Currently Running Manga Discussion

[LumRanmaYasha]

I'd recommend it. Only 13 "best-of" volumes have ever been published in english, but that's honestly good enough considering it's a Lupin-esque series in terms of being more about episodic escapades than any overarching story. It's a fun read and very enjoyable.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah. I believe that they did the same thing for Hajime no Ippo in Japan, and in general it makes sense for any manga that's more than 100 volumes long. It's sort of how lobg-running American comic books compile their best story-lines for an easier way for newconers to read them, hence why it was really easy for me to read The Dark Phoenix Saga.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

I've found a great manga called Doukyuusei no Macho-kun today. It's the story of Shota, a boy who is incredibility embarrassed by his smokin' hot bod. Fortunatly, he finds a girl who can look past that and see the real him. Unfortunately only one chapter has been translated as far as I can tell, but I'm confident that enduring story will give it more attention.

[LumRanmaYasha]

The Psyren mangaka's new series Kagamigami debuted in this week's Jump, and I read it. This is a case where I feel I'll need to give the series more chapters until it can give me something to latch onto. As it is now, it feels like a rather typical battle-shonen series concept. I kind of figured it was going to be more of a battle-shonen, even though the promo description called it a supernatural mystery series. The concept of using spirits to help fight enemy spirits and spirit masters made it hard not for me to draw comparisons to Shaman King, which wasn't helped by how the main character essentially fused with that fox shikigami to fight. The thing that makes me a bit curious about the series' development is the post-apocalyptic future and cryptic dialogue in the opening and ending pages, which seems to indicate something darker in the works behind the story. That's basically the main hook the first chapter ultimately gives, and though it's not exactly novel it is certainly interesting enough to warrant an instinctive "okay, how does that happen?" so it does it's job. I expected something more unique from the creator of Psyren, since that series' first chapter was more atypical, so I can't say I wasn't disappointed by the first chapter, but it goes how it goes I suppose.

The other three new Jump starts also all seem to be battle-shonen. Eh. They don't look particularly interesting at first glace, but I'll hopefully be surprised by at least one of them.

Now, what IS interesting to me is that Viz's Jump is going to be running the debut chapters of the sequel manga to the highly regarded and well-beloved shojo manga, Boys Over Flowers, and then simul-publish the series for free on a bi-weekly basis afterwards. It strikes me as odd that the mangaka decided to make the sequel to her now two-decade old shojo hit a shonen manga, but it doesn't really matter to me much either way. I have never read the original Boys Over Flowers, but I do appreciate good slice-of-life and/or romance series, and if this sequel can prove to be just as successful and well-crafted as the original (allegedly) is, I'll be very pleased.

Oh, and I totally went "fuck yeah" out loud while reading this week's Shokugeki no Soma when it was revealed that Arata was going to be Soma's partner in Stagiare week. Arata has left a strong impression each and every time she's been given a chance to shine (the match she had with Hayama where she made that turtle burger is easily one of my top favorite moments in the entire series so far), so and I can't wait to see her get some more character development and perhaps form a more friendly rivalry with Soma.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Psyren sort of started out as "Gantz Jr" to a lot of people (though in my mind it's clearly the better of the two) but quickly came into its own pretty fast after the initial few chapters. But I guess I should wait and see since I haven't read this one yet. I just hope it ends up being as fun as Psyren ended up being.

[LumRanmaYasha]

It could become something more unique, but it'll probably take a while yet to come into it's own. I'll see how the next few chapters play out (more if it sticks around in Viz's Jump for the long haul).

If you want to read the first chapter for yourself, you can check it out via this week's issue of Viz's Shonen Jump, which is free. I believe it will only be so until the 16th, though, so you should probably get to it before then.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Here's what I think the problem is. There are shonen like Psyren or MX0 which are less typical then you're average battle series, nut don't get enough fan support or sales to stay running for long. So then you have an oversaturation of series that try to just cater to what's popular, and if they are successful, the mangaka will usually try to play it safe from there. While they clearly got into manga because they loved it as an artform, it's a full-time job and their livelihood depends on their volumes selling, and the highest chance of success with that is to give readers what tgey want, and unfortunately a lot of readers want stuff that's familiar to them, hence the generic crap.

Now stuff like Bakuman gives readers a more glorified insite into what goes on behibd the scenes, but as entertaining as it is, it just isn't real life. Real life is more intense and stressful, so I wouldn't be too surprised if the Psyren mangaka succumbed to pressure, and is at least initially trying to play it safe until the new series can get its feet off the ground by first developing a solid fan-base.

This isn't to say that all modern shonen manga are like this, but rather that we have a lot like this because of the circumstances of how the business works. It's a business first and foremost, and the job of the editors is to ensure that each series will please a lot of readers regardless of quality, which leads to better sales, and makes the company more money in the long run.

