"If people think that even if I fail, I'll be safe because I'm a salaryman, then we can't innovate."
Former Editor-in-Chief Reveals How Shonen Sunday Was Able to "Revive" from a "Huge Projected Decline"

Translated by: Harley Acres

Interview with Takenori Ichihara #1

Takenori Ichihara stepped down as editor-in-chief of Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday (Shonen Sunday) on October 13; at the time of his appointment as editor-in-chief in 2015, Shonen Sunday was expected to fall into the red for the first time since its debut issue in 1959. ^[1]

Immediately after his appointment, Ichihara posted a declaration in the magazine's 38th issue (released on August 19, 2015) titled "Dear Readers". ^{[2] [3]} He announced a "Sunday Reform" with the mission of developing new talent. As he tweeted upon stepping down, "Shonen Sunday, which was in the midst of an unprecedented crisis, has dramatically improved its performance during my six years and three months in office, and I'm happy that I was able to safely hand the magazine over to the next generation." What was the true meaning of this reform announcement that caused a great sensation both at home and abroad? We asked him how he rebuilt the long-established Shonen Sunday brand (this is the first of a two-part series. Read the second part).

To tell you the truth, I didn't want to do any reforms.

The declaration that Ichihara-san issued immediately after taking office was received by readers as a "Sunday emergency declaration."

Takenori Ichihara: The "reform" part has gotten a lot of attention, but it's not something that can just be done. First of all, it's necessary to determine whether reform is really needed. The worst kind of leader is one who acts when there is no need to do so. There is nothing more foolish than reforms made purely for the leader's ego.

Firstly, the role of an editor-in-chief is to take responsibility when there's a problem, to represent and discuss the situation with the authors when there's a misunderstanding, and to decide the policy for the team as a whole. To tell you the truth, I didn't want to reform either. It would be too tiring (laughs). But when I became editor-in-chief, Shonen Sunday was in a situation where it had to be reformed.

Please tell us about the situation at that time.

Ichihara: There were already predictions that the magazine would be in the red for the first time since its inception. But it's not a problem that only began yesterday. Over a long period of 20 years, Shonen Sunday was in a period of decline.

It was 1997 when I joined the company and was assigned to the Shonen Sunday editorial department. That era was called the "Third Golden Age". It was around the time when Detective Conan (名探偵コナン/Meitantei Conan) (Gosho Aoyama) began. In addition, Inuyasha (犬夜叉) (Rumiko Takahashi) and MAJOR (Takuya Mitsuda) were being serialized. ^[4]

It was an era blessed with so many hits.

Ichihara: I came into this world not knowing at all what it meant to be an editor, and when I was shown around and told "this is your seat," I even asked, "Which seat does Mitsuru Adachi sit in when he draws?" (laughs) But after a year of work, you start to see the editorial department's flaws. For me, it's a game. Just like in sports, there are rules in the world of shonen manga. You could call them "truths." How can I win this game? Throughout my life, I have always been interested in the fundamental elements of the game, and I liked to look for the gimmick. So I went to the Shogakukan warehouse and looked through the back issues of the magazine from the very first issue. I've always liked the phrase "learning from the past," because if you don't know the past, you can't look to the future.

You can't win if you don't train newcomers.

So, what was the "key" that you noticed, Ichihara-san?

Ichihara: Training newcomers. We train and assign excellent editors, create a team that makes people think, "This place is exciting," and attract talented artists to the team. We'll nurture these talented artists to become full-fledged creators and produce hit titles. As long as this routine is not broken, the game is unbeatable. Yet, the editorial department of Shonen Sunday was trying to move away from nurturing newcomers. "This is no way to win," they said.

Are those the "editorial flaws" you mentioned earlier?

Ichihara: That's right. So I had a great sense of urgency.

In the case of Shonen Sunday, the magazine had both major talent that supported sales and the creators who could be considered the "conscience" of the magazine. Rumiko Takahashi, Mitsuru Adachi, Gosho Aoyama, and others. Even so, they said, "We can't win."

Ichihara: Yes, that's right. Recruiting new employees is so important. This is because a correct metabolism is essential for a permanently strong manga brand. However, no one listens to what a young person who has only been with the company for two years has to say. I didn't have a track record, so no matter how often I said the right thing, I was told, "Don't worry about that, just do your job." That's why I wanted to gain the ability to speak up as soon as possible. It's the ability to speak, or rather, the ability to be heard. I had to train myself. In the meantime, Shonen Sunday was steadily declining. It was a really frustrating time.

