Viz to create US Shounen Jump

Wednesday, June 12, 2002

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Viz Communications has announced a suprise partnership with Shueisha to release a US version of the extremely popular manga magazine, Shounen Jump. This US version of Shounen Jump will launch in November 2002 and is said by Viz to be patterned after the original Shueisha version. The Japanese version of Shounen Jump currently has such popular manga series such as Hikaru no Go, One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh, Hunter X Hunter, Naruto, Shaman King and more. The content of the US version of Shounen Jump is not completely known at this point, although so far Dragon Ball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh appear to be confirmed titles.

Shounen Jump has a circulation of over 3.4 million copies per week in Japan. Viz is initially aiming for a lower, realistic rate for it's launch, but plans on reaching a level of 1 million within the first 3 years. Just like the Japanese Shounen Jump, the American version is said to have advertising support within each issue which will hopefully give the magazine the support from other major advertisers besides the already named Cartoon Network, Suncoast, and Diamond Comic Distributors. The price for each issue is $4.95, as stated by Viz in it's press release on the subject.

Viz has stated more information will be released within the coming weeks. This certainly is big news and once more titles are confirmed and revealed, as well as the format and release schedule of the magazine, we should be able to have a much clearer understanding of the whole situation.