PHOTOS: Jump Festa 2023 Shows Luffy’s Return as the King of Manga
Last year was one of the most low-key Jump Festa events I had ever been to, mostly due to the still continuing pandemic. However, this year saw the full force of the titan of manga return with Jump Festa 2023 – with all the issues that come with a full proper event.
Most, if not all, of the booths returned to the Makuhari Messe halls with dazzling displays, showing not only the hottest manga but also the most popular anime and video games. Pokémon had a massive presence at the event again for the first time since 2019 alongside Bandai Namco and more.
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But what stayed was the convoluted ticketing system built for COVID-19 protections. Due to the lack of people at the event last year, the ticketing system saw more waiting than needed. This year it mostly broke down due to how many people were allowed into the event. Tickets for getting into booths were taken within minutes of opening and having a later entry ticket (which was randomly given out!) basically didn’t let you into much. Not that there wasn’t enough to do outside of the booths!
How Anya and Luffy Stole The Jump Festa Show
Historically, Jump manga has been known for their manly powerful characters like Goku from Dragon Ball, Ichigo from Bleach, Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star, but the manga inside those pages have always been read by people of all ages and backgrounds. It was this Jump Festa that felt like the publisher finally broke out of those more male-centric sensibilities and gave prominence on the show floor to series and adaptations that cater to demographics other than just teenage boys.
This included SPY x FAMILY, one of the biggest anime of the year and one of the most-read manga on Jump+. While the series has been around for a few years, Jump has finally embraced Anya as a core character of the magazine’s identity, even giving her a giant blow-up statue. It can be said that’s one of the highest honors for a manga character; not even Tanjiro got the privilege!
Every time I walked past the giant Anya, there were hordes of young children of all genders trying to get pictures. It was heartwarming seeing their faces light up as they saw Bondman and then looked up at the towering esper.
This also included formats outside of just the pages of comics. As I walked into the hall for the first time, I was greeted with a booth focusing on musicals based on Jump properties, including the Mugen Train made for the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba stage.
Getting a picture of the train compartment was almost impossible with the hordes of mothers, grandmothers and older women trying to get their own pictures with their plush dolls of Rengoku, Akaza and Zenitsu.
Of course, Demon Slayer also popped up in other places around the halls, with the Aniplex booth having the characters walking around and entertaining the masses.
There was still one series that transcended its own fanbase and became the hottest topic of the last year – One Piece.
Every ten minutes of walking around the halls I was greeted with something One Piece-related, whether it was the huge One Piece Odyssey booth, promotion for the TV anime’s home video release, Uta’s songs blasting through speakers in the food sections or just Toei Animation celebrating the series’ success.
Jump Festa 2023’s Gorgeous Gallery
One Piece was also given the golden treatment in the Jump Festa gallery area with a space celebrating Luffy going Gear Five this year outside of the regular gallery. The mini gallery “Road to Emperor” showcased Luffy’s journey to becoming one of the Four Emperors and gaining this new power.
Unlike the rest of the gallery, photography was not allowed. This was mainly due to the fact that the original pages submitted to Jump by Oda, complete with notes, color variation for gray tones, white-out and marker lines to draw in the black parts were on display.
It’s one thing seeing these iconic drawings in a book, but it’s another to see the originally drawn versions by Oda, just seeing how detailed and clean One Piece was from the start. The pages shown ranged from chapter 92 in 1999 to Luffy going full Gear Five in 2022’s chapter 1,045.
What was interesting was seeing that as One Piece got past 2015, some parts of the pages were hand drawn and stuck onto a digital background. It was obvious from the line art and brushstrokes what was physically drawn and what was digital, with all of the most important panels continuing to be drawn physically well into 2022.
In yet another gallery next to the “Road to Emperor” one featured the original poster for One Piece Film Red drawn by Oda along with other original color pages – including Chainsaw Man’s iconic cover for the 12th volume of the manga.
As usual, the gallery was open to all and featured a piece of work submitted to Jump Festa from most of the currently serialized Jump manga across all platforms. These ranged from the original color pages submitted to editors, to digital versions and even some pages with notes and stains. (Note that this isn’t all the pieces, just a small sample.)
Chainsaw Man’s Overwhelming Jump Festa Presence
Chainsaw Man is hands down the biggest anime out there right now, and Jump Festa 2023 did its best to house the chaos and imagination the series is known for. In the middle of one of the halls was a giant black projection and sound box showing all the opening and endings from Chainsaw Man on repeat and at random.
As an art installation, it really felt like it captured the mayhem that is Denji’s mind.
#chainsawman at #JumpFesta2023 pic.twitter.com/GsLFrfNpYx
— Dazza (@DoctorDazza) December 17, 2022
The first Blu-ray volume for the series was also on display for the first time with the box given a massive view.
Dogs… I mean fans of Chainsaw Man could also get a photo with both Pochita and Makima, not that it would be suggested to get close to either, but why not if they’re there!
Denji’s view of Makima
Snapshotting Jump Festa’s Many Photospots and More
With the return of a full event came many photo spots around the halls, featuring both big and lesser-known titles that may or may not be on people’s radars just yet.
As previously mentioned, Pokémon came back to Jump Festa in a big way this year with a giant booth heavily showcasing Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, including the best starter of the new games – Fuecoco.
Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama’s newly announced anime project based on his SAND LAND manga series was also shown for the first time during the Jump Festa weekend with an intriguing poster.
And of course, in true Me and Roboco fashion, I wasn’t able to get to the train station without being stopped by the titular robot – though, she seemed cuter in person than in the series, maybe this is how the company that makes the robots gets you…
Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram. Cream puffs are yummy!