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  • Inside SHONEN WEEKLY JUMP Manga

  • Created and produced by John Daub

  • ONLY in JAPAN

  • Manga: it's a Japanese style comic

  • that is definitely ONLY in JAPAN

  • and no manga has been more influential in

  • Japanese culture than the one I'm highlighting today

  • Shueisha has invited me to get an inside look

  • at how SHONEN JUMP weekly has

  • really evolved over the last 50 years

  • yes that's right, this manga has been around for over 50 years!

  • It has inspired all-stars like

  • ONE PIECE

  • DRAGON BALL, NARUTO

  • It has inspired a generation of boys

  • none of whom is more inspired than

  • the man behind me

  • He's KK, he's my co-reporter for this episode

  • and he has in his hands a copy of

  • Hi John, how are you doing?

  • SHONEN JUMP

  • How are you?

  • The exhibition is so cool man!

  • Right!

  • What is it about Shonen Jump that inspired you as a kid?

  • Back when I was a kid,

  • Monday was the day to begin everything!

  • To meto kids, Monday was the Shonen Jump day.

  • So go to school, go back to the store

  • get JUMP and read from beginning to the end.

  • From cover to cover, you'd read it

  • all that information

  • So Shonen Jump gives me a lot of energy

  • The Shonen Jump series, it's made for just boys

  • Yeah, mainly for boys

  • But in it, it was very important because

  • it also has a lot of life lessons in it

  • Sureeffort, friendship, victory

  • self worth, maybe

  • Basically if you're reading Shonen Jump, you could probably

  • get into the mind of what a Japanese guy

  • is thinking.

  • Yeah. Yeah.

  • Which is how important culturally this manga has been.

  • KK can't wait to see the Shonen Jump exhibit

  • and neither can I.

  • Publisher Shueisha is celebrating the series's 50th anniversary.

  • The exhibit spans 3 eras,

  • this one focusing on the 1970s to 1980s

  • when both KK and I were kids.

  • You can see he has a lot of passion for those childhood memories,

  • reading every copy of Shonen Jump as a kid.

  • The walls are lined with scenes from the weekly manga,

  • Each issue has 20 serial series,

  • each with 20 pages per week.

  • Popular serial series can go on for decades

  • like KK's favoriteKochikamewhich continued for 40 years!

  • Action and humor is the name of the game

  • on the pages of JUMP.

  • Captain Tsubasa, started in 1981

  • and still running today

  • has published over 70 million copies to date.

  • The story revolves around an 11 year old school kid who

  • wants to win the FIFA World Cup for Japan

  • This scene was recreated on playgrounds everywhere!

  • As guys, we like the action, right?

  • This is my golden era

  • These manga? Yeah, right!

  • These manga!

  • Tsubasa

  • For many Japanese, JUMP connects generations,

  • just looking at old covers brings back memories,

  • school buddies chatting about what just happened

  • on those sacred pages!

  • I want to bring them back home!

  • So basically when you were a kid

  • you had friends that had favorite

  • characters from different series, right?

  • Yeah, one copy has 15 different stories

  • My favourite one was Ryo-san, Captain Tsubasa

  • Back then.

  • But some of my friends loved another story

  • So you would read all of them anyway

  • Yeah Yeah

  • Even though there are so many in there

  • There's no way to skip, no reason to skip

  • So then in the end, you would just have battles like

  • He's the best! He's the best! This is the best!

  • Yeah! Or

  • whoever doesn't follow my favourite story

  • I can tell him, hey!

  • THIS WEEK RYO-SAN is the BEST!

  • Now you read it!

  • Right!

  • I like that! It's sort of putting the collection all into one book

  • gives a little camaraderie

  • Yeah!

  • I can learn a lot of things from

  • manga and also mangaShonen Jump

  • helped me to connect with me with my friends

  • I mean, it's better than talking about homework, right?

  • I wanted to learn more about how this weekly manga was made

  • so I made a trip to publisher Shueisha's headquarters

  • in Tokyo for an official behind the scenes look at

  • WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP

  • WOAH!!

