Mag Talk Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk

[Kaiten]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

Sket was a unique series though, and considering that Jump probably doesn't want to be seen as a one-dimensional shonen magazine and wants to have more variety akin to Sunday or Magazine, they allow for series like those to grow. Besides, that could also explain why series that don't start out pure action but do so later also seem to last a while aside from popularity (remember: neither Bleach or Reborn were pure action back in the first year)

Exactly; what is and is not canceled is a business decision. Series that could expand readership or attract a different audience usually outlast the typical Jump action series. Yusha Gaku lasted a year even though Belmonde and Hitomi would often be higher in the bottom five. P2 and Usagi also lasted longer because they were out of the ordinary and appealed to a niche within Jump.

 

[ruggia]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

Exactly; what is and is not canceled is a business decision. Series that could expand readership or attract a different audience usually outlast the typical Jump action series. Yusha Gaku lasted a year even though Belmonde and Hitomi would often be higher in the bottom five. P2 and Usagi also lasted longer because they were out of the ordinary and appealed to a niche within Jump.

I guess that's the new trend in Jump then, since there are hardly any pure action mangas that get successful these days. (unless Toriko is pure action, although from reading the description, it didn't seem like one)Akaboshi and Kagijin are failing, and Psyren is barely living.
I guess we can soon find Beelzebub turning into an action manga after one or two years.

 

[Drmke]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

I guess that's the new trend in Jump then, since there are hardly any pure action mangas that get successful these days. (unless Toriko is pure action, although from reading the description, it didn't seem like one)Akaboshi and Kagijin are failing, and Psyren is barely living.
I guess we can soon find Beelzebub turning into an action manga after one or two years.

Toriko is a pure action series. Its just got a unique world its set up in. And Mago has plenty of action. Its just incorporates more plot than a "pure" action series would.

 

[Kaiten]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

Most action manga fail because they have to compete with the most popular manga in the magazine. Akaboshi and Kagijin have to take votes away from One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Reborn, Toriko, Mago, and Psyren to survive. Not happening. Neither can rely on niche demographics like Sket Dance, Kuroko, Ane Doki, and Medaka Box, they are aimed right at the 11 - 15 year old boy demographic with little to appeal to female or older readers. They can't rely on votes from those audiences. As action series they do little to distinguish themselves. Neither are bad series, neither are good enough to compete either.

 

[Negative Syndicate]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

The covers for September tankoubans are released.

http://www.shonenjump.com/j/comics/index.html

 

[DeidaraGrimmjow]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

Neither can rely on niche demographics like Sket Dance, Kuroko, Ane Doki, and Medaka Box, they are aimed right at the 11 - 15 year old boy demographic with little to appeal to female or older readers. They can't rely on votes from those audiences.

But is that really such a big deal? It is SHONEN Jump after all.

 

[Rejuvenation]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

But is that really such a big deal? It is SHONEN Jump after all.

Considering there is an awful lot of girls that read Shounen Jump I'd say so. WSJ would hurt itself by not trying to offer something to those demographics rather than having loads of generic action series that bring nothing new or interesting to the table. That also fail to reach their target demographic.

Which is the case for Akaboshi and seemingly Kagijin.

 

[Kaiten]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

It is a big deal: if the tween boys aren't voting, the girls aren't voting, the teens and adults aren't voting then who is?

Anytime, in any media, content can bring in an audience outside of the core demographic it is a very big deal. That is how audiences are built, how they are expanded. Jump's audience is predominately boys from 11 - 17. Anyone else is more readers. If a series comes along that doesn't appeal to the core but develops a strong following with the niche demographics could potentially draw them to series they might otherwise have skipt. Medaka or Ane Doki could draw high school and college age audiences to Jump that otherwise would have read Shonen Magazine or seinen. Every one is a potential fan of another series in the magazine, every one is potential money.

 

[DeidaraGrimmjow]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

I see. But then that raises another question: Do the most popular series in WSJ appeal to audiences across the spectrum? For example is there a strong support of One Piece/Naruto among college students as well as adolescent boys? Those two could hardly be considered niche manga so are the other demographics a concern as far as these two are concerned?

