The Busiest Mangaka Ever: Shinji Mizushima

The Mandana Tsushin (Manga Bookshelf Transmissions) Blog ponders who is the busiest mangaka, and has written a series of articles listing the achievements of some of the busiest mangaka in history.

In the previous entry's comment column, it was pointed out to me that I'd neglected to mention the 1970s mangaka Shinji Mizushima. Oops... I did, didn't I. So I did some investigating on him.

First, in Champion:

• Dogaben: Weekly Shonen Champion, from 1972 to 1981.

In Magazine:

• Song of a Baseball Maniac: Weekly Shonen Magazine, from 1972 to 1977. In the beginning it ran only intermittently, but starting in 1976 it appeared every week.

In Sunday:

• Boys' Idiotic Koushien: Weekly Shonen Sunday, from 1970 to 1975
• Ikkyuu-san: Weekly Shonen Sunday, from 1975 to 1977

Shinji Mizushima's magazine debut was in Shonen King, but he wasn't blessed with a big hit. During this period in King, other works of his having to do with pro wrestling and the like (not with baseball) were run.

• Hey, Jumbo: 1972
• Rinkyuu Ou Tora: 1972
• Alps-kun: 1974

Shinji Mizushima and Jump don't seem to go together, but in addition to his short stories, he had this one. The documentary one, using Oota Kouji as the model.

• Keppare! Pitcher Oota: Weekly Shonen Jump, 1970.

Shinji Mizushima also had serials that ran twice monthly.

• Kyuudou-kun: (Translator's Note: "Kyuudou" here (球道) means "Way of the Ball" as in baseball, but it's probably a pun on the other Kyuudou (求道), "truthseeker.") Bi-weekly Manga-kun -> Shonen Big Comic from 1977 to 1981.
• Abu-san: Semi-monthly Big Comic Original, from 1973 until the present.

If you closely examine it, as we just have, 1974 seems to have been his busiest time. The weekly magazines were Champion, Sunday and King. Then there was his irregular serial in Magazine (if one counts up the chapters, in this one year he published about 23 times in Shonen Magazine). And Big Comic Original twice monthly. Wow... he's awesome, too.

Then, too, you've got to take into consideration that, with Shinji Mizushima, almost all of his manga is baseball manga ... Amazing that he managed to keep the ideas coming.

- The Case of Go Nagai
- The Case of George Akiyama

Original Article
Translated by Sarah Neufeld