Shōnen historically referred to juveniles in a general sense, and was used by the Japanese publishing industry to designate publications aimed at children and young people until the end of the 19th century. The Japanese word shōnen (少年 /ɕoːnen/) translates literally to 'few years'.

Though action narratives dominate the category, there is deep editorial diversity and a significant number of genres and subgenres within shōnen manga, especially when compared to other comic cultures outside of Japan, including comedy, crime, romance, slice of life, and sports. The editorial focus of shōnen manga is primarily on action, adventure, and the fighting of monsters or other forces of evil. The category originated from Japanese children's magazines at the turn of the 20th century and gained significant popularity by the 1920s. While shōnen manga ostensibly targets an audience of young males, its actual readership extends significantly beyond this target group to include all ages and genders. Of the four primary demographic categories of manga, shōnen is the most popular category in the Japanese market. Shōnen manga is traditionally published in dedicated manga magazines that exclusively target the shōnen demographic group. It is, along with shōjo manga (targeting adolescent girls and young women), seinen manga (targeting young adult and adult men), and josei manga (targeting adult women), one of the primary editorial categories of manga.

'boys' comics', also romanized as shonen, shounen or syônen) is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent boys.

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