Before that, though, let me explain how exactly Monthly Shonen Ace came about... Because it's a bit of a doozy.
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| Though published in October, Shonen Ace lists its issues as two months later, hence why it's the December issue. |
Prior to the original magazine to carry the "Ace" moniker, Kadokawa Shoten already had other magazines, like shojo manga-focused Asuka &, relevant to this article, Comptiq. Debuting in 1983 to help promote computer software (though it'd eventually start serializing some manga), Comptiq would see its own spin-off manga magazine in 1988, Monthly Comic Comp, but in 1992 things got bad, & all because of familial blood. You see, Kadokawa Shoten was founded by Genyoshi Kadokawa, and after he passed away in 1975, his son Haruki became president. Haruki, though, had a younger brother, Tsuguhiko, and in the early 90s ousted his own sibling from the company in favor of his son, Taro. The younger Kadokawa, however, got revenge for his brother's actions by leading an exodus consisting of various editors & mangaka that worked with Comic Comp, with everyone moving over to Tsuguhiko's newly founded Media Works, which lead to the creation of Monthly Comic Dengeki GAO! in 1993; that magazine would last until 2008. The same year as GAO!'s debut, Haruki Kadokawa was arrested for smuggling cocaine into Japan from the United States via a close aide, as well as embezzling money from Kadokawa Shoten to help fund his cocaine purchases; he would be convicted in September 1994 & serve 2.5 of a 4-year prison sentence. In turn, Kadokawa Shoten would need a new head, with the end result being the return of Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, and after the conviction it was decided that Comic Comp would first be suspended, before being merged with a smaller magazine called Comic GENKi to create Monthly Shonen Ace. As for the fates of the Brothers Kadokawa, Tsuguhiko is currently the chairman of Kadokawa Future Publishing, while Haruki would found his own studio, Kadokawa Haruki Corporation (totally not to confuse potential partners, am I right?), after serving his time in jail & getting paroled. Isn't it nice when a magazine is seemingly created partially to spite a sibling, especially when it's essentially an act of vengeance?
Meanwhile, mangaka Masami Kurumada was feeling creatively stifled over at rival publisher Shueisha. After giving Weekly Shonen Jump two gigantic hit manga in the form of Ring ni Kakero & Saint Seiya, the latter was seemingly cancelled before Kurumada could properly finish it. During the latter half of 1992, he debuted a new series, Silent Knight Sho, which felt very similar to his previous hit manga, with many feeling that Seiya was cancelled by Shueisha so that Kurumada could debut a new series just like it, so as to attract new readers; Sho died after just 13 weeks. Fed up with things, Kurumada decided to break away from Shonen Jump, though he stuck with Shueisha for a short, adult-oriented series in Super Jump, Akane-Iro no Kaze, until mid-1994. Seemingly around that time, Kadokawa Shoten got into contact with Kurumada, offering him the opportunity to launch his next manga in a brand new magazine, one that came out monthly & allowed him more freedom than what Shueisha was giving him. Obviously, this was a major get for Kadokawa Shoten, and it helped give Shonen Ace instant credibility, but B't X (pronounced "Beat X") wasn't the only major work to debut with the magazine. Still, let's start things off with Masami Kurumada's first (& only major) manga to have absolutely no relation to Shueisha upon debut.
I have written more than enough about B't X here, especially over the course of the past 12 months, but for those unfamiliar, it tells the story of Teppei Takamiya, who meets up with his technological prodigy brother for the first time in years, only for said brother to be kidnapped by the mysterious Machine Empire for their own purposes. Teppei, in turn, manages to follow them to their secret home base in the Gobi Desert, where he eventually teams up with X, a biomechanical kirin that used to be the partner of Karen, a woman who deserted the Empire & wound up training Teppei, in case his brother got taken. In many ways, especially early on, B't X can feel like "Saint Seiya with mechs", as every B't is effectively a robotic take on an animal (both real & mythical), but as it goes on Kurumada starts playing his hand differently than usual, eschewing his old "fight until the end, even if you have to sacrifice yourself" motto for one that's more reasonable, one that focuses on staying alive to see the good you've done, and "shining brilliantly" as a source of inspiration, even in failure. In many ways, B't X can feel like a deconstruction of Kurumada's style, which in turn also applies to shonen action in general, as Ring ni Kakero was highly instrumental in establishing that style of storytelling in manga.
