| The Pros of "Shonen Jump" |
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OK.
I'd like to take a moment to talk about something I feel very passionate about today. Late last year in December, a little company called Viz unleashed a blessing to the anime world in the form of a new magazine called "Shonen Jump." With a slew of cool titles to offer, a "Keep it uncut" policy, and one heck of a price, Viz set out to revolutionize the magazine world with a new magazine to end them all...okay so that last part is just fluff, but I needed an ending that sounded dramatic. And when the magazine came out, it made a dent in more ways then one. I guess I'll start with the first thing that popped into everyone's mind when they first saw the content of the magazine, and that was the series they chose to start with. The magazine launched with many unbelievably cool series that included "Yu-Gi-Oh!," "Dragon Ball (Z)," "One Piece," "Sand Land," "Yu Yu Hakusho," and later on would also include "Naruto" and "Shaman King." While most of these pieces are action comics, they all include great stories, memorable character's, and different styles of artwork (One of the comics has to have art that makes you just go "wow"). Personally, I could not have asked for a better selection of series to start with (Okay, I would have preferred something other then "Sand Land," but that's a short series anyway), as these represent some of the best stories manga has to offer. Since this is a "Yu-Gi-Oh!" site I'll tackle the way the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" comic was handled before I start talking about the rest of the magazine. When I heard that Viz was going to be releasing the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" manga in America I almost stopped breathing, and not because I was happy, but because I was terrified! Believe it or not, but I didn't WANT the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" manga to be brought over to America, I was against the whole thing! While most of these pieces are action comics, they all include great stories, memorable character's, and different styles of artwork (One of the comics has to have art that makes you just go "wow"). Personally, I could not have asked for a better selection of series to start with (Okay, I would have preferred something other then "Sand Land," but that's a short series anyway), as these represent some of the best stories manga has to offer. Since this is a "Yu-Gi-Oh!" site I'll tackle the way the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" comic was handled before I start talking about the rest of the magazine. When I heard that Viz was going to be releasing the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" manga in America I almost stopped breathing, and not because I was happy, but because I was terrified! Believe it or not, but I didn't WANT the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" manga to be brought over to America, I was against the whole thing! I had already read enough of the "kid anime" manga's that had come over, and I was afraid that the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" manga would suffer the same fate that "Sailor Moon," "Pokemon," and "Digimon" all faced. The art would be flipped ("Sailor Moon," "Pokemon"), the character's names would be changed (All of the above), and/or the manga would be censored ("Pokemon"), and believe me, the censoring was what was scaring me the most, as "Yu-Gi-Oh!" the manga is a VERY dark piece of work! The manga dealt with things that even the uncut TV series wouldn't talk about, including death, tortures, smoking, ancient curses, and much more. Even when the cards took over the comic it was still a dark journey. I look at the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" manga with great respect, it's my favorite manga of all time, and the idea of it being chopped up for "mainstream" people made me sick. After all 4Kids already messed up my show, I didn't want their influence to mess up my manga. I was also worried about the name changes. Because if the "Sailor Moon," "Digimon," "Pokemon," and to some extent "Dragon Ball" (Bulma instead of Burrima) proved one thing, it's that manga that had a mainstream anime show in America usually had the names Americanized. And I didn't want my Jounochi's and Anzu's turned into Joey's and Tea's, I wanted the names Kazuki Takahasi created for his character's, and I also wanted the names I was used to. Who cares if all of America says Joey, he isn't supposed to be Joey he's supposed to be Jounochi, and I don't want it to be any other way, especially in the manga. The reason the names staying the same in the manga is so important to me is because the manga will ALWAYS represent the author's vision of a series! In the manga there is no pressure to make a toy commercial, there is no pressure to make the fight scene's like this, there is no one telling you "That sucks, change it," no the manga is the author's creation 100%! While you can get away with altering a TV show of a series (Because the series wouldn't be interesting if it was exactly like the manga), I believe that the manga must always remain as untouched as humanly possible. Which means flipping the artwork is also a big deal, as that is not the way we are supposed to look at the art. So as you can see, when Viz announced that the manga was coming to America, they had some VERY high expectation from me! Luckily for me (And the rest of America), they were met with flying color's. When I got my first issue in the mail I looked at the cover, and to my relief one thing was clear: The art was NOT being flipped! There's one worry gone, but that doesn't mean there wouldn't be other problems, this was only the cover after all. I wasn't sure if I should read "Yu-Gi-Oh!" first to get it out of the way, or read it last so that if it was mangled it wouldn't spoil the rest of the magazine. When I opened it up the first series was in fact "Yu-Gi-Oh!," so I figured my decision had already been answered. And when I was finished reading "Yu-Gi-Oh!" I