I've celebrated notable anniversaries (i.e. 5s & 0s) for various manga magazines here over the years, whether it's numerous ones regarding Weekly Shonen Jump (wink wink nudge nudge for next month), a singular entry for Monthly Shonen Ace, or even a Theory Musing for the amusingly semi-shared trilogy of Weekly Shonen Sunday, Weekly Shonen Magazine, & Weekly Shonen Champion. However, there's a commonality between all of those, and it's the simple fact that they're all shonen magazines, i.e. they're primarily aimed at adolescent boys, and while titles from those kinds of magazines tend to to be the most popular & appeal to a much wider audience than intended (at least, in concept), there is much, much more to manga than just those kinds of magazines. I will fully admit that something like shojo manga (& anime) is a rather notable hole in the Master List (what can I say other than "I'm can be a bit of a stereotypical guy at times"), so while this piece won't be about the genderal "opposite" of shonen manga in any way, we can at least age things up a bit & take a focused look on a seinen magazine, and how its unique editorial stance has turned it into a bit of a refuge for various mangaka & franchises of old.
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| The left isn't the literal first issue of this magazine's entire history, but it is the first issue that the current issue numbering is connected to. |
In January 1964 publisher Nihon Bungeisha released the very first issue of Manga Goraku Dokuhon (all written in kanji; literally "Comic Entertainment Reader"), a biweekly manga magazine aimed at adults, specifically those in their 30s to 50s. Alongside Weekly Manga Times by Houbunsha (allegedly the first ever weekly manga magazine, launched in November 1956) & the now-defunct Manga Sunday by Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha (launched in August 1959), Manga Goraku Dokuhon was one of the earliest seinen manga magazines ever published in Japan, and in 1968 the title was altered typographically, with "Goraku" now written in katakana & "dokuhon" written in lower case English, before being changed to its current name of Weekly Manga Goraku (kanji-kanji-katakana) in August 1971. However, despite dating back to 1964, which means that it technically turns 60 next year, the actual issue numbers that Goraku currently uses only date back to 1968, i.e. when the magazine had its first (typographical) name change & switched over to a weekly publishing rate, and unlike most other manga magazines doesn't reset its issue numbers every year, so issues that come out right now actually are in the 2,800s! Likewise, Goraku has a long history of allowing series to run for seemingly as long as their creators feel like, resulting in numerous manga that have run for literal decades (Sake no Hosomichi, Edomae no Shun, Tenpai: Mahjong Hiryu Densetsu), some of which are still running to this very day. 1992's Minami no Teioh tops them all at 171 volumes & counting, making it the fourth longest manga of all time by total volume count (third longest for a single series); for context, this is a series about a notorious loan shark who effectively charges an additional 1% interest per day!
However, another aspect of Weekly Manga Goraku has defined the magazine to a notable extent, and that is the editorial policy of welcoming in mangaka & series that were once popular & successful, but eventually "lost their place" (in a sense), whether it's because of a change in magazine or editorial interests elsewhere, readers' tastes changing with the times, or (at least for one instance) the mangaka themselves becoming unwanted by most other publishers because of scandal & controversy. In the end, Nihon Bungeisha's iconic seinen magazine has a history that's like a coin with two faces: One is of the long-running series that have continued on for literal decades, resulting in a variety of stories that have continued to "entertain" readers across generations, while the other is made up of the various series & creators that have been able to make various comebacks over the past half-century+, allowing once-iconic franchises to continue to thrive... and, trust me, some of these have certainly thrived in this magazine! So, to celebrate Weekly Manga Goraku's 55th Anniversary this year (or, at least, the 55th Anniversary as a weekly magazine), let's go over various manga & mangaka that were given new leases on life via this seinen juggernaut & see why Weekly Manga Goraku truly is, in some way, manga's equivalent to The Island of Misfit Toys.