 

[Koshi_Inaba]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

I see. But then that raises another question: Do the most popular series in WSJ appeal to audiences across the spectrum? For example is there a strong support of One Piece/Naruto among college students as well as adolescent boys? Those two could hardly be considered niche manga so are the other demographics a concern as far as these two are concerned?

There was a survey by oricon I think, to know what is the popular manga fro male reader age 10-50. Guess what, One Piece is number 1 on all age section defeating Hagaren, Berserk, Vagabond, Bastard, etc

 

[Kaiten]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

While One Piece may be the most popular manga among readers between 18 - 50 that does not change the fact that any new action manga have to compete with for votes with the other action manga of the magazine, most of which are most popular established series. This often results in new action comics failing as they fail to get votes from action fans and can rarely, if ever, rely on comedy, sports, school life, and romance fans to stabilize their votes. Those genres get a boost from older readers and female fans who often prefer those genres to action. Note that Shonen Magazine, with 80% of readers over 18 despite the shonen label, is very light on action, as are most mainstream seinen magazines. Because those readers are rare when a low rated series has a great deal of support from readers over 18 or women a low rated action series will be canceled instead, as was the case with Belmonde and Hitomi, both of which often outranked Sket Dance and Yusha Gaku. Jump does not need to worry about finding the next big action series. They already have. It's called Toriko and is a magnificent series. Like One Piece, it is also an exception; an action manga with strong appeal to older readers, as well as readers of other magazines.

The cover of Beelzebub 2 is win BTW

---

So is the cover of issue 40

 

[Magicoreo]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

Woah, I'm definitely getting that issue tomorrow.
Also, I really want to see the one shot too.

 

[Mr. Prince]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

Oh, what a nice farewell Cover for Hoopmen. Of course I'll buy it since I planned to do so anyway.
Other than that, One Piece's once more amazing. (Even though I had already seen a preview pic the colors are more harmonic and not as dirty as in that cam pic)

Oh yeah, and I see on that page that there'll be a special volume for Toriko in octobre called "Toriko Gaiden" though it is rather a short story collection of Shimabukuro-sensei.

 

[Kaiten]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

Oh yeah, and I see on that page that there'll be a special volume for Toriko in octobre called "Toriko Gaiden" though it is rather a short story collection of Shimabukuro-sensei.

Hopefully it get's scanned, I'd like to read that!

 

[eni]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

As for the WSJ demographics... this was posted here some months ago but it's still interesting for people new to this thread:
http://zepy.momotato.com/2009/02/15/jump-magazine-and-sunday-readerships/

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

I love the covers for One Piece and Kuroko, both of them look great.

As for the WSJ demographics... this was posted here some months ago but it's still interesting for people new to this thread:
http://zepy.momotato.com/2009/02/15/jump-magazine-and-sunday-readerships/

Using the average circulations provided there, we get raw numbers around these:

Jump 18 and above audience: 379,440
Magazine 20 and above: 1,446,090
Sunday 19 and above: 333,210

So, Jump does a little better with adults than Sunday does, but Magazine is definitely king of the Shounen magazines in that department. Of course, the flipside is that Magazine seems to have great difficulty actually selling to younger readers at the present. I know that Tsubasa apparently does really well with younger readers (I read somewhere that it has the youngest audience of any Magazine title), so I wonder where that will leave things for it once that ends.

I also don't think there's any real problem with Jump's readership age. For a magazine targeted at younger readers to have around 400,000 adults buying it each week is pretty good, although I'm sure they'd like to be able to challenge Magazine in that department while maintaining control of the younger demographic at the same time.

 

[ruggia]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

Most action manga fail because they have to compete with the most popular manga in the magazine. Akaboshi and Kagijin have to take votes away from One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Reborn, Toriko, Mago, and Psyren to survive..

i guess road to success as action manga in JUMP is pretty tough right now...
two questions:
1. does Mago appeal to older readers? i mean, when i read it, i thought it was more for younger readers because the characters were pretty young, and the youkai club and stuff seemed like it won't appeal to older readers.

