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manga

Fishing Manga!
As some of you may already know, I've been collecting Uniqlo T-shirts which are being put out to celebrate Shonen Sunday's 50th anniversary. There is only one Uniqlo in all of North America, and the shirts are limited run, and only $16, and did I mention I can wear T-shirts to work? Classic manga combined with nicely designed, reasonably priced screen-printed T-shirts is a culmination of my two greatest weaknesses. The only thing more damning would be anime-themed whiskey in super-cute bottles.

This is how bad it is: On Monday I bought a Fishing Sanpei T-shirt.

That's right, fishing manga! What I love best about manga is the diversity of topics (absent from American comics), so the more ridiculous and more obscure the sub-genre the more I want to read it. I have a fine shelf at home of yo-yo manga, golf manga, mahjong manga, and manga about gourmet food and wine (two separate series, mind you).

What's incredible about Fishing Sanpei (釣りキチ三平) is it's insane popularity. Frederick Schodt talks about it on the second page of his book, Manga Manga! The World of Japanese Comics.

Fishing-Crazy Sanpei (1973-1984) is 65 volumes long, and as of 1985 sold 19 million copies. Schodt compares it to Valley of the Dolls, the best selling novel in the world at the time, which sold 27 million copies between '66 to '83. (Schodt's book is from 1985.)

Tsurikichi Sanpei (Schodt translates it as "Fishing Crazy Sanpei") was adopted into an anime series beginning in 1980. The show ran for 109 episodes! There is an entry in ANN's database for the anime, but not the manga.


Recent cosplay?

I searched for more fishing titles and also found Tsuri Baka Nisshi, (釣りバカ日誌 ) "Diary of a Fishing Fool". I'm having trouble finding a volume count, but the Tsuri Baka Nisshi manga might be 72 volumes long! It was adapted into a 36 episode anime series in 2002, and apparently there have been two movies or possibly live action series. I'm not really sure, I'm having trouble making heads or tails of Japanese wikipedia.



I have like, zero interest in fishing, but I am very interested in fishing manga!