When you think about, in a way, Masami Kurumada working with a publisher lead by Tsuguhiko Kadokawa makes perfect sense, and even can alter the way one looks at certain aspects of B't X. Here we have Kurumada, who one could argue (contrivedly, but let's be cynical for a moment) was "ousted" by Shueisha in place of newer & younger talent, coming over to a publisher lead by Kadokawa, who himself was very blatantly ousted by his own brother in place of his newer & younger nephew. In turn, my feeling that B't X can be interpreted as Kurumada deconstructing his own style to an extent, especially in regards to Teppei, can also be construed as Kurumada deliberately poking fun at the types of lead characters that his old publisher loves to feature. Anyway, Kurumada would work on B't X until publishing the final chapter in the February 2000 issue (which, as indicated earlier on, actually came out in December 1999), with a total of 16 volumes. TokyoPop would license & release B't X in North America from 2004 to 2010, though it was an infamous bomb, admitting that "only 8 people" bought it & that staff held bets as to whether or not the final volume would actually see release; it did, after a two year hiatus.
As an aside, manga duo Yudetamago joined their good friend Masami Kurumada for the debut of Shonen Ace, but their manga, Gourmand-kun, only lasted until mid-1996 across 4 volumes; they'd follow that up by returning to Shueisha for Kinnikuman II-Sei, a.k.a. Ultimate Muscle. The rest, as they say, is history for that duo.
The next four are also manga that made their debuts alongside Shonen Ace, and help illustrate the unique position the magazine had right from the start. Come 1994, Gundam stories done in written or illustrated form were by no means a "new" proposition, with the original anime having both a novelization done by Yoshiyuki Tomino himself & a manga adaptation that debuted alongside it back in 1979 by Yu Okazaki, with the former being truer to Tomino's original vision, while the latter is infamous for being wildly different, as Okazaki knew nothing of the concept & didn't own a TV. Still, once the series truly became a massive success in the 80s, there were all kinds of original stories being told without anime, like the far-future (& later deemed non-canon) story of Gaia Gear or the hyper-realistic & technical style of Gundam Sentinel. Still, Tomino eventually wanted to enter a new generation of the Universal Century, but wound up stumbling a bit. 1991's theatrical film Mobile Suit Gundam F91 was meant to be a proper TV series that would debut in 1989, but production delays & issues resulted in it instead being a ~2 hour condensed telling of what would have been roughly the first 13 episodes. Then came Mobile Suit Victory Gundam in 1993, which took place 30 years after F91, but delivered essentially no continuation of the plot of the film. That's where Shonen Ace comes in...
Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam by Yuichi Hasegawa, working off of story provided by Yoshiyuki Tomino, is the direct sequel to F91, taking place 10 years later & showing the battle between the Crossbone Vanguard, led partially by F91 lead Seabook Arno, now going under the alias Kincaid Nau, & the Jupiter Empire, which plans to eventually start an attack on the Earth Federation. The real lead character of the manga, though, is Tobia Aronnax, a hot-headed young boy who winds up joining the Vanguard & gets put under the wing of Kincaid. Acting as the equivalent of the next 26 episodes of the story, Crossbone Gundam would go on to become possibly the most iconic & beloved manga entry in the entire Gundam franchise, featuring some of the most well liked Gundam designs in the form of the three Crossbone Gundam X units. Even to this day, this manga remains the most-requested anime adaptation by fans all around the world, and with Hathaway's Flash currently in production as a movie trilogy, this does seem to be an inevitability in some form. The series would end in early 1997 after six volumes, but Hasegawa has kept himself busy with various Crossbone Gundam sequels (plus all manner of other Gundam & mech anime-related manga, in general) ever since 2002, whether it's Skull Heart, The Steel Seven, Ghost, or the currently running Dust, and it's really the success of the original series that lead to Kadokawa Shoten creating Gundam Ace in 2001, a spin-off magazine that features literally nothing but Gundam manga; currently, Crossbone Gundam as a whole totals at 26 volumes.
