Shonen Jump (magazine)

Shonen Jump

Shonen Jump Volume 1, Issue 1, cover dated January 2003
Former editors	Jason Thompson Yumi Hoashi Marc Weidenbaum Grant Lowery
Categories	Manga Shōnen Advertising
Frequency	Monthly
Circulation	215,000 (2008)
Publisher	Hyoe Narita
First issue	November 26, 2002; 21 years ago (2002-11-26)
Final issue	April 2012; 12 years ago (2012-04)[1]
Company	Viz Media
Country	United States Canada
Based in	San Francisco, California
Language	English
Website	shonenjump.com
ISSN	1545-7818

Shonen Jump, officially stylized SHONEN JUMP and abbreviated SJ, was a shōnen manga anthology published in North America by Viz Media. It debuted in November 2002 with the first issue having a January 2003 cover date. Based on Shueisha's popular Japanese magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump, Shonen Jump was retooled for English readers and the American audience, including changing it from a weekly publication to a monthly one. It featured serialized chapters from different manga series and articles on Japanese language and culture, as well as manga, anime, video games, and figurines. The premiere issue of Shonen Jump also introduced the first official English translations of One Piece, Sand Land, Yu-Gi-Oh!, YuYu Hakusho, and Naruto.

Prior to the magazine's launch, Viz launched an extensive marketing campaign to promote it and help it succeed where previous manga anthologies published in North America had failed. Shueisha purchased an equity interest in Viz to help fund the venture, and Cartoon Network, Suncoast, and Diamond Distributors became promotional partners in the magazine. In conjunction with the magazine, Viz launched new imprints for releasing media related to the series presented in the magazine, and other shōnen works. This includes two new manga imprints, an anime DVD imprint, a fiction line for releasing light novels, a label for fan and data books, and a label for the release of art books.

Targeted towards young adult males, the first issue required three printings to meet consumer demand, with over 300,000 copies sold. It was awarded the ICv2 "Comic Product of the Year" award in December 2002, and it continued to enjoy high sales with a monthly circulation of 215,000 in 2008. Approximately half of its circulation came from subscriptions rather than store sales. After the end of its physical circulation, sealed polybagged issues of Shonen Jump are now considered highly sought after among fans and comic book collectors.

Shonen Jump published its final issue in April 2012 when Viz decided to focus on a weekly digital manga anthology. Weekly Shonen Jump (initially named Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha) launched in January 2012. Based on Shueisha's popular Japanese magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump, Weekly Shonen Jump is an attempt to provide English readers with easily accessible, affordable, and officially licensed editions of the latest installments of popular Shōnen Jump manga soon after their release in Japan, as an alternative to popular bootleg scanlation services.

Viz Media published its final digital issue of Weekly Shonen Jump and launched the Shonen Jump digital vault on December 10, 2018, providing access to a limited number of free digital chapters and a subscription service to access their back catalogue of Shonen Jump titles.^[2] A global version of Shonen Jump+ was also launched on January 28, 2019, called Manga Plus by Shueisha.^[3]