The josei genre was born around the Eighties. At the roots of its origin there are shōjo manga and anime from the Fifties and the Sixties of which josei is a more mature evolution. Probably, the need to create a genre like josei generated in conjunction with the wave of contemporary feminist movement which was pursuing women’s right to have access to birth control procedures; after all, it is often been said that Japanese female writers use manga as a mean to "[deconstruct] traditional outlooks on sex and childbearing", and deconstruction of the proper lady’s ideal is exactly what josei works wanted to achieve, in the beginning.

In a society in which most of the manga and anime covering the topic of sexuality were conceived for men’s exclusive pleasure, Japanese female authors were tired of being played with in hentai works and being shown like innocent and perfect angels only capable of unconditional love in shōjo manga. That is when josei, a more mature genre meant to explore women’s eroticism and indulge women’s sexual fantasies, was created. Early lady’s comics were sexually free, and the more years went by, the more they became sexually explicit, sometimes even violent.

These kinds of indecent works resulted in the so-called “Ladies’ comic” genre, while josei itself acquired more specific features: mature relationships, infidelity, and dramatic adult love stories are those elements which properly define josei genre, all retaining a high level of realism since the situations which the characters have to deal with are rarely bright and light as for shōjo anime and manga. Although it doesn’t limit to these elements alone nowadays, the more classical vein of josei genre is still greatly appreciated, and one of the best examples to enjoy it is definitely the dramatic historical anime Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū.

Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū’s plot can hardly be called peaches and cream. The anime follows the story of the former yakuza member Yotarō who just wants to leave the past in the past after getting out of jail. Now, he aspires to become a Rakugo traditional comedian, inspired by the distinguished practitioner Yakumo Yūrakutei who doesn’t look very willing to accept Yotarō’s desperate appeal to become his mentor, at first. During his training, Yotarō meets a young geisha, Konatsu, who has been living together with Yakumo since her father’s death. The relationship between these three characters and its development will be the main focus of this complex story immersed in the atmosphere of post-war Japan.

Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū is a typical example of classical josei anime. Love is not idealized as it generally happens in shōjo stories, since the one portrayed is a believable, sexual, adult relationship. Konatsu isn’t a cute, clumsy young girl who is in search of her prince charming, but a fully grown, mature woman who makes her living out of flirting with men. Life has been cruel with Konatsu, so she can’t trust people so easily, and her armored personality makes her look rebellous and sometimes unpleasant for the other characters to see. Konatsu breaks the ideal of the Yamato Nadeshiko (the perfect lady) all shōjo’s heroines would like to be and becomes the symbol of the bitterness of women’s everyday reality.

The realistic portrayal of a relationship is not the only feature of josei genre, although it is certainly one of the most important. Relationships are meant to be created between two or more characters and leads to a chain of events which weave together, in order to give life to an intricate story in which characters experiment any sort of feeling. After all, emotions are what help us turn into proper adults, what make us learn about the hardship of life, and what makes us, in the end, complex human beings. This aspect could be clearly seen in a recent anime like Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū, but actually earlier josei works were mere representations of women’s sexual life.

Over the years, josei genre slightly departed from its classical elements and began to explore in a deeper way not only relationships, but also the characters themselves, their interior world, their fears and hopes, their priorities, and how they changed according to the flow of events. In josei works, environment surrounding the characters have a great impact on the way they will grow up and think; characters get shaped by the outcome of events and set their priorities adapting to their surroundings, even when it means dealing with a hard decision.

Hard is the decision Chizuru Yukimura and the members of Shinsengumi have to take in Hakuōki – one of the most appreciated josei in the last few years – for example. Here, the relationships between the characters are overshadowed to give space to the tragic events occurring to which characters have no other choice but to let fate play out.

Chizuru Yukimura is the daughter of a doctor who has mysteriously disappeared some months before. Worried for her beloved missing father, Chizuru decides to leave Edo and travel to Kyōto in the hope to find news of him. Unfortunately, Kyōto has become a dangerous city and strange inhumane creatures has started to terrorize and kill its citizens. One night, Chizuru gets attacked by one of them and all her attempts to fight it back seem useless. About to get killed, Chizuru gets saved by a group of samurai who later keep her under arrest; they are known as Shinsengumi and Chizuru seems to have accidentally found out their darkest secret…

Hakuōki is set during the last period of Tokugawa Era, during westernization of Japan. The anime tells about historical facts actually happened and all its characters, except for Chizuru, have really existed. Although Chizuru will develop a deep relationship with all of the Shinsengumi members and Toshizō Hijikata in particular, the main focus of Hakuōki is the war the Shinsengumi have to fight not only against western troops but also against a clan of demons that seems to be related to Chizuru in some way. Love can’t but been kept apart when on the other side of the scales there are patriotic ideals and honor; a fate which both Chizuru and her Shinsengumi accept maturely while keeping the pain and desires for themselves.

In more recent years, josei genre has changed a lot and has been stoked by new elements according to the latest fashion and contemporary audience’s tastes. Indeed, it isn’t that rare to find a josei work which features subgenres such as historical, fantasy, sci-fi, action, or even military. What characterizes josei works of this type are the fact that they generally have a complex plot and well-structured characters whose lives and actions are related both to the relationship they share and to their mission and ideals. Hakuōki we talked about before is an anime of that kind, but the affair it talks about is between a man and a young woman.

Heterosexual relationships were, in fact, the main element of josei works of the Eighties and Nineties, but once sexual barriers had been broken down, josei has changed its features as well, so that now finding homosexual josei anime and manga has become pretty common. So common that it is extremely easy to get them mixed up with yaoi. However, josei BL works have very different characteristics if compared to yaoi ones. Josei homosexual relationships can both be very racy or fluffy like in yaoi, but yaoi stories rarely have a real plot and mainly focus on the sexual intercourse between two stereotyped protagonists. In josei works, relationships are fully developed and grow together with the characters while their personalities evolve, and are often part of a more intricated plot in which the characters have to deal with people and events.

The two lovers are rarely the only important element in the plot, but are part of a broader space in which their relationship is just a piece of the puzzle, as it happens in 07-Ghost, for example; rarely labeled as “shounen-ai”, 07-Ghost contains, in fact, all the main features of a josei homosexual love story.

The main character of 07-Ghost is Teito Klein, the last survivor of Raggs Empire after it was destroyed by the Barsburg Empire. Teito doesn’t remember anything about his past and for some reason he is the bringer of a magic item hidden in his right hand. Due to his powers, after Raggs’ annihilation, Teito gets imprisoned by Barsburg and forced to enroll at a Military Academy where he gets trained to become a soldier, but he doesn’t get along very well with his comrades. Except for a fellow student called Mikage, who will become his best friend to whom Teito will swear eternal trust. When the ruthless general Ayanami makes his appearance in Teito and Mikage’s lives, things will get harder for the two; they will have to count on each other’s support and protection to be able to make it out of troubles.

Although Teito and Mikage is said to be a good friendship throughout the whole series, the homosexual element is undeniable. Teito and Mikage’s has all the features of a romantic affair but – as typical of josei stories – that is not the focus of the plot. The work, in fact, concentrates on Teito and Mikage’s struggle against the Empire which wants to lay its hands on Teito’s powers, and their search for Teito’s lost memories which could change the fate of the world. 07-Ghost is a mature story which departs from yaoi stereotypes and could even be enjoyed both by a male audience.