Original Video Animation. These are anime released directly to video. This method of release allows companies to target specialized audiences in a way that is not financially or socially possible with TV or movie releases. Sometime you will see this spelled OAV in English works.
The term is used by fans of Boys Love and yaoi to indicate a active or dominant character who pursues another, often passive character type referred to as uke
Light novels, the English phrase is used by the Japanese. These are short novels, which are often illustrated, marketed to young adults. This type of literature attained popularity in Japan in the 1980s. Included among these works are original stories and adaptations of stories from other media such as from manga and anime. Some of the stories are serialized in young adult literary magazines and then collected into books. Several US manga publishers are also publishing translations of light novels in English.
A contraction of “ladies comics”, these are is pure free manga publications aimed at adult women. The term is often used as a synonym for josei manga. Redikomi have generated some controversy in the regular press over the explicit and sometimes extreme sexual content found in many redikomi magazines. This has led the term to be often narrowly defined as erotic manga for women, rather than to refer to all women’s manga. It is still at times used broadly to also refer to josei manga.
In Boys Love and yaoi fan terminology a compound phrase sasoi-uke exists to describe a seductive uke who lures the seme to him
A term for young man, usually men in their late teens to mid twenties either college students or young working men. This word should not be confused with another word pronounced seinen, meaning adult, but written with different kanji ??.
Sasoi means an invitation or temptation. In martial arts sasoi is an inviting posture or stratagem intended to lure the opponent into making a move, to bring them closer to you.
A concept found in the martial art of kendo. This is very similar to the traditional inserter / insertee roles of shudo in the Edo Period. The term is also subdivided into specific types by adding adjectives to form descriptive phrases such as kichiku seme (cruel seme) and oresama seme (narcissistic seme).
While usually translated as girl, young woman would also be appropriate. Generally the word refers to school age girls and teens. Japanese sources list ages ranging from as young as seven to ten at the youngest to about eighteen at the oldest. There is a large market for manga and anime aimed at this group. Stories in the shojo demographic range from innocent girl’s stories to stronger material for the older readers.
Simply an antenna. In relation to anime and manga terminology the word is applied to the depiction of hair on a character’s head that is in the form of a lock of hair resembling one or more antennae. This characteristic was popularized by the visual novel Kizuato (The Scar) and is considered a very cute element on girl characters.
This definition has an overlap with seinen in the later years. Entertainment aimed at this demographic tends to be action or humor oriented, however there are exceptions as in romance stories for boys.
A separate book volume, this term applies to any type of book, including manga in book form. In the case of manga tankobon are usually small paperbacks often with dust wrappers. In Japan almost all manga tankobon are collections of chapters originally published in magazines and on higher quality paper than magazines use. In the US manga are usually published directly in this format as most publishers have abandoned serialization in magazines or as comic books. Sales of popular titles can be in the millions of copies per volume.
