Mag Talk Weekly Shonen Jump [2019] - Discussion and TOC Talk

[evielynn]

I never got much into any interviews so........

you dont need to watch interviews. You don't sell 1 mil copies in 2 volumes without working your ass off.

 

[Rouk']

Chill man. Just because you don't like a series doesn't mean it has "nothing interesting" or that it's overrated. Arguing that the series has no merits when it's the biggest smash hit since TPN for Jump (iirc) just shows bias against it. You can acknowledge a series' strength without personally enjoying it.

Actually, if we compare the 2nd volumes of the various jump hits...

• Spy x Family Vol. 2: 109,702 (3 days) | 193,425 | 240,226 | 277,622 | 299,716 |
• The Promised Neverland Vol. 2: 40,683 (3 days) | 78,409 | ----- | ----- | ----- |

SxF's second volume sold more than Neverland's.

• My Hero Academia Vol. 2: 167,905 (7 days) | 205,179 | 224,942 | 239,566 | ----- |

It's also slightly bigger than HeroAca's.

• Shokugeki no Soma Vol. 2: 134,842 (6 days) | 176,682 | ----- | ----- | ----- |

And it's also bigger than Food Wars's second volume.

That means that, unless I forgot something, SxF is the biggest hit for Jump since Assassination Classroom, though it's nowhere near as crazy as that one was

• Assassination Classroom Vol. 2: 200,626 (3 days)│347,378│406,844│441,068│467,538 |

 

[tirakai]

If there's any modern series in WSJ or Jump+ from 2019 that's had the most heart of effort and heart put into it, it's Spy x Family, you can tell reading it that there's a lot of care put into making the main trio endearing and work well together. Plus unlike most recent stuff in the main magazine it actually set up proper long-term goals for the characters to achieve, even as a primarily slice-of-life series. Compare to this year's succession of flops

- Last Saiyuki had heart certainly, but didn't put much effort into showing it off in an entertaining way as it went it, instead just flatly info-dumping non-stop
- Yui Kamio feels like Shiibashi just wanted to make a new series in general rather than having a great idea he really wanted to show the world, so put in a bunch of random stuff until defaulting to basically just continuing Nura again
- in Samurai 8, Kishi shoved all the stuff he didn't care about into the first 2 volumes to get it over with
- Double Taisei was clearly written by someone who doesn't really care much about its core premise and eventually just plain gave up and turned it into comedy
- Beast Children's just going through the sports series motions
- and TSS has pretty much put the minimum possible effort into anything that doesn't involve showing how strong and cool and nakama-power the MC is.

 

[Jovan]

If there's any modern series in WSJ or Jump+ from 2019 that's had the most heart of effort and heart put into it, it's Spy x Family, you can tell reading it that there's a lot of care put into making the main trio endearing and work well together. Plus unlike most recent stuff in the main magazine it actually set up proper long-term goals for the characters to achieve. Compare to this year's succession of flops

- Last Saiyuki had heart certainly, but didn't put much effort into showing it off in an entertaining way as it went it, instead just flatly info-dumping non-stop
- Yui Kamio feels like Shiibashi wanted to make a new series in general rather than having a great idea he really wanted to get out, so put in a bunch of random stuff until defaulting to basically just continuing Nura again
- in Samurai 8, Kishi shoved all the stuff he didn't care about into the first 2 volumes to get it over with
- Double Taisei was clearly written by someone who doesn't really care much about its core premise and eventually just plain gave up and turned it into comedy
- Beast Children's just going through the sports series motions
- and TSS has pretty put the minimum possible effort into anything that doesn't involve showing how strong and cool and nakama-power the MC is.

Beast Children had a poor art (especially seen on faces and proportions), and failed to establish anyone besides MC. Also, a massive, missed potential with the rival.

 

[tirakai]

That's part of the results of it going through the motions.

It has a rival because sports manga have rivals. It wastes the potential of it since the series only cares about a rival existing, rather than putting effort into why the rival exists or what they do as a rival.

 

[Ebrietas-]

Thinking about the new series again, everyone seems to be assuming Agravity Boys is some sci-fi manga based on the name but do we actually know anything at all about it? The little picture to me looks like they're wearing sports uniforms, and it makes sense to be starting a new sports manga with Beast Children gone. It could just be a weird name referencing something, like how Robot x Laserbeam was a golf manga with no sci-fi anywhere.

Agravity main characters are almost identical to the authors Jump+ oneshot from last year which seems to be a gag manga about 4 astronauts trying to terraform a planet

https://shonenjumpplus.com/episode/10834108156632658146

 

[Aipom626]

To me, Double Taisei felt like it succeeded at being a slice-of-life series that used shogi as the catalyst that brought the characters together rather than a shogi series where everything revolves around the shogi (if that makes any sense). The interpersonal relations between the Tai-Sei dynamic, Sei and the Tendo Era kids, Kanade's relationships with both Tai and Sei, Haga's rivalry with Tai and Sei; those interactions were where all of the highlights of the series came from for me. Both their comedic moments and the genuine moments of vulnerability were fantastic, and the later shogi battle scenes with Gogetsu and Saotome were great not because of their focus on shogi, but rather the emphasis on the comedy during the matches and the character growth that resulted.

