Monthly Ikki

Editor Hideki Egami was working in the editorial department of Shogakukan's Weekly Big Comic Spirits for 18 years. Egami realized that although the weekly manga magazine is the standard in Japan, the manga was getting more sophisticated, and he thought that some manga artists would do better as creators of monthly series rather than weeklies, as weekly serialized creators tend to use many assistants and is a very fast-paced work stream. On the other hand, he considered that monthly manga artists are more likely to do more of the work on their own, or with very few people assisting them, taking time for a more thoughtful approach to create their stories. Egami decided to create a monthly magazine, as a spin-off of Weekly Big Comic Spirits.[2] The magazine started in 2000, titled Spirits Zōkan Ikki (スピリッツ増刊IKKI, Supirittsu Zōkan Ikki), and thirteen issues were released from November 30, 2000 to December 25, 2002.[3][4] Ikki became a standalone monthly magazine in 2003, with its first issue, the April 2003 issue, released on February 25.[5][6]

In 2009, Viz Media launched an online English version of Monthly Ikki, named SigIkki.[7] Egami stated that the original pages of the magazine in Japan were digitized, and deciding on how to use this material, the first thing he thought was on translating it in English to reach a wider audience.[2] The website serialized various titles from Monthly Ikki online, and then, when a title proved to be popular it received publication in graphic novel form. It also included interviews with the Japanese creators and editors.[7] In January 2013, Ikki Paradise, the official website of the magazine, launched the web manga corner Web Ikipara Comic (WEBイキパラCOMIC), which serialized manga specifically made for the web for free to readers.[8][9]

In July 2014, the September issue of Monthly Ikki announced that it would cease publication after 14-year run, being the November 2014 issue, released on September 25, 2014, the last issue published.[10][11] Some series, which were running in the magazine at the time, finished with the last issue, while others were transferred to other magazines.[12] The magazine would be replaced by Hibana, which started with its April 2015 issue, released on March 25, 2015.[13][14][15] Hibana ceased publication after 2-year run, being the September 2017 issue, released on August 7, 2017, the last issue published.[16]

Monthly Ikki was considered an underground magazine,[6][17] and it focused mainly on the creativity of the authors rather that the expectation of the audience, as Egami stated: "At the time we were founding IKKI, my boss told me that with Weekly Comic Spirits, we have to see the ocean for the sea, meaning that you have to see the audience or the readers' point of view. But for IKKI, you have to see the spring that is the origin of the river, meaning you have to see the creator and work with the creator; that it's important to understand the artists' point of view".[18][2] The magazine advertised itself as a "comics magazine" instead of "manga magazine" due to its different kind of manga.[19] Egami said that the slogan of the magazine was "We are still at the dawn of the manga era", explaining: "The spirit of this tagline is that the dawn is still approaching; meaning that if you assume that the history of manga will continue for 200 years or longer, we are still at the very beginning. Even though some people think that the manga market is saturated, that it is mature and sophisticated, we believe that there is still a lot more that can be done in the manga world".[20] The content of the magazine was compared to the American/European alternative comics.[18][21] To recruit artists for the magazine, they looked for creators who worked for other magazines or publishers, and to look for new artists, they held a newcomers contest.[2] Saturn Apartments's Hisae Iwaoka and I'll Give It My All... Tomorrow's Shunju Aono were artists discovered through the newcomers content.[20]

In 2009, the magazine had 13,750 copies in circulation.[22] In 2010, the numbers dropped to 11,500 copies in circulation.[23] Egami himself admitted that the magazine did not sell very well in Japan.[19] Some series from the magazine, like Bokurano: Ours and Rideback, received anime adaptations, which helped to increase the tankōbon volume sales of those series, but did not affect that much the sales of the magazine itself.[18]

Monthly Ikki was a seinen manga magazine, aimed at older teens and young adult readers,[21][18] however, Egami stated that they were not trying to focus on the gender or age of their readers, unlike most part of Japanese manga industry, and the magazine was "for everybody".[20][24] Egami said that most of their audience was in their twenties, and there also was a younger group of readers who ranged from older teens to an older audience, some who were up to 50's. According to Egami, 40% of Monthly Ikki's readers were female, something unusual for a seinen manga magazine, and regarding the teen readers, 60% were girls. Egami said that in every age, gender or group are people with creative minds who could understand the concepts presented in their series, and Monthly Ikki was trying to reach that specific type of reader.[20][24] Ikki, unlike other seinen manga magazines, did not use color nude photos on the issues cover, because according to Egami it alienated female readers and it was not "the kind of nudity to begin with".[19] Egami also stated that they were not intentionally trying to make series equally appealing to both men and women readers, and titles like House of Five Leaves, which was popular with female readers, "just happen[ed] to be popular with female readers".[24]

• Ikki official website (in Japanese)
• Official Sigikki website
• Monthly Ikki at Anime News Network's encyclopedia