It's not mean spirited in the slightest, in fact my comment is more in the spirit of how Jumped used to be. We've watched Jump falter under Nakano's leadership and I think is emblematic of his new slogan "attractiveness of character." Such superficiality is disrespectful to the readership and you can see that in the quality of the series launch under Nakano. (And to be fair, this problem started before Nakano).
Jump stories used to be focused on "friendship, effort, and victory." Which is infinitely more Noble than "attractiveness of character." Even if you gave a supreme effort and ended up short of victory, you still had friends to pick you up and guide you. This is the message that should be sent to young boys and Jump's readership. This is what resonated with people across the globe.
Another staple of Jump was the cut throat nature of the biz. Samurai 8 would've been cancelled by now in the Golden age of Jump. There wouldn't have ever been a 20k club. Look, I loved Samon Kun and Dance bu but it should never have lasted over three volumes with those kinds of numbers. "What you do not hate you will tolerate." And this clearly correlate with a drop in quality of the stories Jump tells now.
The Yozakura mangaka might be a nice guy and treats his assistance well, but he clearly does not have what it takes to be a successful mangaka in Jump (in any generation). He gave a good effort, but he came up short of victory, I only hope he experiences the power of friendship to cope with this defeat because attractiveness of character sours with age.
Ooo boi, let's dig into this, shall we?
First off, no,
Nakano did not institute the abandoning of Jump's motto. The first reference to Jump no longer considering the motto was in 2015, a whole two years before Nakano became EiC. Likewise with you referencing Straigen Up and Samon, neither of which ran when he was in charge? Slinging mud on him seems completely nonsensical in this context.
Secondly, what the hell is that nonsense about the motto supposed to mean? "Attractiveness of character" isn't superficial at all, it refers to the audience finding characters and consequently the story interesting and engaging. That actually makes it a
less superficial idea than "friendship, effort, victory", because that's easily just an empty ideal when bluntly stated (one Medaka utterly ripped apart). You talking about it as a "noble idea" and "something to be said to young boys" (when about half of Jump's readerbase is female) is utterly laughable, and makes you sound like a complete boomer.
Thirdly, while Shinuki pointed out why the sales thing is bullocks, how the hell has Jump's quality "declined"? I'd argue its improved massively in many areas, and you give zero reason while it's apparently now worse.
