The Heart, Mind, Body, & Soul.
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| Trust me, putting Shonen Champion in the crotch will make sense later on. I promise. |
On a cursory glance, one might assume that all shonen manga, especially those of the more action-y ilk, are pretty much "all the same", but if you start digging deeper & really look at things, you'll notice that there are notable differences, especially between magazines. For a hypothetical example, if Jyoji Morikawa was to have tried debuting Hajime no Ippo in Shonen Sunday back in the 80s, it would have wound up completely different than what it actually is to this day in Shonen Magazine. For an real example, Masami Kurumada originally debuted Ring ni Kakero in Shonen Jump in the late 70s as a direct homage to Ashita no Joe, which ran in Shonen Magazine, but eventually realized that he'd have to change things up, not just to prove himself as more than simply an imitator but also because Jump started to prioritize other types of stories. The end result was him changing things from a more realistic portrayal of boxing into an over-the-top & super-powered style, inspired by prior Jump manga Astro Kyudan (a hyper-over-the-top baseball manga), which in turn resulted in Kurumada establishing a standard that most action manga in Jump still follow to this very day, i.e. the "Jump Style". So, to celebrate this year's (major) triple-anniversary, one Golden & two Diamond, allow me to ruminate why I feel that Shonen Sunday, Magazine, Champion, & Jump embody the Heart, Mind, Body, & Soul of shonen manga, respectively.
Why is Sunday the Heart of Shonen Manga?
The concept of the "Heart" is generally one of being able to emotionally relate to others. Feelings like compassion, remorse, & empathy tend to be the cornerstones of having a heart, and I can't think of any other magazines's catalog that best epitomizes that than Shonen Sunday. Early on, during the 60s, Sunday was defined by early standard setters, like Iga no Kagemaru & Akakage by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Osomatsu-kun by Fujio Akatsuka, Obake no Q-taro by Fujiko Fujio, & The Amazing 3 & Dororo by Osamu Tezuka. Meanwhile, the 70s was a little slower, but made up for that with the debuts of absolute icons, specifically The Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezz, Ganbare Genki by Yu Koyama, & Urusei Yatsura by Rumiko Takahashi. In many of these manga, we already started to see a seemingly concerted effort towards showing the determination of the human spirit, even when in the harshest of times, that no matter how bad or tough things could get, it was important to always to march forward with hope for the future. Come the 80s, Sunday would truly define itself as the "Heart".
Easily the two most important names in this concept would be Rumiko Takahashi & Mitsuru Adachi. Through the stories & characters in series like Ranma ½, InuYasha, & Rin-ne, or Touch, H2, & Cross Game, we saw manga focused on either telling amusing comedies or dramatic storytelling, if not outright mixing the two together, but the focus was always on looking forward on the what the future holds & to face it with the best intentions. Sunday manga, even when the chips are all down & everything feels hopeless, always maintain this feeling that positivity leads to success. Hard work & effort are good & all, but what makes things work out are the intentions & demeanor of the people behind them. Look at series like Ushio & Tora, Flame of Recca, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Kekkaishi, Keijo!!!!!!!!, or even Itsuwaribito, and there's always a focus on maintaining an upbeat demeanor in life, even when things are looking bad. You still have to fight to earn that happiness, but if you're not already believing in it, then you can't truly fight for it. Obviously, Sunday also has its own share of more "traditional" action series, like Spriggan, Project ARMS, or Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, but on the whole Sunday's action fare tends to follow the beat of its own drum. While there isn't exactly a simple motto for Shonen Sunday like there is for Shonen Jump, Sunday's catfish mascot was actually chosen because it represents a motto of its own: "Even if you're at the bottom of a stagnant pond, as long as you persevere you will grow."
Similarly, comedy in Sunday tends to be much sillier & wacky in nature, but still focusing on interpersonal relationships & mainly making someone the butt of a joke if it relates to a character flaw they have, like Urusei Yatsura's Ataru Moroboshi being an unrepentant lech, which leads to him always being punished for it in some sort of comical fashion. At the same time, though, even when things are seemingly as bizarre & inexplicable as possible, like Dokkiri Doctor, Midori Days, Kyo Kara Ore wa!, A Cheeky Angel, Yakitate!! Japan, or Tuxedo Gin, there's still a feeling of genuine love & care between the characters, with the wackiness being more of a way to help show that love & caring for others comes in all forms. This also can apply to more action-oriented series, too, like The Law of Ueki or Kongoh Bancho. In those series, there are a lot of hard-hitting battles & the like, but they're all done by characters who are either completely absurd or have powers that feel like a bit of a purposeful joke. This gives series like these two multiple appeal, because they not only have good fights & drama, but they also constantly surprise you, because you truly can't predict every single element, as those more comical aspects throw a wrench into expectations. This also helps explain the longevity of a series like Detective Conan/Case Closed, which mixes together silly, childish antics with legitimate, brain-testing murder mysteries for the reader to try to solve before Conan himself does.
