Locked Out of the Shonen Jump Vault? Part 1: Simply Waiting for Their Turns

On December 20, 2018, Viz Media did something simultaneously insane & brilliant. It ended the digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, which itself replaced the physical Shonen Jump magazine that ran monthly for years, & in its place was a brand new subscription model. For just $1.99/month, readers would gain access to every single Jump manga that Viz was "simulpublishing" on a weekly basis, just like the digital magazine, but unlike before you weren't at the mercy of back-issues that you had to otherwise purchase separately, if you weren't subscribing from the very beginning. Instead, every chapter of every simulpublished manga was made available on a new Shonen Jump app, so new subscribers could easily catch up; you could also read them online at Viz's website. But what exactly was "insane" about this new endeavor?

Hmmm, maybe the fact that Viz was also offering nearly every single Shonen Jump manga it had ever published on the app as well!

A snazzy new logo, done in the style of the Japanese logo, was also introduced.

Yes, for just $24/year, one has access to not only brand new, weekly chapters of currently-running manga, but can also read the entire runs of over 50 different manga from the past, in what Viz calls the "Shonen Jump Vault", with the only restriction being that you can only read up to 100 chapters each day; for most, that's immensely more than reasonable. However, the keyword there is "nearly", because Viz didn't instantly make all of its currently-published Jump manga available on the app right away. In fact, some series, like Fire Punch, Platinum End, & Ral Ω Grad, are only available via the website, likely due to content that wouldn't fly on an app that's (technically) for all ages. Still, when this new program launched, Viz did promise that other manga would get added over time. So, over this past year, there have been the occasional "new" additions to the SJ Vault, regardless of whether they're from Weekly Shonen Jump or not, like One-Punch Man (which is Shonen Jump-adjacent, as volumes are published under the "Jump Comics" label in Japan), JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (all the way up to the current release of Diamond is Unbreakable), Boys Over Flowers (which isn't a Jump manga, but the currently-running sequel is serialized over at Jump+, so Viz tossed both in), & even Golden Kamuy from Young Jump (though, due to its mature content, it's only available on the website, not via the app).

However, the people at Viz did also indicate that their overall goal is to, ideally, make available ANY manga that ever got published under the Shonen Jump (& Shonen Jump Advanced) label on the app; naturally, achieving this would likely require negotiating new licenses for older titles. Of course, it's obvious that Viz will not eventually put up literally every Jump-related manga it has ever published in its 33-year history. For example, the Vault will never see those old releases of Space Adventure Cobra, Baoh, or Fist of the North Star that Viz released during the late 80s & early 90s, because they were done in the old "flipped" format, and two of them weren't even finished. However, there are still 22 different Jump manga that Viz has published in the past, in "unflipped" format, that are not currently on the app, so I just want to go over each of those & see what could, theoretically, still get added to the Shonen Jump Vault.

This will be split across three parts, and first up is what I call Simply Waiting for Their Turns, as all of these Jump manga are currently being offered digitally already by Viz, but are just not available as part of the subscription.

As usual, let's just immediately address the 500 lb gorilla & get it out the way. No matter how you feel about his slow-as-molasses production rate nowadays, mainly caused by his history of chronic back problems, Yoshihiro Togashi is easily one of the most cherished mangaka in the history of Shonen Jump. While it wasn't his debut serialization, 1990's Yu Yu Hakusho was a landmark series from the second half of the "Golden Age of Jump", bringing with it a smarter, more introspective take on the shonen action formula that made it a smash hit, one that even beat out Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball on occasion, in terms of at-the-moment popularity. In fact, the only reason Togashi ended the manga after 19 volumes was simply because he had gotten physically tired of making it, and didn't want to continue if his heart (& body) wasn't in it anymore. Four years later, following an constantly expectation-breaking short run with Level E, Togashi returned with 1998's Hunter x Hunter, which expanded even more on his penchant for delivering a more thinking man's take on shonen action, and while it's still technically running to this day, & currently at 36 volumes, it hasn't had a truly consistent pace ever since 2005, and there haven't been any new chapters for well over a year, by now; still not as bad as the four-year gap between Volumes 32 & 33, however.

