Jump Festa 2016 was held at Chiba’s Makuhari Messe from 19th to 20th December 2015. An exhibition of popular manga works took place in the venue delighting the many fans who gathered at the event. Over the two days, about 153,000 people attended the festival.
The event was put together as a thank you for the fans who support the five Jump magazines: Weekly Shonen Jump, Shonen Jump+, V Jump, Jump Square and Saikyo Jump. This year was the 17th edition of the festival and featured all kinds of exhibitions themed around each of the franchises plus original merchandise too.
In the “Jump Genga World,” other than popular manga series like One Piece and Naruto, Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen Mae Hashutsujo ( Kochikame ) which is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2016, was also featured, and the original art of the Shitamachi scenery was exhibited as well. Also artwork from issues 1 to 3 of the new magazine which will launch in January, Jump Ryuu!, was also on show. Each issue of the magazine will dissect the career of one of 25 mangaka including secret anecdotes from their debuts up to their workplace in a DVD and booklet combo, so it’s a series packed with everything about the work and the artists.
One of the special things about the exhibition is its digital content. The projection mapping exhibition, the Jojo Wall, was themed around JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 8: JoJolion which is currently running in Ultra Jump and the anime adaptation of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable which will be broadcast from April next year. Other digital items included a Death Note themed virtual reality escape game, and an iPhone app “Kisekae Jump” themed around Jump series and scheduled to launch in January 2016, which were both set up in the demo area.
The Naruto themed “Naruto Hiden Shinden Series Fan Art Contest” was held in collaboration with Dwango and pixiv. The best selected fan art was exhibited in this area.
Voice actors from each of the popular anime franchises also appeared on the Jump Super Stage. At the Naruto event it was also announced that the Naruto sequel with Naruto’s son Boruto as the protagonist, Boruto, will be published from next spring (original manga/supervision: Masashi Kishimoto; script: Ukyo Kodachi; original artwork: Mikio Ikemoto).
This year Jump Festa was packed out with fans once again. Great things are expected of it from here on in.
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article written and photographed by Kohji Sakurai and translated by Hayley Scanlon.