The year 2001 was a pivotal year for Shogakukan’s Weekly Big Comic Spirits (週刊ビッグコミックスピリッツ) magazine. For the magazine that started in 1980, it was celebrating its 15th year anniversary from it’s change to a weekly release starting in 1986. The cover designs would change over to almost exclusively gravure photos, rather than a focus on the manga titles and the fruit/vegetable mascots which was the standard for the years past. Additionally, the year 2001 would include a changing of the Editor-in-Chief. To catalog these changes on a more issue-to-issue basis, we are starting a new article series looking back at each issue of Weekly Big Comic Spirits via the author comments found on the table of contents. A new article will be released each week, on the same release date as it was exactly 25 years ago. Please enjoy this journey on exploring another manga magazine for the entirety of 2026. You can find all of our articles related to Weekly Big Comic Spirits on this page.
The cover date on the issues are not the actual release dates for the magazine. As such, we will be posting the articles based on the calendar date when the magazine was actually available for readers to pick up in Japan. In the year 2001, this would typically be published on every Monday.
Every issue, the editorial staff would ask a single question to all of the published authors. While the magazine was released weekly, not every series in the magazine was published in each issue. Below is the listing of the manga series as they appear in the issue along with a rough English translation for the question and each response.
Issue Info
Release Date: 2/5/2001
Cover Date: 2/19/2001
Cover Design: Mascot (Pineapple)
- Subaru had the opening color pages
Question
It’s only the second month… But what things make you feel like you’re in the 21st century?
まだ2か月めですが･･･
身の回りにある21世紀を感じさせるものは?
| Series | Author | Answer (English) | Answer (Japanese) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subaru 昴スバル | Masahito Soda 曽田正人 | I don’t know since I haven’t walked around town. | 街を歩いてないのでわからない。 |
| 365ho no RYUTA 365歩の竜太 | Story: Masao Yajima Art: Chihiro Tamaki 作:矢島正雄 画:環ちひろ | Tenko Hikita’s honeymoon in space. (Tamaki) | 引田天功の宇宙新婚旅行。(環) |
| Chocolat ショコラ | Eisaku Kubonouchi 窪之内英策 | “21st Century? Since when? Never heard of it” by that guy. | 「21世紀? いつから? 聞いてないわよ」 byアイツ。 |
| Fighting Sun Legend Gutch!! 格闘太陽伝 GUTCH!! | Hiromi Aoyama Supervision: Lou Thesz 青山広美 監修: ルー・テーズ | Public telephones are becoming more rare. I think they’ll eventually disappear. (Aoyama) | 公衆電話がどんどん減っていく。いずれ絶減すると思う。(青山) |
| 20th Century Boys 20世紀少年 | Naoki Urasawa 浦沢直樹 | My daughter’s silver stroller is so cool. | ウチの娘の銀色のベビーカーはかっこいい。 |
| The 3 Young Men THE3名様 | Makochin Ishihara 石原まこちん | A tape from my friend’s band, “Roboko.” | 友人のバンド「ロボ子」のテープ。 |
| The Two Oigawas Employment Diary ふたりの大井川 就職日誌 | Inosuke Rodriguez ロドリゲス井之介 | My body is showing my age. My knees are now creaky. | 己の肉体の老化。ヒザがガックンガックンいうんですよ。 |
| Aozora 青空 | Hidenori Hara 原秀則 | If only I had a Copy Robot…. | コピーロボットがあればねェ･･･。 |
| Otana-Bukuro 大人袋 | Isami Nakagawa 中川いさみ | Digital Cameras. | デジカメ。 |
| Gallery Fake ギャラリーフェイク | Fujihiko Hosono 細野不二彦 | An amulet to ward off evil spirits (I’m old enough to be cautious of bad luck…) | 厄除けのお守り(厄になりましたので･･･)。 |
| Millennium Stock Exchange Legend: Monkey Money ミレニアム相場師伝説 猿MONEY | Seiki Kimura & Kōshi Kabuto 木村清輝+兜公司 | Suda-kun’s AIBO. | 須田君ちのアイボ。(木村) |
| Yoiko よいこ | Yugo Ishikawa 石川優吾 | My tax return form being labeled “Tax Return 21” (lie). | 確定申告書が「確定申告21」になってた(ウソ)。 |
| Boku 僕 BOKU | Yasuhito Yamamoto 山本康人 | Ah… I didn’t realize until now because of this question. | あ･･･このコメントで初めて意識した。 |
| Sentiment no Kisetsu センチメントの季節 | Nariko Enomoto 榎本ナリコ | i-mode mobile phones. | iモードの携帯電話。 |
| Kaijuu Jinsei 怪獣人生 | Nobuyuki Hori ほりのぶゆき | Dreamcast. | ドリームキャスト。 |
| Jimihen じみへん | Tatsuya Nakazaki 中崎タツヤ | Solar-powered watches. | 太陽電池の腕時計。 |
| Saotome Typhoon 早乙女タイフーン | Ihuho Hujirai くじらいいく子 | Now all of my electrical appliances are breaking down. I’ll need to buy new ones. | 電化製品がことごとく壊れてきた。買わなくちゃ。 |
| A Capricious Concept 気まぐれコンセプト | Hoichoi Productions ホイチョイ・プロ | I met someone who turned 100 last year (that’s 3 centuries old!). | 昨年中に満100歳になった人に会った(足かけ3世紀生きてる!)。 |
| Thirty Girls サーティーガールズ | Miya Kitazawa & Takeshi Wakasa 北沢未也+若狭たけし | “Spirits 21” is on my bookshelf. I should re-read that. If I have the time. | 「スピリッツ21」が本棚に。ではまたそのうち。機会があれば。 |
| Senkousekka 電光石火 | Kenji Morita 盛田賢司 | When I become an old man. | 自分のおっさん化。 |
| Naoko 奈緒子 | Story: Nobuhiro Sakata Art: Yuu Nakahara 坂田信弘+中原裕 | Welcome to the 21st Century… written on a New Year’s card. | 21世紀もよろしく･･･と書いてある年賀状! |
| Animal Mania アニマルマニア | Kiriko Kubo 玖保キリコ | A calendar maybe?? | カレンダーかな?? |