Fittingly, Shonen Ace not only launched with a Gundam offshoot, but it also featured the debut of a title from Sunrise's seeming thematic rival, Macross! Unlike Crossbone Gundam, though, this series not only relates to what the newest series airing was, but is also done by the character designer of the original series. Debuting only 10 days before Shonen Ace, Macross 7 was the first TV sequel to 1982's Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, taking place 35 years after those events & followed the battle between the people of the eponymous deep space colony & the mysterious Protodevlin, with the intrusive actions of Basara Nekki, lead singer of the rock band Fire Bomber, being the main focus. To go with this new anime, Haruhiko Mikimoto not only did the original designs for the TV series, but also made his own manga side-story, Macross 7 Trash, which takes place during the events of the anime.
Unlike the main focus of the Macross franchise, M7 Trash eschews everything involving giant robots & even (for the most part) singing, instead following the life of Shiva Midou, the rumored illegitimate son of legendary pilot Maximilian Jenius, & his career in T-Crush, a roller derby-esque sports event. He eventually gets coached by Mahala Fabrio, an ex-military officer, while his girlfriend Enika Cherryni becomes the next "Minmay Voice" idol, and the three of them wind up getting involved in a military plot involving the mysterious "Mind System", which channels emotions into energy & starts being used for weapons that T-Crush players fight each other with. It is very interesting to see a Macross story that doesn't involve giant, transformable jets/robots, and especially one that wound up heavily outliving the anime it was designed to help promote. Even when you take into consideration the sequel OVA Macross 7 Dynamite, which finished up in mid-1998, Macross 7 Trash still continued running for years after that, ending in mid-2001 after 8 volumes. Not just that, but there were also plans to release the manga outside of Japan, as TokyoPop announced in mid-2003 that it would be working with Harmony Gold to release Macross 7 Trash in North America the following year. Sadly, licensing issues resulted in the English release never happening, though it did come out across Europe via other publishers in various other languages.
Yes, both Crossbone Gundam & Macross 7 Trash are technically cross-promotional works, but unlike most of this kind of ilk, they are also not simply direct adaptations or interpretations of other works, so they still count.
While I did say that I would focus on "original works" at the beginning, the next two are exceptions to that rule, mainly because they both were also in that debut issue, and each of them have their own unique opportunities to be confused with another manga, so I might as well explain their existences. First up, The Vision of Escaflowne had a bit of an infamous pre-production history to it, which ties into the manga situation I'll be getting into. You see, originally Yasuhiro Imagawa was attached to direct the show, which was initially going to be a more standard shonen-style action series, with dramatic battles & a male lead; Imagawa was also the man who coined the "Escaflowne" title itself. After he left the production to direct G Gundam, though, things changed drastically, making the lead character a girl, though the boy would still be the mecha pilot, & being given more of a shojo-influenced story. The end result, though kind of under-performing in Japan, would become a major hit abroad, namely due to its female-focused execution. In fact, the two attempts to make the anime more male-focused in 2000, namely the Escaflowne movie & the edited American TV airing on FoxKids & YTV, received mixed reception, at best, & downright abhorrence, respectively.
