Heh. I was wondering why things were so quiet and realized way too late that the 2025 thread just got started. I'm gonna make predictions. And this time, I'm gonna throw wild guesses completely unrooted in logic because I'm a gambler and I like to bet on 0.00001% odds.
DONGUS' 2025 PREDICTIONS
-One Piece gets axed after revealing what the One Piece is. The reveal was so underwhelming and disappointing that the One Piece fanbase completely turns against Oda. Fan backlash against the mystery that had been dangling for 20 years caused Jump to hastily axe One Piece without even trying to give it a proper conclusion as the fan retaliation grows into terrorist activities.
-HunterXHunter goes into another long hiatus. Togashi realizes that his heart wasn't in it and that the scale of the story had grown out of control, and he decides to put it on indefinite hiatus. He would immediately go on to make a sequel to Yu Yu Hakusho that ends it the way he would have wanted decades ago.
-Yozakura Family ends on a high note. Reactions to the ending spread like memes, bringing attention to an airing Season 2, bringing popularity and attention to the series at long last, but at a point where it had already ended.
-Undead Unluck gets soft axed, where the conclusion gets rushed after editorial loses faith in its ability to generate sales. Kinoko Nasu puts in a good word and manages to get an Undead Unluck collab with Fate Grand Order, the first and last cross-company collab the game has ever had in ten year. Undead Unluck would proceed to go down in history as that series that was in FGO, and whenever anyone talks about it, they'd get ask questions like, "Andy? You mean that Berserker from FGO?"
-Me & Roboco becomes banned media after one chapter accidentally became inspiration to start a cult for a business owner. During the start, the cult was a harmless, but it quickly spiraled out of control when they purchased a chemical factory to produce biological weapons. Given the steps that led to the creation of the cult came from that chapter of Roboco, Jump proceeded to completely blacklist the manga from history to save face. The author would later run for office.
-Sakamoto Days anime releases and completely flops... Until Episode 23 airs which has the most amazing animation ever put on television, that forms a complete turnaround in public opinion of the anime. Sakamoto cosplayers become endemic to conventions, however, fat creepy dudes end up preying and grooming minors, giving Sakamoto a bad name and spawning the 'groomer Sakamoto' meme.
-The Elusive Samurai goes into a timeskip and alienates its entire fanbase by *gasp* making Tokiyuki look like a guy. Losing the femboy fanbase completely tanks ratings and sales, and it is given the soft axe shortly afterwards.
-Witch Watch anime airs. Spoilers about part 2 of Witch Watch in which Nico regresses into a child spawns criticisms of grooming, and the anime never takes off in popularity because twitter people storm down on it for promoting the concept of 'raising wives'. Witch Watch would be spoken of in the same breath as Usagi Drop by people who do not watch it, and generally don't watch anime.
-Blue Box attempts a shojo manga classic, the love rival to give the story more melodrama. The fanbase was unexpectedly cool with it given they were used to the shojo manga love triangle shenanigans, but they do give the rival a lot of shit. No love was lost, however, many NTR doujins sprung up due to the fact.
-Akanebanashi anime is announced... and disappoints everyone by being a fully CG anime, which airs in 10 minute episodes. The anime comes and goes without anyone caring or noticing. A Filipino live action adaptation is later greenlit which surprisingly respects the source material better than the anime.
-Kill Blue faces cancellation, leading to basketball arc that became so popular, the entire manga became about basketball. The basketball sections of Kill Blue were so popular that the anime announcement stated it would skip all of the manga and begin at the basketball arc, ala the Yu-Gi-Oh anime, the parts that people actually watched.
-Nue's Exorcist enters a dreadfully depressing arc after killing off its entire cast except Nue and Gakuro, and switches to a grim, post-apocalyptic sort of setting. The development is completely hated by its fanbase, but praised by people who aren't its fans. TOC positions fluctuate as old fans leave and new fans enter, and it would later be known as the "Shibuya Incident of Nue".
-Kagurabachi becomes too big for its own good, and is later purchased by DC Comics for creative and publication rights. Hokazono moves to America, and the 4th arc after the Swordbearer Assassination Arc is published under DC Comics with a western style, 'by the volume' publication. With Hokazono acting as a sort of director with artists handling the artwork, the new direction was praised... until DC editorial becomes too controlling and mandates many aspects in the characters and narrative. Fans completely drop the series when Batman makes an appearance to tie Kagurabachi to a Crisis crossover event.
-Super Psychic Policman Chojo plummets in ratings until a series of doujinshi featuring its cast sells high numbers in Comiket. Noticing the trend, Shun Numa converts Chojo into an ecchi harem manga, and people would name it "the second cumming coming of To Love Ru".
-Astro Royale enters a horribly received arc, prompting a crossover with Tokyo Revengers to save sales, which expands on Tokyo Revengers lore by tying it to Astros. It doesn't work and the series is axed.
-Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi is picked up for illustration by Yusuke Murata, who attempts to rebuild the world and lore according to his specifications, but still following the same plot beats. This version of Kiyoshi is widely received and is later animated by a reputable studio. However, Kiyoshi purists exist who claim that the original version of the manga is better than Murata's version.
-Himaten attempts a last ditch cry to gain the masses by going with a bankruptcy arc, which sees Himari and the girls becoming idols in order to secure fundings to rebuild Himari's company. However, poor reception of the arc leads to an author breakdown as the axe looms, and the final few chapters are some of the darkest, sexually-twisted content that would ever enter the pages of Jump, leading many to wonder how it even got published. It ends on the most sour note, and people wish to forget it ever happened. Also, a line of perfume based on the cast is sold and released, but recalled due to controversy.
-Ichi The Witch has history repeat after Iruma's author gets into a legal scuffle with her other company, where she had accidentally breached a clause in her contract that prevents her from working with other companies while Iruma is being published. Ichi The Witch is quietly axed due to the lawsuit, and Usazaki is once again denied publication for circumstances completely out of her control.
-Shinobi Undercover has a stable performance with decent TOC rankings and decent sales that surpass that of Kill Blue and Nue's Exorcist. Then it gets axed and nobody knows why. You could say it was a very Shinobi Undercover axing.
-Hakutaku somehow rebounds after getting the attention of Toby Fox who gives it a glowing recommendation. Its trajectory becomes very similar to Kagurabachi where overseas fans try their best to make it survive whilst everyone else wants it to die. It survives, but in exchange, every fanbase of Hakutaku is actually Undertale fans, with inside jokes about Undertale abound. Hakutaku becomes the most hated survivor because of how obnoxious the fanbase is.
-Syd Craft gets a shocking recommendation by Gosho Aoyama in its first volume, driving its sales so high up that it becomes a runaway success. However, Detective Conan ends prematurely shortly afterwards, and Gosho Aoyama disappears off the grid. Syd Craft would then become the de facto mystery manga, leading to rumors about what exactly happened behind the scenes...
