A Love Letter to Josei Manga Part Two

Manga Will Always Have a Special Place in My Heart… Reading, writing about, podcasting about, and sharing manga with others is a favorite pastime for me. As I noted in the first part of A Love Letter to Josei Manga: that after a while, I found myself wearing my grown woman panties and reading more of a specific genre. While Shojo manga has always and will always have a special corner in my heart for being my first genre of manga I ever read, Josei is the genre that has carried me through some heartbreak and real-life workplace drama in my adult years. For those that need a refresher: 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. 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.

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 cute school girl abou…