Shonen Jump (magazine)

This article is about the North American magazine. For the Japanese magazine, see Weekly Shōnen Jump. For the magazine line, see Jump (magazine line).

Shonen Jump
Shonen Jump Volume 1, Issue 1, cover dated January 2003
Former editorsJason Thompson
Yumi Hoashi
Marc Weidenbaum
Grant Lowery
CategoriesManga
Shōnen
Advertising
FrequencyMonthly
Circulation215,000 (2008)
PublisherHyoe Narita
First issueNovember 26, 2002; 21 years ago (2002-11-26)
Final issueMarch 7, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-03-07)[1]
CompanyViz Media
CountryUnited States
Canada
Based inSan Francisco, California
LanguageEnglish
Websiteshonenjump.com
ISSN1545-7818

Shonen Jump, officially stylized SHONEN JUMP and abbreviated SJ, was a shōnen manga anthology published in North America by Viz Media. It debuted in November 2002 with the first issue having a January 2003 cover date. Based on Shueisha's popular Japanese magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump, Shonen Jump was retooled for English readers and the American audience, including changing it from a weekly publication to a monthly one. It featured serialized chapters from different manga series and articles on Japanese language and culture, as well as manga, anime, video games, and figurines. The premiere issue of Shonen Jump also introduced the first official English translations of One Piece, Sand Land, Yu-Gi-Oh!, YuYu Hakusho, and Naruto.

Prior to the magazine's launch, Viz launched an extensive marketing campaign to promote it and help it succeed where previous manga anthologies published in North America had 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. 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.

Targeted towards young adult males, the first issue required three printings to meet consumer demand, with over 300,000 copies sold. It was awarded the ICv2 "Comic Product of the Year" award in December 2002, and it continued to enjoy high sales with a monthly circulation of 215,000 in 2008. Approximately half of its circulation came from subscriptions rather than store sales. After the end of its physical circulation, sealed polybagged issues of Shonen Jump are now considered highly sought after among fans and comic book collectors.

Shonen Jump published its final issue in April 2012 when Viz decided to focus on a weekly digital manga anthology. Weekly Shonen Jump (initially named Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha) launched in January 2012. Based on Shueisha's popular Japanese magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump, Weekly Shonen Jump is an attempt to provide English readers with easily accessible, affordable, and officially licensed editions of the latest installments of popular Shōnen Jump manga soon after their release in Japan, as an alternative to popular bootleg scanlation services.

Viz Media published its final digital issue of Weekly Shonen Jump and launched the Shonen Jump digital vault on December 10, 2018, providing access to a limited number of free digital chapters and a subscription service to access their back catalogue of Shonen Jump titles.[2] A global version of Shonen Jump+ was also launched on January 28, 2019, called Manga Plus by Shueisha.[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference lastsj was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "VIZ". www.viz.com. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  3. ^ "Everything You Need to Know about MANGA Plus by Shueisha". Anime News Network. Retrieved January 30, 2019.