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118-449: Watsuki has written three more manga series, Gun Blaze West (2001), Buso Renkin (2003–2005), and Embalming: The Another Tale of Frankenstein (2007–2015). He has mentored several well-known manga artists, including One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda , Shaman King creator Hiroyuki Takei , and Mr. Fullswing creator Shinya Suzuki  [ ja ] . Watsuki was convicted of possessing child pornography in 2018. Watsuki

236-408: A "target fight," where the opponent must strike a target on the other person's body without hitting him anywhere else. Viu manages to defeat Kevin, but does not kill him. When the outlaws in the saloon threaten to attack him, Will arrives, and the two destroy Carlo's saloon using Kevin's most powerful weapons. Will is persuaded to accompany Viu to Gun Blaze West after Viu pays off the debts they owe with

354-550: A crime lord from taking over the Kamiya family dojo . The second sees Kenshin saving a young girl who is being held ransom by fallen samurai. These three works served as the basis for his first serial; Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story , which follows the former hitokiri Himura Kenshin and was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1994 to 1999. It was a major success with over 70 million copies in circulation, and

472-493: A diversity of narrative genres such as fantasy and science fiction, saw new competitors emerge in the 2000s: Monthly Comic Zero Sum in 2002, Sylph in 2006, Comic Blade Avarus in 2007, and Aria in 2010. These new magazines explicitly targeted an audience of anime and boys' love (male-male romance) fans by publishing manga that closely resembled the visual style of anime, featured bishōnen protagonists in fantastical environments, and which deliberately played with

590-456: A female audience faced a changing market: josei manga had declined in popularity, girls increasingly preferred television dramas over printed of entertainment, and the manga market generally had slowed. Many major publishers restructured their shōjo manga magazine operations in response, folding certain magazines and launching new publications. The majority of the newly launched magazines during this period were commercial failures. In 2008,

708-437: A few pages of black and white text, with few or no illustrations. 41 total magazines remained in publication in 1945, two of which were shōjo magazines: Shōjo Club and Shōjo no Tomo . With the end of the war, Japan entered into a period of large-scale artistic production in cinema, radio, and publishing. Fiction novels enjoyed a surge of popularity, while the number of published magazines grew from 41 in 1945 to 400 by 1952;

826-561: A fight with someone named Sarge, whose body is half artificial, called a "super soldier". Sarge is also revealed to be working with the President of the United States to find out what Gun Blaze West is like. Sarge is then defeated by the Armor Baron, but he sends up a flare which summons cavalry reinforcements. Armor Baron defeats all of them. After seeing this, Viu challenges the Armor Baron to

944-529: A fight. Viu defeats Armor Baron by using a technique called Concentration One and attacking the activation device for his Gun Sack, a mechanical device that uses gunpowder to accelerate the user. In the resulting clash between Viu and the max speed Armor Baron, Marcus' gun is broken. Viu wakes up to find that since Armor Baron admitted defeat he has passed the test and earned a new gun. Viu also finds out that J.J., Colice, and Will also passed. They are then introduced to their second guide, Buffalo Hunter. Since Viu beat

1062-400: A focus on human relations and the emotions that accompany them. Some critics, such as Kyoto International Manga Museum curator Kayoko Kuramochi and academic Masuko Honda  [ ja ] , emphasize certain graphic elements when attempting to define shōjo manga: the imaginative use of flowers, ribbons, fluttering dresses, girls with large sparkling eyes, and words that string across

1180-527: A genre that permits its audience to avoid adult female sexuality by distancing sex from their own bodies, as well as creating fluidity in perceptions of gender and sexuality by rejecting socially mandated gender roles. Parallels have also been drawn between yaoi and the popularity of lesbianism in pornography , with the genre having been called a form of "female fetishism ". Female-female romance manga, also known as yuri , has been historically and thematically linked to shōjo manga since its emergence in

1298-594: A major figure in the Class S genre whose novels such as Hana Monogatari centered on romantic friendships between girls and women. The visual conventions of shōjo manga were also heavily influenced by the illustrations published in these magazines, with works by illustrators Yumeji Takehisa , Jun'ichi Nakahara , and Kashō Takabatake  [ ja ] featuring female figures with slender bodies, fashionable clothing, and large eyes. Japanese artists who studied in France at

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1416-425: A mix of kashi-hon reissues and original creations. Horror shōjo manga published by kashi-hon publishers was typically more gory and grotesque than the horror manga of mainstream shōjo magazines, in some case prompting accusations of obscenity and lawsuits by citizens' associations. These publishing houses folded by the end of the 1980s as they became replaced with mainstream shōjo manga magazines dedicated to

1534-560: A model for Sagara Sanosuke . Watsuki then created three historically set samurai-themed one-shots; Crescent Moon in the Warring States , and two sharing the title Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story . Set in the Sengoku Jidai era of Japan's warring states, Crescent Moon in the Warring States relates the tale of the lone swordsman Hiko Seijūrō . The first Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story features Himura Kenshin stopping

1652-902: A narrative focus on themes of friendship, family, school, and love. While early romance shōjo manga was almost invariably simple and conventional love stories, over time and through the works of manga artists such as Machiko Satonaka and Yukari Ichijō , the genre adopted greater narrative and thematic complexity. This gradual maturity came to be reflected in other subgenres: horror manga artist Kazuo Umezu broke shōjo artistic conventions by depicting female characters who were ugly, frightening, and grotesque in his 1965 series Reptilia published in Shōjo Friend , which led to more shōjo artists depicting darker and taboo subject material in their work. Shōjo sports manga , such as Chikako Urano 's Attack No. 1 (1968–1970), began to depict physically active rather than passive female protagonists. In 1969,

1770-560: A new arc of the series; Rurouni Kenshin: The Hokkaido Arc which began in fall 2017. In November 2017, police found DVDs with footage of naked girls in their early teens in Watsuki's Tokyo office. Tokyo Police raided Watsuki's home as part of an investigation into the purchase of child pornography . The search uncovered about a hundred child pornography DVDs. He was referred to prosecutors over possession of child pornography on November 21. The serialization of Rurouni Kenshin: The Hokkaido Arc

