This would go on to be called the Enix O-Ie Soudou, or the Enix Family Dispute, in reference to numerous samurai & aristocratic disputes that happened in Japan during the Edo period.
 |
| A new manga? Bah, let's give the cover to something that'll ditch us in half a year! |
The damage this did to Enix's publishing division was massive. While Shonen Gangan was still notably hit with the departures of Sakura Kinoshita (Mythical Detective Loki), Nanae Chrono (Shinsengumi Imon Peace Maker), & Mayumi Azuma (Star Ocean: The Second Story), as well as other mangaka who had previously been serialized in the magazine (like Minene Sakurano & Natsuki Matsuzawa), it wreaked havoc elsewhere. Gangan Wing was where the majority of the mangaka had departed from, resulting in ~80% of its active serializations coming to an end, while Monthly Stencil was hit so hard that it had to move over to an "every two months" publishing pace, before eventually being outright cancelled in September 2003; Gangan Wing would manage to revitalize & continue publishing until May 2009, when it was replaced by Gangan Joker. Second (& then-current) Editor-in-Chief Yoshihiro Iida would launch a new initiative dubbed the "New Age Comic Campaign" in an effort to keep things going, but in September 2001 would also leave Enix & move over to Mag Garden, eventually becoming President of the company in 2018.
Meanwhile, Enix itself was also suffering some rough times, in general, as its video game division wasn't doing much better due to various delays, & some releases simply didn't perform as well as hoped. Sure Dragon Quest games continued to generally sell very well, but the same couldn't necessarily be said for smaller releases like Planet Laika, Suzuki Bakuhatsu, Ø Story, Endonesia, Super Galdelic Hour, or The Fear; also, game development costs were only increasing with new consoles coming out. Things were getting so bad that Enix expressed interest in merging with either Namco or even (its RPG rival) Square, and while initial merger talks would start with Square they wound up getting put on hold when the all-CG movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within tanked in the box office. Still, while Enix was certainly experiencing some "hard times" come mid-2001 that only meant that there was an opportunity for a rebirth, of sorts, and when it came to Shonen Gangan all that magazine needed was a fresh new face that could lead the way into a new era. Sure, the Enix Family Dispute took a lot from the company... but that simply meant that what was lost could be replaced with something else of equal value (if not more).
I believe that's called "The Law of Equivalent Exchange"?
Since the Enix Family Dispute started in June, which was the month when the July 2001 issue of Shonen Gangan was published, that means that only one month after the founding of Mag Garden the next major Gangan manga debuted... and it's arguably the most important manga in the entire history of the magazine, one so notable that I am defining this entire "Rebirth Era" around its very serialization history. That manga would be Fullmetal Alchemist, which debuted in August 2001 & was created by Hiromu Arakawa, a former assistant of Hiroyuki Eto's who first appeared in Shonen Gangan two years prior, when her one-shot Stray Dog in the August 1999 issue, after winning the Grand Prize at the 9th Enix 21st Century Manga Awards; prior to that she had drawn illustrations & four-panel strips for Gamest magazine as "Edmond Arakawa". FMA tells the story of the Elric Brothers, Edward & Alphonse, who as kids tried to use alchemy to revive their deceased mother... only for things to backfire, resulting in Ed losing his left leg in the process, while Al's entire body was eradicated; Ed would sacrifice his right arm to bind his little brother's soul to a nearby piece of armor. However, Ed's abilities would still get him invited to join the State Alchemists, which provide the Elric Brothers the ability to research how to recover their bodies, which leads them to wanting to locate a Philosopher's Stone... as well as how the Stone relates to not just a group of beings known as the Homunculi, but also their own father's past, as well. The manga would run until July 2010, totaling 108 chapters across 27 volumes, & it would become the best-selling manga in Enix (& even Square-Enix) history at over 80 million copies worldwide, as of July 2021, with Viz handling the English release ever since 2005.
Needless to say, Fullmetal Alchemist would become a smash hit for Shonen Gangan, bringing with it a notoriety & popularity for the magazine that arguably hadn't been seen before (or even since), which was only increased with the debut of a 51-episode TV anime adaptation by Bones in 2003 that aired on TBS' "Sat 6" time slot, replacing Gundam Seed & helping solidify that time slot as a highly prestigious one for the next few years; this anime would diverge wildly for its second half, but it was at Arakawa's own recommendation. Following a movie sequel to the TV anime in 2005 a second TV anime adaptation, also by Bones, would debut in 2009 titled Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which fast-tracked through the story that was properly adapted in the 2003 anime so as to properly adapt what remained, with Arakawa even informing the staff of how the manga would end in advance, so that when the 64th & final episode aired on July 4, 2010 it could properly adapt the final chapter, which had only been serialized less than a month prior; Brotherhood itself would also see a movie in 2011, but it was an original story. Truly, Fullmetal Alchemist's importance in the history of Monthly Shonen Gangan can never be understated, & it's why I'm defining this "Rebirth Era" entirely via the serialization run of this one manga; it just so happens that it also gives this overview a roughly even spread of 10 or so years per era.
-----
The very next issue Shonen Gangan would see the debut of another major work, this one being interesting in that it looked very familiar to a certain Shonen Jump manga that was running at the time & would go on to be truly legendary... but that's simply because it was "all in the family". Back in late 1999 Masashi Kishimoto made his serialized manga debut with Naruto over in Shonen Jump, a ninja story that didn't take too long to find traction & became a smash hit, eventually becoming only the fourth manga in that magazine's history ever have its final chapter serialized in color, in some form, when it eventually ended in 2014. However, Masashi actually is an older twin, and his younger brother Seishi Kishimoto would also enter the manga industry in 2001 with the one-shot Trigger, which appeared in an issue of Gangan Powered; the tagline for Trigger even stated "Surpass your big brother, who's active in a certain magazine!". This then led to Seishi's serialized debut in the September 2001 issue of Shonen Gangan with 666 Satan, which tells the story of Jio Freed, a mysterious boy who claims to want to conquer the world, only to wind up working for a girl named Ruby Crescent, a treasure hunter who's looking for the legendary O-Parts, which can grant fantastical powers but can only be used by "O-Parts Tacticians". Luckily for Ruby, Jio is actually an OPT... but only because within him lies the spirit of Satan, the most powerful Kabbalistic Demon in the world.
