Kyoko Ariyoshi's Swan, demonstrating hugely imaginative and beautiful use of the form

context: comics > Subjects

Romance

Few will be surprised to hear that romance is the dominant subject matter of comics for women, and perhaps for teenage girls too, whereas it isn't much of a player in the male sectors, but this shouldn't lead you to draw further parallels with the Western romance genre, which in comics and books tends to a very deep conservatism and heavy reliance on formula.

Women's comics used to be written and drawn by men* - as they generally were in the west - but for some decades now female creators have dominated the market. Paul Gravett goes as far as saying "Only in Japan have women been able to cultivate comics into the country's most empowering forum for female communication." I couldn't say whether that's true or not, but one thing I do find interesting is the clear fact that Japanese romance comics are far more artistically innovative and experimental than boys' and men's genres are. The stories themselves don't often stretch beyond standard-issue romance tales that you could find in a random Mills & Boon, but the artists keep seeking new ways of enhancing the emotional content via different storytelling modes, symbolism and panel layout, as well as expressive faces and body language.

One other note: a large minority of women's comics are about sex. These are mostly not mistakeable for porn, but are stories treating sex and eroticism as a subject. One major type is part of what is covered in the next section...

*sideways: Tezuka's Princess Knight

forwards: Sex