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are Japanese comics aimed at women in their late teens on into adulthood. Josei manga are distinguished from "shōjo manga" (少女漫画) for younger girls on the one hand, and or , which tend to have erotic content on the other.〔Frederik Schodt. 1996. ''Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga''. Stone Bridge Press. p. 124〕 Readers can range in age from 15 to 44. In Japanese, the word ''josei'' means simply "woman", "female", "feminine", "womanhood", and has no manga-related connotations at all.〔(Jim Breen's online Japanese-English dictionary entry for ''josei'' ). Accessed 21 September 2012.〕〔(Tangorin online Japanese-English dictionary entry for ''josei'' ). Accessed 21 September 2012.〕 Josei comics can portray realistic romance, as opposed to the mostly idealized romance of shōjo manga, but it does not always have to be. Josei tends to be both more sexually explicit and contain more mature storytelling, although that is not always true either. It is also not unusual for themes such as infidelity and rape to occur in josei manga targeted specifically more towards mature audiences. Some other famously popular josei series include Yun Kouga's ''Loveless'', Ai Yazawa's ''Paradise Kiss'', and the award-winning works of Erica Sakurazawa. Josei, being targeted to older audience, often differs in style and tone from shōjo manga, which is aimed at younger girls. For example, in recent years, the most popular josei series have featured male protagonists and a main cast of nearly all men〔http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-01-08/japanese-comic-ranking-december-24-30 - see rank #18 and #22〕 and the male characters of a josei series are often quite compassionate toward other men. Although some josei manga can feature plots and characters influenced by shōjo, others feature action-packed stories, and lack the romantic and slice of life elements typical of shōjo.〔http://www.jappleng.com/culture/articles/anime-manga/156/josei-genre - in reference to genre elements of Josei〕 The josei series that become anime are often noted (and criticized) for their tendency to feature homoerotic themes, often because of a large misinterpretation of the demographic origin. It has come to a point where it is sometimes mistaken for shōnen when adapted to an anime. Series such as ''07-Ghost'', ''Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East'', or (most recently) ''Karneval'' are josei series that seem to attract a large amount of discussion from audience members that are unaware of the meaning of a josei status.〔http://anilinkz.com/karneval-episode-3#comment-868418427 - in reference to Karneval〕〔http://anilinkz.com/karneval-episode-3#comment-868354087 in reference to Karneval〕〔http://anilinkz.com/k-episode-1#comment-671753799 - in reference to the series K (anime)〕 The westernized approach to josei has all but eclipsed its most recent evolution toward shōnen manga: subdued yaoi hybrid insinuations. Yaoi, as a genre geared toward the same audience as josei, is the sole homosexually oriented manga represented in the west. As such, the blanket conception of yaoi as a singularly outlying interest for the "strange" josei audience remains to be a popular assumption, when in fact, most mainstream josei is neither akin to shojo, nor akin to graphic yaoi.〔http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/lexicon.php?id=18〕 The very celebrated josei comic magazine ''Monthly Comic Zero Sum'' features the most popular series that are readily attributed to the status of a josei work. These include ''Makai Ōji: Devils and Realist'', ''07-Ghost'', ''Loveless'', ''Karneval'', ''Are You Alice?'', and ''+C: Sword and Cornett'', three of which have been turned into anime, all of which are leading examples of josei's unique characteristics. ==Circulations== The reported average circulations for some of the top-selling josei manga magazines in 2007 are as follows: For comparison, here are the circulations for the top-selling magazines in other categories for 2007. (Source for all circulation figures: Japan Magazine Publishers Association〔(Japan Magazine Publishers Association ''Magazine Data 2007'' ). The publication, which relies on information provided by publishers, categorizes the magazine ''Cookie'' (with a reported circulation of 200,000) as josei, but Shueisha's ("S-MANGA.NET" site ) clearly categorizes that magazine as shōjo, and it is therefore not included here.〕) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Josei manga」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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