Sunday X Champion - A Comparison of the Moment.

Image from Takekawa x Ichihara Interview 

Sunday and Champion are rather different magazines even thought they are both weekly shonen magazines. Historically, they have different origins and part of this is why they are separated by over a decade in terms of age. However, the history of these magazines is a topic for another post in the future. This time we will be focusing on the current moment. Over half a century after their creation how are these magazines at the moment? How do they compare to each other in terms the current series, but also what they tend to serialise and what has been successful recently. 

One of the first thing to highlight is how Sunday has a title massive title with iconic cultural status ongoing in the magazine. Of course, I am talking about the unaging not quite a child 'Detective Conan.' This provides a pillar for stability for the magazine as the series seems to be as popular as ever, its movie are racking in at the box office and its older and recent spin off works were also incredibly popular. 

Detective Conan vol 96 - Gosho Aoyama

Champion does not have a series with this similar level of sustained popularity. Of course, it still has popular titles such as Baki, Super Radical Gag Family and Yowamushi Pedal. However, these series have not maintained the high level of popularity they had in the past and in addition they were never really as iconic or as popular as Conan. Conan has in sense has remained unchanged since the start but its audience never moved on. In contrast to Super Radical Gag Family, where audiences moved to other styles of gag manga and the The Parents Associations (TPA) quibbles with probably hindered it as well. Baki in a sense was also effected by this as its kind of failed to keep its audience connect in the same way that Conan has over so many years. Conan's multimedia success is probably a big reason for this as it continues to have a gateway with audiences outside of the magazine sphere in a way that the Champion hit series I have mentioned simply cannot.

Position of the magazine 

However, another pillar of stability for the magazine is its turn to successful veterans in recent times. This can be illustrated by returns of Kenjiro Hata (Tonikaku Kawaii), Syun Matsuema (Kimi wa 008), Kotoyama (Yokufushi no Uta), Takuya Mitsuda (Major 2nd), Rumiko Takahashi(MAO) and Kusuba Michiteru (Daiku no Haito). All these authors had previous successes in Sunday and a lot of baggage and they all have on going series in the magazine at the moment. The series of these authors all are reasonably established in the magazine at the moment with most of them having their run break past a year at least. Therefore, we can reasonably argue that this turn to these veterans was part of the magazine turn to a pair of safe hands in the current troubling period for shonen magazines. 

Champion has attempt the same but returning veterans had not had the same level of success. They have veterans too, firstly there are the ones who had previous hits in the magazine are the ones that are still writing continuation of those hits series such as Itagaki Keisuke (Baki series) and Hamaoka Kenji (Super Radical Gag Family series). In addition, Masahiro Anbe (Shinryaku Ika Musume) is one of the few that had a prior hit in Champion and who returned with another successful series. In a similar vein is Ishiguro Masakazu  but his success prior to starting Furutto on Thursday was not in Champion and one could argue this is likewise the case for Sogabe Toshinori (Yankee JK Kuzuhana-chan). Wataru Watanabe could also be seen in the same vein as two previous authors, but before Yowamushi Pedal, he had limited experience and not a lot of success in his baggage. 

Shuukan Shonen Hachi - Akita Shoten 

However, this does not mean Champion did no try to bring back veterans. in fact, in recent times  Hirakawa Tetsuhiro (Himawari), Masuda Eiji(Weekly Hachi) and Hosokawa Masami (Toubousha Elio) all returned. Neither was able to create a successful series and I do not blame them. The magazine is constantly shifting and in part this is caused by how much smaller shounen magazines have become, they do not have the same readership base they might have even only a decade ago. This obviously spills onto the authors and they have to constantly adapt to the changing scenario and develop stories that can catch different audiences. 

In Sunday, not all returning veterans have had the same level of success as well. Kotoyama. Rumiko Takahashi and Takuya Mitsuda stand out as having found decent success admittedly the later has done this through a sequel to his most well known work. The others Kenjiro Hata, Syun Matsuema and Kusuba Michiteru have not found the same degree of success and the latter is the most notable one in his lack of success with Daiku no Haito. 

Excluding, Major 2nd as it is a sequel to a beloved and massively popular, the biggest hits from Sunday in recent times have come from more inexperienced authors such as Oda Tomohito with Komi-san wa Komyshou wa and Sousou no Frieren from Yamada Kanehito and Abe Tsukasa. Of course, many inexperienced authors fail and thats why veterans are a bet with much less risk. However, at the same time veterans have higher a pay rate and therefore many veterans can mean the profit margin of these magazine, which are low to begin with, are even lower. Perhaps this is one of the reasons Sunday has had to hike its price up and reduce its number of pages, so everything has its downsides. 

Champion on the other hand clings to certain veterans but most of the magazine is formed by inexperienced authors or first time authors. There are sometimes experienced authors like Sogabe Toshinori or even Uchida Kohei (Kurobane Hakusho), they are not authors with a massive success however. This means their pay rate is probably not on the level of authors like Rumiko Takahashi or Takuya Mitsuda and that is probably why Champion even though it is from a much smaller publisher is 20 yen cheaper whilst at the same time having more pages than Sunday. 

Recent Trends  

Sousou no Frieren in Cover of Sunday - Yamada Kanehito & Abe Tsukasa

In recent times both magazines have serialised things that were not traditionally seen in shounen magazines in the past. Sunday for once has come to focus a lot in slice of life series and series with a much slower pace. Things like Maiko-chan, Komi-san, Daiku no Haitou,Yokufushi no Uta and Sousou no Frieren are obviously not similar in genre but they all have a slice of life touch and are usually take more time to develop and they are not overtly dramatic either. They are instead all works that give a positive feeling to the reader. Obviously this is not all Sunday serialises but it has grown to focus on these aspects much more in recent times.

On the other hand, Champion is rather hard to pin point. It does not have a clear focus and things are a bit more erratic. In recent times it has taken popular series SNS and made collabs with a popular television program, serialised spin off of its popular works. So things are a bit more peculiar when it comes to champion, there is no clear trend in what is serialised and the very fact it can pick up three series from SNS in one year shows that. It feels like the magazine is always changing and adapting and thats probably a consequence of the lower circulation number which means the magazines have to find new ways to attract new readers whilst at the same time keeping old fans interested. 

Final Thoughts 

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun in the cover of Champion - Osamu Nishi

Both these magazines are quite different. At the moment, Champion feels like it is in a changing possibly due to the popularity of Mairimashita! Iruma-kun, which has meant the editorial department brought other feel good slice of life series to the magazine. At the same time, it also brought more battle orientated series which have found some success in a genre which had traditionally done rather poorly in Champion in the past. It does feel like the magazine is changing whether its for the best depends on each person's personal taste though.

Sunday has not had the same sort of change as Champion in recent times. The slice of life turn is not necessarily recent and it has continued to drift along that wave and I doubt it will stop anytime soon because it has been successful venture. In addition, Sunday has in a sense its own author 'academy' and by that I mean the authors that publish in Sunday are usually groomed in Sunday's wider editorial framework.  Therefore, these trends of the magazine can be more everlasting since the authors are groomed by the Sunday editorial department. 

This is completely different from Champion that serialises many authors from other areas. It does not tie itself with only authors groomed through its editorial department in fact most authors come from elsewhere when it comes to Champion. This is probably why it has less defined trends in recent times but both types have its downsides and upsides so its a mainly question of the overall editorial line each editorial department has. 

Links -

 Interview between Sunday head editor and Champion head editor

https://natalie.mu/comic/pp/weeklychamp01

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