Weekly Shōnen Sunday
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![]() 1984 Vol. 40 featuring Urusei Yatsura on the cover. | |
Editor | Takenori Ichihara |
---|---|
Former editors | Yu Torimitsu |
Categories | Shōnen manga[1][2] |
Frequency | Weekly |
Circulation | 302,167 (March 2018)[2] |
First issue | March 17, 1959 |
Company | Shogakukan |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Website | Web Sunday |
Weekly Shōnen Sunday (Japanese: 週刊少年サンデー, Hepburn: Shūkan Shōnen Sandē) is a weekly shōnen manga magazine published in Japan by Shogakukan since March 1959. Contrary to its title, Weekly Shōnen Sunday issues are released on Wednesdays. Weekly Shōnen Sunday has sold over 1.8 billion copies since 1986, making it the fourth best selling manga magazine, only behind Weekly Shōnen Jump, Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Weekly Young Jump.
History[]
Weekly Shōnen Sunday was first published on March 17, 1959, as a response to its rival Weekly Shōnen Magazine.[3][4] The debut issue featured Shigeo Nagashima, the star player of the Yomiuri Giants on the cover, and a congratulatory article by Isoko Hatano, a noted child psychologist.
Despite its name, Weekly Shōnen Sunday was originally published on Tuesdays of each week, switching to Wednesdays in 2011. The "Sunday" in the name was the creation of its first editor, Kiichi Toyoda, who wanted the title to be evocative of a relaxing weekend.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8d/Shonen_Sunday_mascot.svg/220px-Shonen_Sunday_mascot.svg.png)
Weekly Shōnen Sunday's distinctive "pointing finger" that appears in the lower corner of every page on the left side of the magazine made its subtle debut in the 4/5 issue from 1969. This understated feature, ever present but easily overlooked, was referenced as a plot element in 20th Century Boys. Sunday's more noticeable mascot, a helmeted fish debuted in the 1980s.
Prior to the 1990s and 2000s no serial in Weekly Shōnen Sunday had run over 40 volumes, but that began to change with series such as Detective Conan, Major, Inuyasha, Karakuri Circus, Shijō Saikyō no Deshi Kenichi, Hayate the Combat Butler, Zettai Karen Children and Be Blues!, which maintained a high level of popularity.
In a rare event due to the closeness of the two magazine's founding dates, Weekly Shōnen Sunday and Weekly Shōnen Magazine released a special combined issue on March 19, 2008.[5] In addition, other commemorative events, merchandise, and manga crossovers were planned for the following year as part of the celebrations.[4] The book Shonen Sunday 1983 was published on July 15, 2009 to celebrate the anniversary and the magazines heyday. It reprints manga from 1983, such as Urusei Yatsura and Touch, and has interviews with their creators as well as artists who were inspired by the series from that period, such as Gosho Aoyama.[6]
To celebrate Weekly Shōnen Sunday's 55th anniversary, 55 new manga series were launched in the print and online magazines Weekly Shonen Sunday, Shōnen Sunday S, Ura Sunday, and Club Sunday throughout the year beginning in March 2014.[7]
Features[]
Series[]
There are currently 26 manga titles being serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. Out of them, Ad Astra per Aspera is on hiatus, Magic Kaito is infrequently published, and Case Closed and Detective Conan: Zero's Tea Time are serialized on an irregular basis.
