Shonen Jump+’s reality show Million Tag has announced its winner. The show is styled as a “battle audition” type contest used to discover the “next star manga creator”. The winner of this season’s show is Naoki Fujita, creator of “Beat and Motion”.
The prize for winning Million Tag includes Fujita’s work having an anime adaptation. This anime adaptation will stream exclusively on Netflix. Fujita also won 5 million yen (about $45,000 USD) and the chance to serialize the manga on Shonen Jump+. Fujita’s given editor from Shueisha was Shihei Rin (editor of Chainsaw Man and Spy X Family).
Million Tag’s Road to a Winner
Weekly Shonen Jump is one of Japan’s largest and most iconic magazine titles. The magazine produced titles such as Dragon Ball Z and My Hero Academia. In 2014, Shonen Jump created Shonen Jump+, a website, and app version of the magazine.
The eight-episode show debuted on the official YouTube channel for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, with the release date having been July 2. Million Tag followed six teams with a prospective manga creator and a Shueisha manga editor. From there, the teams had to compete in four challenges. These challenges will assess the team’s ability to produce manga on schedule and living up to the expectations of readers.
The hosts of Million Tag are the comedy trio YONSENTOSHIN and voice actor Ayane Sakura. The guest judges for the final challenge include Tatsuki Fujimoto (Chainsaw Man) and Yuji Kaku (Hell’s Paradise). Netflix anime producer Kohei Obara also served as a guest judge in the final challenge of the show’s final episode.
In December, Shonen Jump’s Million Tag was announced. The show was finally able to air after long trials of attempts by the Jump Plus editorial department. It is unclear if there will be another season of Million Tag. However, the channel also released a behind-the-scenes look with close details on manga serialization. Currently, there are English subtitles on each of the channels’ videos.
