Three new serials, three new reviews. For the 2025 fiscal year, Shogakukan is going back to their roots by tapping (or being tapped) by veteran artists. Tsubasa Fukuchi of Law of Ueki fame will be up next, but he and today's subject: Syun Matsuena were two of the more popular artists to grace weekly Shonen Sunday in the early aughts of the 2000s. In fact Matsuena and Fukuchi have a bit in common as their first major works both started in or around 2002, got anime in and around 2006, and have gone on to become if not unsung heroes of the magazine, then familiar faces. So now in 2025 we're looking at their newest series, and while Fukuchi is revisiting familiar ground, Matsuena-sensei has chosen something different....Earthbound, even.
The Author
Syun Matsuena
As he's been with Weekly Shonen Sunday for 25 years now, Matsuena sits in an interesting schism of being known because of how prolific he is, but not being known well enough due to none of his works officially being released in English. It's a tale as old as time in Sunday, sadly.
Syun (Or Shun, depending on who you ask. Apparently, his editors refer to him using the first spelling, while he refers to himself using the latter. I'm used to seeing the former, so I'll go with that, even though it might seem weird to possibly misname a guy. Blame muscle memory!) Started out in the manga world at the age of 19 with his first oneshot Valhalla no Mon or “The Gate of Valhalla”. Sunday's no stranger to having youngster among their ranks, as one artist debuted a oneshot at the age of 13, that yours truly translated! Maybe I'll dig that up sometime.
(From Valhala no Mon)
I was able to find out that the oneshot was reprinted in a later volume of Matsuena's most popular series Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenishi or "History's Greatest Disciple Kenichi" (more on that in a bit). It originally appeared in a 1996 issue of Weekly Shonen Sunday R. To explain Shonen Sunday R briefly, think of it as a special spinoff issue of the main magazine. Some time ago it was commonplace for magazines to have special spinoff issues that featured oneshots from up-and-coming artists as well as special side stories for currently serialized works. I'm not sure what happened to that practice (aside from moving online, perhaps?) but nowadays, it's less frequent. Right away, one can see Matsuena's artwork is polished and almost exactly the same as it is today. The oneshot itself is about a boy who meets a girl who has a gate to a universe within her body, and the issues that come along with that. Matsuena's works have this sense of the undeniably silly even with his incredible artwork, which makes for a wonderful dichotomy. After that debut, Matsuena would move over to Kenichi, but not the one fans remember.
Kenichi fans are probably thinking “I mean sure it looks a little different, but that's definitely the Kenichi I remember!” Yes and no. This series is entitled Tatakae! Ryuuzanpaku Shijou Saikyou no Deshi. Or "Fight on! Ryuuzanpaku's strongest disciple in history!" Which yeah, even the title sounds similar. I've read a few summaries for the series, and not gonna lie, I'm not at all sure what the difference here is since a lot of the plot lines and characters are the same. My gut tells me that since this originally ran in special issues of Sunday Super, the powers that be saw they had something big on their hands, and quickly decided to have the series run in the more prominent Weekly Shonen Sunday. I know of one other series that got this treatment, and it tracks. I get why they might think it'd be better to start from zero when moving magazines, but it seems like a waste to not just continue where this one left off (as they've tended to do in recent years.) But yes, Kenichi bid farewell to super and ran to Sunday....for twelve years!
Those who know Kenichi probably do from the anime release from Funimation that was recently reissued by friends of Shonen Sunday: Discotek Media because as mentioned before the manga never saw an official release. Which, at 61 volumes/ 583 chapters, I can see why. In recent memory however, Shueisha and Kodansha have seen long runners get rescued from the depths in Yasuhisa Hara's Kingdom and George Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo so maybe, just maybe someone will give Kenichi the love it deserves. I won't dwell too long on Kenichi since at the least the anime is out there to consume, but this is by far Matsuena-sensei's most well known work.
