# Weekly Shōnen Sunday

Weekly Shōnen Sunday (Japanese: 週刊少年サンデー, Hepburn: Shūkan Shōnen Sandē) is a weekly shōnen manga magazine published in Japan by Shogakukan since March 1959. Contrary to its title, Weekly Shōnen Sunday issues are released on Wednesdays. Weekly Shōnen Sunday has sold over 1.8 billion copies since 1986, making it the fourth best selling manga magazine, only behind Weekly Shōnen Jump, Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Weekly Young Jump.

## History

Weekly Shōnen Sunday was first published on March 17, 1959, as a response to its rival Weekly Shōnen Magazine. The debut issue featured Shigeo Nagashima, the star player of the Yomiuri Giants on the cover, and a congratulatory article by Isoko Hatano, a noted child psychologist.
Despite its name, Weekly Shōnen Sunday is published on Wednesday. The "Sunday" in the name was the creation of its first editor, Kiichi Toyoda, who wanted the title to be evocative of a relaxing weekend.
Weekly Shōnen Sunday's distinctive "pointing finger" that appears in the lower corner of every page on the left side of the magazine made its subtle debut in the 4/5 issue from 1969. This understated feature, ever present but easily overlooked, was referenced as a plot element in 20th Century Boys. Sunday's more noticeable mascot, a helmeted fish, debuted in the 1980s.
Prior to the 1990s and 2000s no serial in Weekly Shōnen Sunday had run over 40 volumes, but that began to change with series such as Detective Conan, Major, Inuyasha, Karakuri Circus, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Hayate the Combat Butler, Zettai Karen Children, and Be Blues!, which maintained a high level of popularity.
In a rare event due to the closeness of the two magazines' founding dates, Weekly Shōnen Sunday and Weekly Shōnen Magazine released a special combined issue on March 19, 2008. In addition, other commemorative events, merchandise, and manga crossovers were planned for the following year as part of the celebrations. The book Shonen Sunday 1983 was published on July 15, 2009 to celebrate the anniversary and the magazine's heyday. It reprints manga from 1983, such as Urusei Yatsura and Touch, and has interviews with their creators as well as artists who were inspired by the series from that period, such as Gosho Aoyama.
To celebrate Weekly Shōnen Sunday's 55th anniversary, 55 new manga series were launched in the print and online magazines Weekly Shōnen Sunday, Shōnen Sunday S, Ura Sunday, and Club Sunday throughout the year beginning in March 2014.

