Bishōjo
The term Bishōjo ( Japanese 美 少女 , dt. "Beautiful girl") is the Japanese name for the ideal typical image of a beautiful young woman. The counterpart for men is called Bishōnen .
Meaning related to anime and manga
The term bishōjo refers to animes or mangas that depict beautiful young girls, usually school-aged, and can be found in many genres.
The Bishōjo are strongly oriented towards the preferences of the male audience, as the attractiveness of female characters tends to serve as a primary attraction there. For this reason, Bishōjo are integrated into most animes as a fan service for marketing purposes .
The term Bishōjo is partly identical to the term Moe , which refers to the quality of acting on the male audience. Furthermore, some Bishōjo characters can be described with the term kawaii , which stands for “lovable”, “cute”, “childlike” or “attractive”.
Web links
- Definition at Anime News Network (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ga-netchû! The Manga-Anime-Syndrom , p. 266. Henschel Verlag, 2008