Then, to the music of Van Halen's Jump, Mr. Horibuchi and Mr. Torishima took positions near a screen. It was then announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, the world's most popular manga magazine" and the cover of the inaugural issue of the US Shonen Jump appeared to much applause.

Jason Thompson, Editor of the US Shonen Jump then took the microphone. Mr. Thompson announced the first manga titles to be featured in the US Shonen Jump. The titles are Dragonball Z and Sand Land by Akira Toriyama, Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto, Shaman King by Hiroyuki Takei, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Yuyu Hakusho: Ghost Files by Kazuki Takahashi, and finally One Piece by Eiichiro Oda.

Thompson gave a brief synopsis for each of the titles, and described to the attendees the connection between many of the manga titles and their anime counterparts being aired on the Cartoon Network.

Paul Condolora of the Cartoon Network then advanced to the podium.

Mr. Condolora first discussed the Cartoon Network's success with Shueisha's titles, explaining that the Cartoon Network, now in 81 million homes in the US, ranked number three overall last year in ad-supported cable networks.

Condolora then drew attention to the fact that the Cartoon Network ranked number one with boys 6-11 and boys 9-14. He continued, "What makes us number one and pushes us over the edge is anime." Condolora pointed out that the Toonami programming block is anchored by the Shueisha titles Dragonball and Dragonball Z and that the Adult Swim Action block is anchored by Yuyu Hakusho.

After continuing to point out that Adult Swim's anime programming had put them in the number one position for the time slot with males 12-17 and males 12-24, Mr. Condolora announced a new online project called Adult Swim Reactor which will be also be based on Shueisha titles.

Adult Swim Reactor will have two sections: a free section and one available only to Shonen Jump subscribers. The website will feature digital manga selected from Shonen Jump and will be published on a weekly basis beginning in November. Adult Swim Reactor will also be used as a testing ground for new manga series.

With that concluding the presentation, the floor was opened up to questions.

Among the questions asked was if the US Shonen Jump would be featuring series that also appealed to young women?

Jason Thompson acknowledged that in Japan, Shonen Jump's audience was mostly male but that it did have a strong female fan base, particularly for the Naruto and One Piece series.

It was then asked that as 'shonen' means boy, would Shonen Jump also have any 'shoujo,' or girls', titles?

Rick Bauer pointed out that 'shonen' actually has two meanings. The first being 'boy' and the second being 'pure of heart.' He then stated that Shonen Jump would focus on the 'pure of heart' meaning and that all of their manga series would have redeeming themes of courage, self improvement, loyalty, and even a little bit of romance.

Mr. Horibuchi then interjected that the female readership of Shonen Jump is constantly growing higher and higher and now stands at more than twenty percent of the total readership.

Horibuchi-san also said that the titles to be included in the US Shonen Jump would be restricted for now to the titles that appear in the Japanese Shonen Jump. He then looked to the future stating, "I do hope that someday that they could add titles created by American manga creators."

The next question asked if contests similar to those the Japanese version of Shonen Jump holds, with the prize being publication in the magazine, would become part of the offerings from the US Shonen Jump readers.

Mr. Horibuchi stated that this had been discussed and that sometime in the future this would happen.

Following the question and answer session, the presentation concluded and the partying resumed.

Upon leaving the event each guest received a "gift bag," which, among other things, included a copy of issue zero, a teaser, of the US Shonen Jump.

The teaser issue is an abridged, 56-page, version of the issue that is scheduled to appear this November and contains a synopsis of each of the series to appeared in the full 250-page version, which will have a cover price of $4.95. A one year, $19.95, subscription rate is currently being offered to 'charter' subscribers on the Shonen Jump website (www.shonenjump.com) lowering the cost to only $1.67 per issue for those inclined to subscribe now.

Distribution of the teaser issue itself is aggressive to say the least and is being executed as a partnership between Viz, the Musicland Group, and Diamond Comic Book Distributors. The Musicland Group itself plans to distribute 50,000 issues of the teaser through its stores nationwide while Diamond has plans to disperse another 40,000 free issues in August alone.

Viz and Shueisha hope the US Shonen Jump, an advertising-supported magazine, will reach a circulation of one million copies per month within three years (with the combined talents of Viz, Shueisha, and the Cartoon Network, this certainly seems a reasonable possibility).

The only question that remains is will Shonen Jump enjoy the same success in the US that it has in Japan? With today's widespread, and rapidly growing, acceptance of anime leading the way, and the experience of all those involved in the project, the time certainly seems right.