Still, this isn't about the merits of Yoshihiro Togashi's two most iconic works, but rather this is about the fact that neither is currently available to read via the subscription... Even though both are listed on the Shonen Jump app. Yes, you can load up the app right now, go to the "All Series" section, scroll on down to the "H"s & "Y"s, and find listings for both Yu Yu Hakusho & Hunter x Hunter, but doing so will only give you the ability to purchase the digital versions of their respective volumes. Obviously, for Viz to even make the Shonen Jump Vault a reality, the licensing department more than likely had to renegotiate with not only co-parent company Shueisha, but also get the approval of every single mangaka to allow their works to be made available for instant reading via subscription, instead of only allowing one to do so by purchasing the book digitally; I can't even start to imagine what the mangaka royalties for this service are like. Obviously, with digital versions of both of these series existing, Togashi has no problem with his work being released digitally, but maybe he's a bit hesitant to make his titles THIS easily available; honestly, the same could be said of most of the manga in this part. Of course, this is all just speculation, but considering how Yu Yu Hakusho & Hunter x Hunter are both on the app, technically, I'm sure these are two series Viz will likely try to get added to Vault proper sooner, rather than later.

By the by, why hasn't Viz bothered to release more of Togashi's manga, anyway? By this point, FUNimation has long released the anime adaptation of Level E, so I just find it odd that Viz has never released the original three-volume manga. Also, what about Togashi's debut series, 1989's romantic comedy Ten de Showaru Cupid/An Extremely Sexual Cupid? Sure, even Togashi has admitted that it was a failure, but you'd think Viz would be all for giving fans more of the man's catalog, in between the long waits for new volumes of Hunter x Hunter.

[4/2023 UPDATE: I had planned on waiting until both got added, but for the time being all of Hunter x Hunter has been added to the Shonen Jump Vault!]

[9/2023 UPDATE: Once Hunter x Hunter got added I figured it'd only take time, but now all of Yu Yu Hakusho has also been added to the Shonen Jump Vault!]

Boy, for a manga that Viz has seemingly never really wanted to do, it sure has given it more tries than you'd think. Just ask series translator (& big fan of the manga) Mari Morimoto, and she'll gladly tell you about she had pleaded to Viz during the 90s to release this manga, only to be told "No, it's too old", but once DiC licensed the anime for TV airing on Cartoon Network, Viz was all for finally bringing over Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya! (At least they remembered to hire Morimoto to translate it) Now, to be fair, there is also the possibility that Viz may have been forced to release the manga by order of Shueisha, which I'm sure was all for trying to turn Masami Kurumada's international smash hit into a new anime & manga sensation "North of Mexico". Unfortunately, DiC's horrifically botched execution of its edit of the anime didn't do the manga any favors, especially since Viz was forced to maintain all of the name & terminology changes that DiC had done. Also, to be fair, the early 00s just wasn't a time to release classic manga, unless it had already been previously established as a hit, like Ranma 1/2 or Dragon Ball had; even the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga bombed the first time, as it predated the TV anime. Still, Viz continued to release the Saint Seiya manga, though after Volume 18 the schedule slowed from bimonthly to triannually, before finally releasing Volume 28 in early 2010, bringing the series to an end.

By that point, you'd think Viz would want nothing more to do with Saint Seiya. After all, it infamously sold poorly, was tied to an old TV edit that no one watched (or should even bother to watch, for your own sanity), & may not have even been a series that the company even wanted to do, in the first place. However, in 2014, Viz suddenly decided to re-release Saint Seiya digitally, on a weekly basis from January to May, for no apparent reason whatsoever! Seriously, Saint Seiya Omega was already nearing its end, the Legend of Sanctuary movie from that same year never saw a "North of Mexico" release, & Soul of Gold was still a year away, so Viz doing this was just out of nowhere, though appreciated. Also, kind of surprisingly, many (if not all) volumes of Saint Seiya actually wound up being in the "Best Sellers" category for their respective release weeks, though obviously it didn't prompt Viz to do anything, nor did prompt anyone else, as Seven Seas wouldn't license Saintia Sho for another three years. Still, to this day, Viz continues to offer Saint Seiya digitally, which is a massive improvement over trying to find some of the physical books for cheap nowadays, and while it doesn't have a listing on the Shonen Jump app right now, one can only hope that Viz will add this iconic & inspirational series to the Vault at some point; yes, the name changes suck, but other than that it's uncut. If anything, now's the best time to do so, since the original anime is now (partially) available on Netflix, complete with a brand new English dub that uses the same overall cast from that CG reboot that also debuted earlier this year.