Because of these original changes, though, the anime wouldn't debut until 1996. Meanwhile, there must have already been a deal with Kadokawa Shoten well before then, as about a solid 1.5 years before the anime debuted, Aki Katsu's manga adaptation of The Vision of Escaflowne debuted alongside Shonen Ace. Since it came out well before the anime, it's obviously based on the original concepts that were being worked on back when Imagawa was set to direct, and the fact that it ran in a magazine meant for young boys only makes that more apparent. Meanwhile, a couple of weeks after the anime finally debuted, Kadokawa Shoten debuted Messiah Knight: Hitomi - The Vision of Escaflowne, another manga adaptation that ran in shojo magazine Asuka Fantasy DX & was drawn by Yuzuru Yashiro; this version ended in early 1997 after only two volumes. After that, there would also be an single-volume manga anthology in early 1997 called Energist's Memories: The Vision of Escaflowne, which featured 15 short stories done by as many mangaka. Anyway, Katsu's shonen-styled manga would end in late 1997, a year after the anime's finale, totaling 8 volumes, and would even see English release in North America by TokyoPop. Compared to the highly beloved anime series, Aki Katsu's manga didn't seem to receive anywhere near as much praise, but today it acts as an interesting look at what could have been, similar to how Dark Horse's 2013 comic The Star Wars adapted an earlier version of George Lucas' original theatrical space opera.
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| I'm talking about the one on the left, not the one on the right. |
Meanwhile, this other exception relates to another medium of entertainment, namely arcade fighting games. A few months prior to Shonen Ace's debut, SNK released The King of Fighters '94, the first entry in what would become the company's most iconic franchise, as well as one of if not THE first fighting game crossovers, combining together Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Psycho Soldier, Ikari Warriors, & even some Neo Geo sports games with original characters. By this point, SNK had become known for giving its fighting games storytelling that wasn't seen from the likes of Capcom. Therefore, making a manga adaptation of this new game made perfect sense, so the debut issue of Shonen Ace featured Tatsuya Shingyouji's adaptation of KOF '94. Now, to be fair, this wasn't the first manga based on an SNK fighting game, as Shinseisha's Gamest magazine did feature at least one adaptation, Etsuya Amajishi's Art of Fighting manga, before Shonen Ace's debut. Due to a lack of info, not to mention how many SNK manga were made, it's tough to gauge how many predated KOF '94.
Anyway, from what I can research, while this adaptation does give all eight teams their own moments of attention, the focus leans mainly towards Team Italy (a.k.a. the Fatal Fury Team) & Team Japan, which makes sense; Kyo, Benimaru, & Daimon are the "main characters", while Terry, Andy, & Joe are the most popular. Shingyouji also brings in some characters that have never appeared in the KOF franchise, like Jack Turner from AOF, as well as Jubei Yamada, Cheng Shinzan, & Axel Hawk from Fatal Fury 2. Anyway, KOF '94 would run until late 1996 for 4 volumes, but the main thing that can cause confusion is the fact that a second KOF '94 manga would be made later in Comic Gamest magazine! Titled The King of Fighters '94 Gaiden, this manga by Ryo Takamisaki (best known for his Pokémon & Mega Man Battle Network manga) would essentially tell the overall same story, since it's based on the same game, but put the primary focus towards Team England (a.k.a. the Women Fighters Team), as well as include appearances by Fatal Fury's Hwa Jai (roughly 15 years before KOF XIII), AOF's Mickey Rogers, Jubei Yamada (once again), & early appearances by Iori Yagami & Wolfgang Krauser; Mature is also properly named, since KOF '95 & '96 were the current games during serialization. What's even crazier is that this "side story" adaptation actually wound up being longer, ending after 6 volumes, & Takamisaki would go on to also make The King of Fighters Giga for Comic Gamest, an Athena-lead KOF '96 adaptation in 1997 that would run for 3 volumes.
So, yeah, just don't get confused if you ever have to think about manga based on The King of Fighters '94, because there are two of them, and it's really easy to get confused, especially since both use the official logo for the game.
