Lewd images appear on pages within an issue of Weekly Jump when held up to a light
Weekly Jump is undoubtedly one of the biggest and most famous weekly shonen (teen or young boys) manga comics, and has been ever since its very first comic back in 1968.
With successful titles such as Dragon Ball, Bleach, Yu-Gi-Oh and Dragon Quest, Jump has become Japan’s best-selling comic magazine, not just in Japan, but wordwide. Jump is primarily aimed at young boys, however, it does have female readers also, and readers of different ages.
Recently, though, Jump has been caught up in controversy online when people noticed erotic illustrations hidden within its pages and called them out on Twitter.
-The lewd content was found in issue 48, which went on sale on October 28th 2019.
Some Twitter users called out Jump for showing an image of the main character from a manga called Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs posing naked in a sexual pose. While her nipples are blurred out in while if you hold the page up to a strong light source, they suddenly appear in exactly the right position. It works because on the page behind contains an image of pink tapioca pearls that look exactly like nipples.
The original post was made in English by a German-Japanese Twitter user, but the post and comments have since been taken down. However, various Japanese users have also since tweeted about the issue.
The controversy has divided people, with some saying that this kind of “pornographic” content has no place in media aimed at young people. Others have praised the erotic content calling it “Clever” and making comments such as “It’s only tapioca” and “This is just everyday Japan”.
With the current social climate in the West, for better or for worse, this kind of content can be seen a degrading and offensive. Despite what westerners may think, however, Weekly Jump and other shonen publications in Japan have been erotically depicting women since they first began – and are most likely to continue for a while to come. Unless this kind of controversy directly starts to affect their sales, then, perhaps, there could be a change. But, going by recent reports, there are just as many adults who read these type of comments as there are young people.
Perhaps, if this kind of controversy continues around shonen comics, they’ll eventualy be pulled from Convenience Store Shelves where children can’t directly see them.
Featured image: Jump Comics
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