[...] manga, which is manga aimed at adult female readers, check out this 2008 overview article or this post about examples of the genre and its resulting comments, which are full of [...]

[...] The State of Josei Manga [...]

[...] experience: instead of buying TP book 1, I buy a Viz or a Del Rey or an Aurora (when it comes to josei) [...]

[...] next issue, June’s, is due out on Wednesday. There, I am very proud of my article on josei manga as well as my review of Life Sucks. Check it out and let me know what you think! [...]

[...] Astro Boy” designs of Lily Franky. – Aaand over at Comics Worth Reading, we have a nice State of Josei Manga address from Johanna, who talks about what titles out in the US might fit the bill; commenters have a [...]

Hmmm.. have you guys ever heard of scanlations? This site releases many josei titles
http://www.j-sis.net/about/ (go to their forum to dl releases)
and http://kawaiiness.free.fr/ > shoujo manga maniacs released bathroom guwa (mangaka of suppli), Body and Soul, Piece of cake, tensai family company, crash and deep kiss. These titles are all josei. Entropy releases hataraki man which i found interest in as a josei anime and manga series. There are many more josei series being scanlated.

I believe that josei has interested many people in the underground manga community, as well as the ones that only have interest in licensed titles :).

[...] a discussion here last month about josei manga, David Welsh recommended a book called Talking About that was due out in June. [...]

Chicago by Yumi Tamura is great too. :)

But if a title was picked for inclusion in a josei magazine, wasn’t that because the editors thought it would appeal to women, their audience? If you’re looking to make this less about which magazine a manga title appeared in, perhaps the terms “josei” and “shoujo” frames the discussion on the wrong note. Those terms indicate how they were marketed in Japan, so maybe the more apt question would ask which manga titles should be marketed to adult American women?

In josei manga, I’ve noticed that the art style is more “loose,” meaning that the lines aren’t completely smooth and perfect (Walkin’ Butterfly, Honey and Clover). Panels are more conservative (boxes), eyes aren’t as sparkly, and there isn’t an overload of mesh and lace screentones. Character designs are simple (Nodame Cantabile, Tramps Like Us). Actually, in terms of paneling, screentones, and general “sparkliness,” I’ve found josei manga to be similar to Yaoi (though of course Yaoi has its own stereotypes with regards to character design). It kind of makes sense because the target audience is similar.

The characters in josei manga are older than high school age, which makes Nana a contender for this category. Storylines focus on relationships, but more subdued and more realistic: there’s less of that first love infatuation, characters have ex-lovers (Suppli), and relationships grow slowly (Nodame Cantabile, which I think appeals to women because the focus is on the characters’ feelings and relationships). The conflicts in josei manga are also more adult: work problems in Tramps Like Us and raising a child in With the Light.

…anyway, that’s my take after having read some shojo and josei.

One they /did/ mislabel is “Be With You,” which ran in a seinen magazine.

As far as Viz goes, I think you have to look through the Shojo catalogue carefully. Mangas like Banana Fish and Angel Sanctuary seem more Josei than Shojo to me. I think Viz avoided the Josei label because it wasn’t as marketable when they initially set up their lines. If it turns out Josei starts to sell, don’t be surprised to see Viz relabel some of the Shojo books.

Also there is Blue and A Patch of Dreams by Ponent Mon (The best mangas you can never find. That should be their new tag line.)

(And I’d argue NANA is mislabeled by Viz; the age and life status of the titular heroines smacks of josei.)

Second, merumo3o, are you sure Walkin’ Butterfly started in Amie? Everything I’ve found online says it was published by Ohzora and not Kodansha…