Now, all of this is mostly theoretical on my part, but it really does make a lot of sense to me. It's not too different from Hollywood movies, realky. Gene Siskel once said that writers, directors, and producers are often smarter than the movies that they make. If a movie is bad due to having to compromise the quality for financial reasons, odds are tgat they will know how bad the movie is more than anyone else, though it's all too easy for anyone else to just assume that tge movie was bad because the people making it were incompetent or untalented, regardless of hiw much of it fell out of their control. I sort of believe that manga is at least somewhat the same way. The bottom line being that, I doubt that the generic first chapter of the Psyren mangaka's new manga is obscured to him. On the contrary, whether he is happy with it or not, he's probably fully aware of its quality, or lack thereof.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Also, let me clarify that I'm just using the Psyren mangaka as an example. My post is less about him specifically and more about why I believe that the battle shonen genre as a whole is, IMO, so oversaturated with mediocre quality series, with the stand-outs being so few and far apart. And I don't just mean that about modern manga. I have a feeling that it has always been somewhat true about the genre, even in the past.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It's too bad we couldn't have got a Psyren anime to flesh out the ending and a MxO anime to tone down the ecchi elements it became to focused on near the end. I thought both would have deserved the focus, though apparently Psyren was popular everywhere except Japan.

It could become something more unique, but it'll probably take a while yet to come into it's own. I'll see how the next few chapters play out (more if it sticks around in Viz's Jump for the long haul).

If you want to read the first chapter for yourself, you can check it out via this week's issue of Viz's Shonen Jump, which is free. I believe it will only be so until the 16th, though, so you should probably get to it before then.

I can see what you're referring you. It's a pretty safe first chapter that has obvious battle elements. But it could also very easily become a mystery series with battle elements or a battle series with some mystery aspects. I think I would have to wait to see what they do after everything is set up and the story starts like I did with Psyren to get into it.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Also, let me clarify that I'm just using the Psyren mangaka as an example. My post is less about him specifically and more about why I believe that the battle shonen genre as a whole is, IMO, so oversaturated with mediocre quality series, with the stand-outs being so few and far apart. And I don't just mean that about modern manga. I have a feeling that it has always been somewhat true about the genre, even in the past.

The plot in the first chapter is pretty inconsequential, really. From what was hidden in the first chapter, it seems to imply that the world is destroyed in the future and the main character traveled back to the past to correct it. While this was more upfront in Psyren he obscured it here probably in order to make in accessible to younger readers and to focus on how the spiritual and mystery aspects are going to work in the series.

I just hope he gets rewarded for telling a fun story this time.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Here's what I think the problem is. There are shonen like Psyren or MX0 which are less typical then you're average battle series, nut don't get enough fan support or sales to stay running for long. So then you have an oversaturation of series that try to just cater to what's popular, and if they are successful, the mangaka will usually try to play it safe from there. While they clearly got into manga because they loved it as an artform, it's a full-time job and their livelihood depends on their volumes selling, and the highest chance of success with that is to give readers what tgey want, and unfortunately a lot of readers want stuff that's familiar to them, hence the generic crap.

Now stuff like Bakuman gives readers a more glorified insite into what goes on behibd the scenes, but as entertaining as it is, it just isn't real life. Real life is more intense and stressful, so I wouldn't be too surprised if the Psyren mangaka succumbed to pressure, and is at least initially trying to play it safe until the new series can get its feet off the ground by first developing a solid fan-base.

This isn't to say that all modern shonen manga are like this, but rather that we have a lot like this because of the circumstances of how the business works. It's a business first and foremost, and the job of the editors is to ensure that each series will please a lot of readers regardless of quality, which leads to better sales, and makes the company more money in the long run.

Now, all of this is mostly theoretical on my part, but it really does make a lot of sense to me. It's not too different from Hollywood movies, realky. Gene Siskel once said that writers, directors, and producers are often smarter than the movies that they make. If a movie is bad due to having to compromise the quality for financial reasons, odds are tgat they will know how bad the movie is more than anyone else, though it's all too easy for anyone else to just assume that tge movie was bad because the people making it were incompetent or untalented, regardless of hiw much of it fell out of their control. I sort of believe that manga is at least somewhat the same way. The bottom line being that, I doubt that the generic first chapter of the Psyren mangaka's new manga is obscured to him. On the contrary, whether he is happy with it or not, he's probably fully aware of its quality, or lack thereof.

Yeah, I think that's pretty much how it is. A lot of the more generic series seem to come from mangaka who didn't succeed with their first series and decide to follow the guaranteed path to success (aka flash over substance fighting-focused manga) with their second work. Or mangaka who did succeed with their first work but were then told by their editors to do the same because they'd make more money that way.

I generally think a lot of shonen mangaka's first mangas tend to be their most creative. Not necessarily better, in some cases, but even back in the day, series like Urusei Yatsura and Dr. Slump were considerably more unique and creative than their mangaka's direct and decidedly more main-stream follow-ups (though, as it turned out, those series became their mangaka's most popular and profitable works by far...).

[Spark Of Spirit]

Here's what I think the problem is. There are shonen like Psyren or MX0 which are less typical then you're average battle series, nut don't get enough fan support or sales to stay running for long. So then you have an oversaturation of series that try to just cater to what's popular, and if they are successful, the mangaka will usually try to play it safe from there. While they clearly got into manga because they loved it as an artform, it's a full-time job and their livelihood depends on their volumes selling, and the highest chance of success with that is to give readers what tgey want, and unfortunately a lot of readers want stuff that's familiar to them, hence the generic crap.

Now stuff like Bakuman gives readers a more glorified insite into what goes on behibd the scenes, but as entertaining as it is, it just isn't real life. Real life is more intense and stressful, so I wouldn't be too surprised if the Psyren mangaka succumbed to pressure, and is at least initially trying to play it safe until the new series can get its feet off the ground by first developing a solid fan-base.

This isn't to say that all modern shonen manga are like this, but rather that we have a lot like this because of the circumstances of how the business works. It's a business first and foremost, and the job of the editors is to ensure that each series will please a lot of readers regardless of quality, which leads to better sales, and makes the company more money in the long run.

Now, all of this is mostly theoretical on my part, but it really does make a lot of sense to me. It's not too different from Hollywood movies, realky. Gene Siskel once said that writers, directors, and producers are often smarter than the movies that they make. If a movie is bad due to having to compromise the quality for financial reasons, odds are tgat they will know how bad the movie is more than anyone else, though it's all too easy for anyone else to just assume that tge movie was bad because the people making it were incompetent or untalented, regardless of hiw much of it fell out of their control. I sort of believe that manga is at least somewhat the same way. The bottom line being that, I doubt that the generic first chapter of the Psyren mangaka's new manga is obscured to him. On the contrary, whether he is happy with it or not, he's probably fully aware of its quality, or lack thereof.

Yeah, I think that's pretty much how it is. A lot of the more generic series seem to come from mangaka who didn't succeed with their first series and decide to follow the guaranteed path to success (aka flash over substance fighting-focused manga) with their second work. Or mangaka who did succeed with their first work but were then told by their editors to do the same because they'd make more money that way.

I generally think a lot of shonen mangaka's first mangas tend to be their most creative. Not necessarily better, in some cases, but even back in the day, series like Urusei Yatsura and Dr. Slump were considerably more unique and creative than their mangaka's direct and decidedly more main-stream follow-ups (though, as it turned out, those series became their mangaka's most popular and profitable works by far...).

I think it really depends on what it means to be a success. I'm fairly certain I heard that Psyren lasted so long is because of its out of Japan success (the manga was fully released in french in Quebec, for crying out loud, which usually only happens to the popular series-- Dragon Ball for instance was fully released in french there YEARS before Viz got a hold of it) but Jump finally found the need to cut it when it was nearing the end. But they did let it end. By all accounts it was doing well, just not in the way Japan traditionally measures success.

I do wish there was a way for series with popular niches to get recognized (Mx0 lasted about 100 chapters before it was told it had to end, it couldn't have been that unpopular) which might help in adding some variety to the stale formula they continually stick to.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Do you know popular was Psyren in Japan when it was still being serialized? Like, where it averaged in the weekly rankings and how well the volumes sold?

Some series, like Gintama, don't rank particularly great in Jump on a week to week basis, but sell an amazing quantity in volumes and related merchandise. This is also why Bleach is still around even though it's been ranking bottom 5 in the magazine for nearly 5 years. If Psyren was just doing okay in terms of rankings but underperforming in terms of volume and/or merchandise sales relative to other series,  that might explain why it was not considered a "success" in Japan even though it was well-received by readers, and perhaps considered less of a priority to Shueshia compared to other series when it was cancelled.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Do you know popular was Psyren in Japan when it was still being serialized? Like, where it averaged in the weekly rankings and how well the volumes sold?

Some series, like Gintama, don't rank particularly great in Jump on a week to week basis, but sell an amazing quantity in volumes and related merchandise. This is also why Bleach is still around even though it's been ranking bottom 5 in the magazine for nearly 5 years. If Psyren was just doing okay in terms of rankings but underperforming in terms of volume and/or merchandise sales relative to other series,  that might explain why it was not considered a "success" in Japan even though it was well-received by readers, and perhaps considered less of a priority to Shueshia compared to other series when it was cancelled.

I think you hit the nail on the head. Volume sales in Japan weren't very high and the ranking was middling most of the time. It never actually did abysmally. As for merchandise, I believe there were complaints from fans at the time that there wasn't any. Most of its success was overseas where the manga actually did sell volumes well.

I guess I would consider it a success for the fans and the author and not a success for the publisher in this case. Generally speaking, having a full story run, overseas success, and a good reputation should consider it a general success, but it wasn't ever a One Piece, Toriko, or Gintama.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I ended up being the second person on MAL to add Boys Over Flowers season 2 to my list.

That's pretty neat.

As far as the first chapter itself went, it was mostly set-up establishing the main two leads and the central conflict. I'm not crazy about the attitudes of those Elite 5 characters or whatever based on what they got to do here, but they probably will become more interesting and likable characters moving forward since they seem like they'll be the good chunk of the supporting cast. The premise itself feels expected for a shojo title, and it reads like one as well, even though it is a shonen. But while I had some quibbles with it, there's enough potential here that makes me feel like this could make for a fun and enjoyable romantic comedy series, and a fresh feeling one for the shonen demo. Hopefully the manga picks up as it goes forward.