2. Is Toriko good? i know its hit in Japan right now, but for "international" web-based readers, it didn't seem like it was doing that well. (its ranked 202 in OM, while Akaboshi is 45th).

seems like there are big difference in popularity between Japanese readers and English readers for new series.

 

[StrangerAtaru]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

Just a quick comment on the covers: already mentioned elsewhere that it was bizarre that Oda focused on the Demon Beasts on the latest cover (though it is a neat cover), but I love Gintama's usage of Jiraia...and Reiko's "large round fruit". (and the sad part: I'm currently TLing KochiKame 1...she doesn't show up until 11)

 

[Koen]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

i guess road to success as action manga in JUMP is pretty tough right now...
two questions:
1. does Mago appeal to older readers? i mean, when i read it, i thought it was more for younger readers because the characters were pretty young, and the youkai club and stuff seemed like it won't appeal to older readers.

2. Is Toriko good? i know its hit in Japan right now, but for "international" web-based readers, it didn't seem like it was doing that well. (its ranked 202 in OM, while Akaboshi is 45th).

seems like there are big difference in popularity between Japanese readers and English readers for new series.

1. In the beginning yes. Now and then: I would still answer yes when he's in his younger state together with his friends. But I wouldn't be surprised if the Kyoto youkai arc would be likened by adults too (based on the history arc which was pretty dark imo)

2. Toriko: I didn't like it. I heard some positive reactions over here and I tried a second time. It starts slow and boring but it became pretty more interesting and good afterwards. Now, it's hanging in between being generic vs being inovative

 

[Kaiten]

Re: Weekly Shounen Jump [2009] - Discussion & TOC Talk v.3

Using the average circulations provided there, we get raw numbers around these:

Jump 18 and above audience: 379,440
Magazine 20 and above: 1,446,090
Sunday 19 and above: 333,210

So, Jump does a little better with adults than Sunday does, but Magazine is definitely king of the Shounen magazines in that department. Of course, the flipside is that Magazine seems to have great difficulty actually selling to younger readers at the present. I know that Tsubasa apparently does really well with younger readers (I read somewhere that it has the youngest audience of any Magazine title), so I wonder where that will leave things for it once that ends.

I also don't think there's any real problem with Jump's readership age. For a magazine targeted at younger readers to have around 400,000 adults buying it each week is pretty good, although I'm sure they'd like to be able to challenge Magazine in that department while maintaining control of the younger demographic at the same time.

No actually, they do not want to challenge Magazine. Magazine does not want to challenge Jump. Jump deliberately targets a younger demographic, they have been the magazine for tweens since launching. Magazine has targeted older readers for almost as long. Both are happy to welcome other demographics, generally featuring a few series that appeal to them. Fairy Tail and Tsuabasa come to mind for Magazine. The point is: neither are in direct competition. They don't have to worry about losing readers to the other. Not surprisingly, they are the only two magazines with stable readership.

And of course Jump has more older readers then Sunday. It has over 2,000,000 more readers >.< Percentage is listed, not numbers, for a reason. The percentage shows that Sunday tries to appeal to all demographics while Jump does not. Circulation just says that more copies of Jump are delivered to newsstands then any other magazine. BTW: circulation isn't the number of people who read a magazine, they are just the amount shipped. Considering magazines aren't meant to turn a profit up to half of what is shipped could be disposed of by the store.

1. does Mago appeal to older readers? i mean, when i read it, i thought it was more for younger readers because the characters were pretty young, and the youkai club and stuff seemed like it won't appeal to older readers.

2. Is Toriko good? i know its hit in Japan right now, but for "international" web-based readers, it didn't seem like it was doing that well. (its ranked 202 in OM, while Akaboshi is 45th).

1. Hard to say. It can be assumed that Mago appeals to the core Jump audience of 11 - 17 year old's. It's not that it is impossible to develop a new action series, the odds are just longer and competition fiercer.

2. Toriko is great and just keeps getting better. Think One Piece during the Don Krieg arc. The equivilent of Grand Line and the One Piece are beginning to be developed. So are the bad guys.