1888-468: A one-shot written for a Weekly Shōnen Jump artists project. It chronicles the what-if adventures of a young boy who is struck in the head by a meteor and gains superhuman powers, eventually saving his town from a nuclear disaster. Watsuki felt disgusted with the work and originally did not plan on revealing it, but ultimately decided to include Meteor Strike in the final Rurouni Kenshin volume to increase its page count. Although, he said that after reading

2006-518: A shift in characters and settings: while foreign characters and settings were common in the immediate post-war period, stories began to be set in Japan more frequently as the country began to re-assert an independent national identity. Meiji University professor Yukari Fujimoto writes that beginning in the 1990s, shōjo manga became concerned with self-fulfillment. She intimates that the Gulf War influenced

2124-424: A specific style or a genre, but rather indicates a target demographic . The Japanese manga market is segmented by target readership, with the major categories divided by gender ( shōjo for girls, shōnen for boys) and by age ( josei for women, seinen for men). Thus, shōjo manga is typically defined as manga marketed to an audience of adolescent girls and young adult women, though shōjo manga

2242-420: A style that began to resemble the kawaii aesthetic that would emerge several decades later. New manga artists, such as Osamu Tezuka and other artists associated with Tokiwa-sō , created works that introduced intense drama and serious themes to children's manga using a new format that had become popular in shōnen manga: the "story manga", which depicted multi-chapter narratives with continuity rather than

2360-615: A succession of essentially independent vignettes. Princess Knight (1953–1956) by Tezuka is credited with introducing this type of narrative, along with Tezuka's innovative and dynamic style, to shōjo magazines. At the same time, shōjo on the kashi-hon market developed its own distinct style through the influence of jojōga ( lyrical painting ). Jojōga artists Yukiko Tani and Macoto Takahashi drew cover illustrations for shōjo manga anthologies such as Niji and Hana before transitioning into drawing manga themselves. Rather than following Matsumoto's trajectory of moving away from

2478-411: A term for illustrated novels and poems aimed at an audience of girls) and only incidentally on manga. Shōjo shōsetsu nevertheless played an important role in establishing a shōjo culture, and laid the foundations for what would become the major recurrent themes of shōjo manga through their focus on stories of love and friendship. Among the most significant authors of this era was Nobuko Yoshiya ,

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2596-489: A wide range of both josei and teens' love manga. The genre gradually migrated from small publishers to larger ones, such as Dessert and Shogakukan's mainstream shōjo magazines. By the 2000s, this niche shōjo manga, particularly the teens' love genre, had largely abandoned printed formats in favor of the Internet, in response to the rise of mobile phones in Japan . In the 2000s, publishers who produced manga aimed at

2714-568: A young gunfighter on his journey towards Gun Blaze West, the place where the greatest gunmen go to test their strength. Viz Media published the series in English in North America. "Gun Blaze West" is considered to be a place of legend where everyone, lawmen and outlaws, would be able to live in peace without fear of violence. The journey to Gun Blaze West may only be undertaken at the end of every decade ("Zero Year"), but each hopeful must first earn

2832-671: Is a mistake, as it is a haven for outlaws and bandits, however, Viu refuses to back down. Rodriguez's old partner, Gualarippa, appears with his two sons, Uno and Dos, and they attempt to convince Rodriguez to rejoin them and travel to Gun Blaze West. Rodriguez refuses, however, and Colice and Viu defeat Uno and Dos in a battle. Gualarippa is then overpowered by Rodriguez. After Gualarippa was defeated, Colice decides to travel with Viu and Will and accompany them on their mission to make it to Gun Blaze West. The group then arrives in Fort Smith, Arkansas , and they learn that on July first (half way though

2950-482: Is a significant subgenre of shōjo manga. Works in the genre typically focus on androgynous men referred to as bishōnen (literally "beautiful boys"), with a focus on romantic fantasy rather than a strictly realist depiction of gay relationships. Yaoi emerged as a formal subgenre of shōjo manga in the 1970s, but its portrayals of gay male relationships used and further developed bisexual themes already extant in shōjo manga. Japanese critics have viewed yaoi as

3068-546: Is also depicted more openly, though these depictions in turn came to influence shōjo manga, which itself began to depict sexuality more openly in the 1990s. Several manga magazines blur distinctions between shōjo and josei , and publish works that aesthetically resemble shōjo manga but which deal with the adult themes of josei manga; examples include Kiss at Kodansha, Chorus and Cookie at Shueisha, and Betsucomi at Shogakukan. Niche shōjo publications that eschewed typical shōjo manga conventions emerged in

3186-426: Is also read by men and older women. Shōjo manga is traditionally published in dedicated manga magazines that are directed at a readership of shōjo , an audience that emerged in the early 20th century and which has grown and diversified over time. While the style and tone of the stories published in these magazines varies across publications and decades, an invariant characteristic of shōjo manga has been

3304-528: Is associated with the emergence of a new generation of shōjo artists collectively referred to as the Year 24 Group , which included Moto Hagio , Keiko Takemiya , Yumiko Ōshima , and numerous others. Works of the Year 24 Group focused on the internal psychology of their characters, and introduced new genres to shōjo manga such as adventure fiction , science fiction , fantasy , and historical drama . The art style of

3422-410: Is given it after making a scene. July first arrives and as it turns out, Armor Baron is the aforementioned guide. He instructs them that in order to get a seal to get to Gun Blaze West, they must first defeat him or any of his men that show up behind him. The three major characters decide that they should each take on one, but Viu decides he wants to take on the Armor Baron. Viu finds the Armor Baron in

3540-513: Is not very good at writing comedy, but stated that he does not give up on it because laughter contains "smiles and happiness, the greatest common denominators." Watsuki based many of his characters on historical figures, characters from other manga/anime, and video games series. For example, Himura Kenshin was based on Kawakami Gensai , one of the Four Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu . Four years after

