To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Weekly Shonen Jump, Shueisha ran a creator spotlight called “Great Jump!!” (すごい ジャン!!) to get some thoughts of their current artists about Jump. The creator spotlight started in the 1998 Weekly Shonen Jump issue 29 and continued through issues 33 with various different creators being highlighted.
The fourth part of this spotlight series continued with the 32nd Weekly Shonen Jump issue in 1998 with the following creators:
- Hirohiko Araki (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure)
- Yuko Asami (Wild Half)
- Hajime Kazu (Mind Assassin)
- Shou Makura & Takeshi Okano (Hell Teacher Nube)
- Takehiko Inoue (Slam Dunk)
- Makoto Niwano (Base Boys)
This issue also featured 9 page timeline of the major milestones of the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine since 1968. It also featured a “Special Guest” interview with Hiroshi Motomiya as well as with Go Nagai.
Note: Due to the nature of the printed article from Weekly Shonen Jump, there was a slight misalignment with the colors on the page. Some of the images may not be fully accurate for the colors based on these scans.
Yuko Asami (浅美 裕子) was currently serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump with her adventure manga Wild Half (ワイルドハーフ). The issue which this article was printed contained the 123rd chapter of the series. The series would conclude later in the year with a total of 142 chapters in the 52nd issue in 1998. She would return to the magazine a year later in the 44th issue in 1999 for a short series titled Romancers. Prior to her break-out success of Wild Half, she had her first serialization of Ten Yori Takaku! (天より高く!) in the magazine in 1991 which lasted 19 chapters.
The article begins with asking Yuko Asami about her memories of Weekly Shonen Jump, which have been roughly translated below:
わたしにとって、ジャンプと言えば「キャプテン翼」しかないです!!高橋陽一先生のサイン欲しさにジャンプに投稿して、現在に至る･･･のがわたしです･･･。『キャプテン翼』は、”サッカーが好き”ってコトが素朴に、しかも情熱的に語られていてスナオに感動しましたね。あ、そうそう、パリに行ってエッフェル塔を見たとき、翼くんと岬くんのエッフェル塔での再開の場面を思い出してしまって、すさまじく興奮しました、ハイ(笑)。
For me, when I think about Jump, the first thing that comes to mind is “Captain Tsubasa”!! I first wrote in to Jump because I wanted Yoichi Taskahashi-sensei’s autograph… and now here I am…. In “Captain Tsubasa” I was moved by the simple but yet passionate way the “love of soccer” was expressed. Oh, and I once went to Paris and saw the Eiffel Tower and was reminded of that scene where Tsubasa-kun and Misaki-kun were re-united at there and I became even more excited (laugh).
Captain Tsubasa (キャプテン翼) by Yoichi Takahashi ran from 1981 through 1988 in Weekly Shonen Jump for a total of 357 chapters as well as having various spin-offs and sequels, some of which later ran in the magazine. The article has a small text informing the readers about this soccer manga series.
Yuko Asami provided an illustration with her love of the Captain Tsubasa series. In the text bubble, it comments in a very run-on sentence that he’ll be able to stop any penalty kick that comes his way.
The article then concludes with a listing of Yuko Asami’s works and her own short comment about each, which have been rough translated into English below.
WILD HALF
このマンガで”男”にしてもらったぜッ!!･･･ という感じです。(女だけど･･･)
This manga makes me feel like a “man”…!! Or something like that. (I’m actually a woman…)
Yuko Asami’s Early Short Stories Collection (浅美裕子初期短編集)
自分の思いのまますごい好き勝手に描いた作品ばかり･･･!!でもみんな、読んでみてね!
All of these stories were drawn exactly how I wanted them to be told…!! Please everyone, go read them!
The volume is actually titled A Bible in Your Pocket (ポケットに聖書を) and was released the prior month, on June 4th, 1998 under the Jump Super Comics imprint. This 192 page book contained 3 one shot manga stories from Yuko Asami prior to creating Wild Half, none of which were printed in Weekly Shonen Jump. Originally the volume was released on January 15th, 1990 under the same title but with a different cover design.
