Weekly Jump

2000 Issue 50
Published by Shueisha
Update by Rika Takahashi

What is JUMP?
WEEKLY JUMP, rival publication of WEEKLY SHONEN SUNDAY, is a "phone book" anthology published every week, with a circulation over 4 million. It is filled with some of today's hottest titles targeted for school age boys, many of them familiar to anime fans. JUMP has among its esteemed alumni: DRAGON BALL, VIDEO GIRL AI, CITY HUNTER, FIST OF THE NORTH STAR, KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD, SAINT SEIYA, SLAM DUNK, and YUU YUU HAKUSHO / POLTERGEIST REPORT.
Grand Finale:
Fujisaki Ryu's adaptation of HOUSHIN ENGI, based on the translation by Anou Tsutomu, ended its 4.25-year run in issue #47. Since its beginning in issue #28 of 1996, Taikoubou and his entourage of sennin (wizards of sorts) slowly approached their way to the completion of the Houshin Project. Along the way, Chuuou (the Chu King, who was ruining his land and his people under the control of the evil temptress Dakki) was dethroned, and the protagonist entourage managed to fight the evil mastermind behind the entire mess, Joka.
When Fukki (one of the "original people" and the "fused back together" form of Taikoubou and Outenkun) defeated Joka in issue #45, everyone believed that he had passed away. The two-part epilogue that follows shows that our protagonists had done what they could to rebuild their respective countries/worlds. The sennins' world was rebuilt on Houraitou with Youzen at the lead, the human world (i.e. China) was operating well under the new regime and those people who went to the Houshindai quietly lived in Shinkai (god's realm) that existed in the bridge between the two worlds. One day, when Suupuushan and Bukichi visited the human world to inform their human allies about how their world was going, they heard from Kihatsu that Taikoubou (Fukki) had dropped by a week earlier, and had left as suddenly as he had arrived. Suupuushan and Bukichi start flying around the human realm looking for Taikoubou, but to no avail—their leader was just too good at hiding from them. So what is Taikoubou going to do? Not even he knows, as the last pages show him having one last conversation with Shinkouhyou (who flies off, saying he will reserve the rematch against Taikoubou for some other time) and wondering where to go next.

One more goodbye, and three hellos:
Other than HOUSHIN ENGI, another series has met its end during this season: Takeyama Yusuke's KAISER SPIKE which ended in issue #46. In the meanwhile, three stories have started to replenish those pages lost.
JUNJOU PINE by Odama Namie began in #47, and features two grade-school children: Michiru and Mitsuo. The setting is sometime in the 21st century, and aliens from the planet Onapp are invading Earth (and using huge monsters to "play" with buildings and such). The humans had no way of fighting back, until the two protagonist children were given an ancient diary. When they exchanged the diary amongst themselves twice within five minutes, the two of them "transformed" into Junjou Pine, a giant ULTRAMAN-esque "girl" who can basically kick the Onapp monsters' collective butts. The series is episodic, and basically features a different monster to be defeated each issue.
LILIM KISS by Kawashita Mizuki, which began in #48, is more of a love-comedy. Saiki Takaya is a tough-guy who doesn't lose fights that others start with him, and who doesn't have a girlfriend although he has many hidden female fans. One day, Takaya comes across a small vial pendant; when he opened the vial, a girl appears in front of him. She surprises the life out of him (literally) when she kisses him unconscious. The girl, Lilim, turns out to be a succubus who gains energy by kissing guys. Lilim then flies off for more "food," but returns later, saying that Takaya's life-energy was the "tastiest." From then, Lilim is accepted by Takaya's parents as a live-in girlfriend of sorts, and Takaya's heart seems to start wavering towards this voluptuous devil.
The last of the three new series, BAKA BAKA SHIINO! by Gamou Hiroshi, began in #49. In this series from the author of TOTTEMO! LUCKY-MAN, the main character, Shiino Nozoma, suddenly finds out that he is the prince of Shiina Kingdom, and is given a nameplate that supposedly contains a thousand different names. In Shiina Kingdom, people's first names come before the surname (like how names are written in the U.S.)—and everyone's last name is Shiino. Each first name depicts the nature of that person's character, so "Utagawa Shiino" is doubtful (utagawashii), "Kuwa Shiino" is knowledgeable (kuwashii) and "Aya Shiino" is suspicious (ayashii). Nozoma's nameplate allows him to change into a particular character if he says "~shiino" and that adjective preceding "shiino" is one of the thousand adjectives in the nameplate. The Shiina Kingdom folk who came to pick Nozoma up inform the new prince that their country is under attack from countries that read surname first (in the Japanese fashion). These attackers are led by the evil Nago ("name later"), and Nozoma's only hope is to rescue his father and rebuild the kingdom.