[6/2022 UPDATE: In an unexpectedly awesome move, Viz has added Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya to the Shonen Jump Vault! More than likely it's because of a second season of the CG reboot being announced, so Shueisha wanted it added for promotional purposes, but I certainly won't complain.]

During the 00s, Viz would occasionally license older Jump manga, though whether that was due to some "noble" intention to share the history of the magazine's previous hits or it was simply Shueisha forcing Viz to release certain titles is obviously unknown in the grand scheme of things. Regardless, when Viz announced at New York Comic Con 2007 that it would be releasing Hoshin Engi, the manga that put Ryu Fujisaki on the map during the late 90s, it at least made slight sense. ADV Films had previously released the 1999 Senkaiden Hoshin Engi TV anime adaptation, under the name Soul Hunter, back in 2001 & 2002, & the complete box set release had only come out three years prior; sure, it wasn't a major hit, but at least it was a known name with some potential fans to attract. To those who have read the manga, Hoshin Engi is a bit of a cult favorite, especially in how its technical status as an adaptation of iconic Chinese semi-historical novel Fengshen Yangyi results in it being more focused on strategic thinking & planning, instead of simply using guts & determination to win battles.

There is the possibility that Viz wound up with somewhat better sales than expected for Hoshin Engi, since its release schedule didn't actually slow down until its last four volumes (of 23 in total), because in 2009 the company started releasing another Ryu Fujisaki manga while still releasing Hoshin Engi; or, you know, Shueisha simply forced another series onto Viz. Said series was WaqWaq, a four-volume series from 2004 that detailed a world where black-blooded humans live in fear of the "machines" & rely on protection by superpowered "Guardians" & the red-blooded "Kami". From 2009 to 2010, Viz released the entire series, even finishing up right before Hoshin Engi's release slowed down slightly, and both series have since been given digital re-releases by Viz. Oddly enough, the Shonen Jump app does list Hoshin Engi, though only for digital purchase, while WaqWaq is nowhere to be found, which kind of throws a wrench into the whole "If it's already listed in the Vault, then it must be a priority for Viz" idea I brought up earlier with Togashi's series. After all, why would Fujisaki potentially give the "OK" for Hoshin Engi to be included in the Vault, but not WaqWaq, even though both are already available for digital purchase?

Regardless, I'd say that there is some merit in adding Fujisaki's works to the SJ Vault today. Since the end of Hoshin Engi's release, there was the anime adaptation of Shiki, based on the manga Fujisaki did after WaqWaq, which found itself a cult fandom, and there was also the 2018 anime reboot Hakyu Hoshin Engi, though its highly-accelerated pacing ruined the execution for pretty much anyone who saw it. Still, it'd be nice for more people to read the original manga, & WaqWaq would just be a nice bonus.

[8/2022 UPDATE: Viz must have really decided to go hard, because just two months after Saint Seiya got added to the Shonen Jump Vault, both WaqWaq & Hoshin Engi have now also been added!]

Here's a bit of an odd omission from the Shonen Jump Vault: The works of Masakazu Katsura! Honestly, the man has a bit of a unique legacy, because he kind of has two of them. First up is his love of superhero & action stories, as his debut series in the early 80s was Wingman, and his style would later become more associated with anime like Iria: Zeiram the Animation, Tiger & Bunny, & Garo: Crimson Moon, plus the anime adaptation of his later Zetman manga, & most recently he did the character designs for the Nintendo Switch game Astral Chain. However, when it comes to manga, he's argubly more well known for his romance stories, in particular 1990's Video Girl (Ai & Len) & 1997's I"s. The first series, which is about two dream girls, Ai & later Len, coming to life from VHS tapes in amusingly in-ideal ways because of broken VCRs, first saw release by Viz in 2000 in "flipped" format, a couple of years before the Shonen Jump label & physical magazine even started in North America. After seven volumes, Viz re-released everything in "traditional" format in 2004, while also continuing from Volume 8-on simultaneously in the same, new format. Oddly enough, though, Viz never actually moved Video Girl to the Shonen Jump label, even though the manga did run in that magazine in Japan, instead having it be a part of the publisher's generic "Action" label, which itself was likely chosen simply because it wasn't technically "Shojo"; the 15th & final volume would come out in 2006.