Even so, by the time I was 28, my sixth year with the company, I was called the ace editor of Shonen Sunday and was recognized by upper management as an "expert in training new employees."

The most spartan was Takuya Mitsuda-sensei of MAJOR.

How did you learn to edit?

Ichihara: Uhh... I tried my best (laughs). Especially since I didn't have the means to learn.

Does that mean that the editorial department didn't have the know-how to train new editors?

Ichihara: It used to be fine there. But by the time I started it had evaporated into the clouds. In my case, the authors who I worked with were very hard on me.

The most spartan was Takuya Mitsuda-sensei (laughs). At the time I was in charge of MAJOR, Mitsuda-sensei's popularity was just beginning to soar, and he was on the verge of breaking out and becoming a success. Meetings were always serious business. I was always on edge. One time we had a meeting and I was at a pay phone and that took seven hours. On the way to the meeting, I bought a pack of gum at a kiosk with a 10,000 yen bill and asked them to break it down into coins... It was a stinging sort of experience that trained me in the right way.

Ideally you'd be to be able to train editors through automation while doing their daily work.

Ichihara: That really is the ideal, and it really has to be that way. However, when I was 28 years old, the editorial department of Shonen Sunday had completely lost that kind of editorial training culture. Besides, there were fewer and fewer opportunities to nurture new creators.

A medium for training newcomers

Are there no more outlets for new creators to publish their work?

Ichihara: That's how it was. Until then, the monthly extra issue (週刊少年サンデーS/Weekly Shonen Sunday S) had functioned as a place to nurture new creators, but that was to be shuttered. Since an editor-in-chief serves a three-year term, reducing the number of extra issues and cutting costs would improve the company's performance on the surface, and would also be acknowledged within the company and would get you promoted. I said, "Are you stupid? How in the world am I supposed to nurture new talent?" So I got into a big fight with upper management. That was in 2002. ^[5]

That would later lead to Gessan (ゲッサン). Well, my proposal was snuffed out in 30 minutes that time... He said, "You're an ace and in a position where you have to train newcomers, you don't have time for this!" I said, "No, even if you train newcomers, where are you going to put them? You're destroying the places where they can be published. If you don't start a monthly magazine, Sunday'll be finished."

Circulation and sales alone don't tell you if you're doing well or not.

I remember that as of 2005 Shonen Sunday was still not performing poorly.

Ichihara: On the surface, the numbers (sales) were good. The reason for that was that MAJOR was being animated and made a ridiculous profit.

However, from my point of view, from where I was in the editorial department at that time, Shonen Sunday was virtually destroyed in those five years from 2004 to 2009. It was a mess inside. New creators couldn't be nurtured at all. Firstly, it takes about 6 to 7 years to train a new creator. That's why the training of them doesn't produce results during the editor-in-chief's term. On the other hand, if we don't take care of it, the debt to future generations will continue to pile up. You can't really tell if a magazine is doing well in the true sense of the word just by looking at the number of copies and sales.

2009 and the first issue of Gessan

Gessan was launched in 2009. Ichihara-san wrote the greeting for the first issue.

Ichihara: Yes (laughs). At that time, I didn't have any real role, so at first I was called "deputy editor-in-chief". The actual editor-in-chief work was done by me from the beginning. ^[6] Finally, my wish came true, and a place to nurture new creators was created.

Something like the Afternoon Four Seasons Award is absolutely necessary. ^[7]

Ichihara: So I did the same thing with Gessan. Koichi Yuri (由利耕一), who was the editor-in-chief of Afternoon, is one of my respected seniors. He was very pleased with the launch of Gessan and always supported me.

A piece by Ayumi Ishii (信長協奏曲/Nobunaga Kyoso) that appeared in a separate supplement to the first issue of the magazine made a very strong impression on me.

Ichihara: She draws by herself, so it didn't fit the pace of a weekly serialization. But if the editorial department had only a weekly magazine as a medium, they would have said, "We don't need it if we can't serialize it weekly," and someone with that much talent would have been let go. In order to increase the brand power of Shonen Sunday, we absolutely needed a monthly magazine.

At that time, the main magazine of Shonen Sunday was...

