What is a shoujo-ai? Anime series

Anime and manga are types of Japanese art, which very quickly gained popularity around the world. In our time, anime series are often shown even on central channels, and manga can easily be found in any bookstore. The popularization of Japanese art has led to its development, evolution. New genres began to appear, which were intended for a narrow audience and touched upon the most subtle aspects of human life. One of these genres is the shodez-ai. What is a shoujo-ai? The answer to this question you can find by reading this article.

What is a shoujo-ai?

Anime and manga are famous for their abundance of genres. There are such genres as kodomo, soyneen, otaku, dobutsu, furs, etc. To understand what this all means, to a person remote from the Asian world, is rather difficult. After reading this article, you will learn what shojze-ai is, what are its features, the history of origin, and much more.

Shodze-ai: features of the genre

Many fans of manga and anime are familiar with Japanese culture rather superficially. Because of this, there are often questions: "What is a shзеdze-ai? How does it differ from a lawyer? What are the most interesting works of this genre? "To help you understand all these difficult questions, this will help you. But first things first.

As it was already written above, shojze-ai (from the Japanese "shedze" - "girl", "ah" - "love") - this is one of the many genres of manga and anime. The main feature is that the shзеdze-ai shows and reveals the homosexual relationships between the girls. Many people think that the target audience of this genre is guys, but it's not. It is designed for girls aged 14 years. This is proved by the fact that the shдde-ai manga is often published in various women's magazines (like Mist, Anise, etc.).

Another characteristic feature of this genre is the characters. The main heroines of works in the genre of shodez-ai are schoolgirls aged 12 to 17 years. Also, most of the characters are bisexual and do not have bright signs of orientation.

Yuri and Shodze-ai

Many believe that the lawyer and the shojze-ai are one and the same. However, such an opinion is fundamentally wrong. What is the difference between these two genres of Japanese art?

"Uri" is a Japanese word that quickly became commonplace and was used in everyday life. If to translate literally, then "juri" means "lily". Previously, it was quite common female name, which was often found in the vastness of Japan. But in 1971, Bungaku Ito, editor-in-chief of the then popular Barazoku magazine, gave this word a new meaning. He labeled the lesbian the word "Juridzoku". A little later, an amateur manga was created, which talked about the love between two girls - Kay and Jüri. Manga found many fans, and the word "juri" began to denote a whole genre of Japanese art. In our time in Japan, the term "lawyer" is used to denote any kind of relationship between girls. That is, in the lawyer's works show both romantic and sexual relations between women.

As for the shзеdze-ai, everything is a bit different here. This term is used to indicate that the product is completely missing the koital relationship. The genre shows an exclusively romantic relationship between the girls. In fact, the shзеdze-ai is a sub-genre of jurists.

Origin

Genre was born in the 1970s. It was then that the first works began to be released. The first shodze-ai manga is Shiroi Heya no Futari, which Yamagishi Reko drew. The work told about love between two students of the women's elite French school. The story ended rather tragically, one of the main characters died. Shiroi Heya no Futari became quite popular, and this genre began to spread.

In the 70's, the shoji-ai began to develop actively. The manga The Rose of Versailles was released, which introduced concepts like "transvestism" and "transsexuality" into the genre. Under these terms feminine characters who possessed characteristic masculine qualities were considered. Such a manga inspired women, thanks to which was warmly accepted in feminist circles.

Closer to the nineties, the shojze-ai genre became more acceptable to the Japanese audience. Surely it was influenced by the so-called sexual revolution. The genre actively flourished. Began to produce the first shodez-ay anime series, which enjoyed great success in girls of puberty. Also, a huge role in the popularization of the genre was played by doujinshi (non-commercial authors). They wrote successful fanfics on such works as "Sailor Moon", "Young Revolutionary Utena", etc.

In the 2000s, the first magazines appeared containing manga of a similar genre. The most popular of them are Yuri Shimai, Comic Yuri Hime. The themes of the shзеdze-ai manga became more diverse and multifaceted, because elements of fiction, comedy, etc. began to be used in it.

Shoujo-ai: the list of the best manga and anime

So, let's begin. Aoi Hana is a typical representative of Shodz-ai. Manga fully corresponds to all the canons of the genre. The work tells of two inseparable from childhood friends, who now by coincidence had to part. After a lapse of 10 years, when they entered the school, they met again. During this time, both girls changed a lot and at first do not even recognize each other. But, despite this, their characters and feelings remained the same. Manga is completely focused on revealing the characters, love relationships between the girls.

"Girlfriends" is another worthy shзеjo-ai manga. The story tells of a schoolgirl Mariko Kumakure who, with the help of her best friend Akiko Ohashi, became the most popular girl in the school. But the problem is that Mariko does not notice that her relationship with Akiko is gradually turning into a romantic channel. It is noteworthy that the story is based on real events that occurred with the author of the manga.

Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san - shodze-ay anime, which tells of the love of two completely different girls. Suzu is timid, soft and closed nature. Yachie, on the contrary, is very cheerful, bold and open personality. Once the destinies of two girls are intertwined, and they begin to approach each other. Between them the flame of love begins to flare up. But how can one confess to one another in their feelings?

Yuri Kuma Arashi - quite interesting and atypical shojze-ay anime. The story tells about the students-mistresses of the Academy of Arashigaoka. Girls by an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances were at the epicenter of the war between people and half-medes. Our heroines have to find out the essence of this conflict and test their feelings for strength.

The result

Sejo-ai is a special genre of manga and anime, which tells about romantic relationships between girls. This genre is very popular among girls of puberty and feminists. The emergence and development of the shдdze-ai was influenced by the sexual revolution.