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Section 2 New Debuts — Shojo Manga in the 1970s

In the 1970s, shojo manga (girls’ manga) underwent a dramatic evolution.

New magazines were launched one after another, their pages filled with diverse narratives. Breaking free from the conventional confines of subtle romance and family affection tailored for young girls, shojo manga moved beyond the boundaries of storytelling to encompass society, history, foreign cultures, war, sci-fi, fantasy, and the depths of the human psyche, leading to rapid growth in its expressive power. It was a new generation of female artists born after the war that drove this creative explosion.

In 1966, Waki Yamato made her debut, followed in 1969 by Moto Hagio and Ryoko Yamagishi. Although these creators would eventually lead a revolution in shojo manga, they were not regarded as extraordinary from the very beginning. Instead, they navigated a creative landscape alongside numerous peers, searching for their own unique artistic expressions.

This section showcases the debut-era works of these three artists while offering a comprehensive overview of the shojo manga magazines of that era.

Moto Hagio’s Works

Cool Cat

KODANSHA, NAKAYOSI, February 1970

Two cats show up at the Nelly Bryce household. Siblings Dennis and Beaver are thrilled, but their mother loathes cats. They try to chase the cats away, but the two are too quick to catch, leading to a huge commotion involving the whole family. A slapstick comedy about a family at the mercy of the mysterious felines.

Bianca

KODANSHA, Weekly Shōjo Friend, July 7 1970, Extra Issue

Clara Heimer, an elderly painter, first meets her cousin Bianca when she is twelve years old. Bianca runs off into the woods every day without even wearing a hat, while the introspective Clara finds it hard to connect with her. One day, Clara follows Bianca into the forest. And what she finds there... One of Hagio’s earliest representative works, this story lyrically depicts the world of a sensitive teenage girl.

The Yukata Sayo Sews

Shogakukan, Weekly Shōjo Comic, August 18 1971, Summer Extra Issue

For her summer homework, fourteen-year-old Sayo has to sew a yukata. Until now, it was her late mother who had sewn her yukata every year. As Sayo sews one from the fabric her mother had selected for her before she died, she weaves together memories of her mother connected to the yukata.

Column: The Rise of Women Shojo Manga Artists

During the childhoods of Hagio, Yamagishi, and Yamato — all born between 1947 and 1949 — a number of artists who would later become stars of the shonen (boys’) manga world were active in shojo manga magazines. They included Osamu Tezuka (1928–89)*1, who led the postwar story-manga movement, as well as Fujiko Fujio (Fujiko F. Fujio, 1933–96; Fujiko Fujio A, 1934–2022), Mitsuteru Yokoyama (1934–2004), Fujio Akatsuka (1935–2008), Shotaro Ishinomori (1938–98), Leiji Matsumoto (1938–2023), and Tetsuya Chiba (1939–). Meanwhile, among female artists, those of the generation born before the war —
including Masako Watanabe (1929–), Miyako Maki (1935–), and Hideko Mizuno (1939–) — paved the way and helped establish shojo manga during its formative years.

At the time, Japan was entering a period of rapid economic growth, and the momentum of manga seemed unstoppable. With the launch of Weekly Shōjo Friend (Kodansha) and Margaret (Shueisha)*2 in 1963, followed a little later by Shōjo Comic (Shogakukan)*3 in 1968, shojo manga magazines began to appear more frequently, steadily laying the groundwork for the shojo manga boom of the 1970s. And although male artists had constituted a majority even at shojo manga magazines, by the late 1960s the situation was reversed, with female artists surpassing their male counterparts in number.

*1. Tezuka’s representative shojo manga, Princess Knight, was serialized in Shojo Club (Kodansha) from 1953 to 1956.
*2. Margaret, the successor to Shojo Book, later became a weekly magazine. It is currently published twice a month.
*3. Launched as a monthly magazine, it became twice a month in 1969, then weekly in 1970. It later returned to twice a month publication in 1978. Its current title is Sho-Comi.

