Josei

Josei manga (, lit. "woman", ; also known as redīsu (レディース), or "ladies", or redikomi (レディコミ), lit. "ladies' comics"), is a term that refers to the target demographic of manga created mostly by women for late teenage and adult female audiences. The male equivalent to josei is seinen. In Japanese, the word josei means only "female". Manga branded as "Ladies' Comics" has acquired a reputation for being low-brow and the term josei was created to move away from that image. The stories tend to be about everyday experiences of women living in Japan. Though there are some that cover high school, most cover the lives of adult women. The style also tends to be a more restrained, realistic version of shōjo, keeping some of the wispy features and getting rid of the very large sparkly eyes. There are exceptions in the style described above, but what defines josei is some degree of stylistic continuity of comics within this particular demographic (the same is true with different demographics...