Whether in terms of sales or influence, juvenile comics are the absolute leader in the comic market.

So what is a shonen manga? In the eyes of the general comic fans, although the "effort, friendship, and victory" of "Shonen Jump" is the purpose of a single magazine, it can be regarded as a high summary of the connotation of such works. Traditional juvenile comics that can generally become popular can be roughly divided into two categories, namely: the first category - ordinary male protagonists with different talents have become legends after overcoming obstacles and constantly leveling up. The second category - the male protagonist who is full of level at the beginning punishes evil and promotes good, sweeping the world.

It should be said that at least when Chinese comic fans began to come into contact with the form of Japanese comics, juvenile comics had such a face. Representatives of the former such as "Dragon Ball", "Yuyu Hakusho", "Chess Soul", "Saint Seiya", "Hokage", "One Piece", "Grim Reaper", "Slam Dunk"... etc., representatives of the latter such as "Rogue Kenshin", "Hokuto God Fist", "Kanedaichi Juvenile Incident Book", "Conan"... Wait.

The reason why this form can be popular for a long time is that the refreshing feeling of the actor breaking through the limit and defeating the evil forces after struggle is irreplaceable. But the same routine, even if it is ever-changing, stretching out tens of thousands of branches and leaves, it will inevitably end up withering and falling leaves after growing into a big tree. Traditional shonen manga ushered in its first peak after "Dragon Ball" created a battle to fight monsters, upgrade and transform into superpowers, and ushered in the second peak under the comprehensive effect of "One Piece's huge background", endless foreshadowing, and incomparable emotional control skills. The traditional shonen manga newly serialized after "One Piece", no matter how hard and struggling, has never been able to climb over this mountain. In recent years, new serialized works of this kind have gone silent, whether it is "The Captive of Food", which was praised by "Shonen Jump" but achieved mediocre results, or "Fairy Tail", which Kodansha has never been able to truly claim the king, all of which have left fans with no regard for the development of shonen manga.

Looking at the comic market in the past 10 years, how should the winter of new juvenile comics be spent before the next retro trend comes? In the unpredictable flow of time, how will the dark tide surge?

Darkness Goes Teenager – From DN to Giant

The only Japanese comic that was reported by the news network

"'The person who is written in this notebook will surely die!' "In January 2005, the Liaoshen Evening News reported that a notebook had become a tool for middle school students to vent, and since then, this news has been reprinted by Xinhuanet, which has attracted strong attention.

On May 25, 2007, the Office of China's "Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal Publications" Working Group issued a "Notice on the Launching of a Special Action to Seize Terrorist Printed Materials such as the Death Notes". So far, the momentum of banning "Death Notes" has become more and more intense, and finally "won" the news broadcast. "Death Notes" also became the only Japanese manga that was greatly reported by the news network. The official wants to ban it, the people shout injustice, saliva and bricks fly together for a while, and the name of this comic is getting louder and louder, parents and fans have their own words, each with their own set of reasons. As the center of the storm, this work has caused an uproar not only in China, but also in its native Japan.

The dark department entered the shonen manga

Before "Death Notes", manga that emphasized darkness were generally the preserve of youth manga (such as "Legend of Sword Wind"), and popular shonen manga generally showed people with a positive and sunny image. The male protagonist can have shortcomings, he can be a ** teenager, but they are kind in nature, righteous, affectionate, and still "good people" in their bones, even if the comics like "Fist of the North Dipper" are extremely bloody and violent, the image of the male protagonist Kenjiro as a real savior has never changed.

"Notes on Death", which began to be serialized in 2003, made the male protagonist a complete criminal who gradually degenerated for the first time, and the work changed the routine of juvenile comics that kept fighting on weekdays, and the whole comic was dark and reasoning intertwined, suspense and horror coexisted. Night God Moon has also become a very controversial figure in the history of shonen manga. Around "can a large number of murderers become saviors and gods", "if you have a death note, will you take the practice of the night god moon", there was a heated discussion among fans, and it has not been extinguished to this day.

"Death Notes" is not the first work to introduce the difficulty of distinguishing between good and evil and dark factors into shonen manga, not to mention, "Fairy Melody", which began to be serialized in "Weekly YOUNGJUMP" in 2002, is a typical dark work; But "Notes on Death" is undoubtedly a dark shonen manga with unprecedented influence. As of October 2007, the manga circulation of Death Notes reached 27 million copies, which is quite staggering for Death Notes, which has only 13 volumes. This means that "Death Notes" has a single volume circulation of more than 2 million copies, and it is temporarily ranked 11th in the well-documented daily manga circulation volume average list, even higher than "Rogue Kenshin" and "Full-time Hunter". At the same time, the box office of the first part of the movie version of "Death Notes" released in 2006 reached 2.8 billion yen, and the box office of "Death Notes: The Last Name" released in the same year reached a staggering 5.2 billion yen! It can be said that the two-dimensional and three-dimensional are red across the board.

