Shojo, on the other hand, are what is known as girl’s comics. They normally center around relationships (and all the sappy, drippy love stereotypes that go with them). They tend to be more about the relationships between boys and girls, or girls and girls. Friendship and love, instead of world saving and action are often what separates shojos from shonen. However, it is a certain type of relationship, one that is not often very deep in interest. Those are usually addressed in senien and jousei manga, simply because of who the shojo audience is made of. It tends to be an age range of about 8-15 year olds, which means deeper points are often lost in favor of cute/romantic aspects. It is not about mature relationships, but rather about puppy love, crushes and making friends.
It also differs from shonen in the way it handles relationships. Often, shonen will have a “love interest” but one that always takes a back seat to the main story of good vs. evil. In shojo, the relationship is often the main storyline, while the action of the plot takes a back seat to puppy love. In all honesty though, shojo is not what you would want to read if you were looking for a deeper, more mature storyline. The characters and reactions are about what you would expect to find in a book aimed at little girls. (Think Sailor Moon)
In addition, the way friendships are developed are often vastly different when shojo and shonen are compared. Shonen will have the “boy’s method” of friendship, where friends are mostly old rivals that have been defeated, brotherly love, etc. Shojo tend to be more childhood friends, classroom buddies and mentor/mentees.
If what I’m saying seems a little stereotypical to you, well, that’s because it is. Shonen and shojo are pretty much what you would think of in America as sterotypes. Girls play with barbies, boys play football. That kind of thinking will explain all you need when knowing what sterotypes you will encounter when looking though either genre.
Though shonen tends to be much larger in scope and sales, shojo has a very large market share. It is avalible wherever manga is sold, you just have to look at the descriptions to understand what type of series it is.
Recommended Shojo (though I’ll admit I don’t know many):
Fruit Basket
NANA
Princess TuTu
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Manga Lecture #4
Manga, for the most part, is divided into four age categories. These are shonen, shojo, seinin, and jousei. Literally translated, boys, girls, men and women comics. These comics are divided into the categories by a number of different factors. But all of these have certain tendencies they follow. I’ll examine one of these today.
Shonen, boy’s comics, usually have a standard hero story, which is the most common type of manga created. It is a two dimensional story most often, with A great evil vs. a great good that must overcome the evil entirely. Shonen are very much a black and white tale that leaves no room for gray areas; they contain a number of heroes that are all righteous and good, usually down on their luck. The hero is special in some way, with a power or inheritance that singles them out for greatness. They are usually taken under the wing of a sage character, who trains them, and does not appear again until their death scene in the rain, usually killed by the main villain of the series. A young member of the opposite sex appears, which the main character gets on the nerves of. This character is usually the love interest in the story, made up entirely so the author can interject some romance into the plot. (usually boy-hero, girl-love interest). The hero becomes powerful, a leader of people, and inspiration. But as soon as he reaches his peak, the main villain will appear, destroying his hard work. The hero will attack the villain, who proceeds to hand the hero his ass. Thus begins the strength power up. (Think Dragonball Z, and you have the idea). The story arc will end when the hero becomes powerful enough to obliterate the villain, creating peace and harmony through violence. This then begins all over again when the next villain is introduced.
This is not to say all shonen are bad. Many are quite good, though they still have a number of stereotypes they fulfill.
Recommendations for great shonen (though most of these break the convention, that is why I consider them great):
One Piece*
Rurouni Kenshin*
Soul Eater*
Shonen, boy’s comics, usually have a standard hero story, which is the most common type of manga created. It is a two dimensional story most often, with A great evil vs. a great good that must overcome the evil entirely. Shonen are very much a black and white tale that leaves no room for gray areas; they contain a number of heroes that are all righteous and good, usually down on their luck. The hero is special in some way, with a power or inheritance that singles them out for greatness. They are usually taken under the wing of a sage character, who trains them, and does not appear again until their death scene in the rain, usually killed by the main villain of the series. A young member of the opposite sex appears, which the main character gets on the nerves of. This character is usually the love interest in the story, made up entirely so the author can interject some romance into the plot. (usually boy-hero, girl-love interest). The hero becomes powerful, a leader of people, and inspiration. But as soon as he reaches his peak, the main villain will appear, destroying his hard work. The hero will attack the villain, who proceeds to hand the hero his ass. Thus begins the strength power up. (Think Dragonball Z, and you have the idea). The story arc will end when the hero becomes powerful enough to obliterate the villain, creating peace and harmony through violence. This then begins all over again when the next villain is introduced.