  • No foreign journalist has ever reported on SHONEN JUMP'S

  • EDITORIAL ROOM

  • This is going to be awesome!

  • This is the Editorial Department

  • This is where all the magic is put together each week

  • The editors department is just full ofstuff!

  • All of it related to manga

  • There are a lot of secrets in those boxes and manilla envelopes

  • The department is also filled with toys

  • Inspiration comes in many forms.

  • But it's also a place where they, you know,

  • work to edit each issue.

  • It's been coming out weekly for almost half a century

  • Here are some pages for an upcoming issue.

  • The editor is measuring the size of the words and font here

  • and adding instructions for the printers.

  • Inside this manila folder is a rare look at an up coming Shonen Jump cover!

  • Picking the cover is one of

  • the most important parts of each issue.

  • Since One Piece is celebrating its 20th anniversary,

  • it's an easy decision this week.

  • Inside this folder is another treasure.

  • This is very rare!

  • It's an original ONE PIECE drawing

  • coming straight from the artist.

  • This is authentic.

  • You can tell it's original because

  • the ink has bled through the paper on the back.

  • I wonder how many millions of fans will be looking at

  • this in a few weeks.

  • Here's another original ONE PIECE work.

  • These are all the top characters which were

  • voted on a while ago

  • Shonen Jump turns 50 and One Piece turns 20.

  • There's a lot to celebrate at Shueisha!

  • Let's talk to the editors about how

  • they put together this weekly manga series.

  • JUMP has 20 manga series per week and

  • the process starts with the editor and artist

  • Each series has their own editor

  • The process working together doesn't change

  • We start from scratch, the editor and artist

  • meeting and discussing

  • What should this week's episode be?

  • How was last weeks episode?

  • The direction of episodes in 10 to 20 weeks

  • or one year later

  • and that is how next week's episode will be decided.

  • It will be held at the artist's work place or

  • a family restaurant

  • ranging from one hour to 5 to 6 hours

  • Once the editor and artist agree on

  • how next week's episode should be,

  • the artist will draw something calledthe name

  • which is a rough draft, plot or plan of the manga

  • on a notebook or pieces of paper

  • with a rough sketch

  • about the scenes, the words

  • the story of those weekly 19 pages

  • The editor will chack that again.

  • The check will be fax, email or

  • meeting directly to know the content

  • If it is really good, it will pass,

  • but that is very rare

  • The worst case is doing it all over again

  • Maybe this scene is hard to understand

  • needs more emotion

  • and we do the discussion on this again.

  • After a few discussion and

  • when the adjustments are agreed,

  • the artist starts the work

  • Once the work is done,

  • the editor goes and retrieves it

  • then the editor has to do work on the publishing

  • so material is sent to pressing and proofreading

  • transferring the words into print

  • or checking it for errors

  • we check all that and when it's okay

  • we take it to print and then the book is made.

  • That's pretty much a week's worth of work

  • SHONEN JUMP PLUS

  • The Weekly Shonen Jump goes digital

  • You can see Weekly Jump Series online.

  • Around 2000 pages monthly, same as the magazine!

  • The content may be more a little more aggressive or violent,

  • and as this service matures,

  • it's sure to be a great addition for fans worldwide.

  • Manga otaku don't even have to leave their house anymore!

  • About the JUMP PLUS content

  • compared to the paper SHONEN JUMP

  • there is a difference from paper

  • JUMP PLUS readers are not just young boys

  • the age group is a bit wider

  • reader demographics a bit broader

  • the graphics may be more aggressive or violent

  • LIFE OR DEATH OF A SERIES IN JUMP

  • The first is whether the viewers want it

  • the other is the vitality

  • or the power and endurance of the artist

  • It's a balance of these two things.

  • If it goes well, it will last up to 40 years.[

  • If not, even if the artist wants to continue,

  • it will end early

  • or even if the readers like it,

  • when the artist says it's done - it's done.

  • So - you want to be a manga artist, huh?

  • How does one become a manga artist here?

  • Definitely contact Shonen Jump!