Sunday also seems to be more willing to show off the lives of actual professionals, instead of focusing primarily on school students. Series like Firefighter!/Me-gumi no Daigo, Wild Life, Saijo no Meii, Monkey Turn, B.B., Ultimate Otaku Teacher, & Mobile Police Patlabor all star young adults who are either entering the adult world at the start of the plot, or have already been a part of greater society, giving them a different feel than others of its ilk; even Silver Spoon mixes things up by focusing on college students learning agriculture. Even a series like Musashi no Ken or Major, which both start off with children, shows the characters become adults, and instead of moving over to a seinen magazine, like Captain Tsubasa did, actually shows younger audiences what it's like to grow up & become an adult. In fact, during the early 80s, Sunday was home to Pro Wrestling Superstar Retsuden, a short series all about actual Japanese professional wrestlers; the closest any of its rivals had was NBA Story in the early 90s, which ran in Monthly Shonen Jump. Overall, when you read a Shonen Sunday manga, you wind up expecting a look into the potential of the human spirit, one that will always wind up showing how strong the "Heart" of shonen can be. In fact, even it's very name of "Sunday" was chosen not for the day of the week new issues come out on (it actually has never come out on a Sunday), but rather simply because the word equates to that of a relaxing weekend.
Why is Magazine the Mind of Shonen Manga?
Admittedly, this is easily the loosest embodiment of them all, but I feel is still solid enough to stand. When one thinks of the "Mind", it's usually either in regards to being smart & clever, or it's in being able to take into consideration the results, repercussions, & consequences of one's actions. Early on, Magazine was kind of the home of stories about tough-as-nails characters who needed to use their brains either to outwit their opponents, or simply figure out how to solve a problem. During that time, we saw the likes of Japanese superhero 8 Man & Shigeru Mizuki's Kitaro (both the original Hakaba & the iconic GeGeGe), but probably the two that truly defined Magazine's early decade+ are Star of the Giants & Ashita no Joe, both written by the late Ikki Kajiwara. The first define sports manga for an entire generation through its tale of Hyuma Hoshi's life in baseball, from little league to the pros, while the second defined the life & existence of that same generation, showing the rise of Joe Yabuki, a young scamp from the slums, from a selfish scammer/scrapper into a true-blue hero of the little guy. Joe in particular went from being a character that parents legitimately complained was a terrible role model for their kids to being a young man that an entire country looked to for real-life inspiration, one who was deemed worthy of being given a real-life funeral... And he was the second to be given that treatment from that very manga!
Another major name in establishing Magazine's status as the "Mind" is Go Nagai, who came over from Shonen Jump in 1972 with Devilman. Aside from twisting the dark hero concept on its head by having the main character fuse himself with a literal demon, Nagai's manga take on Devilman wound up going into much darker territory than any of Kodansha's rivals were willing to go, and for one year readers were entranced, resulting in it being one of the most influential manga of all time, even at only five volumes long. Nagai would then follow that up with Violence Jack, which saw him show readers the absolute darkest portrayal of humanity he could muster, likely with the intent of making people rethink how they behave towards others, lest they become as vile as the people the eponymous Jack would brutally kill. It, too, only lasted a year in Magazine, but would continue on here & there in other magazines until finally ending in 1990, totaling 45 volumes, making it Nagai's longest work, to date. Come the 80s, though, Magazine would aim more towards more of a mix of lighthearted fare, like romantic comedy The Kabocha Wine, martial arts series Kotaro Makaritooru!, & cooking manga legend Mister Ajikko, & more dramatic stories, like Bari Bari Densetsu (the first hit series from Shuichi Shigeno), Super Doctor K (imagine Black Jack mixed with Fist of the North Star), & Hajime no Ippo.
