Copyright © 2000 Shogakukan
Last Issue's Update
[2000 Issue 32]

What is 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:

JAJAUMA GROOMING UP!
by Yuki Masami

Overview: Although originally a city boy, young Kuze Shunpei has taken to working as a farmhand at the Watarai racing horse breeding farm; he also has taken to Watarai Hibiki, one of the Watarai daughters. The two marry....
This Issue: This issue: In the previous issue of GROOMING UP! Hibiki has unexpectedly entered labor and goes to the hospital, unbeknownst to Shunpei, who has traveled to Tokyo to watch the Japan Derby. Rather than have him return in a rush and miss the race, Hibiki has asked that he not be told (besides, they think he might return before the baby is born). Shunpei roots for his favorite horse, previously named Hiko, the one he saved from euthanasia and raised himself early in his career at the farm (Hiko had been one of a set of twins, where twins are considered too weak to ever become good race horses). Hibiki is in hard labor (and listening on the radio to the Derby) by the start of the race. Unfortunately for Shunpei, Hiko crosses the goal line last, but simultaneously a certain newborn baby lets out his first scream....
In this issue's final episode of GROOMING UP!, Shunpei greets last-place Hiko (who wants a treat), but is roundly yelled at by Hibiki's brother Yuuki, who dislikes Shunpei's softness. In a thoroughly unhappy mood, Shunpei returns home only to discover that his son has been born. After having a look at the baby, he goes to meet Hibiki. With the hard defeat in mind, Yuuki's angry lecture ringing in his ears, the missed delivery, and the baby's safe birth, Shunpei feels a complete mix of loneliness, sadness, frustration, and joy, and is comforted by Hibiki as he lets loose the tears....
In LAST STEP, the second part of this episode, we see the words "End Part 1"; a 31 year old Tazuna, a novelist, is telling Shunpei's son Kyouhei (15 years old) that since Shunpei hasn't yet made a Derby horse, there's no final ending to the story. Arriving at the site of the Derby, they meet up with Watarai Satoru, who is now 38 and boss of the Chiba Watarai Farm. Back at the ranch, we see Hibiki's father (now 64), little Kuze Akari (5), Watarai Hizume (now 28), Hibiki's mother (now 61). At the Derby, meanwhile, Abumi (38 year-old housewife and married to Satoru) is naturally lost. Kyouhei has found Yuuki, and they chide each other on Shunpei's failed Derby horse attempts, and Yuuki's age (he's 35 and may not be a jockey for much longer). At the ranch, meanwhile, Kuze Honoka (11), tells her grandparents that someone named "Ume" has emailed. She then goes to fetch her parents because the race is about to start. Back at the Derby, Kyouhei is sent to find Abumi ... and along the way runs into a pretty, long-haired girl. In the final frame, we see Hibiki, Honoka, and Shunpei in the paddock, preparing to go in to watch the Derby. And thus, spring returns.
With this last episode ends the six-year-old manga that went to unusual places for a boys' series: simple work on a ranch, the harsh realities of a competitive industry, pregnancy as a consequence of sex, and on into marriage. Yet, despite the unusual topics, the power of GROOMING UP! actually lies in its normality and adherence to the details of every day, normal life. Of course, like any good manga, its characters are memorable, its art compelling, but still, GROOMING UP! struck home because it was fundamentally about home—the daily existence of a normal person doing a normal job and starting a normal family. No sudden flashes of insight, no sudden miraculous character growth (OK, there were one or two minor miracles of coincidence, but life has those aplenty), just the slow, steady rhythm of life, of the seasons, birth, growth, and renewal. In its simplicity, it brings hope and reassurance to its readers, mainly young people who are looking into the unknown years that our hero has just passed through. And that, undoubtedly, is why the series ends with the return of spring, the ever-present promise of new life and new tomorrows.