Shonen Sunday Briefs

Shonen Sunday Weekly, 1997 Issue 10
Shogakukan
Update by Eri Izawa

What is Shonen Sunday? Shonen Sunday is one of the largest weekly manga magazines in Japan. Containing some of the latest and hottest boys' manga series in Japan, Sunday has hosted such notables as RANMA 1/2 and the currently popular MEITANTEI CONAN.

Selected Overview
Dandoh!!
Sakata Nobuhiro (story) / Banjou Daichi (art)

Sports in Japan are often the extension of the historic "warrior's path" once tread by the dedicated and philosophical followers of bushido. DANDOH!! continues the tradition of elevating sports to a higher realm than just winning and losing.
In this case, the sport is golf, and the hero is fifth grader Aoba Tadamichi, whose first name can be also read "Dandoh," or "trajectory". He is a boy dedicated to not only golf, but the spirit of golf. He not only reads the air currents to figure out where to send the ball, but he views the air currents as spirits to be respected and understood. He not only treats his own equipment with respect, but he has also risks his safety to save others' equipment from damage. In the current story, acting as the caddy, he has sacrificed his nightly sleep and pushed himself past the point of exhaustion in order to scope out the golf course for his adult golfer friend Akano Takuya.
One of Dandoh's sources of strength are his good friends. Sunada Yuka is a classmate and old friend; she has followed him through his golfing adventures by holding her own in the girls' golfing divisions. Ooike Kouhei is another classmate who has followed him into golf and tried to keep up with him. Dandoh's teacher is Shinjou Mikiyasu, a former legendary professional golfer. Early in the series, Shinjou was quietly intrigued by the strength of Dandoh's friendships. Shinjou was hopeful that Dandoh's progression through golfing would not be as lonely as his had been, and his prognosis was correct. Many of Dandoh's newer friends are those he has won through his devotion to the spirit of golf, such as Akano Takuya, who rediscovered the joy of golf through Dandoh's sincerity. Even golfers who had resorted to lying and cheating are touched and changed by Dandoh.
Dandoh!! admittedly can get a little thick with its hero's devotion to golf, but the utter sincerity of the character can make even the reader, perhaps, feel a bit like Dandoh's rivals --- amazed and inspired at the same time.

Selected Brief Updates
Inuyasha
Takahashi Rumiko

Overview: Kagome is a seemingly normal student who finds herself in fifteenth or sixteenth century Japan, where she meets the strange boy Inuyasha. They are on a quest to retrieve the fragments of the Shikon no Tama, whose powers are sought by evil beings.
This issue: Kagome and Inuyasha are still battling Yura, the Oni girl whose primary tool and weapon is human hair. Inuyasha's supposedly fatal attacks fail to slow Yura down. But Kagome catches sight of something strange about one of Yura's collected skulls. Yura tries to stop Kagome from reaching the skull, but the shirt Inuyasha had lent Kagome protects her from Yura's blade. Finally, Kagome breaks open the skull and destroys the comb that had been hidden inside it, and Yura disappears; the comb is where Yura had hidden her soul. Kagome retrieves the Shikon No Tama fragment, and for the first time Inuyasha calls her by her name. As they prepare to go on with their search, though, a tiny creature appears.

Me Gumi no Daigo
Soda Masahito

Overview: Asahina Daigo is a young firefighter with the "Me" Company, who has an unusual ability to find and rescue people in danger.
This issue: A civic meeting hall is on fire. Diago, still stewing over being chastised for his poor word-problem testing skills, arrives at the site with the other firefighters. The Rescue Team, also on site, orders Daigo and a coworker inside to help. In the dark interior of the hall, Daigo is electrically shocked as he steps onto the flooded floor; wires are passing through the water. As the Rescue Team finds a fire victim, Daigo is suddenly worried by flickers of electricity above.

Love
Ishiwata Osamu

Overview: Takagi Ai ("Love") is a girl who, in a bid to have a rematch with her old tennis rival, has entered a high school tennis club disguised as a boy.
This issue: Love is unhappily reminded that her gym class is about to launch into swimming sessions -- in which she could not possibly keep up her male disguise. Turning down offers of fake health excuses from Midoriko, she is determined to think up her own excuse. That night, the boys at her dorm are starting to imagine her in a girls' bathing suit, even though they can't figure out why. They later try to throw her into the bathtub, but Love quickly comes up with a bad excuse for why she can't be submerged: she claims her skin must remain dry because it handles half her respiration ("I'm a frog!"). In the meantime, Yuuko is increasingly alarmed by Love's growingly precarious bluff, and suddenly approaches her boyfriend Hyuuga about Love.

Grooming Up!
Yuki Masami

Overview: Although originally a city boy, young Kuze Shunpei has taken to working as a farm hand at the Watarai racing horse breeding farm; he also has taken to Watarai Hibiki, one of the Watarai daughters.
This issue: Shunpei, Hibiki and Abumi run into Satoru at the races, where they have come to watch Hibiki and Abumi's brother Yuuki ride. Shunpei winds up invited to a private party later, where racing industry men spend their time not only discussing their business but also hitting on Hibiki and Abumi --- though mostly the more ladylike Abumi. At last, Shunpei and Satoru come to Abumi's rescue when her bad alcohol habits start to surface. Later, Shunpei is off to visit his home, and bids good-bye to the others.

Ghost Sweeper Mikami Gokuraku Daisakusen!!
Shiina Takashi

Overview: Mikami Reiko is a money-hungry, gorgeous female ghost buster, aided by her sex-starved and underpaid male assistant Yokoshima Tadao, as well as kind and gentle female ex-ghost O-kinu.
This issue: (Quick note: In Japan, the American Valentine's Day custom is reversed, and women are expected to give their favorite men chocolate.) Witch Marin's cat severely overdoses Marin's batch of Valentine's Day chocolate with a potent potion. Too late, Yokoshima and Saijou learn its effects: it is a potion that makes women detest the men who've eaten it. Yokoshima and Saijou are nearly killed by both Mikami and Meiko, and flee far away. Marin almost comes to their rescue with the antidote, but she also falls under the potion's effects, and instead smashes the antidote and flies away laughing. Yokoshima and Saijou's only hope may lie in O-kinu, who is trying to figure out what's going on.

Major
Mitsuda Takuya

Overview: It has been 4 years since Honda Goro, the orphaned son of a professional baseball player, put together the Mifune Little League team. Now in junior high school, he has just returned to his old neighborhood.
This issue: Honda has helped rescue Komori, and now meets Yamane, an unpleasant but charismatic boy who is the apparent leader of the kids who had beat up Komori. Later, Komori demands to know why Honda left their old Little League team without a word of good-bye when Honda's family had moved. Honda tells him that the damage he had done to his shoulder four years ago had forced him out of baseball; he had not wanted the embarrassment of his friends' pity. That night, Honda goes home and speaks with his adoptive mother; then he goes to his room and digs out his baseball glove. At about the same time, Yamane receives a strange message on his beeper.