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Which Shonen Jump Series Hooked You?


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navycherub



Joined: 26 Oct 2007
Posts: 233
PostPosted: Wed Apr 13, 2016 11:49 pm Reply with quote
My own story is similar to Gabriella's. When I was really young I had some VHS tapes my great uncle would give me when we visited him - they had episodes of Voltron and Kimba on them, and I would watch them over and over (I still practically have them memorized). So, technically that would be my first experience with anime.

However, when I was just a bit older I got into the Yugioh card game, mostly because of the show. I got really into it, would buy basically anything I could find Yugioh related, and one day in one of the Scholastic book order things we would get at school every month or so, I saw a magazine with Yugi on the cover. I ordered it right away, even though I had no idea what it was.

Turns out it was an issue of Shonen Jump, and inside was a chapter of Yugioh. It was during the arc where Bakura trapped Yugi and friends in a D&D-type game, and it confused the crap out of me because they definitely weren't playing the card game from the show I knew, but it was enough to satisfy me all the same. I only read that, until boredom struck and I figured I'd try the other chapters in the magazine, which was either my best or worst decision ever, because it trapped me.

I immediately started using every dollar (more specifically, every eight dollars) I could get to buy volumes upon volumes of Shonen Jump manga, starting of course with Yugioh but quickly becoming essentially anything they advertised at all. I never even had a Borders loitering phase because I just had to own it, display it, it wasn't enough to just read it (this left me with piles of dregs like Dragon Drive but I was content). I quickly became very savvy with Borders/Barnes and Noble coupons, would keep a close eye on "buy two get one free" type sales on manga (during which I would spend embarrassing amounts of hard-earned middle school cash), and it didn't take long for every relative I had to figure out all I wanted were book store gift cards for any gift.

A lot's happened since then, but when I think about how much of my life has been ultimately decided by that dang issue of Shonen Jump with Yugi on the cover, it's kind of overwhelming.
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JoeQ



Joined: 19 Feb 2015
Posts: 77
PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 12:00 am Reply with quote
My first one was definetily Dragonball (Z) in my teens. We got German channels through satellite and they showed an episode per day, sometimes two, so it was easy to watch at a good pace (except when they'd arbitrarily restart the show, this happened at least twice with the original series).

Gave both Naruto and Bleach a shot, but them dropped pretty quickly, though being in my artsy-fartsy-serious-anime-only phase was probably a part of it. Doubt I'll give them another shot though. I find that I especially can't stand the art style in Bleach, Kubo just draws all his characters looking so smug that it makes me want to bunch them in the face. Haikyuu has the same problem.

Death Note I merely liked. Watched it once, rated if Good, sold of my DVDs.

Hunter X Hunter was my only other big SJ addiction. I had pretty much the same story as Nick: initially turned of by the kiddy and cliched first impression, gave it a shot because of all the recommendations and fell in love with it. It's as SJ as they come, but the writing, characters and world building are really leaps and bounds ahead of the pack.

JoJo is GREAT-TO! I really hope David Productions manages to adapt all of it.

I really like Gintama, especially when it's pure comedy (the serious stuff is pretty hit and miss and the sappy stories always make me roll my eyes), but for some reason I never got hooked. I'll watch a few episodes every now and then, but there's no compulsion to go back for more.


Last edited by JoeQ on Thu Apr 14, 2016 12:01 am; edited 1 time in total
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RobBarracuda



Joined: 02 Mar 2016
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 12:01 am Reply with quote
My first instinct is to answer with DBZ and Yu-Gi-Oh, the latter especially since I bought several decks and expansion packs worth of trading cards based on how much I liked the cool-ass creature designs from the show, but Yu-Gi-Oh was something I had abandoned after a while (IIRC, after the first arc of the 5Ds anime was when I completely stopped paying attention to the franchise). After thinking about it for a bit, I'd have to answer with One Piece as my big Shonen Jump obsession. However, despite my ongoing interest, I remember watching the 4Kids dub on Toonami back in the day and really not liking it, even as a middle schooler whose taste wasn't exactly fully refined yet or anything. Sometime after it and Toonami went off the air, I remember coming across a random video on YouTube about One Piece where someone was arguing that the series was actually really good despite what had been done to it in its first dub.

Keeping that in mind, I eventually found volumes of the manga on sale at the local Borders and decided "sure, why not", and as soon as I started going through it, I was hooked immediately. Once all the 4Kids elements had been cleaned off from the story, I found a lot to like, from the visually distinct and interesting locations of each arc to the kick-ass action scenes, and even a lot of surprisingly dramatic and emotionally resonant moments throughout. I eventually got around to checking out the Funimation redub when I found it on Hulu (I think they were up to the Alabasta arc once I started watching), and found myself enjoying the anime, and I've been hooked to this day. Hell, One Piece is pretty much the only manga series that I've ever managed to keep up with almost all the way through, and I'm still watching the anime every chance I get.
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louis6578



Joined: 31 Jul 2013
Posts: 1857
PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 12:23 am Reply with quote
I saw plenty of 4kids anime beforehand (particularly Kirby:Right Back At Ya), and even the 4kids dub of One Piece allowed the charm of what is now definitely one of my top 5 favorite shounen anime to shine through. However, in terms of getting into it, the original Dragonball is what hooked me. Not Z, which is a perfectly lovely show as well if you like action. I first caught the DBZ Uncut Namek arc on Cartoon Network in... I wanna say 2005. Seeing the big bad villain kill the innocent Namekians after they gave him what he wanted, especially after promising not to hurt them, was harsh, cruel, and above all, showed me a damn good villain that not a lot of Western Animated shows were allowed to portray. The blood and horror in all its glory made me think "I have to see this thing!" I looked it up on Amazon, only to find that Dragonball was on there too.

