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Most of the top popular anime series airing right now are adaptations of beloved manga. So, we are going to take a look at some of the best Japanese manga magazines available right now and list which series is currently being published in them.
While official translations of manga released on a chapter-by-chapter basis are more common than ever, distribution can still be scattershot and hard to follow if you are an international reader. To help with this, we are going to break down the top manga publications.
The following is a list of some of the best and most popular manga magazines in Japan:
Weekly Shonen Jump
Again, if you know anything about anime, you probably knew that Weekly Shonen Jump would be at the top of this list. Published by Shueisha (who will take up a lot of spots on this feature), Weekly Shonen Jump has defined what’s popular in anime and manga for decades. Being the home of industry-defining series like Fist of the North Star, Dragon Ball, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and One Piece, it’s hard to think of another publication that’s had as big an impact on any artistic medium. Thankfully, English speakers can read everything that is released under the Weekly Shonen Jump banner on the official Shonen Jump App or on Manga Plus.
Ultra Jump
Also published by Shueisha, Ultra Jump is the generally more mature and monthly sister publication to Weekly Shonen Jump. Ultra Jump is home to iconic series like Outlaw Star and Bastard!! Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy. It even hosts chapters of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure once the series moved to a month-to-month format, beginning with Steel Ball Run. Unfortunately, releases in this magazine are a bit harder to find globally, as there aren’t any official and consistent translations of this publication geared toward English speakers.
Weekly Shonen Magazine
Published by Kodansha, another giant Japanese publishing company, Weekly Shonen Magazine features a collection of manga that are equal parts classics and the new hotness. Fans of sports manga will appreciate that this magazine features both Hajime no Ippo and Blue Lock. It also boasts titles like Edens Zero, Go! Go! Loser Ranger!, Rent-A-Girlfriend, Shangri-La Frontier, and To Your Eternity. All of these series have or are about to have popular anime releases as well. Although Kodansha is pretty good about licensing their titles internationally, they can also sometimes be hit or miss. As a result, you might have to hunt around on less popular manga readers to find some of these series.
Weekly Young Jump
Another great magazine from Shueisha (the trick is to look for “Jump” in the title) is Weekly Young Jump. This is another sister magazine to Weekly Shonen Jump that’s geared to older readers. This publication currently features titles like Kingdom, Oshi no Ko, Real, and The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You. While Oshi no Ko is at least available internationally on Shueisha’s Manga Plus platform, you might have to get a little extra-legal if you want to read these other fantastic series as they release.
Weekly Shonen Sunday
Deceptively releasing on Wednesdays every week, Weekly Shonen Sunday is published by Shogakukan. It was the home of the seminal Urusei Yatsura manga and hosts the still-running Case Closed series. The mystery manga has over 1000 chapters. More recent releases include popular series like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Komi Can’t Communicate, and Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle. If you want to read the weekly translations of most of these series, you can check them out on the Viz Manga App.
Hana to Yume
Rounding out this list with some shojo is Hana to Yume, or Flowers and Dreams, from the publishing company Hakusensha. This magazine is home to the iconic Skip Beat! and has a wide array of other manga geared towards young women, including Fruits Basket. Unfortunately, official translations for any series in Hana to Yume are few and far between, so good luck hunting down decent fan translations of these manga!
