Weekly Shonen Jump International

gordanham

I am surprised I couldn't find a thread for this already, but here is a thread to discuss the international releases of Weekly Shonen Jump. The current regions they are available in are the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

Customers from the US and Canada can read their issues through their browsers on http://vizmanga.com/ , or through Viz's iOS and Android applications.
Customers from the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Austarlia, and New Zealand can currently read their issues through Viz's iOS application. They are planning on releasing an Android application soon. (They also seem to be working on browser reading, but they will probably get the andoid application out first.)

US and Canadian customers will be able to access their issues permanently, as well as be able to download them on certain devices. (I believe on iOS you can download
each issue as its own file.)
I am not sure about the customers from the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, so some help here would be nice.

Here are the release schedules and pricing.

Release Schedule
US & Canada: Monday, 10 AM (Pacific Standard Time)
UK & Ireland: Monday, 6 PM
South Africa: Monday, 7 PM
Australia: Tuesday, 3 AM
New Zealand: Tuesday, 5 AM
Pricing US and Canada: ____$25.99/year__________or $2.99/month_________or $0.99 for a single issue
UK: __________________****£1.99/month_________or £0.69 for a single issue
Ireland: _________________________________2,69 €/month________or 0,89 € for a single issue
Australia: _______________________________$2.99 AUD/month_____or $0.63 AUD for a single issue
New Zealand: ____________________________$4.19 NZD/ month____or $1.29 for a single issue
South Africa: _____________________________R24.99/month_______or R7.99 for a single issue

**FREE Weekly Shonen Jump Starter Pack is now available in all regions above on Viz's Shonen Jump Newsstand app on iOS. It includes the first chapter of Jaco the Galactic Patrol Man.

Subscriptions are now available in all 6 regions above on Android as well.** I really wanted to start this thread before they announced they were going international so people could discuss what they wanted to see, but I am happy they went international so soon. As a US subscriber I can say I am entirely satisfied with my subscription and it is worth way more than the $26.99 a year. I definitely want to hear what international customers want though. I do think it is honestly just going to get better though. They seem to always deliver in the end. In about a year they went from two weeks behind Japan and only had issues that at most would expire in a year, to simultaneous with Japan and permanently owning issues and the abilitly to download your issues. They even gave all the people who ever bought single issues that had already expired months ago all of their issues back permanently.

I do think in few months international subscribers will probably have almost all the abilities North American customers do.

I would also like to see what people think might happen for countries where Shonen Jump titles aren't distributed by Viz. Shueisha always has the supreme power over it's titles, but I can't see them forcing other long-time partners to work with Viz Media or go digital. I do believe Viz and Shueisha want to partner with as many countries as will take them though.

Aaronrules380

Usually most of the comments on this go in the TOC thread or in the viz media section of the one piece part of the forum

gordanham

Yeah, but I thought it would be nice to have a specific place to discuss International Weekly Shonen Jump. There is not a lot of exclusive stuff to it, but there is some. Like it doesn't run all of the series from the Japanese Weekly Jump, but it does also run other series outside of Weekly Jump like One-Punch Man and Blue Exorcist.

And I am not sure if it was also included in the Japanese Jump, but the introduction comment to Toriyama's "Jaco the Galactic Patrol Man" confirmed that the story will be only 217 pages long. I also believe it was the International Shonen Jump team that originally revealed that the series would run for 10 chapters. (Though it seems like it might run for 11 chapters actually, but the first chapter is marked as "1 out of 10+1" so the eleventh chapter is probably kind of special. And though not directly a part of the issues, the podcasts for the international magazine is really informative. Like they said the previous week that they heard from Japan that Jaco seems to be tied to Dragon Ball, and this week with the release of the first chapter they discussed their theories. Since the first chapter is also marked "DB-11" one of the editor's takes it to be not as DB dash 11, but DB negative 11, meaning that this is a prequel to Dragon Ball, and that the alien Jaco is worried about is actually baby Goku. This is all just fun speculation for now though.

Also the new Shonen Jump Starter Pack is available to all the territories through their iOS newsstand app and includes chapter 1 of Jaco.
US and Canada can also read it on there browser here:
http://www.vizmanga.com/reader/1140-weekly-shonen-jump-previews-5

And this week's issue is honestly probably one of the best issues to start on. It is the 45th anniversary of Jump and not only do you get a new series from Toriyama, but you also get 4 full color chapters. I really loved the color by the way. I really wonder how the mangaka feel about it though. Interesting to see that the Japanese Jump actually upped the Japanese price for this issue. I know that coloring costs money, but when it's digital they really are only paying for the act of the first coloring though, not the reproduction of it with every copy they sell. Though I don't know if the digital issue in Japan comes with all the ads the print one does…..