Ichihara: The higher-ups yelled at me, "You seem to be having a good time driving around in your own private cruiser you built, but is it manly of you to just stare at the Battleship Yamato sinking right beside you?" I told him that I was the editor-in-chief of Gessan and that I wouldn't move until we got back on track. Even if I was told to come back, it'd be meaningless unless I was the editor-in-chief.

He became editor-in-chief of Shonen Sunday with fears that the magazine would cease publication.

And so, in 2015, you became editor-in-chief of Shonen Sunday.

Ichihara: Up until then, I had been watching Sunday with a sidelong glance, but I knew that its condition had gotten much worse than when I was working there, and that if I didn't return soon, the magazine would definitely close. Creators I'm close with would say things like, "The magazine will definitely go out of business, so you shouldn't come back," or "if it fails while you're editor-in-chief then you'll be the one blamed for it." Everyone was worried that it would be a big incident.

But there was no choice in my mind not to accept (the offer to become editor-in-chief). I chose this job because I love Shonen Sunday and Mitsuru Adachi, so I would be letting them down. I also felt that Shonen Sunday itself would be happy as long as I tried, even if it wound up being discontinued. So after I decided to take over as editor-in-chief, I first went to greet the main creators and apologized to them for the editor-in-chief's mismanagement over the past 20 years.

That's how you came up with the declaration, "To all readers."

Ichihara: All responsibility lies with you. I wrote a letter of resignation as soon as I became editor-in-chief, took a photo of it, and kept it ready to show at any time. If you issue that kind of declaration, you have no choice but to quit if it doesn't work. You can't reform the magazine if you think that even if you fail anyway, you're a salaryman, so you're safe. In order to be equal to the creators we've dismissed, I had to cut off my exit.

Well, the creators with a hundred years of experience saw through my true intentions. Mitsuru Adachi-sensei sent me off with the words, "You have no choice but to do it. If you fail, it'll be the end of Shonen Sunday.

"Sunday Reform" Part 1: Meeting with the Editors

What exactly was the start of your "Sunday Reform," Ichihara-san?

Ichihara: I was focused on three points. First, the editors. Specifically, I interviewed every member of the editorial staff. I didn't ask them, "What kind of manga do you want to make?" I asked, "What's your most favorite film?" or "What clubs were you in at school?" They might have thought, "Why is this guy asking me questions like we're on a blind date?" (laughs) I wanted to see their human qualities, so I asked them those kinds of questions. Through a series of interviews, we carefully scrutinized how many young people we could use. There were more than I had imagined beforehand, so I wasn't worried about that part at least.

The statement said, "All decisions related to Shonen Sunday's "manga" are made solely by me as the editor-in-chief."

Ichihara: It was not because I wanted to establish a dictatorship, but because I knew they weren't ready. Not at all capable. Totally immature. I told the editorial staff that it was a disgrace to them that they weren't even qualified to be given a chance. But it wasn't their fault, because the tradition and culture of nurturing editors had utterly broken down.

So we held weekly manga study sessions every week. That was before teaching editing techniques, and we spent about six months telling them why manga editors were needed, what manga was, and what a story was. ^[8] We did this every time a new employee was assigned to us, and I think we kept doing it until about the fifth year. It was hard work, but by doing so, the editors could handle their work. I don't want to do the study sessions ever again, though, because they're exhausting (laughs).

---

"It's been 30 years since Shonen Sunday's last rookie mega-hit, Kyo Kara Ore Wa!"
The editor-in-chief who reformed a long-established manga magazine spent 17 times more money than when he first took office.

Translated by: Harley Acres

Interview with Takenori Ichihara #2

Takenori Ichihara stepped down as editor-in-chief of Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday (Shonen Sunday) on October 13; at the time of his appointment as editor-in-chief in 2015, Shonen Sunday was expected to fall into the red for the first time since its debut issue in 1959.

Immediately after his appointment, Ichihara posted a declaration in the magazine's 38th issue (released on August 19, 2015) titled "Dear Readers". He announced a "Sunday Reform" with the mission of developing new talent. As he tweeted upon stepping down, "Shonen Sunday, which was in the midst of an unprecedented crisis, has dramatically improved its performance during my six years and three months in office, and I'm happy that I was able to safely hand the magazine over to the next generation." What was the true meaning of this reform announcement that caused a great sensation both at home and abroad? We asked him how he rebuilt the long-established Shonen Sunday brand (this is the second of a two-part series. Read the first part).