So now we move beyond that debut issue, but not much further, as only two issues later, which was the one that actually came out in December 1994, saw the "true genesis" of an icon. Similar to how Escaflowne had a tie-in manga debut before its main attraction anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion first saw life in the pages of Shonen Ace, about a good 10 months before TV Tokyo debuted the first episode of the anime in October 1995. Unlike Escaflowne, however, this manga is more or less a direct adaptation of the story that Gainax & Hideaki Anno were planning to create, and with artwork by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, who did the character designs for the anime, it's as official as one can get. In terms of story, it's still the same tale of Shinji Ikari, a depressed high-school introvert who's forced by his father Gendou to pilot a mysterious giant called an Evangelion to fight Earth's battle against mysterious monsters known as "Angels", but as the manga went on some changes do show up; for example, Shinji is shown at times to be more defiant & have more backbone & self-esteem. Naturally, being a busy man, Sadamaoto wasn't able to maintain a consistent pace in serialization, & in mid-2009 the manga was moved to the newly-debuting seinen magazine Young Ace, right as the plot moved into End of Evangelion, before finally ending in 2014. If you're curious, by the time the anime debuted, the manga was only about 1.5 volumes in, & after about 3 or 4 episodes the anime would overtake what came first. Still, one can only imagine how people reacted to Eva back when it first debuted in manga form, not knowing how the anime would end up a year later. For English readers, Viz started releasing it in 2004 & kept at it, eventually releasing the final volume just five days after Japan.
Come 1996, Shonen Ace looked to have properly established a solid & consistent lineup of manga, as everything I had covered was still running, while other titles from the debut issue had either ended or were nearing their ends. Therefore, it would only make sense to start welcoming manga that was being moved from its (kind-of-sort-of) mother magazine, Comptiq. So in the April 1996 issue, alongside a debuting manga adaptation of VS Knight Lamune & 40 Fire, Eden's Bowy (technically pronounced "Weiden's Boy") by Kitsune Tennouji joined the ranks. It tells the fantasy story of Yorn, a young man who finds out that he's a "God Hunter" & joins a mysterious girl named Elisiss to take on the dark forces of Yulgaha, one of the two "Ëden" continents that float above the world. Prior to this, Tennouji had actually made a name for himself under the aliases Dobutsuen Tennouji & Suizokukan Tennouji (literally "Zoo" & "Aquarium"), through which he did various doujin & adult manga. In particular, Tennouji's penchant for Deedlit from Record of Lodoss War allegedly helped solidify that vision of elves into Japanese pop culture, & one look at Elisiss makes the influence obvious. Outside of Japan, Eden's Bowy is best known for its 1999 TV anime adaptation, a 26-episode prime-time series by Studio Deen, which ADV Films released on dual-audio DVD in 2003. What will likely surprise people, though, is that Tennouji continued to work on the manga well after the anime had aired, finally putting an end in late 2009 after 20 volumes! Yes, Eden's Bowy ran for so long that it appeared alongside (& sometimes even outran) manga adaptations of then-new anime & novels, like Macross Frontier, Welcome to the NHK!, Fate/stay night, Basquach!, Eureka Seven, & The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya; it may have even been considered a bit of an icon of Shonen Ace, for all intents & purposes.
Next we move into 1997, which saw the debut of only three new manga, much like 1996, but at least this year saw two of note. The first is notable for being a manga that, really, wouldn't normally be seen in a magazine aimed at "shonen", or younger boys. It also marked the reunion of writer Eiji Otsuka, a novelist/critic/editor who actually helped save the image of manga & otaku after the actions of the infamous "Little Girl Murderer", & illustrator Sho-U Tajima, who had previously teamed up for the manga Madara. This time, though, the two would create a much longer & more iconic series, Multiple Personality Detective Psycho. True to its title, MPD Psycho tells the story of Yosuke Kobayashi, a detective on the hunt for a serial killer with a penchant for dismembering, and how after being sent by the killer his girlfriend dismembered, but still alive, he loses all sanity, murders the killer (for which he serves time in jail), & develops Dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder. Now working as an independent detective, Kobayashi has two alternate personalities: The calm, cool, & collective Kazuhiko Amamiya, & the psychotic Shinji Nishizono. Naturally, the main plot focuses on Kobayashi discovering the truth behind his "MPD" & how it relates to the mysterious Gasuko organization, and just from the set up you can tell that MPD Psycho isn't something that could have run in any of the big name shonen magazines, what with its penchant for rough violence & psychological trauma. In fact, Otsuka & Tajima would eventually move the manga out of Shonen Ace, leaving in 2007 before finding a home in Young Ace in 2009, where it'd stay until ending in 2016, after 23 volumes & a supplemental. It received a 6-episode mini-series directed by Takashi Miike in 2000, & even saw a parody manga drawn by Hirarin, MPD Psy-cho-co, that also ran in Shonen Ace irregularly from 2001 to 2010, itself totaling four volumes. Dark Horse Manga tried giving MPD Psycho a try starting in 2007, but only got 11 volumes in, which is where it has stuck ever since 2014. Still, with Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, another Otsuka-written manga that takes place decades later in the same universe, being given another chance by Dark Horse recently, there may still be slight hope for MPD Psycho to return, in English.
