@RobbyBevard:
Yeah, that sounds about right. "Shonen" is a somewhat broader age range than we normally associate, from ages 8-17. The action/camaraderie aspect still carries over even to the older material. "seinen" doesn't just mean "gore and boobs" (but it certainly can) but generally has a different style of content to it entirely.
Jump in particular just courts the slightly younger crowd, and that was mostly due to Dragonball's success cementing it as such.
Some titles that publish in the older magazines, like Claymore for instance, when brought stateside just get printed under the shonen jump label, there's so little need to differentiate any sort of brand. (Claymore obviously has naked women occasionally and lots of dismemberment, but its not particularly graphic about it.)
Of course, then there's stuff like Bastard! which… I think Jump started printing in the U.S. without actually looking at the later volumes. Cause it just sort of stopped right before the art got good. That may have been due to sales, but I think it more likely was due to it getting super pornographic at around volume 15.
8 years old? Are you sure?
I know the anime for most WSJ series still fits that demographic but they also tend to be a bit toned down here and there. The magazines tend to be divided in demographic by the way they are written, like the more "mature" it is more kanji it has. Not mature in an adult sense but in a a Pokemon or Doraemon book will have half a dozen of simple kanji while a SJ series will have at least a couple of douzen. And I guessed that "SJ reading level" to be at least past primary school, like 5th/6th.
Basically I'm asking, can a second grader really read Shounen Jump?
@Nobodyman:
See, now this is fascinating to me.
Up until now, I always thought that "Shonen" magazines always targeted the same age demographic (about 10-18). But to think that there are different Shonen magazines that could target (albeit slightly) different age demographics. It's somewhat of a game-changer for me.
Makes sense though. Don't know why I didn't consider it before.
You can also look at it this way, the magazine is monthly because it targets older teens that now spend more money in hanging out, dates and the likes so they are more likely to buy a magazine that only comes once a month than to buy a weekly magazine.