Weekly Shōnen Jump

Weekly Shōnen Jump (週刊少年ジャンプ, Shūkan Shōnen Janpu) is a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. It is the best-selling manga magazine,^[1] as well as one of the longest-running; the first issue was released with a cover date of July 2, 1968. The manga series within the magazine target young male readers and tend to consist of a large number of action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. The chapters of series that run in Weekly Shōnen Jump are collected and published in tankōbon volumes under the "Jump Comics" imprint every two to three months.

The mid-1980s to the mid-1990s represents the era when the magazine's circulation was at its highest (6.53 million), and is referred to as the "Golden Age of Jump". However, since then it has experienced a drastic decline and had a circulation of 2.4 million copies in early 2015.^[2]

Weekly Shōnen Jump has two sister magazines called Jump SQ, created after the fall of Monthly Shōnen Jump, and Saikyō Jump. The magazine has also had several international counterparts, including the current North American Weekly Shonen Jump.

History

First issue of Bessatsu Shōnen Jump which replaced Shōnen Book

The Weekly Shōnen Jump logo

Weekly Shōnen Jump was launched by Shueisha on July 2, 1968 to compete with the already-successful Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Weekly Shōnen Sunday.^[3] Weekly Shōnen Jump's sister publication was a manga magazine called Shōnen Book, which was originally a male version of the short-lived shōjo manga anthology Shōjo Book.^[4] Prior to issue 20, Weekly Shōnen Jump was originally called simply Shōnen Jump as it was originally a semi-weekly magazine. In 1969, Shōnen Book ceased publication^[5] at which time Shōnen Jump became a weekly magazine^[5] and a new monthly magazine called Bessatsu Shōnen Jump was made to take Shōnen Book's place. This magazine was later rebranded as Monthly Shōnen Jump before eventually being discontinued and replaced by Jump SQ.

Famicom Jump: Hero Retsuden, released in 1988 for the Family Computer was produced to commemorate the magazine's 20th anniversary. It was followed by a sequel: Famicom Jump II: Saikyō no Shichinin in 1991, also for the Family Computer. In 2000, two more games were created for the purpose of commemorating the magazine's anniversaries. A crossover fighting game titled Jump Super Stars was released for the Nintendo DS in 2005. It was followed by Jump Ultimate Stars in 2006. A new crossover game, J-Stars Victory Vs., was released in 2014 for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita to commemorate Jump's 45 anniversary.

At its highest point in the mid-1990s, Weekly Shōnen Jump had a regular circulation of over 6 million.^[6] In recent years, its circulation has been less than three million.

Due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the shipment of the 15th issue of 2011 was delayed in some areas of Japan. In response, Shueisha published the series included in that issue for free on its website from March 23 to April 27.^[7]

On July 11, 2013, the Namco Bandai Group opened an amusement park themed around Weekly Shōnen Jump series. Titled J-World Tokyo, it is located on the third floor of the Sunshine City World Import Mart Building in Ikebukuro and is 1.52 acres.^[8][9]

In celebration of the magazine's 45th anniversary in 2013, Shueisha began a contest where anyone can submit manga in three different languages, Japanese, English and Chinese. Judged by the magazine's editorial department, four awards will be given, a grand prize and one for each language, each including 500,000 yen (about US$4,900) and guaranteed publication in either Jump, its special editions, North American edition, China's OK! Comic, or Taiwan's Formosa Youth.^[10]

A mobile phone app titled "Jump Live" was launched in August 2013, it features exclusive content from the artists whose series run in Weekly Shōnen Jump.^[11]

Newcomer Awards

Weekly Shōnen Jump, in association with parent company Shueisha, holds annual competitions for new or up and coming manga artists to create one-shot stories. The best are put to a panel of judges (including manga artists past and present) where the best are given a special award for the best of these new series. The Tezuka Award, named for manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka, is given for all different styles of stories. The Akatsuka Award, named for gag manga pioneer Fujio Akatsuka, is a similar competition for comedy and gag manga. Many Weekly Shōnen Jump manga artists have gotten their start either winning or being acknowledged by these competitions.

Associated items

WSJ is also the center of the Shueisha's branding of its main manga products due to the popularity and recognition of the series and characters published in it. Although the manga are published both in the main magazine as well as in the Jump Comics line, they also are republished in various other editions such as kazenban and "Remixes" of the original work, usually publishing series older or previously established series. The Jump brand is also used on the tankōbon released of their manga series, related drama CDs, and at "Jump Festa", a festival showing off the people and products behind the Weekly Shōnen Jump manga titles.

Features

Series

There are currently twenty manga titles being serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump.

Special issues

Jump Next!

