Shonen Jump Volume 5, Issue 12, Number 60, December 2007.

Shonen Jump Volume 5, Issue 12, Number 60, December 2007

Viz Communications Inc.

295 Bay Street, San Francisco, CA 94133

$4.99 www.viz.com www.shonenjump.com 1-800-394-3042

As always, the sixtieth issue of Viz's Shonen Jump magazine is brimming cover-to-cover with teen-friendly Japanese manga (comics) meant to especially appeal to boys and young men, though all fans of action-packed art are sure to enjoy its contents regardless of their age or gender. At a hefty 416 pages for a modest $4.99, Shonen Jump is a bargain for shonen manga lovers. Not only is the English translation flawless, but the manga is presented in its original "unflipped" right-to-left format--though this may take a moment for new manga readers to get used to, it allows the artwork to be shown as the creators originally intended rather than in "mirrored" form. Most of the serialized comic chapters are in black-and-white, but some pages are in color for extra impact. The manga chapters presented are Slam Dunk, a series about the passion of basketball (in color); Naruto, the saga of cursed boy determined to become the greatest ninja ever; Bleach, featuring a high school student with the power to see and fight evil spirits; Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo, about poetry battles of the most outlandish and crazy nature; One Piece, following the enthusiastic Monkey D. Luffy  in his self-appointed mission to become King of the Pirates; Yu Yu Hakusho, about a "spirit detective" seeking to protect the innocent in both the human and supernatural realms; Hikaru no Go, about a young man with the aid of an ancient Go master's spirit striving to test his skills to their limit in the board game of Go; and Yu-Gi-Oh and Yu-Gi-Oh GX, two manga based on the wildly popular trading card game of the same name. Issue 60 features the resounding conclusion of the Yu-Gi-Oh saga--the climax of the final card duel between Yugi and his grim alter-ego, a Pharaoh who has lingered between life and death for three thousand years! A handful of articles, including reviews of holiday season video games, round out this hotly anticipated issue.