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 ½ and the currently popular MEITANTEI CONAN.

Last issue's SHONEN SUNDAY update (1998 Issue 41)

Selected news from this issue:
In full-color glossy pages, SHONEN SUNDAY trumpets the upcoming December broadcast of a new two hour anime of Adachi Mitsuru's TOUCH. In real life, it's been eleven years since TOUCH aired on TV. In the movie, it's been four years since Tatsuya declared his love for Minami, but Tatsuya and Minami have gone their separate ways. Tatsuya, no longer playing baseball, is suddenly distracted by a new character named Kaori. What will happen to him and Minami? And to his baseball dreams? Adachi Mitsuru and TOUCH fans are sure to be glued to the TV set for this one....

Selected Brief Updates:

INUYASHA
by Takahashi Rumiko

Overview: Kagome is a modern student teamed up with the strange boy Inuyasha in 15th or 16th century Japan, seeking to retrieve the fragments of the magical Shikon No Tama.
This issue: Inuyasha and company have decided to help a boy whose friend is being sacrificed, in his stead, in order to placate a bloodthirsty god (such sacrifices are a common theme in Japanese popular mythology). They arrive at a large temple devoted to the local water god. There, Inuyasha quickly works his way to the apparent water god, who has uncovered the victim-switching scheme already. The water god's divine weapon renders even Inuyasha's sword inactive. Kagome and the others, dismayed by the show of power, know that real gods are far tougher than most of the demons they have fought....

ME GUMI NO DAIGO
by 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: Kondou, Daigo's pushy would-be girlfriend, is surprised to find her romantic rival, high school teacher Ochiai, taking courses at the same college. Meanwhile, Daigo, who had been expecting to get fired over his previous daring actions, has been put on the list to enter the new "Hyper Rescue" group. Later, Daigo winds up promising to go on a Saturday date with Kondou. That Saturday, Ochiai, just about to leave on a one month long entomology trip to Sumatra, happens to see Daigo leaving with Kondou before she can bid him good-bye. Wordlessly, Ochiai departs for her long trip....

LOVE
by Ishiwata Osamu

Overview: Takagi Ai ("Love") is a girl who, in a bid to have a re-match with her old tennis rival, has entered a high school tennis club disguised as a boy.
This issue: Ai, exposed as a 13-year-old girl, is facing the opponent who actually beat her old rival Youhei: he's a psycho young man named Yamashiro who "sold his soul" for the sake of victory. The keys to beating him have something to do with breaking the "doping" he underwent, and the presence of his nearly catatonic mother. But as the frustrated crowd watches, Ai keeps repeating the same types of shots over and over, and Yamashiro keeps racking up the points against her. However, Youhei, watching, knows that Ai can still win as long as she can win over herself....

JAJAUMA GROOMING UP!
by 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's prized colt Hiko has at last been sold, but Shunpei is severely distracted by numerous almost-but-not-quite intimate moments with a very reticent Hibiki. At last he manages to take her out privately, where they find a hot spring Shunpei had visited before. They take turns in the water (no even vaguely intimate moments, of course), and Hibiki remarks that she is enjoying her day playing hooky away from work. But even afterward, Hibiki is still acting reticent....

GHOST SWEEPER MIKAMI GOKURAKU DAISAKUSEN!!
by 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: Ashtaroth's massive final trump card has been destroyed; his death wish has (apparently) been granted. While the gods and demon/devils breathe a big sigh of relief, Mikami's mother (who had survived the whole ordeal) returns to the past to fake her death (because after all, Mikami grew up thinking her mother had died, and the past can't be changed without other problems occurring). As soon as she's gone, the present-day Mrs. Mikami drops by, apologizes for the long deception, and turns out to be eight months into a pregnancy.... Later, Mikami and the others try to comfort Yokoshima about Luciola, whom they could not resurrect and who might never be able to be re-born, and hit upon a solution: Luciola can be re-born as Yokoshima's daughter, since his body contains massive amounts of her energy. Of course Yokoshima wants to start the baby-making process immediately.