Reasons for starting a spin-off of Detective Conan

What about the second point?

Ichihara: The creators were scrutinized. The thing that made me despair the most was the thinness of our pool of new creators. It's not that there were no new creators at all. However, there was an overwhelming lack of talent to fill such a large magazine. There were no seeds for the future. The training system was also in tatters. I was convinced that a golden age would never arrive during my time as editor-in-chief.

As I said earlier, it takes at least six to seven years to train a new artist. I had no choice but to become a throwaway stone as editor-in-chief, so I made up my mind to use this as an opportunity to shore up the foundation. However, I couldn't just wait for new creators to mature.

In the meantime, you had to start making a profit.

Ichihara: Right. In the midst of a devastating business situation, it takes at least five years for the first generation under me to grow up because they we are training them as new employees from scratch. I can't help it if the magazine is crushed in the meantime. The idea that flashed into my mind at that time was a spin-off of Detective Conan. At the time, Detective Conan was the absolute champion of Shonen Sunday, and despite Gosho Aoyama-sensei's efforts, I thought that the company wasn't getting enough excitement out of that series.

So I gathered the sales and advertising departments and said, "Let's do three times, or even five times more things with Detective Conan than we have ever done before." This led to the spin-offs Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanazawa (名探偵コナン 犯人の犯沢さん/Meitantei Conan Hannin no Hanazawa-san) (art by Mayuko Chiba) and Detective Conan: Zero's Tea Time (名探偵コナン ゼロの日常/Meitantei Conan Zero no Tii Taimu) (art by Takahiro Arai). Aoyama-sensei said they were interesting, and both Kanba-sensei and Arai-sensei were newcomers I had seen in the Gessan days, and both of them liked Aoyama-sensei, so they said, "I'd love to do it." ^[9]

I often heard irresponsible people talking behind my back saying, "Sunday relies too heavily on Conan and has no intention of nurturing new artists." I wanted to punch them in the face (laughs). It was a lonely battle since no one really understood exactly what was going on at Shonen Sunday, so it was very frustrating.

The serialization team of Shonen Sunday has changed quite a lot.

Ichihara: In the first two years, about 60% of the series were cancelled. Carefree people in the industry often said to me, "The genre is biased," or "Why don't you add more manga like this?" I don't want them to misunderstand, I'm not the manager of Samurai Japan or some all-star team. ^[10]

I didn't pick and choose my lineup from among a wide variety of creators, instead I had to fight a guerrilla war to the death with the limited resources I had available. I myself had to run around and somehow manage to get the number of new serials to appear in the lineup every year. We did this for five years. For the last year, I left most of the work to the chiefs, but I was really exhausted (laughs). We weren't in a situation where we could afford to be extravagant at all.

Don't put your money in the wrong place.

And what's the third point?

Ichihara: The business situation of Shonen Sunday. It was out of the question.

Oh my.

Ichihara: At the time of my inauguration, we were expected to incur an unprecedentedly large deficit, but in the end, we went on a rampage in the first six months and managed to avoid that. Instead, we allocated the management resources to the training of new authors. Compared to when I first returned to Shonen Sunday, our funding for the training of new authors is now about 17 times greater. Even so, I think we are still losing ground compared to our rivals. Anyway, it costs a lot of money to train new artists. However, it is a matter of how much you can spend on them, so you must not make the mistake of spending money in the wrong places.

Ichihara-san's tenure as editor-in-chief of Shonen Sunday was the second longest (2015 no. 35 to 2021 no. 45). In the meantime, Sunday Webry (サンデーうぇぶり) (a manga distribution app which launched in 2016) also started.

Ichihara: On the web, the serialization pace can be once-a-month or once-a-year, so you can serialize according to the author's pace. You can also post one-shots of new authors. That's the strength of digital. However, I only established the policy, and Kazunori Ooshima (the current editor-in-chief) did all the actual start-up and operation. ^[11] I devoted myself to human resources development and decision-making related to manga.

How has the editorial department changed as a result of Ichihara-san's "Sunday Reform"?

