Shōnen

The term shōnen, shonen, or shounen manga (少年漫画, shōnen manga) refers to manga marketed to an adolescent and young male audience. The Kanji characters (少年) literally mean "few" and "year", respectively, where the characters (漫画) generally mean "comic". The complete phrase literally means "young person's comic." Examples include Dragon Ball, Naruto, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter, One Piece, Saint Seiya, Rurouni Kenshin, Demon Slayer Kimetsu No Yaiba, My Hero Academia, YuYu Hakusho, Fairy Tail, Yu-Gi-Oh!, The Promised Neverland, Shingeki no Kyojin, Hikaru no Go and Fullmetal Alchemist.

Shōnen (少年) manga (漫画) is typically characterized by high-action, often humorous plots featuring male protagonists. The camaraderie between boys or men on sports teams, fighting squads and the like is often emphasized. Attractive female characters with exaggerated features are also common (see fan service), but are not a requirement; Dragon Ball, for example, has only a few such characters. After the case of Tsutomu Miyazaki (a sexual predator and serial killer) in the late 1980s, depictions of violence and sexual matters became more highly regulated in manga in general, but especially in shonen manga. The art style of shōnen is generally less flowery than that of shōjo manga, although this varies greatly from artist to artist, and some artists draw both shōnen and shōjo manga.

Beyond shōnen, manga for young men is called seinen manga. Consequently, in Japan, shōnen manga magazines are the most popular manga magazines.

Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama is credited for shaping the shōnen genre we see today. With notable authors of other shōnen manga such as Yoshihiro Togashi, Eiichiro Oda, Masashi Kishimoto, Tite Kubo and Yusuke Murata paying homage to his impact and influence on their work.