Generally this referred to school-aged adolescents, with whom an image of "innocence, purity and cuteness" was associated this contrasted the moga ("modern girl", young unmarried working women), with whom a more self-determined and sexualized image was associated. Rather, the term shōjo is used to designate a social category that emerged during the Meiji era (1868–1912) of girls and young women at the age between childhood and marriage. The Japanese word shōjo (少女) translates literally to "girl", but in common Japanese usage girls are generally referred to as onna no ko ( 女の子) and rarely as shōjo. Nonetheless, several concepts and themes have come to be typically associated with shōjo manga, both visual (non-rigid panel layouts, highly detailed eyes) and narrative (a focus on human relations and emotions characters that defy traditional roles and stereotypes surrounding gender and sexuality depictions of supernatural and paranormal subjects).Īctress Hideko Takamine, portraying an archetypal shōjo wearing a sailor fuku in the 1939 film Hana Tsumi Nikki
While there are certain aesthetic, visual, and narrative conventions associated with shōjo manga, these conventions have changed and evolved over time, and none are strictly exclusive to shōjo manga. Strictly speaking, shōjo manga does not refer to a specific style or a genre, but rather indicates a target demographic. Since the 1980s, the category has continued to develop stylistically while simultaneously branching out into different and overlapping subgenres. While the category was initially dominated by male manga artists, the emergence of female artists beginning in the 1960s and 1970s led to a period of significant creative innovation, and the development of more graphically and thematically complex stories. The earliest shōjo manga was published in general magazines aimed at teenagers in the early 20th century, and entered a period of creative development beginning in the 1950s through the influence of jojōga ( lyrical painting) specifically and the rise in popularity of manga generally. Shōjo manga is traditionally published in dedicated manga magazines, which often specialize in a particular readership age range or narrative genre. It is, along with shōnen manga (targeting boys and male teens), seinen manga (targeting young adult and adult men), and josei manga (targeting adult women), one of the primary editorial categories of manga. "girls' comics", also romanized as shojo or shoujo) is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent girls and young adult women.