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 | Masami Kurumada (車田 正美) |
| Date of Birth | December 6, 1953 |
| Birthplace | Tokyo |
| Blood Type | A |
| Debut Work | “Sukeban Arashi” in 1974 ’74年『スケ番あらし』 |
| 1st Jump Serialization | “Sukeban Arashi” 『スケ番あらし』 |
| Additional Info | Since his debut, he’s created a line of powerful hit series including “Ring ni Kakero”, “Fuma no Kojiro”, and “Saint Seiya.” The “Saint Seiya” anime is also a big hit!! デビュー以降、『リングにかけろ』 、『風魔の小次郎』、『 聖闘士星矢』など次々とパワーあふれる大ヒット作を生み出す。 『 聖闘士星矢』はアニメも大人気!! |
To celebrate Weekly Shonen Jump‘s 25th anniversary, Masami Kurumada provided this illustration and comment, which have been roughly translated below:
25周年おめでとう!!
Happy 25th anniversary!!
週刊少年ジャンプ創刊25周年おめでとうございます。私自身、少年ジャンプを初めて読んだ当時は、まだジャンプが週刊化されていない頃でした。しかし、まだヨチヨチ歩きだったジャンプに他誌とは違う何か、 すごく新鮮なモノを感じました。その影響から私も漫画を描き始め、’74 年、『スケ番あらし」でデビューしました。ちょうど20歳の時です。その時ジャンプが創刊6年目だったわけですから、それからの19年間は、ジャンプの歴史であると同時に、私の漫画家としての歴史でもあるわけです。少年ジャンプは毎週が激闘! 新人もベテランも同じラインで戦う戦場だと思います。実に厳しい世界ですが、同時に己の限界に挑戦する最大の舞台であるとも言えるでしょう。少年ジャンプには、これからも数多くの新戦士(?)が登場してくると思いますが、私もそんなフレッシュパワーに負けぬよう、がんばっ戦い続けていくつもりです!!
Congratulations on the 25th anniversary of the launch of Weekly Shonen Jump. I started reading Shonen Jump before it had moved into a weekly magazine. Even then, I felt something fresh in Jump right as it was born. This influenced me to start drawing my own manga with my debut in ’74 with “Sukeban Arashi.” I was just 20 years old then. By that time, Jump had been in publication for 6 years, so the last 19 years are both the my history in Jump and as a mangaka. Every week in Shonen Jump is a fierce battle! I see it as a battlefield where newcomers and veterans can fight on the same level. It’s a cruel world, but with that, it is the biggest stage for breaking through your own limits. I think many new warriors(?) will continue to appear before Shonen Jump, so I intend to keep fighting so I don’t lose that original fresh power!!
He also provided this shikishi for the event from his most recent big hit series at the time, Saint Seiya:
The remaining sections of article then provide a brief summary for the Saint Seiya and Ring ni Kakero manga series.
The following is some additional context and information not included in the article.
The Sukeban Arashi manga was originally published in Weekly Shonen Jump as a two-chapter oneshot issue 33 and 35 in 1974. The full serialization ran in the magazine between issue 39 in 1974 through issue 42 in 1975 for a total of 25 chapters. The series had an extended hiatus after the 43rd issue in 1974 on resumed serialization in issue 22 in 1975.
Two Weekly Shonen Jump series not mentioned in the article was Otokozaka and Silent Knight Sho. Otokozaka started its serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in issue 32 in 1984 and ran for 30 chapters, ending in issue 12 in 1985. This series ran in between Fuma no Kojiro (ending in 1983) and Saint Seiya (starting in 1986) when it was part of the Weekly Shonen Jump serialization. Silent Knight Sho started it’s serialization after Saint Seiya in issue 35 in 1992, but only ran for 13 chapters and ended in issue 48 the same year. At the time of the article’s publishing, this was Masami Kurumada’s most recent manga in Weekly Shonen Jump. The manga series Akaneiro no Kaze was currently being published in Shueisha’s Super Jump magazine starting in 1993.
Viz Media has licensed and released the original Saint Seiya manga in both English print and digital editions under the title of Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac.
