40666


Recently I started to seriously read digital manga in Japanese by utilizing
their free-reading (立ち読み: read while standing) feature for some first
chapters. Then I realized that some serieses use
[_furigana_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furigana) on all kanji, and the
rest only on some difficult/rare kanji.

# Furigana on all kanji

  * _Air Gear_

[![furigana on all kanji in Air
Gear](https://i.stack.imgur.com/w60Xll.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/w60Xl.png)

  * _Attack on Titan_

[![furigana on all kanji in Attack on
Titan](https://i.stack.imgur.com/aRLP0l.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/aRLP0.jpg)

# Furigana on some kanji

  * _Kaiji_ ( _furigana_ on _itazura_ )

[![1 furigana on Kaiji:
itazura](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wHEM4l.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wHEM4.png)

  * _Mushishi_ ( _furigana_ on _igyou_ and _mushi_ )

[![2 furigana on Mushishi: igyou,
mushi](https://i.stack.imgur.com/QGxngl.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/QGxng.jpg)

So, who decides the usage of furigana in a manga? Is it the author's
preference, or is it decided by the publisher?

Note: in this case, it's about _furigana_ used for standard reading, not on
its artistic usage/alternative reading/pun.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-05-30T00:34:56.343
40583
2020-10-27T12:29:45.547
2516
question
manga-production
Who decides the usage of furigana in a manga?


[Ross Ridge's comment](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/40583/who-
decides-the-usage-of-furigana-in-a-manga/40666#comment54975_40583) is correct:

> I believe it's essentially determined by the media the the manga is original
> published in. Just like how the content of the manga needs to be age
> appropriate to for the target demographic, so does the use of furigana. Any
> one not in their teens is going to have difficulty reading manga without it.

Each manga magazine has target audience. It's usually categorized into 6
sections, by ages and gender: 少年 (boys), 少女 (girls), 青年 (youngs), レディース
(ladies), 女性 (female), 男性 (male).

Boys and girls are "officially" targeted for elementary school students.
Youngs and ladies are for the teen.

For boys or girls category, like _Jump_ , "magazine" or _Sunday_ , they always
use furigana. Publisher enforces it and doesn't allow furigana in furigana
(example: using kanji 二律背反 as furigana to ジレンマ (dilemma), because the kanji
also needs furigana). In your example, _Air Gear_ and _Attack on Titan_ came
from "magazine", they always have furigana.

For Youngs category, they use furigana for difficult kanji only or the first
time it's used. _Kaiji_ is published in Young Magazine and _Mushishi_ is
published in Afternoon and both are ok to not include furigana.


CC BY-SA 4.0
2017-06-03T04:52:42.043
40666
2020-10-27T12:29:45.547
2020-10-27T12:29:45.547
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answer