We start things off with what is easily one of the most infamous titles that Weekly Manga Goraku ever decided to give a second home to. In June 1973, Go Nagai was finishing up his year-long run of Devilman in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine, the story of a young man named Akira Fudo who fuses his body & soul with that of a demon (later named Amon) & tries his hardest to protect his friends & family from other demons... only for everything to eventually fall apart & lead to an apocalyptic world war between humankind & demonkind; today, Devilman is considered one of Nagai's greatest works. While not a long series (only five volumes, originally), it hit hard & was a massive success, in part because of the TV anime that aired alongside the manga. though that had its own (more TV friendly) story. Still, with that kind of success it was only natural for Nagai to conceive of a follow up, so one month later in July Nagai debuted his next series for Shonen Magazine, Violence Jack. This took place in a post-apocalyptic version of the Kanto region which was devastated & isolated from the rest of humanity by way of a giant earthquake, which resulted in the region becoming a lawless refuse, one where power & depravity took center stage over anything else, and it was a manga where Go Nagai decided to take the darker themes & tones of Devilman and turn everything up to 11; nothing was seemingly off limits to Nagai. Likely due to how violent & unrepentant the manga could be, Violence Jack came to end (& by that I mean "was possibly cancelled") a little over a year later in September 1974, though Nagai would return to it in Monthly Shonen Magazine from July 1977 to December 1978; these two runs combined totaled seven volumes, which told seven story arcs.
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| This is from a telephone card, but it's still Goraku-labeled. |
A few years later, though, Go Nagai returned to Violence Jack once again, this time in the pages of Weekly Manga Goraku... and this time it wasn't a mere year+ run. From August 1983 to March 1990, Nagai would produce another 31 volumes of Violence Jack (becoming the longest single run in Nagai's entire catalog!), telling an additional 22 story arcs, seemingly continuing off from where the original two Kodansha runs left off at. Over the course of this third run Nagai would even solidify VJ's status as the canon sequel to Devilman, eventually revealing that Jack himself was a reincarnated Akira Fudo & the world VJ took place in was one that God itself had given humanity following the events of Devilman. In other words, God told humanity "You all suck, and you deserve everything I've just given you." In short, if Devilman was Go Nagai making an anti-war story then Violence Jack was Go Nagai wanting to show people just how sick & depraved we can all be when left with nothing but "war" all around us; some try arguing that VJ is nothing but sick & violent nihilism, but Go Nagai has always been much smarter than that. When it came to the three OVA adaptations that gave VJ the infamous notoriety it now has outside of Japan, both the Kodansha & Goraku runs saw representation, with 1990's Hell's Wind coming from Kodansha & 1988's Evil Town coming from Goraku; 1986's Harlem Bomber was an anime-original story. Violence Jack itself would return every now & then in various forms, some simply telling new stories & others re-imagining the series in new ways, but it was through his seven-year-long third run that Nagai himself would find a reliable home with Weekly Manga Goraku. In 1994 he revived his very first serialized manga via Heisei Harenchi Gakuen (which would later receive a hentai anime adaptation), and then in 2013 Nagai would make Dororo & Enma-kun, a two-volume crossover between his Dororon Enma-kun & Osamu Tezuka's Dororo. Finally, though not related to this piece's focus on "revived manga", Weekly Manga Goraku would also be the home of Go Nagai's four-part Gekiman series during the 2010s, which across a total 15 volumes would tell fictionalized accounts of the creations of Devilman, Mazinger Z, Cutie Honey, & Great Mazinger.
Up next we have a manga writer who today is known as possibly one of the greatest of all time, but was also one of the most notorious: Ikki Kajiwara. Simply put, Kajiwara (a.k.a. Asao Takamori; real name Asaki Takamori) is likely the most important manga creator who never actually drew a single image, as he was the writer behind so many popular & influential manga, from Star of the Giants to Ashita no Joe/Tomorrow's Joe to Tiger Mask to Karate Master/Karate Baka Ichidai, and so on. If there's something you love about modern day manga storytelling, especially those in sports stories, it's without a doubt because it pays homage & adherence to what Kajiwara wrote back in the 60s & 70s for the variety of artists he worked with to draw; he's arguably up there with Osamu Tezuka in how far reaching his influence still is. For all intents & purposes, Ikki Kajiwara was an untouchable god among men... until May 25, 1983. On that day, Kajiwara was arrested for assaulting Toshikazu Iijima, deputy editor at Monthly Shonen Magazine, with the arrest then bringing to light other incidents that had previously occurred but were initially not reported, including one with pro wrestler Antonio Inoki & a violent gang, an attempted assault of a hostess at a club in Akasaka, & even blackmailing Gojin Khan 100,000 yen over ghost writing a pro wrestling manga; police even suspected Kajiwara of giving cannabis to actor/singer Kenichi Hagiwara. After two months in detainment Kajiwara was released on bail, only to then fall ill with a case of pancreatitis so harsh, & combined with his history of alcoholism & overeating, that doctors actually told him he only had "two hours left to live". While Kajiwara somehow managed to survive that medical ordeal, the arrest & subsequent mass media reporting of his various scandals effectively killed his career in manga, with all of the various series he was writing at the time being immediately cancelled; he did move into prose writing for a little bit, though under a new pseudonym, Ato Masaki.