Ryoko Yamagishi’s Works

Left and Right

SHUEISHA, RIBON COMIC, May 1969

Yamagishi’s debut work. A girl with a disabled right arm, Akemi Ukon, transfers to the middle school attended by Ayuko Hidari. Hidari, a member of the table tennis club, learns that Ukon used to play table tennis before her accident, and in the hope of helping her get back on her feet, proposes they form a doubles team. The two undergo intense training in pursuit of victory, deepening their bond in the process.

Miss Glasses

SHUEISHA, RIBON COMIC, February 1970

Sakiko Kondo is taken in by a friend of her late father’s. In that household lives a college student named Shinichi, and Sakiko develops a slight crush on him. At her new school, Sakiko is nicknamed “Miss Glasses” and finds herself seated next to Rumi Kagawa, the popular committee chair. Meanwhile, Shinichi is Rumi’s private tutor and has developed feelings for her. And when Sakiko learns about this… One of the author’s earliest romance stories.

Lágrima

SHUEISHA, RIBON COMIC, September 1970

In Germany in 1821, five-year-old Maria is sold away from a village bustling with carnival festivities. Treated like livestock, she comes to forget her hometown and her family. She works in various places, and what brings her comfort is a piece of music called “Lágrima,” which connects her to her forgotten hometown. A short work depicting the life of an ill-fated girl.

Column: A Gateway for the Next Generation of Manga Artists

For many young girls aspiring to be manga artists, it would have been a major event when, in 1964, Machiko Satonaka (1948–) made her professional debut and won a manga award*1 at the remarkably young age of sixteen. Later, both shonen and shojo manga magazines established newcomer awards, which became the gateway to a professional manga career for young people born after the war. In the late 1960s, when Hagio, Yamagishi, and Yamato began their careers, there was a succession of debuts by now-famous and still active artists, marking a period of flourishing talent and fierce artistic rivalry. The emergence of this system for discovering new artists, which drew aspiring female manga artists from across the country, can be regarded as a historic turning point.

Thus, by the 1970s, the field of shojo manga had shifted entirely from male to female artists. Nevertheless, the employees and editors at publishing houses were still overwhelmingly male, and young female newcomers were by no means free from the outset to draw whatever they wished. Even so, compared with shonen manga, which was subject to intense pressure to produce popular hits, shojo manga offered considerably more freedom, as long as the work incorporated romantic elements or adhered to a basic “boy-meets-girl” narrative. From their earliest works, Hagio, Yamagishi, and Yamato succeeded in infusing their settings and details with their distinctive artistic sensibilities, pursuing modes of expression uniquely their own and presenting new visions of the world.

*1. The “KODANSHA Boys and Girls Manga Prize Contest” award. This was a groundbreaking attempt by shonen and shojo magazines to jointly solicit entries from newcomers, unlike the monthly awards held by individual magazines, which had been the standard. Satonaka submitted The Portrait of Pia and won first prize.

Waki Yamato’s Work

Angel the Thief

KODANSHA, Weekly Shōjo Friend, September 13 1966, No. 37

Jack Angel, fresh out of juvenile detention, has no choice but to turn to “theft” to make a living. While breaking into an apartment, Jack meets Michelle, a young girl with a mobility impairment. Michelle mistakes Jack, who moves with such grace, for an angel... This work was awarded the Honorable Mention prize at the 5th KODANSHA Newcomer Manga Awards. Following its success, it was developed into a series of short stories featuring Jack Angel as the protagonist.

The Merry Twins

KODANSHA, Weekly Shōjo Friend, June 25 1068, No. 26 - August 6 1968, No. 32

Millie and Amie are close-knit twin sisters living with their dad in Florida. The two enjoy happy days with their kind father and their dolphin friend, Dandy. But when their dad begins to grow close to one Mrs. Hadley, a widow from New York, commotions will break out around them one after another. This sister-themed comedy marked the author’s memorable first serialized work.

Hunt, Hunt, Hunt!

KODANSHA, Weekly Shōjo Friend, November 25 1969, No. 48, 1969 - March 10 1970, No. 11

Kim, the daughter of a famous fortune-teller, and Diane, the computer-loving daughter of a count, happen to enroll at a New York boarding school at the same time. Though they clash, they prove to be alike in some ways, and sparks soon fly as they compete in a comical hunt for the ideal boyfriend. The two heroines dazzle in their determination to win over the perfect man for themselves.