The Japanese word shōnen (少年, /ɕoːnen/ lit. "few years"), meaning "young boy", historically referred to juveniles in a general sense and was used by the Japanese publishing industry until the end of the 19th century to … See more

Children's magazines with sex-segregated readerships have existed in Japan since the early 1900s. While early youth magazines were ostensibly unisex – Shōnen Sekai was the first youth magazine in Japan in … See more

This thematic orientation of shōnen manga is readily inferred from the formal values or slogans that shōnen manga magazines assign themselves: for example, "friendship, perseverance, and victory" for Weekly Sh… See more