## Features
### Series

There are currently 30 manga titles being serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. Out of them, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Aozakura: Bōei Daigakukō Monogatari and Kai-hen Wizards are on hiatus; Magic Kaito is infrequently published; Case Closed is serialized on an irregular basis; Major 2nd is serialized biweekly and Ad Astra per Aspera and Detective Conan: Zero's Tea Time's continuations are yet to be announced.
| Series title | Author(s) | Premiered |
| Ad Astra per Aspera (アド アストラ ペル アスペラ, Ado Asutora peru Asupera) | Kenjiro Hata | September 2015 |
| Aozakura: Bōei Daigakukō Monogatari (あおざくら 防衛大学校物語) | Hikaru Nikaido | April 2016 |
| Case Closed (名探偵コナン, Meitantei Konan) | Gosho Aoyama | January 1994 |
| Case Closed: Zero's Tea Time (名探偵コナン ゼロの日常, Meitantei Konan: Zero no Nichijō) | Takahiro Arai | May 2018 |
| Fly Me to the Moon (トニカクカワイイ, Tonikaku Kawaii) | Kenjiro Hata | February 2018 |
| Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (葬送のフリーレン, Sōsō no Furīren) | Kanehito Yamada, Tsukasa Abe | April 2020 |
| Ichika Bachika (イチカバチカ) | Jinsuke Honma | August 2024 |
| Kai-hen Wizards (界変の魔法使い, Kaihen no Mahōtsukai) | Yellow Tanabe | September 2024 |
| Kaiten no Albus (廻天のアルバス, Kaiten no Arubasu) | Akihisa Maki, Miki Yatsubo | May 2024 |
| Land of Monsters (魔物の国, Mamono no Kuni) | Mitsutani | February 2025 |
| Magic Kaito (まじっく快斗, Majikku Kaito) | Gosho Aoyama | June 1987 |
| Major 2nd | Takuya Mitsuda | March 2015 |
| Mao | Rumiko Takahashi | May 2019 |
| Mikadono Sanshimai wa Angai, Choroi (帝乃三姉妹は案外、チョロい。) | Aya Hirakawa | December 2021 |
| Mizu Polo (みずぽろ, Mizu Poro) | Miho Isshiki, Naoki Mizuguchi | November 2023 |
| Momose Akira no Hatsukoi Hatan-chū (百瀬アキラの初恋破綻中。) | Shinta Harekawa | August 2024 |
| Parashoppers (パラショッパーズ, Parashoppāzu) | Tsubasa Fukuchi | January 2025 |
| Red Blue (レッドブルー, Reddo Burū) | Atsushi Namikiri | January 2022 |
| Rock a Rock (ロッカロック, Rokkarokku) | Yuzuo Batō | April 2024 |
| Ryū to Ichigo (龍と苺) | Mitsuharu Yanamoto | May 2020 |
| Shibuya Near Family (シブヤニアファミリー, Shibuya Nia Famirī) | Kōji Kumeta | October 2021 |
| Shite no Hana: Nōgakushi Haga Kotarō no Sakikata (シテの花 -能楽師・葉賀琥太朗の咲き方-) | Chigusa Ichihara | October 2024 |
| Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle (魔王城でおやすみ, Maōjō de Oyasumi) | Kagiji Kumanomata | May 2016 |
| Sora e… (地上へ…) | Syun Matsuena | January 2025 |
| Strand (ストランド, Sutorando) | Number 8, Ryōhei Masuko | September 2024 |
| Tatari (タタリ) | Watari | April 2023 |
| Te no Geka (テノゲカ) | Shihi Shi, Takahiro Arai | May 2023 |
| Tokachi Hitoribocchi Nōen (十勝ひとりぼっち農園) | Yuji Yokoyama | November 2017 |
| Tsumiki Ogami's Not-So-Ordinary Life (尾守つみきと奇日常。, Ogami Tsumiki to Ki Nichijō) | Miyu Morishita | October 2023 |
| Utsuranai desu (写らナイんです) | Konoshimadesu | March 2024 |

