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: 2/26/2001
Cover Date: 3/12/2001
Cover Design: Kazushi Sakuraba
- Final chapter of “Part 1” for Subaru manga series
- Winners of the 115th Spirits Award are announced in this issue

Question
One thing you’d like to throw into a bonfire…
たき火の中に投げ込んでしまいたいものをひとつ・・・
| Series | Author | Answer (English) | Answer (Japanese) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Headaches, stomachaches, toothaches, backaches, and such. (Aoyama) | 頭痛と胃痛と歯痛と腰痛、以下略。(青山) |
| 20th Century Boys 20世紀少年 | Naoki Urasawa 浦沢直樹 | The cassette from my first live show during my first year of high school. The MC was… wow~~!! | 高一の時の初ライブのカセット。MCが・・・うわ〜〜!! |
| Chocolat ショコラ | Eisaku Kubonouchi 窪之内英策 | “Potatoes! Potatoes! Potatoes!” by that guy. | 「いも! いも! いも!」byアイツ。 |
| 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 | Photo of my long-haired, gangster-like days and the good luck charms (tank tops). | ロン毛、チーマーふう時代の写真及び開運グッズ(タンクトップ)など。 |
| Gekka no Kishi 月下の棋士 | Junichi Noujou 能條純一 | Not just one thing, but two, three, four… I have a lot. | ひとつではなく、ふたつ、みっつ、よっつ・・・ならあるんですが。 |
| The 3 Young Men THE3名様 | Makochin Ishihara 石原まこちん | For some reason I colored my “Fist of the North Star” with colored pencils. | なぜか色えんぴつで塗ってしまった「北斗の拳」。 |
| 365ho no RYUTA 365歩の竜太 | Story: Masao Yajima Art: Chihiro Tamaki 作:矢島正雄 画:環ちひろ | Potatoes. | いも。 |
| Otana-Bukuro 大人袋 | Isami Nakagawa 中川いさみ | Sweet Potatoes. | サツマイモ。 |
| Jimihen じみへん | Tatsuya Nakazaki 中崎タツヤ | Income Tax Return Form. | 所得税の確定申告書。 |
| Aozora 青空 | Hidenori Hara 原秀則 | Me when I’m drunk…… | 酔っ払った時のオレ・・・・・・。 |
| Subaru 昴スバル | Masahito Soda 曽田正人 | The computer I have now (it’s broken). | 今、持っているパソコン(壊れすぎ)。 |
| Yoiko よいこ | Yugo Ishikawa 石川優吾 | I don’t have anything! | そんなモノはない! |
| 8 8エイト | Atsushi Kamijo 上條淳士 | Goma. | 護摩。 |
| Senkousekka 電光石火 | Kenji Morita 盛田賢司 | Myself. So I can be reborn as a phoenix. | 自分。そして火の鳥として復活。 |
| 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 | The letter I got on New Year’s Day from my 10-year-old self. | 正月に届いた10歳のオレからの手紙。 |
| Sentiment no Kisetsu センチメントの季節 | Nariko Enomoto 榎本ナリコ | Kuri. To see if they really pop. | クリ。本当にはじけるのか確かめたい。 |
| Kaijuu Jinsei 怪獣人生 | Nobuyuki Hori ほりのぶゆき | It would be myself. | 俺自身だよ。 |
| A Capricious Concept 気まぐれコンセプト | Hoichoi Productions ホイチョイ・プロ | Rejected manuscripts (though I do save all of them). | ボツ原稿(実際は全部保存していますが)。 |
| Saikano 最終兵器彼女 | Shin Takahashi 高橋しん | Anything besides potatoes…? | いも以外なにか・・・? |
| Boku 僕 BOKU | Yasuhito Yamamoto 山本康人 | My embarrassing past self. | 過去の恥ずかしい自分。 |
| Naoko 奈緒子 | Story: Nobuhiro Sakata Art: Yuu Nakahara 坂田信弘+中原裕 | I’ve never roasted them over a campfire, so sweet potatoes. | たき火で焼いたことがないので、いも。 |
| Animal Mania アニマルマニア | Kiriko Kubo 玖保キリコ | It’d probably be potatoes, kuri, and ___ . Fill in the blank with whatever you want. | いもとクリと一緒に○○かな。○○には好きなものをいれてね。 |
