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| | TIME Asia Magazine: Look, Up in the Sky! -- Feb. 24, 2003 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07) |
 | | Before Shonen Jump, no one had thought to export translated versions of Japanese manga to the U.S. mass market, despite the fact that the genre—characterized by its fanciful stories and earnest, teardrop-faced heroes—has been a favorite in Japan for decades. |
 | | It may have helped that Weekly Shonen Jump's Japanese circulation has declined by half, to about 3.4 million, since the mid-1990s, and the company was looking for new markets. |
 | | Shonen Jump is up against the tried-and-true formula of American comics, which are traditionally based on red-blooded superheroes triumphing over evil in 36 pages or less. |
| time.com /time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501030224-423567,00.html (989 words) |
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