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This article is from the Manga Glossary, by Steve Pearl starbuck@cybercomm.net with numerous contributions by others.

38 Manga: seinen-manga (1) ^[$B@DG/^[(B

"Youth" or "young man". (Manga magazines with "Young" or "Big" in their
title are all seinen-manga magazines.) Nearly all seinen-manga is aimed
primarily at 18-25-year-old males, though many readers continue to follow
seinen-manga into their 30s and 40s.

Compared to shounen-manga, which is aimed at a younger, broader audience,
seinen-manga features even more graphic sex and violence, but tends to be
less comic or outlandish in its depiction. Shounen-manga stories of exams,
sport, and school life give way to stories about the world of salarymen,
university students and drop-outs. Dramas and stories with political or
corporate themes are especially popular, though there are a few
SF/occult/fantasy seinen-mangas.

Shuueisha offers Young Jump, the biggest selling seinen-manga magazine;
Super Jump, for artists (and ostensibly, readers) who have "graduated"
from Shounen Jump; and Business Jump, whose sex-sex-violence-sex formula
is aimed at salarymen. Shougakukan's seinen-manga stable includes Big
Comic Spirits and Big Comic Original; Futabasha's magazine Action has
hosted many important seinen-manga titles. Kodansha sells Young Magazine,
more or less aimed at delinquents, plus Morning and Afternoon, aimed at
salarymen and otakus respectively, and known for their innovative
character.

Accomplished seinen-manga artists of recent times include Kawaguchi Kaiji,
Hirokane Kenshi, Egawa Tatsuya and Urasawa Naoki, many of whom were
disciples of the previous generation of seinen-manga artists.

In 1992, the biggest-selling seinen mangas were:

      Rank        Title        VolumesNumber of copies sold
      1   Golgo 13             1 - 86 59,000,000
      2   Oishinbo             1 - 38 57,000,000
      3   YAWARA!              1 - 26 32,000,000
      3   Be Bop High School   1 - 21 32,000,000
      5   The Silent Service   1 - 17 15,000,000
      6   Kachou Shima Kousaku 1 - 17 13,000,000
      6   3 x 3 Eyes           1 - 13 13,000,000
      8   Crayon Shinchan      1 - 5  9,000,000
      8   Shonen Ashibe        1 - 6  5.000,000
      10  AKIRA                1 - 6  3,900,000

 

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