Series title | Author | Premiered |
---|---|---|
Ad Astra per Aspera (アド アストラ ペル アスペラ, Ado Asutora peru Asupera) | Kenjiro Hata | September 2015 |
Aozakura: Bōei Daigakukō Monogatari (あおざくら 防衛大学校物語) | Hikaru Nikaidō | April 2016 |
Arata: The Legend (アラタ カンガタリ〜革神語〜, Arata Kangatari) | Yū Watase | October 2008 |
Ariadne in the Blue Sky (蒼穹のアリアドネ, Sōkyū no Ariadone) | Norihiro Yagi | December 2017 |
Be Blues! - Ao ni Nare (BE BLUES!〜青になれ〜) | Motoyuki Tanaka | January 2011 |
Bilocators (バイロケーターズ, Bairokētāzu) | Kyōsuke Tanabe | April 2021 |
Call of the Night (よふかしのうた, Yofukashi no Uta) | Kotoyama | August 2019 |
Case Closed (名探偵コナン, Meitantei Konan) | Gosho Aoyama | January 1994 |
Daiku no Hatō (第九の波濤) | Michiteru Kusaba | April 2017 |
Detective Conan: Zero's Tea Time (名探偵コナン ゼロの日常, Meitantei Konan: Zero no Nichijō) | Takahiro Arai, Gosho Aoyama | May 2018 |
Fly Me to the Moon (トニカクカワイイ, Tonikaku Kawaii) | Kenjiro Hata | February 2018 |
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (葬送のフリーレン, Sōsō no Frieren) | Kanehito Yamada, Tsukasa Abe | April 2020 |
Gifu no Prism (義父のプリズム, Gifu no Purizumu) | Yutaka | September 2021 |
Hajime Rabukome Ogabebe (はじめラブコメ オガベベ) | Okiraku Boy | August 2021 |
Hoankan Evans no Uso: Dead or Love (保安官エヴァンスの嘘~DEAD OR LOVE~) | Mizuki Kuriyama | April 2017 |
Kakeautsukihi (かけあうつきひ) | Sei Fukui | May 2021 |
Kimi wa 008 (君は008) | Syun Matsuena | February 2018 |
Komi Can't Communicate (古見さんは、コミュ症です。, Komi-san wa, Komyu-shō desu.) | Tomohito Oda | May 2016 |
Magic Kaito (まじっく快斗, Majikku Kaito) | Gosho Aoyama | June 1987 |
Maiko-san chi no Makanai-san (舞妓さんちのまかないさん) | Aiko Koyama | December 2016 |
Major 2nd | Takuya Mitsuda | March 2015 |
Mao | Rumiko Takahashi | May 2019 |
Ryū to Ichigo (龍と苺) | Yanamoto Mitsuharu | May 2020 |
Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle (魔王城でおやすみ, Maōjō de Oyasumi) | Kagiji Kumanomata | May 2016 |
Tokachi Hitoribocchi Nōen (十勝ひとりぼっち農園) | Yūji Yokoyama | November 2017 |
Yōkai Giga (妖怪ギガ) | Satsuki Satō | April 2017 |
Circulation[]
Year / Period | Weekly circulation | Magazine sales | Sales revenue (est.) | Issue price |
---|---|---|---|---|
1986 | 1,600,000[8] | 83,200,000[8] | ¥14,976,000,000 | ¥180[9] |
1987 | 1,300,000[8] | 67,600,000[8] | ¥12,168,000,000 | |
1988 | 1,300,000[8] | 67,600,000[8] | ¥12,168,000,000 | |
1989 | 1,400,000[8] | 72,800,000[8] | ¥13,104,000,000 | |
1990 | 1,350,000[8] | 70,200,000[8] | ¥12,636,000,000 | |
1991 | 1,350,000[8] | 70,200,000[8] | ¥12,636,000,000 | |
1992 | 1,350,000[8] | 70,200,000[8] | ¥13,338,000,000 | ¥190[9] |
1993 | 1,270,000[8] | 66,040,000[8] | ¥12,547,600,000 | |
1994 | 1,270,000[8] | 66,040,000[8] | ¥13,868,400,000 | ¥210[9] |
1995 | 1,400,000[8] | 72,800,000[8] | ¥15,288,000,000 | |
1996 | 1,530,000[8] | 79,560,000[8] | ¥21,481,200,000 | ¥270[10] |
1997 | 1,650,000[8] | 85,800,000[8] | ¥23,166,000,000 | |
1998 | 1,700,000[8] | 88,400,000[8] | ¥23,868,000,000 | |
1999 | 1,630,000[8] | 84,760,000[8] | ¥22,885,200,000 | |