As for the other notable 1997 debut, we see the return of an Japanese fantasy icon. Again, this is another exception to my "originals only" rule, but at least this manga's source material was long finished by this point, rather than being nothing more than a way to help promote something like a newly-debuted anime. Originally debuting in 1988, Ryo Mizuno's fantasy novel Record of Lodoss War would go on to achieve legendary status, with its world setting of Forcelia becoming the basis of the Sword World RPG tabletop game in 1989, while the original series would continue until 1993, lasting seven volumes & two side-stories. Mizuno would then expand on the world of Forcelia, creating spin-off series Legend of Crystania & Louie the Rune Soldier, and all three series would then receive anime & manga adaptations of their own. In particular, the 13-episode OVA adaptation of Record of Lodoss War from 1990 was especially impactful, but since Mizuno was still doing the novels, it wound up diverging & ending in its own way; in the end, only the first eight episodes are truly accurate, & only to the first novel. Therefore, it was decided to make a proper adaptation of the remaining story that Mizuno had told, and in mid-1997 Shonen Ace became the home to Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight, a manga adaptation of novels three through seven drawn by Masato Natsumoto. Starting off by telling the proper story of the battles the knight Parn, the elf Deedlit, & their compatriots continued to have, five years after battling the Grey Witch, it'd eventually hit a decade-long time skip, moving the focus towards Spark, a knight-in-training who follows the footsteps of Parn to protect Lodoss Island from evil. Once again, people outside of Japan are probably more familiar with the 27-episode TV anime of the same name from 1998, one that is infamous for its poor quality (& even poorer English dub), though it's OP theme by Maaya Sakamoto is conversely considered one of the all-time greatest anime themes. As for Natsumoto's manga adaptation, which is considered a much better take on the story, it'd end in mid-2000 after six volumes, & Central Park Media did release the entire thing in English during the early 00s.
We're skipping over 1998, as the only truly notable manga to debut in Shonen Ace during that year was Yukiru Sugisaki's adaptation of Brain Powerd, which debuted only a month prior to the anime; this is the kind of tie-in I'm avoiding. Anyway, 1999 is interesting in that it saw the debut of three notable manga, each two months apart from one another, and one of them is actually the oldest manga in Monthly Shonen Ace to still be running! First up, though, is Angelic Layer by the legendary female collective known as CLAMP, which debuted in the February issue (so, technically, it's really a 1998 debut, okay?). Telling the story of Misaki Suzuhara & her battles as a "Deus" in the popular game of Angelic Layer, where small, customizable dolls called "Angels" combat each other by way of mental control from their repectives Deus, the series is much more well known by way of its 26-episode TV anime adaptation, Kidou Tenshi/Mobile Angel Angelic Layer (... get it?), in 2001. The manga itself would end in late 2001, after five volumes, & I'm sure some in CLAMP were just ecstatic to be in the same magazine as Masami Kurumada, as the collective originally formed making doujin based on manga like Saint Seiya. Finally, in 2000, CLAMP also debuted another manga, Chobits, in Kodansha's Young Magazine, which takes place in the same world as Angelic Layer.