However, in mid-1985, Kajiwara made a return to manga by way of Nihon Bungeisha & Weekly Manga Goraku, with the claim that this new series, Ikki Jinsei Gekijo: Otoko no Seiza/Ikki Life Theater: The Constellation of a Man (with art by Kunichika Harada), would be Kajiwara's "retirement work". Otoko no Seiza was an autobiographical manga, though with the names of Kajiwara & his family now changed (like "Itta Kaji", instead of Ikki Kajiwara), with Kajiwara going into detail about his childhood in the first half, which included a "Higo Mokkosu" father (i.e. stubborn & uncompromising to an absurd degree) & his own penchant for getting into fights & having a short fuse of a temper, while the latter half then went into his relationship with people like Mas Oyama, who in real life he had soured with immensely by that point. While he had done autobiographical manga before with 1968's Otoko no Joken/A Man's Conditions in Shonen Jump, which was about making manga, Otoko no Seiza looked to be Ikki Kajiwara bearing his soul to readers, possibly in an attempt to explain his faults that led to his public downfall a couple of years prior (if not even try to redeem himself), but unfortunately Kajiwara would never be able to finish the series. On January 21, 1987, Ikki Kajiwara fell ill & would later pass away at the age of 50, leaving Otoko no Seiza unfinished after nine volumes, despite Kajiwara promising a special message to Oyama at the end; Oyama himself would later lament how he & Kajiwara never properly reconciled their old friendship. One last chapter would come out on February 13, three weeks after Kajiwara's death, while the final volume of the original Goraku-labeled tankouban release included a bonus story, Saraba Aniki/Farewell, Brother by Hisao Maki (writer of Waru, & Kajiwara's little brother), while a postscript written by Maki revealed that Kajiwara actually wished for a sequel to be made, but Maki felt doing so would disrespect his brother's memory, as it was the story of his own life.
In the end, Otoko no Seiza did little to really improve Ikki Kajiwara's reputation with the Japanese populace at the time, and it wouldn't be until 1994, following a retrospective book written by author Ei Takatori, that Kajiwara would start to get any sort of re-evaluation as a manga writer, leading to the current veneration of Kajiwara as an author; if anything, think of him as manga's equivalent to H.P. Lovecraft. Make no mistake, Ikki Kajiwara the man was (for all intents & purposes) a violent jerk, though one that was formed by what seemed to be an uncompromising & rough upbringing; Hisao Maki even admitted that his older brother was the "co-creation" of both sides of their family, for good & bad. However, Ikki Kajiwara the manga writer remains one of the most important & influential people in manga history, and while one can argue over whether Nihon Bungeisha's decision to give him one last chance was the "right" one, at least Kajiwara took that final chance to do something different & seemingly responsible, though I guess one could also call it egotism, as well. Kajiwara did also debut two other manga with other publishers after starting Otoko no Seiza, 1985's Hiko Densetsu & 1986's Piston Horiguchi Monogatari, but neither have the relevance & personal history of Kajiwara's "retirement work".
