Kodomo
Genre
What is the Kodomo Genre?
Kodomo (children’s) manga are manga whose target audience are
children, both male and female, who are between ages of six and
eleven. Kodomo manga consist of basic children’s stories, often
with child-friendly themes that put an emphasis on family and
friends. Sometimes they also incorporate some violence, something
which is accepted in Japan but often considered inappropriate in
the West.
When did it all began?
The genre started in the late nineteenth century with the
production of small, approximately fifteen page long cartoons in
magazines, targeting both male and female children. These short
manga stories were created as part of the Meiji era’s
(1868-1912) attempt to encourage literacy among the Japanese
youth.Modern-day kodomo in magazines Today there are magazines such
as
KoroKoro Komikku (KoroKoro
Comic), first published by
Shogakukan, whose target audience are young
boys, generally those who are still in elementary school.
There is also
Kodansha’s Comic
Bonbon, which is another magazine dedicated to publishing
Kodomo manga. Both of these magazines are released monthly within
Japan. Kodomo manga that become popular are also almost always
reinvented as anime and are accompanied by a plethora of
merchandise.
Today there are some very well known Kodomo manga, such as
Doraemon, created by two
manga-ka
(the creators of the manga) who wrote under the
penname
Fujiko Fujio. Doraemon was first released in 1969
and made appearances in six different monthly children’s manga
magazines at one time.
Two years later, it also began to appear in two additional
children’s magazines, all with different stories, as the creators
of Doraemon consistently created new stories for each of the issues
it was published in.
Popular Kodomo manga such as Doraemon often retain its readers even
as they approach adulthood.