Jump Next! (ジャンプNEXT!, Janpu NEXT!) was originally a seasonal offshoot of the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine published on Japanese holidays. It became its own independent anthology that is published every other month on March 14, 2014.^[12] The magazine was published under the name Akamaru Jump (赤マルジャンプ, Akamaru Janpu) prior to April 30, 2010.^[13] Jump Next! features many amateur manga artists who get their one-shots published in the magazine. It also puts additional one-shot titles by professional manga artists, which promote upcoming series to be published in the main magazine. Lately it's also featuring the last chapters of cancelled series from Weekly Shōnen Jump, such as Enigma and Magico. It also features yonkoma of popular series such as Death Note and Naruto, as well as the pilot chapter of Bleach. Jump Next! has had several other past special versions:

• Aomaru Jump (青マルジャンプ, Aomaru Janpu) was a single issue of Akamaru Jump.^[14] One-shots that were featured in Aomaru Jump were Dead/Undead, Shōgai Oyaji Michi!, The Dream, Mieruhito, Yūtō ☆ Hōshi, and Fuku wa Jutsu.^[15]

• Jump the Revolution! (ジャンプ the REVOLUTION!) was a special edition of Akamaru Jump that was published in two issues in November 2005 and 2006. Jump the Revolution! contained one-shots of upcoming Weekly Shōnen Jump series and soon to be Jump SQ series.

V Jump

V Jump (Vジャンプ, Bui Janpu) was originally an offshoot of the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine in a special issue called Weekly Shōnen Jump Tokubetsu Henshū Zōkan V Jump (週刊少年ジャンプ特別編集増刊 V JUMP). The special issues lasted from 1992 through 1993. V Jump became its own independent anthology in 1993 for coverage of games, including video and card games.

Super Jump

Super Jump (スーパージャンプ, Sūpā Janpu) was also originally an offshoot of the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine in a special issue called Weekly Shōnen Jump Tokubetsu Henshū Zōkan Super Jump (週刊少年ジャンプ特別編集増刊 スーパージャンプ). The magazine was published from 1968 to 1988, when it became a separate anthology for seinen manga.

Jump VS

Jump VS was a special issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump, published on March 22, 2013. The issue focused on "battle manga" and included 12 one-shots.^[16][17]

Foreign adaptations

Manga titles from Weekly Shōnen Jump are translated into many foreign languages, and some even having their own separate version of the Weekly Shōnen Jump anthology. Weekly Shōnen Jump manga are also published in many other countries where the magazine itself is not published, like the United Kingdom, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Australia, and South Korea.

Shonen Jump

Shonen Jump, published in North America by Viz Media, debuted in November 2002, with a January 2003 cover date. Though based on Weekly Shōnen Jump, the English language Shonen Jump is retooled for English readers and the American audience and is published monthly, instead of weekly.^[18][19] It features serialized chapters from seven manga series, and articles on Japanese language and culture, manga, anime, video games, and figurines.^[20] In conjunction with the magazine, Viz launched new imprints for releasing media related to the series presented in the magazine, and other shōnen works. This includes two new manga imprints, an anime DVD imprint, a fiction line for releasing light novels, a label for fan and data books, and a label for the release of art books.^{[21][22][23][24]}

Prior to the magazine's launch, Viz launched an extensive marketing campaign to promote the magazine and help it succeed where other manga anthologies in North America have failed.^[25] Shueisha purchased an equity interest in Viz to help fund the venture,^[26] and Cartoon Network, Suncoast, and Diamond Distributors became promotional partners in the magazine.^[25] The first issue required three printings to meet demand, with over 300,000 copies sold.^[27] It was awarded the ICv2 "Comic Product of the Year" award in December 2002, and continued to enjoy high sales with a monthly circulation of 215,000 in 2008.^[28][29] Shonen Jump was discontinued in April 2012 in favor of its digital successor, Weekly Shonen Jump.

Weekly Shonen Jump

Weekly Shonen Jump, Viz Media's successor to the monthly print anthology Shonen Jump, is a North American digital shōnen manga anthology published simultaneously with the Japanese editions of Weekly Shōnen Jump, in part to combat the piracy of manga through bootleg scanlation services. It began serialization on January 30, 2012 as Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha with a lineup of six titles and new issues published online two weeks after Japanese release, but within a year had expanded to twelve ongoing series, and on January 21, 2013 it underwent a rebranding and transitioned to simultaneous publication with Japan.^[30][31]

Banzai!

Banzai! is a German-language version of Weekly Shōnen Jump published by Carlsen Verlag that was published from 2001 through December 2005 before being canceled.^[32] In addition to the Weekly Shōnen Jump manga series, the magazine also included original German language manga-influenced comics. The magazine competed as a sister publication to a shōjo anthology called Daisuki. It had a circulation of 140,000 copies.^[33]

Remen Shaonian Top

Cover of volume 187 of Remen Shaonian Top

Rèmén Shàonián Top (熱門少年TOP) is the former weekly Chinese-language version of Weekly Shōnen Jump, published in Taiwan by Da Ran Publishing. In the 1990s Da Ran went bankrupt and the magazine had to cease publication. Rèmén Shàonián Top serialized series such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, Tottemo! Luckyman, Hikaru no Go, and One Piece as well as several other domestic manhua.

