Wednesday, October 28, 2015

The Shonen Jump Dynasty

Well Hello Party people!!!!!
Being this is my first post as a contributor to this fine blog i want to thank Mr. Everette himself for the opportunity to bringing my geekdom and nerdism on this forum. i will try and write as often as i can about alot of stuff but it'll mostly be about Anime/Mangas, video games, comic books, and of course tv and movie. kinda like Everette but not. Anyway without further ado, HERE IS THE SHONEN JUMP DYNASTY
                                     
Like many kids of the american origins, this company here has impacted our lives and may be in fact the gateway drug to today's manga and anime series. Now of course there are a lot of other manga companies out in the world but we're only focusing on shonen and only only about 5 series that impacted and changed the game in america. Now of course there are ALOT of Shonen series but the main five is what broke america into the age of Japanese comics and anime series. It all started with the Saiyan himself Goku

Now in order to save time and space i'm only going to touch on both Dragon ball, and of course Dragon Ball Z for a bit because we have 4 other series to get into (yes i am also aware of dragon ball super, that deserves another post).  Dragon Ball was serialized from 1985 to 1995 with about 519 chapters which is about 42 volumes that was later adapted to two anime series Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. This masterful piece of art here was inspired by the Chinese story "journey to the west" which if you read it, you'll notice that ALOT of Anime and Manga's are loosely based off this story. Now if you're like many children this is what started us all into the Manga/Anime franchise. Here we follow young Goku on his adventure to be the strongest warrior in the universe surrounded by these magical 7 dragonballs that could grant any wish that's not beyond the dragons power. So with many episodes of great fighting and transformations the unthinkable happened; on April 7, 2003 the last episode of dragon ball z aired and we were all left like crack addicts needing another great show to fill the void. who was going to save us, who was gonna give the people the great story line and action we needed? Shonen answered and created the holy trinity: Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece
Again, in order to save time because i can go into a lengthy detail on all three we're just going to skip to the basics. in order from serialization and what not, going to start with One Piece then Naruto and finally finish it with Bleach.

 One Piece is about a pirate (Monkey D. Luff) who is trying to be the king of all the pirates by getting the Legendary Pirate Treasure on the grand line left in "One Piece" (Roll Credits). Luffy leads his band of pirates called "The Straw Hat Pirates" into crazy adventures against other pirates trying to be the next pirate king and of course, against the Navy/Marines because if you know history technically pirates are the bad guys. It wouldn't be a shonen manga/anime if they didn't have super powers and in this case they do. Luffy is a pirate who ate the forbidden fruit called the devil fruit. Depending on the Fruit it gives you different abilities and crazy power ups. In Luffy's case he ate the Gum Gum Fruit so he's literally a rubber man. There are other powers too such as Haku's but you just need to read the manga itself to learn more which it is a great read. One piece was serialized into shonen jump in July of 1997 and it's still going. They just released chapter 804 in the manga and we are on episode 718 so if you need something to watch over the summer to binge, i recommend one piece. Now if pirates are not your speed there is always Ninjas.
Naruto was serialized in August of 1997 with a completed series of 700 chapters and an extra 10 chapter for Naruto Gaiden. Thats about 72 volumes if we were to go to the numbers game. This series Lead to two Naruto animes: Naruto, and Naruto Shippuden. Naruto is About a Ninja named Naruto Uzamaki and his quest to become the greatest Ninja of all time AKA the Hokage. He is shunned in his village (the village hidden in the leaves) because inside him lives a monster called the nine tail fox. there are a lot of tailed beasts ranging from 1-9 and other villages but im not going to spoil it for you guys. Now Naruto's parents died when the Nine tails attacked the village leaving devestation and death everywhere, but the 4th Hokage Sealed the beast inside Naruto when he was a baby. Naruto goes to ninja school fails horribly until he learns a new jutsu and then gets stronger through out the series. The story line in this series is AMAZING. also, in this series everything is connected so an arc that you was reading or watching in the beginning might show up again down the road. Just Like DBZ, the Manga and the story that is Naruto is finished. The Anime is also wrapping up too but this is another series thats left me wanting more. Now time to go to the Story of Soul Reapers.
Bleach was serialized in August of 2001, and with that it has 648 chapters which is about 69 volumes and one anime series just called Bleach. Story is about a kid name Ichigo Kurosaki who can see ghosts and one day finds that a ghost was being eaten by something called a hollow. while trying to save that ghost a soul reaper appears to slay the hollow. Ichigo's family gets attacked by these hollow, the soul reaper Ruki gets hurt and rukia gives ichigo these soul reaper abilities. he defeats them and rukia is stuck in a human body. the story gets a lot more in depth the further you read. they start explaining hollows and what they are, the job of a soul reaper and all of the abilities of said reapers.the adventures take ichigo and his companions to hell and back and other spiritual places. one thing i have to give them credit is their explanation of concepts in this series is a work of art. At this point in time they're at the final stretch and will be ending the series after this story arc. Now that the Holy trinity is about to come to an end (not including One Piece cause lord knows when that will end) what's next on this dynasty line? well i'll tell you after this emotional lil' comic strip

when i tell you i cried when this comic came out, i cried disgustingly. cried like Kim K type disgusting. Anywho, i digress. we all had speculation on what was going to take the lead in the Shonen Jump Dynasty, in my mind i believed it would've been Fairy Tale but that little kid in the comic strip told me different. After many debates over the internet on who that child was (could've been the figurative character that is the world), we finally understood who was up in line next. It was time for the age of Super Heroes.

Boku No Hero Academia aka My Hero Academy, is the next one up on the Dynasty that is Shonen.  Serialized in July 2014, Boku No Hero Academia has 64 chapters which is about 5 volumes and is gaining popularity by the minute. Story takes place in a world where all human beings suddenly gets super powers which they call them quirks. Each quirk is different, some people can control toys, or fly or have more radical quirks like fire and ice and insane super strength.  In this world you could also apply to be a hero (which is a civil servant job), ,and where do heroes get their education? well at a hero academy of course. The main character is a boy named Izuku Midoriya who dreams of being the greatest super hero of all time like his role model All Might. Problem is, he has no quirks at all. Not even a little bit, so of course he gets bullied but it never dissuades him. until one faithful day a monster attacks (yeah there are monsters and of course super villains) and he tries to save his friend and All Might shows up and rescues Midoriya and the friend. All Might was sooo moved by his heroism that he has dubbed him his successor to his quirk. Like Midoriya, he didn't have a quirk either, the quirk was passed onto him from his predecessor which gave All Might his INSANE super strength. This is as far as i'm going to say about this wonderful read but, i say pick it up, read it and love it. it has all the necessary elements a great manga has. Great character development, an in depth world, and ALOT of actions. soooo yeah, that's it.........'till the next post

--Jynn

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