Weekly Shōnen Magazine

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Expand Japanese Template:Template other is a weekly shōnen manga magazine published on Wednesdays in Japan by Kodansha, first published on March 17, 1959. The magazine is mainly read by an older audience, with a significant portion of its readership falling under the male high school or college student demographic. According to circulation figures accumulated by the Japanese Magazine Publishers Association, the magazine's circulation has dropped in every quarter since records were first collected in April–June 2008. This is, however, not an isolated occurrence as digital media continues to be on the rise.

It is one of the best-selling manga magazines. By March 2008, the magazine had 2,942 issues, having sold 4.55Template:Nbspbillion copies, with an average weekly circulation of 1,546,567. At an average issue price of Template:JPY ($1.29), the magazine had generated approximately Template:JPY (Template:US$) in sales revenue by March 2008. In addition, about 1 billion compiled tankōbon volumes had been sold by March 2008.

Jason Thompson stated that it is "more down-to-earth, as well as just a tad more guy-oriented" compared to Weekly Shōnen Jump and likened this magazine to "more like something you'd find in the guys' locker room."

History

The magazine, launched on March 17, 1959, was the first weekly manga magazine, followed rapidly by Weekly Shōnen Sunday by rivalling publisher Shogakukan. Throughout the 1960s, Weekly Shōnen Magazine was the top selling weekly manga magazines besides Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Shōnen King. During the first years of its run, the magazine was not solely focused on manga, but also published other content for children.

From 1965 onwards, the chief editor of Weekly Shōnen Magazine, Masaru Uchida, invited artists associated with the gekiga movement to work for the magazine. The gekiga movement had a style marked by dramatic, realistic storytelling often aimed at mature audiences. Blending children's manga with adolescent gekiga themes and styles attracted new readers to manga magazines. In a short time, the readership of the magazine expanded rapidly and was at nearly one million by the end of 1966.

Features

Series

There are currently 27 manga titles being serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine. Out of them, Ahiru no Sora is on indefinite hiatus.

Series title	Author(s)	Premiered
	Miki Yoshikawa	Template:Dts
	Takeshi Hinata	Template:Dts
	Punatsu	Template:Dts
	Muneyuki Kaneshiro, Yusuke Nomura	Template:Dts
	Tsuyoshi Yasuda	Template:Dts
	Koji Seo	Template:Dts
	Hiroyuki	Template:Dts
	Nakaba Suzuki	Template:Dts
	Kei Urana	Template:Dts
	Negi Haruba	Template:Dts
	George Morikawa	Template:Dts
	Oh! great	Template:Dts
	Nonco	Template:Dts
	Genri Natsume	Template:Dts
	Kou Suzumoto	Template:Dts
	Ran Kuze	Template:Dts
	Naoshi Arakawa	Template:Dts
	Reiji Miyajima	Template:Dts
	Muchimaro	Template:Dts
	Katarina, Ryosuke Fuji	Template:Dts
	Tanaka Drill	Template:Dts
	Sora Daichi	Template:Dts
	Shigeki Tange	Template:Dts
	Masakuni Igarashi	Template:Dts
	Marcey Naito	Template:Dts
	Kamio Fukuchi	Template:Dts
	Kou Sawada	Template:Dts

Circulation

Circulation

Date(s)	January–March	April–June	July–September	October–December	Magazine sales	Ref
MarchTemplate:Nbsp1959 to MarchTemplate:Nbsp2008	1,546,567				4,550,000,000
AprilTemplate:Nbsp2008 to DecemberTemplate:Nbsp2008	—	1,755,000	1,720,000	1,691,667	67,166,671
2009	1,664,167	1,633,334	1,614,616	1,593,637	84,574,802
2010	1,571,231	1,565,000	1,556,250	1,551,819	81,175,900
2011	1,529,693	1,491,500	1,489,584	1,472,084	77,777,193
2012	1,447,500	1,436,017	1,412,584	1,404,834	74,112,155
2013	1,376,792	1,357,000	1,324,209	1,308,117	69,759,534
2014	1,277,500	1,245,417	1,211,750	1,192,267	64,050,142
2015	1,156,059	1,127,042	1,107,840	1,085,110	58,188,663
2016	1,038,450	1,015,659	995,017	986,017	52,456,859
2017	964,158	932,713	883,804	840,667	47,077,446
January 2018 to March 2018	815,458	Template:Mdash	Template:Mdash	Template:Mdash	10,600,954
March 1959 to March 2018	1,512,692				5,236,940,319

Magazine Pocket

, or , is an online web comic site run by Kodansha and tied in to their Weekly Shōnen Magazine line. It runs original manga created for the site as well as manga moved from one of the print magazines related to Weekly Shōnen Magazine. It opened on August 3, 2015.

Reception

The Weekly Shōnen Magazine achieved success in the 1970s and subsequently had increased sales. As a result, it became the top-selling manga magazine in Japan of its period, appearing popular amongst many otaku. But the position was later occupied by Weekly Shōnen Jump, when this competitor was born in 1968, knocking Shōnen Magazine off the top spot. Shōnen Jump had begun to circulate and dominate the manga magazine market. This started from the 1970s and continued throughout the 1990s.

In October 1997, Shōnen Magazine reclaimed its position as the top-selling manga magazine of its day until this was brokered in 2002. Currently, the two magazines have competed closely in terms of market circulation. Sales of the two magazines now remain very close. Circulation has dropped below two million. In a rare event due to the closeness of the two magazine's founding dates, Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Weekly Shōnen Sunday released a special combined issue on March 19, 2008. In addition, other commemorative events, merchandise, and manga crossovers were planned for the following year as part of the celebrations.

Others include Shōnen Magazine, published by Kobunsha of the same Kodansha group. Shōnen Magazine famously serialized Tetsujin 28-go, the first mecha anime from July 1956 to May 1966.

See also

• List of manga magazines
• Shonen Magz, Indonesian version
• Sunday vs Magazine: Shūketsu! Chōjō Daikessen (video game)

External links

• Template:Official website Template:In lang