  • This is from the 50 year history of JUMP.

  • Our biggest job is go find new artists

  • and that is the motto of our editing department.

  • That has never changed here.

  • It may have been only Japan until now,

  • but now we are accepting artists globally.

  • There are many global contests

  • so the gate to join JUMP is open around the world!

  • Although the language barrier may be a problem,

  • we will know a great talent when we see the work

  • so you can start off by giving us a call.

  • Wait! Do you have any foreign artists here?

  • We already have people bringing in their work.

  • On JUMP PLUS we already have foreign artists

  • We have Korean and Chinese artists now

  • New artists may turn out to be really boring

  • or really amazing!

  • Our motto at SHONEN JUMP

  • is betting on those chances

  • MAGAZINES and COMICS

  • In JUMP we have green pages, yellow pages

  • and red pages

  • It's recycled paper so

  • we add color to hide the dirtiness

  • Since we want to deliver to our readers

  • the cheapest price possible, we use cheap paper

  • The quality of the paper really doesn't matter

  • it's about the art!

  • So people don't collect these issues

  • If you like the manga in the magazine,

  • you can buy the comics version and collect them

  • The quality of the paper is beautiful

  • so people collect these instead.

  • Tankobon also calledkomikusuin Japanese

  • is a stand alone edition of many weeks of stories

  • from the weekly issue

  • These are what people collect,

  • not the big weekly Shonen Jump

  • Those are considered zasshi, or a magazine

  • Sold at news stands

  • Fans read it for the story and art and get rid of them

  • Recycle

  • Very different from the system in the United States

  • Paper and ink quality is low so

  • even kids can afford it

  • The KOMIKUSU are the collectable versions because

  • the paper is higher quality

  • and all of the stories in JUMP are in one edition

  • Yeah, the most hard-core fans read the manga twice!

  • Once in the zasshi and again in the komikusu.

  • Artists have boxes for mail in the editor's department. Your fan mail may be inside this box right now!

  • Speaking of artists, let's talk go meet some of the legends

  • at a press Q&A to celebrate JUMP's 50th anniversary.

  • SHONEN JUMP LEGENDS

  • Let's Talk Manga

  • These artists are 4 of the most well respected in their time.

  • Life as a JUMP artistit's a rivalry behind the scenes

  • We were working as artists on the same Jump,

  • and we had reader's poll back then,

  • so we were all rivals

  • There was a feeling of wanting to win

  • against the other artists,

  • and we competed with each other, which was good

  • It's not like fan's art

  • where people draw what they like,

  • but the rivalry made us to thrive

  • Since I was older than them,

  • I always had to be sure to make

  • better manga than my peers

  • The poll was equal for all - veterans or rookies,

  • so we were judged equally

  • Since there was competition,

  • we thrived to become better

  • Back then the relationship was horrible.

  • Now we can talk to Takahashi-kun,

  • but back then I didn't want to talk to him

  • Not even in the same room.

  • Impossible to be together.

  • We really took it that far.

  • Not with Captain Tsubasa,

  • not with Fist of North Star.

  • All enemies to us!

  • Same with Cat's Eye and Dragon Ball

  • It was an information war

  • We had to find out how our rival will bring

  • the climax to their series.

  • At that same time, we would try to crush them!

  • We'd bring an real good episode we saved for later

  • and bring it right on their climax to crush them

  • Our editors didn't get along either

  • You mean the editors?

  • Now we can stay together, but compared to back then,

  • the relationship is much better

  • Now we are war buddies

  • More horrible than I though.

  • That's really incredible.

  • So it's better now?

  • Now we're okay.

  • For me, we were all good friends

  • You're acting as a good fellow all of a sudden!

  • Since we were a team,

  • I think my biggest rival was Shimada

  • If he writes a good script, I had to draw really good

  • We were competing against each other

  • to create good work.

  • My biggest rivals were these two -

  • the Yudetamago

  • He said he didn't want to look at you or talk to you.

  • They are the same age, but debuted before me,

  • so more like my goal than a rival.

