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 | Takehiko Inoue (井上雄彦) |
| Date of Birth | January 12, 1967 |
| Birthplace | Kagoshima Prefecture |
| Blood Type | B |
| Debut Work | “Kaede Purple” in 1988 ’88『楓パープル』 |
| 1st Jump Serialization | “Chameleon Jail” (Pen Name: Takehiko Nariai) 『カメレオンジェイル』(PNは成合雄彦)』 |
| Additional Info | His pen name changed to Takehiko Inoue with the publication of “Slam Dunk.” The delinquent sports protagonist Hanamichi Sakuragi has become extremely popular. PNを井上雄彦に変え、『SLAM DUNK』を発表。ツッパリの異色スポーツヒーロー・桜木花道が大人気を得る。 |
To celebrate Weekly Shonen Jump‘s 25th anniversary, Takehiko Inoue provided this illustration and comment, which have been roughly translated below:
“Happy 25th Anniversary”
Bubble 1: “Jump’s 25th anniversary?”
Bubble 2: “It’s only possible because of us twin-angels, Sakuragi and Haruko-san.”
Bubble 3: “No way”
Sakuragi, featured in the image, is the protagonist of the Slam Dunk manga. Haruko-san is Sakuragi’s love interest and is one of the motivations for him to start playing basketball.
週刊少年ジャンプ創刊25周年おめでとうございます。ちょうど私が生まれた1年後にジャンプが創刊していたんですね。それから20年後、手塚賞をいただいて本誌デビューをさせてもらったのが、ちょうど20周年のときだったのを憶えています。 そして5年がすぎ、25周年の節目の年に、こうして連載させていただいてることをありがたく思います。
Congratulations on the 25th anniversary of the launch of Weekly Shonen Jump. Jump started exactly one year after I was born. Then 20 years later, I received the Tezuka Award and made my magazine debut exactly on that anniversary. Now five years later, I am very grateful to have my work serialized during this 25th anniversary year milestone.
He also provided this shikishi for the event from his on-going series at the time, Slam Dunk:
In the middle of the profile, the editors include a brief summary of the plot for the Slam Dunk manga series.
The article ends with a 4-panel manga titled “Friendship” (友情) 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:
“Friendship is…”
“Laughing together.”
Panel 2:
“Crying together.
Panel 3:
“Sakuragi, you’re still a high school student…..”
Panel 4:
“Hey…! Go after those guys too!!”
“Quite down!!”
“More High Schoolers are over there!!”
“We’re outta here.”
The oneshot Kaede Purple had won the 35th annual Tezuka Award. It was then published in issue 32 in 1988. He had used his real name, Takehiko Nariai when this manga was published. Below is a rough translation of the author comment from that issue of Weekly Shonen Jump:
今まで裁ったことないので初めて見る名まえでしょうけど、もう皆さんおぼえましたネ!
I’ve never done anything like this before, so this is probably a name you hadn’t heard of, but now you know it!
He would later go on to create the oneshot Hana SHONEN (華SHONEN) in Weekly Shonen Jump issue 42 in 1988. The Chameleon Jail serialization would then begin a year later in issue 33 in 1989. The oneshot I Like Red (赤が好き) then later ran in the 1990 Summer Special of Weekly Shonen Jump Special Edition and would be the prototype for the Slam Dunk series.
By the end of 1993, in issue #52 the Slam Dunk series had 156 chapters published and would eventually conclude in 1996 issue 27 with chapter 276. All 31 volumes of the manga have been released in English in print editions from Viz Media for North America. The TV series of Slam Dunk would premiere in Japan on October 16th, 1993 and run for 101 episodes until 1996.