Formosa Youth

Formosa Youth (寶島少年 Báodǎo Shàonián, lit. "Taiwan Teen") is the current weekly Chinese version of Weekly Shōnen Jump. Formosa Youth features various series from Weekly Shōnen Jump. The Formosa Youth magazine translates Weekly Shōnen Jump manga up to date. A sister publication of Formosa Youth is Dragon Youth Comic (龍少年 Lóng Shàonián), which specializes in domestic manhua. In 1977, the Tong Li company was created and founded by Fang Wan-Nan which created bootlegs, this ended in 1992.^[34] A law in Taiwan restricted the act of bootlegging all manga.^[34] During 1992, Tong Li created many manga and manhua magazines, New Youth Bulletin, Youth Comic, Margaret Girl, Dragon Youth Comic, and Formosa Youth.^[35] Some series like One Piece and Hikaru no Go were first published in the manga/manhua magazine Rèmén Shàonián Top (熱門少年TOP) by Da Ran Publishing, but when Daran Publishing went bankrupt the series were transferred to Formosa Youth.

EX-am

EX-am is the Hong Kong version of Weekly Shōnen Jump published by Culturecom Holdings's comic division Culturecom Comics, the largest comic distributors in all of Asia.^[36] The magazine published Hunter × Hunter, Captain Tsubasa and Dragon Ball—which holds the highest circulation of manga in Hong Kong, alongside the highest of domestic manhua which would be Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword.^[36]

C-Kids

C-Kids (ซีคิดส์ See Kít) is the Thai language Weekly Shōnen Jump published by Siam Inter Comics.^[37] C-Kids publishes many Weekly Shōnen Jump series such as One Piece, Gintama^[38] along with many original manga-influenced comics from the division Cartoon Thai Studio like EXEcutional.^[39]

Boom

Boom (บูม) is another Thai language Weekly Shōnen Jump published by Nation Edutainment. Boom publishes many Weekly Shōnen Jump series such as Naruto, Death Note along with many original manga-influenced comics from Factory Studio like Meed Thii Sib-Sam and Apaimanee Saga.

Swedish Shonen Jump

In November 2004, Manga Media began publication of a Swedish language version of Weekly Shōnen Jump in Sweden, called Shonen Jump as a sister publication to their existing magazines Manga Mania and Shojo Stars. The magazine included chapters from various popular Weekly Shōnen Jump titles including Bleach, Naruto, Shaman King, and Yu-Gi-Oh!. In November 2007, after 37 issues published, Manga Media ceased publication of the magazine.^[40][41] It had a circulation of 30,000 copies.^[33]

Norwegian Shonen Jump

A Norwegian language edition of Weekly Shōnen Jump began publication in Norway in March 2005. Published by Schibsted Forlagene, the Norwegian edition was a direct translation of Bonnier's Swedish version of the magazine, containing the same series and titles. When Bonnier lost the license for Weekly Shōnen Jump, the Norwegian version also ceased publication, with the last issue released on February 26, 2007. They also created two short lived book imprints: "En Bok Fra Shonen Jump" (a book from Shonen Jump) for profile books and "Dragon Ball Ekstra" (Dragon Ball Extra) a line specifically for manga written by Akira Toriyama.^[42] Also a film comic based on the Dragon Ball Z anime was released under the "TV Anime Comic" imprint.^[43]

Circulation and demographic

Weekly Shōnen Jump is the bestselling manga magazine in Japan.^[1] In 1982, Weekly Shōnen Jump had a circulation of 2.55 million. By 1995, circulation numbers swelled to 6.53 million. The magazine's former editor-in-chief Masahiko Ibaraki (2003-2008) stated this was due to the magazine including "hit titles such as Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, and others." After hitting this peak, the circulation numbers continued to drop.^[44][45] 1998's New Year's issue was the first time in 24 years that Weekly Shōnen Jump lost as the highest selling shōnen manga magazine (4.15 million copies sold), ceding to Weekly Shōnen Magazine (4.45 million).^[46] It was not until 2007 that the magazine saw its first increase in 11 years, from 2.75 million to 2.78 million. An increase that Ibaraki credited to One Piece.^[47]

By publishing shōnen manga, the magazine is targeted to young boys. However, Index Digital reported in 2005 that the favorite non-shōjo magazine of elementary and middle school-aged female readers is Weekly Shōnen Jump at 61.9%.^[48] Strengthening it, Oricon conducted a poll among 2,933 female Japanese readers on their favorite manga magazines in 2007. Weekly Shōnen Jump was the number one answer, with One Piece, Death Note, and The Prince of Tennis cited as the reasons.^[49] In 2009, it was reported that 62.9% of the magazine's readers were under the age of fourteen.^[50]

See also

References

External links

• Official website
• Official website (Japanese)
• Pop Web Jump (Archive)
• Official Jumpland website (Japanese)