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Josei - Definition and Overview |
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Josei (Japanese: 女性, lit. "woman", SAMPA /dZosei/; also redisu or redikomi, lit. "lady's comics") is a subset of manga or anime created mostly by women, for late teenage/adult female audiences.
The male equivalent to josei is seinen.
The stories tend to be about everyday experiences of women living in Japan. Though there are some that cover high school, most cover the lives of adult women in Japan. The style also tends to be a more restrained, realistic version of shōjo, keeping some of the wispy features and getting rid of the very large sparkly eyes. There are exceptions in the style described above, but what defines Josei is some degree of stylistic continuity of comics within this particular demographic (the same is true with different different demographics that have different stylistic tendencies).
In addition, unlike shōjo, it portrays realistic romance (as opposed to idealized romance). A subset of josei comics are comics that are aimed at women about homosexual male relationships, called yaoi. Josei is also known for a very sexual edge; many of the magazines have some of the raunchiest porn produced in Japan.
Josei is sometimes used within anime or manga, mostly by male characters, to refer to a sexual preference for older women, as contrasted by lolicon.
Examples
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Example Usage of Josei |
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nthistlethwaite: RT @theseventhl: #mangamonday Butterflies, Flowers which is a lovely Josei title being published by Viz. Go & get it! ♥ |
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manga_critic: @Retrn2Labyrinth From outside perspective, Josei initiative looked like one more project that was launched w/fanfare but died from neglect. |
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theseventhl: #mangamonday Butterflies, Flowers which is a lovely Josei title being published by Viz. Go & get it! ♥ |
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