News

Shōgaku Gonensei, Shōgaku Rokunensei, ChuChu to End

The Japanese publisher Shogakukan has announced on Monday that it will end the school learning magazines Shōgaku Gonensei (pictured right) and Shōgaku Rokunensei (pictured left), as well as the shōjo manga magazine ChuChu (pictured below right). Shōgaku Gonensei and Shōgaku Rokunensei (literally, "Elementary Fourth-Grader" and "Elementary Fifth- Grader") will end during the current school year on February 3 and December 28, respectively, and will be replaced by a new learning manga magazine, tentatively titled Gakumanplus, next spring. ChuChu, a magazine aimed at older elementary school girls and middle school girls, will end with its February issue on December 28. Shogakukan cited the great changes in the needs of readers for its decision to reformat all its shōjo comic magazines for their long-term prospects.

Among the manga that Shōgaku Gonensei and Shōgaku Rokunensei serialized published Satoru Takamiya's Heaven's Will, Yabuuchi's Hatsukoi Shinan (Instructions for First Love), Miyuki Ōbayashi's Junai Sensation, Miwako Sugiyama's Ai no Kotoba, Satoru Takamiya's Kusuriyubi Hime, and Kiyoko Arai's Yomogi Mochi Yake Ta? manga.

Shogakukan launched its Shōgaku magazines in 1922. At their peak in April (the start of the school year) of 1973, Shōgaku Gonensei printed 635,000 copies, and Shōgaku Rokunensei printed 460,000 copies. In recent years, the circulation of both magazines have fallen into the range of 50,000 to 60,000 copies. Shogakukan's four magazines aimed at younger elementary school students—Shōgaku Ichinensei (Elementary First Grader) through Shōgaku Yonnensei (Elementary Second Grader)—will contiue to be published.

ChuChu launched as a spinoff from Ciao and Shōjo Comic magazine's editorial departments in August of 2008. It was revamped into a monthly magazine in its January 2006 issue in December of 2005.

Thank you to dormcat for the news tip.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun via Saigo Tsūchō