime. It's not quite as bad I suppose, but it's awfully messed up. Kinda like labeling Deadman Wonderland Shounen.

Eh, I guess in the end, these titles -should be- Seinen as the title asks. I assume there's a larger market for Shounen labels though.

[edited in summary of titles]
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - Onikakushihen
Deadman Wonderland
Mirai Nikki
And I'm sure I'll think of more.
[/edit]

I think maybe Fist of the North Star and maybe Jo Jo Bizarre Adventures

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Well, I suppose you should take it up with the editors of the shounen magazines they're published in then, no?

Honestly, labeling basically every horror story as something that's mature because of the violence is silly. The storytelling in those you mentioned is meant to be more accessible, hence the younger target audience.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but violence alone doesn't make something appeal to an older audience (if anything, I've found it appeals more to the younger crowd). This isn't about censorship, but marketing.

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NightSwan also said that she wanted to peg me, once, but I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or a threat...

I can under stand Highschool of dead that is Seinen for sure!!!
the rest is hard to tell But Negima is 100% a shonen it dosen´t fit as seinen

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Woah, I thought Jojo, MPD Psycho, and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei were seinen. Guess I can't really tell the difference.

I was also surprised to find out Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service and Otaku no Musume-san were shounen. Both have a pretty mature sense of humor.

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