Every day is a special day at Comic-Con, but this year, the date of July 22, 2011 will go down in history!

SHONEN JUMP brought their A-game today at their panel, and we've got the blow-by-blow details. Read on to find out what happened!

It All Started at 3 PM...

SHONEN JUMP's panel started when TEAM JUMP entered the scene in dramatic fashion. Music blared from an old school radio (shout out to CASHAMILL for providing the tunes!), as the baddest crew in all of mangadom stormed the stage. They were:

- John "Dragon Ball Announcer" Bae (host/Associate Editor)
- Christopher "Hard" Boily (SHONEN JUMP Editor-in-Chief)
- Urian "Dr." Brown (interviewer/purple-mohawked Video Games Editor)
- Misaki "Onnabancho" Kido (translator/host and the one who made this all possible)
- Robert "the Man" Ramirez (anime news)
- Julie "Orihime" Lutz (behind-the-scenes superstar/Intern)

PLUS, we hosted a couple special guest panelists who came straight from Japan for this momentous event.

The panel started out with Editor-in-Chief Christopher Boily touching on some news about SHONEN JUMP Magazine and the unveiling of the latest issue featuring...Pokémon! Then SHONEN JUMP anime took center stage as Robert Ramirez talked about the latest vizanime.com offerings, including Blue Dragon Uncut!

After that, madness and mayhem ensued with the "Kuchiyose no Jutsu Summoning" of Hiroshi Matsuyama, President and CEO of independent game development house CyberConnect2 Co.,Ltd. Matsuyama-san bumrushed the stage in full-on Naruto cosplay! At the panel, he displayed the latest trailer of the Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations video game. He also took on some hardball questions from Urian Brown. As for the most memorable one of all? "Will there ever be a crossover game featuring Naruto and Dragon Ball?" He told us to talk to the approvals folks from all the different companies and butter 'em up if we want to see it work!

After Matsuyama-san left to a resounding round of applause, SHONEN JUMP dropped another bomb and brought out SASAKI Hisashi, Shueisha’s Deputy Director of Shonen Manga Group and former Editor in Chief of Weekly SHONEN JUMP.

Most fans recognize him from his persona in Bakuman. Here's a detailed transcript on what went down (special thanks to Julie Lutz for the transcription):

SASAKI-San: Hi, I am SASAKI from SHONEN JUMP. Nice to meet you!

SHONEN JUMP: So, has anyone told you that you look like this guy? [big screen shows his character from Bakuman]

SASAKI-San: Some people look a little disappointed to see me, because I look so much cooler the way Obata draws me.

SHONEN JUMP: The SJ Storyboard Contest began on July 1. For the first time ever, we're looking for storyboards that have been done by American artists! SASAKI-san over here has given us a theme: The summer adventures of a student in New York city! All entries must be four pages, read from right to left and drawn in rough pencil sketch form.

Before we take a look at some examples, I wanted to ask you your opinions on what we are looking for in a good entry in the storyboard contest.

SASAKI-San: When I first came up with this assignment, I had a reason behind it. Depending on the imagination of the creator, you could turn this synposis into either a realistic setting story or something like a fantasy story, so there’s a lot of room to be flexible and creative.Furthermore, the limited space of four pages would actually take a high level of skill to come up with a solid plan to show the characters, setting and the overall story. Creating just those four pages takes a lot of skills for a mangaka. That’s what I wanted to test for.

[At this point, examples are shown on the big screen. SASAKI-san takes the time to critique each one. Below are his thoughts.]

ENTRY #1: ERIK K.
Click HERE to read the storyboard entry.
Since this contest has a limit of only four pages, one of the most important aspects would be how easily a viewer can read and understand these storyboards. This particuar piece has a very interesting story; however, it becomes a bit complicated to follow the speech bubbles. Furthermore, on the fourth page, it's a little difficult to tell which panel you're supposed to begin reading on. The focus is the main character here, but there are a few panels that lead up to it and the visual path becomes difficult to follow. When you think about the panel works of manga, you must consider the viewpoint of the audience and the people who are reading it. Make sure that there’s no way of making a mistake on how to read the story.

ENTRY #2: ISABELLA L.
Click HERE to read the storyboard entry.
Isabella-san is doing something that that is a rather common mistake to beginner manga artists. The thing that I want to point out here is that she has a lot of panels that are focused on the character’s faces up-close. It's clear that she must have really wanted to put life into these characters in this piece; however, when the character is mostly shown up close, it becomes difficut to tell what’s going on around them and the visuals become rendundant. To resolve this issue, the best thing you can do is think about the balance between the panel shots: use a combination of landscapes, close-ups, and waist-ups. Give us a mixture of all three.

