''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
is a Japanese manga anthology marketed to a ''seinen'' audience that was edited by Coamix and published weekly by Shinchosha from 2001 throughout 2010 and became monthly since 2011. The collected editions of their titles are published under th ...
''. 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). 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
A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...
to
domain squatters. The corporate website, '
gutsoon.com'' remained in operation for many years but wasn't updated after June 2004,
Raijin Comics Loses Domain – Anime News Network
/ref> 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.
Series published by Raijin
The following series were serialized in ''Raijin Comics'', with the issues they appeared in parentheses:
* '' Baki the Grappler'' (2-46)
* '' Bomber Girl'' (1-11)
* ''Bow Wow Wata
is a manga by Kazumi Umekawa that was initially serialized in ''Weekly Comic Bunch'' from 2001 throughout 2004. After the serialization was pulled from ''Comic Bunch'', it was picked up by ''Comic Rex'', where it was retitled ''Gaugau Wāta ...
'' (14-21, 23–33, 35–41, 43–46)
* ''City Hunter
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tsukasa Hojo. It was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1985 to 1991 and collected into 35 ''tankōbon'' volumes by its publisher Shueisha. The manga was adapted into ...
'' (1-46)
* '' The First President of Japan'' (2-18, 20–23, 25–29)
* ''Fist of the Blue Sky
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tetsuo Hara, with plot supervision by Buronson. It was serialized in '' Weekly Comic Bunch'' from 2001 to 2010, with the chapters collected into 22 ''tankōbon'' volumes by Shinchosha ...
'' (1-31, 34–35, 37–46)
* '' Guardian Angel Getten'' (4-7, 9-20, 22–32, 34–46)
* '' Nemuri Kyoshiro'' (33-46)
* '' Hana no Keiji'' (19-34, 36–45)
* ''Mountain Climbers Saga'' (5, 13, 46)
* ''Revenge of Mouflon'' (4-18, 30–36, 38–46)
* ''Slam Dunk
A slam dunk, also simply known as dunk, is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air, controls the ball above the horizontal plane of the rim, and scores by shoving the ball directly through the basket with one ...
'' (1-14, 16–46)
Imprinted manga series
See also
* List of manga magazines published outside of Japan
The following is a list of notable manga magazines that were, and are published outside Japan. Not all magazines abroad published their own manga or had the rights to serialize manga originally published in Japan. To qualify for this list, the mag ...
References
External links
Raijin Comics
( Waybacked)
Anime and manga magazines
Magazines established in 2002
Magazines disestablished in 2004
2002 establishments in the United States
2004 disestablishments in the United States
Defunct magazines published in the United States
{{Anime-mag-stub