With that, I bought DB on DVD as a sort of "right of passage" to Z. To my delight, Dragonball was my ideal adventure cartoon, full of comedy, great action, and above all, adorably likable characters. Z, however, kept comedy to a low and sidelined most of Dragonball's great characters in favor of aliens and cyborgs. It's all okay, but I prefer anime where the humans get a chance to shine. Even if the main characters are the monsters, like in Tokyo Ghoul, if the humans don't have a fighting chance, it feels a little cynical. But I'm getting off track.

Around that time, Naruto started airing on Toonami and I was hooked (even though I fell out of love years ago). I accidentally watched a subbed clip of Naruto vs Sasuke on Youtube and found that reading subs was easy, watched fansubs of One Piece, and from there on out, the anime just kept coming.
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Chagen46



Joined: 27 Jun 2010
Posts: 4377
PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 12:46 am Reply with quote
Sometimes I feel like the only anime fan who didn't start with a Shounen Jump manga or anime. Dunno why. My interest in otaku media began with my brother and his friends watching various anime when I was over, but they were late-night shows. My brother actually DID have copies of Shounen Jump, but I never read them. They also played Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 constantly, but I never checked out the original. My first anime was Shakugan no Shana and the rest is history.

A shame, really. I am actually reading through Naruto right now for kicks. Sometimes I feel like I've missed out. Man, my childhood was boring as shit.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 3:46 am Reply with quote
Chagen46 wrote:
Sometimes I feel like the only anime fan who didn't start with a Shounen Jump manga or anime. Dunno why. My interest in otaku media began with my brother and his friends watching various anime when I was over, but they were late-night shows. My brother actually DID have copies of Shounen Jump, but I never read them. They also played Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 constantly, but I never checked out the original. My first anime was Shakugan no Shana and the rest is history.

A shame, really. I am actually reading through Naruto right now for kicks. Sometimes I feel like I've missed out. Man, my childhood was boring as shit.


Well, you're certainly not the only one. I didn't have access to an actual Television until I was 14 and Miyazaki was the my first introduction to anime in 2004. Prior to that, no DB, Sailor Moon, Pokemon, nothing. I watched the hell out of Miyazaki for the next 4 years, but that's all I had access to. The only reason I'm here is simply because I stumbled upon anime on Netflix after rating Spirited Away in like 2008-9. That's the story, really. First SJ series that I ended up watching was YYH in 2011 though. Good show, and I'd say that it's probably the one that hooked me first. After that both One Piece and HxH became much higher favorites of mine, but YYH is still definitely a fond memory.
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LightYapper



Joined: 05 Apr 2016
Posts: 131
Location: Somewhere on Earth
PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 6:13 am Reply with quote
I started getting into Weekly Shonen Jump stuff from Bleach, which my classmates were talking about and saying it was cool. So, I borrowed its anime version from that friend and started rumbling through the whole thing. It proved to look cool to me back then, perhaps because its style was the one I find affection in, and swords. After finishing the anime, I went and read its manga version and started intriguing for more, which sealed my fate as a WSJ reader. But as times go through, my tastes have slowly changed, and looking back, Bleach is certainly a badly written manga. So, now my all time favorite series in WSJ are One Piece and My Hero Academia, with Naruto cutting close.
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Sailor Sedna





PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 8:37 am Reply with quote
Yu-Gi-Oh! and Yu-Gi-Oh GX got me hooked up, but now I'm reading Saint Seiya/Knights of the Zodiac as Shonen Jump translated it, that's gotten me into it even more. Sure, the art may not be as good looking as other manga and it may be a bit rough looking, but it's still awesome and has great characters and a great story. Next Dimension looks like it's completely in color.

Bleach from what I glimpsed at in one preview in color was the first time i saw a manga in color, but considering how I heard Bleach has gone bad, I don't think it would be worth reading.
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SageModeKakarot



Joined: 15 Dec 2014
Posts: 302
PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 8:58 am Reply with quote
Sailor Sedna wrote:
Bleach from what I glimpsed at in one preview in color was the first time i saw a manga in color, but considering how I heard Bleach has gone bad, I don't think it would be worth reading.


it's hasn't gone bad, but it did drop for a bit after the "Aizen Arc" but it picked back up in the 1000 Year Blood War Arc

but you shouldn't let other people make your mind up for you, read some of it for yourself and make up your own mind about it because a lot of the people moaning about it are just moaning for the sake of it or because it's curently "cool" too
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Valhern



Joined: 19 Jan 2015
Posts: 916
PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 11:23 am Reply with quote
Chagen46 wrote:
Sometimes I feel like the only anime fan who didn't start with a Shounen Jump manga or anime. Dunno why. My interest in otaku media began with my brother and his friends watching various anime when I was over, but they were late-night shows. My brother actually DID have copies of Shounen Jump, but I never read them. They also played Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 constantly, but I never checked out the original. My first anime was Shakugan no Shana and the rest is history.

