Raijin Comics is a discontinued manga anthology published from 2002 until 2004 in North America by the now-defunct Gutsoon! Entertainment and largely backed by the Sega Corporation at its inception. The collected volumes of Raijin Comics titles were published under the Raijin Graphic Novels imprint. The magazine was aimed at mature readers.
Premiering with a cover date of December 18, 2002, Raijin was initially published on a weekly basis similar to various popular manga magazines in Japan, including Coamix's own Weekly Comic Bunch . However, distribution problems made the weekly schedule difficult to maintain and the weekly format ceased with issue #36 (September 10, 2003), becoming a monthly publication from issue #37 (October 2003). [1] The magazine eventually ceased publication with issue #46 (July 2004). Its failure to break into the U.S. market has been attributed to competition with the North American version of Shonen Jump , which debuted shortly afterward, despite the fact that they were aimed at different age range. Also, unlike Jump, many of the titles in Raijin lacked general brand awareness amongst casual American manga fans.
On May 5, 2005, Raijin lost control of the raijincomics.com domain name to domain squatters. The corporate website, gutsoon.com remained in operation for many years but wasn't updated after June 2004, [2] and as of mid-2010, has been taken over by domain squatters. Since the folding of Raijin Comics, some of its titles (Slam Dunk, Guardian Angel Getten and Fist of the North Star) have since been licensed to other companies.
The following series were serialized in Raijin Comics, with the issues they appeared in parentheses:
Title | Author/Illustrator |
---|---|
Fist Of the North Star | Art: Tetsuo Hara, Story: Buronson |
Twisted Tales | Art and Story: Tsukasa Tsuji |
Irasshaimase, Japan! | Art and Story: Jun Hanyunyu |
Shōnen manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent boys. It is, along with shōjo manga, seinen manga, and josei manga, one of the primary editorial categories of manga. Shōnen manga is traditionally published in dedicated manga magazines that exclusively target the shōnen demographic group.
Takehiko Inoue is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for the basketball series Slam Dunk (1990–1996), and the jidaigeki manga Vagabond, which are two of the best-selling manga series in history. Many of his works are about basketball, Inoue himself being a huge fan of the sport. His works sold in North America through Viz Media are Slam Dunk, Vagabond and Real, although Slam Dunk was earlier translated by Gutsoon! Entertainment. In 2012, Inoue became the first recipient of the Cultural Prize at the Asia Cosmopolitan Awards.
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Slam Dunk is a Japanese sports manga series written and illustrated by Takehiko Inoue. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from October 1990 to June 1996, with the chapters collected into 31 tankōbon volumes. It tells the story of a basketball team from Shōhoku High School in the Shōnan area of Japan.
Fist of the North Star is a Japanese manga series written by Buronson and illustrated by Tetsuo Hara. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump for 245 issues published from 1983 to 1988 and initially collected in 27 tankōbon volumes under the Jump Comics imprint. Set on a post-apocalyptic Earth after a nuclear war, the story centers on a warrior named Kenshiro, the successor of a deadly martial art known as Hokuto Shinken, which gives him the ability to kill his opponents by striking their secret vital points, which often results in an exceptionally violent and gory death. Kenshiro dedicates his life to fighting against the various gangs, bandits, and warlords who threaten the lives of the defenseless and innocent, as well as rival martial artists.
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Tetsuo Hara is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for Co-creating the post-apocalyptic martial arts series Fist of the North Star (1983–1988) with writer Buronson, which is one of the best-selling manga in history with over 100 million copies in circulation.
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Gutsoon! Entertainment, Inc. is a now defunct publisher of English translated manga. The company, headquartered in Encino, Los Angeles, served as the US subsidiary of Coamix, which was founded by Nobuhiko Horie and manga artist Tsukasa Hojo.
Coamix Co., Ltd. is a Japanese manga and anime production company headquartered in the Kichijoji Zizo Building in Kichijōji, Musashino, Tokyo. The company was previously partnered with Shinchosha until 2010 and then with Tokuma Shoten until Coamix began self-publishing in 2020.
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Bomber Girl is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Makoto Niwano. It was published in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from January to April 1994.
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