Meet The First Italian Artist Published In Shonen Jump+

Can a foreigner make manga? Are there any successful manga artists who aren’t Japanese? Is it actually possible to “make it” in manga if you’re not in Japan? These questions, which have saturated Google searches for years, have finally found their answer: a resounding yes.

Meet Elena Vitagliano, the first European woman to make it to the highest peak of Japanese manga success. She won first place in the infamously difficult Magic Competition organized by Shibuya Productions and Shueisha (the publisher of Shonen Jump). As the winner, she has become the first Italian woman to be published in Shonen Jump+ as of April 2023.

Her manga, “Miriam of the Skulls,” is live on the website and app in Japanese, and Vitagliano told me she believes it will be published in English as well. The 24-page story is set in her hometown of Naples, Italy. It stars the titular protagonist Miriam, who Vitagliano describes as “giving off goth vibes,” a young woman who is devoted to skulls and determined to protect them—no matter what threatens the ossuary that houses them.

“I could not believe it,” Vitagliano told me of her win. “Especially because it was the third time I entered this contest. Both previous times, I was among the top five finalists but didn’t make it.”

It’s her persistence and endurance that characterizes Vitagliano’s rise to the top today. I’ve been following her career as a manga artist since 2013 when I interviewed her about her former manga collective, Cross#atch. Vitagliano was already a recognized talent by then, having won first place in the UK’s premier manga contest, Manga Jiman, in 2011. But Vitagliano had ambitions far beyond her early success: she wanted to be a career artist good enough to be published among the top manga artists in Japan. It would take 10 more years to meet that goal.

For the most part, Vitagliano was self-taught. Then, she met Midori Yamane, a former manga editor at the publishing company Kodansha, who currently resides in Rome, Italy. Yamane served as something of a mentor to Vitagliano, who credits her with assistance in leveling up her work: “She really helped me understand that manga was not just about drawings.”

More than anything though, Vitagliano said that the best way to learn how to make manga was to immerse herself in manga: reading, writing, and drawing lots and lots of manga. Her latest award-winning one-shot reflects her experience in that world.

“If you enjoy Rumiko Takahashi’s stories or the energy of shonen manga like Jujutsu Kaisen, you’ll love Miriam of the Skulls,” she said.

Now that she’s achieved such a lofty goal, what’s next for Vitagliano? She’s working on a book—but not the comic kind. Her book on manga storytelling will build off of the fundamentals that she teaches to students in her courses at CG Master Academy.

“There is plenty of how to draw manga books and nothing on storytelling; ironically, the secret of manga is indeed storytelling,” she said. “A book that goes deep into this subject does not exist in any western language.”

Vitagliano may have been the first European artist to have her manga published in Shonen Jump, but she hopes she won’t be the last. When I asked her if she had any advice for artists aspiring to follow her lead, she said: “Enter competitions. It doesnt matter if you win. What is important is that you complete a story and respect a deadline. These are two skills that a professional needs for sure.”