Young Animal (ヤングアニマル) is a semimonthly Japanese seinen manga magazine that features photos of gravure idols. It has been published by Hakusensha on the second and fourth Friday of each month since 1992.

History and profile

Young Animal was launched in May 1992. The magazine is a successor to Monthly Animal House (月刊アニマルハウス), Hakusensha's previous seinen manga magazine that ran from 1989 to 1992. Young Animal is issued on the second and fourth Friday of each month in saddle-stapled B5 format. Its headquarters is in Tokyo. A typical issue consists of about 300 black-and-white pulp pages of manga wrapped in about 20 slick pages of color pinup photos of teenage girls in bikinis (generally pop stars and gravure idols). Advertising (other than house ads for Hakusensha) appears only in the form of a few ads in the back pages and on the inside and back covers. As of 2015, circulation is approximately 119,000 copies. Each issue features about 15 different stories, mostly serial stories tending toward sexy romantic comedy, fantasy, and epic adventure, with a number of humorous yonkoma or four-panel gag strips. Popular long-running series appearing in Young Animal include the medieval dark fantasy adventure Berserk and the modern day married-life sex comedy Futari Ecchi (both over 300 chapters as of 2010). A number of Young Animal manga series have been adapted into anime. Titles serialized in Young Animal are published as tankōbon volumes by Hakusensha under the Young Animal Comics imprint. Prior to June 2016, volumes were published under the Jets Comics imprint. Young Animal has also inspired several spin-off magazines: Young Animal Arashi (2000–2018); Young Animal Island (2004–2013), briefly relaunched as Young Animal Innocent (2014); and Young Animal Zero (2019–present).

Features

Series

There are currently 22 manga titles being serialized in Young Animal.

Former series

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s