Shōjo, shojo, or shoujo manga (少女漫画, shōjo manga ) is manga aimed at a teenage female target-demographic readership. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 ( shōjo ), literally 'young woman '. Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative styles, from historical drama to science fiction, often with a focus on romantic relationships or emotions. Strictly speaking, however, shōjo manga does not comprise a style or genre, but rather indicates a target demographic.
History
Japanese magazines specifically for girls, known as shōjo magazines, first appeared in 1903 with the founding of Shōjo kai (少女界, Girls ' World ) and continued with others such as Shōjo Sekai (少女世界, Girls ' World ) (1906) and the long- running Shōjo no tomo (少女の友, Girls ' Friend ) (1908).The roots of the wide-eyed look commonly associated with shōjo manga dates back to shōjo magazine illustrations during the early 20th century. The most important illustrators associated with this style at the time were Yumeji Takehisa and particularly Jun'ichi Nakahara, who, influenced by his work as a doll creator, frequently drew female characters with big eyes in the early 20th century. This had a significant influence on early shōjo manga, evident in the work of influential manga artists such as Macoto Takahashi and Riyoko Ikeda.Simple, single-page manga began to appear in these magazines by 1910, and by the 1930s more sophisticated humor-strips had become an essential feature of most girls ' magazines. The most popular manga, Katsuji Matsumoto's Kurukuru Kurumi-chan (くるくるクルミちゃん), debuted on the pages of Shōjo no tomo (少女の友) in 1938. As World War II progressed, however, " comics, perhaps regarded as frivolous, began to disappear".Postwar shōjo manga, such as Shosuke Kurakane's popular Anmitsu Hime,
initially followed the pre- war pattern of simple humor-strips. But Osamu Tezuka's postwar revolution, introducing intense drama and serious themes to children 's manga, spread quickly to shōjo manga, particularly after the enormous success of his seminal Ribon no kishi (リボンの騎士 Princess Knight ).
