Josei is a demographic category of manga, anime, and other Japanese entertainment aimed at female audiences aged 18 to 40. Like its Spear Counterpart Seinen, Josei is notable for more realistic, less idealized portrayals of romance and life than in works for young girls.
It typically uses a more realistic artistic style than Shoujo manga, though it retains some common traits like sparse use of ink and detailed character designs. While they often still look invariably gorgeous, they're more "hot" than "cute": the men tend to edge more into Biseinen territory while the women look more mature. Stories typically portray everyday life for young Japanese women — usually adults, but occasionally high school age.
Common settings include the workplace (often featuring surly businessmen and confident or put-upon Office Ladies if it's an office), city nightlife, university campuses, and other mundane areas. Like its younger counterpart, historical dramas remain as popular a topic to write about as the modern day: the tales of hardened warriors and the daily struggles of the people both have room to flourish. Horror is also no stranger to this demographic — acclaimed horror writer Junji Ito even wrote some of his stories for women's horror magazines. Romance is more nuanced here than the Shoujo style of "never been kissed", with its heroines often either unlucky in love, working through relationship troubles, or generally experienced. On the flip side, its more blue offerings (known as "Ladies Comics") can get steamier than even the most borderline Teens Love — harems getting sexual, pent-up coworkers, women with "pet"-like subordiates — with a subgenre even dedicated to adapting Harlequin romance.
There is some overlap with Shoujo fans, as there are writers that put out content for both demographics and magazines that cater to both at the same time. While the overlap with Shounen and Seinen isn't as pronounced, works like Michiko & Hatchin or Servamp carry some of the same themes those demographics are familiar with, and some anime can even air alongside them in the West.
Josei manga get adapted into anime far more rarely than other demographics, more often getting live-action TV series if they make it to television at all. However, Fuji Television's noitaminA anime block is notable for focusing on this demographic.
Compare Seinen, which is aimed at young men of the same age; and Shoujo, which is aimed at younger females. Shounen is aimed at younger males.
Popular Josei Magazines
- Cocohana
- Cookie
- Monthly Comic Zero-Sum (intentionally made to cater to both josei and shoujo markets, in an odd case)
- You
Examples
- +C: Sword and Cornett
- Aggretsuko
- Akatsuki no Aria
- Amatsuki
- Amakusa 1637
- Are You Alice?
- Aruosumente
- Bara No Tame Ni
- Blue
- Bokura no Kiseki
- Bunny Drop
- Butterflies, Flowers
- Chihayafuru
- Dame na Watashi ni Koisite Kudasai
- Deep Love
- Deka Wanko
- Devils and Realist
- Dokuhime
- DOLL
- Double House
- Eden of the East
- Free Soul
- From Five To Nine
- Fushigi Yuugi: Byakko Senki
- Futago
- Genji Monogatari Sennenki
- Genju No Seiza
- Gokusen
- Happy Mania
- Happy Marriage?!
- Helter Skelter
- Hokuou Kizoku To Moukinzuma No Yukiguni Karigurashi
- Honey and Clover
- Hotaru no Hikari
- Indigo Blue
- Inorihime Wa Sora Ni Warau
- IS: Otoko demo Onna demo Nai Sei
- Kagerou Daze
- Kakeochi Girl
- Karneval
- Kasei Yakyoku
- Kaze Hikaru
- Kids on the Slope
- Legend of Chun Hyang
- Life Lessons With Uramichi Oniisan
- Love My Life
- Kiryuu-sensei wa Ren'ai ga Wakaranai
- Michiko & Hatchin
- Midnight Secretary
- Musashi Number Nine
- My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
- Natsuyuki Rendezvous
- Night Of The Beasts
- Nodame Cantabile
- Ohana Holoholo
- Oishii Kankei
- Okane ga Nai
- Only Yesterday
- Osomatsu-san (the manga, at least)
- Otona Ni Natte Mo
- Papa Told Me
- Paradise Kiss
- Pet Shop of Horrors
- Pieta
- Planet Ladder
- Poison Berry in My Brain
- A Polar Bear In Love
- Pride
- Princess Jellyfish
- Private Actress
- Private Prince
- Ristorante Paradiso
- Rouge Noir
- Saiyuki - Only from Reload onward; the first series is shounen.
- Sakura Gari
- Satou-kun to Tanaka-san - The Blood High School
- Sensual Trigger
- 7 Seeds
- Seigi no Mikata
- Servamp
- Shin Galboy
- Shirokuma Cafe
- Shitsuren Chocolatier
- Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
- Spotted Flower
- Strange+
- Stretch - A romantic, Yuri Genre, Slice of Life series.
- Suppli
- The Tale of Genji (1987)
- Walkin Butterfly
- With the Light
- Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku
- You're My Pet
- Zetsuai 1989 - Both the original and the sequel Bronze began as Shoujo, but Bronze later shifted to this genre.
Series sometimes mistaken for josei:
- Chi's Sweet Home is a cute series about the domestic life of a family as seen through the eyes of their pet cat, which would seem to make it prime Josei material, but it's actually Seinen.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers: Very close, but the involvement with Comic Birz pulls it closer to the seinen category. Though now it's closer to Shōnen thanks to the involvement with Shonen Jump.
- Nana, which is really close to a josei, but it's a Shōjo.
- Similarly, Paradise Kiss. It's an Ai Yazawa thing.
- Black Butler seems to be a mix of Shoujo, more so in the anime, and Seinen, more so in the manga. As such it is often thought of as a Josei but it's actually a Shounen.
- Comic Zero Sum is a magazine targeted at women of all ages. This often leads to confusion as to whether a work is shoujo or josei. These include Amatsuki, Loveless, 07-Ghost, Karneval and Dazzle.
- Works by Mayu Shinjo like Sensual Phrase, Haou Airen, Love Celeb or Akuma na Eros, due to the extremely high sexual content that often includes Sexual Harassment and Rape Tropes. The melodramatic storytelling and the fact that the protagonists tend to be girls in their late teens, however, sets them as full-blooded shoujo.
- Hataraki Man, due to featuring a female protagonist and written by Moyoco Anno, who is well-known for writing Josei manga. It actually runs in a Seinen magazine, however.
- Bitter Virgin is about a boy who finds out his classmate was raped by her step-father and became pregnant. It delves into topics like abortion, molestation, miscarriage, and teen pregnancy but is not a josei or even a shoujo manga. It's seinen.
- Life is on the thin line between seeming shoujo and seeming josei. It's about a bullied high school girl that cuts herself and has a fair amount of graphic sexuality and violence to the point where Tokyo Pop upgraded the rating from "Older Teens" to "Mature". Still it's a shoujo manga.
- Wandering Son. It's a calm Slice of Life about kids going through elementary to college. It delves with topics like bullying, gender roles, growing up, and other topics more common in female geared works. Its anime adaptation has a watercolor look and aired on noitaminA. Signs point toward josei, maybe shoujo, but it's really a seinen series.
