

I've seen various lists of manga genres in English, but in my experience they
haven't lined up to the writing that I have read in Japanese book stores.

Note, so that the question is not too broad, I limit the scope of this
question to the genres you would find in the labeling scheme of a book store
in Japan. Obviously subgenres on to infinity can be defined.

Basically, at a Japanese bookstore (like Kinokuniya), what would the aisles be
named?

I ask, because I imagine the perception of genre to the English speaking otaku
may be different than what is considered in Japan.

  * For instance I see yaoi sections marked as BL 
  * There appears to be a section for young girls, but I can't read the kanji
  * Perhaps scifi? But again I can't read the kanji.
  * Is giant robot considered a genre in Japan, is that something you'd see an aisle for in a bookstore? 

What would be the idioms be in Japan?


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manga-production
What would the list of manga genres in Japan be, based on bookstore labeling schemes?


> Basically, at a Japanese bookstore (like Kinokuniya), what would the aisles
> be named?

[M.I.A's comment hits it right on the
head](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/19480/what-do-most-japanese-
consider-the-list-of-manga-genres#comment26082_19480). In the US (and, I
think, much of Europe), books in bookstores are often broken down by subject
or genre or category or whatnot.

This is also true in Japan - to a degree. You will still have broad categories
like "computers" and "art" and "foreign language" and "fiction" and "comics"
(manga). But _within_ the manga section, you'll probably find that the manga
are grouped by _publisher_ (Kodansha, Shueisha, Kadokawa, etc.), rather than
by genre/etc. I don't know if this is universal, but this is how it worked in
all of the manga-selling Japanese bookstores I've been to (not that I've been
to all that many).

I guess the closest you'll get to genre-based categorization within the manga
section is e.g. that certain publishers almost exclusively publish shoujo
content. I can't remember the names of any of the big publishers in that
sector, but if you go to a Japanese bookstore, you'll easily be able to
identify the shoujo-publisher section by its garish pinkness. The same is true
(to an extent) for yaoi/shounen-ai. But for subject-matter-based categories
like "science fiction" or "romance" or "giant robots", you're unlikely to find
subsections of the manga section devoted specifically to those things.

Incidentally, given that you seem to be located in NYC - if you want another
perspective on what Japanese bookstores tend to look like, I'd recommend
visiting the basement of the Book-Off on 45th St if you have a chance. (But
Kinokuniya does still have a much better selection.)


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