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Ushijima the Loan Shark Manga Starts Final Arc
posted on by Karen Ressler
This year's 46th issue of Shogakukan's Weekly Big Comic Spirits magazine announced on Saturday that Shohei Manabe's Ushijima the Loan Shark (Yamikin Ushijima-kun) will begin its final arc in the next issue on October 17.
The manga has been running in Weekly Big Comic Spirits since 2004, and Shogakukan published the 38th compiled book volume on Friday. It won in the General category of the 56th Shogakukan Manga Awards in 2011. It was also nominated for a Osamu Tezuka Culture Prize in 2008 and 2010, as well as for France's Angoulême Comics Awards in 2008.
The manga depicts the human drama in the black market world, as seen through the eyes of the titular loan shark. Ushijima heads Kaukau Finance, an outfit that lends money at an illegal interest rate — "Togo" or 50% every 10 days.
A live-action television series adaptation ran from October-December 2010, and the first film opened in August 2012. A second season premiered in January 2014, with a second film then premiering in May that same year. The third season premiered on July 17, while the third film opened in Japan on September 22. The fourth and final live-action film, Yamikin Ushijima-kun The Final, will open in Japan on October 22.
Yūsuke Matsumoto began a four-panel comedy spinoff titled Yamikin ♥Ushijima-Kyun on Shogakukan's Yawaraka Spirits website last year.
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