Josei, also referred to as redisu (ladies) or redikomi (lady comic), is a genre aimed to appeal to older women, often those who are housewives or office ladies (sometimes seen abbreviated as OL). This is the more mature version of shojo manga, girls manga primarily written for girls aged seven to eighteen.Josei manga and anime is meant to appeal to an older age range, from ages eighteen to thirty, like its male-targeted counterpart, seinen.

History
It was around the 1980s that josei magazines made an appearance with stories about office ladies, due to the increasing number of older women who had a desire for stories that dealt with situations common to their age range. The sales of these magazines did not proceed well and soon magazines that covered a broader range of stories, even including more explicit sexual content, began to be released. In 1986, Shueisha released Young You, a magazine dedicated to josei manga.

In October 2005 Young You's publication was discontinued, but was replaced by Chorus and You, which also featured josei manga.

What exactly is Josei?
Josei contains more mature themes and relationships involving older women than in shojo manga. Stories of women entering the work force or taking up the duties of a housewife are common tropes of this genre. The stories and drawing styles are also often more realistic than those used in shojo manga.

While shojo manga has a tendency to portray idealistic relationships, josei focuses on relationships that are realistic and do not necessarily end happily. As well, male homosexual manga (sometimes called shonen-ai or yaoi depending on the sexual content involved) can fall under josei or sometimes even shojo manga, though they are sometimes also considered to make up a genre of their own.It is difficult to conclusively categorize a certain manga is josei.

For example, some may think that Rumiko Takahashi's work, Maison Ikkoku, would be a josei (or at least a shojo) manga because of its female heroine, but it is in fact a seinen manga, written for males in their twenties. A good indicator of the target audience is the magazine in which a manga was first released. Simply put, a josei manga becomes a josei manga when it is published in a josei magazine.


In the western world, josei manga is not as common as shojo or shonen manga, although more and more josei manga are being licensed and released in English. Some popular josei manga are Gokusen by Kozueko Morimoto, Kimi wa Petto (also known as Tramps Like Us) by Yayoi Ogawa, and Chika Umino's Honey and Clover.

In Turkey, the interest in manga has been manifested in an original way through band called maNga, whose videos and album covers all contain manga style drawings or animations. The band members even have their own manga character drawn to represent them. The drawings were done by an artist named Kaan Demirçelik.

Josei Around the World
Countries around the world have also tried their hands at creating their own original manga, although under different names: China refers to theirs as manhua, Korea has called them mahhwa, and Taiwan has come to call them manhoa.

The English version of manga was once called Amerimanga, but is now usually referred to as OEL manga (Original English Language manga), a term designed to encompass manga created in other English-Speaking countries such as Canada, Britain, and Australia.The United States once had a manga magazine called AmeriManga, which was published in 2002, but was discontinued in 2003.

There are similar magazines within other countries, which include Manga Mover and Sweatdrop in Britain, Xuan Xuan and Oztaku in Australia, and Kitsune in Canada. These authors have all been influenced by Japanese manga, and certain stylistic details that are taken from Japanese manga can be seen within their works.