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 Weekly Shonen Jump issue 29 with both Nobuhiro Watsuki (Rurouni Kenshin) and Eiichiro Oda (One Piece) being interviewed. This spotlight continued in the following issue with 4 more creators:
- Masanori Morita (Rokudenashi Blues, Rookies)
- Ryu Fujisaki (PSYCHO+, Hoshin Engi)
- Kazuki Takahashi (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
- Hiroyuki Takei (Itako no Anna, Death Zero, Butsu Zone)
The first page of the article, which is featured on a color pages focuses on their one of their biggest artists in the magazine Masanori Morita. Rokudenashi Blues had finished the prior year, and his new series, Rookies, had it’s 20th chapter in this issue.
The spotlight starts with a question to Masanori Morita about his experiences with Jump, which has been roughly translated below:
My first experience with Jump manga was with “The Gutsy Frog.” Back when I was in elementary school, I liked to accompany my grandfather to Nishi-honganji temple in Kyoto… because he would buy me manga from a nearby used book store (laughs). From those trips, I was able to get a complete set of volumes 1 through 24. But upon closer inspection I saw that volume 2 was missing (laughs). After all this time, I’ve never picked up that volume. And I also want to know how the story ends! When I was an assistant, the fight with Raoh in “Fist of the North Star” was great. I also like “Slam Dunk” and “Kochikame” too!
The Gutsy Frog (ど根性ガエル), by Yasumi Yoshizawa ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1970 (issue 31) through 1976 (issue 24) for a total of 297 chapters across 27 volumes.
Fist of the North Star (北斗の拳), by Tetsuo Hara (Art) and Buronson (Story) ran from 1983 (issue 41) through 1988 (issue 35) for a total of 245 chapters.
Slam Dunk, by Takehiko Inoue, ran from 1990 (issue 42) through 1996 (issue 27) for a total of 276 chapters.
Kochikame (こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所), was still on-going in Weekly Shonen Jump and had it’s 1077’s chapter in this issue.
Masanori Morita also provided his own drawing of The Gutsy Frog.
The last portion of the article focuses on Masanori Morita’s and his thought about his series (again roughly translated):
Rokudenashi Blues
Back then, there was no school-based manga, so I had to draw it myself. That’s a work that stole eight and a half years of my twenties (laughs). It was very long~
Rookies
Originally it was about a juvenile detention center, but various things happened, and it changed into this. I’m glad the way it turned out out. I like the lame~~ but still hot~~~ protagonist.
The remaining text on the article is promotional text for the various manga noted in this spotlight.
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