To celebrate Weekly Shonen Jump‘s 25th anniversary, Shueisha decided to create a new style event to promote it’s history for the fans. The name of the event was called “Weekly Jump Multi World” and was a exhibition that was held in the Tokyo Dome Prism Hall between July 28th through August 15th, 1993. The event cost 700 yen for admission and guests were able to receive as special booklet which highlighted some of the items on display. The booklet was never available for sale directly. Over 48 authors provided new illustrations and congratulatory messages for this anniversary and are documented in this booklet and this is one of them. To help provide context to this profile that was captured in 1993, we have included some additional information to supplement the transcription and rough English translation.
| Name | Akira Toriyama (鳥山明) |
| Date of Birth | April 5, 1955 |
| Birthplace | Aichi Prefecture |
| Blood Type | A |
| Debut Work | “Wonder Island” in 1978 ’78『ワンダー・アイランド』 |
| 1st Jump Serialization | “Dr. Slump” 『Dr.スランプ』 |
| Additional Info | “Dr. Slump” was made into an anime and became a huge hit! Later, “Dragon Ball” began serialization. This was also made into an anime and became a huge hit in Japan, but also in Asia and Europe! 『Dr.スランプ』はアニメ化され大ヒット! その後『ドラゴンボール』を連載開始。これもアニメ化され日本はもちろんアジアや欧州各地でも大ヒット! |
To celebrate the 25th anniversary, Akira Toriyama drew this single panel illustration with the text roughly translated below
“Shonen Jump’s 25th anniversary? ……Hmph…. So what?”
“Co-Congratulations—!!”
Akira Toriyama provided the following comment about the Weekly Shonen Jump‘s 25th anniversary, which have been roughly translated below:
少年ジャンプ創刊25周年おめでとうございます。ぼくもデビューして今年でちょうど13年目。ジャンプの歴史の半分以上を、共に歩んできたことになります。この節目のお祝いを一緒に喜べる立場にいて、非常にうれしく思っています。とはいえ、長い目で見ればこれはひとつの通過点にすぎません。これからも前人未踏の夢の部数へむけて、頑張ってほしいと思います。僕も頑張りますかから。
Congratulations on the 25th anniversary of the creation of Shonen Jump. This year is my 13th year since my own debut. I have been with you for more than half of Jump’s history. I am very happy to be in a position to celebrate this milestone with everyone. However, in the long run, this is just one milestone. I hope you will continue to work hard to achieve your dreams and reach unprecedented sales numbers. I’ll do my best too.
He also provided this shikishi for the event featuring Goku from his on-going series at the time, Dragon Ball:
Surrounding the artwork on the page is a couple of comments from the editorial staff. The top of the page features Arale from his hit series Dr. Slump which ran in the magazine starting in 1980’s combined issue 5-6 and concluding in 1984’s issue 39. The majority of the other illustrations shown are focused around Dragon Ball. The commentary notes that as the series progressed, the illustrations of Goku have become much sharper. In addition to the general plot synopsis for the series, it notes that the Dragon Ball TV anime is a huge hit and that the viewership ratings are always above 20%.
The article ends with a 4-panel manga titled “Friendship, Effort, Victory” (友情・努力・勝利) which was enlarged and shown on display at the Jump Multi World event in 1993. A rough English translation of the manga is included below:
Panel 1:
“Uuuahhhh!!!”
Panel 2:
“Woah!!!”
“Darn…. Dammit—!!”
Panel 3:
“I did it!!! I did it—–!!!!”
“I’ve finally beat you Kakarot—-!!!”
Panel 4:
“Hahahaha—–!!”
By the end of 1993, in issue #52 the Dragon Ball series had 449 chapters published. The series would later conclude in 1995 issue 25 with the 519th manga chapter.
