A Love Letter to Josei Manga

Manga Will Always Have A Special Place In My Heart… I’ve grown up reading, coveting and sharing it with others. The thing about it is that after a while I found myself grown up—a woman and reading more of a specific genre. While shojo manga has always and will always have a special place in my heart, I feel like I need to acknowledge how I stumbled upon Josei manga and how it cemented itself into my bookshelves. Let’s start at the beginning. What exactly is Josei? Pronounced “JOH-say”, it is what I like to call Shojo manga’s big sister. OR final form. Familiar with the manga genre known as Shonen? As in “Shonen Jump”? Shonen is to Seinen as Shojo is to Josei. Where Shojo’s targeted audience is somewhere between 12-18 years of age, Josei’s targeted audience targets the age group directly after that: adult women.

                  (As this is manga you are reading Right to LEFT) I like to think that there are three major differences that set Josei apart from Shojo.

1.) More mature most def more complex stories that touch on themes such as higher education, careers and family life.

The joys and pitfalls of marriage and children are popular subjects that often weave themselves into many different Josei manga.

The importance of solid female friendships (and maintaining them) is yet another popular theme. 2.) Way more realistic romance. Way more. And by realistic, I mean…

Yes, I’m talking about SEX! Gone, mostly are the shojo sparkles that flutter off the eyelashes of the …