If the author decides to try coming back to WSJ, I hope he realizes what people seem to have liked best about Double Taisei and comes out with a slice-of-life series or perhaps a romcom. He seems to enjoy trying to incorporate unexpected twists that the reader wasn't expecting into his works, and while that in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, they just need to be less jarring and better timed. Trying to pull off the whole "Tai's gone now, oh wait, he's not really gone" move happened too early on in the series and then was quickly reversed a couple chapters later. That artwork and comedy are too top-notch to be gone forever though!

 

[NeeNeen]

Agravity main characters are almost identical to the authors Jump+ oneshot from last year which seems to be a gag manga about 4 astronauts trying to terraform a planet

https://shonenjumpplus.com/episode/10834108156632658146

The art looks really nice... but I'm not sure about the genderswapping. It's usually just an excuse to insert more perverted humour.

 

[Newkerzy]

you dont need to watch interviews. You don't sell 1 mil copies in 2 volumes without working your ass off.

Worth noting this guy has been in the business for 2 whole decades. He'd been jumping from mangaka to mangaka (as assistant) and magazines before finally hitting it big with this. It took Horikoshi 3 tries, Endo kept trying for decades.

 

[4Eyes]

Since we are talking about the newcomers and whether they have 'heart' or not. Do you think Yozakura has it? I read the first couple of chapters but dropped it later since I felt it bland and the characters were unappealing to me. Mitama is the basic gag manga but I felt more 'heart' there and I'm still reading it.
A couple of chapters has passed and the initial hype is gone, what you think about these series?

 

[wothab]

Since we are talking about the newcomers and whether they have 'heart' or not. Do you think Yozakura has it? I read the first couple of chapters but dropped it later since I felt it bland and the characters were unappealing to me. Mitama is the basic gag manga but I felt more 'heart' there and I'm still reading it.
A couple of chapters has passed and the initial hype is gone, what you think about these series?

Yozakura certainly is holding dear to its life, I have the feeling it is starting to find a niche public to stabilize itself upon, I cant help but feel like people see it as the discount SxF of shonen jump even if the connections are very weak

 

[animeexpert]

I don't think Taisei was necessarily doomed because it was a shogi manga. That happened because it was a terrible shogi manga. The moves went unexplained, the matches were rushed, early chapters barely focused on that... In fact we had more of metaphor panels during the plays rather than actual shogi action! Some slice of life/comedy parts were good, but that came too late to matter.

Completely agreed about Tokyo Shinobi Squad. Also, for a manga that had "squad" in it's title, it did a horrible job establishing the damn squad. But hey, the mangaka needed to show how badass and OP our MC is!

Idk bro, I never see an shogi manga survive in this magazine till I see it happen.

 

[DreamcastDazia]

Idk bro, I never see an shogi manga survive in this magazine till I see it happen.

What about Hikaru No Go?

 

[tirakai]

Hikaru no Go is about go (aka othello, aka reversi).

 

[Thundercat27]

What about Hikaru No Go?

I was thinking of making the same argument, but I suddenly realised: Go isn't Shogi.
Shocking, isn't.

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 23, 2019, Original Post Date: Nov 23, 2019 ---

Hikaru no Go is about go (aka othello, aka reversi).

Also, go isn't remotely close to those games.

 

[DreamcastDazia]

I was thinking of making the same argument, but I suddenly realised: Go isn't Shogi.
Shocking, isn't.

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 23, 2019, Original Post Date: Nov 23, 2019 ---

Also, go isn't remotely close to those games.

Oh, I had no idea. lol

 

[OniluapL]

Go isn't shogi or Othello or reversi (it's actually very different), but the argument holds, I think. If a board game manga can work, of course others can. And go may actually be harder to sell to a young audience.

 

[animeexpert]

Since we are talking about the newcomers and whether they have 'heart' or not. Do you think Yozakura has it? I read the first couple of chapters but dropped it later since I felt it bland and the characters were unappealing to me. Mitama is the basic gag manga but I felt more 'heart' there and I'm still reading it.
A couple of chapters has passed and the initial hype is gone, what you think about these series?

I would say, as manga it can be pretty "uninteresting". But if its turned into an anime, I would have even rewatched this series. It give me that hitman reborn nostalgic.

If I was you and would just keep reading since the author is all slowing aiming for plot-key points. Also with the recent color page, it helps the manga to have a better success rate on surviving and it seems many people really do like the series.

Also the manga is also part an relaxing "enjoyment", for example yuuna hotspring (minus the ecchi ofc lol).

if you really don't wanna go back, I won't stop you.

 

[Tamil]

Ok just completed Spy Family to its latest chapter (tho I had read the first 2-3 chapters previously) and I found................... NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING interesting in it, the way it became super popular and hype, I thought it might have something special in it , but I found nothing special in it (no offense at all to SF fans) it all just contained cute/moe fanservice(the cute anya moments and family interactions), it has just a very normal story and plot, nothing at all deserving to be at it's current hype. It's just a normal one. I'm disappointed in it tho I'll wait for it who knows things might become better or something interesting happens in future.

Again no offense to SF fans. It's just super overrated

I also find SxF to be one of the most overrated titles Ive read but pretty much its the cutesy stuff is what makes it popular. There's nothing to brag about its writing tbh

 

[TyVip]

if you look hard enough any popular series (or becoming popular post anime) can be overrated. Heck you can even make opinion on series that sell 100k overrated too (comparing 100k to 50k series)

But you don't have cutesy stuff and have 1 million in circulation with 2 volumes. There are countless cutesy stuff that failed to break 100k.