Manga Demographics

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Japanese Manga is usually serialized in anthology magazines before being collected into book format. By convention, manga magazines are divided into roughly a dozen official publishing categories, mostly based on the age and gender of the intended audience. These categories are inherited by the works when published in book format and are considered the primary divisions in manga publishing; they are used, for example, to shelve manga in bookstores (rather than by genre or by author).

Most publishers clearly identify their magazines according to their category; alternately, one may consult the classification used by the Japan Magazine Publishers Association in their sales and industry reports. Thus, for most manga, the category can be easily and unequivocally determined. Some magazines, however, either do not declare a category or are officially positioned as cross-demographic. Manga that were not previously serialized may also be problematic to categorize.

The most common manga categories are:

• Kodomomuke or Kodomo - young children, under about 8
• Shonen - boys, roughly 8-18
• Shoujo - girls, roughly 8-18
• Josei - younger women, roughly 18-40
• Seinen - younger men, roughly 18-40
• Seijin (Adult) or Ero - men's pornographic (see Hentai)
• Boys Love Genre - male-male romance for a female audience
• Cross-Demographic, Alternative or Uncategorized - includes Gekiga

The following categories are rare in English translation:

• Yonkoma - 4-panel strips
• "Silver" and "Golden" manga - for older readers
• Hobby manga, such as Golf manga, Pachinko manga, Fishing manga, etc.
• Educational and Information manga

Shounen, shoujo, josei and seinen are also used to describe demographic groups as well as publishing categories; for example, most hobby manga are aimed at the seinen demographic. Despite this, the publishing categories do not necessarily align perfectly with the actual readership; for example, many shounen magazines have large female and adult readerships. Futhermore, despite being aimed at older audiences it is quite possible for josei and seinen manga to lack elements that would make them for adults only, these can thus be enjoyed by children.

Many of the categories (especially shounen, shoujo and Boys Love) have widespread stylistic or narrative trends, and are often functionally treated as genres. Nonetheless, stories from most genres can be published in nearly any category; for example, Girls Love can be published in shounen, shoujo, josei, seinen, ero or alternative magazines.