竹宮惠子
Between roughly 1969 and 1971, a flood of young female manga artists transformed the genre again. Some, including Moto Hagio, Yumiko Ōshima, and Keiko Takemiya, became known as the , or the , so named from the approximate year of birth many of them shared: Shōwa 24, or 1949. This loosely defined group experimented with content and form, inventing such subgenres such as "shōnen-ai" ( "boy love"), and earning the long-maligned "shōjo" manga unprecedented critical praise. Other female artists of the same generation, such as Riyoko Ikeda, Yukari Ichijo, and Sumika Yamamoto, garnered unprecedented popular support with such hits (respectively) as , , and . During that era, women's roles in Japanese society were changing, and women were being elected to the National Diet, and publishers responded by employing more female talent. Since the mid-1970s, women have created the vast majority of "shōjo" manga; notable exceptions include Mineo Maya and Shinji Wada.