Matsuena hasn't hidden how much he enjoys Kenichi. He even stated in an interview that he would have kept it going a while longer if the Shogakukan editorial hadn't asked him to draw something new for the (sadly ill-fated) 55 new serials to celebrate 55 years of Sunday. (Said push did result in Komi Can't Communicate and Sleepy Princess in Demon's Castle, so it's not a total loss.) The man himself noted that he was thinking of just continuing Kenichi even after recieving a request for a new series but, the earliest he'd be able to finish Kenichi at his speed would have been in two years. Thinking about what Sunday would look like in that time, he decided to increase the amount of pages in Kenichi chapters (something he'd do for a later serial) and finish it quasi-naturally. What then did he go to?
Starting in 2014, Matsuena serialized Tokiwa Kitareri! Or “Here comes Tokiwa!!” A series that had a unique beginning, in that it is what resulted after three one-shots, each with a new protagonist and scenario. Tokiwa then took all these characters and put them together in an interesting (albeit messy) 13 volume serialization. I talked about it a bit here on the blog while it ran. Combining fantasy, sci-fi and historical battles into one series was a big ask, and Matsuena did...sort of. He again jokes he has a bad habit of wanting to toss in everything including the kitchen sink in his works and while it'd be a stretch to say it worked, it wasn't boring. Ever the workhorse, even after Tokiwa ended, Matsuena was back barely a year later with his most recent work before Sora e.. Kimi wa 008 or "You are Double 8."
Kimi wa 008 is Matsuena's second-longest work at 33 volumes, spanning from 2018 to 2024. This one is a spy action series by trade, (hence 008. Get it? Lol.) but really as the series continued it just became Kenichi with a different bucket of paint over it. I think not being able to end Kenichi on his terms stuck with Matsuena more than he thought --as Eito Akashi looks like Kenichi, the battles span like Kenichi, and his approach to storytelling is Kenichi. Still, it made for a very Kingsmen esque battle manga. At one point, the series kept getting extra pages (20-23 as opposed to WSS's normal 18) and kept that up for more than a year. It got to a point where they started keeping track of the number in the magazine, and judging from tweets we've made, there were at least 63 chapters of this.
But hey when they look this good, well....I really can't complain. Knowing what I do now about Kenichi, I wonder if this too was an attempt on Matsuena's part to speed up the series so he could move on to another work without having to sacrifice his vision? If so he's a madman. To choose to draw more rather than cut the series off prematurely is sure a choice. Then again, the guy even made his own anime in Waza no Tabibito that he worked on over three years while still drawing manga weekly. Pepole disparage his....eroticisms in his artwork (and honestly they're not wrong) but to deny this guy his props in being a workhorse would be wrong.
So after Kimi wa 008 concluded, what did Matsuena get up to next? What else would someone with his insane work ethic do aside from, well, drawing two series at once?
In fairness, one of the series Kichijoji Shonen! or "Kichijoji Boy" is a quasi biographical (though each chapter begins with the disclaimer that this is fiction) manga that runs in Monthly Shonen Sunday or Gessan. It's about 20 pages per chapter, which is shorter than most monthly serials, and considering he spent the better part of two years drawing extra pages for Kimi wa 008 this is child's play to him. As mentioned, this is about a boy who lives in the Kichijoji and his youthful stories there. The artwork still has that hot-blooded Matsuena flair to it, but the subject is as far away from anything mentioned here so far. Which is a good pathway into...
The Serial
Sora e..
Starting in issue #7 (2025) of Weekly Shonen Sunday is Syun Matsuena's newest series Sora e... The series is described as a 'hymn to humanity"
The Premise:
Underneath the surface of the world we humans live is a race of super powered humanoid aliens known as "overmen." They've been fighting against monsters down beneath the earth unknown for years, until a boy --Hiiro is given a request by one of his dying fellow overmen to go to the surface and live a normal life. Entrusted with a book on how to do just that, Hiiro goes to the surface (the title of the series can be read both as "To the Sky" and "To the Earth") to do just that, except....
Upon getting there the first thing he does is to get arrested by stating the facts --"I'm an alien from under the planet's surface that fights monsters." Matsuena's quirky sense of humor aside, this is already evidencing itself to be something a little different from the battle manga that he's well known for.