Getting his start in the industry as an assistant to the legendary Hiroshi Motomiya, Yoshihiro Takahashi (no seeming relation to either Yoichi or Rumiko) would see his first notable success as a mangaka in 1976 with Akutare Giants/The Rowdy Giants in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump, a baseball manga that'd run until 1980 for 22 volumes, though today it's essentially forgotten with time. The reason for Takahashi's first major work becoming so unknown today comes down to what he'd become best known for: Manga about dogs that fight. His first series featuring this general concept was Monthly Shonen Jump's Shiroi Senshi Yamato/Yamato, The White Warrior (which is about dog fighting as a sport), which actually debuted more or less alongside Akutare Giants & would run on & off until 1989 for 26 volumes(!), but it was the debut of Ginga -Nagareboshi Gin-/Silver Fang -Gin, The Shooting Star- in Weekly Jump in late 1983 that truly started Takahashi's notoriety with dogs, particularly those in his home prefecture of Akita. Though only running for 164 weekly chapters across 18 volumes & ending in early 1987, compared to Akutare Giants' 204 weekly chapters or even Yamato's length, Gin would far & away become the more iconic & popular Jump manga from Takahashi, even receiving a TV anime adaptation by Toei in 1986 that ran for 21 episodes; interestingly enough, the Gin anime would become wildly popular in Scandinavia. Following the end of Gin, Takahashi would continue to make manga, some of which continued his love of dogs, but none would really become major hits... until 1999.
Likely seeing the almost instant success & popularity that Yudetamago saw when they debuted Kinnikuman II-Sei roughly a year prior, Yoshihiro Takahashi decided to return to the "Ginga" world in 1999, teaming with Weekly Manga Goraku to debut Ginga Legend Weed, a next-generation sequel that starred the titular pup son of Gin as he journeys his way through the Japanese Alps in search of his legendary father, making friends & foes along the way; also, just to clarify, Weed himself is NOT named after cannabis. Weed would be one of the earliest entrants in the "revival manga boom" of the 00s, which saw many old classics receive sequels about the next generation, and being such an early entry is likely what helped make it so popular in Goraku. How popular, you ask? Well, Takahashi would continue to make Weed for a solid decade before finally ending in mid-2009... after 60 volumes(!), of which only three ever saw official English release in the early 00s, via ComicsOne. Weed even received its own TV anime adaptation (this time by Studio Deen) in late 2005, and naturally that too saw release in Scandanavia; it also has an all-time greatest OP theme you've likely never heard. If you thought that was more than enough, though, then you don't know Yoshihiro Takahashi at all, because Weed was just the beginning of the Ginga Series' modern-day life! After finishing Weed, Takahashi would then debut Ginga Legend Weed: Orion, which starred Weed's four children (though primarily his titular second pup), just a month later & would run until 2014 for another 30 volumes. Then, after that, Takahashi debuted another sequel a year later, 2015's Ginga: The Last Wars (which details a seeming final battle between the dogs & bears, which had been a common theme all throughout), which ran until 2019 for another 22 volumes. Then, just two months later, Takahashi would debut yet another sequel, Ginga Legend Noah (which features a dog who isn't related to Gin or Weed, though Orion is still around), which ran until mid-2022 for another 17 volumes; also, during the run of Weed, Takahashi also made 2002's Ginga Legend Riki, a single-volume prequel about Gin's father. Taken altogether, the main Ginga Series (Gin, Weed, Orion, The Last Wars, & Noah) total a whopping 147 volumes of manga (~41% of which is just Ginga Legend Weed), which is not including the various side stories & spin-offs (like Riki), & has sold millions upon millions of books in Japan; in fact, Weed alone sold over 20 million! While Takahashi looks to currently be on a hiatus from it, I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually returns to the world of Gin the Akita Inu & his descendants at some point or another... and Weekly Manga Goraku will most certainly play home to it once again.