In fact, one thing Shonen Magazine kind of became notable for was featuring many super-long-running series & sequels, as Kotaro Makaritooru! continued to run via three series from 1982 to 2004 (when the mangaka became ill), & Super Doctor K ran from 1988 to 1998 across two series. Tooru Fujisawa would become popular first through Shonan Junai Gumi in 1990, which then continued into Great Teacher Onizuka, which ran until 2002. Chamelon by Atsushi Kase, which is about a pathetic loser having to pretend to be a badass bancho, ran throughout the entire 90s for 47 volumes. Murder mystery series Kindaichi Case Files, at least in its original run, similarly ran throughout the 90s before ending in 2000, after 37 volumes. Then there's soccer manga Aoki Densetsu Shoot!, which to people outside of Japan feels like an underdog compared to Captain Tsubasa, yet it ran for 13 years, from 1990 to 2003. This would continue throughout the 90s & 00s, as well, via manga like GetBackers, GodHand Teru, Air Gear, Negima! (& later UQ Holder!), Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei, The Knight in the Area, Fairy Tail, & Baby Steps, all of which ran for at least 10 solid years, if not more. Finally, of course, there's the previously mentioned Hajime no Ippo, which is still running to this day, after it's debut in 1989, & is currently at over 125 volumes. It's hard to tell if Kodansha simply isn't as harsh as Shueisha is with Shonen Jump, which is notoriously cutthroat & will quickly cancel promising series if they simply don't attract readers quickly, but I think it is imperative that for something to be the "Mind", it must be patient & willing to let things breathe; haste makes waste, after all.
But, to brings things back to the aspect at hand, what exactly makes Magazine the "Mind", at least in terms of knowledge, cleverness, etc.? Personally, I think it's in Magazine's seeming ability to house stories that either know how to change things up, or are able to examine their surroundings & know what to take from each. Tooru Fujisawa's two iconic manga, for example, start off with the tale of Eikichi Onizuka being a notorious delinquent who only wants to find true love, only to eventually want to become a high school teacher, & Fujisawa managed to make that transition outstandingly well. Similarly, Hajime no Ippo is currently in the midst of Ippo himself being retired & trying to become a trainer for a new generation, which is something you'd never really see happen in a boxing manga. Meanwhile, manga like Hiro Mashima's Rave or Akimine Kamijyo's Samurai Deeper Kyo can sometimes feel more like they belong in Shonen Jump or Shonen Champion, respectively, giving Magazine an interesting (& clever) feeling of familiarity for those who might go from one rival magazine to another. If you want comedy, Magazine offers an interesting variety of styles, from the absurd (like Cromartie High School) to the rom-com (like Love Hina or Yamada-kun & the Seven Witches) to the silly (like School Rumble) to the more psychological (like Zetsubou-sensei). Finally, Magazine's dramatic series tend to offer something different, whether it's something from a creator like Kouji Seo (Suzuka, Fuuka, A Town Where You Live) or Nobuyuki Fukumoto (Buraiden Gai, Tobaku Haouden Zero), or more singular works, like A Silent Voice, As the Gods Will: Second Season, Boys Be..., or (to go back in time) something like Psychometrer Eiji. Overall, Weekly Shonen Magazine is probably the toughest to really pin down a distinct "style" to, like you generally can with its main rivals, and in some ways that's very smart to do.
Why is Champion the Body of Shonen Manga?
Out of all the aspects I'm bringing up here, the "Body" is the only one that can be visibly "seen". Therefore, it's the one that epitomizes change & the ability to alter oneself accordingly. This fits Shonen Champion perfectly, because its history is filled with the magazine having to alter how it has been perceived by the public, seemingly every single decade. Back when it debuted in the late 60s & ran during the 70s, Champion was defined by being the home to influential mangaka, like Osamu Tezuka, Go Nagai, Mitsuteru Yokoyama, & Jirou Tsunoda, through series like Black Jack, The Abashiri Family, Babel II & Mars, & Kyofu Shinbun, respectively. Similarly, this early period marked the start of Shinji Mizushima's Dokaben, a baseball manga that would run on & off from 1972 to 2018, totaling 205 volumes across five series, all in the same magazine. In comparison, the 80s were a very rough period for Champion, seeing very few new series of note that would either run for a while or simply become iconic. Honestly, the closest it got were Plawres Sanshiro by Jiro Gyu, which saw an anime adaptation, and two series written by legendary novelist Hideyuki Kikuchi, Demon City Hunter & Makai Gakuen. You could look at these two periods as Champion being a little child, where people were curious about it initially because it was new, but soon it was just another face in the crowd. In order to become notable again, it needed to experience change... It had to go through puberty & become a teenager.
