 First issue ofShōnen Book, the cover features man standing next to an airplane, this was done for a feature film at the time. It also mentionsOmoshiro Book. | |
| Editor | Saburō Shibata |
|---|---|
| Categories | Shōnenmanga |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| First issue | March 1958 |
| Final issue Number | April 1969 4 |
| Company | Shueisha |
| Country | Japan |
| Based in | Tokyo |
| Language | Japanese |
Shōnen Book (少年ブック,Shōnen Bukku, lit. "Boys' Book") was amanga magazine byShueisha, which debuted March 1958 and ended in April 1969.Shōnen Book was originally a spin-off of Shueisha'sOmoshiro Book (おもしろブック,Omoshiro Bukku, literally - "Funny Book").Shōnen Book is famously known in Japan for being the predecessor to the company's famousWeekly Shōnen Jump magazine. TheShōnen Booktankōbon manga volumes are published under theShōnen Speed Ō (少年スピード王) manga imprint.Shōnen Book was a part of Shueisha's former leading magazine line,Book, nowJump.Shōnen Book was created in 1958 as a male version of the short livedShōjo Book.Omoshiro Book became an offshoot of the magazine, and eventually faded away in the middle of theShōnen Book timeline.Shōnen Book also served as a root to many other magazines published by Shueisha.
Shueisha was just getting into the business of making manga magazines, creating the magazineOmoshiro Book in 1949 and theShōjo magazineShōjo Book in 1951.[1] The success ofShōjo Book, led to the publication of their widely successful,Ribon.[1] Shueisha was planning to make aShōnen version of theirShōjo Book magazine, and they createdShōnen Book.[1]Shōnen Book was created as a sister anthology to their already successfulOmoshiro Book, on the front cover of the firstShōnen Book it announced thatOmoshiro Book would continue as a special issue ofShōnen Book.[1]Omoshiro Book had anOsamu Tezuka manga calledLion Books.[2]Shōnen Book, historically had some of the most famousmanga artists of all time, such asTatsuo Yoshida whoseMach GoGoGo (Speed Racer) appeared in the magazine, and which ultimately was rereleased by Fusosha as two deluxe volumes. The magazine also serialized many ofOsamu Tezuka's manga series. In the middle ofShōnen Book's publication,Shōnen Jump was created, makingShōnen Book a special issue.[3]Shōnen Jump at the time was a semiweekly magazine. When it became a weekly magazine, the title ofShōnen Jump was changed toWeekly Shōnen Jump, andShōnen Book was discontinued.[3] The magazine ofShōnen Book was replaced with a special calledBessatsu Shōnen Jump, which was later changed to the titleMonthly Shōnen Jump (branched of into its own magazine, discontinued, and was replaced with the current;Jump SQ.), and then finallyAkamaru Jump (the latter of which is now a "Zōkan" (special) issue).[3]
Shōnen Book much like many other manga magazines had many different features such as manga series, articles, etc.Shōnen Book also had special editions likeSanchōme no Yūhi Tokubetsuhen: Bōken Shōnen Book (三丁目の夕日特別編冒険少年ブック,Sanchōme no Yūhi Tokubetsuhen Bōken Shōnen Bukku, literally: "The Evening Sun, Special Compilation of ThreeChomes: Adventure Boy Book"), which was achildren's version of the main anthology, aimed at young children. OrTsūkai Book (痛快ブック,Tsūkai Bukku, literally: "Pungent Book"), which features all color artwork.
An essential feature ofShōnen Book is that it had many famous manga artists in it. The magazine published series from the God of Manga,Osamu Tezuka, and also published Tatsuo Yoshida'sMach GoGoGo, which has become a successful title in the late ages ofanime in theUnited States. Also inShōnen Book, a manga adaptation of the sequel to theMighty Jack TV drama:Tatakae! Mighty Jack. The famousHarenchi Gakuen also started inShōnen Book, and later moved to the majorWeekly Shōnen Jump.
In addition to the manga series ofShōnen Book, it also featured manylight novel series. The light novels are based on the running series in the magazine.
This list contains all of the manga in the last issue ofShōnen Book. Three of the series were transferred to theShōnen Jump magazine, also put under their new imprint—Jump Comics.
| Manga | Began | Ended | Creator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Prix Yarō (グランプリ野郎) | April 1968 | April 1969 | Kōki Yokoyama |
| Ryūsei Kyūdan (流星球団) | January 1968 | April 1969 | Sachio Umemoto × Kazuya Fukumoto |
| Vampire (Dai 2 Bu) (バンパイヤ(第2部)) | January 1968 | April 1969 | Osamu Tezuka |
| Manga Daigaku (マンガ大学) | January 1969 | April 1969 | Fujio Akatsuka |
| Kōsoku ESP (光速エスパー) | June 1968 | April 1969 | Reiji Matsumoto |
| Chichi no Tamashii (父の魂) | April 1969 | April 1969 (continued inShōnen Jump) | Hiroshi Kaiduka |
| Harenchi Gakuen (ハレンチ学園) | April 1969 | April 1969 (continued inShōnen Jump) | Gō Nagai |
| Otoko no Jōken (男の条件) | April 1969 | April 1969 (continued inShōnen Jump) | Noboru Kawasaki ×Ikki Kajiwara |
| Manga | Published | Creator |
|---|---|---|
| Dorobō Gakuen (ドロボウ学園) | April 1969 | Rentarō Itai |
| Otoire Daisakusen (オトイレ大作戦) | April 1969 | Takumi Takahashi |
| Koibito-kun (コイビトくん) | April 1969 | Gō Nagai |
| Aku Sanbiki (悪三匹) | April 1969 | Sachio Umemoto |
Only the seriesMach GoGoGo has been released in English. More importantly, theanime was one of the first brought to the United States of America, as well as the manga. The manga was first published byNOW Comics, selecting chapters from the series under the title of the English anime.[4]Mach GoGoGo was later released in complete volumes byDC Comics'sWildstorm Productions under the titleSpeed Racer: the Original Manga, the cover art was done by Robert DeJesus.[5] Currently the series is published byDigital Manga Publishing under the titleSpeed Racer: Mach Go Go Go.[6]
Although "Speed Racer" has found success in the States, some other series have also appeared in the United States under other media besides manga or anime. An example of this would beObake no Q-tarō byFujiko Fujio, theShōnen Book series was never published in English, although a video game based on the series was published in the United States. This game was calledObake no Q-tarō: WanWan Panic retitledChubby Cherub, and was heavily altered.[7] The game was originally made for fans of the series, which Americans would have no knowledge of. Q-tarō, the Ghost was replaced with acherub.[7] The series has been in many other magazines besidesShōnen Book, such asCoroCoro Comic,Weekly Shōnen Sunday, andBessatsu Shōnen Sunday, making the game media of all four of the anthologies.
Even currentlyShōnen Book appeared in United States. In theAstro BoyGame Boy Advance video gameAstro Boy: Omega Factor, the main character of theBig X series made a cameo.[8]Astro Boy: Omega Factor was released in States on August 17, 2004.[9]
As for the manga based on television series, not the manga, but theMighty Jack TV series had episodes one through six merged into adubbed feature-length film (much likeGiant Robo). This was a common act of filmmaking at the time. The series gained more exposure after its appearance onMystery Science Theater 3000, which in the 1980s aired onComedy Central.[10] Also the mangaCaptain Scarlet was an adaptation of theUnited Kingdom TV show:Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, which was in English to begin with.[11]