GEPPETTOSMONSTER

would someone caqre to explain to me why South Africa's is soo damn expensive? $25 dollars a month is f****** insane

Purple Hermit

Probably to account for currency exchange
http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=ZAR&To=USD

stephen

because it's not 25 dollars a month. it's 25 rand, which is less than 3 bucks.

GEPPETTOSMONSTER

@stephen:

because it's not 25 dollars a month. it's 25 rand, which is less than 3 bucks.

I honestly wasn't thinking about the foreign exchange rate when I wrote my previous comment.

Maxy B

I'm digging this happening (save for the fact that it's right as we lose the series I wanted to subscribe for).

I'm all hooked up for it via a family member's ipad, with the american app jacked onto my android (can't buy anything, but it lets me use the same account and download the issues I've bought on the ipad), and man… I love this app. sheer cost to page count ratio blows my mind. I mean I'm a huge proponent of legal purchasing anyway, but god damn this feels a little special.

Now to wait for the full manga store to be introduced. I need me some Takama-ga-hara and cross manage english volumes!

No Maam

Sees this has nothing to do with Europe outside of the UK and Ireland
falls ass-backwards due to this shocking development

gordanham

Anyone know about expiration dates for countries outside of the US and Canada? I don't know if there are any, but I really hope people realize that there is a really good chance if there is that they will get all those issues back once Jump and Viz gets comfy in those regions.

And now that that one glorious series is officially over, I wonder what Viz will be adding next. They said before that whenever a weekly series ends they will always replace it, so even if Jaco counts as it, they have to be preparing for the 10 weeks from now when it ends.
I don't think they will get any from this new batch, but I actually really hope that they Nisekoi a new series soon. I'm not really following any of the series not available from Viz, but it would be really nice to have an Assassination Classroom or Shoukugeki no Soma to actually be able to read and not fear cancellation every week. But then you get the whole guns in school and porn artist drama…

@No:

Sees this has nothing to do with Europe outside of the UK and Ireland
falls ass-backwards due to this shocking development

I don't get this comment…..

rereboy

He's probably european and he's probably disappointed that the service isn't yet available to other european countries besides the UK and Ireland. Pretty easy to get.

leokiko

@No:

Sees this has nothing to do with Europe outside of the UK and Ireland
falls ass-backwards due to this shocking development

hahaha. it ws sooo surprising, right?

Well, either way, at least they are trying to expand their services. That's good.

gordanham

For US and Canada a year subscription to Weekly Shonen Jump is now $19.99 when you use promo code WSJSDCC2013 during checkout until July 28th.

gordanham

Seems that they will be announcing more international regions for release in the coming weeks. Looking forward to it. Seems like they have already covered all the regions where they publish the series themselves already, so I guess we will get how they have worked things out with foreign companies.

Also they started a 20% off sale on all digital manga until the end of the month, making all Shonen Jump titles only 3.99. Time to catch up on Nisekoi…..

Maxy B

One hopes that as more regions for the weekly comic are announced that they go back to the previous territories and open up the whole digital store. Long-term pipe dream, but it'd be nice.

leokiko

They need to get more SHONEN digital manga. Seriously, there's way more shoujo there.

Other than that, I've bought Nisekoi and have been enjoying it. The translations are hilarious, and certainly at professional level. Wonder when the World Trigger volume will come out?

Purple Hermit

While it would be nice to see more shonen stuff on the site, I can see why they'd invest more on the shoujo side of things. In the west, the readership for manga is primarily females, and of course going for more shoujo oriented material would be a stronger investment than shonen. Of course, they got weekly shonen jump to publish the same day as Japan because the most popular pirated weekly manga are from said magazine, but I'd imagine that it's more lucrative for them to focus on shoujo series.

stephen

@leokiko:

Other than that, I've bought Nisekoi and have been enjoying it. The translations are hilarious, and certainly at professional level.

I completely agree. The Nisekoi translator is incredible. VERY high quality work. I think she has the best output of the lineup.

Cruithne

@Purple:

While it would be nice to see more shonen stuff on the site, I can see why they'd invest more on the shoujo side of things. In the west, the readership for manga is primarily females, and of course going for more shoujo oriented material would be a stronger investment than shonen. Of course, they got weekly shonen jump to publish the same day as Japan because the most popular pirated weekly manga are from said magazine, but I'd imagine that it's more lucrative for them to focus on shoujo series.

Or maybe other publishers get some of the shonen, but no one wants the shoujo (leaving more for Viz to license).

Women drive fandoms for sure; but barring exceptions like Fruits Basket, Ouran, and Inuyasha, it looks like most of them in the west prefer shonen manga to shoujo.

