The JManga 13: The Publishers & Potential Manga Part 2

[2017 ADDENDUM: As with Part 1, since this list's creation, JManga had died out, making this list effectively pointless. Still, it shall stay here for posterity's sake, as well as for the sake of the manga I mentioned.]

Seven down, another six to go... And this list is where we get to the "heavy-hitters" of the manga industry. So let's not waste time and here's Part 2!

Shinchosha [Naikaku Kenryoku Hanzai Kyousei Torishimarikan Zaizen Jotaro]
Shinchosha isn't exactly a big name in the industry as a whole, but they have their place in the seinen manga industry, as they were the company that teamed with Coamix for the now-defunct Comic Bunch magazine. Titles like Fist of the Blue Sky (the Fist of the North Star prequel), Angel Heart (the alternate-universe City Hunter sequel), and whole slew of titles aimed at older audiences, especially those who loved the 80s era of manly manga. I've reviewed the Zaizen Jotaro anime, which I still feel is a highly-underrated title due to its horrible first episode, and I would love to be able to read the original 17-volume manga the anime adapted from; I've since found out that the story the anime adapts is the second story arc in the manga. Who knows what kind of other cases Zaizen tackles... I really want to know! And since JManga loves doing quirky manga about very nontraditional topics, Zaizen Jotaro would be a perfect fit for them.

The JManga 13: The Publishers & Potential Manga Part 1

[2017 ADDENDUM: Since this list's creation, JManga had died out, making this list effectively pointless. Still, it shall stay here for posterity's sake, as well as for the sake of the manga I mentioned.]

I've already talked about online manga portal JManga before when I reviewed 60s manga Devil King by Takao Saito, and how the site's variety of titles that have never been brought over before is its greatest asset. This time, though, I'll be talking about the potential this portal has, because there are 39 different Japanese publishers involved with JManga. Now, I can't really talk about all 39 publishers, but I can at least bring up 13 of them, as well as mention a title or two (or three, in some cases) that I personally wouldn't mind seeing made available on JManga. Just like my "Twelve Animes" lists, this will be split up across two parts, so with all of that explained, let's take a look at what I call "The JManga 13".

Akita Shoten [Giant Robo: Chikyuu no Moetsukiru Hi & Giant Robo: Babel no Roujou]
When it comes to pushing boundaries, Akita Shoten is one of the most notorious. Weekly Shonen Champion magazine has been the home of titles like Baron Gong Battle, Kakugo no Susume (a.k.a. Apocalypse Zero), Eiken, and the Grappler Baki series, all of which have either enough violence or extreme fanservice (in Eiken's case) to make foreign manga fans think "This is for young boys?!" Akita Shoten's catalog is filled with all sorts of titles, but what I'd love to see on JManga is actually a reboot of a fairly beloved 90s mecha OVA: Giant Robo. I've brought up the Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still anime before on the site, and I personally can see why it's so well-loved: It's technically a mech anime, but the real stars are the crazy super-powered humans who are fighting on both sides. Unfortunately, Giant Robo took nearly the entire decade to be fully released, and we end up finding out that it was actually not the entire story. Well, in 2006, director Yasuhiro Imagawa decided to reboot Giant Robo in manga form by teaming up with artist Yasunari Toda (S-cry-ed [manga], Gundam Seed Astray R), creating Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Burned. The manga lasted 9 volumes, and with the end of that manga came the very interesting news that Giant Robo's story would finally be continued in manga form, as last year was the debut of sequel manga Giant Robo: The Siege of Babel, which is still being serialized. It seems no manga company will ever pick up these Giant Robo manga (Ed Chavez of Vertical outright told me that he'd never license it, even if they had access to Akita Shoten's catalog), so I can only hope that JManga will be the home for Giant Robo in English.