When it comes to what might be THE true "icon" of Shonen Ace, it'd be hard to argue against this next one. About a year after finishing up the VS Knight Lamune & 40 Fire manga adaptation I mentioned earlier, Mine Yoshizaki returned in the April 1999 issue with Sgt. Frog, the story of how a quintet of frog-like aliens from the Planet Keron, lead by the eponymous Sergeant Keroro, are supposed to conquer the "pekopon" filled planet Earth... Only to constantly fail, partially because they all become infatuated with the planet in different ways, with the primary focus being put towards Keroro's obsession with Japanese pop-culture. Essentially, Yoshizaki is a gigantic nerd, so the manga became instantly popular because of its constant referencing & lampooning of essentially any popular Japanese franchise (Gundam, Space Battleship Yamato, Evangelion, Super Sentai, etc.), alongside its clever use of wordplay, fourth wall breaking, & slapstick humor. It became so successful, in fact, that it actually left Shonen Ace from late 2007 to late 2013... Because it became the namesake of a new magazine, Kerokero Ace! Once that magazine ended, though, Sgt. Frog returned to Shonen Ace, where it still runs to this very day, being the oldest manga currently in the magazine; today, it's at 30 volumes. Naturally, an anime adaptation also came about, one that ran from 2004 to 2011 for 358 episodes, plus five movies, & the fact that it was animated by Sunrise meant that the Gundam references could be even more blatant & put to the forefront; there was also a lesser-known TV flash anime, simply titled keroro, that ran for 23 episodes in 2014.
Finally, our last pick for this specialized look at the history of Shonen Ace is one that I'm positive few actually realized ran for as long as it did, even though the anime found itself a cult fandom. Debuting in the June 1999 issue, The World of Narue by Tomohiro Marukawa follows Kazuto Iizuka, a middle school student who winds up falling in love with his classmate Narue Nanase, who he finds out is actually half-alien, as her father comes from Planet Nihon, with the manga overall simply following the trials & tribulations of Kazuto & Narue's relationship as they deal with other people, both human & alien. The title is an apparent reference to 1948 sci-fi novel The World of Null-A by A.E. van Vogt, as "Ā/Null-A" in Japanese is pronounced like "Narue", but otherwise the manga looks to have no direct influence from van Vogt's story. As mentioned, most people outside of Japan are more familiar with The World of Narue by way of its 2003 TV anime adaptation, a late-night series directed by the late Toyoo Ashida that ran for 12 episodes as a part of the Anime Shower block on MBS. It was quickly licensed by Central Park Media & released straight-to-DVD-boxset in 2004, complete with an English dub featuring notable New York voice actors; ADV Films would later re-release the anime in 2009. CPM also licensed the manga, & sold a bundle of Volume 1 with the DVD boxset, but only managed to get five volumes in, before eventually closing shop in 2009; Volumes 4 & 5 are especially rare, as they were limited runs & only sold online. Meanwhile, in Japan, the manga would continue running all the way until the end of 2012, totaling 13 volumes, & then win the Seiun Award for Best Comic in 2014. After that, Marukawa would make another manga, Magicannon Girl Yongou-chan, a "show-within-a-show" concept, as it first appeared in The World of Narue as a fictional series within that manga; Yongou-chan would run in Young Ace until late 2018, totaling two volumes.
