is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent boys. It is, along with manga (targeting adolescent girls and young women), manga (targeting young adult and adult men), and manga (targeting adult women), one of the primary editorial categories of manga. manga is traditionally published in dedicated manga magazines that exclusively target the demographic group. Of the four primary demographic categories of manga, is the most popular category in the Japanese market. While manga ostensibly targets an audience of young males, its actual readership extends significantly beyond this target group to include all ages and genders. The category originated from Japanese children's magazines at the turn of the 20th century and gained significant popularity by the 1920s. The editorial focus of manga is primarily on action, adventure, and the fighting of monsters or other forces of evil. Though action narratives dominate the category, there is deep editorial diversity and a significant number of genres and subgenres within manga, especially when compared to other comic cultures outside of Japan, including comedy, crime, romance, slice of life, and sports. Terminology and etymology The Japanese word (少年 /ɕoːnen/) translates literally to "few years". historically referred to juveniles in a general sense, and was used by the Japanese publishing industry to designate publications aimed at children and young people until the end of the 19th century. The word shifted to its current usage of referring specifically to media aimed at adolescent boys beginning with the practice of segmenting periodicals (especially manga magazines) by sex and age-specific target groups, which was established at the beginning of the 20th century and accelerated starting in the 1960s. This system of segmentation is now openly used as a categorization system by manga publishers and extends into works that are adapted from manga, such as anime. manga manga refers to manga aimed at an audience of adolescent boys, with the primary target audience alternately defined as 9 to 18 years old and as 12 to 18 years old. Of the four primary demographic categories of manga (, , , and ), it is the most popular category in the Japanese market. The actual readership of manga, as is the case for all demographic categories of manga, extends significantly beyond this adolescent male target group to include all ages and genders. For example, a 2006 survey of female manga readers found that Weekly Shōnen Jump was the