News
SJ Runs Yu-Gi-Oh's End, Slam Dunk's Debut, Naruto's Origin
posted on by Egan Loo
Viz Media confirmed earlier announcements that the December 2007 issue (on sale November 6) of Shonen Jump magazine in North America will include the end of the Kazuki Takahashi's Yu-Gi-Oh! card game manga, the start of Takehiko Inoue's Slam Dunk basketball manga, and Masashi Kishimoto's one-shot Naruto ninja short story that presaged his current breakthrough series. The magazine will continue to serialize Naoyuki Kageyama's adaptation of the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX spinoff anime. At 416 pages, the December issue is described by Viz as the magazine's "biggest issue."
The defunct Raijin Comics magazine had serialized Slam Dunk between 2002 and 2004 in North America. Viz Media is restarting the manga from the beginning with a new translation and the first chapter in full color. Inoue will be visiting New York City's new Kinokuniya bookstore next week to create a wall drawing on the store's second floor.
The 45-page Naruto "pilot" first ran in the Summer 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump, a Shonen Jump spinoff that runs during three annual holiday breaks in Japan. Shueisha approved a revamped version for the main Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1999. This current version became a hit series that has sold over 69 million volumes and eventually helped launch the North American Shonen Jump in 2002. The manga series continues to this day in both Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan and Shonen Jump in North America.