  • Let's take a break at the event cafe

  • for

  • MANGA BURGERS UNBOXED!

  • The TSUBASA BURGER

  • Soccer ball style

  • Double Fried Chicken patties

  • the bun a ball patterned with seaweed and squid ink mayonnaise

  • Kinnikuman Burger!

  • He loves Gyudon so

  • it's gyudon with red ginger

  • Edible cracker for the helmet wing

  • The Dragon Ball Burger!

  • Dragon ball,

  • double fried fish patties,

  • Goku's KAME logo in cheese!

  • Senzu beans in the dragon ball.

  • Cool.

  • Chow down to power up!

  • Highly approved!

  • The biggest and most important was

  • thePOLL SPEAKS FOR ALL in JUMP

  • For us artists in the 80s,

  • if we didn't get 1st place,

  • we were not considered manga artists

  • if we fell to no.2,

  • we were taunted by our editors.

  • His case is extreme.

  • Such strictness -

  • He was trained badly in Osaka.

  • Anyway - everyone was an enemy!

  • Tatsuo Hara (Fist of North Star) was

  • having coffee at a cafe

  • with our editors there -

  • our homes were so close so we used the same cafe,

  • but they left the instant we came in.

  • It was that harsh and competitive of a world.

  • Maybe not so much now,

  • but we all needed to take no.1

  • It was Kinnikuman one week,

  • then Fist of Northern Star

  • or Captain Tsubasa the next.

  • First place was evolving.

  • That is why of the 15 manga (in JUMP)

  • there was none that could be skipped.

  • How the editors took care of us

  • and the care after joining was super

  • compared to other places.

  • The way they treated artists and authors

  • was really great.

  • Free boxed lunches too!

  • Right! Those were really good!

  • If you didn't have a place to live

  • you couldn't borrow apartment by yourself.

  • If you didn't have a stable job, you couldn't rent

  • a house back then, and had to have collateral.

  • So they took care of us.

  • That was the case for me as well.

  • Isn't that so?

  • JUMP was a great place for

  • new artists to come out.

  • It was fierce competition for all.

  • Whether you were new or a veteran,

  • there was competition which was good.

  • Since the beginning of JUMP,

  • the motto wasChallenge"

  • and do what others cannot do

  • That spirit of doing what no other can do

  • and finding new artists will continue,

  • and hopefully continue as well.

  • For our time, every week was our biggest war,

  • so we didn't think of legitimacy

  • or chaos of the storyline

  • That was what made it fun!

  • I see less and less of that.

  • There are so many side stories,

  • and the side stories match

  • with the main story later on

  • That is important, but with SNS spreading out,

  • I think people are too cautious

  • of what others think of you

  • I personally hope something

  • totally crazy would come out in manga.

  • To be honest with you,

  • I hope more masculine / macho

  • type of Manga comes out

  • and hope the JUMP theme of

  • Friendship, Strive and Victory will be passed on.

  • Popularity is important,

  • but maybe a lot of the manga work is

  • concentrated and affected too much by it,

  • so as Akimoto-sensei has said,

  • I hope people try to challenge

  • what no one has ever done.

  • Manga is an important part of Japanese culture

  • and Shonen Jump has been at the front of it for 50 years.

  • It breeds a culture for kidsand adults

  • to be the best, both as a person and as a competitor,

  • seen not just on the pages of each weekly issue

  • but in the way the artist's work.

  • It's easy to see why fans cherish JUMP.

  • They have a say the processreaders, editors and artists

  • are connectedand as a fan,

  • I'm already looking forward to next Monday

  • when the newest issue of WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP

  • hits the news stand.

  • NEXT TIME: Let's head to Asahikawa for some bowls of ramen.

  • It's Hokkaido's northern most city

  • and if you like ramen,

  • you're not going to want to miss this ramen eating binge!

  • If you liked it, hit that subscribe button

  • and watch another one of ONLY in JAPAN's shows

  • See photos on Instagram: onlyinjapantv

  • mata ne

Inside SHONEN WEEKLY JUMP Manga

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