Yes, despite their rather different plots there are definitely numerous similarities between Naruto & 666 Satan, and even Japanese readers back in 2001 made note it. Seishi would eventually explain that any similarities between he & his brother's works were because they grew up influenced by the same things, and that makes perfect sense. Still, 666 Satan would continue to carry some interesting similarities to Naruto, including a large time skip that split the manga into two "Parts", but none of that really hindered 666 Satan's serialization in Shonen Gangan, which ran until January 2008 for 76 chapters across 19 volumes, and when compared to other long-running Gangan manga that length is nothing to sneeze at & ignore. Also, to be fair, the general reception to 666 Satan has been positive, with some even feeling that it may be a little more focused & consistent than Naruto, overall; I mean, it's more reasonable for 19 volumes to remain consistent when compared to 72 volumes. While 666 Satan never received an anime adaptation it does remain Seishi Kishimoto's longest & most iconic work to date, & it would receive a physical English release by Viz during the 00s, where it would be renamed O-Parts Hunter, while Yen Press re-released it digitally in the mid-2010s.
-----
Speaking of a connection to Shonen Jump, our next major Gangan manga is actually directly connected to a classic from the 80s! Back in 1980 Motoei Shinzawa made his debut with San-nen Kimengumi/Class 3 Funny Face Club, & in 1982 it transitioned into High School! Kimengumi, where it ran until 1987 for a combined total of 339 chapters across 26 total volumes, receiving a TV anime that ran for 86 episodes (& a movie) from 1985 to 1987, & is even currently in the midst of a TV anime reboot. The series followed the misadventures of the titular Funny Face Club, five high school boys (plus two female friends of theirs who often accompany them) who have bizarre looking faces & get into all manner of bizarre & comical situations; also, just about everyone's name is some sort of pun when read in Japanese order. After finishing High School! Kimegumi, Shinzawa would continue making other titles until 1990, when back problems prevented him to serializing anything long-term, & outside of a short-run series in V Jump from 1992 to 1993 he mostly worked as an assistant to Tadashi Sato, who previously had been an assistant to Shinzawa himself. This hiatus from making manga himself would end in the October 2001 issue of Shonen Gangan, though, with the debut of Flash! Kimengumi, which followed a handful of one-shot Kimengumi revivals in 1999 & 2000. However, where those one-shots were side stories that took place in the world of the original manga, Flash! was apparently a full-on reboot that brought the characters back to their third year in junior high, a la San-nen, though now the timeline was updated to reflect the Heisei Era that Japan was in, instead of the early 80s Showa Era back in Shonen Jump.
Though Shinzawa was initially hesitant to give a long-term serialization another chance, he felt that a monthly pace wouldn't be too back on his back... but, unfortunately, his back problems would result in numerous hiatuses & after the June 2005 issue Flash! Kimengumi would go on indefinite hiatus, with the three compiled volumes that came out collecting everything but the last chapter that Shinzawa was able to serialize. To this day Flash! Kimengumi looks to be the last proper manga Motoei Shinzawa has ever produced due to his back problems, though he still does the occasional illustration for promotional purposes, like for the recent anime reboot.
This now bring us into the year 2002, & in that February Mag Garden finally made its public debut with the first ever issue of Monthly Comic Blade, with half of the manga in that debut issue being works that originated back at Enix, either via Shonen Gangan or its sister magazines, including Peace Maker Kurogane & Mammote Shugogetten! Retrovallies; Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok would debut later that June. During the lead up to this launch Mag Garden literally advertised that this magazine would feature continuations of titles that appeared in Enix's magazine, which prompted Enix to file a provisional injunction in October 2001 to prevent the publication of Comic Blade & halt the contracts of all mangaka who jumped ship from Enix. One month after Comic Blade's launch, in March, Enix & Mag Garden came to a settlement with the following conditions: Enix will not interfere with Mag Garden's operations, & in return it not only could appoint two non-executive directors for Mag Garden but would also own 50% of Mag Garden's outstanding shares. Also, any manga that previously ran in Enix's magazines would include planning & production credits for Enix, alongside the creators. Finally, until the point Mag Garden got listed on the stock exchange, Enix would receive a 10% royalty of the retail price for any compiled volume of a manga that was first published by Enix.
Eventually, Mag Garden would get listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Mothers market on September 22, 2003, & when that happened Enix sold of all of its shares of Mag Garden, thereby nullifying the settlement & finally bringing an end to this whole mess that started two years prior; Mag Garden (& the mangaka) now had full ownership of the titles that first originated at Enix. Mag Garden would later merge with anime studio Production I.G. in mid-2007, which resulted in the creation of IG Port (with the two companies acting as I.G. Port's manga & anime divisions, respectfully) & Mag Garden being delisted from Mothers on November 27, 2007. As for Monthly Comic Blade itself, it would shift over to 100% digital in 2014 & in 2015 would become a label for Mag Garden's Magcomi service. Magcomi would drop all of its labels in 2020, though any manga that are still running that date back to Comic Blade still get their collected volumes released under the "Blade Comics" branding.