Ichihara: For the first three years, exactly as I had stated in my declaration, I looked over all the new artists' works while training the editors in the "manga study group". But that would have been too much for me to keep doing (laughs). The three editors I had initially set my sights on developed relatively quickly, so in my fourth year, I appointed them as chief editors and divided the editorial staff into three groups, creating a system in which the chief editors were the core team producing manga.

Creating something that should be interesting reading for eighth grade boys and girls.

The new hit series that debuted after you took over, Ichihara-san, include Aozakura: The Story of the National Defense Academy (あおざくら 防衛大学校物語/Aozakura: Boei Daigakuko Monogatari by Hikaru Nikaido/serialized from 2016 no. 22-23), Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle (魔王城でおやすみ/Maojo de Oyasumi by Kenji Kumanomata/serialized from 2016 no. 24), and Komi Can't Communicate (古見さんは、コミュ症です。/Komi-san wa, Komyusho Desu. by Oda Tomohito/serialized from 2016 no. 25).

Ichihara: I don't like the idea that "this is the kind of manga that should be published in shonen magazines." There are no restrictions on genre, and girls can be the main characters too. The only decree I issued was, "If it is interesting to read for girls and boys in their second year of junior high school, then that's a shonen manga. By the way, I don't mean that only boys and girls in the second year of junior high school can read it either.

Is there a reason why you chose 14-year-olds instead of 13-year-olds or 15-year-olds as your intended audience?

Ichihara: In my personal experience, I think I was most impressionable when I was 14 years old. Before that, I was a child. 14 years old is the entrance into puberty, and I think I became a boy from there. The policy of creating works that 14-year-old boys and girls can enjoy reading was the same as when Gessan was first published.

Readers read the finished manuscript so they can judge whether the work is interesting or not, but how do you judge a "name" or a new artist's submissions? ^[12]

Ichihara: I think it comes down to whether or not you can portray a human being. After all, we are portraying human beings in our manga. Facial expressions, actions including gestures, eye contact, behavior, and dialogue are all important. Those who are able to do these things can do so instinctively from the beginning.

People say things like, "The digital age is coming" or "Paper magazines are in danger," but that's only about how to sell the magazine. Our field of creation is a zero-tier industry. It's important to "depict human beings" above all else. When mobile phone novels became popular in the past, people said, "The way novels are written will change from here on out," but there's no way they'll change. As long as the readers are human beings, that part will never change. It'll be different when human beings evolve, though.

Please tell us more specifically what it means to "draw a human being".

Ichihara: If the author doesn't understand the personalities of each character, many people's conversations become repetitive when they transition through three or four characters. They write the same lines like, "I did it!," or "Whoa!" That's not a good way to depict human beings. Kotoyama-sensei, the author of Call of the Night (よふかしのうた/Yofukashi no Uta) is truly amazing with his dialogue. He writes lines as if people were really talking to each other.

I see.

The neutral expression of Fern from Frieren

Ichihara: In Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (葬送のフリーレン/Soso no Furiiren) (original story by Kaneto Yamada, illustrated by Tsukasa Abe), I want you to look at the expression shown here (note: Fern's expression on page 60 of the first volume of the series). I got goosebumps when I saw this. Human emotions are joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure, but I don't think we're ever in a state where any one of them is at 100%. Out of 100%, there is always a mixture of various emotions, such as sadness 35%, impatience 15%, anxiety 20%... and so on. It's amazing to see someone who can depict the emotions in the middle of the spectrum.

With that kind of expression, there is a part that leaves it up to the reader's interpretation, like, "What is this person thinking right now?" ^[13]

Ichihara: Yes. Mitsuru Adachi-sensei is just the ultimate at this.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End won the 2021 Manga Grand Prize. ^[14]

Ichihara: That was really great. That piece came out in the second year of the new chief system, and it was a series launched by one of the chiefs. It took about five years to get it serialized, but it was a fast rise to the top. I think it's among the first generation of new authors for the new Sunday.

Does this mean a lot that new authors will produce hits under the new chief system?

Ichihara: It's very important. When I read the story of Frieren for the first time, I was flipped upside down. I was delighted to see that this kind of project was now being produced without my intervention. Not a single panel was altered by me. All I said was, "Serialize it as soon as possible," and "I don't want it as anything other than a weekly series." It's probably been 30 years since Shonen Sunday had a mega-hit like this by freshman authors whose first work had not even been made into a movie. It's the first time in 30 years that something like that has happened, since Kyo Kara Ore Wa!! (今日から俺は!!) (Hiroyuki Nishimori). ^[15]

Do you see it as a work that symbolizes the current Shonen Sunday?

