Re: Weekly Shonen Jump [2011] - Discussion and TOC Talk - Part 2
It's amusing how people were singing praises for Double Arts's sales (which sold up to 40~50k on second week), but are now bashing Magico for not selling good (Volume 3 sold 46k by week 2).
Sket Dance Vol. 3 didn't even make the list (meaning it sold less than 16k in week 1), and Vol. 4 sold 31k by week 2.
If you're going to rate how well a series is selling, try to compare apples and oranges. There weren't many first series by a mangaka out there that sold better than Magico, and many of the now entrenched series had horrible sales. In recent memory, the only thing that sold great right off the bat was Mago.
BTW, while the currently "arc" in Magico is in a tournament, but it is in no way a "tournament fighting" until 3 chapters ago. Calling it a tournament manga is like calling manga with one tournament like Naruto, Mx0, and Sket Dance tournament manga. I mean, jeez, even Beelze could be called a tournament manga by your standard.
The furor over Double Arts sales had more to do with fans desperately trying to find reason for it to survive in the face of consistently horrible toc position. The fact of the matter was that Double Arts was canceled a month after volume 1 came out, and while volume 1 did chart, I do not believe that sales had any baring on the decision to cancel. Canceling a series based on sales with only a months worth of data would defy common sense, canceling a relatively new series based on consistently poor TOC performance is much closer to business as usual at Weekly Jump. In truth all three volumes of Double Arts did chart, though volume two and three were not released until after the series was canceled.
While there was a period when Sket Dance polled consistently poorly, it's TOC position had much more in common with Kagami or Medaka Box. Some weeks it was low, sometimes in the middle but usually just erratic. Sket polled just well enough that Jump was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, as is not uncommon with titles that have the potential to appeal to older teen audiences.
Magico has not charted since the first week volume one was on sale. Had it been maintaining respectable TOC position this would not be a problem. The editors generally seem to take the stance that new series by new authors can take time to sell, retailer skepticism can take a handful of volumes to overcome. But they generally seem less inclined to allow a year old series with consistently poor TOC position to remain unless it has established itself as a strong, or potentially strong selling title. Magico does not poll well, nor has it polled well in a long time, but can not justify it's continued existence by demonstrating sales potential.
Magico is certainly a supernatural/fantasy/tournament shounen manga, following genre tropes fairly closely. A gruff but kind hearted early teen imbued with magical powers embarks on a magical quest, confronted by enemies or obstacles which require an increasing skill level to overcome, resulting in the hero to train body and mind if he hopes to defeat his enemies and protect what he holds dear. There is nothing wrong with a manga following these tropes, there are many recent classics that barely deviate from this path, but it is appropriate to categorize Magico with the likes of Naruto, Bleach, Reborn, One Piece, Hunter x Hunter, Mago, and Toriko. I dropped Medaka and Beelzebub long ago but in their early days neither had much in common with typical Jump action, even if neither were particularly ground breaking either. Medaka always had more in common with light novel tropes than manga. Beelzebub was a yanki manga with a supernatural twist, closer in plot to Crows than Naruto.
---------- Post added at 01:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:46 PM ----------
If I remember one of his post correctly, for Kaiten a tournament manga is not a manga with tournaments but a style of manga where the hero evolves in RPG style, beating more and more strong enemies.
That is correct, and as I mentioned above, Magico falls directly into that genre. Tournament manga is what Jump does, as Negative Syndicate pointed out most Jump series can be considered tournament. There is nothing wrong with it, unless a series fails to poll well or chart. With so many titles that fall into the same genre, even if execution varies wildly, it would be bad business to allow one to continue that has not established itself as a fan favorite or shown any sales potential. There will always be another mangaka submitting another tournament manga; given the policy of canceling series that do not poll well there is little reason to get sentimental about a series that preforms poorly. Other genres get more benefit of the doubt: Jump has struggled to find popular comedy, slice of life, sports, romance, and ecchi manga in recent years. A series that can appeal to older teens always has an advantage, as there are always so few titles and everyone is a marketing opportunity for Jump.
Before lumping Medaka in with tournament we should remember that the ecchi and school life aspects of the story were more important during it's first six months or so. By the time any action tropes were introduced it was fairly well established, if not thriving. Beelzebub was also a popular manga long before it began emphasizing magic of fist fights.
The other question becomes: if two manga are canceled in January, what is the second? Not Kuragane, nor Kagami. Jump has never canceled new series with similar chart positions. Nisekoi and Pakki are still to new to be canceled in January, neither have reached eight chapters yet. Because of the Christmas and January double issues neither will have more than twelve chapters by the end of January. We all know that a series has to be spectacularly unpopular to be canceled that quickly, and while possible, history tells us it is unlikely. That leaves Magico as the next to follow St&rs, nothing else polls as low as often. And if only one series is canceled after the January double issue then Magico will need at least three series newer than it to drop to the bottom of the TOC before the next round of cuts.