Our next major Shonen Gangan manga technically debuted the month prior to Mag Garden launching Comic Blade, but it was best to just get that stuff out of the way first. Anyway, the February 2002 issue saw the return of Masahiro Totsuka, who had just finished up Kiyomura-kun to Suginokouji-kun to the prior issue, with his next major series, Material Puzzle. Unlike his prior series, which was an absurd comedy, Material Puzzle was a (mostly) serious fantasy adventure starring Tito, Aqua, & Priscella, three wizards who a century prior had their souls absorbed into a "Star Egg" during an attempt at stopping the Goddess from destroying the land, only for them to fail & lead to tragedy. This results in the three effectively becoming immortal... but only one of them can physically exist at a time, i.e. they share a single body, and when that person inevitably dies the next one in line takes their place in a loop. These three now want to finish the job they started, so as to atone for the sins that they felt they had committed, while also ostensibly saving the world. While much more serious in KiyoSugi before it, Material Puzzle still featured more than its fair share of comedy, and in true Totsuka fashion the manga was produced in a non-standard fashion, this time by having each issue of Shonen Gangan serialize two chapters at once. Because of that, however, Material Puzzle managed to get 124 chapters serialized, across 20 volumes, in just slightly over six years, with the manga initially ending in April 2008 (following a hiatus).
However, that initial run only covered the first three "chapters" of the overall story, and from July to October of 2008 Shonen Gangan serialized Material Puzzle: The Boy of Radiant Light, which told the next part of the story across another two volumes, followed by Material Puzzle: Zero Kreuz, a prequel series that ran in Shonen Gangan (before becoming an digital serialization) from 2008 to 2012 for another nine volumes. Finally, Masahiro Totsuka returned to this series again with Material Puzzle: The Magic User in a Godless World, which ran in Kodansha's Morning two magazine (before becoming a digital serialization) from 2018 to 2022, adding an additional 10 volumes. We still aren't done with Masahiro Totsuka in Shonen Gangan, either, as while making both The Boy of Radiant Light & Zero Kreuz he also made two other manga for the magazine, and we'll get to both of those in due time.
-----
As mentioned last time, Mayumi Azuma left Shonen Gangan (& Enix) after the October 2001 issue, bringing an unfinished end to her manga adaptation of Star Ocean: The Second Story. However, prior to her leaving Enix for Mag Garden, Azuma also did the character designs for the Game Boy Color game Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, which came out on June 28, 2001 & acted as a direct sequel to The Second Story. With the third proper entry in Tri-Ace's RPG series still a year away from release it was likely decided that, despite Azuma's manga being unfinished, Shonen Gangan would still serialize a manga adaptation of this GBC game, so the March 2002 issue saw the debut of Star Ocean: Blue Sphere by Aoi Mizuki, the (now former) pen name of Shiwo Komeyama. This would be her debut serialization and, in an amusing coincidence with Seishi Kishimoto, Mizuki/Komeyama also has a twin (Kanoto Kinatsu) who had made her own serialized debut a couple of months prior over in Gangan Wing. As for Mizuki's debut work, the Blue Sphere manga was like the game & took place two years after the events of The Second Story (& the defeat of the Ten Wise Men), seeing party member Precis take the lead as she & the gang (minus Claude & Rena, at least at first) answer an SOS relating to the previously uncharted planet of Edifice. From what I can tell Mizuki's manga adaptation stayed mostly true to the GBC game, with only minor alterations here & there, most amusingly changing the originally ugly, fat, & self-centered Lord Aba into a handsome man who's beloved by his people; this change would even be reflected in the game's remake for mobile devices in 2009!
The Star Ocean: Blue Sphere manga would run until April 2005, totaling seven volumes (&, I imagine, adapted the entire story), and after that Aoi Mizuki would eventually switch over to the Shiwo Komeyama name & debut another long-running manga in Shonen Gangan, which we'll get to next time. Unlike Mayumi Azuma's manga adaptation of Star Ocean, Blue Sphere wouldn't receive an anime adaptation, & in fact the series in general wouldn't receive any sort of new animation at all until the PSP remake of the first game received an anime intro sequence in 2007.
-----
The March 2002 issue of Shonen Gangan was actually a bit of a busy one, as alongside Star Ocean: Blue Sphere there were two other new manga that debuted alongside it. However, while Phantom Dead or Alive (Michiaki Watanabe's follow-up to The Violinist of Hameln, which had ended the year prior) would only last a single year, the third new manga in that issue would go on to be a notable title, in its own right. Having debuted back in 1993, the duo of Hitoshi Ota & Terumasa Shichinoh are better known by the collective pseudonym Kaishaku (in reference to the man who beheaded those who had committed seppuku) & by 2002 were already a successful pair by way of their manga Steel Angel Kurumi & Magical Meow Meow Taruto, both of which already saw TV anime adaptations. Therefore, it was likely seen as a bit of "a get" for Shonen Gangan when Kaishaku debuted UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie in March 2002, a slapstick comedy about Kazuto Tokino, who helps run his family's bath house when one day a UFO crash lands onto the establishment; it's worth noting that alien life is already readily known in this series' world. Inside the UFO was Valkyrie, Princess of the Planet Valhalla, and in order to save Kazuto (who was caught in the crash) she gives half of her soul to him, though this transforms her into a little girl; if the two kiss, however, Valkyrie can temporarily transform back into her original, older form. Yes, this manga was (in some ways) similar to something like Mamotte Shugogetten!, which amusingly debuted its sequel over in Comic Blade the very same month as Valkyrie's debut here, so you have to wonder if this was possibly intentional (in some way) on the part of Gangan's editorial staff. Sure, Enix couldn't directly interfere with Mag Garden's business, but I'm sure they still did what they (legally) could.
Anyway, UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie would run for over five years in Shonen Gangan, eventually ending in September 2007 after 11 volumes, & it had its fair share of adaptations. There were two radio dramas that together ran from 2002 to 2004, but most notably was the anime adaptation, which got two 12-episode seasons from 2002 to 2003, followed by two additional seasons (totaling eight more episodes) released via OVAs from 2005 to 2006. While Kaishaku's original manga has never seen official English release, ADV Films would license & release the entire anime during the second half of the 00s, while FUNimation (having acquired the license as part of the whole mess with Sojitz) would re-release the anime in 2009. In 2012, due to the lawsuit ADV would later file, it was publicly revealed that it had paid $21,335 to license the Valkyrie anime, among other titles listed; it was the second-cheapest anime of the entire list.