The success of "Notes on Death" not only made the golden duo of Thrush Oba and Ken Obata possible, but also opened up new possibilities for shonen manga. After that, depictions of blood, carnage, darkness, despair... 's comics and animation works began to appear more and more in the field of vision of mainstream comic fans to seize the market, from exclusion to curiosity, from voyeurism to pursuit, in the past 10 years, the mainstream comic fan audience has completed the acceptance and even love of unconventional juvenile comics, and finally evolved into a frenzy of national pursuit of "Attack on Titan" in 2013.

Picked up scratch paper - Kodansha bet on the right treasure

In 2009, Isayama So, an author who had been rejected by "Shonen Jump", began serialization in "Bessho Shonen Magazine" (the reason for the rejection was that the style of the editor of "JUMP" was inappropriate, and the second submission was that the editor said, "Don't 'manga' but bring 'jump'", so he turned to the goal of serializing in "Shonen Magazine").

When the manga called "Attack on Titan" was first serialized, the drawing was mediocre (and even poor) and the graphics were sloppy, but Kodansha was sure that it would be popular, and not only did it play a propaganda slogan that bordered on killing such as "Akira's shock, despair since "Sword Wind", but also Daiinteyin supported "Giant" with real money. As it turned out, Kodansha had made the right bet this time. After two years of dormancy and waiting,2012The first volume of the comics of "Giant" has entered the ranks of millions,In April 2013,"Giant" is a rapid explosion of popularity with its well-made animation, not only the number of animation clicks and topicality Zhou Zhou ranks first in the new annual series,The comics have also been sold in full volumes since April,Zhou Zhou is on the list,It has basically been determined to become the runner-up in the 2013 comic sales list。

There are many analytical articles about the popularity of "Giant", so I will not repeat them here. But a male protagonist like Allen, who stabbed the perpetrator a few years after he took off his diaper, instigated his sister to kill people together, and killed several at a time, but had no psychological struggle, is indeed very out of line for traditional shonen comics. The author, Isayama, also does not hide his love for "despair". In response to a question from episode 22 of the anime, he tweeted, "Just like the picture that the director presented to everyone, in order to completely express the 'sense of hopelessness', considering the development of the plot later, I think (discarding the corpse) is a very good way to express it" - this is simply a look of despair! The whole person is black!

Let's ignore the author's bad taste for the time being, what is worth playing is that for a subject like "Giant", even young audiences do not show resistance. The biggest negative that Isayama broke out this year is that the bald commander in "Giant" is a war criminal, not the plot/picture that has been complained about.

Objectively speaking, each publisher has a good idea of such an increasingly "heavy taste" audience. In the face of the popularity of "Giant", Shueisha seemed very calm. For no other reason, they themselves hold a work of this style that has not yet been animated, that is, "Martian Xenomorph", which depicts cockroaches fighting back against humans. "Mars" not only won the 2013 "This comic is amazing!" No. 1 on the men's list, and ranked 10th on the 2013 comic semi-annual list with 1,721,651 copies. It is foreseeable that once this work is animated, it will inevitably set off a frenzy of "despair" again. Considering that the work "Danganronpa", which depicts 16 middle school students fighting each other in a closed campus, became a big hit in the new episode in July, and the whirlwind of darkness is still blowing in the anime circle.

Another attempt: a funny rambling pillar

Juvenile comics are not Qiong Yao dramas "Yin Shuang!" Frost! Not only can it be funny, but it should also be funny. But the comic strip is the pillar, and for "Shonen Jump", it goes back a long way.

"Aralei" - the masterpiece of the 20th century

In the 80s of the 20th century, Akira Toriyama's "Aralei" was all the rage. In terms of sales and influence, "Aralei" is one of the best classics in the history of comics. As of October 2008, the circulation of Aralei was 35 million copies, with an average of 1,944,400 copies per volume. This achievement is temporarily ranked 16th in the average volume sales in the history of Japanese manga. But since Akira Toriyama created a more awesome "leveling - fighting monsters - transformation - turtle wave qigong - follow-up villains are whipped Frieza ", the pattern of juvenile manga has become a variety of transformations and various ways to save the world, and there are very few works that calm down and focus on being funny and making a lot of movement.

From "Gintama" to "Assassination Classroom", the new toy of "Weekly Shonen Jump".

The manga sold mediocre (for Shonen Jump), but the appearance of Gintama, a work that had a good reputation in the anime circle and had a great impact, was a new attempt. "Gintama" is a very good wall-riding work - without losing blood and the main line, so it can also be loved by traditional juvenile comic audiences; The endless spoofs and complaints are very different from the previous juvenile comics, which hit the cuteness of the homebody; And many characters and the male protagonist Ah Yin, who is constantly single, has won the support of a rotten woman. "Gintama" is a rare work that can please several sides, but perhaps because of this, perhaps because the excellence of the animation overshadows or even surpasses the manga, the original sales of "Gintama" have not been impressive.

