Sh¿jo Across Media

Jaqueline Berndt is Professor of Japanese Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden. She has been involved in the formation of academic Manga Studies in Japan since the early 2000s. Her research interest in manga has been shaped primarily by Art, Media, and Exhibition Studies.

Kazumi Nagaike is Professor of Japanese Culture at Oita University, Japan. She is widely known for her English-language publications on Japan-derived male-male erotic narratives created by and for women, particularly boys' love manga and literary cross-dressing fantasies.

Fusami Ogi is Professor of English at Chikushi Jogakuen University, Japan. She has made her mark beyond Japan, with publications covering the pioneering women artists who have been remembered in manga history as the Magnificent 49ers. For many years, she headed the publicly funded Women's MANGA Research Project, which gave rise to this volume.

Since the 2000s, the Japanese word sh jo has gained global currency, accompanying the transcultural spread of other popular Japanese media such as manga and anime. The term refers to both a character type specifically, as well as commercial genres marketed to female audiences more generally. Through its diverse chapters this edited collection introduces the two main currents of sh jo research: on the one hand, historical investigations of Japan's modern girl culture and its representations, informed by Japanese-studies and gender-studies concerns; on the other hand, explorations of the transcultural performativity of sh jo as a crafted concept and affect-prone code, shaped by media studies, genre theory, and fan-culture research.

While acknowledging that sh jo has mediated multiple discourses throughout the twentieth century-discourses on Japan and its modernity, consumption and consumerism, non-hegemonic gender, and also technology-this volume shifts the focus to sh jo mediations, stretching from media by and for actual girls, to sh jo as media. As a result, the Japan-derived concept, while still situated, begins to offer possibilities for broader conceptualizations of girlness within the contemporary global digital mediascape.

Part I: Sh jo Manga.- 1. Romance of the Taish School Girl in Sh jo Manga: Here Comes Miss Modern (Alisa Freedman).- 2. Redefining Sh jo and Sh nen Manga through Language Patterns (Giancarla Unser-Schutz).- 3. Sh jo Manga Beyond Sh jo Manga: The "Female Mode of Address" in Kabukumon (Olga Antononoka).- Part II: Sh jo beyond Manga.- 4. Practicing Sh jo in Japanese New Media and Cyberculture: Analyses of the Cell Phone Novel and Dream Novel (Kazumi Nagaike and Raymond Langley).- 5. The Sh jo in the R jo: Enchi Fumiko's Representation of the R jo Who Refused to Grow Old (Sohyun Chun).- 6. Mediating Otome in the Discourse of War Memory: Complexity of Memory-Making through Postwar Japanese War Films (Kaori Yoshida).- 7. Sh jo in Anime: Beyond the Object of Men's Desire(Akiko Sugawa-Shimada).- Part III: Sh jo Performances.- 8. A Dream Dress for Girls: Milk, Fashion and Sh jo Identity (Masafumi Monden).- 9. Sakura ga meijiru-Unlocking the Sh jo Wardrobe: Cosplay, Manga, 2.5D Space(Emerald L. King).- 10. Multilayered Performers: The Takarazuka Musical Revue as Media (Sonoko Azuma, Translated by Raymond Langley and Nick Hall).- 11. Sounds and Sighs: "Voice Porn" for Women (Minori Ishida, Translated by Nick Hall).- Part IV: Sh jo Fans.- 12. From Sh jo to Bangya(ru): Women and Visual Kei (Adrienne Johnson).- 13. Sh jo Fantasies of Inhabiting Cool Japan: Reimagining Fukuoka Through Sh jo and Otome Ideals with Cosplay Tourism(Craig Norris).- 14. Seeking an Alternative: "Male" Sh jo Fans since the 1970s (Patrick W. Galbraith).