Hiiro manages to ditch the cops, but runs into another pressing issue --he's got no money, which means he can't buy food. Luckily for him, a girl --Yui teaches him the greatness that is McDonalds, and it's from here that Hiiro realizes that his fight underground has had meaning, and the people of Earth are a warm, friendly sort that won't leave him to suffer.
Like Kichijoji Shonen, Matsuena's dynamic artwork belies the premise of this series. I keep expecting there to be a huge fight scene, or a dual page spread of some villan's introduction, but no. It's just Hiiro's friendship with Yui a girl who often does without thinking (though hey it worked out in this case since she got a superpowered friend out of the deal) expanding as he is integrated in her life and learns to live "normally." That's not to say there's absolutely no place for Matsuena to stretch his artistic muscles (as seen above) but most of the battles against monsters are seen through flashbacks as Hiiro recalls what his fellow overmen --specifically the friend who requested he go to the surface -- have taught him. The boy's a blank slate, not even understanding the concept of "love" leading Yui to take him home to meet her parents.
This is what he thinks when he first sees a cat, btw.
Though Hiiro despite everything is a kid. Upon visiting Yui's house (and very quickly learning that her mom is the one at the top of the tier list in the household) he realizes the "love" he's been lacking in his life up until now and cries for the first time, understanding that there is value in having bonds with others, and this is what his friend wanted for him: A life that isn't just fighting and dying. Up until now, Hiiro just went along with his friend's wishes because it was an order, and he felt obligated to. His actions and thoughts have all been centered around one person, and noticibly the deaths of other overmen don't move him much as that's what they're supposed to do. Yet one act of kindness is moving the boy and causing a wave of self awareness that will elict change.
It's all so...dare I say it, thoughtful coming from an author who's essentially known for boobs and fists. If this is Matsuena's attempt to challenge himself to do something new, I have the cautious optimism that he is in fact nailing it so far. The most recent chapter featured another overman making it to the surface and picking a fight with Hiiro, but even that is handled in a way that's more sad than exciting. Couple this with humans who are watching and aware of Hiiro's presence as well as the power of overmen, specifically that they have the capabilities to be weapons, and this series has the potential to be Matsuena's most character driven and dramatic.
The Japanese connection.
And now a new column! I thought it'd be interesting to see what readers in Japan are talking about in regard to these series, which in turn can give us a better idea of their likelihood to stick around. I don't intend this to be anything formal, but just a consensus on what I've read on Webry's site. Not surprisingly, many readers want more Kenichi, and wonder if perhaps this new direction for Matsuena is to fit current trends and or because his inspiration to draw the ladies had dried up somewhere during Kimi wa 008. The overall sentiment is cautious optimism, and an even split between fans who want to see more of what Matsuena is known for, and those who want to support this new direction of his. I'm sure the series will stick around a while simply based on the author's pedigree, but the even split among Japanese fans will be a dark horse in whether the first volume will sell or not, and I'm looking forward to tracking their reactions.
The Verdict:
I went into Sora e... expecting the usual Matsuena-isms (and they're not completely gone, so fans of those shouldn't worry) but what I got is a series that is handling it's subject matter with a surprising amount of tact. I wouldn't go as far as saying Matsuena evolved, since he's still very much present. Rather, I'd say he's embraced a new side of himself without losing his identity just to chase trends. Moreover, I think the series has an interesting message hidden beneath the over the top characters and expressive artwork: So easy it is for people (and overmen, apparently) to be so caught up in their lives, be it working to put food on the table, or to stop an evil race of monsters from swarming the earth that one can forget that their lives do have meaning to someone somewhere.
Matsuena has mentioned on occasion that he knows drawing manga is suffering, but he has fun doing it so it balances out. Challenging himself to do something new to me represents that love of manga, to struggle but to come out the other side as yourself, but a better version --much like Hiiro in the story as he learns what it is to be human. Whether Matsuena's challenge will amount to commercial success is in the air, but I think Sora e...as a new ground for a veteran mangaka is fascinating to see and the true hymn to humanity.
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