looked down and sighed: They had gotten it so close to perfect, and that was far more then I was hoping for! The names were the Japanese names that I had come to love, with editor's notes slightly mentioning what the English names are (See Viz, that wasn't so hard. Try that with "Pokemon" now), the dialog was translated practically word for word, and the best part was that the comic was in fact uncut and uncensored! The cursing was intact, Yugi's image of Anzu's underwear was left in, Grandpa's story of the pharaoh's curse, it was ALL left in, and I couldn't have been happier! Not only that, but the rest of the series got the exact same treatment that "Yu-Gi-Oh!" did, and I'm glad that despite most of these series being popular with kids (And three of which air on Cartoon Network and Kids WB) Viz went ahead and translated these the way they were meant to be read, despite the fact they got in trouble with this kind of thing with the old "Dragon Ball" comics they used to make (Long story short, parents complained about the content of the comics, and Viz had to go back and censor them or risk losing sales). And for taking this risky step, I think Viz deserves applause for their excellent work on these series. But that's not all that's good about "Shonen Jump," I'm just getting started. Aside from getting a bunch of great comics in a magazine, you get quite a bang for your buck. Every issue of "Shonen Jump" costs $4.95 ($7.95 Can.), a little over 450 pages, and about 35 of those pages are ads and articles. Compare that to the $2.25 ($3.75 Can.) I paid for the latest issue of "The Incredible Hulk," which has about 42 pages in an issue (With 20 of those pages being ads), and you can clearly see why manga is clearly selling more then the American comics (This kind of thing also reminds me why the only comics I even really keep up with anymore are "Sonic The Hedgehog" and "Batman"). So when you compare the cost and size of "Shonen Jump" to that of a regular comic book, "Shonen Jump" looks like a bargain in comparison. Another thing about the magazine I like is the covers! I've seen lots of covers for comic books, manga, and graphics novels, and if there's one thing the covers for "Shonen Jump" do right, it's makes the magazine look cool! While a couple of the covers aren't the greatest in the world (Check out issue 4...yuck), many of the covers just scream "Buy me," and judging from my non-anime brother's reaction, it's working. I mean who can resist picking up a magazine that has a boy ninja (Naruto) toying with weapons (Issue 2), or a boy with a card in his hand (Yugi) with an Egyptian setting in the background (Issue 7), or one with a teenage boy (Yusuke) clenching his fists while an aura gathers around him (Issue 6), either way you look at it, whoever makes the covers has an eye for making things look cool, and these covers are some of the best I've seen. Another thing I like about the magazine is the "Spotlight Manga" feature. Believe it or not ladies and gentleman, but there is a lot of manga out there that you don't know about, and it's not all like "Dragon Ball." What this feature does is highlight some interesting (And different) looking manga, and what is spotlighted is usually not a franchise either. This feature is actually a good read if you want to know about a manga you can read that's different from what you "normally would read" (And maybe with enough letters, Viz will release some of these titles as part of their "Shonen Jump Graphic Novel" line). Another blessing about "Shonen Jump" (And I consider this a BIG deal) is that you get to see the artwork in it's entirety. Oh sure, the graphic novel format that we've gotten used to by now (Thanks to Tokyopop) is fine and dandy, but you don't realize just how much better the artwork is when the pages aren't shrunken down to size. Just compare pages 54 & 55 of "Yu-Gi-Oh!" chapter 1 in "Shonen Jump" to the graphic novel. There's just something about seeing those two pages in it's entirety that makes the image that much more powerful in the magazine then in the graphic novel. I almost hate Kazuki Takahashi for being so talented. "Naruto" is another good example of this. Compare the full size version of Naruto's stance with the scroll in hand with the more compact version in the graphic novel, and you realize that you truly are missing out on something when you read the compact versions of your favorite manga. We've gotten so used to reading manga as compact graphics novels, that many people forget (Or simply don't realize) how much more powerful the art is when it's the size of a comic book over the size of a pocket book. So I am very glad Viz is giving people a chance to see artwork in all it's full size glory. It truly is a treat. And I guess I should wrap up my praise for "Shonen Jump" by pointing out that not only does this magazine offer you high quality manga for a cheap price, but it's also catching on with the mainstream public. I've talked to people I've known my whole life who've never shown one once of interest in the whole anime/manga thing, but bought the magazine based on it's size and cover (And they loved the content to of course), people at my work are reading the magazine (Fans and non-fans), heck even my Aunt has gotten into the magazine. I don't know the actual sales numbers for each month, but from the impression I get, Viz's plan to get manga into the mainstream audience is working. See what happens when you treat something with quality and respect 4Kids? I know I’m probably late in saying this, but every anime fan deserves to pick up "Shonen Jump." It's a great value for your money, and aside from the fact that you get some great manga for a low price, this thing is very cost efficient for those of you whose wallets got burnt on spending too much money on comic books. NEXT TIME: Well I'm finished talking about the pros of "Shonen Jump," so tune in next time to hear me explain the cons of "Shonen Jump," and why this magazine has just a little more ways to go before it achieves true greatness. |
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