Manga and anime aimed at adult women are considered josei, a counterpart to seinen manga and anime for adult men. There's a tendency to assume that all manga and anime aimed toward a female demographic is automatically shojo. Elements like school-aged characters or talking animals can also give the impression that the target demographic is younger than it's supposed to be.
Ultimately, where a series is published and the creators' opinion can determine if a series is shojo or josei. Complicating things, a shojo series can spin off into josei territory. For example, Creamy Mami is a classic shojo series, but its spin-off manga, Magical Angel Creamy Mami and the Spoiled Princess, is josei.
10 Even A Red Panda Can Star In A Josei Series (Aggretsuko)
In Aggretsuko, Retsuko is a 25-year-old anthropomorphic red panda dealing with everyday problems in modern Japan. Whether it's problems at work, social anxiety, or issues with finding a relationship, she has a special way of letting out her emotions. She sings death metal at a karaoke bar.
Because of the show's origins, starting in animation before print, it can be tricky for fans to assign the series a specific genre or demographic. However, with its focus on office life and adult relationships, many fans label it a josei series despite the cute animal characters.
9 A Card Playing Josei Series Was Inevitable (Chihayafuru)
In Chihayafuru, Chihaya Ayase spent much of her life supporting her model sister. Then, she meets a boy, Arata Wataya, who inspires her to join the competitive world of Hyakunin Isshu karuta card playing, believing she would make a great player.
While she eventually loses her karuta-playing friends as they grow up, by the time she reaches high school, she forms the Mizusawa Karuta Club with the help of an old friend, Taichi Mashima. Solidifying its status as a josei series, the original manga was published in the prolific josei Be Love manga magazine, which helped popularize the genre.
8 This Series Reminds Us It Takes All Kinds To Be An Otaku (Princess Jellyfish)
In Princess Jellyfish, the plot is centered on the Amamizukan, a apartment building that's home to various otaku women. The protagonist is Tsukimi Kurashita, who has a love of jellyfish and a passion for illustration. Then, Kuranosuke Koibuchi enters her life. He's a politician's illegitimate son who cross-dresses to avoid politics and be closer to his mother.
Keeping his secret, they'll need to work together to save the neighborhood from being demolished. Kuranosuke initially muses he's Tsukimi's "fairy godmother," destined to help her come out of her shell, but his feelings will prove to be more complicated. The award-winning josei manga was serialized in Kiss, a monthly josei magazine. Complicating things, however, is that it won the 2010 Kodansha Manga Award for best shojo manga.
7 This Magical Girl Parody Skews Older Than A Traditional Series (Magical Girl Ore)
Magical Girl Ore offers a twist to transforming heroines that just get a new, frilly outfit as their alter-ego. When unpopular idol Saki Uno inherits her mother's position as a magical girl, she does get a stylish magical girl uniform, but also transforms into a massive, muscular man, who barely fits into the costume.
Most great mahou shojo, or magical girl, series belong to the shojo demographic. It helps that "shojo" is in the name. However, this series can be considered an exception since, aside from being a parody, its manga was published as a josei series in Comic Be.
6 Even The Characters Seem Aware It's Not A Shojo Series (Honey & Clover)
Honey & Clover revolves around the students of a Tokyo art college. Yuta, Takumi, and Shinobu are three young men who live in a run-down apartment. Hagumi, an art professor's young-looking relative, enters their lives, with Yuta and Shinobu developing feelings for her. Meanwhile, Takumi is in a love triangle of his own.
The series started as a josei manga, but it makes sense for fans to mistake it for a shojo. The manga won the 27th Kodansha Manga Award for shojo and ran in Shojo Beat in North America. In addition, the series occasionally shifts to more shojo-style art, with a character once commenting someone now looks like they're in a shojo series.
5 It Started As Shojo, Then Went Josei (Revolutionary Girl Utena)
In Revolutionary Girl Utena, orphaned Utena Tenjou desires to become a prince after one comforted her after her parents' deaths. At her school, she finds herself drawn into a series of mysterious sword duels concerning Anthy Himemiya, a young girl known as the "Rose Bride." But in this bizarre fairy tale, the roles of the prince and the witch aren't as simple as they seem.
The series is generally regarded as shojo. In fact, it originated from a rejected idea for a Sailor Moon movie. However, some incarnations, like the Adolescence of Utena and the After the Revolution manga, have been considered josei.
4 Its Manga's Infamous Ending Isn't Helping (Bunny Drop)
In Bunny Drop, Daikichi Kawachi encounters a six-year-old girl, Rin, after his grandfather's death. After learning no one wants to take care of her, he impulsively volunteers to become her foster father. At first glance, the young female lead leads audiences to assume that the series is shojo, even though it was serialized in Feel Young, a josei magazine.
The series is rather infamous for its controversial manga ending. In fact, this ending was dropped in adaptations. The term "Usagi Dropped" was even coined to warn anime fans over series with similar endings.
3 Some Would Even Say It's Both A Shojo & A Josei (My Next Life As A Villainess)
In My Next Life As A Villainess, Katarina Claes is a young noblewoman who was originally a Japanese otaku in her past life, reincarnated as the villainess of her favorite otome game, Fortune Lover. Knowing that her character is fated to either die or get exiled, she will try to beat the game in her own way, making friends with everyone along the way.
Starting as a novel series, it can be complicated to label the series as either shojo or josei. The manga was published in Monthly Comic Zero Sum, which caters to both shojo and josei stories. English publisher Seven Seas Entertainment has even dubbed the series "shojo/josei."
2 Sometimes, Josei Can Get A Little Surreal (Shirokuma Café)
Also known as Polar Bear Café, the series features a lazy, young panda named Panda, told to get a job by his mother, who stumbles upon the titular Shirokuma Café, run by the soft-spoken Polar Bear. Rounding out the cast are the sarcastic Penguin, Grizzly, a bear bartender, and a human girl named Sasako who works at the café.
The focus on animal characters might seem unusual in a josei series. But it was published in the monthly josei Flowers magazine, making it a surreal josei slice-of-life series.
1 This Josei Is From A Dog's Perspective (Massugu Ni Ikou)
Massugu ni Ikou is a series with the twist of being told from a dog's perspective. Its main character, Mametarou, is in fact a cross-breed who lives with a teenage owner, Ikuko, in the Japanese suburbs. The animals in this series are not anthropomorphic, to the point where viewers only hear their thoughts.
However, they are capable of things like communicating with each other and even developing crushes on their owners. Because of the animal protagonists and teenage human characters, some fans consider it a shojo. Despite this, it was published in the Chorus josei magazine, now known as Cocohana.