2000 | 2,020,000 | 105,040,000[8] | ¥28,360,800,000 | |
2001 | 1,500,000[8] | 78,000,000[8] | ¥21,060,000,000 | |
2002 | 1,530,000 | 79,560,000 | ¥21,481,200,000 | |
2003 | 1,310,000 | 68,120,000 | ¥18,392,400,000 | |
2004 | 1,160,913[11] | 60,367,476[11] | ¥16,299,218,520 | |
2005 | 1,068,265[11] | 55,549,780[11] | ¥14,998,440,600 | |
January 2006 to August 2006 | 1,003,708[11] | 34,795,211[11] | ¥9,394,706,970 | |
September 2006 to December 2006 | 1,010,000 | 17,506,667 | ¥4,726,800,090 | |
2007 | 940,000 | 48,880,000 | ¥13,197,600,000 | |
2008 | 873,438[12] | 45,418,776[12] | ¥12,263,069,520 | |
January 2009 to September 2009 | 773,062[13] | 30,149,418[13] | ¥8,140,342,860 | |
October 2009 to September 2010 | 678,917[14] | 35,303,684[14] | ¥9,531,994,680 | |
October 2010 to September 2011 | 611,146[15] | 31,779,592[15] | ¥8,580,489,840 | |
October 2011 to September 2012 | 539,521[16] | 28,055,092[16] | ¥7,574,874,840 | |
October 2012 to September 2013 | 512,250[17] | 26,637,000[17] | ¥7,165,353,000 | ¥269[10][18] |
October 2013 to September 2014 | 456,375[19] | 23,731,500[19] | ¥6,407,505,000 | ¥270[18] |
October 2014 to September 2015 | 390,143[20] | 20,287,436[20] | ¥5,477,607,720 | |
October 2015 to September 2016 | 350,521[21] | 18,227,092[21] | ¥4,921,314,840 | |
October 2016 to September 2017 | 317,458[22] | 16,507,816[22] | ¥4,457,110,320 | |
October 2017 to March 2018 | 302,167[23] | 7,856,342[23] | ¥2,121,212,340 | |
1986 to March 2018 | 36,000,000 | 1,876,972,882 | ¥448,682,441,140 ($5.53 billion) |
Editors-in-chief[]
- Kiichi Toyoda (1959–1960)[24]
- Yoshio Kinoshita (1960–1963)
- Michio Tamio (1963–1965)
- Yunosuke Konishi (1965–1967)
- Yoshiya Takayanagi (1967–1969)
- Yoshio Kinoshita (1969–1970)
- Shizuo Watanabe (1970–1972)
- Keizo Inoue (1972–1977)
- Kazuki Tanaka (1977–1984)
- Koichiro Inomata (1984–1987)
- Harunori Kumagai (1987–1991)
- Takashi Hirayama (1991–1994)
- Harunori Kumagai (1994–1996)
- Toyohiko Okuyama (1996–2000)
- Shinichiro Tsuzuki (2000–2001)
- Shinichi Mikami (2001–2004)
- Masato Hayashi (2004–2009)
- Masaki Nawata (2009–2012)
- Yu Torimitsu (2012–2015)
- Takenori Ichihara (2015–present)
International versions[]
Elex Media Komputindo published an Indonesian version of Weekly Shōnen Sunday titled Shōnen Star from 2005 to 2013.
Viz Media began a Shonen Sunday imprint for titles in North America; starting with Rumiko Takahashi's Rin-ne, which was released on October 20, 2009.[25]
See also[]
- Shōnen Sunday S
- Monthly Shōnen Sunday
- List of best-selling comic series
- List of best-selling manga
- List of highest-grossing media franchises
- List of manga series by volume count
References[]
- ^ Thompson, Jason (2007). Manga: The Complete Guide. Del Rey Books. p. xxiii-xxiv. ISBN 978-0-345-48590-8.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Boy's Manga" (in Japanese). Japanese Magazine Publishers Association. September 2016. Archived from the original on November 3, 2016. Retrieved November 6, 2016.