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| On the first issue, Teppei was afraid to show his face. On the last issue, Teppei wants you all to know he's fine. |
This brings us to the February 2000 issue, which featured B't X as its cover one last time for the finale; it was the first ever cover, so it made sense to end with a cover. Anyway, while this marks the end of the "Heart-B't" of Monthly Shonen Ace, the magazine still runs to this day, and though cross-promotional manga has essentially become the bread & butter of its very existence, it has still seen many original manga that I'll at least give some quick recognition towards. The end of 2000 saw Ragnarok by writer Kentaro Yasui & prolific artist Tsukasa Kotobuki, which ran for only three volumes, but did see release in North America by CMX under the name Sword of the Dark Ones. Then in mid-2001 we saw the debut of the haremtastic & ecchi stories of Girls Bravo by Mario Kaneda, which ran until mid-2005 for 10 volumes, & is more well known for its TV anime adaptation in 2004. The middle of 2002 saw two transfers from Ace Next magazine, with the first being the debut work of mangaka duo Kaishaku, Steel Angel Kurumi, which had originally debuted back in 1997; Shonen Ace would be where it'd see its end in "early 2004", after 11 volumes. Two months later, an iconic series would move over to Shonen Ace in the form of Yoshiki Takaya's Bio-Boosted Armor Guyver, which had already been moved to Ace Next prior following the end of Tokuma Shoten's Shonen Captain magazine. Guyver would quickly go on hiatus after this last move, though, before returning irregularly in 2007, a run that would last until 2016, & it's been on hiatus ever since; currently, it's at 32 volumes.
We then zoom ahead to 2006 for our next original work, as 2003 to 2005 were very heavy on licensed property adaptations. Starting off the second half of the 00s was Future Diary by Sakae Esuno, which would see much more international appeal once it received a TV anime adaptation in late 2011, after the manga had ended early that year, after 12 volumes. The middle of 2006 also saw Shonen Ace become the temporary home of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, which has had a habit of being shuffled around various magazines. It'd stay there for a year, before leaving in 2007, & today it's found a permanent home at Young Ace, where it's currently at 24 volumes. At the very end of 2006, Keiichi Arawi made their debut with Nichijou, an gag manga of irrelevant absurdity that found itself a strong cult following & a TV anime adaptation by Kyoto Animation in 2011, before ending in late 2015 after 10 volumes. We end the 00s with Deadman Wonderland, an original work by married couple Jinsei Kataoka (writer) & Kazuma Kondou (artist), which debuted in mid-2007 after the pair had finished doing the Eureka Seven manga. Similar to Future Diary, this series wouldn't achieve much notoriety abroad until a 2011 TV anime adaptation, one that even aired on TV in North America as part of the newly-revived Toonami in 2012; it'd end in mid-2013, after 13 volumes.
That finally brings us to this decade, with the return of Kitsune Tennouji, following the end of Eden's Bowy, in mid-2011 with Upotte!!, a tale about anthropomorphized guns going to school to learn to become better weapons, & is still running to this day, with 12 volumes currently; it also saw a TV anime adaptation in 2012. We then move to early 2014, with the debut of Armed Girl's Machiavellism by writer Yuya Kurokami & artist Karuna Kanzaki, a story about a newly co-ed school that saw the female students adopt, as the title says, a Machiavellian-style of rule, one predicated on bad faith in the male students & deciding that the ends justify the means; it is also still running, at nine volumes, & saw a TV anime adaptation in 2017. Finally, we end with Nyankees by Atsushi Okada, which debuted in mid-2016 & told the tale of stray cats in the city by way of yankii manga, i.e. the manga switches between showing the cats as cats & showing them as rough & tough delinquents. This manga actually just saw its finale in the October 2019 issue of Shonen Ace, which means that it ended this past August, after six volumes; sure, it's not a major name, but it's a fun one to end with, I'd say.
Let's be fair here: Monthly Shonen Ace magazine isn't exactly one of the biggest names in the manga industry aimed at younger boys. At its peak during the late 90s & early 00s it was at around 300,000, & today it hovers more around 30,000-70,000; it's a niche magazine for a more specific crowd than something like Shonen Jump. Still, it shows a side of shonen manga that most just don't think of, as that type of manga has a general feel & flow to it that has been defined for the past 50-60 years by primarily three magazines, and it's worth getting an idea of how the more niche magazines have defined themselves, especially one that essentially came about as a form of defiance.
Happy 25th Anniversary, Monthly Shonen Ace!
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