Anyway, "yes! It seems that you can also try funny comics" began to take root in the manga circle. Shueisha resolutely smashed the treasure on "Assassination Classroom" after trying a traditional juvenile manga like "Food".

"Assassination Classroom" is another wall-riding work, its theme seems dark (students have to kill the teacher in a year to save the world), and the beginning seems to be terrifying, but after reading it, you will find that the content is a hilarious daily light comedy on campus, full of joy and healing. This work has received a very good response under Shueisha's big Twitter tweet (see "World Style Issue 1: How Industry Bigwigs Became Popular" for details), and it seems to have the posture of a new pillar.

Coincidentally, "My name is Sakamoto, I'm the best" serialized in the magazine "Monthly Haruta" is also a hilarious campus manga. The manga images are widely sought after in various parts of China, and the first volume has also sold very well in Japan (compared to the new work).

Let's wait and see whether comedy will become another development direction for shonen comics in the future.

The rotten girl walked to the front desk: ** Department of spring

The reason why juvenile manga has not fallen in the big pool of manga is largely due to the expansion of the readership. In the early years, shonen comics were served to male elementary and middle school students, and after the 60s of the 20th century, the audience of high school students gradually expanded, and after the 90s of the 20th century, many female readers also joined the ranks of the shonen comics readership.

"A woman can hold up half the sky" - this sentence has never been so applicable in the juvenile comic circle. Traditional female readers are more willing to spend money on things like cosmetics, clothes, and fashion magazines than manga books, and although the total amount is certainly quite staggering, it's completely meaningless for the Izuku Publishers to not get into their pockets! This is especially evident in peripheral derivatives. Before 2010, 9 of the 10 figures were girls, and the remaining 1 was a man or a woman. There is a buy to sell, such a weak proportion is a good indication that female consumers are really "not interested in this".

This situation has changed rapidly in recent years. If you think about it, there are two reasons, one is that compared with traditional ladies, today's girls are more open and "female"; The second is because the proportion of rotten women has greatly increased and is blatant. Ten years ago, the rotten culture was still very niche and private, and no one would have thought that the streets were full of "good friends" now. Since the traditional heroine is not eye-catching, and most of the shoujo manga are even less eye-catching, then, shonen manga that doesn't have to be in love and has friends and brothers all over the world is simply the best new target! The so-called official forced the same people to death.,Compared with the various jokes I fabricated.,Of course, the original work with pictures and truth is more powerful! The two sides hit it off, female readers began to emerge in the juvenile comic circle, and the rich are masters, and all kinds of juvenile comics have also begun to catch up with the trend and play ** to cater to readers.

Three transformations in three years: from long-term sales to sales leader

In 2008, the work "Black Butler", serialized in the monthly magazine GFANTASY, ushered in the first season of animation. Although the level of animation is mediocre, the beautiful characters and the plot of ** have won great support from female audiences, not only the popularity votes of the year were among the best (in the second season, Tencent Animation's animation popularity vote "Black Butler 2" ranked first), and female readers took out real money to support the comic. Now, more than three years have passed since the second season of the anime in 2010, and the manga of "Black Butler" still sells more than 500,000 copies per volume, which is quite good.

In 2011, Blue Exorcist on JUMPSQ was animated. No one would have thought that the sales of this mediocre work would skyrocket after being animated, with an average volume increase of more than one million, and it rushed to the third place in the annual sales of comics in 2011! Compared with the bland reaction of male readers to the plot, the screams of girls from all walks of life to the Okumura brothers can explain the reason behind it.

Coincidentally, in 2012, "Kuroko's Basketball" also ushered in a sales blowout after it was animated. For a while, as long as you walk into the Japanese doujinben sales store pù, the big shelf at the door must be full of "Kuroko's Basketball" all kinds of rotten doujinben. "Kuroko's Basketball" was also the runner-up on the 2012 manga annual sales list, second only to "One Piece". Although some male readers recognized the "burning" of "Black Basket" and said that "the original book is not rotten at all", this year's Shueisha official CP popularity vote is simply a resounding slap in the face.

Making money is the last word. The blowout expansion of the power of rotten women and the manifestation of purchasing power will undoubtedly make the major publishers weigh it carefully. The CP popularity vote has come out, will it be far from tailor-made?

Playing on the sidelines, not finding girlfriends for the protagonists and popular supporting characters of the shonen manga, giving out bento boxes for female characters, and turning them into passers-by - this trend will not fade for a long time to come.

epilogue

When the elimination of villains becomes open, when overcoming obstacles becomes Xiaoqiang, when Xiaozhi becomes a mouth cannon, when leveling becomes boring, it is natural for the traditional juvenile comic routines to be challenged. If you are poor, you will change, and if you change, you will be able to do it for a long time. When traditional shonen manga comes into trouble, what kind of attitude will it take to reach the top again? Where is the future of shonen manga headed? We'll see.