New magazine features behind the scenes stories of manga stars’ careers, DVDs of them at work

Japanese publisher Shueisha puts out a number of manga anthologies, but by far the jewel in the publisher’s crown, and really the entire Japanese comics industry, is Weekly Shonen Jump. For decades, the magazine has been home to the biggest manga hits, whose creators achieve legendary status in the hearts of legions of fans.

As a matter of fact, so many of Japan’s best-loved manga writers and artists achieved fame through Weekly Shonen Jump that Shueisha is getting self-referential with a new magazine set to launch soon, in which each issue highlights a different manga artist and comes bundled with a DVD of the creator at work and tracing paper so you can try to duplicate the results.

The new magazine will be called Jump Ryu!, and while the anime and manga world has grown oddly fond of sticking exclamation points in its titles, in this case the punctuation might be warranted, given how exciting the contents are for fans. Ryu, in this case, means “style,” and each issue examines the author of the month’s career.

In addition to behind-the-scenes stories from their professional debuts, Jump Ryu! will show the artists’ workspaces, and also includes a DVD of that issue’s subject drawing the magazine’s cover. Should watching the disc get you in the mood to try your hand at that particular art style, Jump Ryu! issues also include a tracing sheet for the illustration so, even if just for a moment, you can feel like you’ve become one your manga creator idol.

Shueisha isn’t holding back on including its biggest stars in the project, either. The very first issue of Jump Ryu! features Dragon Ball’s Akira Toriyama, and he’ll be followed in short order by Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto) and Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), meaning that the creators of Japan’s three top-selling manga series of all time will all be represented.

In future issues, Shueisha plans to shine the spotlight on Hirohiko Araki ("JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure"), Tadatoshi Fujimaki ("Kuroko’s Basketball"), Matsui Yusei ("Assassination Classroom"), Haruichi Furudate ("Haikyu!!"), Kubo Tite ("Bleach"), Kazuki Takahashi ("Yu-Gi-Oh!"), Kohei Horikoshi ("My Hero Academia"), the collaborative duo of Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki ("Shokugeki no Soma"), Mitsuboshi Shimabukuro ("Toriko"), and Osamu Akimoto ("Kochikame").

The first issue of the twice-monthly Jump Ryu! is scheduled to go on sale January 7 for 650 yen, with subsequent issues priced at 1,290 yen.

Source: IT Media

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