Jujutsu Kaisen, Hunter x Hunter, and Rurouni Kenshin are all part of the kick-off to this century-mark celebration.
We’ve been talking a bit about this year being the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise, and while that’s an impressive milestone, it pales in comparison to the one Shueisha is hitting. This year, the manga publisher is celebrating its 100th birthday, and to get the party started they’re partnering with Uniqlo for a line of graphic T-shirts featuring some of the most famous and influential series in manga/anime history.
A total of 22 shirts, representing 11 series, are in the initial offering. As the company behind Weekly Shonen Jump, the Shueisha library includes some all-time shonen action manga, so the collection includes shirts for fans of YuYu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter, and Rurouni Kenshin.
▼ While some of the designs have all of their artwork on the chest, others keep things subtle on the front, and save the splashier visuals for the back.
▼ The shade of maroon in this Rurouni Kenshin shirt matches the color of the protagonist’s kimono…
▼ …while this design references his crossed facial scars.
▼ As one the longest-running manga (it debuted in 1998 and is still ongoing), Hunter x Hunter offers plenty of source material to draw from, resulting in no less than four different shirts, including an ominous double-sided design on the black tee.
As for ongoing series that got their start more recently, Jujutsu Kaisen is getting four designs too.
One of the most eye-catching shirts in the entire collection is this one, which might not look too attention-grabbing from this angle…
…but which gets very dramatic as it shows the heroes cascading down your back from the right shoulder.
Uniqlo and Shueisha have got things for fans of a more classic vintage, too, with a double-sided Saint Seiya tee with a ring of Zodiac knights on the front and their symbols on the back…
…and if you want to get really old-school, a KochiKame/Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen Mae Hashutsujo shirt with main character Ryo’s famously bushy eyebrows arching across part of the chest.
▼ Though its main pages were in black-and-white, KochiKame’s enduring popularity over its 40-year run meant that it was featured numerous times on magazine covers and at the start of issues, where a handful of premium pages are in color, making these hues very familiar to fans.
The designs are quite a bit subtler for the rest of the collection, but fellow fans will still be able to recognize the casts of/references to Golden Kamuy…
…Gantz…
…Kingdom…
…Kinnikuman/M.U.S.C.L.E. …
…and Captain Tsubasa.
And even with all that, Uniqlo has only scratched the surface of the vast Shueisha catalog, so all of these are merely the first of a total of three planned batches of Uniqlo Shueisha shirts. There’s no word as to when the second and third will arrive, but everything shown here will be available in mid-March or mid-April, depending on specific shirt, and available for 1,990 yen (US$13) each through the Uniqlo online store here.
Source: Uniqlo
Top image: Uniqlo
Insert images: Uniqlo (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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