That would come about in 1991, when Grappler Baki debuted. Compared to the titles of the 80s, or even what was running in rival magazines, Keisuke Itagaki's MMA-styled tour de force was much more "raw" & visceral in feel, and it started a change in focus for the magazine. Champion in the 90s would become defined by series like Grappler Baki, Kakugo no Susume/Apocalypse Zero, Super Radical Gag Family, Iron Wok Jan!, Full Ahead! Coco, & Baron Gong Battle, all of which seemingly prided themselves on showing either levels of gore that you definitely couldn't get away with in any other shonen magazine, or simply aimed to feel as psychotically insane in their executions, if not delivering both. Amusingly enough, Dokaben would return to Champion during this era, debuting its third series in 1995, following an eight year hiatus; talk about a culture shock. This is obviously the equivalent of being a teenager growing up, wanting to feel as different & rebellious from the status quo as possible, and it worked. For a good while, Shonen Champion's image to many, especially outside of Japan, was that of pushing boundaries of shonen manga (&, to some, good taste), to the point where it kind of became a bit of a gag to say something like "Yeah, that Apocalypse Zero OVA? That's based on a manga for young boys!", in an attempt to get a reaction out of people. However, beneath the blood, gore, violence, & insanity were still stories that, deep down, were just as fitting for the age range as anything Jump, Sunday, & Magazine were putting out. As animation legend Don Bluth always indicated, you can theoretically show children anything you want, no matter how dark it is, as long as the story ends with a happy ending; you can't appreciate the light without the darkness, and Shonen Champion epitomized that in the 90s.
Moving into the 00s, series like BioMeat Nectar or Akumetsu definitely hearken more towards the kinds of series from the 90s, with their focus more on blood & violence, while Eiken put sexualized fanservice to such an extreme, especially in regards to the size of breasts, that I personally feel it simply had to be a parody. Of course, not everything was like this, which gave the magazine series like Ramen Fighter Miki, Nanaka 6/17, or Hungry Heart (from the creator of Captain Tsubasa). Meanwhile, the second half saw the debut & rise of series like Clover, Squid Girl, Mitsudomoe, & Yowamushi Pedal, which eased up on the insanity & brought things to a more even-handed feel, though elements of what came before still shined through, when necessary. We also saw the debut of two Saint Seiya manga in 2006, spin-off prequel The Lost Canvas & official sequel/prequel Next Dimension, which gave Champion a bit of a coup when put against a rival like Jump. In the end, the 00s winds up being like a teenager growing up into young adulthood, as the series that debuted in the first half do feel notably different from those in the second half, while also becoming seemingly more business savvy, as shown with the magazine becoming the home of new Seiya manga.
Finally there's this past decade, which has followed through in what the second half of the 00s started. A series like Actually, I am...: My Monster Secret, Beastars, or Rokudou no Onnatachi is more comical & introspective than you'd think of from a magazine that still sees new chapters of Baki to this very day (especially since it's now known that Beastars' creator Paru Itagaki is the daughter of Baki's Keisuke Itagaki). Meanwhile, the spirit of a sports series like Dokaben lives on in the form of series like Harigane Service or Himawari, which focus on things like volleyball & Kagura, respectively. However, Champion hasn't forgotten the era that effectively gave the magazine a new lease on life, because manga like Magical Girl Site or Resident Evil spin-offs Marhawa Desire & Heavenly Island definitely deliver on the violence factor, not to mention the previously-mentioned continuing serialization of Baki. At this point, Champion has become a fully learned adult, knowing how to offer variety & enter territory it may not always have in the past, while being more than happy to indulge in previous obsessions, because there's fun to be had in those still. Similar to how the human body changes with time, resulting in a person having to sometimes change their appearance to accommodate, Shonen Champion has arguably had to change the most compared to its three rivals, whether it was following the flow in the 70s, hitting an unsure period in the 80s, purposefully challenging the status quo in the 90s, gradually transitioning in the 00s, & finally being able to be whatever it wants to be in the 10s.
Why is Jump the Soul of Shonen Manga?
For the last one, this is the easiest the explain, because to many Shonen Jump is the very epitome of the term "shonen". When one thinks of what defines shonen manga, they instantly think of various Jump manga, which in turns means that it alone carries the "Soul". While Sunday & Magazine predate Jump by a solid nine years, it does feel like those two magazines have had to adjust their directions because of what Jump wound up doing. Early on in Jump's life, there were series like Otoko Ippiki Gaki Daisho finding itself not just the standard audience of boys, but also a cadre of girls, and one can never forget the Pandora's Box that Go Nagai opened up with Harenchi Gakuen; there's no way Sunday or Magazine would have dared to be that shameless. Then during the 70s, Jump saw the debuts of series like Team Astro, Ring ni Kakero, Kinnikuman, & Captain Tsubasa (technically an 80s series, but it fits here), which took what was considered the standards of sports manga & threw out the rule book, bringing with it an over-the-top style that excited & attracted readers in new ways. They took what Star of the Gaints & Ashita no Joe had started & went into a new direction, one that would define action in general from then on out, for the most part. Naturally, Jump also offered more standard & realistic fare with the likes of Play Ball & Barefoot Gen, but even those did things differently by running concurrently with another series or by, once again, daring to push beyond people's comfort levels & telling what it was really like after the war, respectively. Similarly, comedies like Dokonjo Gaeru & Kochikame became cornerstones of Japanese pop-culture, in their own right, helping define what a comedy or gag manga was to Japanese youth.