3658-547: Is removed from speech balloons and spread across the page, especially in instances where the dialogue communicates the thoughts, feelings, and internal monologue of the speaker. Third is mahaku ("break"), referring to the symbolic use of white space . A defining stylistic element of shōjo manga is its depiction of characters with very large, detailed eyes that have star-shaped highlights, sometimes referred to as dekame ( デカ目 ) . This technique did not originate in shōjo manga; large eyes have been drawn in manga since

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3776-514: Is run by a man named Carlo who uses his thugs, in particular a shotgun wielder named Target Kevin, to intimidate people into going to his saloon and avoiding others. Viu and Kevin get into a fight, but the Saloon's "bouncer," Will Johnston, seizes both of them and throws them out. Viu notices a compass Will has that also has a "Sign to the West" on it. Viu later speaks with Will and his sister in their house about

3894-480: The American comic book market was largely oriented towards male readers at the time, shōjo manga found early success by targeting a then-unreached audience of female comic book readers; English translations of titles such as Sailor Moon , Boys Over Flowers , and Fruits Basket became best-selling books. The English manga market crashed in the late 2000s as a result of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 , and when

4012-566: The Arizona desert and seeing its wild cacti. Watsuki revealed in an interview with One Piece author Eiichiro Oda , who briefly worked for him as an assistant on Rurouni Kenshin , that he had considered making a one-eyed protagonist for Gun Blaze West . However, to avoid accusations of plagiarism from the media, Watsuki scrapped the idea when he found out that Oda had early plans to have his One Piece character Roronoa Zoro lose an eye at some point in that manga. Watsuki intentionally shortened

4130-580: The Juppongatana , followed in Jump SQ. in 2014. From August 9–11, 2013, an exhibit of art from Rurouni Kenshin was displayed at Otakon in the United States curated by Watsuki's wife. Watsuki and his wife collaborated on the two-chapter Rurouni Kenshin Side Story: The Ex-Con Ashitaro for the ninth anniversary of Jump SQ. in 2016. The second chapter revealed that the story is a prequel to

4248-618: The "Sign To West", an item with the Gun Blaze West insignia that is only valid on the year it is acquired. The series begins in 1875 in Illinois with the introduction of Viu Bannes, a nine-year-old boy who wins a gun belt in an arm-wrestling competition. Viu encounters a wandering drifter named Marcus Homer, who trains Viu to become stronger by having him race as far as he can to a cliff in the distance, and tells him he will be strong enough to reach Gun Blaze West when he can reach that cliff before

4366-625: The "fighting girl" (as in Katsuji Matsumoto's Nazo no Kurōbaa , where a girl takes up arms to defend the peasants of her village), and the " crossdressing girl" (as in Eisuke Ishida's Kanaria Ōjisama , where a princess is raised as a prince). Osamu Tezuka's Princess Knight represents the synthesis of these two archetypes, wherein a princess who is raised as a prince comes to face her enemies in combat. These archetypes were generally popular in shōjo war fiction , which emerged in tandem with

4484-486: The 1950s, notably Hideko Mizuno , Miyako Maki , Masako Watanabe and Eiko Hanamura , most of them debuted within the kashi-hon anthology Izumi ( 泉 ) . While they constituted a minority of shōjo manga creators, the editorial departments of magazines noted that their works were more popular with female readers than works created by their male peers. By the 1960s, the ubiquity of television in Japanese households and

4602-465: The 1970s, though yuri is not strictly exclusive to shōjo and has been published across manga demographic groups. A relationship between shōjo culture and female-female romance dates to the pre-war period with stories in the Class S genre, which focused on intense romantic friendships between girls. By the post-war period, these works had largely declined in popularity in favor of works focused on male-female romances. Yukari Fujimoto posits that as

4720-443: The 1980s, particularly in the horror and erotica genres. This occurred in the context of the decline of kashi-hon publishing, where publishers survived market shifts away from book rental by offering collected volumes of manga that had not been previously serialized in magazines. Hibari Shōbo and Rippū Shōbo were among the publishing companies that began to publish shōjo horror manga in this format, typically as volumes that contained

4838-1012: The 1980s, the category has developed stylistically while simultaneously branching into different and overlapping subgenres. Strictly speaking, shōjo manga does not refer to a specific style or a genre but rather indicates a target demographic . While certain aesthetic, visual, and narrative conventions are associated with shōjo manga, these conventions have changed and evolved over time, and none are strictly exclusive to shōjo manga. Nonetheless, several concepts and themes have come to be typically associated with shōjo manga, both visual (non-rigid panel layouts, highly detailed eyes) and narrative (a focus on human relations and emotions; characters that defy traditional roles and stereotypes surrounding gender and sexuality; depictions of supernatural and paranormal subjects). The Japanese word shōjo (少女) translates literally to "girl", but in common Japanese usage girls are generally referred to as onna no ko ( 女の子 ) and rarely as shōjo . Rather,

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4956-575: The 1990s. As shōjo manga began to focus on adolescents over children beginning in the 1970s, romantic relationships generally become more important than family relationships; these romantic relationships are most often heterosexual, though they are occasionally homosexual. Characters that defy traditional roles and stereotypes surrounding gender and sexuality have been a central motif of shōjo manga since its origins. Tomboy protagonists, referred to as otenba ( お転婆 ) , appear regularly in pre-war shōjo manga. This archetype has two primary variants:

5074-470: The Baron he is seeded first among all of the candidates that passed. The series ends with Viu writing a note to Marcus saying "Waiting for you at the place we dreamt of." Gun Blaze West was written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki , who began working on it after the completion of his previous manga Rurouni Kenshin in 1999. Watsuki became inspired to write a manga about the American frontier upon visiting

5192-626: The Group, influenced by Machiko Satonaka and Yukari Ichijō, came to pioneer new visual standards for shōjo manga: finer and lighter lines, beautiful faces that bordered on exaggeration, and panels that overlapped or were entirely borderless. Numerous artists contributed to innovation in shōjo manga during the 1970s. Takemiya and Hagio originated a new genre, shōnen-ai (male-male romance), with Takemiya's Sunroom Nite (1970) and Hagio's The November Gymnasium (1971). The historical drama The Rose of Versailles (1972–1973) by Riyoko Ikeda became

