What is Crude Humor

The researcher completed a qualitative multimodal content analysis of teen manga that examines how adolescents are portrayed within manga and as the intended audience. An analytical tool was developed using multimodal, semiotic, social semiotic, and youth lenses to understand representations of adolescents in teen manga for the publishing company Viz Media. The rating system Viz Media uses to label its manga is used to identify what is in the contents of the stories. The researcher discovered that some manga are not rated correctly based on how Viz Media defines teen manga. Further, depictions of adolescents are potentially problematic due to various factors including the mistreatment of adolescents by adults, toxic masculinity, and sexism.