By the April 2002 issue of Shonen Gangan the only titles that still dated back before 2000 that were still running were Magical Circle Guru Guru, Tokyo Underground, & Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning, and even if you include titles that predated Fullmetal Alchemist's debut that only adds on Dragon Quest Monsters+, DQ: Warriors of Eden, & Magic Master; truly, the "Original [United] Era" was in its twilight years, by this point. However, these members of the "old guard" (so to speak) would be joined by the return of one of Gangan's true OGs, i.e. something that first appeared in Gangan's very first issue back in 1991!!! After ending Nangoku Shonen Papuwa-kun in June 1995, Ami Shibata went on to make a large number of different manga across a wide variety of publishers, with probably her most notable post-Papuwa-kun work being 1998's Jibaku-kun: Twelve World Story, which received its own TV anime adaptation in 1999. However, Shibata never truly forgot about her debut work, even creating two far-future sequels (Freeman Hero & Mirai Bouken Channel 5) over in Monthly Shonen Jump throughout the rest of the 90s; that said, though, they only took place in the same world, & otherwise were their own stories. But in April 2002 Shibata came back "home" & debuted what was simply titled Papuwa, which was a direct sequel to her original series & now starred Kotaro, the little brother of the OG manga's lead Shintaro & a supporting cast member from that series, who finds himself on a second Papuwa Island (after the first one was blown up at the end of the OG manga) with his own memories now gone, and due to a (purposeful) mistake he now thinks his name is Rotaro... cue more wacky island hijinks with Papuwa, battles against the Gamma Gang, & mysteries around the Red & Blue Stones, all with barely any women to seen whatsoever! The common belief is that the return of Papuwa was an attempt by Enix management to rely on an old favorite manga to help keep sales of Shonen Gangan up after the Enix Family Dispute happened, making this a bit of a case of nostalgia baiting to bring back old readers while the magazine truly solidified a new era of hit manga.
Regardless of intention, Papuwa would wind up running for even longer than the OG manga, not ending until February 2008 & totaling 14 volumes, double the length of the original. This sequel manga would also receive its own TV anime adaptation, a 23-episode series from 2003 to 2004 that was also done by Nippon Animation... and this one would actually see international release. Yes, if you hear anyone in English-speaking fandom talking about Papuwa (which isn't many, to be fair, but I'm sure there are dozens of them... DOZENS!!!), it's more than likely about the anime adaptation of the sequel manga, which ADV Films released in English between 2006 & 2008; not really sure how well it worked as a standalone series, but that's just how the 00s anime bubble was, I guess.
-----
It might sound a bit shocking, but we actually have now reached the first Shonen Gangan manga in this entire series of overviews that's still running in the magazine to this day! Prior to working on manga, Takeshi Fujishiro first worked as an animator over at AIC, and until 2003 even drew art for adult games under the pseudonym TKS. Fujishiro would first make his serialized debut in the latter half of 2000 with the manga Tunnel Nuketara Miyakezawa, which was written by Yuji Moritaka & serialized in Enix's seinen magazine Comic Bound... a magazine that literally only made it five issues in before being cancelled; Moritaka would eventually reboot this manga in 2012 with artist Tsukiko (though it, too, would be unfinished). Anyway, after Comic Bound's cancellation Fujishiro managed to get a one-shot published in the January 2002 issue of Shonen Gangan, & later that June the one-shot would get expanded into a full-on serialization, resulting in Nagasarete Airantou/Swept Away to Airan Island. This tells the story of Ikuto Tohoin, a 14-year old boy who runs away from home & takes to the sea... only to get swept away & crash lands on the uncharted Airan Island. However, Airan Island was actually settled 130 years prior by a group of Meiji Era Japanese citizens (who themselves got stranded during a trip to Europe), and due to a freak tidal wave incident the island is currently only inhabited by women... who now all want Ikuto for themselves, resulting is all manner of wild hijinks & scenarios. Yes, Nagasarete Airantou is another manga about a boy being wanted by all manner of women, though here Ikuto is at least cognitive that the reason for this is due to the island's predicament more than actual love (which he has for Suzu, the girl who resuscitates him upon his initial arrival), and it does seem like over time other men do get featured, especially once Ikuto is located by his family (though by that point he prefers his life on Airan Island).
But, yes, Nagasarete Airantou is indeed still running to this day in Monthly Shonen Gangan, having become the longest-running manga in the magazine's history, so while the general concept of the manga honestly sounds as though it'd have a limited shelf life Takeshi Fujishiro clearly has found a way to keep it engaging to readers for the past 24+ years. However, it's only within the past few years that Nagasarete Airantou actually became Gangan's undisputed longest runner, as it didn't surpass Violinist of Hameln's combined volume count until the release of Volume 38 on October 12, 2022, and as of this overview it's currently as 43 volumes. Unsurprisingly, the manga has yet to see an official English release, though Discotek Media did eventually release the 26-episode TV anime adaptation from 2007 via a sub-only Blu-Ray boxset in 2019.
-----
Following June 2002 there wouldn't be another new manga serialization in Shonen Gangan until February 2003... though calling this a "new" serialization is admittedly kind of pushing it. Instead, it was simply the continuation of Renjurou Kindachi's Jungle wa Itsumo Haré nochi Guu, a.k.a. Haré+Guu, which "ended" after 100 chapters & had its numbering restarted for a whole new run, now using the simplified title of HaréGuu; yeah, it's immensely easy to confuse the two runs if you use the English title for the first series. Now, to be fair, Kindachi actually had a reason for the name change, since now the manga was leaving the original jungle setting completely. As for why young Haré & his best buddy liminal being Guu were leaving the jungle for good, it's because Haré's mother Weda had her life threatened recently, due to the inheritance she would receive from her deceased father. In order to settle this dispute Weda decides to head back to her hometown & deal with it in person, and naturally that meant that she had to bring Haré & Guu with her, with the two attending a local school over there. Beyond that, HaréGuu looked to be more or less the same kind of insanity as it always was, only now there was a new supporting cast of characters in the form of Haré's relatives, the servants at the mansion they now live in, and Haré & Guu's new classmates at school. In the end HaréGuu would run until October 2009, totaling yet another 10 volumes (like last time), only this time it was now only via 81 chapters, instead of 100.
