Do We Still Need Shōnen/Shōjo Labels?

I was having a casual chat with one of my coworkers about my hobbies the other week and of course, anime came up. I mentioned my favorite series and films and even recommended a few that might interest them. However, our conversation hit a bit of a roadblock when I found myself spending much more time attempting to explain the nuances and differences between shōjo and jōsei and what kind of shows fall under that and so on.

The difficulty here stems from the fact that anime and manga classifiers such as “shōjo,” “jōsei,” and “shōnen” are fundamentally different from more commonly used genre identifiers like science-fiction or romantic comedy. As manga and magazine translator Caleb Cook, who worked on titles such as My Hero Academia and Dragon Ball Super, explained:

“The shōnen/shōjo/seinen/jōsei labels aren't genres, but rather demographics, and by extension, signifiers of which magazine a given series runs in. And one can find a whole range of genres represented in a single given magazine, so the "shōnen" label on its own isn't informative in the way that "sci-fi" or "comedy" would be. It is, however, informative about the types of tropes one will likely encounter in the story, as popular trends and editorial forces tend to knead each series into the basic mold for that magazine's demo.”

Additionally, manga critic Rebecca Silverman observes that even as descriptors of demographics rather than genre, these labels have their own sets of limitations in terms of categorization:

“At first, I really liked the demographic names. As I've gotten older and more titles have been released in English, however, I think that those designations become less helpful. I started to change my mind when Viz started releasing jōsei titles under their Shojo Beat label, because it felt like lumping all female manga readers under "girl" wasn't right, and there's a pretty big difference between reading B.O.D.Y. and Midnight Secretary. To put it another way, the former, were it not manga, would be shelved under Young Adult (YA), while the latter would be over in Romance, or maybe New Adult, at a stretch."

This led me to wonder whether these tried-and-true genre/demographic descriptors of anime and manga have outlasted their usefulness among English-speaking communities, becoming a barrier to entry for those trying to get into these mediums instead. Long-time manga fan and critic Deb Aoki seems to agree, citing the impenetrability of such classifications to newcomers:

“When I first started doing the Best & Worst Manga panel at San Diego Comic-Con several years ago, we originally had "best shōjo, best shōnen, best jōsei, best seinen manga" etc. etc. Almost immediately, I saw the limitations of those categories, and switched it to what we have today: Best New Manga for Kids/Teens, Best New Manga for Grown-ups, etc.

Why did I do that? Because I figured out that the intended audience for the panel was new readers, and people who buy books for these readers (e.g. librarians, comic shop, and bookstore buyers) who might not know "shōnen" or "shōjo" much less "jōsei" and "seinen" and what that means.”

In summary, labels such as “shōnen” and “shōjo," while informative to anime and manga fans who are already in the “in-crowd,” can come off as prohibitively confusing to newcomers. As someone who is passionate about sharing anime culture and seeing it grow, I propose that we start utilizing more common genre identifiers such as romantic drama, action, sci-fi, and high school comedy when classifying anime or manga. This way, anime and manga titles can be grouped with other existing films, TV shows, and books in these specific categories on online libraries and platforms, thus allowing for greater visibility–that is, if the algorithm allows for it.

Some would argue that replacing culturally-specific designations with more universal genre terminology would be abandoning a core part of the culture and history of the medium that led to titles like Castlevania, DEVILMAN crybaby or any other “Netflix Original Anime” property getting produced and distributed in the first place. However, I'd argue that it would be much easier to have more eyeballs on a lot more anime and manga if they were not treated as some special sort of media, tucked away in a corner on the storefront. Besides, these two types of classification need not be mutually exclusive. Cook suggested that one possible way of incorporating both is through subdivision, such as ‘shōnen sci-fi’ or ‘jōsei sci-fi’.

“Shōnen sci-fi will be very different than jōsei sci-fi, and the label tells us in broad terms what kind of writing conventions to expect from that story.” He continued, “applying this separate set of labels just to stories from Japan sometimes feels inherently othering, but until national borders are abolished and all cultures' comics unite in harmony, there's still valuable data encoded there for the savvy members of the in-group. And it instantly informs members of the out-group they're dealing with that 'mango/animu' stuff (for better or worse).”

The discussion above has also prompted me to start thinking about the reception towards the inclusion of culturally-specific terms (such as ‘otome’) in English-translated anime and manga. The first time I encountered these terms in the early days of my fandom, I had to do the homework myself to find out what they meant; now, it is common to see translator notes on both the page and the screen. For those who are already fascinated with the culture, these notes may be seen as opportunities to expand their knowledge, but for the others, they may come off as clutter or immersion breaking. I was curious about what other manga and anime fans thought about translator notes and these culturally specific terms the first time they encountered them.

