Great Jump!! Creator Interview – Akira Toriyama (Weekly Shonen Jump 1998 Issue 31)

*Weekly Shonen Jump* Issue 1998-31 Cover

To celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Weekly Shonen Jump, Shueisha ran a creator spotlight called “Great Jump!!” (すごいジャン!!) to get some thoughts of their current artists about Jump. The creator spotlight started in the 1998 Weekly Shonen Jump issue 29 with both Nobuhiro Watsuki (Rurouni Kenshin) and Eiichiro Oda (One Piece) being interviewed. This spotlight continued in 30^th issue with Masanori Morita (Rokudenashi Blues, Rookies), Ryu Fujisaki (PSYCHO+, Hoshin Engi), Kazuki Takahashi (Yu-Gi-Oh!), and Hiroyuki Takei (Itako no Anna, Death Zero, Butsu Zone).

The third part of this spotlight series continued with the 31^st Weekly Shonen Jump issue in 1998 with the following creators:

Akira Toriyama (Dr. Slump, Dragonball)
Kazumata Oguri (Hanasaka Tenshi Tenten-kun)
Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro (Seikimatsu Leader Den Takeshi!)
Masakazu Katsura (Video Girl Ai, DNA², I”s)

The leading off the spotlight article in this issue was Akira Toriyama (鳥山明), who had recently finished up their short run of the Cowa! manga in the 1998 issue 15 of Weekly Shonen Jump. His new short series, Kajika (カジカ), was scheduled to start in the next issue.

When asked about his memories of Weekly Shonen Jump, Akira Toriyama provided his experiences with Jump, which has been roughly translated below:

Congratulations on the 30^th anniversary. When thinking about Jump, I only have memories from the beginning of the series. I’m sorry (laughs). Back when Jump was first being published, I was hooked on movies so I didn’t read it, but I do have some memories of Kōya no Shōnen Isamu and Professor Toilet. When Dr. Slump was being serialized, I found out how painful weekly releases can be. It’s really amazing if you can draw a manga for a weekly magazine.

Kōya no Shōnen Isamu (荒野の少年イサム), has a literal title translation of “Boy of the Wilderness Isamu” and ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1971 through 1974 for a total of 111 chapters. The series was written by Sōji Yamakawa (山川惣治) and illustrated by Noboru Kawasaki (川崎のぼる).

Professor Toilet (トイレット博士) was a gag manga drawn by Kazuyoshi Torii (とりいかずよし) which ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1970 through 1977 for a total of 319 chapters.

Next in the article, Toriyama provides his top 3 manga recommendations along with his thoughts which have been roughly translated.

Kyoryu Daikiko (恐竜大紀行), by Daimuro Kishi

Even though it’s about Dinosaurs, it’s an interesting and dramatic story. The approach was very good and I learned a lot. It was the only manga I read every week.

Baoh (バオー来訪者), by Hirohiko Araki

This manga has good drawings and a unique story with some twists. It’s has a very good sense of itself!!

Shape Up Ran (シェイプアップ乱), by Masaya Tokuhiro

It was really funny. We must always have a manga with a girl having mysterious powers.

Kyoryu Daikiko ran in Weekly Shonen Jump for 12 chapters between 1988 issue 51 and 1989 issue 12. The series has been republished multiple times, including a full color edition that has been released in English under the title Dinoventure – Stories of Dinosaurs and is available on Kindle via Amazon.

Baoh ran in Weekly Shonen Jump for 17 chapters between 1984 issue 45 and 1985 issue 11. Hirohiko Araki would then later create Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure starting in 1987.

Shape Up Ran was published in Weekly Shonen Jump between 1983 (issue 26) and 1986 (issue 1-2) and ran for 128 chapters.

To promote the upcoming Kajika manga series, a new color drawing for the series was in the middle page. A portion of this drawing was also included on the cover of this issue of Weekly Shonen Jump.