![]() This tendency reached its apex in the 1970s in the works of many of the artists associated with the Year 24 Group, an emergent grouping of shōjo artists whose works depicted fantastical European and otherworldly settings, and whose characters occasionally transgressed social conventions around gender. History įrom the 1950s to the 1970s, shōjo manga tended to depict exotic, glamorous, and international (particularly European) settings and characters. Decorative elements are typically cute or romantic, with patterns based on flowers or heart motifs. Particular attention is paid to the characters' clothing, with American-inspired fashions influenced by the Ivy League appearing as a common style. Characters possess a morphology aligned with the characteristics of kawaii: round faces, large starry eyes, and a head that is disproportionately large relative to the rest of their body. ![]() The visual style of otomechikku is distinguished from that of other shōjo manga of its era through its use of fine and delicate lines, as well as by the significant use of white space in order to suggest emotion and contemplation. The fine lines, kawaii characters, and Ivy League fashions are all visual hallmarks of otomechikku manga. Style Ĭover to a notebook published by Ribon in 1981 with artwork by Ako Mutsu, a pioneering otomechikku artist. This protection and validation is most commonly granted to her by a male love interest, who accepts her as she is and maintains a chaste relationship with her, but it can also come from professional achievement in a kawaii field, such as a picture book author or puppeteer. Often, the character displays imperfections, fragility, and a need to be protected. The protagonist of an otomechikku manga typically does not possess any particularly notable traits: she is neither especially beautiful nor intelligent, is frequently shy and unassuming, but is invariably kawaii ("adorable" or "loveable"). A popular formula for otomechikku stories is gakuen-mono ( 学園物), which focuses on romance in a school or other campus environment. Otomechikku manga typically focuses on a school-aged girl, usually a middle school or high school student but more rarely a college student, in an ordinary environment (home, school, etc.) who develops friendly, filial, and romantic relationships with other people in those environments. In addition to describing a subgenre of manga, the term is occasionally used as a pejorative to emphasize the childishness or feminineness of that which the speaker is describing. " Otomechikku" can thus roughly be translated as "maidenesque". Chikku (ちっく), also frequently written in katakana, which is roughly equivalent to the suffixes " -ique" or " -esque" and transforms the noun into an adjective.The term is used to refer to girls, and carries a connotation of innocence and purity. Otome (乙女), also frequently written in hiragana, which translates literally to "maiden". ![]() The term otomechikku is a portmanteau of the following words: Otomechikku is most commonly associated with manga published in the magazine Ribon, and is noted by critics for its influence on the aesthetic of kawaii. Stories in the subgenre focus on the lives and exploits of protagonists who are ordinary Japanese teenage girls, a narrative style that emerged in response to the ascendance of exotic, glamorous, and internationally focused shōjo manga throughout the decade. "maidenesque") or otome-chikku is a subgenre of shōjo manga (Japanese girls' comics) that emerged in the 1970s.
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