5310-703: The Shinsengumi. Okita Sōji , Ōkubo Toshimichi , and Katsura Kogorō are among numerous other historical figures who make appearances in the story. Yukishiro Enishi's minion Gein was based on grave robber and double murderer Ed Gein . Gun Blaze West Gun Blaze West (stylized in all caps ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki . It was serialized in Shueisha 's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2000 to July 2001, with its chapters collected in three tankōbon volumes. The story follows Viu Bannes,

5428-447: The Sign, which Will explains was a focal point of his father's research. Will, however, is reluctant to search for Gun Blaze West because of the massive debt the Saloon owes. Kevin appears and attacks their house, ordering Will to come out and fight him in order to prove that he is stronger. When Will is again reluctant, Viu decides to take up Kevin's challenge. Kevin and Viu duel each other in

5546-423: The art of Jun'ichi Nakahara was significantly influencing kashi-hon manga artists, especially Macoto Takahashi. Takahashi incorporated Nakahara's style of drawing eyes into his own manga – large, doll-like eyes with highlights and long lashes – while gradually introducing his own stylistic elements, such as the use of dots, stars, and multiple colors to represent the iris. At the end of the 1950s, Takahashi's style

5664-464: The backgrounds. Carlo Santos from Anime News Network panned the art at the start, saying it felt like Watsuki had no idea what to draw. He also noted that while some characters look great in battle, out of battle they look impractical. However, he praised the angular art saying that it made it easy to follow the action from panel to panel. The characters were generally given mixed reviews. Some critics, like David Rasmussen from Manga Life praised

5782-492: The category had developed a unique visual identity that distinguished it from shōnen manga. By the early 1970s, most shōjo manga artists were women, though editorial positions at shōjo manga magazines remained male-dominated. Over the course of the decade, shōjo manga became more graphically and thematically complex, as it came to reflect the prevailing attitudes of the sexual revolution and women's liberation movement . This movement towards narratively complex stories

5900-674: The characters, calling them likeable. Other critics, like Ed Sizemore from Comics Worth Reading panned the main character, Viu, calling him "one note". However, he praised the secondary cast, specifically their involvement in the plot. Sh%C5%8Djo manga Shōjo manga ( 少女漫画 , lit. "girls' comics ", also romanized as shojo or shoujo ) is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent females and young adult women. It is, along with shōnen manga (targeting adolescent boys), seinen manga (targeting young adult and adult men), and josei manga (targeting adult women), one of

6018-414: The content of shōjo manga has evolved in tandem with the evolution of Japanese society, especially in terms of the place of women, the role of the family, and romantic relationships. She notes how family dramas with a focus on mother-daughter relationships were popular in the 1960s, while stories about romantic relationships became more popular in the 1970s, and stories about father figures became popular in

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6136-480: The cost of a subway ticket at the time. This had the effect of widening access to books among the general public and spurring additional manga publishing. Shōjo manga artists who had been active prior to the war returned to the medium, including Shosuke Kurakane with Anmitsu Hime (1949–1955), Toshiko Ueda with Fuichin-san (1957–1962), and Katsuji Matsumoto resuming publication of Kurukuru Kurumi-chan . During this period, Matsumoto developed his art into

6254-536: The decade attracted the attention of manga critics, who had previously ignored shōjo manga or regarded it as unserious, but who now declared that shōjo manga had entered its "golden age". This critical attention attracted a male audience to shōjo manga who, although a minority of overall shōjo readers, remained as an audience for the category. Since the 1970s, shōjo manga has continued to develop stylistically while simultaneously branching out into different but overlapping subgenres. This development began with

6372-409: The development of female characters "who fight to protect the destiny of a community", such as Red River (1995–2002), Basara (1990–1998), Magic Knight Rayearth (1993–1996), and Sailor Moon (1991–1997). Fujimoto opines that the shōjo manga of the 1990s depicted emotional bonds between women as stronger than the bonds between a man and a woman. In 1980, Kodansha published Be Love as

6490-511: The dominant visual style of shōjo manga. Not all kashi-hon shōjo conformed to this lyrical style: one of the most popular shōjo kashi-hon anthologies was Kaidan ( 怪談 , lit. "Ghost Stories") , which launched in 1958 and ran for more than one hundred monthly issues. As its name implies, the anthology published supernatural stories focused on yūrei and yōkai . Its success with female readers resulted in other generalist shōjo anthologies beginning to publish horror manga, laying

6608-509: The early 20th century, notably by Osamu Tezuka, who drew inspiration from the theatrical makeup of actresses in the Takarazuka Revue when drawing eyes. A large central star that replaces the pupil dot began to appear at key moments in shōjo manga by Tezuka and Shotaro Ishinomori in the mid-1950s, though these details generally trended towards a realist style rather than the emotive style of later shōjo manga. Contemporaneously,

6726-567: The editorial content of these magazines largely concerned topics that were of interest to boys. Faced with growing demand for magazines aimed at girls, the first shōjo magazines were published, and shōnen magazines came to target boys exclusively. The first exclusively shōjo magazine was Shōjo-kai  [ ja ] , first published in 1902. This was followed by Shōjo Sekai in 1906, Shōjo no Tomo in 1908, Shōjo Gahō in 1912, and Shōjo Club in 1923. These magazines focused primarily on shōjo shōsetsu ( lit. "girls' novel",

6844-509: The element to be one of his favorites since the gloves "give off a sense of strength." His third element is the girl wearing a construction site helmet. The helmet is masculine, while the Japanese school uniform that the girl wears is feminine. Watsuki said that he created the main character Shinya "on the spot," giving him too much honesty, and a personality that overlaps with that of Himura Kenshin, which he regrets "a little." Watsuki created Chiho,

6962-409: The emergence of so-called "boys shōjo manga ", beginning with the magazines Comic High! in 2004 and Comic Yell! in 2007. Magazines in this category publish manga aimed at a male readership, but which use a visual style that draws significantly from the aesthetics of moe and shōjo manga. English-language translations of shōjo manga were first published in North America in the late 1990s. As

