Mag Talk Weekly Shonen Magazine News & Discussion (2014 - 2021)

[henry9960]

Hi guys, I'm from Black Cat, chapter 1 of Seo's new series is out, and we've decided to also do a popularity poll for western audiences, so feel free to vote after you've read chapter 1.

MangaDex

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[Mankichi Togawa]

WSM Shoseki February day 1 ranks:
1 Fire Force 27
2 Tokyo Revengers 21
3 Diamond no Ace II 25
4 Kanojo Okarishimasu 19
16 Kanojo Hitomishirimasu 2
24 Bakemonogatari 12
29 5toubun Full Color Edition 11
36 Kanojo, Okarishimasu TV Anime Official Setting
109 Kangibanka 1

 

[Shinuki no Reborn]

Hi guys, I'm from Black Cat, chapter 1 of Seo's new series is out, and we've decided to also do a popularity poll for western audiences, so feel free to vote after you've read chapter 1.

MangaDex

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Reading the chapter, his comment about starting the series quickly due to the many romcoms being serialized makes sense, specially considering that one starting soon, both have similarities, but anyway, very romcom-ish but was a good first chapter, can see this definitely being more popular than Hitman

 

[Tamil]

Small preview for Orient volume 12 cover

 

[Mankichi Togawa]

 

[KagamiKuroko]

Color page for ch 7 of 4KOTA

 

[orangeman]

his comment about starting the series quickly due to the many romcoms being serialized makes sense

It's interesting how much this resembles Love Hina (down to the MC going to Tokyo U plotline). If you look at the most successful shonen harems, the two most common archetypes are:

"Magazine-style" (Love Hina, QQ, etc)
- Entire harem introduced chapter 1
- Harem all know each other from the start
- MC crashes into their lives

"Jump-style" (To Love Ru, Nisekoi, etc)
- MC in love with childhood friend
- Flashy new girl pops up and crashes into their lives
- Harem slowly expands

We've already seen Yoshikawa go in on a Jump-style harem with Cuckoo (very specifically mimicking Nisekoi in many ways), which paid off handsomely for her and WSM. And now with QQ ended, it's clear Seo and his editors see an opening to corner the Magazine-style market before all his romcoms competitors come. Will be interesting to see how this one sells.

 

[Mankichi Togawa]

 

[Chuck_Atlas]

Good God, seriously just give Blue Lock it’s anime already

I may sound like a broken record but for real we need it!

 

[Ravellino]

Hi guys, I'm from Black Cat, chapter 1 of Seo's new series is out, and we've decided to also do a popularity poll for western audiences, so feel free to vote after you've read chapter 1.

MangaDex

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mangadex.org

Really reminded me of the first chapter of love hina and i loved it

 

[Serinox]

The "crazy" chapter of Fire Force was released in Edited Manga, if anybody was curious to check it out in English:

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[Tamil]

Merch announced for Shangri-La Frontier

 

[Mankichi Togawa]

--- Double Post Merged, Feb 19, 2021, Original Post Date: Feb 19, 2021 ---

The rt campaign:

 

[Ike79]

It's interesting how much this resembles Love Hina (down to the MC going to Tokyo U plotline). If you look at the most successful shonen harems, the two most common archetypes are:

"Magazine-style" (Love Hina, QQ, etc)
- Entire harem introduced chapter 1
- Harem all know each other from the start
- MC crashes into their lives

"Jump-style" (To Love Ru, Nisekoi, etc)
- MC in love with childhood friend
- Flashy new girl pops up and crashes into their lives
- Harem slowly expands

We've already seen Yoshikawa go in on a Jump-style harem with Cuckoo (very specifically mimicking Nisekoi in many ways), which paid off handsomely for her and WSM. And now with QQ ended, it's clear Seo and his editors see an opening to corner the Magazine-style market before all his romcoms competitors come. Will be interesting to see how this one sells.

I feel Love Hina should be in its own category. Almost all recent romcoms in Jump have borrowed part of their premise from it (Nisekoi the mystery girl aspect, Bokuben the studying aspect, Yuna the hotsprings aspect), and the three bullet points you give happen in Love Hina too, to various degrees.

 

[orangeman]

I feel Love Hina should be in its own category. Almost all recent romcoms in Jump have borrowed part of their premise from it (Nisekoi the mystery girl aspect, Bokuben the studying aspect, Yuna the hotsprings aspect), and the three bullet points you give happen in Love Hina too, to various degrees.

Great points. Love Hina definitely introduced (or at least popularized) lots of now standard shonen harem tropes, especially studying and the "mystery girl".

I'd still consider Love Hina a "Magazine-style" harem, despite having some "Jump-style" elements like having a main love triangle within the harem. To me, the core structure of Love Hina is still based on Keitaro being the outsider (he's crashing into the girls' lives), whereas in "Jump-style" harem, the female lead is the outsider (Lala/Chitoge/etc is crashing into the Rito/Raku's life and making him re-evaluate his love for Haruna/Onodera/etc). In order words, "Magazine style" is about how the arrival of the male MC changes the status quo, whereas "Jump-style" is about how the arrival of the female lead changes the status quo. Eg To Love Ru's whole premise is built on how Lala's presence led to other aliens interfering with daily life.

The other big difference is that Love Hina and "Magazine-style" harems start with an extreme gender imbalance, which makes them very harem-y from chapter 1, whereas "Jump-style" harems seem like normal romcoms when they start. This baits in a lot of people who don't like harems and results in a lot of angry people later on who hate the series turning into a harem.

