Shōnen manga

Manga has been said to have existed since the eighteenth century,[7][8] but originally did not target a specific gender or age group. By 1905, however, a boom in publishing manga magazines occurred, and began targeting genders as evidenced by their names, such as Shōnen Sekai, Shōjo Sekai, and Shōnen Pakku (a children's manga magazine).[8] Shōnen Sekai was one of the first shōnen manga magazines, and was published from 1895 to 1914.

The post-World War II occupation of Japan had a profound impact on its culture during the 1950s and beyond (see culture of Post-occupation Japan), including on manga. Modern manga developed during this period, including the modern format of shōnen manga we experience today, of which teen boys and young men were among the earliest readers.[4] During this time, shōnen manga focused on topics thought to interest the typical boy: sci-tech subjects like robots and space travel, and heroic action-adventure.[9] Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy is said to have played an influential role in manga during this period.[7][10][11] Between 1950 and 1969, an increasingly large readership for manga emerged in Japan with the solidification of its two main marketing genres, shōnen manga aimed at teen boys and shōjo manga aimed at teen girls.[12]

The magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump began production in 1968,[8] and continues to be produced today as the best-selling manga magazine in Japan.[13] Many of the most popular shōnen manga titles have been serialized in Jump, including Dragon Ball, Captain Tsubasa, Slam Dunk, One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and others.

With the relaxation of censorship in Japan in the 1990s, a wide variety of explicit sexual themes appeared in manga intended for male readers, and correspondingly occur in English translations.[14] However, in 2010 the Tokyo Metropolitan Government passed the controversial Bill 156 to restrict harmful content despite opposition by many authors and publishers in the manga industry.[15][16]

Buronson and Tetsuo Hara's Fist of the North Star (1983–1988) and Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball (1984–1995) are credited with setting the trend of popular shōnen manga from the 1980s onwards.[17][18] In turn, both series were influenced by the martial arts films of Hong Kong action cinema, particularly 1970s kung fu films such as Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon (1973) and Jackie Chan's Drunken Master (1978).[19][20] In 2011, manga critic Jason Thompson called Dragon Ball "by far the most influential shōnen manga of the last 30 years."[18] Many currently successful shōnen authors such as Eiichiro Oda, Masashi Kishimoto, Tite Kubo, Hiro Mashima, and Kentaro Yabuki cite Toriyama and Dragon Ball as influences on their own popular works.

After the arrest and trial of serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki, who was dubbed the "Otaku Murderer", depictions of violence and sexual matters became more highly regulated in manga in general, but especially in shōnen manga.[21]