Aim for the Ace! 50th Anniversary – Hiromi, keep it up!
Being between 13 and 20 years old, this is the only requirement for a girl to belong to the “Shōjo” community. No more children and not yet adults, still nowadays this term coined during the Meiji era is used to evocate emotions and memories, differing from “Jōshi” that’s used from a biological point of view. In fact, a shōjo is a person that has rich emotional experiences during her youth, with the awareness that they will never come back… the only way to relive them is in the sphere of the memories with a bit of nostalgia.
We can consider the Shōjo phase as an actual era with defined codes of conduct, language, fashion, and opinions. To create an even stronger sense of belonging among the girls scattered among the cities, towns, and villages of Japan, in 1902 the publisher Kinkōdō Shoseki released the first shōjo magazine in the world: Shōjo-kai. Rich with novels, articles, and illustrated tales, the purpose of this publication was to educate the best adults of the future accordingly to the new culture carried out by Emperor Meiji.
Shōjo magazine for a better lifestyle!
Following it, many other magazines were released, publications like Shōjo Club, Shōjo no Tomo, and Shōjo Gahō offered a 
vast number of contents that helped to create the brand new middle-class society that emerged from the process of modernization. Using a specific language called “teyodawa-kotoba” (in which the suffixes -teyo & -dawa were commonly used at the end of the phrases), the popularity of these magazines don’t stop with the end of the Meiji Era in 1912, but continued still today thanks to periodicals like Ribon, Princess, Nakayoshi, and above all of them Margaret!
Released 60 years ago, this is the most popular example of a modern shōjo magazine in which the educative purposes of the origins have given way to a vast number of manga series that through the decades became actual masterpieces read by millions of people all around the world. Titles like Attack No. 1, Swan, or The Window of Orpheus were so popular that soon after their appearance on paper to reach cinemas, radios, and also the Takarazuka theater stages. But despite these masterpieces, there’s one series in particular that left a huge mark in the hearts of millions of people both in Japan and abroad. We’re talking about one of the oldest shōjo manga series: Aim for the Ace! which will celebrate its 50th anniversary this Saturday!
The Cinderella of the Tennis World!
Starring the 16-year-old student Oka Hiromi; the mangaka Yamamoto Sumika created a story of love, sacrifice & glory set in the highly competitive world of tennis. Along the 18 volumes of the manga, and the 26 episodes of the anime series, we can experience the transformation of Hiromi from a shy and weak girl into a strong woman and tennis player. Obviously, the romantic part is very important, and like all the other shōjo series, even in Aim for the Ace! we may see how love can help the protagonist to enter adulthood with more confidence in her psychological and physical skills.
Due to its mature story and charismatic drawing style, we can easily understand that the big eyes of these characters are like doors that take the reader into the world of emotions in which every struggle of Hiromi is an act of beauty that brings her closer to success. Serving, backhanding, and handling a lob, in 50 years Aim for the Ace! is still the number one of the tennis shōjo series. Attracting old and new generations of readers to this centuries-old noble sport; Aim for the Ace! reached new heights than any other manga series with more than 15 million copies sold during the 70s.
Feel all the excitement, challenge, and atmosphere, you will discover why Aim for the Ace! is still a big hit after half a century!
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