Why did Kochikame get a cover for its final chapter?

House policy in Weekly Shonen Jump was plain: a manga does not get the cover of the issue that carries its final chapter. In September 2016 that policy met the one series it could not hold against. Kochikame, Osamu Akimoto police comedy, ended in 2016 No.42, released September 17, after 40 years of continuous serialisation without a break, 1,960 chapters and 200 collected volumes, a Guinness World Record for the most volumes of a single manga series.

Shueisha broke the rule in full view. The No.42 cover carried Kankichi Ryotsu drawn by Akimoto and by the other Jump artists, working their own styles into his face. Inside, every other manga in the issue hid a small image of Ryotsu signature eyebrows in its chapter. A month earlier the magazine had published Kochikame Jump, a whole special issue for the anniversary, with a collaborative poster drawn by Araki, Oda, Kishimoto and five more Jump artists.

Then the aftermath set a second record. On December 31, 2016, Shueisha reprinted No.42 together with Kochikame Jump as a 780 yen anniversary pack. It was the first time in the magazine history that a Weekly Shonen Jump issue had ever been reprinted. Disposable weekly newsprint, reprinted like a book, for one cop from Kameari: that is what forty years buys.