FINAL FANTASY XIII, Dragon Ball, Shonen Jump and more

Manga artist Akira Toriyama wrote and illustrated the Dragon Ball series between 1984 and 1995 in the pages of Shonen Jump (see the opposite page). Toei Animation turned the story into three anime series, the second of which was Dragon Ball Z. FUNimation Productions aired the dubbed version of Dragon Ball Z in the US. It took awhile to catch on, but today, the adventures of Goku and his Z warriors have become a huge hit around the world.  The whole Dragon Ball series has blossomed into 17 movies and 500 TV episodes. The show gets its best ratings in the US, Japan, France, Spain, Hong Kong and Mexico.
The story started as a comedy, according to FUNimation, but later turned into a battle of good and evil. The Dragon Ball series has been a success on TV and the big screen as well as in the toy store.

OFFICIAL SITE: http://www.funimation.com/dragonballz/

The latest installment in this popular series (85 million units shipped and counting!) hit the stands in the US on March 9. It was released earlier in Japan, and the word from gamers there is that the 13th version of this popular game delivers groundbreaking graphics.
The Final Fantasy series has been around since 1987. That’s when avid Seattle gamer Nate Eslava started playing. Twenty-three years later, he has every version of the Final Fantasy series ­— even the ones that weren’t released in the US — and a collection of elixir bottles from Final Fantasy XII that he bought in Japan. Eslava says that nostalgia plays a big role in his attachment to the game, but the cutting-edge graphics and the complex storylines keep him excited about each new version. No game compares in his estimation.
“I convinced my wife to let me buy one company stock,” Eslava says. His choice? Square Enix. “I wanted to own a piece of this game.”
The devotion of fans like Eslava is even more impressive when one considers that each version of Final Fantasy is a self-contained world independent of the versions that came before.

OFFICIAL SITE:http://www.finalfantasy13game.com/

The Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan is considered the king of manga for young Japanese males. With circulation of more than 3 million, it has launched Naruto, Dragon Ball and other classics of the genre over the decades. Since 2002, a monthly English version has been available from Viz Media of San Francisco. English-speaking manga fans can find translations of Naruto, One Piece, Yu-gi-Oh and much more, including Japanese lessons and illustrations sent in by American fans. Each monthly magazine features more than 300 pages, drawing a readership of more than 2.7 million. The average reader is a boy between the ages of 8 and 17.

<< One Piece, a manga for boys, has been all the rage among American manga fans recently. The series started in the Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997.

<< The hero in the popular Naruto manga is Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja striving to be the best ninja in his village.

OFFICIAL SITE:http://shonenjump.viz.com/

This American publishing company is one of the driving forces behind the popularity of manga in the US. Key decisions early on helped the company both cut costs and provide a more authentic version of the comics. For one, Tokyopop manga read left to right, like Japanese manga. Also, the company decided to retouch the drawings less, keeping in the onomatopoeic sound effects that are ever-present in the Japanese versions. The company started with Sailor Moon, but today its list of titles and products reflects the rapid rise in popularity of all things J-pop. Some of its hottest-selling titles today include the Goth series Vampire Kisses, the Warcraft manga and Gakuen Alice. But Fruits Basket tops them all; it’s the best-selling shojo (girls’) manga of all time. Check out www.tokyopop.com for more.

OFFICIAL SITE:http://www.tokyopop.com/