Kindaichi also made other manga while also making both Haré+Guu & HaréGuu, even working for Ichinjinsha (i.e. the other publisher that formed out of the Enix Family Dispute) while also making HaréGuu. After HaréGuu's finale Kindaichi would make one more manga for Shonen Gangan (2010-2012's Million no ○×△□), and today is making the manga Rooming with a Gamer Gal over in Young Gangan, which debuted back in 2014 & is currently at 12 volumes. However, the debut of HaréGuu also marked the end of an era, in a way...
Remember during the introduction for this part when I mentioned that a potential merger between Enix & Square was put on hold because of how much Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within bombed? Well, after getting an injection of money from Sony by letting them own an 18.6% stake, Square managed rebound rather well in 2002, due in large part to the massive success of both Final Fantasy X & the original Kingdom Hearts. Because of that the merger plans with Enix began anew, and while there were some initial hesitations (namely coming from Square's founder worrying about having a much smaller percentage of ownership than before, plus concerns over Enix tending to outsource development, whereas Square made its own games in-house) the deal was indeed finalized & greenlit. In the end, and in no way meant as an April Fools' Day joke(...right?), Square-Enix would officially begin operations on April 1, 2003, marking the end of both Enix Corporation & Square Co., Ltd. as individual entities. The final video games released by both wound up being Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart for the Game Boy Advance for Enix (released March 29, just two days prior) & Final Fantasy X-2 for the PlayStation 2 for Square (released March 13, with the international release using the Square-Enix name).
Over on the manga front, HaréGuu would be the last manga to debut in Monthly Shonen Gangan prior to Square-Enix opening its doors, while over in G Fantasy it'd be √W.P.B. by Shingiku Nakamura; I can't find exact info for Enix's other manga magazines at the time, sadly. Both of these magazines wouldn't debut new manga until their respective June 2003 issues, too, so it's likely that Enix purposefully put a moratorium on new manga until the merged corporation was well & truly up & running. Meanwhile, Dragon Quest Monsters+ would be the last Shonen Gangan manga to reach its conclusion prior to Square-Enix's official start date, ending in the February 2003 issue, which is oddly fitting when you consider what Enix's last game as a solo entity was. So, in a sense, we've kind of reached the end of an era within an era, as from here on out we'll be going over Square-Enix's Monthly Shonen Gangan, and as it is today Square-Enix has been in charge of Gangan for nearly double the length than Enix ever was (23+ years vs. only 12).
And, yes, this did mean that manga based on Final Fantasy would eventually run in Shonen Gangan, even doing so alongside Dragon Quest: Warriors of Eden for a time, but the first of those (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Beyond the Endless Sky by Ryunosuke Ichikawa) wouldn't debut until early 2004, & that'd actually be the only one until the 2010s; hell, I won't be covering an FF manga here until the very end, as all but one were pretty short.
With Square-Enix now fully established & operational it was now time for the manga magazines to debut new titles once again, and over in Shonen Gangan the first new serialization under the Square-Enix name... was actually an adaptation of one of the very last Enix games. Much like with Dragon Quest VII before it, the third proper Star Ocean game suffered some delays, as it was initially announced for release on November 28, 2002, but a month prior to release a delay was announced so as to "improve software quality". In the end, Tri-Ace's Star Ocean Till the End of Time didn't see release on the PlayStation 2 in Japan until February 27, 2003, making the penultimate game ever released under the Enix banner, where it wound up competing with Dynasty Warriors 3 & the PS2 remake of Sakura Wars 1, a sales battle that DW3 actually wound up winning. Even with that delay, though, the game was seemingly still not fully completed, as on January 22, 2004 a two-disc Director's Cut version saw release in Japan that added in some new characters, dungeons, and even a versus mode. It'd be this updated version that would see international release later that same year, leaving the original Enix-branded version a Japan-exclusive.
Still, let's go back to June 2003, which is when Shonen Gangan debuted Star Ocean: Till the End of Time by Akira Kanda, a manga adaptation of the RPG. Kanda was a former finalist in the 9th Enix 21st Century Manga Award, and had made his serialized debut back in early 2001 with Panzer Klein, which ran in Shonen Gangan but ended in late 2002 after five volumes. As for Till the End of Time, the story took place 400 years after the events of The Second Story & starred Fayt Leingod, a young man who accompanies his family on a vacation, only for him & his friend Sophia Esteed to find themselves stuck on an underdeveloped planet after an attack on their vessel ignites a new war. However, the RPG would go on to become immensely notorious among Star Ocean fans due to its final act, where it's revealed that the "universe" of the story (&, in fact, the series as a whole) was in fact an MMO played by the inhabitants of another plane of existence, with our heroes fighting back to enforce their own right to live. I honestly am curious how Akira Kanda handled the manga's final act, in that regard, as by the time the SO3 manga ended in November 2005 (totaling seven volumes) the game's ending was likely more than known by a good portion of Gangan's readership, I imagine; that being said, I'm not sure if Kanda's manga even adapted the entire story. It's also worth noting that for close to a solid two years Shonen Gangan was actually serializing two Star Ocean manga simultaneously (Blue Sphere & Till the End of Time), and that Kanda's adaptation of the third game would wind up being the final Star Ocean manga ever serialized in Shonen Gangan.
