The different kinds of manga 漫画
Golden Kamui
Credit: Jerome Laborde
Manga library next to the park.
Credit: DR
Tetsuda Atomu, also known as Astro Boy, marked a revolution in the world of animation and manga.
Credit: DR
Cover of the manga One Piece.
Credit: DR
Ashita no Joe
Credit: DR
A comic strip for all audiences
Manga covers a very large number of genres and is intended for almost every audiences in Japan. From adventure manga for teens to darker and more violent tales, there is something for everyone.
Doraemon, a very popular character in Japan.
Credit: R.A
Kodomo
"Kodomo" , which means "child" in Japanese means manga intended for children aged from 6 to 11 years old. The characters are very young and have entertaining adventures. Moral messages are also often integrated into the story.
Some manga of the genre can by their success expand their audience. Pokemon belongs to the latter category, just like Doraemon, whose main character has become famous in all age groups in Japan.
Read also: Doraemon Museum
Shonen nekketsu
The most famous kind of manga, Nekketsu, literally means "warm blood". It is a type of manga intended initially for adolescents. A young hero, often an orphan, is naive and voluntarily embarks on a great adventure during which he will fight for good and where each test will allow him to get stronger. This hero is usually accompanied by a group of friends, some of whom are first his first antagonists, with whom he goes through all his adventures. Manga, like Dragon Ball, One Piece or Naruto are among the most famous shonen nekketsu.
A thumbnail of Dragon Ball Z, probably the most popular manga in history.
Credit: DR
There are other subcategories of shonen such as shonen gakuen, "in school", to which GTO belongs, or shonen mecha ("mechanical") where the heroes use armor (Goldorak, Gundam Wing ...).
Sailor Moon
The shojo
Shojo is a type of manga created for a young female audience. The stories developed in this genre are often love stories, most of which take place in the school environment (middle school, high school). If the themes of adolescent life - friendship, school - are widely treated, there is a large part of shojo manga that use fantasy: the sub-genre of "magical girl". The manga Sailor Moon illustrates this style.
The seinen
The meaning of seinen is "young man". Manga classified under this label is created for young men, though it is also popular with older men.
Golgo 13 is an archetypal type of the seinen style, with a professional assassin hero who officiates all over the world, always armed with his M-16 A2 rifle.
The cover of the third volume of "Golden Kamui", by Satoru Noda.
Credit: Ki-oon éditions
Another example of this is Golden Kamui, which depicts a former Russian-Japanese war soldier searching of treasure. The hero is generally more mature than in the shonen, with a complicated past.
A Yaoi department in a Kunikoniya bookstore
Credit: Wikipedia
The yaoi
In yaoi manga, the story focuses on young men in romantic relationships. Although it's narrating the romantic relationships of men, it is created by female artists for a female audience.
Hentai
The hentai is the overtly sexualized manga that features explicit plots and images, where the stories pass in the background and where different fantasies are staged. Several prohibited themes have shocked western audiences.