Bigivel

@Cruithne:

Or maybe other publishers get some of the shonen, but no one wants the shoujo (leaving more for Viz to license).

Women drive fandoms for sure; but barring exceptions like Fruits Basket, Ouran, and Inuyasha, it looks like most of them in the west prefer shonen manga to shoujo.

Inuyasha is definitely a Shonen not a Shoujo!

Purple Hermit

@Cruithne:

Or maybe other publishers get some of the shonen, but no one wants the shoujo (leaving more for Viz to license).

Women drive fandoms for sure; but barring exceptions like Fruits Basket, Ouran, and Inuyasha, it looks like most of them in the west prefer shonen manga to shoujo.

Well, sure, there are popular shonen titles amongst female readers. It's probably part of the reason why there was a push towards worldwide same day release of WSJ. But as with those specific titles, and even Inuyasha was shonen I think, the big movers in the west currently are of course the antiquated "Big 3," while other titles aren't nearly as familiar or popular.

I think if we got a comparison of other publishers and their shonen-shoujo publishing ratio that'd probably be better to determine which demographic is being brought over in larger amounts. Dark Horse at the very least has a bunch more seinen and Del Rey has Mashima's stuff I guess. But to me, what would irk me otherwise about other publishers getting shonen is that Viz is partly owned by shueisha, so it has access to a lot of shonen to bring over or put online if it wanted to with a very hefty list of currently licensed titles. But instead, for its "36 shonen titles" five of them are Yugioh. Either they're trying to concentrate the number of shonen titles online to be the ones that'll only likely appeal to American audiences or they're expanding more on the shoujo stuff to cater more to the female demographic.

stephen

There's also the fact that over here, females actually BUY more manga than males.

Purple Hermit

Yeah, females drive the market. The point Cruithne was making was that girls may buy more shonen than shoujo in the west, though.

Cruithne

@Bigivel:

Inuyasha is definitely a Shonen not a Shoujo!

Even better.

@Purple:

Well, sure, there are popular shonen titles amongst female readers. It's probably part of the reason why there was a push towards worldwide same day release of WSJ. But as with those specific titles, and even Inuyasha was shonen I think, the big movers in the west currently are of course the antiquated "Big 3," while other titles aren't nearly as familiar or popular.

My point is that most popular titles among female readers tend to be shonen. If you think back, most "flavor-of-the-month" series are ones like Prince of Tennis, Kuroko, Ookiku Furikabutte (seinen, but still), DRRR, Tiger and Bunny, Kuroshitsuji, and Hetalia. Sure, you got your K-ON and Madoka Magica, but those are in the minority.

That's not to say there's no shoujo market at all, but it wouldn't be surprising if other publishers didn't think it was worth licensing.

@Purple:

I think if we got a comparison of other publishers and their shonen-shoujo publishing ratio that'd probably be better to determine which demographic is being brought over in larger amounts. Dark Horse at the very least has a bunch more seinen and Del Rey has Mashima's stuff I guess. But to me, what would irk me otherwise about other publishers getting shonen is that Viz is partly owned by shueisha, so it has access to a lot of shonen to bring over or put online if it wanted to with a very hefty list of currently licensed titles. But instead, for its "36 shonen titles" five of them are Yugioh. Either they're trying to concentrate the number of shonen titles online to be the ones that'll only likely appeal to American audiences or they're expanding more on the shoujo stuff to cater more to the female demographic.

Hey Stephen, are you allowed to give us the statistics on what's being bought by whom?

Purple Hermit

@Cruithne:

My point is that most popular titles among female readers tend to be shonen. If you think back, most "flavor-of-the-month" series are ones like Prince of Tennis, Kuroko, Ookiku Furikabutte (seinen, but still), DRRR, Tiger and Bunny, Kuroshitsuji, and Hetalia. Sure, you got your K-ON and Madoka Magica, but those are in the minority.

That's not to say there's no shoujo market at all, but it wouldn't be surprising if other publishers didn't think it was worth licensing.

No yeah, I'll concede that the most talked about and popular titles in the west may be shonen titles, but if shoujo as a whole moves more tanks than shonen, then the average shoujo book would be a stronger investment than having a few strong shonen series and a sea of filth (like the old days of Tokyopop)

It would be great to have some numbers though, especially with the topic of the thread.

MONKEY.D.TSUNA

well I'm hoping that they will have a browser reading version for UK readers, then il subscribe, don't like reading manga on mobile.

