Is Pokemon Kodomo, or Shonen?

[Parissong]

Definitely think the main series is kodomo. Shōnen is moreso geared towards young male children, and while it may come off like that imo with Ash (a male) being the protag and all, his crew usually has a pretty equal female lead. I even thought Serena in XY and XYZ had a pretty impactful role too. So in that regards, it's kodomo and more generally marketed unbiased towards either.

 

[Gokuman345]

Most of the games: Kodomo
Pokémon fifth generation games: Shonen\Seinen
Anime: Kodomo
Origins and Generations: Seinen
PokéSpe: Shonen
Electric Tale of Pikachu: Kodomo
Zensho: Kodomo
Magical Pokémon Journey: Shojo
Diamond and Pearl Adventure: Kodomo\Shonen

Pokémon Horizon: Kodomo\Shonen
Pokémon Pocket Monsters: Kodomo\Shonen
Be the Best: Pokémon BW: Kodomo\Shonen
Jo's Big Adventure: Kodomo\Shonen
How I became a Pokémon Card: Kodomo
Mezase! Card Master: Kodomo\Shonen
Pokémon 4Koma: Kodomo\Shonen
Pokémon newspaper comics: Kodomo\Shonen
Aim to be the Battle King: Kodomo\Shonen
Try Adventure: Kodomo\Shonen
ReBURST: Seinen
Quiz Puzzle Land: Kodomo
Legend of the Dragon King: Kodomo\Shonen
Pokémon on Ice (or what the stage play is called): Kodomo
Detective Pikachu movie: Shonen\Seinen

Ok. First, none of Pokémon is even remotely Shonen. It’s Kodomo. There are no shonen Pokemon. Shonen is for teen boys. No younger than 12. In fact the age range of Shonen is 12-18.

 

[Gokuman345]

Definitely think the main series is kodomo. Shōnen is moreso geared towards young male children, and while it may come off like that imo with Ash (a male) being the protag and all, his crew usually has a pretty equal female lead. I even thought Serena in XY and XYZ had a pretty impactful role too. So in that regards, it's kodomo and more generally marketed unbiased towards either.

Wrong. Shonen are primarily aimed towards teenage boys. 12-18 years of age. So your facts are wrong.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShonenDemographic?from=Main.Shonen

Manga Demographics / Useful Notes - TV Tropes

Shonen jump


https://books.google.com/books?id=E03KBgAAQBAJ&q=Teenage+readers#v=snippet&q=Shonen&f=false


https://books.google.com/books?id=uY8700WJy_gC&pg=PA1&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=snippet&q=Twelve%20&f=false

https://geekandsundry.com/an-introduction-to-manga/

http://manga.yoexpert.com/types-of-manga-10465/what-are-the-different-types-of-manga-43730.html


http://www.hxchector.com/anime-and-manga-types/

https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shōnen_(media)

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=manga

A Beginner’s Guide to Manga

How to Get Into Manga

The Demographics of Anime and Manga Defined

LibGuides: Graphic Novels and Manga: Manga


Otakon 09: Shonen Manga - A History of Violence, a Legacy Sullied

Shōnen

The term shōnen, shonen, or shounen manga (少年漫画, shōnen manga) refers to manga marketed to an adolescent and young male audience. The Kanji characters (少年) literally mean "few" and "year", respectively, where the characters (漫画) generally mean "comic". The complete phrase literally means "young...

animanga.fandom.com

https://www.nypl.org/blog/2018/12/27/beginners-guide-manga

The Difference Between Shoujo & Shounen | Anime Amino

Top 10 Shonen Anime - AnimeMatch.com

Noemnime: Top 40 Best Shounen Anime of All Time

Shonen Versus Shojo, Which One is Better?

The History and Importance of Girls' Manga

 

[Tood]

I'd consider the anime Kodomo and Pokemon Adventures Shonen, at least. Most definitely.

The games are harder to place, at least to me. They seem to be aimed at more of a general audience. Some aspects are for kids, like the plot and PCs being children, but there are things like breeding mechanics and other competitive-relalated aspects that are made to appeal more to older people.

Like, I don't feel as though I would consider Mario games kid-targeted(?), so I'm hesitant to say the same about Pokemon. The entire series probably does tend towards a younger child-teenager audience though, that's for sure.

Aren't all these terms for manga and anime only too?