Then we hit the 80s, which immediately hit hard with Dr. Slump, which not only launched the career of Akira Toriyama, but would lead to a TV anime adaptation so successful that Shonen Jump would become the de facto manga magazine to adapt series into anime from, more so than any other magazine. A couple of years later would then see the debut of Fist of the North Star, & later Dragon Ball following Dr. Slump's end, ushering in the "Golden Age of Jump", which propelled the magazine to a level of popularity & national influence that would never be seen again by any manga publication. At this point, one can simply just start listing off series from this era, and you'd likely find something influential about any of them: Saint Seiya, Sakigake!! Otokojuku, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Bastard!!, Rokudenashi Blues, Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken, etc. This would also stretch into the 90s, with series like Slam Dunk, Yu Yu Hakusho, Ninku, Rurouni Kenshin, & Sexy Commando Gaiden maintaining Jump's utter dominance over all. Seriously, think of nearly any mangaka that works in a shonen manga magazine today, and pretty much every single of them will name a Jump manga from the Golden Age (usually Dragon Ball) as their main inspiration for entering the industry. Up until the middle of 1996, Shonen Jump WAS the very definition of shonen manga.
Of course, nothing lasts forever (even Kochikame eventually ended in 2016, after 40 years), and when Dragon Ball &, later, Slam Dunk finished up, Jump's utter & total dominance also came to an end. Still, though, the magazine managed to continue staying relevant, with series like Hoshin Engi, Yu-Gi-Oh!, I"s, Shaman King, & Hunter x Hunter bringing new touches to old concepts, both action & interpersonal, while Hikaru no Go & Prince of Tennis carried on the legacies of pre-Golden Age sports storytelling, both dramatic & over-the-top, to a new generation, leading to a new surge in popularity for things like playing go or competing in tennis, similar to what Slam Dunk had done with basketball. Really, though, Jump's continued relevance can most certainly be attributed to a single series: One Piece by Eiichiro Oda. When the magazine desperately needed a new icon to replace the hole left by Dragon Ball's full-color finale, One Piece came about, and today it's not only the biggest name in the magazine (one could argue it might be more iconic than Dragon Ball in Japan, if not at least eventually), it's the Guiness World Record holder for "Best-Selling Manga"; literally no other manga even approaches how well Oda's series has sold. Combine that with the later debuts of Naruto & Bleach, which gave Shonen Jump the first truly identifiable "Big 3", a concept some have desperately tried to identify again to no avail, and it's obvious that the magazine itself embodies the very motto it espouses: "Frienship, Effort, Victory"; a motto that best defines "Soul".
Since then, Shonen Jump has had its up & downs in terms of readership, though all magazines as a whole have experienced an overall decline with time, its roster has always exemplified the feeling that, though Sunday might have the biggest "Heart" of them all, Magazine is the most willing to use its "Mind", & Champion's "Body" has had to change the most as it got older, Jump's "Soul" is the one that has continued to be felt by the readers the hardest. It's staunch dedication to being what it is has allowed it's rivals to define themselves in the ways that they have, and is why this theory is possible in the first place. Without Shonen Jump pushing buttons & becoming the de facto definition of "shonen" that it became, who knows where we'd be today; after all, what's a life with only heart, mind & body... but no soul?
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Now, of course, there will be specific titles that can act as exceptions to this theory. Jump, for example, has had series like Death Note & The Promised Neverland, which definitely aim to be more "Mind" than "Soul", while super-long-runners like Jump's Kochikame or Champion's Dokaben aim to be more "Heart" in their respective magazines. Sometimes that gives a series an edge compared to other titles it runs alongside, but then you have a series like Togari, which just had no chance of living long in Sunday, as it always had a darker tone to it; happiness was there, but the main character wasn't sure of it, so it rarely truly came to him. However, it can still be stated that each of these series still embody the main aspect of the magazines they come from; in fact, I'd even argue that the covers themselves show it off. Of course, you are free to disagree with any, or all, of this theory I have explained, because that's all this is: My personal thoughts & feelings on this subject, but one that I feel makes the most sense. Whether you're a fan more of Sunday's style, Magazine's modus operandi, Champion's chutzpah, or Jump's jive, it is worth understanding each of their own respective histories & styles, while realizing that they're own legacies are also intertwined, creating some of the most beloved manga of all time.
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