Bishōjo
In Japanese popular culture, a bishōjo, also romanized as bishojo or bishoujo, is a character that is typically an attractive young girl or woman. Bishōjo characters appear ubiquitously in media including manga, anime, and computerized games, and also appear in advertising and as mascots, such as for maid cafés. An attraction towards bishōjo characters is a key concept in the otaku subculture.
The development of the bishōjo aesthetic in manga of the early 1980s marked a departure from previous realistic styles, and the emergence of the aesthetic of "cute eroticism" and moe.
History
The bishōjo character type emerged during the lolicon boom of the early 1980s, particularly in the works of manga artist Hideo Azuma. Azuma's characters combined the round bodies characteristic of Osamu Tezuka characters with the emotive, rounded faces of [shōjo manga|shōjo manga]. At the time, the dominant style in seinen and pornographic manga was gekiga, a realistic style defined by sharp angles, heavy hatching, and gritty line work. In contrast, Azuma's artwork featured light shading and clean, circular lines. Through this approach, Azuma developed a style described as "cute eroticism", a form of eroticism centered on manga-style characters.Lolicon become one of several terms used to describe the rise of cute characters in manga and anime, and a corresponding attraction to or affection for such characters. Related terms include "two-dimensional complex", "two-dimensional fetishism", "two-dimensional syndrome", "cute girl syndrome", and simply "sickness".
Several characters created by Hayao Miyazaki are considered icons of the bishōjo boom, particularly Clarisse from the film Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro, Lana from the TV series Future Boy Conan, and Nausicaä from Nausicaä of the Valley of [the Wind (manga)|his manga] and film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Another creator strongly associated with the boom was Rumiko Takahashi, whose character Lum from her manga Urusei Yatsura gained immense popularity. Cultural critic Hiroki Azuma identifies Lum as a key development in fan interaction and response to bishōjo characters:
Features
Bishōjo characters are typified by design elements that are known and acknowledged by the audience.Media
Bishōjo characters appear in almost all genres of anime and manga and in many video games, especially in dating sims and visual novels, sometimes to get more players or simply just to make a game look good. Bishōjo characters tend to attract male viewers. Bishōjo characters sometimes are the most popular female characters as most people like anime, manga, dating sims, and visual novels more when the art stands out, looks pretty, and has beautiful girls.''Bishōjo'' games
Games that are made with the intent of featuring bishōjo characters are known as bishōjo games. Because visual novels are considered games as well, bishōjo games also encapsulate visual novels made with the intent of featuring bishōjo characters. Although bishōjo games are made with a male audience in mind, they can extend to a female audience as well, such as the Touhou Project.Confusion regarding terminology
Although bishōjo is not a genre but a character design, series which predominantly feature such characters, such as harem anime and visual novels, are sometimes informally called bishōjo series. The characters and works referred to by the term bishōjo are typically intended to appeal to a male audience. Since one of the main draws of these series is typically the art and the attractive female characters, the term is occasionally perceived negatively, as a genre which is solely dependent on the marketability of beautiful characters rather than the actual content or plot.The word bishōjo is sometimes confused with the similar-sounding shōjo demographic, but bishōjo refers to the gender and traits of the characters it describes, whereas shōjo refers to the gender and age of an audience demographic – manga publications, and sometimes anime, described as "shōjo", are aimed at young female audiences.
Bishōjo is not to be confused with bishōnen – a beautiful boy. It is also not to be confused with moe – which is a definition for a genre of entertainment which features cute/adorable girls rather than "sexy" girls. Although elements of Moe and Bishōjo are often blended together, so the two elements are closely entwined and cannot be completely separated from one another.
Works cited
Category:Female [stock characters in anime and manga]
Category:Japanese slang
Category:Girls