-----
Our next notable Gangan manga would debut two months after Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, in August 2003, & was the serialized debut for Tomohiro Shimomura: Joou Kishi Monogatari/Saga of Queen Knight. The manga told the tale of Elto Forenheim, who as a young boy instantly fell in love with Princess Alma of Alshiria when he saw her at a parade, making a promise to one day become a Queen Knight, the highest rank of knight in the kingdom, so that he could protect Alma. He became even more resolute when, during a raid by bandits posing as Queen Knights, Elto saw in action a real life Queen Knight in Sieg Gram, who saved Elto's village & showed to true power of a Queen Knight. So, yeah, Saga of Queen Knight more or less sounded like a straightforward series about Elto's rise up the ranks, starting as a simple squire & hoping to eventually reach the rank of Queen Knight, more than likely meeting friends, rivals, & villains along the way & dealing with any & all obstacles with a great sword nearly twice his height. Nothing wrong with a series being true to itself, in that regard, and when compared to the admittedly wild & zany catalog of major works it ran alongside it's entirely possible that Saga of Queen Knight might have felt like a bit of a chaser, due to its straightforwardness.
However, it looks to be that today this manga is most notable for how it ended. The October 2007 issue would see the 53rd & final chapter of Saga of Queen Knight serialized, which saw a sudden five-year time skip happen, various mysteries & battles with powerful enemies resolved in mere panels each page, our heroes heading off to the final battle... and a final tagline of "Believe that Elto's love will save Alma...!". The tagline, in particular, was quickly compared to an immensely similar line seen in the comedy manga Gag Manga Biyori, in a story that parodied sudden cancellations, and it's a reference that Shimomura would repeat in his later four-panel manga series Sugar Beach. Still, the 12th & final collected volume would include some extra content & written explanations that gave things a better conclusion than what was solely seen in the final serialized chapter, and while Saga of Queen Knight certainly didn't end the way Tomohiro Shimomura intended it to he would continue to work with Square-Enix on & off in his career, though his debut serialization remains his most iconic work.
-----
The very next issue of Shonen Gangan would see the debut of two notable works, and we'll start with the one that ran entirely in the magazine itself. During this time Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning was still running in Shonen Gangan, but writer Kyo Shirodaira seemingly wasn't content with just one manga, so in September 2003 he debuted another work with Vampire Jyujikai/Vampire Cross-World, better known by its English subtitle The Record of a Fallen Vampire. The manga starred Rosered Strauss, a.k.a. "Akabara", the Vampire King of the Kingdom of Night who was once so powerful that he was feared by not just humans but also his own kind. In an attempt to oust Akabara, his wife Queen Adelheid was taken hostage so that Akabara could accept being sentenced to execution, but in doing so Adelheid unleashed a power that nearly destroyed the world, resulting in her being sealed away somewhere secret. In order to prevent her being found thousands of fake seals were put up around the world, but that doesn't stop Akabara from continuing the search for his beloved wife, even if it takes over 1,000 years, fighting against his own kind, & protecting himself from the Black Swan, a mysterious force that takes the body of a young girl every 50 years, with each new reincarnation being more powerful than the last.
For Record of a Fallen Vampire Shirodaira was teamed with Yuri Kimura, who previously had a one-shot published in Gangan Powered in 2002 & gave this manga a very strong shojo-influenced visual style. Despite its relatively straightforward sounding premise, though, Shirodaira's knack for mysteries still persisted here, as the truth behind Adelheid's power, why she was sealed away, why Akabara was willing to throw everything he had away to search for his wife, & what the Black Swan truly was were truths that were slowly revealed as the manga continued on. In the end the manga would end in March 2007 after nine volumes, and despite never receiving any sort of anime adaptation it's maintained a continual availability in English, as Viz first released it physically from 2008 to 2010, followed by Yen Press re-releasing it digitally in 2014, & in 2025 Square-Enix added it worldwide to its Manga Up! subscription service. We'll see Kyo Shirodaira once again later on in this series of overviews, with probably his most well known work from a modern perspective, but as for Yuri Kimura they seemingly disappeared from the industry following Record of a Fallen Vampire's end, only returning after a 12-year hiatus to draw the manga adaptation of the light novel The Strongest Hero: Envoy of Darkness, which began in 2019 & is still running to this day, currently totaling 15 volumes.
Up next is a series that didn't even run a full year in Shonen Gangan, but wound up running for so long in general (& the collected volumes use the "Gangan Comics" branding, despite the first volume not coming out until after the manga had already left the magazine) that I think it'd be rather careless to not acknowledge it here. Like many of the mangaka seen so far, Kiichi Hotta got her start in manga by submitting a one-shot for one of (Square-)Enix's various competitions, in this case the 2-Player Gag Clash at the Summit: GG Grand Prix. This then led to Hotta being given the chance at a serialization, so in September 2003 the debut chapter of Kimi to Boku./You & Me. appeared in Monthtly Shonen Gangan. Initially, You & Me. started off life as a series of four-panel & gag chapters starring Koichi Azuma & Akira, two high school friends who start working part-time at Hidamari Kindergarten as male nursery school teachers, with the early run focusing on the two's high school days, as well as needing to deal with the silly antics of their kindergarten students, namely a quartet of kids named Shun Matsuoka, Kaname Tsukahara, & the Asaba Twins, Yuta & Yuki. However, in June 2004 You & Me. would end its run in Shonen Gangan, and with it Koichi & Akira's time as important characters, as the manga would instead move over to Gangan Powered & experience a major time skip.
Now in a new magazine, You & Me. would shift the focus over to Shun, Kaname, & the Asabas, now high school students themselves, with a half-Japanese transfer student named Chizuru Tachibana joining their little group. Meanwhile, Koichi has since gone on to become a proper teacher at their high school, while Akira more or less hangs around the high school (& is named "Sensei" by the students), but isn't actually a teacher there. From there on You & Me. would continue to be a relatively laidback & relaxed look at high school life, though after the April 2009 issue Gangan Powered itself would get cancelled. You & Me. would get moved one last time, now over to G Fantasy, where it would eventually end in April 2022 after 98 chapters across 18 volumes. During that run it would receive two seasons of TV anime in 2011 & 2012, totaling 26 episodes, and though Crunchryoll did simulcast both seasons as they aired the anime would never received a home video release in English. While its time in Shonen Gangan was short, & the focus of that run would be wildly different when compared to what the series primarily would be known for, the sheer length You & Me. had means that it more than earned a spot in this overview.
