BubbleC
Floating Idiot
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2021
- Messages
- 125
- Points
- 63
Quick question: Do the seinen/josei genres on Scribble Hub also encompass stories that would traditionally fall under shounen/shoujo? And if not, why are there no shounen/shoujo genres?
Long-winded rant explaining the reason for quick question (sorry for the length):
For those unfamiliar, seinen/josei traditionally refers to works targeted at an adult (18-45) male/female audience respectively, and shounen/shoujo refers to works targeted at a juvenile male/female audience under 18. The most distinguishing features between the two genre sets are their themes and content. Seinen/josei typically cover dark/mature themes including topics concerning corruption, death, workplace love, etc. while shounen/shoujo covers theme/topic relatable to a younger audience such as coming-of-age, "the power of friendship," and high school love (Ex. Tokyo Ghoul/Wotakoi vs. Naruto/Maid Sama!).
To me, the distinction between these two demographics is clear and often necessary. Where there's seinen/josei, there's ought to be shounen/shoujo... That is if we were talking about East Asian novels, especially Japanese ones.
But this is Scribble Hub, a site for amateur authors writing for an English-speaking audience that so happens to host many East Asian-inspired web novels. Rather than the very Japanese-centric josei/seinen/shoujo/shounen demographic terms which conjure fairly specific "types" of stories in an audience's mind, I think most novels on this site are better classified as simply "young adult" (18-30). Hence, using the traditional definition for these genres makes little sense in my opinion.
Rather, the use of seinen/josei as genre tags and the lack of shounen/shoujo indicates to me that the genres are meant to denote a male vs. female audience without any specific age demographic in mind. Considering that there is already an adult/mature genre that distinguishes the age demographic of a novel separately, it really doesn't make sense for the seinen/josei genres to take that into account.
But this also raises a number of other questions. After all, those that use the seinen/josei tag are likely familiar with these genres in the Japanese context already. They are the type of people that should be well-aware of what these terms mean, what kinds of stories they encompass, and the kind of people that would probably expect East Asian-esque seinen/josei AND shounen/shoujo stories. If that's the case, why aren't there shounen/shoujo genres? Or, why even have any of these terms if there's already an adult and mature genre?
And this leads me back to my original question: Are these genres are ONLY used to distinguish gender demographics without taking into account the Japanese context? And if so, why use the terms seinen/josei and confuse people if the traditional definition is not being used? Because it sounds cooler?
Ultimately, I guess I'm asking: WTF do seinen/josei mean in the context of this site, especially if there's no shounen/shoujo?
Long-winded rant explaining the reason for quick question (sorry for the length):
For those unfamiliar, seinen/josei traditionally refers to works targeted at an adult (18-45) male/female audience respectively, and shounen/shoujo refers to works targeted at a juvenile male/female audience under 18. The most distinguishing features between the two genre sets are their themes and content. Seinen/josei typically cover dark/mature themes including topics concerning corruption, death, workplace love, etc. while shounen/shoujo covers theme/topic relatable to a younger audience such as coming-of-age, "the power of friendship," and high school love (Ex. Tokyo Ghoul/Wotakoi vs. Naruto/Maid Sama!).
To me, the distinction between these two demographics is clear and often necessary. Where there's seinen/josei, there's ought to be shounen/shoujo... That is if we were talking about East Asian novels, especially Japanese ones.
But this is Scribble Hub, a site for amateur authors writing for an English-speaking audience that so happens to host many East Asian-inspired web novels. Rather than the very Japanese-centric josei/seinen/shoujo/shounen demographic terms which conjure fairly specific "types" of stories in an audience's mind, I think most novels on this site are better classified as simply "young adult" (18-30). Hence, using the traditional definition for these genres makes little sense in my opinion.
Rather, the use of seinen/josei as genre tags and the lack of shounen/shoujo indicates to me that the genres are meant to denote a male vs. female audience without any specific age demographic in mind. Considering that there is already an adult/mature genre that distinguishes the age demographic of a novel separately, it really doesn't make sense for the seinen/josei genres to take that into account.
But this also raises a number of other questions. After all, those that use the seinen/josei tag are likely familiar with these genres in the Japanese context already. They are the type of people that should be well-aware of what these terms mean, what kinds of stories they encompass, and the kind of people that would probably expect East Asian-esque seinen/josei AND shounen/shoujo stories. If that's the case, why aren't there shounen/shoujo genres? Or, why even have any of these terms if there's already an adult and mature genre?
And this leads me back to my original question: Are these genres are ONLY used to distinguish gender demographics without taking into account the Japanese context? And if so, why use the terms seinen/josei and confuse people if the traditional definition is not being used? Because it sounds cooler?
Ultimately, I guess I'm asking: WTF do seinen/josei mean in the context of this site, especially if there's no shounen/shoujo?
