Weekly Shonen Jump

This article is for the weekly magazine by Shueisha. For the monthly magazine published by Viz Media, see "Shonen Jump".

Weekly Shonen Jump (週刊少年ジャンプ, Shūkan Shōnen Janpu) is a weekly shonen manga magazine published in Japan by Shueisha under the "Jump" line of magazines.

The first issue was released with a cover date of August 1, 1968^[1], and it is still circulating. One of the longest-running manga magazines in Japan, it has a circulation of 1.3 million (2021)^[2]. The chapters of series that run in Weekly Shonen Jump are collected and published in tankōbon volumes under the "Jump Comics" imprint every two to three months. The manga series within the magazine target young male readers (aged 12 to 18) and tend to consist of a large number of action scenes, a fair amount of comedy, and the approach of themes such as friendship and personal growth.

History

Cover of the first issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, released in 1968

Weekly Shonen Jump was launched by Shueisha on July 11, 1968^[3] to compete with the already-successful Weekly Shonen Magazine and Weekly Shonen Sunday. The Weekly Shonen Jump's sister publication was a manga magazine called Shonen Book, which was originally a male version of the short-lived shojo manga anthology Shojo Book. Prior to issue 20, Weekly Shonen Jump was originally called simply Shonen Jump as it was originally a semi-weekly magazine. In 1969, Shonen Book ceased publication at which time Shonen Jump became a weekly magazine and a new monthly magazine called Bessatsu Shonen Jump was made to take Shonen Book's place. This magazine was later rebranded as Monthly Shonen Jump before eventually being discontinued and replaced by Jump Square.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure was originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1986^[a] to 2004. In 2005, the series changed the magazine of its publication to Ultra Jump during the run of its seventh installment, Steel Ball Run. While in Weekly Shonen Jump, the series was published under the tagline "Romance Horror! -A Crimson Tale-" (ロマンホラー!—深紅の秘伝説—, Romanhorā!-Shinku no hi densetsu-). The tagline was created by the editorial department at Shueisha, and was included in every chapter up until Stone Ocean.^[4]

The first episode of Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, At a Confessional, was published in Weekly Shonen Jump on June 24, 1997^[b]. It was created under the restriction set by the magazine that it couldn't be related to the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series. This was because the editorial department had a strict policy against spin-offs or side stories. As a workaround, Araki made Rohan the narrator of the one-shot.^[5] Even after JoJo's Bizarre Adventure ended serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, many other episodes of Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan would continue to be published in the magazine. This included Millionaire Village in 2012 and Poaching Seashore in 2013. In 2014, The Harvest Moon was also released exclusively through their free online manga service Shonen Jump+.

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