- ^ 週刊少年サンデー50周年記念、1959年から50年分の表紙50枚全画像を一挙公開. Gigazine (in Japanese). March 17, 2009. Archived from the original on February 19, 2011. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Loo, Egan (March 18, 2008). "Shōnen Magazine Shōnen Sunday Mark 50th Anniversary". Anime News Network.
- ^ "Shōnen Sunday's 50th Anniversary". Rumic World. April 13, 2008.
- ^ Loo, Egan (July 9, 2009). "Shonen Sunday 1983 Book Honors Manga Magazine's Heyday". Anime News Network.
- ^ Nelkin, Sarah (March 3, 2014). "Shonen Sunday Family to Launch 55 Manga to Mark 55th Year". Anime News Network.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae "コミック誌の部数水準". Yahoo! Japan. Archived from the original on March 6, 2007. Retrieved March 6, 2007.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "An Analysis of Weekly Manga Magazines Price for the Past 30 Years". ComiPress. April 6, 2007.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Weekly Shonen Sunday's Price Cut Leads to 30% Sales Jump". Anime News Network. July 24, 2013.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Manga Anthology Circulations 2004-2006". ComiPress. December 27, 2007.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Where's The Manga Magazine Bailout?". Manga Cast. February 22, 2009. Archived from the original on February 28, 2009. Retrieved February 4, 2010.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "2009 Japanese Manga Magazine Circulation Numbers". Anime News Network. January 18, 2010. Retrieved February 4, 2010.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "2010 Japanese Manga Magazine Circulation Numbers". JMPA. June 1, 2010. Retrieved August 8, 2010.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "JMPAマガジンデータ : 男性 コミック". Japan Magazine Publishing Association. Archived from the original on October 14, 2012. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "JMPAマガジンデータ : 男性 コミック". Japan Magazine Publishing Association. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2013.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "JMPAマガジンデータ : 男性 コミック". Japan Magazine Publishing Association. Archived from the original on November 17, 2014. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Shogakukan's Weekly and Monthly Shonen Sunday Go Digital from Today". Crunchyroll. July 13, 2016.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "JMPAマガジンデータ : 男性 コミック". Japan Magazine Publishing Association. Archived from the original on November 16, 2015. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "JMPAマガジンデータ : 男性 コミック". Japan Magazine Publishing Association. Archived from the original on October 3, 2016. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "JMPAマガジンデータ : 男性 コミック". Japan Magazine Publishing Association. Archived from the original on November 9, 2017. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "JMPAマガジンデータ : 男性 コミック". Japan Magazine Publishing Association. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "印刷部数公表". Japan Magazine Publishing Association. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
- ^ "Shonen Sunday's 1st Editor Kiichi Toyoda Passes Away". Anime News Network. January 15, 2013.
- ^ Loo, Egan (July 8, 2009). "Viz to Launch Shonen Sunday Imprint with Rin-ne Manga (Updated)". Anime News Network. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
Further reading[]
- 週刊少年サンデー特集、新編集長・市原武法インタビュー [Weekly Shōnen Sunday Special Feature: Interview with New Editor-in-Chief Takenori Ichihara]. Natalie (in Japanese). August 19, 2015. Archived from the original on October 18, 2020.
- 週刊少年サンデー特集 編集長・市原武法インタビュー [Special Feature: Interview with Takenori Ichihara, Editor-in-Chief of Weekly Shōnen Sunday]. Natalie (in Japanese). October 16, 2020. Archived from the original on October 18, 2020.
External links[]
- Official website (in Japanese)
- Viz Media's Shonen Sunday page
- Weekly Shōnen Sunday at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
- 1959 establishments in Japan
- Weekly manga magazines published in Japan
- Magazines established in 1959
- Shogakukan magazines
- Shōnen manga magazines