Tag Archives: shounen sunday

How Diabolical!

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I think there’s more to the manga and anime series Zettai Karen Children than meets the eye, possibly some kind of elaborate conspiracy taking place over a period of years.

The series is about 3 young psychic girls defending the world alongside their adult caretaker (not pictured) Looking at the character designs, I think it’s undeniable that there is at least some lolicon appeal to these characters and that the creators are well aware of this element.

However, Zettai Karen Children does not run in some otaku-pandering magazine. It’s not like it’s from Comic High or Champion Red Ichigo or even Dengeki Daioh. ZKC runs in Shounen Sunday, the home of Detective Conan, Kekkaishi, Touch!, and Inuyasha. It’s meant to appeal to young boys first and foremost, though in a way different from Shounen Jump‘s more well-known approach of commercialized battling and the like.

Shounen Sunday has a well-established track record of introducing female characters who are on equal footing with their male counterparts with the goal of introducing the concept of males and females being equal to one another to children at an early age. There’s Ran in Detective Conan, Tokine in Kekkaishi, Minami in Touch!, and Kagome in Inuyasha. Having the main characters be the girls in ZKC means that the strength of females is readily apparent.

I have trouble thinking that Shounen Sunday would just let a series with lolicon elements run in its pages without some kind of ulterior motive to change or influence people, to just let it run to attract that older otaku audience.

As Zettai Karen Children has continued, the titular girls have aged. As of now, they are junior high age and their bodies have clearly matured. First, this implies that the progression of time is desired in the series, and second, that the girls are gradually moving away from being designed to have that very, very youthful appeal.

What I think they’re actually doing is an attempt to slowly create an  attraction to adult women in a group that might normally reject it otherwise. It’s using the power of the 2D complex to seize the hearts of otaku early on and then gradually wean them off of lolicon.

That’s Shounen Sunday, thinking long-term.

Sunday vs Magazine, or WAKE UP ATTACK, JOOOEEEEEE!

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A while back we heard news from the land of the rising run that the Jump Stars series of fighting games was getting a rival. Not only would it be comprised of heroes from manga serials that are decidedly not Shounen Jump, but they would even appear on the Nintendo DS’s rival handheld gaming device, the PSP. Well now the trailer’s been released, and I don’t think I gotta say this but I will anyway: Game looks DYNAMITE ON FIRE.

So here we have Sunday vs Magazine Shuuketsu! Choujou Daikessen! or roughly, The Sunday vs Magazine Gathering! The Greatest Ultimate Battle, and it looks to be a very different fighting game from Jump Ultimate Stars. It uses 3d graphics, seems to be more of a traditional 1-on-1 fighter, and of course the roster is way different.

Yeah they announced some characters a while back, and most of them are really awesome, particularly Ippo and Mechazawa, but then they started pulling out the big guns: Yabuki Joe! Devilman! Tiger Mask! CYBORG 009! This game means serious business, and is reaching hard and deep to fulfill its destiny.

There’s definitely going to be hidden characters, mark my word. There’s no way a game as big as this would forget everyone’s favorite age-regressed bowtie-wearing detective.

I’ve talked about how important it is for a crossover to FEEL like a crossover even if a person has never heard of most or any of the properties involved, and this trailer pulls it off with astounding success. Who would not be stoked, really? And even if you hate a character, then here’s your opportunity to Cross Counter their face in!