Asura Becomes Bishōnen: Decoding the “Shōjo-manga-fication” of Rig Vedic Deities in CLAMP’s RG Veda

The present study aims to explore the representation of Rig Vedic deities in Japanese manga artist group CLAMP’s RG Veda manga. There are several genres of manga, such as shōnen manga (manga for adolescent boys), seinen manga (manga for young-adult/adult men), josei manga (manga for adult women), et cetera. RG Veda manga falls into the shōjo manga genre. The genre denotes manga that are aimed at the adolescent female demographic. Shōjo manga have a distinct set of generic conventions that distinguish them from shōnen manga and seinen manga, such as the presence of bishōnen/biseinen, playing with gender, focus on ningen kankei, doe-eyed characters, and so on. Using the shōjo manga generic conventions of bishōnen, ningen kankei, Boys Love, gender-swapping, and visual aesthetics as the theoretical background, the article aims to decode the representation of Rig Vedic deities in the manga, mainly concentrating on the role of the generic conventions of shōjo manga in their depiction. There is a dearth of critical literature dealing with the issue of the representation of Rig Vedic deities in RG Veda manga, and the study aims to fill that research gap.