Controversial Shonen Jump Creator Returning With New Story Soon

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Yozakura Family and others all wrapping up. Consequently, the magazine has been on the hunt for the next generation of potential success stories.

In the recent summer season, Shonen Jump introduced three significant series after discontinuing others that didn’t perform as expected, and it looks like another debut is on the horizon. The upcoming issue of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine (as noticed by @WSJ_manga on X) hints at a new one-shot from Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro, the creator of the Toriko series. Interestingly, despite being arrested, convicted, and sentenced for child prostitution violations in 2002, Shimabukuro has maintained a successful career within Shonen Jump.

Who Is Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro?

Back in 1997, I witnessed Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro’s initial foray into Shonen Jump with “Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi!”. However, this series encountered an unexpected halt in 2002 due to the creator’s arrest. Despite this setback, Shimabukuro managed to revisit the series in a spin-off publication later on. Since then, he’s been consistently contributing to Shonen Jump. The most significant work that he produced was “Toriko” in 2008. This series shared the spotlight with Goku from Dragon Ball and Luffy from One Piece in an official anime crossover and ran for eight years before concluding with the magazine. Yet, since then, Shimabukuro hasn’t quite managed to achieve such a monumental success again.

In 2020, Shimabukuro came the closest to another serialization with his work titled “Build King”. However, this series ended abruptly after running for just under a year. Now, Shimabukuro is back with a new one-shot called “Baka Battle”, set to be published in the upcoming issue of “Shonen Jump”. As of now, it’s unclear if an English version of the new story will be released. If licensed and translated, you can expect it on Shueisha’s MangaPlus service or Viz Media’s digital Shonen Jump library.

What Does This Mean for Shonen Jump?

For quite some time, I’ve noticed that Shueisha has collaborated with creators who, unfortunately, have a criminal past. Regrettably, this isn’t an isolated case; several other creators have faced similar accusations and charges throughout their careers. In the past, some of these individuals were removed from magazines due to the gravity of their crimes. However, there are others who persist in publishing new series despite their convictions. For instance, one artist managed to regain prominence following a writer’s dismissal, becoming one of Shonen Jump’s newer icons.

Shueisha is searching for new potential blockbusters now that their longer series are wrapping up, and it’s often advantageous to collaborate with established creators to see if they have more brilliant ideas in store. It appears that this one-shot might be part of such an effort; we’ll soon find out if it leads to another serialization in the future.

HT – @WSJ_manga on X

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2025-07-28 21:11