Weekly Shonen Jump - Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer)
Weekly Shonen Jump is a comic magazine that was originally founded by Shueisha in 1968 to compete with other popular comic magazines like Weekly Shonen Sunday and Weekly Shonen Magazine. Today, it is known for publishing some of the most popular manga series to ever exist and acts as a “gold standard” for many fans around the world. Examples of some series that have been published in this magazine include Captain Tsubasa, Fist of the North Star, Slam Dunk, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, One Piece, Hunter x Hunter, Naruto, Bleach, and, more recently, My Hero Academia, The Promised Neverland, Black Clover, Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer), and Dr. Stone. Although Weekly Shonen Jump is largely based in Japan, the magazine has been translated and published in various countries around the world, including Mexico, Spain, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
History
The very first issue of Weekly Shonen Jump (then simply called Shonen Jump) was published on August 1st, 1968 and, like its competitors, attempted to appeal to a young male demographic. After publishing twenty issues on a biweekly basis, the publication changed its name to Weekly Shonen Jump and released issues every week. The first issue featured manga such as Kujira Daigo, Chichi no Tamashii, and Harenchi Gakuen, the latter being one of Go Nagai’s (the creator of Cutie Honey, Mazinger Z, and Devilman) first hits. The magazine would go on to spawn several other publications, like Shonen Book, a monthly publication that eventually turned into Monthly Shonen Jump (now Jump SQ). Jump Next! was originally a seasonal special that featured one-shots created by beginning manga artists, with the occasional one-shot by well-known artists as well. This special went on to become its own anthology published every two months in March 2014. Super Jump is another special series that originated from Weekly Shonen Jump that originally ran from 1968 to 1988, after which it became its own publication that specializes in seinen manga.
In September 2014, Shueisha released a website and mobile application called “Shonen Jump+”, which allowed manga fans to purchase digital versions of Weekly Shonen Jump and volumes of specific series published under Jump’s imprint. It also has some exclusive series that are not published in the physical magazine as well, though they may not necessarily fit under the standard Shonen Jump demographic. Shueisha would later release and English and Spanish version of the site in early 2019, though it is called Manga Plus. All versions have the newest chapters of each series available for free in their respective languages for a limited time.
Currently Featured Series
Despite releasing every week, there is a chapter for 21 different series (with the exception of Hunter x Hunter, which releases irregularly) that is published in the standard Weekly Shonen Jump magazine:
Act-Age
Agravity Boys
Black Clover
Chainsaw Man
Dr. Stone
Guardian of the Witch
Haikyu!!
Hunter x Hunter
Jujutsu Kaisen
Mashle: Magic and Muscles
Mission: Yozakura Family
Mitama Security: Spirit Busters
My Hero Academia
One Piece
Undead Unluck
The Promised Neverland
Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru
We Never Learn
Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs
Zipman!!
Legacy
From its first publication in August of 1968 to fifty years later in 2018, Weekly Shonen Jump sold an average of over three million copies every week, but peaked at just over six and a half million units a week during 1995. In total, nearly 7.6 billion individual copies of the magazine have been printed and sold throughout the years, amassing approximately $20 billion in revenue overall. Through these years, many incredibly popular manga series were published in this magazine. Manga series like One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach causes sales of the magazine to boom, leading to some fans to refer to this trio as Weekly Shonen Jump’s “Big Three”, since they were once the magazine’s three most popular series. During this time, the publication essentially became the forerunner of manga for the younger audience.
Awards
Weekly Shonen Jump and its parent company Shueisha have also created a number of different newcomer awards that allow young manga artists to enter their one-shots in an attempt to win various prizes. Two major awards are the semi-annual Tezuka Award and the Akatsuka Award, which are both named for extremely well-known manga authors. The Tezuka Award focuses on story manga, while the Akatsuka award is for comedy manga specifically. Another newcomer competition happens every month as well, though its name has changed several times throughout the year. It is currently named the Jump New World Manga Award after its most popular series, One Piece. Several budding manga artists get their first start here. One example of this is the author Koyoharu Gotouge, who published a one-shot titled Kagarigari for the competition (which was then called the “Jump Treasure Newcomer Manga Award”) and was rewarded with an honorable mention in 2013. This one-shot shares several similarities to their later work that went on to be serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer).