News

Hi-Fi Cluster Joins Viz's Shonen Jump as Weekly Series

Viz Media added Ippei Goto's science-fiction crime manga series Hi-Fi Cluster to the line-up of its Weekly Shonen Jump online magazine in this week's issue.

The series first debuted in the English Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in September as part of Viz's "Jump Start" initiative. Viz ran the first three chapters of the series and several others, and then let readers cast a vote for which "Jump Start" series Viz would add to the magazine's line-up.

Viz Media describes the story:

In the year 2045, Tokyo developed into an Ability Society -- a fair and equal place where people can download skills they don't already have by wearing a special sticker called an ability label. The flip side to this technology is the rise in ability crimes, where people buy and sell altered labels underground and use their abilities to commit crimes. Special Unit Six of the Metropolitan Police Department led by Kosaku Kandera is out to put a stop to these crimes...by any means necessary.

This week's Shonen Jump Podcast mentioned that the series will be caught up with Japan in about three weeks. The magazine will publish two chapters this week and two chapters next week.

In addition, Shun Saeki's Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Sōma manga will also join the Weekly Shonen Jump line-up starting with next week's issue. The serialization will pick up with the newest chapter in Japan.

The manga centers on Sōma, who works with his dad at his family's restaurant. His dad is a culinary master, and he often hosts cooking battles with his father. His father then enrolls him in an elite culinary school that is very difficult to enter, and the graduation rate is only about 10 percent.

Viz previously stated it wouldn't run the series in Weekly Shonen Jump because of its "racy" content. The first volume was released in North America in August.

Under the "Jump Start" initiative, Viz is running "almost every single" new series that debuts in Shueisha's original Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in Japan. The magazine ran Yūto Kubota's Sporting Salt and Shinsuke Kondō's "ultimate judo manga" Judos.

Thanks to ravegrl for the news tip.