With Shonen Jump’s annual convention ‘Jump Festa’ just around the corner we here at J-Curi have decided to run a few Jump themed articles over the next week. We, of course, have our own ‘Man in Japan’ to check out this great event and mingle with the stars of One Piece, Naruto and other great series (I’m so jealous). So make sure to check out Fray’s future articles on the event which I’m sure will be jam-packed with awesome photos and hopefully some news of any upcoming series, the event is taking place this Sat-Sun.
My entry into this Jump themed week is all about Shonen Jump manga, I’ve been a huge fan of manga for 10 years now and I have countless volumes stacked to the ceiling and of course of a lot of those series are from Shonen Jump. Shonen Jump is probably the most recognized manga magazine in and outside of Japan and with a history of almost 50 years it has published some of the greatest series known to Otaku-kind, such titles as Dragonball, Death Note, Naruto and One piece plus hundreds more.
The Jump brand doesn’t just include Shonen Jump there is a range of different magazines published by Shueisha for all different age/consumer groups including Jump SQ, Young Jump, Super Jump, V-Jump and Ultra Jump. Shueisha also publishes many other magazines, not under the Jump brand mainly aimed towards girls and older audiences.
Now I’m not planning to bore you have a history of Jump manga although I could and probably will in the future (just kidding), no what I’m going to do is list some of my favourite series that is currently being published and mention a few of the newer series in the hopes that I might open up new interests for people who may only be familiar with the usual big names.
Top 5 Currently Publishing Series:
Ansatsu Kyoushitsu (Assassination Classroom)
The concept is simple but feels so much more unique than other stories. The interaction between Koro-Sensei and his students is great, an average day would see him as he tries to teach them and they try to assassinate him at every opportunity. Koro-Sensei is probably one of the funniest characters created his different facial expressions alone are worth reading this for.
Kuroko no Basket (Kuroko’s Basketball)
Sports manga if done right can be amazing they can draw you into the sport when you wouldn’t have had the interest before, Slam Dunk did this for me years ago and Kuroko no Basket did it again. This manga has been great since it started and I hope it has a long life as there is so much more to explore.
Naruto
Years ago I would get annoyed by the prolonged battle scenes within Naruto but right now with this final battle against Madara is totally worth it.
Nisekoi (False Love)
I’m very impressed that a romantic comedy series could last for 2 years of serialization within Shonen Jump, I’m not much of a RomCom fan but the characters in this series actually have a personality and that makes for a very interesting and enjoyable read every week. Oh! and it’s getting an Anime next season Winter 2014 which is in a couple of weeks I know I’ll be watching.
Shokugeki no Soma
I was wary about reading this at first but boy is it fun who knew cooking could be so interesting plus the art is just beautiful.
Best long-running series:
One Piece
How a series can run for 15 years and show no signs of slowing down is amazing, I still get excited every week by One Piece the imagination and creativity poured into it, it’s like stepping into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and that’s just Frankie’s ever-changing body the story goes so much further.
Honourable Mentions:
One-Punch Man
Okay, this one isn’t a Shonen Jump manga, it’s released via Young Jump online manga viewer but it’s so awesome that I have to share it. I’m a massive fan of Super Hero parody stories and this is one of the best so check it out.
You can now access a selection of this great series via Viz Media’s own Shonen Jump app for both IOS and Android. Crunchyroll has also recently rolled out a new Manga reading app for Android that works similar to their current Anime app that streams and simulcasts anime.
What is written here doesn’t account for all of the manga I read so don’t take this as my current favourites this is solely of weekly Shonen Jump.