“I'm not necessarily put off by new terms when I encounter them – I see them as an opportunity to learn something new.” Aoki responded. “I'll Google it and look for a definition, or look it up some other way. If I'm really stumped, I'll ask a friend in Japan to help me figure out what the term means. Japanese slang can be especially tricky, since it's constantly changing. But the internet is pretty efficient nowadays, so I rarely have to go to the "ask a friend" route.” She also stressed that many terms that were once exotic have already been demystified and widely used in the English vernacular, but it is still a gradual process.

“It's good for people who are responsible for sharing information (e.g. journalists or bloggers or vloggers) to offer explanations of certain terms.”

While Silverman has a similar enthusiasm for learning new words, she also understands how they can sometimes be an unnecessary impediment. “The first time I encountered "goudere" was in the title of a manga Yen Press brought over, Gou-dere Sora Nagihara. I didn't know what that was, what made it different from the other –deres? The book didn't give me enough context clues. I did look it up, but I didn't want to have to look it up to enjoy a comedy,” recalled Silverman. “The same goes for when I first encountered the word ‘iyashikei’. While it does describe a very particular sort of slow-moving story, I felt that ‘soothing’ would have worked just as well in the context and gotten the point across more easily.”

For Silverman, accessibility and enjoyment should be key considerations. “If there is a good equivalent in English, I'd rather that get used because that can make the work more accessible to people reading in translation. I feel like the point is to enjoy the work, and too many untranslated words can be a barrier to that. That said, I love cultural/language notes; I think they hit a good middle ground.”

Translation and adaptation choices have become a hot talking point in some circles of the anime/manga fandom, especially in regards to whether fandom specific terms such as “tsundere” should be left untranslated. I was curious what the professional consensus is on this subject.

Katrina Leonoudakis, who worked as a translator on titles like Horimiya and Girls' Last Tour, claimed that the decision to retain or translate the original labels or fandom/culturally specific terms in the text depends on which audience the publisher is trying to capture. “When I'm translating something like Uta no Prince-sama, which has a niche audience of hardcore otaku, I tend to leave fandom-significant terms (tsundere, shōnen manga) as-is, as it's what the audience expects. If I was asked to translate a Ghibli movie for a wide American audience, I would absolutely localize those terms, as a 40-year-old mother in Nebraska definitely wouldn't know what a ‘tsundere’ is.”

Cook also highlighted the fact that translators often have a limited say on what gets translated or not. “It's important to note that decisions of that sort are usually made in-house by editorial, completely independent of my preferences and whims." He continued, "An easy example is 'senpai,' which is almost never my call to make. The editors will decide if a given English adaptation is going to use the word 'senpai' or if we're going to use English language workarounds throughout.”

On the other hand, since most of the manga Cook works on are for general audiences, he tends to prioritize their reading experience when he does get to decide. “It's a big leap to assume that the reader bought this comic to learn something. So when it is up to me, and when it feels right for the scene, I tend to translate ‘tsundere’ as something like 'hot and cold' or 'giving me mixed messages.' Those savvy in-group-ers immediately think, 'Ah, I bet this said 'tsundere,' originally' (and get a dopamine boost for being so smart), and the kid from the bookstore doesn't have to interrupt their reading experience to flip to the glossary at the back.”

Still, there are exceptions. “Exceptions, of course, would be when the story is set in Japan and deals heavily with specific subcultures, to the extent that the target reader is most likely well-versed in those subcultures, as opposed to, say, a generic fantasy world where the characters would have no reason to be tossing around Japanese words. The middle ground between those extremes is where there's more room for debate,” Cook said.

As anime and manga become more mainstream and the target audience inevitably becomes less niche, it will be interesting to see what that middle ground will look like. We are already starting to see some examples of it with naming conventions where the English title is accompanied by the Japanese title as a subtitle, like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Deb Aoki noted how adapting the title of the Hachinin no Senshi manga to Dick Fight Island managed to boost its sales in the WEST. (for the curious, Hachinin no Senshi directly translates to The 8 Warriors)

In conclusion, labels like shōnen and shōjo will always be useful under certain circumstances. Similarly, some culturally-specific terms could never be translated into English without losing part of their meaning. At the same time, however, altering the use of the terms colloquially would make anime and manga more accessible and readable to the wider English-speaking audience and ultimately help these mediums grow exponentially. And at the end of the day, isn't that what we all want?