Proper Japanese Title: ビッグコミックスピリッツ (Biggu Komikku Supirittsu)
Spirits began in 1980 to compete with Young Jump and Young Magazine which were both aimed at a younger audience than Big Comic and Big Comic Original. However, at the same time Shogakukan had just rebranded Shonen Big Comic which also became a competitor and renamed itself Young Sunday. Young Sunday was cancelled in 2008 and many of its authors moved to Spirits.
Spirits was originally published monthly (1980-1981), then twice a month (1981-1986) and finally started its current weekly publication rate in early 1986. Many of its early prominent authors came from Weekly Shonen Sunday (Umezu, Rumiko, Rokuda, Hosono, Ikegami) but most of its authors including those who were published as rookies (like Takashi Iwashige and Naoki Urasawa) are associated with other magazines as well including crossover with Big Comic Original, Weekly Young Sunday and Big Comic Superior.
Spirits has also had a number of spin-off magazines with crossover in published authors including Ikki, Hibana and Monthly! Spirits. Hibana and Monthly! as well as the first thirteen issues of Ikki are officially counted in the ongoing numbering of Spirits itself.
Some of it's most popular series include:
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