Friday July 28, 2023 10:15 am to 11:15 am

With the North American manga scene having shonen, manga for boys, as the leading and most accessible demographic, there are significant misconceptions about shoujo as a whole: shoujo is just romance; shoujo isn’t as popular; shoujo isn’t as good. However, shoujo is an important pillar of anime and manga with a variety of genres and major influence spanning beyond manga in both Japan and America. Moreover, shoujo represents the importance of having media made for girls and women in a landscape of media made predominately for men. This panel will go through the history of shoujo starting all the way back in pre-war Japan, where shoujo was seen as just a stepping stone for male mangaka into “real” (shonen) manga, and tracks it’s development into being one of the most influential demographics we know of today, citing where we see these influences in Japan and North America.

Panel 6