A shame, really. I am actually reading through Naruto right now for kicks. Sometimes I feel like I've missed out. Man, my childhood was boring as shit.


I somewhat feel the opposite. Because I DID start with Shonen Jump, it was mostly the only thing I watched, and used to put things like Magical Knight Rayearth, Utena, Kaleido Star, Sailor Moon on the "someday" list. I really would've wished that my brother or my parents didn't bother me because I wanted to watch 'girl' anime, I had to lower the volumen when watching Rayearth or Mikami, and I wasn't able to watch Kaleido (until last year) altogether.

Also, the whole shonen train was SO big and long that I missed things other shonen series I'd have loved to watch, like Gundam, Orphen, and ohters.
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Gemnist



Joined: 10 Feb 2016
Posts: 1754
PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 11:54 am Reply with quote
Mine was Naruto. I pretty much stated my story of it in another thread, so I'll just say that I found the story really relatable and the themes were top-notch can compared to anything SJ has done (most of those series are about the benefits of adventure, fighting, and friendship - Naruto has the former and latter, but is very anti-fighting and also has social commentary, social outcasts, and a combination of idealism and nihilism that gives off a real sense of morality). The excessive use of recurring gags and the overall writing were shabby, I'll admit, but it was still a very fun series - and by that, I mean the manga.
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Merxamers



Joined: 09 Dec 2013
Posts: 720
PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 12:05 pm Reply with quote
MajorZero wrote:
Bleach, and I'm not ashamed to say this. Even now, many years later, Soul Society arc is still among very best shonen arcs I've seen. Lovable characters, some humor, cool baddies (or at least who I thought were baddies), style and aesthetics. For me it was almost flawless entertainment.


Spot on Smile I'm not a huge fan of the way the Bleach manga has gone, but Bleach was the first big, long jump series i ever watched, and the Soul Society Arc is very, very good.
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InuKag1



Joined: 02 Mar 2014
Posts: 121
PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 9:32 pm Reply with quote
I was obsessed (and still am) with Inuyasha. It was the first show that got me into anime and it was all I cared about for years after I started it. Of course i loved the classics like Rurouni Kenshin and Yu Yu Hakusho that i watched on Toonami as a kid as well. Currently watching Fairy Tail which is my new love for at the moment
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Divineking



Joined: 03 Jul 2010
Posts: 1293
PostPosted: Fri Apr 15, 2016 6:31 am Reply with quote
Like pretty much every 90's kid at this point, Dragonball Z was pretty much my first Shonen Jump obsession. It was hard not to get sucked into the seemingly non-stop action, when I was a kid, though even then I did find myself wondering when the heck Freeza would die because Namek was taking forever to end Laughing

I wasn't formally introduced to Shonen Jump until I was about 11 though, thanks to one of my friends being a subscriber. Shaman King ended up being the first manga from there I was interested in checking out and with the 4Kids dub being on TV at the same time, I was pretty much hooked. The whole fighting with spirits thing seemed pretty cool to me, and I liked that death was a little more permanent in that show compared to DBZ (which to this day still surprises me given who dubbed it).

I was shortly introduced to the Naruto manga after that, and hooked before the anime ever came to the states. From there I was pretty much a hardcore Naruto until my sophmore year of high school where I became obsessed with Reborn instead until the manga started to decline. Since then I've still kept an interest in JUMP stuff and subscribe to the digital mag to check out new stuff, and there's been plenty of worthwhile series to check out from it. Sometimes the JUMP formula can get a bit tiring (and annoying when it's pretty much just being checklisted i.e. Black Clover) but it generally makes for good entertainment.
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lostbirdinatree





PostPosted: Fri Apr 15, 2016 7:35 am Reply with quote
I'm a 90s kid but I've never once set eyes on Dragon Ball as an anime...

My first Jump anime was the infamous One Piece 4Kids dub. I don't seem to remember the extreme censorship or the rap associated with it, but I think it was somewhere in the Arlong arc that I first set eyes on (with no Nami at that point, but Zoro and Luffy were there). Despite that, I've slogged through about 70 volumes of the manga, although I have gotten kinda confused along the way.

My current love Jump-anime-wise would be Boku no Hero Academia. Good ol' Bones, doing what they do best, with the work of a guy who's tried to create a big hit 3 times (Oumagadoki Doubutsuen, Barrage and Boku no Hero Academia) and succeeded on his 3rd try...sounds like a Jump-style dream, doesn't it?
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