Amongst Western fans of manga, the name Weekly Shonen Jump is easily the most well-known manga magazine. However, there are many other manga magazines that I believe Western fans should be aware of. Interestingly, the manga magazine that I wish to discuss, Weekly Shonen Sunday, isn’t terribly different from Weekly Shonen Jump but I would still like to discuss it and say why I believe you should check out many of its titles.
To start with, Weekly Shonen Sunday was originally released on the 17th of March, 1959, which interestingly was the same day as Weekly Shonen Magazine. Amusingly, Weekly Shonen Sunday was released on Tuesdays, not on a Sunday, before switching to Wednesdays later in its life. It is estimated that Weekly Shonen Sunday is the fourth best-selling manga magazine of all time by total units sold although circulation has steadily been dwindling with figures stating that Weekly Shonen Sunday is now only the tenth best-selling manga magazine by circulation. Nonetheless, it’s hard to overstate the importance that Weekly Shonen Sunday has had on the manga and anime industries as a whole.
Weekly Shonen Sunday is published by Shogakukan, one of the largest publishers of manga in Japan. Shogakukan shares ownership of Viz Media with Shueisha, the publisher of Weekly Shonen Jump. Interestingly, one of Viz Media’s earliest hits was Ranma 1/2 which was originally published in Weekly Shonen Sunday but, as time went on, it seemed that Viz Media began to focus more specifically on Weekly Shonen Jump, releasing a Western version of the magazine and an imprint. While they still released Shonen Sunday titles like Inuyasha, it wasn’t until 2009 that Viz Media released a dedicated imprint for Weekly Shonen Sunday.
Even now, 12 years later, this Shonen Sunday imprint still pales compared to their Shonen Jump imprints. While we have continued to see Rumiko Takahashi titles released under this imprint as well as other series such as Detective Conan (released in English under Case Closed), Magi and others, I can’t help but note how many classic Shonen Sunday manga remain conspicuously unreleased in English.
Personally, I think no greater example of this exists than Mitsuru Adachi. One of the best-selling mangaka of all time, we’ve only seen one of his series, Cross Game, translated into English. The absence of Touch, one of the most popular manga of all time, is particularly notable although other series such as H2, Rough and many others are also worth noting. Other popular Weekly Shonen Sunday titles that remain unreleased in English include Major by Takuya Mitsuda, Ushio and Tora by Kazuhiro Fujita and Kyō Kara Ore Wa!! by Hiroyuki Nishimori.
I think this is a shame as I distinctly remember reading several Shonen Sunday manga a few years ago, for the first time knowing they were Shonen Sunday, such as Ranma 1/2, Cross Game, Case Closed and thinking about how different they seemed to the works of Shonen Jump or even Shonen Magazine. They felt less combat focused and more visibly comedic, dramatic and mysterious.
I’m not saying that every Shonen Sunday title is distinct, different or even good quality but I feel that it’s important that Western fans are aware of the existence of this magazine and I believe that the imprint from Viz Media deserves even greater attention than it has already gotten. Let me know your thoughts on Weekly Shonen Sunday, whether you have checked out or are going to check out any of its manga, your thoughts on the Weekly Shonen Sunday titles already in English, what Weekly Shonen Sunday manga you’d like to see released in English someday and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!