Category:Josei

Josei is an academic and Western-fan term for two demographic categories of manga, anime, and other entertainment aimed at female audiences aged 18 to 40. The equivalent terms that are in general use in Japan are ヤングレディース (older-teen and young-women) and Redikomi (women who are older than the ヤングレディース demographic). It is not a genre.

Like its male counterpart, it's notable for more realistic, less idealized portrayals of romance and life than in works for young girls.

It typically uses a more realistic artistic style. Most are written by women, and feature in magazines or anthology collections directly sold for the demographic. Stories typically portray everyday life for young Japanese women—usually adults, but occasionally high school age.

Fuji TV's NoitaminA anime block is notable for focusing on this demographic.

Compare Seinen, which is aimed at young men of the same age; and Shoujo, which is aimed at younger females.

Series sometimes mistaken for josei

 * Nana, which is really close to a josei, but it's a Shojo.
 * Kuroshitsuji (known as Black Butler in English) seems to be a mix of Shojo, more so in the anime, and Seinen, more so in the manga. As such it is often thought of as a Josei but it's actually a Shounen.
 * Comic Zero Sum is a magazine targeted at women of all ages. This often leads to confusion as to whether a work is shoujo or josei. These include Amatsuki, Loveless, 07-Ghost, Karneval and Hatenkou Yuugi.
 * Works by Mayu Shinjo likeSensual Phrase, Haou Airen or Akuma na Eros, due to the extremely high sexual content that often includes Rape Tropes. The melodramatic storytelling, however, is more shoujo-like; the only one which might qualify as jousei would be Love Celeb.

Actual examples of Josei follow below: