Currently Running Manga Discussion

[LumRanmaYasha]

Crossing my fingers for a new Ranma 1/2 anime project to commemorate it's 30th anniversary.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I wouldn't be surprised if they asked her to consider ending it. It's her least popular series by far, and Sunday has been trying to push more hits out recently.

Of course it might just be an early announcement for season 4 of the series instead.

[VLordGTZ]

It's pretty much guaranteed that Rin-ne will get a Season 4 since it does consistently well in its time slot for NHK, but I think they probably won't announce it until Season 3 concludes. 

Crossing my fingers for a new Ranma 1/2 anime project to commemorate it's 30th anniversary.

Oh yeah, I completely forgot that this year is Ranma's 30th anniversary.  Honestly, a Ranma 1/2: The Final Act is well overdue, so it would be great if the announcement was that.   

[Spark Of Spirit]

Kimetsu no Yaiba volume 5 has shot up in sales for the series. For reference, that's the amount Promised Neverland's last volume sold in its first week. Looks like it's finally finding its audience.

It also sold over double the recent Samon volume which hasn't improved in sales at all. It's at volume 8 and it's selling less than series that have been canceled already.

I'll say it. It's time Jump cut Samon loose. It's a bit absurd that it's still going despite being the lowest selling thing in the magazine (lower than Isobe) and not ranking well at all.

[LumRanmaYasha]

It's great that KnY is picking up steam. Hopefully it continues this momentum and in a year or so it could even get an anime which would give it more exposure.

Samon's days are probably numbered if all six of the new series hit it off. But if two or more of them are floundering by the next serialization cycle, it will probably hang on. Jump really seems to be biding it's time for an anime proposal and willing to keep it around until it gets one.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Food Wars spoiler!

Spoiler

[close]

Wow, that's hype. I haven't been this existed to read the series in a while.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Spoiler

Murasakibara! 

It's cool the former 3rd seat is also on the team, but I'm hoping we learn some more about him. There was some set-up a long time ago hinting at why he defected from Central, but with the series pretty clearly being rushed into the Regime du Cuisine, I think Tsukusa had to jettison whatever was his original plan for him. Hopefully there'll be some flashback showing how Soma and co. met him that explains why he opposes Central and fleshes out his character.

[close]

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Not goin to lie, even though there was no such announcement, the rushed nature of this arc feels eerily like what happens with a lot of other series before they abruptly wrap-up with early endings. To be fair, while its rankings have been all over the place, Food Wars has still been doing a lot better than many other series still running in Jump despite consistent low rankings, so lack of popularity doesn't seem to be an issue for the series at this point. It may just be (and I hope it is) that the author is just rushing past this particular story arc because, some good aspects aside (mainly Erina's character development), a lot of large chunks of the Azami saga have felt like a real slog to read through, and it's definitely not just me who feels this way as I've seen several other people comment about this (and in this case I agree with the majority opinion).

There is definitely plenty of untapped potential for future story and character arcs to unfold with this cast of characters, so I do genuinely hope to see more after this arc. I just personally find it hard to get invested in anything having to do with taking down Azami or Central. They are a rather weak and uninteresting antagonistic force, IMO, with the exception of Azami being a huge mental barrier that Erina has had to overcome over the course of her development in this arc.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Food Wars! sold really well last year so I'd like to think it's fairly safe, but I can see Tsukuda's editor pushing him to rush to the showdown with the Elite Ten after the lukewarm reception the early stages of the exam got. Hopefully it'll be the kick the series needs to start performing in the rankings well again and the series can return to form with it's storytelling and pacing going forward.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Looking over the sales, the top 10 best selling Jump manga are:

1. One Piece
2. Haikyu!
3. My Hero Academia
4. Food Wars!
5. World Trigger
6. Gintama
7. Black Clover
8. The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.
9. Yuna of Yuragi Manor
10. The Promised Neverland

With World Trigger on hiatus and Gintama about to end, I can't see Food Wars in any danger of being rushed to conclusion. If it is ending it would be because they want to end it. Though I don't see that as the case since Azami is not end boss material, and there is still more wacky stuff to see.

I do think they are rushing this arc to conclusion because they know fans haven't been enthralled with it, even though there has been a lot of good points to it. I want the Azami business to settle so things can start getting crazy again. I do think having Soma and co. on the Elite Ten would definitely shake things up.

[Spark Of Spirit]

In other news, Nobuyuki Anzai has ended his latest Metal Rock manga at two volumes.

It ran from 2014-2017 and was a continuation of his meta diary thing, which means it's probably 4-koma. His diary series was started in 2013 and lead right into this short series. So from 2013-2017 he's been creating these smaller series. That's what he's been doing since Mixim ended in Sunday, at any rate.

Really hope Sunday is courting him to come back to the magazine. With Fujita back and in prime form, and Raiku also running in Weekly Magazine, now is the best time for him to return. To be honest, Sunday could use someone like him back in its pages.

He's had enough time away from the shonen world that he should have enough ideas and vision to make something better than Mixim '11, and hopefully enough that he wouldn't let it fall into tourney boredom like MAR. I've been waiting for him to come back for a while now. I hope this is the moment. Sunday keeps getting better, and this would be a great move for them.

[LumRanmaYasha]

It's a good time considering lots of Sunday series are ending in a couple weeks, and there needs to be new stuff to fill their slots. Having a veteran author with two big series under his belt return to the magazine would be a good get.

At any rate, it turns out that the Rumiko Takahashi announcement was a bunch of special stuff to celebrate her series selling 200 million copies collectively. She'll be doing two new one-shots in consecutive weeks (which is why Rin-ne is off two weeks), various WSS authors will be drawing tribute art of her characters, there will be new character goods for 108 of her most famous characters, and a "work set" which will likely include her storyboards and rough sketches. I'm pretty excited to read her new one-shots and will have to look into importing some of those character goods and the work set when they come out.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, based on the WSJ series which I have primarily been following, I'd say that over the course of the last year, I'd rank them like this:

1. One Piece- No bias here. I've been pretty vocal about how underwhelming the series was ever since the Fishman Island arc, but ever since the Zou arc ended Oda has really returned to form. If you've only jumped into the series after skipping multiple arcs, it'd be understanding if Whole Cake Island doesn't leave much of an impression on you, but as a long-time reader its absolute masterful story-telling based on how it really brings progress to the overall story and explores new themes and facets of One Piece's world, both paying off seeds carefully and cleverly planted throughout the manga's nearly two-decade-long run, while also sewing even more seeds for future events to come. The comedy and action has also been really on point lately.

2. My Hero Academia- A close second, and easily keeps getting better and better as it continues.

3. Kismetu no Yaiba- It had a slow start, but it really grew on me over time and it's a very different kind of series for WSJ, but it stands out in a great way.

4. World Trigger- This had an even slower start than KnY, but it really came into its own last year. A shame that the author's health issues forced him to have to take a hiatus from work right when the series was really starting to run with some momentum.

5. Black Clover- It's pretty safe to say that these series will stay pretty standard and predictable with its story and character progression, but it's alright fun for what it is, and kudos to the author for actually having someone other than Asta save the day by winning a fight with the most recent arc.

6. Food Wars!- While I don't love this series as much as a lot of people, I find it to be generally entertaining for what it is. That said, the Azami arc has been really dragged out at this point, making a large chunk of its run in the past year feel really stale and uninteresting. Here's hoping that things can pick up again after the end of this arc.

Those are the series which I currently follow on a weekly basis and generally like to varying degrees. I still have to eventually get into some other WSJ manga like TPN and potentially some of these new series.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Alright, I'll give my opinions. My current top 5:

1. My Hero Academia - This series feels like Naruto done right. I know that sounds both snotty and insulting, but it is the best way to describe it. The character writing is some of the best I've ever seen in a shonen manga. The plot ramps up impressively, the action and art is top notch, and the series is never not a joy to read. Unless Horikoshi loses his mind and becomes like Kubo or Kishimoto then I find it safe to say that this is one of the best series Jump has ever run.

2. Kimetsu no Yaiba: Blade of Demon Destruction - This series came out of nowhere. The first chapter had a unique hook which snowballed the plot to where you can see Gotouge become a better writer and artist as it goes. I can't honestly think of a recent shonen series anything like this to the point that it reminds me of old series like early Yu Yu Hakusho (when Yusuke's dead) and Saint Seiya/Kurumada in general. Very old school, and very unique.

3. World Trigger - I was really digging this series over the past year. I hope he's recovering fine, but man did he go all out this year. World Trigger is a fun action series that is compulsively readable and is, like KnY, a series where you can see Ashihara grow as a writer and artist as it goes. If he ends up changing magazines, I hope he is able to at least finish this current arc first and end the Rank Wars. By then I think the series will really hit it out of the park.

4. The Promised Neverland - Another surprise. The first chapter was decent, but it didn't really hook me. The first few chapters were good, but nothing all too engaging. Where Shirai succeeded was in build up. I wasn't that surprised when I learned how much he studied Death Note and Urasawa, because the influence is clear. He knows how to plant things, how to grow characters, and how to raise the stakes, and he does it with every chapter. And Demizu's art is unique enough to help sell it all. And it's not even 30 chapters in. Again, unless the ball is fumbled after this point, TPN is a great read and looks to be one for some time.

5. One Piece - I don't find it as engaging as most fans, but it is an entertaining read every week, and I find this arc much more enjoyable than the last one. Still, I'm glad to be reading it.

I'm also enjoying Food Wars, Black Clover, and have enjoyed the first chapter of Dr. Stone a great deal. But where those series will rank next will depend on where they go next in the story.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

On the subject of One Piece, I'm still kind of wondering if you'll ever go back to the arcs that you grazed past, Spark. I mean, I can understand being turned off by Skypeia feeling so dragged out and all, but it still kind of baffles me that out of all the large portions of One Piece to skip, you missed the two best major story-lines in the entire franchise to date (that being the Cipher-Pol 9 and Whitebeard sagas).

I mean, it's a huge commitment to be fair, so I wouldn't expect you to go back there anytime soon, but for real, I'd highly recommend getting into those at some point in the future. Marineford especially is a real climactic arc, essentially serving as the ending to the first part of the story. And while the events of that are heavily referenced throughout the current manga, reading about it out of context simply doesn't do it justice. It's honestly one of the most game-changing arcs of any WSJ manga, and as a fan of Shonen Jump you definitely should give it a read some day. It may do a lot to give you a newfound appreciation for the series, especially some of these upcoming arcs.

And speaking of game-changing, I get the feeling that we'll be getting a lot of that in MHA before too long. They already did it to an extent with All Might permanently losing his powers in the All For One arc, but Horikoshi has clearly been building up to this "shit's about to go down" when it comes to the clashing society of the main two competing villain groups in the story.

That'd make for an interesting little list or discussion, wouldn't it? What are the most game-changing stories or moments in a traditional long-running shonen series. You all know that a certain part of Ashita no Joe would easily be my top pick.

After that, I'd probably go with the Saiyan arc from Dragon Ball as a definitive second, and I'm not sure what would come after that in any specific order, but it's certainly interesting to think about.