Shonen Jump praised for “imitating” Nintendo Direct 

The editing department of the popular Japanese manga anthology magazine Weekly Shonen Jump uploaded the first episode of its “Jump Press” news digest to YouTube on May 27. As well as prompting excitement about upcoming manga and events, the video’s lively presentation style was giving Japanese social media users déjà vu in a good way, as it reminded them of Nintendo Direct. 

Nintendo Direct is a series of short news videos that introduced the latest information about Nintendo games. Running since October 2011, the bulletin is characterized by its simple and colorful presentation of bite-sized news narrated over enticing clips of upcoming games. It has often been presented by Nintendo’s senior executives, including late president Satoru Iwata. The suited executives stand in front of an animated background and introduce the games in a cheerful manner. This presentation style has been mimicked by Shonen Jump, with their editor in chief Hiroyuki Nakano standing in front of an animated background featuring the publication’s logo. The concise presentation of news items accompanied by simple, uncluttered graphics and video footage also calls back to Nintendo Direct. 

Overall, Jump Press has garnered praise for its bright and clear style of presentation, and commenters seem to be perceiving the resemblance to Nintendo Direct as a good thing. The honeycomb-like intro animation showing the logos of various manga serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump has also received compliments from viewers. A similar style graphic would not look out of place in a Nintendo Direct broadcast. 

Coincidentally, the first episode of Jump Press and the latest episode of Nintendo Direct (February 21 2024) featured the inescapable presence of highly popular Japanese baseball star and Los Angeles Dodgers’ player Shohei Otani. As announced in Jump Press, Otani will be one of the judges for the new Jump Sports Manga Award. 

As an aside, Nintendo and Shonen Jump did a collaboration in 2018– releasing a special Weekly Shonen Jump 50^th Anniversary version of the Nintendo Classic Mini Famicom (NES). The mini console featured 20 NES games originally released between 1985 to 1993 that had some connection to Jump. This included games based on manga serialized in Jump, such as Fist of the North Star and Dragon Ball.