Life, Love, Excitement, and Occasional Catboys: Shojo Manga

When most people think of comic books, they think of heroes saving the world, whether they are using swords or spaceships, but with the girls’ comics from Japan, known as shojo manga, it is easy to see that there’s a lot more to the world of comics than galactic battles and space alien. Shojo is the Japanese word for “girl” and in the context of manga, it describes a genre that is targeted primarily towards young girls and women between the ages of ten and twenty.

Typically, when dealing with shojo manga, you’ll have a female protagonist who faces difficulties in her situation and will then overcome them. These difficulties can be as simple as getting the attention of the boy she likes, or growing up to become the woman that she wants to be. While traditionally, shojo manga focuses around love and intricate interpersonal affairs, you’ll still find some titles from this genre that take place in fantasy settings or have elements of science fiction in them. Shojo manga also tends towards artwork that is more often considered “pretty;” you can contrast this with the harder edge and bold simple lines of action manga.

Despite the fact that these manga were originally targeted towards young girls, publishers have since realized that the titles that are considered shojo manga had a very broad appeal that crosses not only gender lines, but age demographics as well. In the most literal sense, shojo manga can be described as manga that was originally published in magazines that are geared towards younger girls. Keep in mind, though, that when you are reading shojo manga, that the only thing that you can expect is a story that explores inner emotions and turmoil as much as it explores action and adventure.

Some shojo manga will have what is jokingly called a harem set-up. This refers to shojo manga where the lone female heroine is surrounded by beautiful men who are all interested in her, and part of the plot is usually figuring out who she will end up with romantically. In the manga Fruits Basket, the teenage heroine Tohru stumbles onto the mysterious Sohma family, which is cursed with having twelve of its members turn into the Chinese zodiac animals when embraced by a member of the opposite sex. As Tohru befriends the members of Zodiac, she searches for a way to break the curse as well as working to resolve her feelings for the handsome Yuki, who turns into the rat, and his unlucky cousin Kyo, who transforms into the cat.

It’s also interesting to see that the protagonist for shojo isn’t always female. Shojo manga sees a strong crossover with the genre known as shonen-ai, which translates to “boy love,” and has to do with the relationships between two males. One such title is Loveless, which a young cat-eared boy named Ritsuka. Ritsuka falls in with an older man named Soubi, who was a friend of Ritsuka’s murdered brother. To investigate his brother’s death, Ritsuka joins with Soubi in a series of spell battles against a shadowy organization known as Septimal Moon. Though the manga is quite action packed, there is very strong emphasis on the relationship between the two main characters and their growing feelings for each other.

If you are interested in shojo manga, there are many options open to you, so read a few pages and see what stories appeals to you the most!