Ichihara: I think you can say that. The creators who came to bring in their work to the new "Team Sunday" and the independent editors grew together and created a great manga. I felt that they didn't need me to go through any more hardships. I was very relieved (laughs).

A long time ago there was a saying, "Jump on the (train/bus) luggage rack, Magazine at the ramen shop, Sunday at the manga club." It feels like the atmosphere of Shonen Sunday, where you sit down and read the whole thing, is back. ^[16]

Ichihara: Well, we have to make good quality manga. If I were to use Sunday in an analogy, it would be as a runner who was told he would never run again because of a terrible illness and was on the brink of death. Even if we do our best, it'll take another 15 years to reach the level where we can go to the Olympics and compete with our rivals for the gold medal. I still tell the editorial department that if we let our guard down, we'll soon be in danger of discontinuing the publication. Don't forget to prioritize your work. The first chapter of the reform, which was initially thought to take 10 years, is over, but we should never be complacent.

What is your current position and how will you be involved in the future?

Ichihara: My title nowadays is "producer". In short, I'm the deputy director. I'm in a position to supervise Shonen Sunday, Gessan, Monthly Sunday GX and Sunday Webry. I believe my job is to increase the brand power of the Sunday Group. It's important to enrich SSC (Shonen Sunday Comics).

Do you have any parting words for the current Shonen Sunday editorial department?

Ichihara: Don't promote up the ladder an editor-in-chief like me again who has a miserable experience having to fix things (laughs).

---

Footnotes

• [1] Takenori Ichihara (市原武法), born in 1974, had planned to enter the restaurant business before joining the editorial department of Shonen Sunday in 1997 due to his love of Mitsuru Adachi's manga Touch. Ichihara became the editor for Mitsuru Adachi (あだち充), Hiroyuki Nishimori (西森博之), Takuya Mitsuda (満田拓也), Yellow Tanabe (田辺イエロウ) and Taishi Mori (モリタイシ). He soon became respected as an editor and helped train new editors that joined the magazine before departing in 2009 to help launch Gessan (ゲッサン), the monthly imprint of Shonen Sunday where he quickly became the magazine's second editor-in-chief. After his success with Gessan he returned to Shonen Sunday to become the 20th editor-in-chief of Shonen Sunday. Two earlier interviews with Ichihara can be read here and here.
• [2] Ichihara's message stated,
  
  

  Dear Reader,
  
  Thank you for always supporting Shonen Sunday. After 7 years, I have returned to my hometown of Weekly Shonen Sunday. I would like to use this page to convey the greetings and the general policy of Shonen Sunday to the readers.
  
  From now on, Weekly Shonen Sunday will make it an absolute priority to nurture new creators who have risen up through the ranks. Any member of the editorial staff who violates this policy will be asked to leave the Shonen Sunday editorial department without mercy. A "new creator" is an outrageous hero who believes in his own talent, takes his one shot in life, and tries to challenge the vast ocean, where there is no correct answer for what manga should be, and does it all with their bare hands. The manga editor who should be the escort runner is also required to have a tremendous responsibility and resolution. I don't need any editors in Team Sunday who I've decided can't handle the job. And I believe that all the members of the new Shonen Sunday editorial staff who gathered around me for the big team reorganization in July this year are members who have that determination.
  
  On the other hand, my ideal Shonen Sunday isn't created by new creators alone. The power of mid-level and veteran authors who have strongly supported the history of Shonen Sunday is also absolutely necessary. I firmly believe that the perfect balance between tradition and innovation is the driving force behind the appealing “miscellaneous” part of magazines.
  
  From this autumn, major reforms will begin for both the Shonen Sunday main magazine and the Sunday Super special issue. Many serialized works have left the magazine, and instead, talented new and young authors will liven up the magazine one after another. In the next six months, we will further speed up the reforms. Readers, please be a witness to the rebuilding of Shonen Sunday.
  
  As the center of this reform, I, the editor-in-chief of Shonen Sunday, will be making all the decisions related to "manga," from the primary selection for newcomer awards and debut read-throughs for rookie authors to new serialization projects for veteran creators. My own judgment, prejudice, and aesthetic sense are all that I have. Naturally, this is also an expression of my determination to bear the responsibility for the future fate of Shonen Sunday alone.
  
