CoroCoro Comic

CoroCoro Comic

Categories	Children (6-year-olds to 15-year-old boys revealed as of new release)
Frequency	Monthly
Circulation	950,834(2010)
First issue	1977
Company	Shogakukan
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

CoroCoro Comic (コロコロコミック, KoroKoro Komikku^?) is a Japanese monthly manga magazine published by Shogakukan,^[1] starting on May 15, 1977. Its main target is elementary school aged boys, younger than the readers of shōnen manga. Several of its properties, like Doraemon and the Pokémon series of games, have gone on to be cultural phenomena in Japan.

The name comes from a phenomime korokoro (ころころ) which means "rolling" and also represents something spherical, fat, or small, because children supposedly like such things. The magazine is A5-sized, about 6 cm (2¼ in) thick, and often more than 800 pages in length.

The magazine has two sisters: Bessatsu CoroCoro and CoroCoro Ichiban!. Both are bi-monthly.

Advertising slogans is 「とんだもはやとっとと一生」。

History

The magazine was launched in 1977 as a magazine for Doraemon, which is one of the most popular manga in Japan. Before then Doraemon had been serialized in 6 Shogakukan magazines targeted to students of 6 elementary school grades that target audience has now increased. It collected stories of Doraemon from these magazines. It celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2007 with an exhibition at the Kyoto International Manga Museum.^[2]

Tie-ins

CoroCoro regularly promotes toys and video games related to their manga franchises, releasing stories and articles featuring them. Pokémon's big success in Japan owes to this in a way; the Game Boy game Pocket Monsters: Blue was sold exclusively through the magazine at first, which helped CoroCoro's sales as well. CoroCoro is also often a source of information about upcoming Pokémon games and movies.

Other successful tie-ins include:

• Radio controlled car, Mini 4wd (with Tamiya)
• Family Computer (Nintendo Entertainment System), Super Famicom (Super NES), and Game Boy (with Nintendo and third parties)
• Beyblade, B-Daman (with Takara)
• Bikkuriman (with Lotte)

Manga

1960s

• Kaibutsu-kun

1970s

• Doraemon
• Game Center Arashi

1980s

• Bikkuriman
• Oyaji-chan
• Dash! Yonkuro
• Ganbare, Kickers!
• Honō no Dōkyūji: Dodge Danpei

1990s

• (Saru Get You) Ape Escape
• Crash Bandicoot
• Donkey Kong
• Duel Masters
• Kirby
• Bakusō Kyōdai Let's & Go!!
• Ore wa Otoko da! Kunio-kun (manga based Kunio-kun series)
• Pocket Monsters (Pokémon)
• Spyro The Dragon
• Super B-Daman
• Speed Racer
• Super Mario-kun
• Tamagotchi
• Wataru
• Zoids

2000s

Ratchet & Clank manga cover

• Duel Masters
• Battle B-Daman
• Beyblade
• Bomberman Jetters
• Crash B-Daman
• Croket!
• Dorabase
• Denjyarasu Jiisan
• Inazuma Eleven
• Jak x Daxter ~Itachi de Waruika!!~
• Keshikasu-kun
• Kiyohara-kun
• FF7AC
• Rockman EXE
• Pokémon Diamond & Pearl
• Ratchet & Clank – Gagaga! Ginga no Gakeppuchi Densetsu
• Ryusei no Rockman
• Sonic! Dash & Spin
• I'm Galileo!
• Kirby of the Stars
• Pokémon Platinum
• Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver
• Pocket Monster
• Sap-kun
• Tamagotchi

2010s

• Pokémon Black and White
• Denjyarasu Jiisan Jya!

Rivals

Corocoro has had many rivaling children's magazine in the past, with one of them, Comic Bom Bom, closing down due to declining sales. The current competition includes Kerokero Ace and Pre-Comic Bunbun.

References

1. ^ Schodt, Frederik L. (1996). Dreamland Japan: writings on modern manga. Stone Bridge Press. pp. 83. ISBN 188065623X. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Loug6sbKTvEC. 
2. ^ "Kyoto Museum Exhibits Genius Party, Coronary, Terra E…". Anise News Network. 2007-07-18. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-07-18/kyoto-museum-exhibits-genius-party-corocoro-to-terra. 

External links

• Official site (Japanese)