The tail that wags the dog will be wagging even harder.
Japan’s manga anthologies are amazingly thick, with each issue containing hundreds of pages of content, divided up between a dozen or more different series. However, as thick as they are, the magazines only have one cover, which makes space on the book’s front highly valuable.
For many anthologies, though, most of the cover goes not to promoting any of the serialized stories, but instead to previewing that issue’s gravure (or gurabia in Japanese) models, whose photo spreads often heavily feature them wearing bikinis, lingerie, or other revealing outfits. This week, publisher Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine has pledged even more gravure content, effective immediately.
▼ The latest issue of Weekly Shonen Magazine, which went on sale July 25
「こんなの誰も見たことがない！ そんな週刊マンガ雑誌を目指して、第34号からグラビアページをドーン！と16ページに大幅増量します！」編集長より。 週刊少年マガジン：グラビアを2倍以上に大増量… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
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週刊少年マガジン公式 (@shonenmagazine1) July 24, 2018
The newest issue of the publication (which serves as home to Hajime no Ippo, The Seven Deadly Sins, and Bakemonogatari) features a message from the editor, informing readers that:
“We want to be the kind of weekly manga magazine that no one has ever seen before, so from [this] volume, we’re bumping up our number of gravure model pages to 16! That’s more than double the six to eight pages we’ve had until now.
From all of us, thank you for reading, and we’ll keep trying hard to have you saying ‘Shonen Magazine is the best!’”
▼ In 1959, few people imagined “Plenty of swimsuit models!” would become Shonen Magazine’s self-proclaimed selling point, considering its first cover looked like this.
【札幌店限定超強化買取】週刊少年マガジン「創刊号」1959年(昭和34年)1号「並上」札幌店限定で35000円で買取ます。状態・状況により価格は予告なく変更する可能性ありなのであしからず！ #週刊少年マガジン #創刊号… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
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まんだらけ札幌VIN 哭きのいわ城 (@sapporovintage) May 14, 2018
▼ Nao Kosaka, Akari Nibu, and Miho Watanabe, all members of idol group Keyakizaka46, are featured on the latest cover.
モデルプレス - けやき坂46小坂菜緒＆丹生明里＆渡邉美穂、ミニスカ制服の爽やか3ショットに癒やされる buff.ly/2JRP5n9 @modelpressさんから https://t.co/EVmkMnKdeK
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週刊少年マガジン公式 (@shonenmagazine1) July 25, 2018
#マガジン 34号、本日発売！ 待ってました！ お久しぶりの #FAIRYTAIL です！ マガポケで連載開始の続編が出張掲載！ https://t.co/m5KBjc6Fys
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週刊少年マガジン公式 (@shonenmagazine1) July 24, 2018
Doubling/tripling down on gravure space isn’t an entirely unexpected move for Shonen Magazine. In 1982, Kodansha began its annual Miss Magazine beauty contest, with a significant swimwear component, later running the event as a joint project between Shonen Magazine and Weekly Young Magazine, another anthology it publishes. Though the contest was put on hiatus in 2011, it was restarted this year.
▼ The 2018 Miss Magazine finalists
ミスマガジン2018初グラビア！ 5人が表紙の #ヤンマガ 34 号にグランプリ #沢口愛華、ミス週刊少年マガジン #岡田佑里乃 、ミスヤングマガジン #寺本莉緒、のソログラビアがそれぞれ掲載！… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
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【公式】ミスマガジン運営事務局 (@miss_maga_zine) July 23, 2018
Kodansha hasn’t made any mention of reducing the number of pages of Shonen Magazine devoted to manga, so at least for the time-being the sizable gravure bump may make the anthology a little more awkward to read on the train, or difficult to insist you’re buying solely for the comics.
Source: My Navi News/Mantan Web via Otakomu
Featured image: Twitter/@shonenmagazine1
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