Proper Japanese Title: 少年
Shonen was one of the earliest significant manga magazines to actually launch during the early beginnings of the manga industry in the mid-40's (there were dozens of older magazines dating back several decades but these did not originally or ever have a full manga focus). A monthly magazine, it also did not originally have a focus on manga but with the rise of other monthly rivals in the early 50's (Bōkenō, Shōnen Gahō, Omoshiro Book) it fully embraced the manga focus and its earliest major serialization in 1952 was Tetsuwan Atom, one of the most successful and influential manga franchises of all-time.
It would go on to have important and popular works from other major creators in the industry through the 50's and 60's like Sasuke, Tetsujin 28-gō or Ninja Hattori-kun but with the shifting trend towards the weekly shonen manga industry in the late 60's, the magazine ended in early 1968. This was by far Kobunsha's longest-running manga magazine with the only other one to last even a decade being the sister magazine Shōjo.
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