News
Rensuke Oshikiri Launches Pico Pico Shōnen EX Manga
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Manga creator Rensuke Oshikiri launched a new manga titled Pico Pico Shōnen EX (Pico-Pico Boy EX) in Ohta Publishing Co.'s Ohta Web Comic site on March 2. The manga is the newest installment in Oshikiri's Pico-Pico Boy (Pico Pico Shōnen) manga series. It will have an irregular serialization.
The manga series is autobiographical, with Oshikiri using the manga to tell stories and experiences of his life centered around video games in his childhood (the manga's main character uses Oshikiri's real name, Ryōta Kanzaki). In the first chapter of the new manga, an adult Oshikiri plays on the PlayStation 4 to get away from the inconveniences of life, and also spends time in the famous independent arcade Mikado in Takadanobaba, Tokyo, describing its focus on fighting games, and joining a Samurai Shodown tournament.
Oshikiri launched the original Pico-Pico Boy manga series in Ohta's CONTINUE game magazine from 2007 to 2009. The Pico Pico Shōnen Turbo sequel ran on the Poko Poko website from April to November 2011, and the Pico Pico Shōnen Super on the same website from June 2014 to January 2015. Ohta Publishing Co. published one compiled book volume for each series. JManga previously published part of the original Pico-Pico Boy manga in English.
Oshikiri recently launched a new manga series, Yōkai Massage, in Akita Shoten's Young Champion Retsu magazine last September. Oshikiri is in charge of the story, and his pupil Ichirō Imigi is providing the artwork. Oshikiri himself launched Semai Sekai no Identity (Small World's Identity) in Kodansha's Morning two magazine in August, and Gyanprin in Futabasha's Manga Action magazine in August.
Oshikiri also recently resumed his Hi Score Girl manga in Square Enix's Monthly Big Gangan magazine last July. The manga launched in the magazine in 2010, but had been on hiatus since 2014 due to a legal controversy involving multiple game developers claiming copyright infringement. The manga had an anime adaptation announced before the controversy broke. Square Enix and SNK settled their claims in August 2015, allowing Square Enix to publish the series again.
Oshikiri's Pupipō! horror comedy manga ran in the free web comic magazine Flex Comix Blood from 2007 to 2009. The series inspired an anime adaptation that premiered in 2013.
Source: Comic Natalie
