Seinen (青年,
Seinen?)
(not to be confused with "adult"
(成年,
"seinen"?))
is a subset of
anime or
manga that is generally targeted at an 15 - 30 year old
male audience, but the audience can be much older with some
comics aimed at businessmen well into their 40s. Sometimes
it is classified as
shōjo or
shōnen, but it has distinct features, usually classified
by a wider variety of art styles (particularly in manga) and
more variation in subject matter, ranging from the avant
garde to the pornographic. The female equivalent to seinen
manga is josei manga. The genre is comparable to the English
terms and genre "Young Adult" or "Teen".
A
common way to tell if a comic is seinen is by looking at
whether or not furigana is used over the original kanji
text. A lack of furigana would imply that the title is
intended for a mature audience. The title of the magazine it
was published in is also an important indicator. Usually
Japanese manga magazines with the word young in the title
(Young Jump for instance) are seinen. Other popular seinen
manga magazines include Ultra Jump, Afternoon, and Big Comic. Many of these
manga were published in
English in the now defunct PULP.