| Shojo and Josei manga are designed for female-audiences. They can consist of male characters (DNAngel) or female characters (Princess Jellyfish). Shonen and Seinen manga are designed for male-audiences. They can consist of male characters (Naruto), or female characters (Madoka Magica). ------- Madoka Magica in particular is a Seinen-oriented story pretending to be a Shojo story. So the categories can get complicated sometimes. All categories know and understand each other's demographics, as well as the tropes and overarching storylines that enter one demographic vs another. But that's what makes "cross-demographic" shows (like Inuyasha, Kenshin or Madoka) so much fun. They take elements of one genre, and shove it into a totally different genre. Inuyasha is nominally Shojo (aimed for a female audience), with Kagome (female protagonist) meeting lots of cute fantasy male characters (Inuyasha in particular). But it takes a battle-style reminiscent of Shonen, and a lot of male-audience members identified with Inuyasha. Kenshin is nominally Shonen (aimed for a male audience), with Kenshin (male protagonist) largely doing battles. But Kaoru's arc largely plays out like a Shojo romance. As such, a lot of female audience members identified with Kaoru. ---------- The gender of the main character though isn't really that important though. In the West, it seems like "male-audience must have a male-main character", but that sort of thing just doesn't seem to be an issue in Manga. Its kinda-sorta there in some cases, but there's enough manga / anime that break the rule that it really isn't a rule at all. |
Shonen = fight, fight, fight.