7080-548: The emotions being expressed by the eyes of the characters. Eyes also came to serve as a marker of gender, with female characters typically having larger eyes than male characters. Among the most common concepts in shōjo manga is that of ningen kankei ( 人間関係 , "human relationships") , which refers to interpersonal relationships between characters and the interaction of their emotions. Relationships between characters are central to most shōjo manga, particularly those of friendship, affection, and love. Narratives often focus on

7198-442: The end of the 1950s; Macoto Takahashi , a lyrical painter and manga artist, is regarded as the first artist to use this style in manga. The style was quickly adopted by his contemporaries and later by shōjo artists who emerged in the 1960s, while in the 1970s artists associated with the Year 24 Group developed the style significantly. According to manga artist, academic, and Year 24 Group member Keiko Takemiya , shōjo manga

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7316-503: The end of the 1960s, sexuality – both heterosexual and homosexual – began to be freely depicted in shōjo manga. This shift was brought about in part by literalist interpretations of manga censorship codes: for example, the first sex scenes in shōjo manga were including by covering characters having sex with bed sheets to circumvent codes that specifically only forbade depictions of genitals and pubic hair . The evolution of these representations of gender in sexuality occurred in tandem with

7434-541: The era, introduced sophisticated and avant-garde innovations in shōjo manga, such as the art deco -inspired Poku-chan (1930), the cinematic Nazo no Kurōbā (1934), and his most famous work Kurukuru Kurumi-chan (1938). With the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, censorship and paper rationing hindered the development of magazines, which either folded or were forced to merge to survive. The magazines that continued to published were reduced to

7552-440: The fear or rejection of motherhood, appear as major motif in paranormal shōjo manga; for example, stories where mothers take on the appearance of demons or ghosts, daughters of demons who are themselves transformed into demons, impious pregnancies resulting from incestuous rape, and mothers who commit filicide out of jealousy or insanity. The social pressure and oppression borne from a patriarchal Japanese society also recurs as

7670-443: The feminization of shōjo manga's authorship and readership, as the category shifted from being created primarily by men for an audience of young girls, to being created by women for an audience of teenaged and young adult women; since the 1970s, shōjo manga has been written almost exclusively by women. Though they compose a minority of shōjo stories overall, male-male romance manga – referred to as yaoi or "boys' love" (BL) –

7788-489: The first shōjo manga sex scene was published in Hideko Mizuno 's Fire! (1969–1971). By the end of the decade, most shōjo magazines now specialized in manga, and no longer published their previous prose literature and articles. As the kashi-hon declined, so too did their manga anthologies; most folded, with their artists and writers typically migrating to manga magazines. Most shōjo manga artists were women, and

7906-501: The first chapters. Later parts of the story were panned for being the typical shōnen plot. One reviewer even said the manga feels like " Ash Ketchum get your gun". In contrast to that, the final fight was generally praised for being an intense, over the top fight, perfect for the premature ending. The art was generally given mixed reviews with some critics praising it for being clean, crisp, and simple, while criticizing it for not trying anything new or spending time to appreciate

8024-565: The first live-action Rurouni Kenshin film. Its two collected volumes were published in English by Viz Media. It was the first of several returns to the author's most famous series. Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration Act Zero was published in Weekly Shōnen Jump in August 2012 as a prologue to Restoration and included in its first volume. The two-part Rurouni Kenshin: Master of Flame , which shows how Shishio Makoto met Komagata Yumi and formed

8142-447: The first major critical and commercial success in shōjo manga; the series was groundbreaking in its portrayal of gender and sexuality, and was influential in its depiction of bishōnen (literally "beautiful boys"), a term for androgynous male characters. Ako Mutsu and Mariko Iwadate led a new trend of otomechikku manga. While works of the Year 24 Group were defined by their narrative complexity, otomechikku manga focused on

8260-484: The first manga magazine aimed at an audience of adult women. It was quickly followed by a wave of similar magazines, including Feel Young at Kodansha, Judy at Shogakukan, and You , Young You and Office You at Shueisha. This category of manga, referred to as "ladies' comics" or josei manga, shares many common traits with shōjo manga, with the primary distinguishing exception of a focus on adult protagonists rather than teenaged or younger protagonists. Sexuality

8378-687: The groundwork for what would become a significant subgenre of shōjo manga. As manga became generally more popular over the course of the decade, the proportion of manga published by shōjo magazines began to increase. For example, while manga represented only 20 percent of the editorial content of Shōjo Club in the mid-1950s, by the end of the decade it composed more than half. Many shōjo magazines had in effect became manga magazines, and several companies launched magazines dedicated exclusively to shōjo manga: first Kodansha in 1954 with Nakayoshi , followed by Shueisha in 1955 with Ribon . From this combination of light-hearted stories inherited from

8496-399: The gun was part of a map to Gun Blaze West. Viu decides to take it with him. Five years later, Viu having completed his training, is now able to move at superhuman speed. He begins his journey to Gun Blaze West with Marcus's revolver as his only weapon. He soon arrives at St. Louis, where he is invited into a shabby saloon whose business has been falling due to the saloon across the street. It

8614-470: The horror genre, beginning with Monthly Halloween in 1986. In the 1990s, a genre of softcore pornographic shōjo manga emerged under the genre name teens' love . The genre shares many common traits with pornographic josei manga, with the distinguishing exception of the age of the protagonists, who are typically in their late teens and early twenties. Teens' love magazines proliferated at smaller publishers, such as Ohzora Publishing , which published

8732-407: The human characters and supernatural beings are typically women or bishōnen . Paranormal shōjo manga gained and maintained popularity by depicting scenarios that allow female readers to freely explore feelings of jealousy, anger, and frustration, which are typically not depicted in mainstream shōjo manga focused on cute characters and melodramatic scenarios. Mother-daughter conflict, as well as

8850-403: The interiority of their protagonists, wherein their emotions, feelings, memories, and inner monologue are expressed visually through techniques such as panel arrangement and the rendering of eye details. When conflict occurs, the most common medium of exchange is dialogue and conversation, as opposed to physical combat typical in shōnen manga. Manga scholar Yukari Fujimoto considers that

