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: 2/19/2001
Cover Date: 3/5/2001
Cover Design: Mascot (Pineapple)
- Gekka no Kishi has returned from hiatus

Question
Which famous person would you want to read your work?
ぜひ、自分の作品を読んでもらいたい有名人は?
| Series | Author | Answer (English) | Answer (Japanese) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gekka no Kishi 月下の棋士 | Junichi Noujou 能條純一 | The next generation of young shogi players. | 次世代を担う少年棋士たち。 |
| 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 | Beethoven. (Aoyama) | ベートーベン。 (青山) |
| Subaru 昴スバル | Masahito Soda 曽田正人 | Paul McCartney. | ポール・マッカートニー。 |
| Chocolat ショコラ | Eisaku Kubonouchi 窪之内英策 | “I want Sana (Hiroyuki Sanada) to look at me♥” by that guy. | 「サナ(真田広之)に見つめてほしい♥」byアイツ。 |
| The 3 Young Men THE3名様 | Makochin Ishihara 石原まこちん | Rokusuke Ei | 永六輔。 |
| 365ho no RYUTA 365歩の竜太 | Story: Masao Yajima Art: Chihiro Tamaki 作:矢島正雄 画:環ちひろ | Guts Ishimatsu. (Tamaki) | ガッツ石松。 (環) |
| Saikano 最終兵器彼女 | Shin Takahashi 高橋しん | If anyone reads it, that’s what counts…. | 読者さんに読んでもらえれば、それで…。 |
| Aozora 青空 | Hidenori Hara 原秀則 | Southern All Stars’ Kuwata-san (if possible…….?) | サザンの桑田さん(ムリか・・・・・・?)。 |
| Otana-Bukuro 大人袋 | Isami Nakagawa 中川いさみ | Björk. | ビョーク。 |
| Jimihen じみへん | Tatsuya Nakazaki 中崎タツヤ | Nobody. I want ordinary people to read it. | いない。たくさんの普通の人に読んでもらいたい。 |
| 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 | Kaori Manabe-san. She’s can give hiring advice (and is a junior from my university). | 眞鍋かをりさん。就職指南として(大学の後輩なんですよねぇ)。 |
| Kaijuu Jinsei 怪獣人生 | Nobuyuki Hori ほりのぶゆき | You can’t just force that because they are a celebrity. | 有名人だからとかそういうのはダメです。 |
| Heaven? ~Gokuraku Restaurant~ Heaven? ~ご苦楽レストラン~ | Noriko Sasaki 佐々木倫子 | Speaking of famous people, I once crossed paths with Hiromichi Nakano-san. | 有名人といえば、中野裕通さんの前を横切ったことがあります。 |
| 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 | One Cup Uncle (a local celebrity). (Kimura) | ワンカップおじさん(地元の有名人)。(木村) |
| Gallery Fake ギャラリーフェイク | Fujihiko Hosono 細野不二彦 | The President of Okawa Kogyo. | 大川興業の総裁。 |
| A Capricious Concept 気まぐれコンセプト | Hoichoi Productions ホイチョイ・プロ | I’m sure if Giant Baba-san read this he would have been happy and laughed “Fof-fof-fo~tsu.” | 生前のG馬場さんが読んで「フォッフォッフォっ」と笑ってくれたら嬉しかったろうな。 |
| Senkousekka 電光石火 | Kenji Morita 盛田賢司 | Shintaro Katsu. | 勝新太郎。 |
| Sentiment no Kisetsu センチメントの季節 | Nariko Enomoto 榎本ナリコ | Fukakyon (Kyoko Fukada). | フカキョン。 |
| Boku 僕 BOKU | Yasuhito Yamamoto 山本康人 | Any boxer with a passionate soul can one day be famous…. | いずれ有名人になるであろう、熱き魂を持ったボクサーたちに・・・。 |
| Yoiko よいこ | Yugo Ishikawa 石川優吾 | I don’t think there is one! | そんな人はおらん! |
| Naoko 奈緒子 | Story: Nobuhiro Sakata Art: Yuu Nakahara 坂田信弘+中原裕 | Director Koide. (Nakahara) | 小出監督。(中原) |
| Animal Mania アニマルマニア | Kiriko Kubo 玖保キリコ | Prince William, I guess. Why do you ask? | ウィリアム王子かな、やっぱ。やっぱって何がだ? |