This is not to say all shonen are bad. Many are quite good, though they still have a number of stereotypes they fulfill.
Recommendations for great shonen (though most of these break the convention, that is why I consider them great):
One Piece*
Rurouni Kenshin*
Soul Eater*
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Waiting for Release. A Reader’s Rant.
There is one large drawback to reading genre pieces. The problem, is of corse, the wait. Many of the books that exist within Fantasy and Science Fiction especially are structured in series, usually spanning several books. Series mean a waiting period. This is quite possibly the most aggravating aspect of a reader’s life. To find a good book, and the discovery that this book is part of series presents joy at first, which quickly turns to annoyance when a fan runs out of material. To know that the story which you adore continues is to know you. To find the end of the written material is to know frustration. Being that series novels are chapters in a larger whole, it stands to reason that many of the novels written in series have no beginning or end, only the continuation of the saga the author writes of, it stands to reason the novels are often far deeper than their standalone counterpoints.
This is not to say that standalones do not have merit. But the author who creates a series has a lot more room to play with his characters and world.
The authors are not at fault (most of the time), but the frustration a reading fan fells is far greater than other groups. A person waiting for a television show or movie only waits for an amount of time, but that time is limited to a year or two. But this time moves quickly compared to what some authors put readers through. Though it may seem like a long time to someone who is waiting for the movie, sometime they should try waiting for a slow author to release the next chapter of their ever expanding epic. A reader is subjected to only the possibility of future release. It’d be like seeing three shows, then waiting 5 years for the next episode to come out.
I would like to clarify that many authors do not make their fans wait. Many good authors often put out a new novel in one or two years, and this is acceptable to the average reader. A few author examples of who generally write prolifically and with great talent are Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind, Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher, and many others.
But there are some authors that move like molasses. Because of this, many fans begin getting anger and frustrated at those authors. I know that it takes time to write a good novel, but there are a few authors that piddle away their time. These writer often have great talent, but don’t finish books in any type of timely manner. George R. R. Martin has gained this reputation, and is probably the most infamous name when it comes to slow output. It has now been five years since his last publication in his Song of Ice and Fire series.
Martin has a great talent for writing, and he’s created one of the most fascinating and complex stories in recent times, but he does not produce new material often. When his blogs are checked, there area pages upon pages of football commentary, but not so much as a peep about the book progress. Even under the section of his site that declares updates specifically for the book, the last update was more than two years ago.
This problem of waiting is constantly plaguing the reader. I understand that writers must write, and to write well requires time. But for an author to abandon his fans for longer than three years is a slap in the face to all the people supporting you in your craft.
That being said, I’ll still wait along with millions of others for the latest book out from my favorite authors. They are after all, favorites for a reason. And that’s the problem, too.
This is not to say that standalones do not have merit. But the author who creates a series has a lot more room to play with his characters and world.
The authors are not at fault (most of the time), but the frustration a reading fan fells is far greater than other groups. A person waiting for a television show or movie only waits for an amount of time, but that time is limited to a year or two. But this time moves quickly compared to what some authors put readers through. Though it may seem like a long time to someone who is waiting for the movie, sometime they should try waiting for a slow author to release the next chapter of their ever expanding epic. A reader is subjected to only the possibility of future release. It’d be like seeing three shows, then waiting 5 years for the next episode to come out.
I would like to clarify that many authors do not make their fans wait. Many good authors often put out a new novel in one or two years, and this is acceptable to the average reader. A few author examples of who generally write prolifically and with great talent are Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind, Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher, and many others.
But there are some authors that move like molasses. Because of this, many fans begin getting anger and frustrated at those authors. I know that it takes time to write a good novel, but there are a few authors that piddle away their time. These writer often have great talent, but don’t finish books in any type of timely manner. George R. R. Martin has gained this reputation, and is probably the most infamous name when it comes to slow output. It has now been five years since his last publication in his Song of Ice and Fire series.
Martin has a great talent for writing, and he’s created one of the most fascinating and complex stories in recent times, but he does not produce new material often. When his blogs are checked, there area pages upon pages of football commentary, but not so much as a peep about the book progress. Even under the section of his site that declares updates specifically for the book, the last update was more than two years ago.
This problem of waiting is constantly plaguing the reader. I understand that writers must write, and to write well requires time. But for an author to abandon his fans for longer than three years is a slap in the face to all the people supporting you in your craft.
That being said, I’ll still wait along with millions of others for the latest book out from my favorite authors. They are after all, favorites for a reason. And that’s the problem, too.
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