8968-507: The manga and anime were released in English by Viz Media. Watsuki wrote two one-shots for Jump the Revolution! , Embalming -Dead Body and Bride- on November 1, 2005, and Embalming II -Dead Body and Lover- on November 1, 2006, that would become his fourth serial. Embalming -The Another Tale of Frankenstein- began in the debut issue of Jump SQ on November 2, 2007, and concluded on April 4, 2015. Kaworu Kurosaki again assisted him with

9086-439: The medium regained popularity in the 2010s, shōnen manga emerged as the most popular category of manga among English-language readers. Nevertheless, every major English-language manga publisher maintains a robust line of shōjo manga; Viz Media in particular publishes shōjo manga under its Shojo Beat imprint, which it also published as a serialized manga magazine in the mid- to late-2000s. The visual style of shōjo manga

9204-514: The middle of sentences, the lattermost of which were scattered across pages in a manner resembling verses of poetry. Prose is accompanied by illustrations by lyrical painters, which are characterized by a sentimental style influenced by Art Nouveau and Nihonga . Particular attention is paid to representations of shōjo , who are depicted as well-dressed and possessing large, very detailed eyes that have star-shaped highlights. This narrative and visual style began to influence shōjo manga towards

9322-454: The militarization of Japan in the 1930s, while an emphasis on cross-dressing arose from the popularity of the cross-dressing actresses of the Takarazuka Revue . Otenba grew in popularity in the post-war period, which critic Yoshihiro Yonezawa attributes to advancements in gender equality marked by the enshrinement of the equality of the sexes in the Constitution of Japan in 1947. By

9440-474: The most influential artists of this era was Katsuji Matsumoto , a lyrical painter influenced in moga culture and the artistic culture of the United States. Having grown tired of depicting typical innocent shōjo subjects in his illustrations, he pivoted to drawing manga in the 1920s, where he was able to depict moga and tomboys more freely. His style, likely influenced by American comic book artists like George McManus and Ethel Hays and American cinema of

9558-437: The number of publishing companies grew from 300 to roughly 2000 during the same period. While not all of theses magazines and companies published children's literature, publications for children constituted a significant percentage of publishing output. Contemporaneously, kashi-hon ( book rental stores) experienced a boom in popularity. These stores rented books for a modest fee of five to ten yen , roughly equivalent to half

9676-540: The ordinary lives of teenaged Japanese protagonists. The genre waned in popularity by the end of the decade, but its narrative and visual style made a lasting impact on shōjo manga, particularly the emergent aesthetic of kawaii . Veteran shōjo artists such as Miyako Maki and Hideko Mizuno began developing new manga for their formerly child-aged readers who were now adults. Although their attempts were commercially unsuccessful, with short-lived magazines such as Papillon (パピヨン) at Futabasha in 1972, their works were

9794-410: The origins of ladies comics before the category's formal emergence in the early 1980s. By the end of the 1970s, the three largest publishing houses in Japan ( Kodansha , Shogakukan , and Shueisha ) as well as Hakusensha established themselves as the largest publishers of shōjo manga, and maintained this dominant position in the decades that followed. The innovation of shōjo manga throughout

9912-439: The other major character, to show the " shojo theme of the moment" when the boy out-matures the girl. Watsuki felt that the plan "didn't work out so well" and "a lot wasn't what I wanted it to be." He added that he liked portraying the "helpful nature" of Chiho. In 2001, Watsuki created his second serialized work, the western Gun Blaze West . The story follows Viu Bannes, a young gunfighter on his journey towards Gun Blaze West,

10030-528: The overall dimensions of his characters in Gun Blaze West , a technique he carried over while drawing children in his next manga Buso Renkin . Written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki , Gun Blaze West was serialized in Shueisha 's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 11, 2000, to July 31, 2001. Shueisha collected its chapters in three tankōbon volumes published from June 4 to November 2, 2001. Shueisha re-released

10148-537: The page, which Honda describes using the onomatopoeia hirahira . This definition accounts for works that exist outside the boundaries of traditional shōjo magazine publishing but which nonetheless are perceived as shōjo , such as works published on the Internet. As the Japanese publishing industry boomed during the Meiji era , new magazines aimed at a teenage audience began to emerge, referred to as shōnen . While these magazines were ostensibly unisex, in practice

10266-580: The pen name "Nobuhiro Nishiwaki". Hokuriku Yūrei Kobanashi earned him the Hop Step award. It was included in Hop Step Award Selection volume 6 in 1991. After graduating, Watsuki moved to Tokyo and worked as an assistant to Yōichi Takahashi and Takeshi Obata . Watsuki worked on Obata's Mashin Bōken Tan Lamp-Lamp and Chikara Bito Densetsu , the former's title character would later serve as

10384-791: The place where the greatest gunmen go to test their strength. It ran in Weekly Shōnen Jump for less-than a year, from January 8 to August 13, 2001. Its three volumes were published in English by Viz. His third serialization Buso Renkin , was published in Weekly Shōnen Jump between July 7, 2003, and May 9, 2005, with two special chapters published in Akamaru Jump . Watsuki is married to author Kaworu Kurosaki ( 黒碕薫 , Kurosaki Kaoru ) . She has assisted her husband in writing several of his manga including Buso Renkin , which she later wrote two novelizations of. Watsuki described himself as "pro- dōjinshi " and asked fans to send fan comics. Buso Renkin became his second work to be adapted into an anime. Both

10502-451: The pre-war era, dramatic narratives introduced by the Tokiwa-sō, and cerebral works developed on the kashi-hon market, shōjo manga of this period was divided by publishers into three major categories: kanashii manga ( かなしい漫画 , lit. "sad manga") , yukai na manga ( ゆかいな漫画 , lit. "happy manga") , and kowai manga ( こわい漫画 , lit. "scary manga") . In the 1950s, shōjo manga

10620-418: The primary editorial categories of manga. Shōjo manga is traditionally published in dedicated manga magazines , which often specialize in a particular readership age range or narrative genre. Shōjo manga originated from Japanese girls' culture at the turn of the twentieth century, primarily shōjo shōsetsu (girls' prose novels) and jojōga ( lyrical paintings ). The earliest shōjo manga

