Weekly Shōnen Jump

Weekly Shōnen Jump (週刊少年ジャンプ) is a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of July 2, 1968, and it is still circulating. One of the longest-running manga magazines in Japan, it has a circulation of 2.8 million readers. 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 magazine targets young teen male readers.

Weekly Shōnen Jump has a sister magazine called Jump Square, created after the fall of Monthly Shōnen Jump.

History
Weekly Shōnen Jump was launched by Shueisha on July 2 1968 to compete with the already-successful Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Weekly Shōnen Sunday. The 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. 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 at which time Shōnen Jump became a weekly magazine 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 Square.

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. At its highest point in the mid 1990s, Weekly Shōnen Jump had a regular circulation of over 6 million. In the last few years, its circulation has been about three million. 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.

Newcomer Awards
Weekly Shōnen Jump, in association with parent company Shueisha, holds annual competitions for new or up and coming mangaka to create one-shot stories. The best are put to a panel of judges (including mangaka 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 mangaka 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.

Series
There are currently twenty-two manga titles being regularly serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump.

Akamaru Jump
Akamaru Jump (赤マルジャンプ) is the seasonal edition of Weekly Shōnen Jump which is published on Japanese holidays. The magazine features many amateur manga artists who get their one-shots published in the magazine. Akamaru Jump also puts additional one-shot titles by professional manga artists, which promote upcoming series to be published in the main magazine. It also features yonkoma of popular series such as Death Note and Naruto. Akamaru Jump has had several other past special versions:


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


 * Jump the Revolution! (ジャンプ the REVOLUTION!) is a special edition of Akamaru Jump that was published in two issues. 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) was originally a off-shoot 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) was also originally an off-shoot 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. In 1988 it became a separate anthology for seinen.

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, 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. It features serialized chapters from seven manga series, and articles on Japanese language and culture, manga, anime, video games, and figurines. 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.

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. Shueisha purchased an equity interest in Viz to help fund the venture, and Cartoon Network, Suncoast, and Diamond Distributors became promotional partners in the magazine. The first issue required three printings to meet demand, with over 300,000 copies sold. It was awarded the ICv2 "Comic Product of the Year" award in December 2002, and has continued to enjoy high sales with a monthly circulation of 215,000 in 2008.

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. 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.

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 local 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 local manhua. In 1977, the Tong Li company was created and founded by Fang Wan-Nan which created bootlegs, this ended in 1992. A law in Taiwan restricted the act of bootlegging all manga. During 1992, Tong Li created many manga and manhua magazines, New Youth Bulletin, Youth Comic, Margaret Girl, Dragon Youth Comic, and Formosa Youth. 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. The magazine published Hunter × Hunter, Captain Tsubasa and Dragon Ball—which holds the highest circulation of manga in Hong Kong, alongside the highest of manhua which would be Chinese Hero.

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

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 (มีดที่ 13 13th Knife) and Apaimanee Saga.

Swedish Shonen Jump
In February 2005, Bonnier Carlsen 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 Rurouni Kenshin, Bleach, Naruto, Shaman King, and Yu-Gi-Oh!. In January 2007, Bonnier was unable to renew its license with Shueisha for the magazine and had to cease publication of the magazine.

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 Norweigan 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. Also a films comic based on the Dragon Ball Z anime was released under the "TV Anime Comic" imprint.

Circulation and reception
In 1982, Weekly Shōnen Jump had a circulation of 2.55 million. By 1995, circulation numbers swelled to 6.53 million. The magazine's editor-in-chief Masahiko Ibaraki believes this was due to the magazine including "hit titles such as Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk and others." After hitting this peak, the circulation numbers began dropping again. By 2007, circulation was at 2.7 million.