CoroCoro

The logo of the magazine

CoroCoro Comics (Japanese: コロコロコミック CoroCoro Comics) is a Japanese magazine published by Shogakukan, Inc..

Its name comes from the phenomime korokoro, meaning a small, fat, spherical thing, because kids supposedly like them.

CoroCoro regularly promotes toys and video games related to manga franchises, releasing stories and articles featuring them. Pokémon's big success in Japan owes to this in a way; Pocket Monsters Blue was sold exclusively through the magazine at first. Of course, this helped CoroCoro's sales as well.

History

The magazine was launched in 1977, aiming at young elementary-school age boys, younger than the age for shōnen readers, which is about teenager age, but then became one of the most popular magazines in Japan. CoroCoro is now currently a monthly manga magazine, along with it's two sister publications, Bessatsu CoroCoro and CoroCoro Ichiban!, which are only released every two months. It is known as a source for Pokémon news, as many announcements pertaining to both the Pokémon anime and Pokémon games come to fans by way of the magazine. In addition to Pokémon, other popular CoroCoro comics include Doraemon, Donkey Kong, Kirby, and Beyblade. It also contains Pokemon Manga, having only have missed out on the Red and Blue Manga. However, it has contained Gold and Silver, Ruby and Sapphire, Diamond and Pearl and Platinum. It also gives leaked information about the games and the anime, such as the leaked revelation of Arceus, the announcement of a new game in May, and the leaked revelation of Arceus: To a Conquering Spacetime.

Other Series

Besides Pokémon, CoroCoro also promotes other magna series. This is a list of those series.

1970s

Doraemon
Game Center Arashi

1980s

Bikkuriman
Oyaji-chan
Dash! Yonkuro
Dodge Danpei
Ganbare Kickers

1990s

Ape Escape
Crash Bandicoot
Donkey Kong
Duel Masters
Fatal Fury Special
Kirby
Bakusō Kyōdai Let's & Go!!
Macross 7
Ore wa Otoko da! Kunio-kun
Street Fighter II V
Super B-Daman
Cyborg Kuro-chan
Speed Racer
Super Mario-kun
Tamagotchi
Wataru
Zoids

2000s

Battle B-Daman
Beyblade
Bomberman Jetters
Crash B-Daman
Croket!
Denjyarasu Jiisan
Inazuma Eleven
Jak x Daxter ~Itachi de Waruika!!~
Mushiking
Rockman EXE
Ratchet and Clank-Gagaga! Ginga no Gakeppuchi Densetsu
Ryusei no Rockman
Sonic! Dash & Spin
I'm Galileo!
Kirby of the Stars

CoroCoro Pokémon Illustration Contest

In late 1997, CoroCoro held an Illustration Contest, in which the top three illustrators had their artwork featured as one of the Vending Machine cards.