''Bōken Ō'' (冒険王, "Adventure King") was a monthly

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

for youth published by

Akita Shoten is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Teio Akita in 1948. As of May 2023, the company's president is Shigeru Higuchi. The company is known for publishing the manga magazine '' Weekly Shōnen Champ ...

between 1949 and 1983. It was among the first generation of children's comic magazines after World War II in Japan and was initially focused on publishing illustrated prose and emonogatari and then shifted to

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

History

The magazine was initially founded under the title ''Shōnen Shōjo Bōkenō'' (少年少女冒険王) and was eventually renamed ''Bōken Ō''. Nobumichi Akutsu acted as chief editor of the magazine for decades and worked extensively with

Osamu Tezuka Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu'', – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist and animator. Considered to be among the greatest and most influential cartoonists of all time, his prolific output, pioneering techniques an ...

. The magazine initially published some of the biggest hits of emonogatari during its peak, among them the science fiction series ''Sabaku no Maō'' by Tetsuji Fukushima. The magazine's editor gave Fukushima American comics as a reference for the series. In the early 1950s, it shifted more and more towards manga. The

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

manga ''Igaguri-kun'' by Eiichi Fukui, serialized between 1952 and 1954, became the top selling manga series at the time, brought ''Bōken Ō'' to a circulation of 300.000 per month and fueled a surge in judo manga. In 1952, in response to the magazine's success, ''Manga Ō'' (漫画王, "Manga King") was established as a sister magazine to ''Bōken Ō''. From the 1960s on, the magazine had a focus on manga adaptations of

tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live-action films or television programs that make heavy use of practical special effects. Credited to special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, ''tokusatsu'' mainly refers to science fiction film, science fiction, War fi ...

films and news about

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

. After its cancellation, the magazine turned into a magazine reporting about anime.

Legacy

Animation director

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese ani ...

read the magazine in his childhood and was inspired by works like ''Sabaku no Maō'' and Tezuka's ''Taiheiyō X Ten (Point)''.

Features

Among the series featured in the magazine were: * ''Sabaku no Maō'' by Tetsuji Fukushima (1949-1956) * '' Age of Adventure'' by

(1951-1953) * ''Byakkō Kamen'' by Tomohika Oka (1951-1954) * ''Igaguri-kun'' by Eiichi Fukui (1952-1954) * ''Taiheiyō X Ten (Point)'' by Osamu Tezuka (1953) * ''Chikyu no Akuma'' by Osamu Tezuka (1954) * ''Lost World'' by Osamu Tezuka (1955) * ''Majin Garon'' by Osamu Tezuka (1959-1962) * ''

Yuuyake Banchō is a Japanese manga series written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Toshio Shoji. The term "banchō is an area in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, consisting of the six "-banchō" districts, to , as well as parts of Kudanminami and Kudankita, ...

'' by

Ikki Kajiwara , known by the pen names and , was a Japanese author, manga writer, and film producer. He is known for the work about sports and martial arts, with images of heroic young men with the occasional fine details as he moves from one topic to anoth ...

and Toshio Shoji * ''

Cyborg 009 is a Japanese science fiction manga created by Shotaro Ishinomori. It was serialized in many different Japanese magazines, including '' Monthly Shōnen King'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'', '' Shōnen Big Comic'', '' COM'', ' ...

'' by

Shotaro Ishinomori , né , was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, writer and director. Known as the "King of Manga" (漫画の帝王 (''Manga no Teiou)'' or 漫画の王様 (''Manga no Ousama)''), he is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential mang ...

* ''Rival no Hata'' by

Jirō Tsunoda Jirō Tsunoda ( Japanese: つのだじろう ''Tsunoda Jirō'', born 3 July 1936) is a Japanese manga artist. He is known in Japan for his horror manga series such as '' Kyōfu Shinbun'' and '' Ushiro no Hyakutarō'' as well as illustrator of the ...

(1968) * ''

Dororo is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka's childhood memory of his friends pronouncing as ''dororo'' inspired the title of the series. ''Dororo'' was first serialized in Shogakukan's '' ...

'' by Osamu Tezuka (1969) * ''Niji wo yobu Ken'' by Jirō Tsunoda and

(1969-1970) * ''Submarine Super 99'' by

Leiji Matsumoto was a Japanese manga artist, and creator of several anime and manga series. His widow Miyako Maki is also a manga artist. Matsumoto was famous for his works such as ''Space Battleship Yamato'' and ''Galaxy Express 999''. His style was chara ...

(1970-1972) * ''Thunder Daiō'' by

Mitsuteru Yokoyama was a Japanese manga artist. Considered to be one of the greatest and most influential figures in the history of manga and anime, his works have had a significant impact in the creation and establishment of many genres. These include: mecha (''T ...

(1971-1972) * ''

Space Battleship Yamato is a Japanese science fiction anime series written by Yoshinobu Nishizaki, directed by manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, and produced by Academy Productions. The series aired in Yomiuri TV from October 6, 1974 to March 30, 1975, totaling u ...

'' by Leiji Matsumoto (1974-1975) * '' Getter Robo G'' by

Go Nagai , better known by the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist and a prolific author of Japanese science fiction, science fiction, fantasy, Japanese horror, horror, and erotica. He made his professional debut in 1967 with ''Meakashi Polikichi'', b ...

and

Ken Ishikawa was a Japanese manga artist. He is renowned as the co-creator (with Go Nagai) of the ''Getter Robo'' anime series, as well as four of their subsequent manga continuations. According to Nagai, he considered Ishikawa his greatest friend and ally. ...

(1975-1976)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boken O 1949 establishments in Japan 1983 disestablishments in Japan Defunct magazines published in Japan Magazines established in 1949 Magazines disestablished in 1983 Magazines published in Tokyo Shōnen manga Monthly manga magazines published in Japan