Genres
Shonen
The manga editorial category aimed mainly at adolescent boys, anchored in action, adventure and clearly defined forces of evil.
Shonen manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of mainly adolescent boys, one of the four main demographic labels alongside shojo, seinen and josei. The word shonen literally means "few years", glossed as "young boy", and cited audience ranges run from 10 to 19 or 12 to 21 years old. The editorial focus sits on action, adventure and fighting monsters or other clearly defined forces of evil: Weekly Shonen Jump's slogan is "friendship, perseverance, and victory". Dragon Ball, Naruto and One Piece anchor the shelf, but the category also spans comedy, crime, romance, sports and slice of life.
The label is a demographic, not a genre, which is the lesson for writers: it names the reader, not the content, the same way the light novel names a format rather than a genre. The same story machine feeds anime adaptations and the sibling shelves, led by the older-male category of seinen.