Shonen Jump Manga Explained: Cost, Titles, And More Questions Answered

For manga fans looking to get their daily dose of My Hero Academia or One Piece, Shonen Jump provides a place to read manga comics online. Originally a weekly manga anthology published as a physical book, Shonen Jump introduced many readers to popular manga including Dragon Ball, Jo Jo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Video Girl Ai. These days, the anthology has made the “jump” to digital entertainment, still offering weekly manga chapters through its online platform.

Let’s take a closer look at this long-running repository of manga history, the titles it currently offers, and how readers can read manga through its online platform.

What is Shonen Jump?

Founded in 1968, Weekly Shonen Jump showcased many action, adventure, and comedy manga series in its pages. The word “Shonen” refers to manga aimed at a young male demographic, usually between the ages of 12 to 18. As such, many of the manga featured in Weekly Shonen Jump featured male-oriented manga ranging from Harenchi Gakuen (an early Japanese ecchi erotic manga series) and Dokonjō Gaeru, a comedy manga about a middle school boy who gets advice from a frog on his shirt.

Many of these manga series became popular and were adapted into Japanese anime series and even live-action movies in some cases. While the manga comics were intended to appeal to a young male audience, later manga, such as Naruto, and other series, gained a large female readership as well. Moreover, the manga appealed to both young and older readers who enjoyed the wide variety of genres in Japanese manga, which included fantasy, romance, horror, and sports.

Eventually, this readership went international when Weekly Shonen Jump was translated and adapted for other countries. This included North American countries when Weekly Shonen Jump was published by Viz Media as Shonen Jump in 2002. The monthly anthology and its serialized manga stories proved popular, and in 2012, the physical book was replaced with its digital version, Weekly Shonen Jump.      

How Much Is Shonen Jump?

For $1.99 a month, manga fans can become Shonen Jump members and unlock up to 100 chapters of the manga offered on its website. This grants them access to Shonen Jump’s digital vault of 10,000+ manga chapters. New members also receive their first week free.

In addition, Shonen Jump has announced the latest chapters of 25 different Shonen Jump series will be made available for free online. Beyond that, the newest 3 chapters of any ongoing series are also available for free. As further incentive to read manga online at Shonen Jump, the new serialized series are produced simultaneously for Japanese and English-speaking audiences, meaning there won’t be a delay for translations.

What Manga Series Can Be Read On Shonen Jump?

Shonen Jump offers a wide variety of new and classic manga series on its online platform. Popular titles include One-Punch Man, Naruto, My Hero Academia, Death Note, and The Promised Neverland (which is currently offering the first 25 chapters for free). Other titles include:

• Pokémon
• Bleach
• Food Wars
• Stone
• Dragon Ball Super
• One Piece

Fans can read Shonen Jump manga directly from their website or via the Shonen Jump app which can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play (for Android users). Either option will grant access to a wealth of manga titles, helping new manga readers discover the incredibly varied world of Japanese manga through Shonen Jump.

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About The Author

Michael Jung
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Michael Jung is a mild-mannered freelance writer-for-hire, actor, and professional storyteller with a keen interest in pop culture, education, nonprofit organizations, and unusual side hustles. His work has been featured in Screen Rant, ASU Now, Sell Books Fast, Study.com, and Free Arts among others. A graduate of Arizona State University with a PhD in 20^th Century American Literature, Michael has written novels, short stories, stage plays, screenplays, and how-to manuals.

Michael’s background in storytelling draws him to find the most fascinating aspects of any topic and transform them into a narrative that informs and entertains the reader. Thanks to a life spent immersed in comic books and movies, Michael is always ready to infuse his articles with offbeat bits of trivia for an extra layer of fun. In his spare time, you can find him entertaining kids as Spider-Man or Darth Vader at birthday parties or scaring the heck out of them at haunted houses.

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