 

[Emelie]

I think it varies depending on the series and episodes. I wouldn't call the bikini episodes from OS or the uncensored version of the Japanese Electric Tale of Pikachu kodomo since they contain ecchi elements. It's not like the adult jokes are subtle there if you compare to Detective Pikachu which has adult jokes that will go over most kids' heads. Electric Tale of Pikachu is also made by an hentai artist which is pretty much as far away from kodomo as you can get.

Pokémon Special is probably more shounen than the main anime. There is more focus on strategy and battling.

The SM anime is very strange because it is very kodomo in the filler or slice-of-life episodes but it also talks about some very serious issues like mental health and grief. It could also be worth noting that these issues are seen from main characters' perspective such as Lillie and Mallow which makes the experience more intimate. I work at a library where books about these issues can still be found in the children's section but they also have their own shelf dedicated to books that deal with difficult topics.

 

[Makishima_Shogo]

I think it varies depending on the series and episodes. I wouldn't call the bikini episodes from OS or the uncensored version of the Japanese Electric Tale of Pikachu kodomo since they contain ecchi elements. It's not like the adult jokes are subtle there if you compare to Detective Pikachu which has adult jokes that will go over most kids' heads. Electric Tale of Pikachu is also made by an hentai artist which is pretty much as far away from kodomo as you can get.

Pokémon Special is probably more shounen than the main anime. There is more focus on strategy and battling.

The SM anime is very strange because it is very kodomo in the filler or slice-of-life episodes but it also talks about some very serious issues like mental health and grief. It could also be worth noting that these issues are seen from main characters' perspective such as Lillie and Mallow which makes the experience more intimate. I work at a library where books about these issues can still be found in the children's section but they also have their own shelf dedicated to books that deal with difficult topics.

I made an account just to talk about the manga of Pokemon and how I thought it was supposed to be quite "adult" but not gore necessarily due to the Adventures of Red and all the themes surrounding it. You can probably see it as a 15+ if you read it as a 9 or 10 year old with the themes. I can agree that it is no Tokyo Ghoul, Akame Ga Kill or Future Diary, Death Note, Berserk etc but the motives and goals of the villains especially in Red Yellow Blue Green is fairly mature. I have not read the other ones so I cannot comment on them. The theme is definitely not as a light hearted as the anime and more fleshed out than the game (where if you read the motives of the villains in the game, you can find that Diamond Pearl, Platinum had a darker theme).

 

[imaperson]

a mix of both

 

[EternalPokéFanGirl]

Speaking about the anime, I think that while it's a kodomo, it has many shonen elements, so many that sometimes it looks more like shonen. So, though this may not have been intentional, for me it's like a mix of both, this is especially noticeable in XY, that almost always looks like a straight out shonen.

 

[imaperson]

Speaking about the anime, I think that while it's a kodomo, it has many shonen elements, so many that sometimes it looks more like shonen. So, though this may not have been intentional, for me it's like a mix of both, this is especially noticeable in XY, that almost always looks like a straight out shonen.

TRUE, THE ANIME IS DEFINITELY SOMETIMES A LITTLE BIT TOO SHONEN FOR A KODOMO

 

[Babis20Ferg]

The Pokémon anime should be for all ages, not only for little kids. Pokémon Diamond & Pearl anime is both Kodomo, Shojo and Shōnen. If Pokémon Black & White anime was an actual continuation of Diamond & Pearl anime, follows the story of the games with Ash who would have been 14 or 15 years old here instead of still being 10 years old for no reason, Hilda and Hilbert being Ash's travelling companions in Unova, Iris being Ash's rival etc., then it should have been a Shojonen just like how Pokémon XY & Z anime has become a Shojonen. The same should go with Sun & Moon and Sword & Shield or Journeys to be Shojonen. If the Pokémon anime became a Shojonen from Black & White to the recent series, then it won't be a Kodomo.

 

[ArtsyGirl]

Origins and Generations are geared to long-time fans of the series while the ashnime is geared to new time fans

The Pokemon origins and Pokemon Generation anime is shonen because this would appeal to teenage boys, Detective Pikachu isn't shonen/seinen because it's not an anime and not a Japanese film, it's a live-action/CGI family movie because it's targeted to families so it's not shonen/seinen, you shouldn't be labeling western media in manga/anime demographics, That's like saying Spongebob is a Kodomo cartoon.