Interest

Poll Indicates Japan's Most Influential Weekly Shounen Manga Magazine

Hitomebo, a Japanese dating service, recently conducted a poll in honor of March 17, "Weekly Manga Magazine Day." On that day in 1959, Japan's first two weekly shounen manga magazines, Shonen Magazine and Shonen Sunday, were launched. The poll aimed to discover which Japanese weekly shounen manga had the most influence. 100 men of various ages were selected. The results were decisive:

Shonen Jump's share of the response was far more impressive: about seven times the number who chose Shonen Magazine or Sunday. There were about 2.6 million copies of Weekly Shonen Jump in print in the last three months of 2014 versus 1.2 million copies of Weekly Shōnen Magazine.

This may be understandable, given the prevalence of successful long-running shounen manga that have run in Shonen Jump (many of them later adapted into anime) such as One Piece, Dragon Ball and Naruto, but when asked which manga most influenced them, ten of the poll respondents chose Slam Dunk — only the fifth-bestselling Shonen Jump manga. "Slam Dunk ran when I was in middle school," a 34-year-old respondent explained. "I tried to join the basketball club. There wasn't anyone like Coach Anzai, so I didn't last long, but it had a big impact on my puberty." Kochira Katsushika-ku Kamearikouen-mae Hashutsujo was also a popular choice.

Among the "None/Other" category, 14 chose "none," while the remaining respondents chose Morning, Big Comic Spirits, Afternoon, Coro Coro Comics, Comic BonBon and Shonen Gangan.

As for the age breakdown, five were in their teens, 26 in their twenties, 33 in their thirties, 27 in their forties, six in their fifties, and three were in their sixties, with an average age of 36. The average ages by magazine were 34.5 for Jump, 36 for Magazine, 42 for Sunday and 47 for Champion. Champion dominated the shounen manga market between 1978 and 1980.

[Via Nico Nico News; Image from Buyee]