-----
While there are only two manga covers shown for this section I actually have a third title to bring up here, because there is a long-running manga that ran in Monthly Shonen Gangan that I feel should be covered... even if it's technically more of a "recurring segment" than a true "serialization", especially since it's never been re-released in any sort of collected form. Michiru Mizusawa got their start back in 2002 with the series Ganbii, which only ran throughout the year before ending that December. Mizusawa would follow that up with two new debuts in March 2003, though neither were traditional manga serializations, & instead were color comic strips. One was GGG, which I admittedly can't find much info about, while the other was Game no Kemono-michi/The Animalistic Path of Games, which saw Mizusawa write game reviews via comic strip form & (from what I can tell) is still a recurring segment in Shonen Gangan to this very day; GGG, meanwhile, ended sometime in 2004. However, in October 2003 Mizusawa would debut Shin Kemono-michi/The True Animalistic Path, and from what I can tell this was actually a "traditional" manga serialization, rather than a comic strip. However, much like Game no Kemono-michi, this was still focused around video games, though here they were seemingly one-off manga based on the games that Mizusawa would also review. Unfortunately, searching for any (good) images relating to Shin Kemono-michi looks to be a completely fruitless effort, as it's never been collected in any way, remaining exclusive to the issues of Shonen Gangan that featured them, and the only real reference I could find to it in more detail was the announcement that Mizusawa did a "game introduction" chapter to help promote the original Japanese release of Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light in October 2009.
Really, Shin Kemono-michi was a manga that was designed to only appear in individual issues of Monthly Shonen Gangan, as it was really more of a promotional tool than a standard serialization. While Game no Kemono-michi looks to continue one as a recurring segment, though, Shin Kemono-michi saw its final appearance in April 2011, which still technically makes it (potentially) one of the longest "series" in the magazine's history. I mean, at close to eight years that means that it still ran for longer than titles like 666 Satan, either individual run of Haré+Guu, Tokyo Underground, Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning, Magic Master, & both Dragon Quest: Emblem of Roto & Warriors of Eden!
-----
Anytime a manga magazine has some sort of undisputable smash hit that defines an "era" there is always a series that, for all intents & purposes, can be seen as a sort of "rival", at least in terms of popularity while both were running in the same magazine. One Piece had Naruto (& Bleach), Otoko Ippiki Gaki Daisho had Harenchi Gakuen, Urusei Yatura had Touch, Violinist of Hameln had Magical Circle Guru Guru... and Fullmetal Alchemist had Soul Eater. After graduating Tokyo Animator College, Astsushi Ohkubo would have a stint as an assistant for Rando Ayamine during the serialization of GetBackers before winning the runner-up spot in the 3rd Enix New Century Manga Awards for his one-shot Ichizen no Hone, which got it published in the March 2001 issue of Shonen Gangan. From there Ohkubo would make his serialized debut with Gangan in November 2001 with B.Ichi, a series that continued on where Ichizen no Hone left off at, but unfortunately would get cancelled in June 2003 after four volumes, leaving the story unfinished. After taking a year to prepare for his next manga, Ohkubo would debut Soul Eater in June 2004, telling the story of Maka Albarn & Soul "Eater" Evans, two students at the Death Weapon Meister Academy, which trains humans who come in two forms: Those who can transform into "weapons" (like Soul) & the "meisters" who can wield said weapons (like Maka). The goal for the meister/weapon pairs is to absorb the souls of 99 "evil" humans & one witch, which will then turn the weapon into a "Death Scythe" that can be used by Shinigami/Lord Death, the headmaster of the Academy. Naturally, the story would become more in-depth than its initial chapters would make one think, and it was a story that Ohkubo was able to tell for nearly an entire decade, ending in September 2013 after 113 chapters across 25 volumes; this really is a manga that doesn't need much explanation, due to its popularity.
Much like Fullmetal Alchemist, Soul Eater would go on to be a big hit for Gangan & sell over 20.4 million copies by February 2022, which is only about 500,000 below Dragon Quest: Emblem of Roto's total confirmed sales but still making it the third-best-selling manga to have debuted during this "Rebirth Era" of Shonen Gangan; for all its (ongoing) length, Nagasarete Airantou only sat at just shy of 4 million as of 2018. Ohkubo's stylistic gothic aesthetic also helped make it visually distinct from pretty much anything else in manga at the time, let alone Gangan itself, which helped make it appealing internationally. Yen Press would first release the entire series between 2009 & 2015, followed by Square-Enix Manga & Books re-releasing it from 2020 to 2025 in a deluxe hardcover form. There was also the 51-episode TV anime adaptation from 2008 to 2009, which first saw English release in 2010 & has continued to be kept in print with re-releases, most recently in 2024. Atsushi Ohkubo also made a spin-off/prequel manga, Soul Eater Not!, that ran in Gangan from 2011 to 2014 for 31 chapters across five volumes & received its own TV anime adaptation in 2014, which also saw English release; I won't be covering Not! in the next "era" of Shonen Gangan, so I'll at least acknowledge it here.
We end this first half of Shonen Gangan's "Rebirth Era" with two manga that both debuted in May 2005, so let's start with the title that never saw English release nor an anime adaptation. Kei Natsumi got her start with manga at an extremely early age, as she was submitting work to manga magazines back in the early 90s, when she was just 11, and because of that she may very well be the last mangaka we cover in this series that actually was a part of the old Dragon Quest Four-Panel Comic Club (remember that?)! Natsumi would make her first "real" debut in manga when she won the runner-up prize at the 3rd Square-Enix Manga Awards in 2003, & she also won the Special Jury Prize that was chosen by Hiromu Arakawa herself that year. Natsumi would follow-up that recognition with her debut serialization, Ou-sama no Mimi wa Okonomimi/The King's Ears Are to Your Ears' Choice, a cooking manga specializing in okonomiyaki, the iconic Japanese teppanyaki pancake dish made using wheat flower batter & a variety of ingredients, either mixed in or as toppings. The Japanese title's "Okonomimi" is a pun on okonomiyaki (which literally means "grilled to your choice") & "mimi/ear", so the translation I'm using is about as close to what I think it's meant to mean. The manga starred Kiichi Okonomiya, an okonomiyaki chef who claims to be able to hear "the voices of the okonomiyaki", which allows him to cook the best possible okonomiyaki for the customer at hand. Naturally, this eventually leads to Kiichi needing to put his Niigata-styled talents to the test against other okonomiyaki chefs from all around Japan in a nationwide tournament, including against the "Four Heavenly Kings" of the industry.
