What Makes a Shojo?
Shojo Manga. (2022). In Gale In Context Online Collection. Gale. https://link-gale-com.libproxy.albany.edu/apps/doc/EJ2181701174/MSIC?u=albanyu&sid=bookmark-MSIC&xid=e9426708
Shojo is directed to a female audience ranging from adolescence to young adulthood. Shojo manga are distinctive for their use of additional items in manga such as stickers, trinkets and games which is called furoku to attract female readers in addition to the feminine artwork. A popular subgenre is maho(magical girl) which stemmed from the manga "Magical Witch Sally" were a young witch princess yearning for mortal friends visits the living world and makes two friends. Another popular subgenre is realistic stories wth romantic drama such as "Peach Girl" were a beautiful hgh school swimmer< Momo gets involved in a love triangle with a baseball player, Toji and a loud mouthed boy, Kairi whom Momo saved from drowning who has vowed to win her heart. Manga in the 2010s and 20s have captured the imagination of readers such as "Orange" about a high school girl who receives a message from the future to prevent the death of a classmate.
What Makes A Shonen?
Shonen Manga. (2024). In Gale In Context Online Collection. Gale. https://link-gale-com.libproxy.albany.edu/apps/doc/EJ2181701182/MSIC?u=albanyu&sid=bookmark-MSIC&xid=42dc0edf
Shonen is targeted towards boys ranging from 8 to 18 and is the most popular genre in terms of sales and readership. Shonen mainly centers around action stories revolving around sports, martial arts and/or the supernatural but there are instances of romance and horror as well. A popular shonen horror is Death Note where a student Light Yagami finds a notebook that when a name is written the person with the name will die. One of the best-selling series in the world is Dragonball which revolves around Goku who is a aspiring martial artist who has a monkey tail. In the world of Dragonball, there are seven orbs that when found together grant the user one wish. Billions of copies of shonen have been sold worldwide with big titles such as My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen.
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Gale In Context: Middle School
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