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In pop culture, YADA-YADA usually means "blah, blah, blah" or "more of the same." For this blog, YADA-YADA is an acronym meaning "Young Adult Discussions About Young Adult-Designed Art." Check out my summaries and reviews of teen media. Chime in and let me know what you think!




Thursday, April 22, 2010

Blog No. 27 - Shonen Jump by Viz Media

GENRE: YA Magazine for Boys

Title: Shonen Jump
Editor in Chief: Grant Lowery

Bibliographic Information:
Softcover 367 pages
Publisher: VIZ Media
ISSN: 1545-7818
Reading Level: Grade 8 and up
Reading Age: Grade 9 and up

Reader’s Annotation:
A magazine for male young adults that specializes in manga and Japanese anime. Shonen means boy in Japanese.

Plot Summary:
Shonen Jump is for guys who love manga and Japanese Anime. Each issue generally contains several stories at the same time, which finish in future issues. The May 2010 issue, which I reviewed, (Volume 8, Issue 5) contains the following serial stories: Bakuman, Bleach, Ultimo, Naruto, One Piece and D. Gray-Man. Each of these stories usually runs 20-50 pages.

Critical Analysis:
Some boys love Shonen Jump; others could care less. If you are a manga fan, or love Japanese anime, this is for you. Shonen is the Japanese word for “Boy” or “young man” and the stories in this pertain to males’ interests, although I have seen some girls who are die-hard manga fans read it, too. It is colorful, busy and eye-catching, so those who love this art form will love this magazine. Some of the content is a bit sexist, so ladies beware.

About the Publisher, Editor and Staff:
(The list of credits on this magazine takes up two full pages, so I am only listing the main ones here)
Publisher: Hyoe Narita
President and CEO: Hidemi Fukuhara
VP Production Alvin Lu
Senior Editorial Director: Elizabeth Kawasaki
Editor in Chief: Grant Lowery
Senior Editor: Joel Enos
Assistant Managing Editor: Aliana Yee

Booktalking Ideas:
Not applicable.

Challenge Issues:
Some of the images and manga have a bit of violence.

Why I chose this magazine:
We subscribe to it at my high school library. We keep it behind the circulation desk, as it tends to “walk away” and never come back.

Cover image courtesy of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shonen_Jump_(magazine)

1 comment:

  1. Wow Nice post regarding Japanese manga anthology magazine. I am really happy to see its review here. I just collect this amazing magazine at PIJ. Now I am really happy. :D
    http://bit.ly/shonen-jump

    ReplyDelete