Well, this past year for the 2019 publication year for Weekly Shonen Jump was certainly an interesting one. When both including and excluding color pages from the calculation, One Piece once again comes out on top (yet another metric it beats Kimetsu in lol). But speaking seriously, calling Kimetsu the big winner for the year not just for WSJ, but for all companies cumulatively would be an understatement. Amazingly enough, the series was able to demonstrate what the power of a good story coupled with an excellent anime adaptation can do for a series' backlog.
Looking at the magazine as a whole, many of the series managed to obtain perfect attendance this past year: Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san, Kimetsu no Yaiba, We Never Learn, Act-Age, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Chainsaw-Man. As for color pages, We Never Learn and Haikyuu!! tied for the most with 13 a piece!.
While several veteran series had amazing years, unless your name was Chainsaw-Man, you unfortunately struggled greatly during 2019 if you were a newbie, no matter how much promise was initially shown. WSJ started 11 new series during 2019, and of those new series, 5 of them already concluded during 2019, with 2 more set to conclude at the very beginning of 2020. Farewell David-kun and Double Taisei, not many may miss you, but I will! In addition, several veteran series wrapped up this year and we bid farewell to Shokugeki no Soma and Hinomaru Zumo. In total, 8 series ended in 2019, Boruto and Jimoto ga Japan transferred out to other publications, and Hunter x Hunter remained in hiatus the entire year.
Looking ahead, 2020 is set to be an interesting year for WSJ. Many of the veteran series are either officially in their final arcs or are obviously coming to their natural conclusions. This year, we will likely say farewell to We Never Learn and The Promised Neverland, with the latter especially being a huge hit to WSJ. In addition, Yuuna could end whenever it wants, and both Kimetsu and Haikyuu are entering their final stages. With our first taste of 2020 serializations being teased with Zipman and Agravity Boys, the future remains uncertain for our newer series. Yozakura and Mitama both haven't established themselves yet, and even Samurai 8 has struggled to stay afloat in the TOC. I, for one, am really interested to see what the upcoming TOCs will look like now that 4 of the previous 5 occupants have been or will soon be concluded. I'm choosing to remain optimistic for the upcoming year, and have a good feeling we'll get some new romcoms this year, so I hope WSJ and everyone else has a great upcoming year!
