The winners of the Osamu Tezuka Cultural awards are out and the winners will definitely take us a trip back in time.
The Grand Prize was shared by two titles. First one (and the only one I’ve seen… at least in drama) is Jin by Murakami Motoka, a story of a surgeon who falls into a time slip and changes history by introducing his knowledge of medicine during the Bakumatsu period. I was only introduced to the drama a few weeks back but I’m happy to hear that this series has a strong manga enough to win the prize.
The other title is Takemitsu Samurai, drawn by Matsumoto Taiyou and written by Eifuku Issei. It’s a historical manga who has a mysterious ronin for a protagonist. Unfortunately, I can’t say much about it beyond it being printed in Big Comic Spirits. I’m only assuming that it’s one of those critically acclaimed yet unpopular titles (doesn’t even have a wiki page. :<)
The New Artist award was won by Full Metal Alchemist. And the Short Story award was won by Yamashina Keisuke.
I think this year’s award winners are quite a lovely set and I think their stories are definitely worth a read. I find it amazing though that Jin won this year. It’s like a nice homage to Osamu Tezuka. In a way, Jin is like the Black Jack of Edo. Sort of…
An awarding ceremony will be held on May 27 and the winners will be awarded 1 million yen and a bronze statue of Atom. Congratulations to all of the winners and hopefully we’ll have another lovely set of manga to read by next year!
Popularity: 6% [?]
I thought that this has got to be the funniest joke but it turns out, it was no joke at all.
I’ve seen this being tweeted for some while but it wasn’t long until I finally saw the commercial for Shueisha’s new quarterly BL magazine (under its subsidiary Homesha), BL-ink.
But don’t they have Weekly Shounen Jump already?
I know. It’s crazy. But it seems Weekly Shounen Jump is not the “Sweet BL” that BL-ink is trying to offer. The magazine is a dedicated BL magazine for Homesha and I think this is perhaps an outright acceptance of the popularity of BL.1
What I found interesting was it took some google powers to find the site. It’s mostly mentioned as BLink which doesn’t come out much in searches. Looking at Shueisha’s website doesn’t even announce the magazine (or at least I didn’t see it.) I had to find the websites of actual authors in the magazine to actually figure out that it should be searched as BL-ink to finally find the proper search term for the said magazine.
As I mentioned, BL-ink will be sold more under Homesha, but it’s inevitable to not associate this publishing firm with Shueisha. In fact, in the advertisements, they would proudly put the banner of Shueisha as if it’s quite important and crucial that Shueisha’s involved in this. After all, the company has had a love affair with fujōshi especially with Shounen Jump.
Popularity: 20% [?]
- strangely, the niconico video has only been seen by 1000++ people! [↩]
How do you like your Shounen Jump heroine?
Do you love her dressed in a pristine school uniform, where her smiling face (and possibly panties or if your lucky, cleavage) grace every panel? Do you like her making bentou for the hero, sharing laughs right before he enters the greatest of his greatest battles? Or do you love her strong, the type who would smack the hero when he is wrong and is generally unforgiving to anyone who insults her short skirt but is soft to the hero who basically ignores her D-size bra? If she has one.
For years, legions of Jump readers, particularly women from the Western frame of thought1, would write a post or two complaining why women in a particular Shounen Jump manga is often misrepresented. An interesting rant came by my timeline today, a disheartened Katekyo Hitman Reborn! fan who cannot forgive Akira Amano for making cooks out her heroines. In her blog, she pines about why the female characters in Reborn have been ill-presented, nothing but dolls whose only purpose in the story was to make the boys look better.
Yeah. Right.
Popularity: 7% [?]
- Oh yes! Orientalism plays a key part here! [↩]
1990 to 1994 can be considered by many as one of the strongest periods of Jump. The title that carried this period was an epic intergalactic superhuman masterpiece named Dragon Ball Z. It was so popular that no one in this world could not have encountered this anime. However, despite its popularity, the fujoshis focused their attention towards the other titles that were also great but somehow fell under the cloud of Dragon Ball Z.
For the Fujoshi, Goku and his dragon balls did not spark a fire to their fragile fangirl hearts. Instead, they looked at the bishounens from other Jump titles. The era of androgynous men have come to an end. In this era, it was all about the handsome boys of Jump.
Popularity: 35% [?]
One Piece by Oda Eiichiro
Published by Shueisha
Serialized in Shounen Jump
Translated by Viz
When friends ask me about a shounen story I'd recommend, the first title that comes to mind is One Piece. After hearing the title, most of them groan saying "it's too long" or "there's no bishounen in there" or "the art is butt ugly." Although I'd honestly like to immediately contest and defend this rag tag crew to them, I always just throw at them the line "For your nakama ((Comrade)), just give it a shot." Happily so, after I lend them 20 volumes to read, they'd come back screaming "Nakama!!" with great gusto!
One Piece is more than just a shounen story with a pirate touch. Oda Eiichiro has turned Luffy's quest for One Piece into your adventure as well. This is the reason why it has lasted a decade with fans and why it'll be probably go on for a couple more years. This is a manga where the characters become your nakama.
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