Though Weekly Manga Goraku had been known for welcoming in mangaka & series that had once been big deals since at least the 80s, it seemingly wouldn't be until the mid-00s & beyond that this policy truly started seeing more & more use. While Yoshihiro Takahashi was still serializing Ginga Legend Weed by this point, this movement would truly get started in 2006 when Shinji Hiramatsu joined the magazine. Getting his start as an assistant to Norihiro Nakajima for the wild & insane baseball manga Team Astro during the mid-70s, Hiramatsu would see his first success when he drew the art for 1975's Doberman Cop, a manga written by Buronson that was essentially Shonen Jump's take on Dirty Harry. After that ended in 1979, Hiramatsu would then make his name with manga (mostly) focused on assassins fighting all manner of evildoers, with his two most iconic works in that regard being 1981's Black Angels in Shonen Jump & 1988's Murder License Kiba in Super Jump. Following the end of Kiba in 1994, Hiramatsu would continue making manga in his own iconic style, though the only one that actually found any momentum was the aptly titled Murder License Kiba & Black Angels, a crossover between both series that ran in Super Jump from 1998 to 2004 across 13 volumes. To put it simply, Shinji Hiramatsu has a very particular style of story that he loves to tell... and there's nothing wrong with that here, to be perfectly honest.
This brings us to 2006, when Hiramatsu debuted a new series in the pages of Weekly Manga Goraku, Gedoubou/Heretic Monk; it was Hiramatsu's first weekly manga since the short-lived baseball series Kirara in 1986. Similar to his prior hit manga, Gedoubou starred a monk who strays off the path of Buddha so as to deliver justice in ways that he never could as a standard monk, with his ability to see into the past lives of people helping him out. After two years & six volumes, though, Hiramatsu decided to continue the series, though under a new name: 2008's Gedoubou & Murder License Kiba. Yes, just as he had done a decade prior, Hiramatsu created a new crossover series that brought together the titular "Gedou" with Yuji Kiba & his "Muscle Control" ability, which allows Kiba to change his physical appearance, usually taking the form of a woman to fool his foes. In fact, the final chapter of this second series in 2009 even brought in Yoji Yukito, the main character of Black Angels, uniting all three of Hiramatsu's similarly styled heroes together for the first (&, to my knowledge, only) time! This wouldn't be the only time Shinji Hiramatsu would bring back his old faves via Goraku, though, as he later reunited with Buronson for 2012's New Doberman Cop, though this only lasted for two volumes, compared to the original's 29. Hiramatsu would also revive Black Angels in some way in the pages of Bessatsu Manga Goraku with 2010's The Matsuda - Black Angels, but that's not the weekly magazine. Today, Shinji Hiramatsu is currently making Oedo Black Angels, which started up in 2022 in the pages of Leed's Comic Ran magazine & is a reboot of the series done as a period piece.
We've so far covered a bunch of manga that one would call "manly" to various extents, and that's understandable seeing as Weekly Manga Goraku is a seinen magazine aimed at older men, but there's more to "men's manga", just as there is with any other demographic. So up next we move over to the mangaka known only as U-Jin (as in "yujin/playboy"), who has made their name over the decades making lewd & pornographic manga, so much so that it even got U-Jin into trouble with one specific work, 1988's Angel. Originally debuting in the pages of the now-defunct Weekly Young Sunday under the full title Angel: Highschool Sexual Bad Boys & Girls Story, U-Jin made a gag manga about Kosuke Atami, a high school student who would find himself in various situations that usually resulted in him having sex with a woman of some sort, all while Atami was simply trying to help people out with their problems. However, in 1990 Angel wound up being deemed a "harmful book" in various municipalities, and the controversy behind its sexual content (even for a seinen manga) eventually resulted in Shogakukan cancelling the entire series in 1991 after three volumes, though they did initially try to continue it with reduced sexual content & an altered subtitle (Delight Slight Light Kiss Story; say that five times fast!). Angel would then get picked up by Cybele Publishing in 1993, which allowed U-Jin to finish the series with a total of seven volumes (technically, as Cybele's books had fewer overall pages than Shogakukan's), though the brand new content was only published via tankouban.