10738-460: The publishing house Fusosha , which had previously not published manga, entered the manga market with the shōjo manga magazine Malika . The magazine was unconventional compared to other shōjo manga magazines of the era: in addition to publishing manga by renowned female authors, it featured contributions from celebrities in media, illustration, and design; the magazine also operated a website that published music and additional stories. The magazine

10856-697: The readership of shōjo manga is primarily female and heterosexual, female homosexuality is rarely addressed. Fujimoto sees the largely tragic bent of most yuri stories, with a focus on doomed relationships that end in separation or death, as representing a fear of female sexuality on the part of female readers, which she sees as also explaining the interest of shōjo readers on yaoi manga. Shōjo manga often features supernatural and horror elements, such as stories focused on yūrei (ghosts), oni (demons), and yōkai (spirits), or which are otherwise structured around Japanese urban legends or Japanese folklore . These works are female-focused, where both

10974-576: The revolution ended, Gensai was falsely accused of a crime and was executed. Watsuki admires Kenshin for his desire to do good in honor of those whom he had to kill so the Meiji Government could exist. In addition, Saitō Hajime was based on the historical Saitō Hajime , a member of the Shinsengumi although Watsuki admitted altering him to the point of fan complaints. Several other characters, most notably Sagara Sanosuke , Shinomori Aoshi , and Seta Sōjirō , are also loosely based on certain figures among

11092-587: The reward money he received for defeating Kenbrown in Illinois. Viu and Will come across a travelling circus, where the star attraction is a young girl named Colice, who is in fact a native of Japan who had to flee the country after her home was destroyed in the Boshin War . She is an expert knife-wielder. The Ringmaster of the Circus, a large man named Rodriguez, attempts to persuade Viu (by force) that going to Gun Blaze West

11210-531: The rise of serialized television programs emerged as a significant competitor to magazines. Many monthly magazines folded and were replaced by weekly magazines, such as Shōjo Friend and Margaret . To satisfy the need for weekly editorial content, magazines introduced contests in which readers could submit their manga for publication; female artists dominated these contests, and many amateur artists who emerged from these contests went on to have professional manga careers. The first artist to emerge from this system

11328-654: The series in a two-volume bunkoban edition from August 18 to September 16, 2011. In North America, Viz Media announced the acquisition of the manga in July 2007. The three volumes were published from April 1 to October 7, 2008. The series is also available to read on the Shonen Jump app and website. Gun Blaze West was generally panned. Specifically, the hook was panned for being uninteresting, with multiple reviewers saying if they had been reading it weekly in Weekly Shōnen Jump , they probably would not have read beyond

11446-446: The story over again it "relaxed" him "in a nice way." Watsuki included three main elements in the story, which he described as having "some different flavors" than Rurouni Kenshin . He had wanted to use meteors in a story for a long time, since they are the "most energetic natural phenomena." His second element was a boy wearing a pair of white gloves. Watsuki described white gloves as "sort of plain" and "not cool at all," yet he considers

11564-423: The story. It draws largely from Mary Shelley 's famed 1818 novel Frankenstein and follows a young man named Fury Flatliner, who was turned into a Frankenstein in order to destroy all the others and specifically seeks the one that killed his parents. Between 2012 and 2013, Watsuki put Embalming on hold to write Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration in Jump SQ . This "reboot" depicts the battles that are featured in

11682-462: The sun sets. When Illinois is attacked by the Kenbrown gang, its three underlings are defeated by Viu and Marcus, but Kenbrown himself overwhelms the town's defenders at an abandoned fort. Marcus challenges Kenbrown to a one on one duel and is killed. Viu, having witnessed his friend's death, is enraged and defeats Kenbrown himself. Marcus's revolver had a "Sign to the West" on its handle, and hidden inside

11800-428: The term shōjo is used to designate a social category that emerged during the Meiji era (1868–1912) of girls and young women at the age between childhood and marriage. Generally this referred to school-aged adolescents, with whom an image of "innocence, purity and cuteness" was associated; this contrasted the moga ("modern girl", young unmarried working women), with whom a more self-determined and sexualized image

11918-555: The time were influenced by the methods of expression of Art Nouveau and early pin-up artists. Early shōjo manga took the form of short, humorous stories with ordinary settings (such as schools and neighborhoods) and which often featured tomboy protagonists. These works began to develop in the 1930s through the influence of artists such as Suihō Tagawa and Shosuke Kurakane ; this period saw some female shōjo artists, such as Machiko Hasegawa and Toshiko Ueda , though they were significantly less common than male artists. Among

12036-527: The unique style that emerged at the end of the 1950s which came to distinguish shōjo manga from shōnen manga was primarily derived from pre-war shōjo shōsetsu . Shōjo shōsetsu is characterized by a "flowery and emotional" prose style focused on the inner monologue of the protagonist. Narration is often punctuated with non-verbal elements that express the feelings of the protagonists; writer Nobuko Yoshiya in particular made extensive use of multiple ellipsis ("..."), exclamation points, and dashes in

12154-515: The use of layouts that break from the traditional comic approach of a series of sequential boxes. In this style, elements extend beyond the borders of panels, or the panel border is removed entirely. Intervals between panels are also were modified, with sequential panels that depicted the same event from different angles or perspectives. Second is kaiho ("release"), referring to the use of decompression to create more languid and relaxed sequences. Oftentimes in compositions without panel borders, text

12272-499: The use of non-rigid panel layouts and highly detailed eyes that express the emotions of characters. Beginning in the 1970s, panel layouts in shōjo manga developed a new and distinct style. In his 1997 book Why Is Manga So Interesting? Its Grammar and Expression , manga artist and critic Fusanosuke Natsume identifies and names the three major aspects of panel construction that came to distinguish shōjo manga from shōnen manga. The first, naiho ("panel encapsulations"), refers to

12390-417: The visual and narrative conventions of shōjo manga. In sum, the magazines represented the integration of moe in shōjo manga: a term describing an expression of cuteness focused on feelings of affection and excitement that is distinct from kawaii , the more child-like and innocent expression of cuteness typically associated with shōjo manga. Moe was additionally expressed in shōjo manga through

