Manga And Anime Basics -2
Now let’s take a look at the two basic types of manga.
Most anime falls into the shounen category, but
elements of shounen and shoujo manga appear in
almost every anime series. (After all, the creators want
boys and girls to watch their series, so they try to add
elements and story lines that will appeal to both.)
Shounen (boys’ manga)
Shounen started with Tezuka Osamu, who was the
creator of Astro Boy. Astro Boy was a robot comic
created in 1951, and in 1963 was one of the first
manga characters to be animated in his own cartoon.
Astro Boy was also translated into English, and was on
American television in the 1960s, making it one of the
first anime series to be shown in America.
Osamu changed the way manga was written and
drawn. He drew in a style that was closer to how
movies look than how comic strips look. He showed
his characters in close-ups, in unusual angles, and
created a sense of action that hadn’t been used before.
He wrote exciting and suspenseful stories, and they
didn’t always have happy endings – which was very
13
unusual for manga at the time. (If you have ever read
any, comic books in America during the 1950s and
1960s almost always had happy endings, too.)
Many shounen manga comics are about Japanese
history, combat, action, science fiction, robots, and
even sports like soccer or tennis. Very few American
comic books are about sports, but it’s very common for
Japanese manga to feature sports or sports heroes.
The theme of shounen is conflict or struggle or
fighting, where a hero and his friends always have to
overcome impossible odds. In the course of the story,
they usually learn about friendship, about being loyal
to each other, and about sticking with something no
matter how hard it might seem. There’s almost always
a point in every story where the heroes are about to
give up, but their friendship and inner strength usually
see them through. Shounen stories feature martial arts,
weapons, and a kick-butt attitude.
Shoujo (girls’ manga)
Shoujo manga developed in Japan during the 1950s
and 1960s. Many female artists and writers created
14
stories aimed at middle-school girls. The stories
featured character, relationships, and growing up. As
manga readers aged, the artists developed stories for
high school girls, and then later for grown women.
Some shoujo manga today tells stories that are like
daytime soap operas, full of romance, relationships,
and adult topics for women.
Shoujo manga tends to focus on “real life” stories, and
there is very little fantasy or science fiction. (You
won’t often see a robot, a super villain, or martial arts
in shoujo manga.) Shoujo manga is about
relationships, friendship, romance, and family stories.
It also contains a lot of silly humor, and sometimes can
be hugely cute.