After finishing Angel, U-Jin would continue making the kind of manga he was known for, with some receiving OVA adaptations, such as Sakura Diaries, Vixens (a.k.a. Visionary), & Private Psycho Lesson; Angel had also received its own OVA adaptations, as well. Eventually, U-Jin decided to return to the work that truly made him a name by reviving Angel in the pages of Weekly Manga Goraku in 2006. Titled Angel: the women whom delivery host Kosuke Atami healed, this was a full-on sequel that starred a 34-year old Atami, now divorced & making a living as a business trip host (i.e. a "Rent-a-Boyfriend for Women on Business Trips"), continuing to "help" people in his own unique style... and by that I mean banging women. While this new Angel was apparently written with a more "delicate touch" than before, I imagine the ever changing definition of what's "indecent" or "harmful" over time is what allowed U-Jin to make this sequel with pretty much no controversy at all, and in 2008 he even continued it with Angel Season II (the subtitle remained the same), before finally ending it all in 2010; each half of this sequel lasted five volumes. Still, I think it's already starting to be seen just how varied, wild, and even a little weird Weekly Manga Goraku could be during this time, as a single issue could contain the adventures of a notorious loan shark, the tale of wild dogs roaming about the Japanese wilderness, a "heretic monk" & gender-swapping assassin taking out evil... and a divorced man who can't help but want to continually have sex with women.
For the final three entries we're going to see a common theme between them: Reviving Old Shonen Jump Properties! Yes, while the Ginga Series' revival happened first, it would take another decade for the idea of Weekly Manga Goraku becoming the de facto old folks home for Jump classics to truly become established. Running from 1988 to 1990 for 109 weekly chapters across 12 volumes, Kami-sama wa Southpaw/God is a Southpaw by Shinji Imaizumi would wind up being the last real "straight-up" boxing manga (i.e. the boxing is the primary focus, not just an aspect) to appear in the pages of Shonen Jump until the debut of Do Retry in 2023. It told the story of Dan Hayasaka, the monastery-raised son of a boxer who moves to Japan to fulfill his deceased father's dreams, with Dan then meeting Akira & Misuzu Inoue, the children of the rival to Dan's father (who had also passed since then), with Dan & Akira becoming friendly rivals as they both rose up the boxing ranks; this essentially made them the inverse of Ryuji Takane & Jun Kenzaki from Ring ni Kakero. Following the end of this series, Imaizumi would continue making manga, eventually moving from shonen manga to seinen manga & increasing the detail in his work, but the only one that seemed to find any real staying power was 2001's Replay J in Shinchosha's Weekly Comic Bunch, a re-imagining of the late Ken Grimwood's 1986 novel Replay, about a man who continually "replays" the last few decades of his life, but this time taking place in Japan with a different lead; it ran until 2004 for 12 volumes.
Sometime in 2009, Imaizumi decided to return to his biggest hit via Weekly Manga Goraku with Kami-sama wa Southpaw Diamond, a series that would only run for a year & last three volumes. Technically, Diamond is a sequel to the original manga, but only really in that it takes place in the same world as the original & features Ren Hayasaka, the son of Dan (As in "Rendan/Barrage [of Punches]"... Get it?), in a secondary role as the seemingly undefeatable Japanese Featherweight Champion. Instead, the series focuses on Go Kaneishi, a courier who's essentially tricked into becoming a boxer by the eponymous head of the BOX Toramaru Gym, only to discover that he has excellent potential, even defeating the prodigal up-&-comer Akira Mizuki during his Pro Test; so now Imaizumi was taking some influence from Hajime no Ippo, I see. At just three volumes I can't really tell if Imaizumi intended for Kami-sama wa Southpaw Diamond to be that short or if he simply ended it early (Replay J was apparently finished early due to Imaizumi's health interfering with his detailed drawing style), but regardless it's cool to see him return to an old hit of his in a way that still makes it appealing for newcomers, and it wouldn't even be the last time he'd do such a thing with Nihon Bungeisha. In early 2017, Imaizumi would revive his first serialized manga from Jump, 1986 gymnastics series Sora no Canvas, in the digital "pages" of Goraku Egg, by way of the complete remake VIVA!! Sora no Canvas, though it seemingly only ever saw one chapter made; it's possible Imaizumi's medical condition has prevented him from doing more.