## Circulation

| Year / Period | Weekly circulation | Magazine sales | Sales revenue (est.) | Issue price |
| 1986 | 1,600,000 | 83,200,000 | ¥14,976,000,000 | ¥180 |
| 1987 | 1,300,000 | 67,600,000 | ¥12,168,000,000 | ¥180 |
| 1988 | 1,300,000 | 67,600,000 | ¥12,168,000,000 | ¥180 |
| 1989 | 1,400,000 | 72,800,000 | ¥13,104,000,000 | ¥180 |
| 1990 | 1,350,000 | 70,200,000 | ¥12,636,000,000 | ¥180 |
| 1991 | 1,350,000 | 70,200,000 | ¥12,636,000,000 | ¥180 |
| 1992 | 1,350,000 | 70,200,000 | ¥13,338,000,000 | ¥190 |
| 1993 | 1,270,000 | 66,040,000 | ¥12,547,600,000 | ¥190 |
| 1994 | 1,270,000 | 66,040,000 | ¥13,868,400,000 | ¥210 |
| 1995 | 1,400,000 | 72,800,000 | ¥15,288,000,000 | ¥210 |
| 1996 | 1,530,000 | 79,560,000 | ¥21,481,200,000 | ¥270 |
| 1997 | 1,650,000 | 85,800,000 | ¥23,166,000,000 | ¥270 |
| 1998 | 1,700,000 | 88,400,000 | ¥23,868,000,000 | ¥270 |
| 1999 | 1,630,000 | 84,760,000 | ¥22,885,200,000 | ¥270 |
| 2000 | 2,020,000 | 105,040,000 | ¥28,360,800,000 | ¥270 |
| 2001 | 1,500,000 | 78,000,000 | ¥21,060,000,000 | ¥270 |
| 2002 | 1,530,000 | 79,560,000 | ¥21,481,200,000 | ¥270 |
| 2003 | 1,310,000 | 68,120,000 | ¥18,392,400,000 | ¥270 |
| 2004 | 1,160,913 | 60,367,476 | ¥16,299,218,520 | ¥270 |
| 2005 | 1,068,265 | 55,549,780 | ¥14,998,440,600 | ¥270 |
| January 2006 to August 2006 | 1,003,708 | 34,795,211 | ¥9,394,706,970 | ¥270 |
| September 2006 to December 2006 | 1,010,000 | 17,506,667 | ¥4,726,800,090 | ¥270 |
| 2007 | 940,000 | 48,880,000 | ¥13,197,600,000 | ¥270 |
| 2008 | 873,438 | 45,418,776 | ¥12,263,069,520 | ¥270 |
| January 2009 to September 2009 | 773,062 | 30,149,418 | ¥8,140,342,860 | ¥270 |
| October 2009 to September 2010 | 678,917 | 35,303,684 | ¥9,531,994,680 | ¥270 |
| October 2010 to September 2011 | 611,146 | 31,779,592 | ¥8,580,489,840 | ¥270 |
| October 2011 to September 2012 | 539,521 | 28,055,092 | ¥7,574,874,840 | ¥270 |
| October 2012 to September 2013 | 512,250 | 26,637,000 | ¥7,165,353,000 | ¥269 |
| October 2013 to September 2014 | 456,375 | 23,731,500 | ¥6,407,505,000 | ¥270 |
| October 2014 to September 2015 | 390,143 | 20,287,436 | ¥5,477,607,720 | ¥270 |
| October 2015 to September 2016 | 350,521 | 18,227,092 | ¥4,921,314,840 | ¥270 |
| October 2016 to September 2017 | 317,458 | 16,507,816 | ¥4,457,110,320 | ¥270 |
| October 2017 to March 2018 | 302,167 | 7,856,342 | ¥2,121,212,340 | ¥270 |
| 1986 to March 2018 | 36,000,000 | 1,876,972,882 | ¥448,682,441,140 ($5.53 billion) | |

## Editors-in-chief

* Kiichi Toyoda (1959–1960)
* Yoshio Kinoshita (1960–1963)
* Michio Tamio (1963–1965)
* Yunosuke Konishi (1965–1967)
* Yoshiya Takayanagi (1967–1969)
* Yoshio Kinoshita (1969–1970)
* Shizuo Watanabe (1970–1972)
* Keizo Inoue (1972–1977)
* Kazuki Tanaka (1977–1984)
* Koichiro Inomata (1984–1987)
* Harunori Kumagai (1987–1991)
* Takashi Hirayama (1991–1994)
* Harunori Kumagai (1994–1996)
* Toyohiko Okuyama (1996–2000)
* Shinichiro Tsuzuki (2000–2001)
* Shinichi Mikami (2001–2004)
* Masato Hayashi (2004–2009)
* Masaki Nawata (2009–2012)
* Yu Torimitsu (2012–2015)
* Takenori Ichihara (2015–2021)
* Kazunori Oshima (2021–present)

## International versions

Elex Media Komputindo published an Indonesian version of Weekly Shōnen Sunday titled Shōnen Star from 2005 to 2013.
Viz Media began a Shonen Sunday imprint for titles in North America; starting with Rumiko Takahashi's Rin-ne, which was released on October 20, 2009.