12508-407: The visual conventions of lyrical painting, Tani and Takahashi imported them into their manga, with works defined by a strong sense of atmosphere and a focus on the emotions rather than the actions of their protagonists. Takahashi's manga series Arashi o Koete (1958) was a major success upon its release, and marked the beginnings of this jojōga -influenced style eclipsing Tezuka's dynamic style as

12626-416: The year), a guide will show up to take them to Gun Blaze West. The group then enters a bar. Colice asks for coffee with milk in it, but is denied because the bar "only servers adult coffee", or coffee that is black. J.J. then comes in and makes a scene to get milk for Colice. He succeeds and Colice gets her coffee. Another man comes in the bar in heavy armor, nicknamed Armor Baron, asking for a glass of milk. He

12744-960: Was Machiko Satonaka , who at the age of 16 had debut manga Pia no Shōzō ("Portrait of Pia", 1964) published in Shōjo Friend . The emergence of female artists led to the development of roma-kome ( romantic comedy ) manga, historically an unpopular genre among male shōjo artists. Hideko Mizuno was the first to introduce romantic comedy elements to shōjo manga through her manga adaptions of American romantic comedy films: Sabrina in 1963 as Sutekina Cora , and The Quiet Man in 1966 as Akage no Scarlet . Other artists, such as Masako Watanabe, Chieko Hosokawa , and Michiko Hosono similarly created manga based on American romantic comedy films, or which were broadly inspired by western actresses and models and featured western settings. Contemporaneously, artists such as Yoshiko Nishitani became popular for rabu-kome (literally "love comedy") manga, focused on protagonists who were ordinary Japanese teenaged girls, with

12862-789: Was a commercial failure and folded after six issues, but came to be emblematic of a new trend in shōjo manga: cross-media marketing , where works are published across multiple mediums simultaneously. Early shōjo manga successes in this cross-media approach include Nana (2000–2009) by Ai Yazawa , Lovely Complex (2001–2006) by Aya Nakahara , and Nodame Cantabile (2001–2010) by Tomoko Ninomiya , all of which were alternately adapted into films, television dramas, anime series, video games, and series-branded music CDs. Older manga series, such as Attack No. 1 and Boys Over Flowers , found renewed success after being relaunched with cross-media adaptations. The shōjo magazines Asuka and Princess , which distinguished themselves by publishing

12980-438: Was a genre that was created primarily by male authors, notably Leiji Matsumoto , Shōtarō Ishinomori , Kazuo Umezu , and Tetsuya Chiba . Though some creators (notably Tezuka, Ishinomori, and Umezu) created works focused on active heroines, most shōjo stories of this era were typically focused on tragic and passive heroines who bravely endured adversity. Beside Toshiko Ueda, several female manga artists started working during

13098-400: Was able to develop this distinct style because the category was seen as marginal by editors, who consequently allowed artists to draw stories in whatever manner they wished so long as reader response remained positive. Stylistic elements that were developed by the Year 24 Group became established as visual hallmarks of shōjo manga; many of these elements later spread to shōnen manga, such as

13216-600: Was adapted into an anime television series , several animated films, and a trilogy of live-action films. The story Haru ni Sakura , included in the Kenshin Kaden guidebook, details the fates of the main cast of Rurouni Kenshin following its conclusion. In Yahiko no Sakabatō , set five years after the conclusion of Rurouni Kenshin , Myōjin Yahiko must save the daughter of a dojo master from an old foe. During Rurouni Kenshin ' s serialization, Watsuki wrote Meteor Strike ,

13334-504: Was adopted by Miyako Maki – one of the most popular manga artists at the time – which led to its widespread adoption by mainstream shōjo manga magazines. From this point on, experimental eye design flourished in shōjo manga, with features such as elongated eyelashes, the use of concentric circles of different shades, and the deformation of the iris to create a glittering effect. This focus on hyper-detailed eyes led manga artists to frame panels on close-ups of faces, to draw attention to

13452-459: Was associated. Shōjo continued to be associated with an image of youth and innocence after the end of the Meiji era, but took on a strong consumerist connotation beginning in the 1980s as it developed into a distinct marketing category for girls; the gyaru also replaced the moga as the archetypical independent woman during this period. Strictly speaking, shōjo manga does not refer to

13570-497: Was born in Tokyo and was brought up in Nagaoka, Niigata . When he was in middle school, Watsuki practiced kendo . He still drew manga but also enjoyed sports, although he never won a kendo match. Watsuki grew frustrated with kendo, and eventually quit. In high school, Watsuki received an honorable mention in the 33rd Tezuka Awards for his 1987 one-shot Teacher Pon , which he wrote under

13688-460: Was largely similar to that of shōnen manga until the late 1950s, a function of the fact that both shōjo and shōnen manga were created by the same, mostly male, artists. During the pre-war period, these artists were especially influenced by the modernist style of George McManus , while in the post-war period the dynamic style of Osamu Tezuka became the primary reference point for manga. While shōjo manga inherited some of these influences,

13806-461: Was published in general magazines aimed at teenagers in the early 1900s and began a period of creative development in the 1950s as it began to formalize as a distinct category of manga. While the category was initially dominated by male manga artists , the emergence and eventual dominance of female artists beginning in the 1960s and 1970s led to significant creative innovation and the development of more graphically and thematically complex stories. Since

13924-686: Was put on hiatus after the details of Watsuki's charges were made public. In February 2018, Watsuki was fined ¥ 200,000 (about US$ 1,900). The Hokkaido Arc resumed serialization in June 2018. Watsuki started drawing from the influence of his older brother. He named Osamu Tezuka 's Black Jack as his favorite manga and Takeshi Obata as his favorite artist. Other series that influenced him include Fujiko F. Fujio 's Doraemon and Pa-man , Mitsuru Adachi 's Touch , Wing Man by Masakazu Katsura , Minako Narita's Alien Street and Cypher , and YuYu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi . Watsuki said that he

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