Not far from Palaceside Building, the Shogakukan building in Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda Ward — once known for farewell graffiti by manga artists — is being rebuilt. It is fairly well known that Shogakukan’s Weekly Shonen Sunday and Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine were launched on exactly the same day: March 17, 1959, 55 years ago.
Sunday’s planning started earlier, and it had already secured rising manga artists such as Osamu Tezuka, Hiroo Terada and Fujiko Fujio. Magazine, hearing rumors that Shogakukan was preparing a weekly boys’ title, is said to have rushed into print in just a month and a half.
Many of the first readers were of the baby-boom generation. Boys’ comic magazines still print 500,000 to 2.5 million copies, and comics account for more than 80 percent of e-books including titles for adults. Manga remains an easy, widely read medium.
After its launch, Sunday scored hit after hit — Mitsuteru Yokoyama’s “Iga no Kagemaru,” Fujio Akatsuka’s “Osomatsu-kun,” Fujiko Fujio’s “Obake no Q-Taro.” Between 1962 and 1964 its circulation reached 500,000, pulling rapidly ahead of Magazine. Schoolchildren of the day passed copies around, so it was never a matter of reading only one title or the other.
From 1967–68 the numbers reversed. Magazine began serializing Ikki Kajiwara and Noboru Kawasaki’s “Star of the Giants” in 1966, and in 1968 “Ashita no Joe” by Asao Takamori (Kajiwara’s other name) and Tetsuya Chiba. The tide turned completely; by 1970 Magazine’s circulation hit 1.5 million. Readership had spread from boys to students and working adults — the baby-boom generation simply kept reading boys’ magazines after they grew up. In 1968 Shogakukan launched Big Comic for young adults, and its affiliate Shueisha launched Shonen Jump (weekly from the following year, 1969). The Hitotsubashi group centered on Shogakukan was, in effect, answering Kodansha Magazine’s 1.5 million copies.
Five years ago, on March 17, 2009, a joint 50th-anniversary reunion for Weekly Shonen Sunday and Weekly Shonen Magazine was held at the Imperial Hotel.
The main photo shows complete facsimile reprints of the first issues of Sunday and Magazine, given as souvenirs to people who attended that 50th-anniversary reunion. Both covers featured popular athletes of the day: Magazine, the 46th yokozuna Asashio; Sunday, Shigeo Nagashima.
The photos at upper right are a newspaper advertisement for the first issue of Weekly Shonen Sunday. Price: 30 yen — from the Mainichi of March 18, 1959.
The photos at lower right are a newspaper advertisement for the first issue of Weekly Shonen Magazine. Price: 40 yen — from the Mainichi of March 19, 1959.
In 1969, besides Jump, Akita Shoten launched Weekly Shonen Champion. A new culture grew on the stage of these four major boys’ magazines.