My Shoujo Page FAQ
So what is Shoujo?Oh boy, that question. Well the word "shoujo" literally means girl. So when we talk about shoujo manga, it really just means manga aimed at girls. By girls this means anywhere from six to about eighteen in age (different magazines aim at different age groups.) Manga for college-age women is generally called "josei." I have no clue what manga for older, married women is called. <sweatdrops> For more information on shoujo manga in general, I suggest you go to the expert's web page, that would be Matt Thorn's. The Shoujo Manga Homepage - Japanese Girls' and Women's Comics It hasn't been updated in a while, but it has the most information on the "genre" as he has literally studied it for years. 1/9/01 - He updated!! Some, but see he still cares! Back to TopIsn't it spelled Shojo (or Shôjo)?Well, if you want to be technical, it's really spelled 少女 or written out in kana it's しょうじょ, so anything written with "Latin" characters is merely an approximation. Depending on what romanization scheme you apply, all those spellings are acceptable. I don't use "shôjo" only because not all browsers handle that character very well, especially in titles. I avoid "shojo" since not only does it fail to represent the long "oh" sound, I always read it as "virgin," and that's not what my page is about!! Back to TopWhy don't you have [insert name here] on the list?Because its probably not shoujo. Oh My Goddess! (Ah! Megamisama) - seinen AKA young men's comic, yeah its cute, its central theme is romance, and it has a fairly decent female following in the US, but its not shoujo. Gundam Wing - it may be girl-friendly, but the show itself, and its manga adaptation aren't shoujo. If it was the characters would talk a whole lot more. ^_^ Back to TopWhy is [insert name here] on the list?Because it really is shoujo. Gundam Wing: Ground Zero - unlike the adaptation manga, this puppy is shoujo. Not only was it published in a shoujo magazine, just look at it!! Flowers! Lots of talking! Cute Heero/Relena story!! Lodoss War: Deedlit's Tale- pretty much the same thing applies here as in Ground Zero, they decided to make a shoujo manga for whatever reason! Short Program - it is listed on the compilation page by virtue of two stories, Plus One and Murasaki, both ran in Ciao!, a shoujo publication. The rest of the stories (wonderful as they are) ran in various shounen magazines. Back to TopWhy is Four Shoujo Stories out of print?Boy, I wish I knew. It appears to be a rights problem. Matt Thorn will tell you if you buy him enough drinks, but given that he is in Japan, that makes it difficult! ^_^;;; If you find a copy of this book, buy it, don't think twice, buy it! Back to TopWhere can I buy this stuff?Support your local comic store!! (Check The Master List to find one near you.) But failing that . . . The ISBN list should help you order the collections from any major bookstore, online or off. Plus most collections can be ordered directly from the company that publishes them. Both Animerica Extra and Pulp can be subscribed to. Smile used to offer subscription but apparently that is no longer the case. Check out the company web links on the collections page. Back to TopWasn't Mixx going to publish Karekano?During Summer of 2000, word got out that Mixx had the rights to Kareshi Kanojou no Jijou, and would be translating it as He Said, She Said. Even a sample cover was made available. However this news was jumping the gun. By ComicCon, Mixx announced they had not been able to get the rights. So no Karekano from Mixx, and at the moment, not from anyone. Which is a darn shame! UPDATE: Tokyopop just announced it again at the San Diego Comic Con. Plan is for it to run in Smile however no definate start date has been given. Back to TopWhat is the correct order of the X/1999 collections?They are as follows :
Back to TopSo, why is X/1999 being suspended/cancelled?I'll just quote the Viz Press Release the second one:
This is the original PR:
And now, its back. Graphic novel form only. The long delayed volume 7 came out late May, and eight is due in August. The "brand new" volume nine is due around December. Back to TopHow does TOKYOPOP publish their manga now anyway?On paper! Ha ha! No, really... In July of 2001, TOKYOPOP announced a shift in how they were going to publish manga. This change went into affect with their new titles starting around August and September of 2001. New manga titles will come out in single issue format for 4 to 6 issues. This will make up the first volume. It will then be collected and subsequent volumes will come out in trade paperback form only. If a title is to run in Smile, it will do so for 6 months to a year, before switching over to the TPB only format. Their goal appears to be to make this TPB come out monthly - or close to monthly. An example of this new system is Corrector Yui. Four monthly issues came out between September and December of 2001. In January of 2002, Vol. 1 - collecting those four issues is due. In March of 2002, Vol. 2 is due. Vol. 3 and so on will come out afterwards. Back to TopWhat is happening with Princess Prince? (and other CPM titles)To begin, various changes have happened at CPM Manga, the end result being that all their titles are now Graphic Novel only. This transition is taking a while, so its not just these shoujo series that are suddenly seeming to disappear. Princess Prince was scheduled to be an 8 issue series, which would eventually be collected into a graphic novel, similar to Call Me Princess and Aquarium (though you'll note it too a looooooong time for Aquarium to be collected.) Then things changed some, 8 more issues were announced, because there were some PP stories that had never been collected in Japan (not enough for a second volume though) and CPM was going to publish those AND some new stories by Taniguchi. So those were the latest issue that came out. THEN several things seemed to happen behind the scenes, including CPMs decision to go GN only and delays with the new stories. So presumably CPM will collect it some day - they also announced another Taniguchi series but then yanked it in the wake of the GN only decision. But when? And how many volumes? And did the new stories ever get drawn? We don't know. But if I get any answers, I'll be sure to spread the word. Back to Top |