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Welcome to Shojo Beat, the biggest shojo manga magazine ever
published in the United States, proudly
presenting six series' worth of manga frontier for you to explore. While we
expect that a great many of you have been
reading manga (shojo or otherwise) for years, we also have an inkling that a
few of you may not know what manga is (shocking!) or why you should care
about reading it. Well, we're here to show you, because while we're not sure
what you've been doing all these years, we're positive that 90 percent of it
wasn't as fun as reading manga. The time has come for you to delve into the
drama—to laugh, cry, love, and get inspired via this beautiful and
unique art form, and to take a step into the brave new world of manga.
Here's a bare-bones introduction to shojo manga for the
uninitiated—and for those of you who may need a refresher.
Manga (mahn-ga) means "random pictures" or "whimsical pictures" in
Japanese. Manga combine
pictures and words to convey a story—in short, they're comics. But
unlike American comics, Japanese comics are often first serialized in
telephone book-size magazines and then later compiled into complete graphic
novels. They are also usually printed in monochrome tones rather than in
color.
Shojo (show-joe) means "girl" in Japanese. Shojo manga are often
characterized by a moody, abstract art style, with close-ups of characters'
faces intermingling with dreamy backdrops. In contrast to action-oriented
shonen (boys') manga, shojo manga ruminate on themes of emotion, love,
identity, and responsibility that often play out internally. That said,
shojo manga are by no means just for girls. Shojo stories are about aspects
of life that concern everyone—boys and girls, old and young. Note: The
word shojo normally appears with a circumflex or macron over the first o, as
in shôjo; we removed it for the sake of simplicity and
readability in the magazine.
Tankobon are books compiled from installments of a single manga story.
These books are pocket-size and paperback, and like this magazine, they read
from right to left. In the United States, tankobon are usually referred to
as graphic novels. You can find them in the graphic novel, manga, or science
fiction section of
major bookstores.
Famous poet William Wordsworth advised, "Fill your paper with the
breathings of your heart." We've filled this first issue of Shojo
Beat with manga from the heart—all stories making their way to the
United States from Japan for the very first time. We hope you enjoy it,
along with all the fashion, shopping, culture, history, horoscopes, and
interviews we gathered together to make reading Shojo Beat a great
experience for you.
—Jenifer Morgan |