Maxy B

You could always subscribe in the interim and then just read scans. That's another way of being less scummy, whether consuming the actual material or not

MONKEY.D.TSUNA

^^ i agree with you on that note, £1.99 isnt that much, but my thought is if they have a browser friendly version, they would get more international customers and also they should have a more aggresive advertising, i just found out today through this thread

Cruithne

@MONKEY.D.TSUNA:

also they should have a more aggresive advertising

They should put adds on scanlation sites.

Brilliant.

Purple Hermit

@Cruithne:

They should put adds on scanlation sites.

Brilliant.

Would make up for mangastream not helping by not translating the little tidbit that Jaco is being translated same day. And Mangapanda would get less flack from malware sites.

gordanham

@Maxy:

You could always subscribe in the interim and then just read scans. That's another way of being less scummy, whether consuming the actual material or not

I totally agree. Plus, I am not sure anyone said if international issues expire as well? I assume they don't so you can always have them on your account to go back later to.

@MONKEY.D.TSUNA:

^^ i agree with you on that note, £1.99 isnt that much, but my thought is if they have a browser friendly version, they would get more international customers and also they should have a more aggresive advertising, i just found out today through this thread

I really do wish they would get the browser out, I feel like it would be the easiest one, but I guess it is harder to region block their entire site then just an app. Do tell them you want it though through their twitter and facebook and such. I have been asking them about it, and they are working on it, but they are gonna do an their android app first.

And on the gender stuff, I have always felt the females are the main buyers of manga in the west, and even if we do like to throw around the "big 3" though, that really isn't the case right now, because the most shojoest shojo to ever shojo has been the highest selling manga in the west for the past two quarters, Sailor Moon.
And I think the main reason Viz actually has so much shojo on their site though is just because they are short and/or finished. They didn't really waste any time putting up Zombie Powder, and now they are putting up the over a decade old, but definitely finished, Flame of Recca too.

Maxy B

a browser version really is crucial, especially in opening up to the poorer readers who dont own the correct devices. one hopes that potential market attracts viz faster.
oh
and int'l jump doesn't seem to expire at all, btw, though i'm just passing the old 4 week limit now.

stephen

@Cruithne:

Hey Stephen, are you allowed to give us the statistics on what's being bought by whom?

I am not privy to any kind of sales statistics. I just login to a secure FTP when I'm told, grab files and email the scripts.

Black Leg

I hope they get the browser version of Shonen Jump out soon, I remember being pretty disappointed when I found out that the big announcement of Shonen Jump International was just for the Iphone/Ipad app

Monkey King

@stephen:

I am not privy to any kind of sales statistics. I just login to a secure FTP when I'm told, grab files and email the scripts.

Work from home, ownage.

MONKEY.D.TSUNA

Shonen Jump International Android App is out, just signed up through the anrdroid app, its alright, they need to sort out a few kinks in the app, other than that its great.

Maxy B

Welp, that's one less excuse for people in the covered territories not checking it out.

gordanham

The magazine now has back issues for 3 months back from the current issue. The back issues will be $.99 cents each and are only available in the US and Canada for the time being. I believe you do have to purchase them online through their site, but once on your account you can access them from any of their portals.

And WOOOOOOOOOOOH! They will have One Piece Chapter 0 in the issue next week! So excited. They got the color spread and everthing.

And Cross Manage Vol. 2 (YEAH!YEAH!YEAH!) and Nisekoi Vol. 5 (cool…) come out tomorrow, and I believe still in time fore the 20% off sale too, so they will only be $3.99 each.

Maxy B

jesus, they took a while with cross manage volume 2. now if only I could buy it (despite my american vizmanga apk on my phone, I can't get it to work with google wallet)

gordanham

Issues and subscriptions are now also available on Andoid in all 6 regions.

And as pointed out in the TOC thread, the next series for the magazine has also been descided:

I personally really would love to see Hachi, but I also think it would be smart for them to Nisekoi another series and start it once it has proven successful.
Probably gonna be Shokugeki no Soma, small chance it could be Haikyu!, and basically zero chance of it being Assassination Classroom(they confirmed that the wole school shootings in America have pushed the chance of it getting in the magazine way down).

Cruithne

So how about Seraph of the End?

It reminds be a bit of World Trigger. It's not too bad so far.

x20a

Are the releases concurrent with WSJ in Japan?

Cruithne

Yep. The only reason the scanlations come out beforehand is because the issues are leaked beforehand.

Maxy B

i'm liking seraph of the end despite itself, but then i'm told it gets better with chapter 2, which i haven't read yet. Probably gonna binge catch-up with int'l jump with next week's final Cross Manage.

… Final... Cross Manage.... sniff... So sad.

Somewhere

Owari no Seraph hasn't been shabby so far. It doesn't necessarily have me hooked, but I'm fine with its inclusion.