  "I've been a genuine Sunday kid since I was a boy." I have never been a Jump kid or a Magazine kid. Weekly Shonen Sunday has supported me so much during my elementary school, middle school, and high school days. Now is the time for me to give back to Shonen Sunday with all my life as a manga editor. At the same time, it is also a way to give back to the many great manga artists who have built the history of Shonen Sunday and to all the readers who have loved Shonen Sunday throughout the ages. I would appreciate it if you could look forward to my repayment from now on as a "Sunday kid companion".
  
  Takenori Ichihara, Editor-in-Chief of Weekly Shonen Sunday
  
  Toshiyuki Arai (新井利幸), Masanao Murakami (村上正直), Tsubasa Suzuki (鈴木　翼), Katsunobu Ogino (荻野克展), Tomokazu Sodesaki (袖崎友和), Masayoshi Yokoyama (横山真義),
  Masato Itaya (板谷真人), Hiroki Wada (和田裕樹), Akinari Uryu (瓜生昭成), Kazunori Ooshima (大嶋一範), Issei Maeda (前田一聖), Makoto Ishiwatari (石渡　誠),
  Keisuke Hagiwara (萩原啓佑), Chikusa Sugita (杉田千種), Fumitaka Shiotani (塩谷文隆), Isuga Ogura (小倉功雅), Daiki Yamada (山田大樹), Yuto Adachi (安達佑斗)
  

