San Diego Comic-Con 2012

Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha Panel

The Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha panel introduced several special guests, including Yoshihisa Heisei, editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Jump; Kouji Yoshida, editor of Death Note; Kengo Monji, editor of Bakuman.; and Shuhei Hosono, editor of Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration.

Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha editor Urian Brown introduced some of the series currently serializing in Jump Alpha, a digital service that's available on the web, iOS, and Android, such as Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Toriko, Nura, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, and Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration. Jump Alpha delivers 48 issues a year, with new manga chapters only two weeks delayed behind their Japanese publication dates.

The team also announced two new series that will be joining Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha, starting with Juzu Kawai's Takama-Ga-Hara, which will start on July 23. The publication will also be serializing Kazue Katō's Blue Exorcist, starting on July 30. The serialization will begin with volume eight, which will first be available digitally, then later in print. Every subsequent week will feature two chapters, until the series is caught up with the Japanese releases by August 20. At that point, new chapters of Blue Exorcist will be released in Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha monthly, delayed two weeks after Japan.

As incentives for annual subscribers, Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha will continue to receive Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG game cards four times a year. The next card announced is the Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max.

Afterward, the guests shared some of their anecdotes about working with Weekly Shonen Jump, and talked about some of their favorite Jump series.