Thread by @Richmond_Lee

I've been seeing a lot of appreciation for Rumiko Takahashi, which is awesome. She's one of the best comics artists of all time. I want to clear up a popular misconception about her tho. Rumiko Takahashi is NOT a shoujo artist. All her mega hits are Shonen classics!

A thread...

I repeat: Rumiko Takahashi is one of the greatest SHONEN manga-ka of all time. Just because she's a woman and her work appeals to a lot of non men doesn't mean she's a Shoujo artist!

Rumiko Takahashi's first mega hit was Uresai Yatsura aka Lum, which was published in Weekly Shonen Sunday from 1978 to 1987. It propelled her to a level of comics superstardom that has never relented to this day!

While still making Uresai Yatsura, Rumiko Takahashi, prodigious mega talent that she is, started work on her second major hit series, Maison Ikkoku (めぞん一刻), a romantic comedy with a more mature tone than her previous work, published in the Seinen magazine Big Comic Spirits.

While creating both Uresai Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku, Takahashi also published several amazing short comics in Shonen Sunday Zokan (週刊少年サンデー 増刊) which were later collected in the "Rumic World" tankobons and OVAs.

In 1984, while Uresai Yatsura AND Maison Ikkoku were still ongoing, Rumiko Takahashi started one of my personal favorites of her oeuvre, the Mermaid's Saga (人魚シリーズ) which was published irregularly in Shonen Sunday Zokan and Weekly Shonen Sunday.

Rumiko Takahashi eventually concluded Uresai Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku in 1987. She quickly followed those up with the super mega-hit all time classic Shonen martial arts comedy manga, Ranma 1/2! (serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday up until 1996)
#らんま

Ranma 1/2 was drawn an all female team (Rumiko Takahashi and 4 assistants). She intended it to be popular with children and women. It ended up being popular with EVERYONE! Just because it's a Shonen series doesn't mean it's only for boys!

Superficially Ranma 1/2 is very stereotypically Shonen. It's full of martial arts and fanservice. But it's executed in a way that's appealing to much more than just horny boys! Ask any Millenial who grew up in Asia in the 90s and they've likely enjoyed this series!

If Rumiko Takahashi simply retired after Ranma, she could have lived comfortably off of the royalities for the rest of her days while also being considered an all time great. But she immediately followed up it's conclusion with Inuyasha!

Less than a year after the conclusion of Ramna (one of the best selling comics of ALL TIME), Rumiko Takahashi began work on Inuyasha (犬夜叉), which began publication in Weekly Shonen Sunday on November 13, 1996.

The Inuyasha anime started broadcasting in 2000 and was also a huge hit. It aired in North America on Adult Swim on August 31, 2002. For many English speakers this would be their introduction to the works of Rumiko Takahashi and the first anime series they fell in love with!

For a lot of North Americans Inuyasha was incredibly progressive. It was a female lead, female created fantasy action series! There hadn't been much like it on American TV before! I know a lot of women who were inspired to go into art because of Inuyasha!

Nowadays it's tempting to look back on Inuyasha as a light hearted Shoujo hit. But it was actually a dark fantasy Shonen series! One of the most popular of all time in fact!

Now here's the thing, it being dark is NOT what makes it Shonen. The only thing that makes it Shonen is ... the magazine it was published in. That's it. The label is pretty arbitrary!

https://twitter.com/Richmond_Lee/status/1297712051326877696?s=20

"Shonen" is not actually a very useful descriptor beyond the initial target demographic of a magazine. Same with "Shoujo" "Seinen" and "Josei." They describe a demographic, not content, definitely not a style!

https://twitter.com/Richmond_Lee/status/1297707648192614401?s=20

Yes they are gendered terms. But they frequently defy gender expectations. Ranma 1/2 was a Shonen Comic made for girls. Tomino has said that the most hardcore early fans of gundam were women!

Please remember all this when you talk about Shonen/Shoujo/Seinen/Josei dynamics in the English language. If you think "X Series" is the first Shonen comic to have really good female lead characters, you are super wrong!

In the early 80s, one of the most popular comics in Shonen Jump was Stop!! Hibari-kun! (ストップ!! ひばりくん!) a romantic comedy staring a trans girl who is lovable and fully fleshed out. Still one of the most progressive trans characters ever!
transgirlmedia.wordpress.com/2017/06/08/hib…

So please, if you're only familiar with manga that's been translated into English, don't make too many assumptions! And please don't assume that you have to be a woman to create Shoujo or a man to create Shonen. There are so many greats that smash this notion to pieces!

Back to Rumiko Takahashi. Did she make comics for girls? Yes. Were they Shonen? Yes, both technically and in terms of fulfilling a lot of genre conventions (fights + fanservice). All these things can be true! There's no contradiction here!

Fun fact: Rumiko Takahashi's mentor was Kazuo Koike! Creator of LEGENDARY seinen classics like Lone Wolf & Cub, Crying Freeman and much more! He had a PROFOUND impact on her work!

Sources:
otaquest.com/rumiko-takahas…

furinkan.com/takahashi/taka…

Alright! Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this please consider supporting my Patreon!

https://twitter.com/Richmond_Lee/status/1345944458479632384?s=20

Regardless, I'll keep making these long threads and eventually expand and archive the more interesting ones on my website!
art-eater.com/articles/the-h…

One more thing... I'M SUPER GUILTY OF MISLABELING SOME OF HER WORK AS "SHOUJO" MYSELF! So please consider this thread as atonement for past sins!😅

https://twitter.com/Richmond_Lee/status/1041257831419113474?s=20