ENTRY #3: HECTOR H.
Click HERE to read the storyboard entry.
For this particular piece by Hector, there are a lot of panels that are crammed into a single space, especially on page number two. As a basic rule of manga, it’s better to keep the number of panels to a minimum per page. In this case, can I understand why he chose to use more panels due to the small page number limit, but most pros usually only use a maximum of seven panels per page.

ENTRY #4: RAY N.
Click HERE to read the storyboard entry.
This piece by Ray has a very strong beginning where it starts with a long-shot, then a middle shot, and then a close-up that focuses on the main characters. Within the first page, you can tell what the main character looks like, what he’s doing and what he’s trying to do. He did a good job on this. In particular for this piece, it would make it really interesting if he could make the main characters very attractive in terms of how you can connect or identify to the main character. That would make this piece much stronger.

Entry #5: MEMRY
Click HERE to read the storyboard entry.
This piece by Memry is similar to the last piece. It starts out very well by showing the setting first, then comes into a more focused shot for each of the characters. The setting itself is drawn very nicely throughout the four pages. In the story, a little boy comes to an audition to become an actor when something that he didn't expect begins to happen. The very last punch of the entry is that he uses a chair to defend himself, and ends up accidentally defeating someone who is much stronger than him. The story is well executed, but the idea itself could be a bit more entertaining. Furthermore, because there are only four pages, you must think about the conclusion of a piece first. From there, you can only have one focal point, and then a story can be produced from there.

Entry #6: DAVID C.
Click HERE to read the storyboard entry.
This work is a bit similar to Memry’s piece. In order to go to an audition as an actor in NYC, the main character works really hard to save up by taking up many part-time jobs. However, the part-time jobs become the main aspect, and the actual story is not focused on as closely as it should be. He should expand a bit further into the part where he goes to New York. Thinking of something to spin off of this idea would have been helpful as well -- for example, while he was working on a part-time job to go to an audition, he sees a girl in a picture and completely forgets about going. It would have been nice as a more interesting twist at the end.

Entry #7 SIRES B.
Click HERE to read the storyboard entry.
Sires's is one of the strongest pieces that we have seen so far. In this story, a thirteen-year-old boy who wants to be a movie star in New York happens to be a superhero already. From the very first page an interesting panel structure is used, and throughout the story it remains interesting yet simple and easy to follow. On the second panel, there’s an image that makes it obvious to the reader that the main character's occupation is a superhero, which is a very interesting way of introducing him. In the last panel of the second page, the main character declares with a serious expression that he wishes to become a movie star. To have such a still, quiet moment within such a limited number of pages shows quite a bit of skill in plotting and expanding these ideas. After reading the final panel where the characters give each other a high-five, it made me think that I want to read more about the actions of the two superheroes. There are many aspects that are very important about manga in general, but I believe that one of the most important aspects are the characters. Within those limited four pages again, Sires really showed what kind of person these characters are, which also made me really curious to know more about these main characters, which displays a very interesting and high-skilled level.

[After SASAKI-san concluded his critique on some early entrants, the panel went into a quick Q&A with the audience and our fans on Twitter.]

Q: How close to real life is the manga Bakuman? Is making manga really that hardcore?

SASAKI: A lot of people actually ask me this question, but Bakuman is actually not fiction or nonfiction. It’s up to your imagination.

Q: What is most important: story, character depicition, environment, or emotion conveyed?

A: I actually mentioned this during the panel a little earlier – honestly, there’s no right or wrong answer to this. Personally, I think that the most important aspect is the characters.

Q: How do you get yourself to work when you have absolutely no drive but you really really need to get work done?

A: You should just read Dragon Ball!

Q: How can I be an assistant to a mangaka! How do I get employed, if possible?

A: In Weekly SHONEN JUMP, there is a section that posts assistants-wanted ads for mangaka who are in need of assistants. First, you send in your work to the editor, which then gets forwarded to the artist. After that, you’ll be given a trial test to ascertain your abilities. If you qualify, you'll become an employee. As simple as it sounds, it’s a little bit tricky unless you’re physically in Japan!

And with that final question, the epic SHONEN JUMP panel concluded! Thanks to everyone who attended, and for those who didn't, we hope you enjoyed reading this recap!

SHONEN JUMP FTW!