Second in our "Reviving Old Shonen Jump Properties" mini-series is an interesting example where Weekly Manga Goraku was actually the second home for a manga, out of a total four, but it spent a good while in this magazine, nonetheless. In North America, mangaka Makoto Niwano is known for two manga in particular, as they're the only ones of his to ever see official English release: 1993's Bomber Girl (released by Gutsoon as part of Raijin Comics) & 2005's manga adaptation of Emily Rodda's Deltora Quest series of children's books (released by Kodansha Comics). In Japan, though, he's known more for his various manga based around martial arts, one of which being Jinnai-ryu Jiujutsu Butouden: Majima-kun, Suttobasu!!/Jinnai-Style Jiujutsu Fighting Tale: Majima, Go Straight!!, which ran in Shonen Jump from 1995 to 1998 for 140 weekly chapters across 15 volumes. It followed the life of Rei Majima, who worked to increase his skills & the effectiveness of his lineage's Jinnai-Style Jiujutsu by taking on anyone who fought with a differing style from his. Following one more (short-lived) series in Jump in 1998, though, Niwano ended his 12-year run with the magazine (1987 to 1998) & moved on to other magazines. One thing Niwano did not hesitate to do, in particular, was revive his old series with new entries, whether it was creating two sequels to Bomber Girl (2001's Crush! & 2004's XXX), 2004's The Momotaroh Part 2, or even making a crossover in the form of 2007's Momotaroh vs. Rei Majima.
This then leads us to the subject relevant to this overview, Jinnai-ryu Jiujutsu Rurouden: Majima, Bazeru!!/Jinnai-Style Jiujutsu Wandering Tale: Majima, Burst Forth!!. However, unlike most of the entries we've seen here, this manga is more like Violence Jack in that it actually didn't first start in Weekly Manga Goraku. Instead, Majima, Bazeru!! was one of the series to appear in the debut issue of Nihon Bungeisha's Comic Break magazine in April 2009, which replaced Manga Goraku Carnival. Unfortunately, Comic Break was an extremely short-lived magazine, only lasting seven issues before shutting down later that October. Luckily for Niwano, the decision was made to move Majima, Bazeru!!, which took place six years after Majima, Suttobasu!! & featured more of a mystery aspect to it, to the pages of Weekly Manga Goraku, re-debuting the following month, in November. However, it's with Weekly Goraku where this sequel would see the majority of its existence, as it wouldn't be until 2014 that Majima, Bazeru!! got moved a second time, this time to Bessatsu Manga Goraku... until that wound up getting shut down at the end of that very same year; that's now two different magazines that died mere months after Majima, Bazeru!! debuted in them, so I think it may be cursed. Luckily, though, Niwano would be able to continue the sequel manga via the online Goraku Egg, before finally ending in April of 2021 after 21 volumes, outliving the original series by six volumes; however, it is worth pointing out that there was a four-year gap between the tankouban for Volumes 20 & 21. As "cursed" as I jokingly said this series was, it is nice that Makoto Niwano was at least able to finish it up on his own terms.
Our "Reviving Old Shonen Jump Properties" mini-series, & this massive overview in general, ends with what is easily the second most iconic example of Weekly Manga Goraku becoming the home for a revived franchise, following the Ginga Series... and, coincidentally enough, the two have a minor relation. Namely, Akira Miyashita got his start in the manga industry as an assistant to Yoshihiro Takahashi, most notably on Shiroi Senshi Yamato, in which Miyashita had a bad habit of drawing spectators as though they looked like yakuza, which required redrawing. That really best described Miyashita in a nutshell, as his debut work was 1979's Shiritsu Kiwamemichi Koukou/Private Extreme Path High School in Weekly Shonen Jump, a comedic action series which focused on a school that would train people to become proper yakuza, with the kanji for "kiwamemichi" actually being the one for "gokudo", the word for a lower ranking member of a yakuza family. The series only lasted 42 weekly chapters before ending in 1980, though this wasn't because of a lack of popularity. Instead, Miyashita was found to have used the names & emblems of five real-world junior high schools without permission, and four characters were likewise named after actual graduates (old classmates of one of his assistants, apparently), which naturally resulted in some controversy; in fact, the entire manga wouldn't even be compiled into book form until 2012, with the controversial bits simply being blacked out. Miyashita would later carry over some Kiwamemichi characters into his next series, 1980's Geki!! Gokutora Ikka, and after becoming a more successful mangaka over the years would eventually revive his debut work in Weekly Manga Goraku with Shiritsu Kiwamemichi Koukou 2011 (guess which year it debuted in...), which ran irregularly for a little over a year & finished in 2012 after three volumes.