I'd consider Love Hina the trope codifier for "Magazine-style" harems while Urusei Yatsura is the trope codifier of "Jump-style" harems for popularizing the styles, despite both not completely following them. In fact, "Jump-style" is perhaps a misnomer entirely, since it's really To Love Ru and Nisekoi that follow it strongly while many other Jump harems don't. Bokuben sort of shares some aspect of it (having 2 main heroines from the start), but there's no core love triangle nor a main "outsider" girl, so it doesn't capture the central tension that "Jump-style" harems are built on. Yuuna-san I'm not that familiar with, but doesn't seem to have any romantic tension at all either. Perhaps it's because Jump is abandoning romantic drama (and thus "Jump-style" harems) in its post-Nisekoi harems that Cuckoo and WSM were able to find an opening.

 

[Ike79]

Great points. Love Hina definitely introduced (or at least popularized) lots of now standard shonen harem tropes, especially studying and the "mystery girl".

I'd still consider Love Hina a "Magazine-style" harem, despite having some "Jump-style" elements like having a main love triangle within the harem. To me, the core structure of Love Hina is still based on Keitaro being the outsider (he's crashing into the girls' lives), whereas in "Jump-style" harem, the female lead is the outsider (Lala/Chitoge/etc is crashing into the Rito/Raku's life and making him re-evaluate his love for Haruna/Onodera/etc). In order words, "Magazine style" is about how the arrival of the male MC changes the status quo, whereas "Jump-style" is about how the arrival of the female lead changes the status quo. Eg To Love Ru's whole premise is built on how Lala's presence led to other aliens interfering with daily life.

The other big difference is that Love Hina and "Magazine-style" harems start with an extreme gender imbalance, which makes them very harem-y from chapter 1, whereas "Jump-style" harems seem like normal romcoms when they start. This baits in a lot of people who don't like harems and results in a lot of angry people later on who hate the series turning into a harem.

I'd consider Love Hina the trope codifier for "Magazine-style" harems while Urusei Yatsura is the trope codifier of "Jump-style" harems for popularizing the styles, despite both not completely following them. In fact, "Jump-style" is perhaps a misnomer entirely, since it's really To Love Ru and Nisekoi that follow it strongly while many other Jump harems don't. Bokuben sort of shares some aspect of it (having 2 main heroines from the start), but there's no core love triangle nor a main "outsider" girl, so it doesn't capture the central tension that "Jump-style" harems are built on. Yuuna-san I'm not that familiar with, but doesn't seem to have any romantic tension at all either. Perhaps it's because Jump is abandoning romantic drama (and thus "Jump-style" harems) in its post-Nisekoi harems that Cuckoo and WSM were able to find an opening.

I quite like this distinction you are making here. Both settings do have a different kind of appeal: "a cute girl turning your boring life upside down" vs "interacting with a bunch of cute girls". It's true that Jump vs Magazine is probably not the best nomenclature. Especially considering Urusei Yatsura was published in Sunday.

About Yuuna. It's what you would call "Magazine-style", for lack of a better term. A boy moves into an old inn and interacts with the girls that already live there. 5+ get introduced in the first chapter. It's a part of Love Hina's premise, with a supernatural element on top.

There are exceptions. The MC and the heroine can meet each other in a neutral scenario (think those "school-club" LNs like Oregairu or Dekinai) or the main character can meet the girls individually and build up the "harem" over time (think SAO or Monogatari).
It doesn't scape that all examples I can think of are books and not manga. Maybe it has something to do with the medium

 

[orangeman]

I quite like this distinction you are making here. Both settings do have a different kind of appeal: "a cute girl turning your boring life upside down" vs "interacting with a bunch of cute girls". It's true that Jump vs Magazine is probably not the best nomenclature. Especially considering Urusei Yatsura was published in Sunday.

I'd add that thematically, a "Jump-style" harem (or just the love triangle) is the symbolic struggle of choosing between the "old" (represented by the familiar comfort of the childhood friend) and the "new" (represented by the flashy new girl). In most of these cases, the male MC eventually chooses the new girl at the end, symbolizing that he "moved on" from his past and has graduated into becoming a new man. With a "Magazine-style" harem, the male MC starts off already forcibly moved onto a new setting and the story is more about exploring, learning and adapting to his new environment. The girls usually hate and reject the male MC at first and the story is about his development and journey into being accepted and eventually becoming an integral part of the group.

There are exceptions. The MC and the heroine can meet each other in a neutral scenario (think those "school-club" LNs like Oregairu or Dekinai) or the main character can meet the girls individually and build up the "harem" over time (think SAO or Monogatari).
It doesn't scape that all examples I can think of are books and not manga. Maybe it has something to do with the medium

Yeah, I can't think of any shonen manga off the top of my head. I think you'd have to consider stuff like Saiki, who is not really a harem but is kinda one technically. I'd also say that some of the specifics can end up creating a different feel as well. For example, Kanojo mo Kanojo checks off most of the "Jump-style" boxes (Naoya and childhood friend Saki were together; new girl Nagisa comes and challenges the status quo; harem slowly forms around them), but because of the two-timing nature of it, KmK ends up feeling very different. The central tension is no longer a question of "childhood friend" vs "new girl", but about whether polyamory could work or not.

 

[OtterBrigade]

Crunchyroll has the Tokyo Revengers anime

 

[Mankichi Togawa]

Matchmaking of Amagami Household will start serialization on WSM issue 21, on 20th April.

Wondering when will they reveal the start of the baskteball series serialization.

 

[Torca]

Magazine becoming a half-romcom mag isn't something I expected. Nonetheless, a lot of stuff is pretty good though nothing is really spectacular? A lot of just plain fun series which is good too.

I'm really enjoying Ranger Reject, a really fun idea taken on by Negi and his art is always a sight to behold.