As for I"s, Viz started releasing the story about a love triangle involving a boy & two girls whose names all start with "I" in early 2005 under the Shonen Jump Advanced label, while still releasing Video Girl as just "Action", & all 15 volumes would see release by mid-2007, with no slowing down of the bimonthly schedule; in fact, Viz would then later release the two OVA adaptations together on DVD in 2009. Then, across 2013 & 2014, both Video Girl & I"s would see digital re-releases, with the former obviously being in the "traditional" format. Similar to Saint Seiya, neither of Masakazu Katsura's Viz-published manga are currently listed in the SJ Vault, but with Katsura's unique design style being seen by more people in the past decade, plus the inclusion of other romance-oriented series already being in the Vault (see: Boys Over Flowers), there's really no excuse to not eventually add Video Girl & I"s.

Finally, to go back to the category of "Manga that Viz was More Than Likely Forced to Publish by Shueisha", I honestly can't think of a better candidate than Whistle!, by female mangaka Daisuke Higuchi. Now this isn't any sort of denigration towards the quality of the manga itself, but one would think that, if Viz really wanted to do a soccer manga, it would have maybe tried to license something more iconic... Like Captain Tsubasa. Also, the timing made no real sense, as the first volume came out in 2004, which wasn't a FIFA World Cup year (sorry, but I don't think people care as much about the indoor variant); in Japan, the manga actually debuted in one World Cup year, 1998, & ended in another, 2002. Again, though, this is all just speculation, but the story of Sho Kazamatsuri, a short-statured transfer student who came from a school with a prestigious soccer team, but never got to play because of his height, just didn't resonate with readers in the United States or Canada, likely due to the region's lack of enthusiasm for the sport; the US only really cares for soccer during the World Cup, while Canada is somewhat more receptive. Also, sports manga (or anime, for that matter), in general, just had next-to-no appeal for most of the American market during the 00s; even today it's still a niche-within-a-niche, though somewhat larger. Still, its English release at least has a bit of novelty to it, as it's one of the last manga that saw comics legend Marv Wolfman (The New Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinite Earths) handle adaptation/rewriting duties for during his on-&-off association with Viz from the 90s & early 00s; I doubt Wolfman worked on the manga all the way until the last volume in early 2010, though.

Today, I'd argue that there could be more potential interest in the more realistically-styled Whistle!, but sadly none of what could help with that is actually legally available in English. First, in late 2016, Higushi debuted a sequel manga, Whistle! W, in Shogakukan's web manga magazine Ura Sunday; currently, it's at four volumes. Then, in 2017, the 39-episode anime adaptation from 2002 was re-aired via streaming in Japan, to celebrate the anime's 15th Anniversary (& likely help promote the sequel), but this time around featured an entirely brand new voice cast to go with the early 00s-era animation; the theme songs were also re-recorded with a new singer. As for why this was done, it was likely because Minako Komukai, who at 17 voiced Sho & sang the theme songs, had since become an erotic dancer, AV idol (i.e. she's a porn actress), & has had multiple drug arrests; I guess everyone else was re-cast so as to keep things as simple as possible, from an editing standpoint. While it's easy to see why the sequel manga never got licensed by Viz, it's a shame that CrunchyRoll never simulcasted the "voice remake" of the anime, especially since the anime had never been licensed before, & might have helped sell some (non-physical) copies of the manga, which Viz re-released digitally across 2013 & 2014. As it is today, Whistle! is obviously not a priority for Viz to add to the SJ Vault, but I feel like this manga should get any break that comes its way, considering that it's always getting the short end of the stick (pun intended?).
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This brings an end to the first part of this look at the various Jump manga from Viz's past that are currently not available in the Shonen Jump Vault; this is also the one with the most entries, due to shared mangaka. Come back next week where we look at five manga that Viz does still acknowledge on its website, but doesn't offer digitally, as well as a quick look at two manga Viz has fully released that I am absolutely certain will NEVER appear in the Vault.

Yu Yu Hakusho & Hunter x Hunter © Yoshihiro Togashi

Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya © Masami Kurumada

Hoshin Engi & WaqWaq © Ryu Fujisaki

Video Girl Ai & I"s © Masakazu Katsura

Whistle! © Daisuke Higuchi