• [3] This Japanese blog points out that Shigeru Kanmuri (冠茂) was not among those who signed Ichihara's pledge, while another blog states that he had already been reassigned to Big Comic Spirits around the time the proclaimation was issued. This is important because Kanmuri was one of the names brought up in Makoto Raiku's lawsuit as being a problematic editor and it is thought that Ichihara's statement, "From now on, Weekly Shonen Sunday will make it an absolute priority to nurture new creators who have risen up through the ranks. Any member of the editorial staff who violates this policy will be asked to leave the Shonen Sunday editorial department without mercy," may have been to address this old issue. Another blog points out that Wild Life mangaka Masato Fujisaki praised Kanmuri for convincing him to join Sunday and giving him good suggestions as his editor and then years later saying he had no good memories from his Wild Life days. This site also gives a good summation of how the issues were seen to have been handled and Kanmuri's responsibility (or absolving him from responsibility). Yosuke Iizuka (飯塚洋介) who lost Makoto Raiku's artwork was also not a signatory, so he had obviously been shuffled elsewhere or let go by this point (he was also a former Takahashi editor on Inuyasha). However Masanao Murakami (村上正直) was mentioned in passing in Raiku's legal brief and was still on-board with Sunday at this point as he was one of the signatories. Murakami was an editor on Inuyasha, however when this was written Masayoshi Yokoyama was Takahashi's current editor on Kyokai no RINNE.
• [4] Detective Conan (名探偵コナン/Meitantei Conan) by Gosho Aoyama (青山剛昌) is the long-running detective manga, the most popular series in Shonen Sunday's history. Inuyasha (犬夜叉) by Rumiko Takahashi (高橋留美子) was the author's third major, consecutive hit manga since she joined Shonen Sunday in 1978. The manga ran from 1996 to 2008. MAJOR by Takuya Mitsuda (満田拓也) is a popular baseball manga than was serialized from 1994 to 2015. It's sequel series MAJOR 2nd began in 2015.
• [5] Ichihara seems to indicate his frustration with the magazine's leaders from 2002 through 2009. This would be under the stewardship of editor-in-chiefs Shinichi Mikami (三上信一) (2001-2004) and Masato Hayashi (林正人) (2004-2009). Mikami had primarily been Kazuhiko Shimamoto's editor in the 1980s and appears as a character in many of his works. He also became the editor-in-chief of Weekly Young Sunday before the magazine was shuttered in 2008. Under Mikami Hayate the Combat Butler (ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku!) and Kekkaishi (結界師) were launched in Shonen Sunday and Shin Takahashi (高橋しん) joined the magazine. As mentioned by legendary Shonen Sunday editor and original editor-in-chief of Big Comic Spirits Katsuya Shirai one of the possible shortcomings of Shogakukan is their policy to shuffle people through the company to give them more experience. "Shogakukan has quite a few magazines when you include even shojo magazines. So, you could try to move from shonen magazines to Spirits and try different things. There aren't many people who have stuck to just Sunday."
• [6] Ichihara is credited as being the second editor-in-chief, though he says he was doing the work (and writing the introduction in the magazine's first issue) from the very beginning. Masato Hayashi (林正人) mentioned above for his tenure at Shonen Sunday is credited as being the first editor-in-chief on Gessan. Prior to his promotion to becoming editor-in-chief Hayashi edited Ushio and Tora (うしおととら) and Karakuri Circus (からくりサーカス), both by Kazuhiro Fujita (藤田和日郎) and Project ARMS by Ryoji Minagawa (皆川 亮二) and Kyoichi Nanatsuke (七月鏡一).
• [7] Kodansha's Afternoon presents a newcomer award four times a year. The winning works are included in a separate volume entitled Afternoon Four Seasons Awards (アフタヌーン四季賞/Afutanuun Shikisho).
• [8] For more on what editors do and the editing process please see our translation of a conversation between legendary editors- Katsuya Shirai and Kazuhiko Torishima. Additionally, Bunshun Online also did an interview with Takahashi's editor Kento Moriwaki which we've translated here. The article is from the same month so it helps to contextualize what Takahashi was doing when Ichihara gave this interview.
• [9] Takahiko Arai (新井隆広) had previously worked on a number of minor hit series in Shonen Sunday and Gessan such as Darren Shan (ダレン・シャン) and AR∀GO (AR∀GO -ロンドン市警特殊犯罪捜査官-/AR∀GO -Rondon Shikei Tokushu Hanzai Sosa-kan-). Mayuko Kanba (かんばまゆこ) worked at Gessan on Can't Hide It! Jamboreene (バレてるよ!ジャンボリーヌ/Bareteruyo! Jyanboriinu)
• [10] Samurai Japan is the Japanese national baseball team that competes in the World Baseball Classic and features all the greatest Japanese baseball players.
• [11] Kazunori Ooshima (大嶋一範) succeeded Ichihara as editor-in-chief of Shonen Sunday. He had been an editor on Detective Conan and worked for CoroCoro Comicspreviously as well as managing Sunday Webry. You can read an interview with him here.
• [12] "Name" (ネーム) would come to encompass the rough drawings that served as the layout/storyboard for the finished pages which are typically called the "manuscript" (原稿/genko), however in their original sense it referred only to the typeset lines of text pasted into the word bubbles. Ichihara is using the term in its modern sense, "storyboards".
• [13] In filmmaking there is a similar concept called "The Kuleshov Effect". It is derived from an experiment the Russian filmmaker Lev Kuleshov demonstrated in the 1910s and 1920s by editing a shot the Russian actor Ivan Mosjoukine staring into the camera. He then followed the image with a shot of a bowl of soup, a child in a coffin or a woman sprawled across a couch. Depending on which cut the audience saw, they believed that Mosjoukine was showing an incredible range of emotions, from hunger for the bowl of soup, to intense grief for the dead child and desperate lust for the woman. In truth the footage of Mosjoukine was identical in every sequence.
• [14] Frieren: Beyond Journey's End won the "Manga Grand Prize" (マンガ大/Manga Taisho) in 2008 and the "Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize" (手塚治虫文化賞/Tezuka Osamu Bunkasho) in 2021 in the New Creators category. The success of Frieren is discussed by Katsuya Shirai as he is told by the Sunday editor-in-chief that it potentially has a Demon Slayer level of potential.
• [15] Kyo Kara Ore Wa!! (今日から俺は!!) ran from 1989 to 1997 and was a big hit for the then-rookie mangaka Hiroyuki Nishimori (西森博之). Nishimori has continued his career at Sunday with Cheeky Angel (天使な小生意気/Tenshi na Konamaiki) and Bad Boy Drinks Tea (お茶にごす/Ocha ni Gosu).
• [16] A Japanese blog contextualized this as, "Jump sells so well because it contains many of the major, royal works of manga history, such as Dragon Ball and Slam Dunk, that it is discarded on train luggage racks all over the place. Magazine is mostly Yankee and sport-oriented manga, and a large percentage of them are placed in small, dirty ramen shops. Sunday has a lot of fashionable works that attract the attention of manga study groups and are popular with enthusiasts."

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