WASHINGTON—Shedding new light on the adolescent development process, a study published Tuesday by researchers at Georgetown University has found that girls go through their manga phase earlier than boys. “As our research team analyzed hundreds of children, we saw that the onset of interest in Japanese comics and graphic novels begins about one or two years earlier in females than in males,” said lead researcher Dr. Helen Akers, noting that girls typically get their first shoujo manga by age 11 and read them for several more years until they’ve fully transitioned to josei by age 14 or 15. “By the time most girls have finished Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, many boys are just beginning to develop an interest in Dragon Ball Z. This is why, in many seventh- or eighth-grade classrooms, you might have a girl who has read 20 volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist sitting right next to a boy who hasn’t even heard of Naruto.” Researchers added that in light of their findings, parents need to sit down with girls at a young age to discuss different comics so they can be prepared when their daughters eventually begin experimenting with hentai.

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