However, the real focus for us is on what Miyashita would make next for Weekly Manga Goraku, which itself needs a little backstory. After ending Geki!! Gokutora Ikka in 1982, Miyashita wouldn't see his next major work until 1985 when he debuted Sakigake!! Otoko Juku/Charge!! Men's School in Shonen Jump. This took a similar concept as Kiwamemichi, but instead of being a school to train yakuza, Otoko Juku was a school for the seemingly worst delinquents in all of Japan, with the extreme regimen & harsh teaching meant to turn them into upstanding members of society who will lead Japan into the future... which also allowed Miyashita to essentially poke fun at his own style (& "manly" manga, in general), turning it into part comedic parody, part serious action. This resulted in Miyashita's most popular manga ever, one that he'd make until 1991 across 313 chapters & 34 volumes, plus a TV anime adaptation by Toei in 1988. Miyashita would even return to it in 2001 with Akatsuki!! Otoko Juku: Seinen yo, Taishi wo Idake/Daybreak!! Men's School: Young Men, Embrace the Sweet Death, a next-gen sequel starring the children of the original cast that ran in Super Jump until 2010 for 25 volumes. Following that, Miyashita would make Kiwamemichi 2011, as mentioned, but after finishing that he'd eventually return to Goraku in 2014 (to help celebrate the magazine's 50's Anniversary) with Goku!! Otoko Juku/Extreme!! Men's School, which fully established both Kiwamemichi & Otoko Juku as taking place in the same universe, as characters from both franchises united to take on the Susano-o, a literal invading alien force; if you couldn't tell already, Miyashita likes to have fun. After finishing up that series in 2016 after eight volumes, Miyashita would then follow it up a month later with the debut of Shin!! Otoko Juku/True!! Men's School, a prequel detailing the early days of the titular school after it was first established, essentially acting as a sequel to 2003's Tenka Musou: Edajima Heihachi-den, a 10-volume series which covered the early life of the titular headmaster of Otoko Juku; Shin!! Otoko Juku would run until 2019, totaling six volumes.
All that being said, though, this is merely just what ran in Weekly Manga Goraku itself, as the Otoko Juku franchise has become a major one for Nihon Bungeisha, in general. Ever since 2014, a wide variety of spin-off & side story manga series have seen serialized in places like Bessatsu Manga Goraku, Manga Goraku Special, Goraku Egg, & Manga TOP, though these are all done by other people, with Miyashita only acting in an advisory role, similar to the various Saint Seiya spin-off manga that exist. Still, it is interesting how Yoshihiro Takahashi's Ginga Series has essentially become the top dog (pun fully intended) of Goraku's history of revived franchises, while his old former assistant is right behind him with Otoko Juku, backing him up like he used to... and this time Miyashita can make anyone look like a yazkua without worry!
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And after all of that I think we should stop. I'm sure there are likely a couple of other examples of old manga being revived within the pages of Weekly Manga Goraku that I missed, but I think I showcased the point more than enough. While certainly not the only publication to feature numerous sequels or revivals of old faves, as Shueisha also partook in the practice with both Super Jump & Weekly Playboy, Nihon Bungeisha's iconic seinen magazine definitely is the one that has rolled with it for the longest & essentially prides itself on doing so. I joked by calling it an "old folks home", especially once it become much more prominent in the 00s & beyond, but I am honestly happy to see that there is a place out there in the manga industry where old legends can continue to make what they want to make, seemingly without threat of cancellation, and sometimes even thrive by giving their once hot properties a chance to continue on unabated.
Whether it's Go Nagai having his longest single run with a manga, Ikki Kajiwara being allowed a chance to end on his own terms (& maybe even explain his unfortunate actions), Yoshihiro Takahashi turning his love of dogs into a true self-sustaining legacy, Shinji Hiramatsu creating a new legacy to crossover with those of his past, U-Jin continuing his love of lewdness & sexuality, Shinji Imazumi reviving an old hit in a new way, Makoto Niwano showing a new angle to what he does best, or Akira Miyashita revealing just how interconnected all of his manga truly can be, Weekly Manga Goraku has been manga's Island of Misfit Toys, and may it continue to be so for the rest of its days.
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