Weekly Shōnen Jump

Weekly Shōnen Jump (Japanese: 週刊少年ジャンプ, Hepburn: Shūkan Shōnen Janpu, stylized in English as WEEKLY JUMP) is a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. It is the best-selling manga magazine, as well as one of the longest-running; the first issue was released with a cover date of August 1, 1968. The manga series within the magazine target young male readers and tend to consist of many action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. 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 mid-1980s to the mid-1990s represents the era when the magazine's circulation was at its highest, 6.53 million copies per week. Throughout 2019, it had an average circulation of 1.6 million copies. The magazine has sold over 7.5 billion copies since 1968, making it the best-selling comic/manga magazine. Many of the best-selling manga originate from Weekly Shōnen Jump.
Shōnen Jump spawned the Jump magazine line as well as the Jump Comics imprint label for publishing tankōbon. Weekly Shōnen Jump has two sister magazines called Jump SQ, created after the fall of Monthly Shōnen Jump, and Saikyō Jump. The magazine has also had several international counterparts, including the current North American Weekly Shonen Jump. It also spawned a crossover media franchise including anime and video games (since Famicom Jump) which bring together various Shōnen Jump characters.

## 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. 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 bi-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 SQ.

Hiroki Goto was appointed chief editor in 1986 and remained in the position until 1993. His tenure saw significant increases in circulation, and the serialization of numerous popular series. When asked about the period, Goto stated: “We only tried to create manga that everybody can enjoy. There were no specific rules. Idol and tabloid magazines dominated in the Media & Entertainment industry at that time and we aimed to stand out from the crowd by using only manga as our weapon.” 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. Shōnen Jump's circulation continued to increase year on year until 1995, peaking at 6.53 million copies. By 1998, circulation had dropped to 4.15 million copies, a decline in part ascribed to the conclusion of popular manga series Dragon Ball and Slam Dunk.

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. A new crossover game, J-Stars Victory Vs., was released in 2014 for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita to commemorate Jump's 45 anniversary. Circulation for the magazine continued to decline through the 2000s and into the 2010s. Due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the shipment of the 15th issue of 2011 was delayed in some areas of Japan. In response, Shueisha published the series included in that issue for free on its website from March 23 to April 27.

On July 11, 2013, the Namco Bandai Group opened an amusement park themed around Weekly Shōnen Jump series. Titled J-World Tokyo, it is located on the third floor of the Sunshine City World Import Mart Building in Ikebukuro and is 1.52 acres. In celebration of the magazine's 45th anniversary in 2013, Shueisha began a contest where anyone can submit manga in three different languages, Japanese, English and Chinese. Judged by the magazine's editorial department, four awards will be given, a grand prize and one for each language, each including 500,000 yen (about US$4,900) and guaranteed publication in either Jump, its special editions, North American edition, China's OK! Comic, or Taiwan's Formosa Youth.

A mobile phone app titled "Jump Live" was launched in August 2013, it features exclusive content from the artists whose series run in Weekly Shōnen Jump.
On September 22, 2014, the free Shōnen Jump+ (少年ジャンプ+, Shōnen Janpu Purasu, abbreviated J+) mobile app and website was launched in Japan. It sells digital versions of the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, simultaneous with its print release, and tankōbon volumes of individual Jump series past and present. However, it also has large samples of the manga that can be read for free. There are also series that are serialized exclusively on the app, such as Marvel × Shōnen Jump+ Super Collaboration; unlike those in Weekly Shōnen Jump, these series may be aimed at adult men or women. These exclusive series are later published in print tankōbon volumes under the Jump Comics+ imprint.
In 2019, the Shōnen Jump+ website and app had about 2.4 million active users. As of January 2020, the app had been downloaded more than 13 million times.
By 2017, print circulation was down to under two million, less than a third of its peak during the golden age. This decline follows similar trends seen by other magazines in the sector.
In June 2018, a limited 50th Anniversary Shōnen Jump Edition of the Famicom Mini (NES Classic Edition) game console was released in Japan. It sold 110,000 units in two days.

On January 28, 2019, Shueisha launched the global English-language version of Shōnen Jump+, titled Manga Plus. It is freely available in every country except China and South Korea, which have their own separate services. A Spanish-language version was launched in February 2019, and has a different library of content. Like the Japanese app, it has large samples of manga that can be read for free including all the current titles of Weekly Shōnen Jump, a sizeable number of titles from Shōnen Jump+ and some titles from Jump Square. However, unlike the Japanese version, the latest chapters of current Weekly Shōnen Jump manga are made available free for a limited-time and it does not sell content.