Ou-sama no Mimi wa Okonomimi was apparently originally intended to be a short-term series, but unexpected popularity with Gangan's readers resulted in Kei Natsumi extending its length, & it'd eventually end in January 2008 after nine volumes. This would be Natsumi's sole serialization with Shonen Gangan, as after this series ended she would become mostly known for doing a variety of manga adaptations of both Umineko & Higurashi: When They Cry for Square-Enix's other magazines, which she did on & off from 2008 to 2024. However, she did return to Ou-sama no Mimi wa Okonomimi one last time in April 2016 over in Gangan Online for a short revival run, which lasted a little under year & ended in January 2017; from what I can tell this revival has never been released in collected form. Meanwhile, Kei Natsumi actually just debuted a new series over in Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace in the past month, specifically a manga adaptation of Koen Roka's horror novel Shikoku no Bojyo/Jet-Black Yearning.
-----
As for the other May 2005 debut, & the final entry for this half of Gangan's "Rebirth Era", it's one that saw much more success. Yoshiichi Akahito first made their mark in manga in 2003 when they received the runner-up prize at the 2nd Square-Enix Manga Awards (they were held twice a year, hence why both Akahito & Natsumi won the same prize at different awards in the same year), and over a year after getting their prize-winning one-shot published in the December 2003 issue of Gangan Powered they made their serialized debut with Shikabane-hime/Corpse Princess. The manga detailed the journey of Makina Hoshimura, a teenage girl who was killed & revived into a "Corpse Princess", an undead warrior who make "contracts" with various Buddhist monks so that they can hopefully kill 108 Shikabane, which would allow them to gain entry into Heaven so that they can be properly reborn. Initially Makina is contracted to the perverted (but highly reliable) Keisei Tagami, but acting as the deuteragonist for the story is Ouri Kagami, a high school boy raised at Keisei's temple who learns all about Shikabane & Corpse Princesses early on before eventually inheriting Keisei's contract after he sacrifices himself to protect Makina. Iver time Makina's mission to kill 108 Shikabane would get overtaken by a deeper plot involving the past of Makina's own family & a rogue sect that wishes to end the very idea of reincarnation so that the dead can continue to walk the land. There would also be a strong element of romantic feelings happening between the Corpse Princesses & their Contracted Monks, despite the knowledge that whatever love they may feel can never be followed through on.
Corpse Princess would run until September 2014 & total 23 volumes, making it a bit of a sleeper hit for Gangan, as while its length wasn't too far off from the likes of Fullmetal Alchemist or Soul Eater its sales were only around 2 million by the time the final chapter was serialized. Yen Press would later release the entire manga in English from 2015 to 2019, but only as a digital-exclusive release. There was also a two-season TV anime adaptation (subtitled Aka/Red & Kuro/Black, respectively) co-produced by Feel & Gainax that aired between late 2008 & early 2009 for a total of 25 episodes (plus an OVA) which saw English release in the early 2010s, prior to Yen Press' release of the manga. After Corpse Princess Yoshiichi Akahito would follow-up with the manga Saisei no Fantasma in Shonen Ganga, which ran from 2015 to 2017 for four volumes, before leaving manga entirely for a few years. They'd return in 2021 over in Takeshobo's Storia Dash with the manga Cheat Eater: All Those Summoned to Another World Must Perish, which ran until 2025 & totaled seven volumes, followed by the manga Vampire Mist for Bushiroad, which ran from 2022 to 2023 for three volumes. If Fullmetal Alchemist & Soul Eater were the two "big" titles for Shonen Gangan's "Rebirth Era", then I think it's fair to say that Corpse Princess would probably the distant third that backed them up. Meanwhile, a title like Nagasarete Airantou would become Gangan's equivalent to Jump's Kochikame, i.e. something familiar that readers would come to expect, but never truly rely on as a "lead" series.
-----
Ou-sama no Mimi wa Okonomimi & Corpse Princess would actually wind up being the last new manga to debut in Monthly Shonen Gangan for the rest of 2005, which makes this the perfect place to end the first half of this overview of what I'm calling the magazine's "Rebirth Era". Make no mistake, the "Enix Family Dispute" that resulted in the founding of Mag Garden & a mass exodus of talent left Enix in a very precarious position in mid-2001, and this happened during a time of general turmoil & rockiness within Enix, as a whole; again, they were ready to start negotiating terms of merging with Square the first time around the same exact time. However, the debut of Fullmetal Alchemist no doubt helped keep Enix afloat, and while the return of an OG like Papuwa, or a revival like Flash! Kimengumi, likely also helped keep (or even bring back) old-time readers it was the new generation of manga that debuted in the wake of the Enix Family Dispute that truly allowed Shonen Gangan to stay afloat going into the eventual Square-Enix merger & beyond. Titles like 666 Satan, UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie, Nagasarete Airantou, Soul Eater, & Corpse Princess would also go on to help spread the load out long-term, especially once the last remnants of the "Original [United] Era" slowly went away. By the point we're stopping at here the only remnants of that original era still remaining are Papuwa & HaréGuu, both of which are technically sequel manga anyway.
Join back next time for the second half of Monthly Shonen Ganga's "Rebirth Era", where we'll see the return of a handful of familiar names, the second manga to still be running in the magazine (as of this overview series), some more cross promotion between anime, manga, & games, & even more manga that you may not necessarily be familiar with but certainly made their mark in Gangan history!
No comments:
Post a Comment