Mag Talk Weekly Shonen Jump (2026) - News and Discussion!

[Shinuki no Reborn]

Moderator Notice:

WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP THREAD RULES​

#1. No fights or personal insults.
#2. No bait or troll comments with the intention of being annoying or starting serious heated discussions, if i notice it's a continuous behavior, i will warn the user or delete the comment.
#3. No toxic attitude towards series, no one is obligated to enjoy any series and it's totally fine to criticize what you don't like, just avoid posting gratuitous hateful or toxic comments about X or Y series, if i notice this behavior, comments will be deleted.
#4. Don't bring politics or off-topic stuff to the thread, this is about Weekly Shonen Jump magazine and mangas, so keep any conversation about topics that aren't related about anime & manga outside the thread.
#5. Don't post news about series from other magazine or publishers in the WSJ thread, post in the series own thread, but it's fine if you're mentioning other series or magazine to express a opinion or reflection about Shonen Jump.
#6. Any tweet, specially japanese, about news, update or some interesting thing about the magazine or series has to come with a text of what that tweet means and also be on topic, if not it's going to be either deleted or i will edit the post.
#7. Refrain from self advertising or advertising Youtubers videos in the comments.
#8. Constant fanart posts just for the sake of praising a favorite series is prohibited, this rule doesn't apply for official art by Jump artists posted on social media, they're fine to post.
#9. Don't discuss or hype chapter spoilers before Sunday release, only comment if is related to a series surviving status and do it only inside the spoiler tag.
#10. Regarding rule #9, an exception will be made for when we have new series, in this case, spoilers will be allowed only for the first 3 chapters of a new series for the users who are interested in knowing informations and details about the new series, these spoilers will obviously be kept under tags to protect anyone that doesn't want to be spoiled, so don't worry about it.
~ Shinuki

I hope everyone reads the rules and use it as a guide to behave well in the thread, thanks!

 

[Hawke]

Has this been posted already?

this really fucking blows, wish editorial didn't sabotage themselves and rookies like this

 

[Newkerzy]

this really fucking blows, wish editorial didn't sabotage themselves and rookies like this

Getting a good/compatible editor is a bit of a crapshoot. I’m sure this applies to the entire manga industry, not specifically confined to Jump.

 

[Jay_Senju]

Said it before and I'll say again I just did not get the Alien Headbutt hype ngl. The first 10 chapters is literally nothing but mindless action with no plot at all but I guess that's what western manga readers like I guess? But I hope Akira Inui comes back to wsj or j+ with a new series that actually has a plot next time.

 

[Pedroland17]

So, what is y'all take on why Alien Headbutt is flopping this hard despite being far from anything actually terrible?

My personal believe is that the series premise and magazine marketing sold a different kind of series, from the premise texts it gave the impression that would be like a actual deathmatch wrestling series against aliens in a desert island but in the end the series turn out to be mostly just the main character walking in the island and fighting non stop as if is a video game where you go to new location and fight enemies, also the complete lack of other wrestling characters and main girl definitely hurt the series.

Man, Alien Headbutt is genuinely depressing. In terms of content, actual progression, pacing, and developments, it’s one of the most miserable early runs I can remember reading in Jump in the last 3 or 4 years. It seriously feels like I’m reading the same chapter over and over again. Same garbage dialogue, same annoying little kid whose only purpose is making the manga “work” with its weak ass narrative setup, same writing constantly refusing to actually do anything interesting... it just feels thematically empty. And on top of that, some of the designs are straight up awful too.

To me, the author is failing at basically everything he’s trying to do, while the Western audience eats it up in a way that reminds me a lot of early Kagurabachi discourse. It’s mostly an AESTHETIC thing. People aren’t really judging the story itself.

And to be fair, Kagurabachi pretty quickly moved past the meme phase and became a genuinely decent manga. Alien Headbutt still hasn’t.

 

[Nuesmoker]

Not much for me to add that hasn't been said. Alien Headbutt is just the most obvious "Aura and Hype™" barebones kind of series, where the main premise logically falls apart if you think about it for more than a few seconds. No actual interesting characterization to speak of either.

 

[Phantom RPG]

Not much for me to add that hasn't been said. Alien Headbutt is just the most obvious "Aura and Hype™" barebones kind of series, where the main premise logically falls apart if you think about it for more than a few seconds. No actual interesting characterization to speak of either.

That sums things up, pretty nicely. But the thing that truly sucks is that Akira Inui clearly has some genuine creative ideas and if you look at past works you can obviously see this. So its sad to see how Headbutt was handled by him. I just hope he learns from this whole thing and improves significantly.

 

[echo]

Not much for me to add that hasn't been said. Alien Headbutt is just the most obvious "Aura and Hype™" barebones kind of series, where the main premise logically falls apart if you think about it for more than a few seconds. No actual interesting characterization to speak of either.

Sadly it feels like all the west cares about now is action, hype and “aura”. Its very obnoxious.

 

[Shockzz1234]

Issue 25 Rankings:

Tier 1 (Great):

1- Akanebanashi (Peak, Akane has found out, or rather delivered to the audience, her idea of death. Fantastic art and even Issho smiled!)
2 - Witch Watch (See you later Wolf Keigo's hybrid form looks cool, and he incorporated his ice skating skills along with his new power, nice!)
3 - Ichi the Witch (I know some people on here aren't enjoying the Magikeepers, at least from what I've seen, but I'm quite enjoying them. Feel like they've injected new life into the series)
4 - Someone Hertz (Cute as usual!)
5 - Shinobi Undercover (Still wondering if Yoichi is gonna join a Squad or not. I can't see him dying, this doesn't feel like this type of series, but I can see him being fully redeemed at the festival, and then going away for a bit to recover from his injuries before appearing in a later arc as a pull up to help our protags)

Tier 2 (Good):

- Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi (Chapter title is Back in Black which not only continues the theme of rock albums/songs of this arc but also could be a reference to the famous Spider-Man comic story of the same name, where Peter dons a black suit that looks like his old symbiote suit to track down and find a hitman (and find who hired him) who shot Aunt May. Fits since Kiyoshi is now "evil" after taking in all the energy of the demons. Speaking of, I'm assuming this new form of his will be like Luffy's Nightmare Mode - a temp, evil looking form lol)
- Under Doctor (Once again a chapter focusing mostly on one of the other characters. Bodes well for it's survival since this isn't something you'd do if you were in danger of axe. The story was nice, like last week I think the series is not so good at action but pretty decent at other things)
- Blue Box (Taiki made him smile!)
- Roku (yeah this series is very good. The club members are here to basically kinda recreate the Agavity Boys dynamic in a way lol. Sidenote, the club president reminds me of Okabe Rintaro from Steins;Gate lol)
- Kinato's Magic (It's probably axed, but I still enjoy it.)
- Nue's Exorcist (Gekka the goat. Feels like she's done more this single arc (and a lot of the last one tbf) than the other girls combined. At the very least, she's left the strongest impression on me, by FAR. Really liked Gakuro telling her to get the fuck up and witness the end with her own eyes)

Tier 3 (Ok):

- Sakamoto Days (Shin is that guy, I guess)
- Hima Ten (what kind of self sabotage is this from Kanai loool, girrrllll....)
- Alien Headbutt (Ah man, the new villain designs and Tatsumi's new design is sick. Shame we won't see more of it, but i will be looking out for this artist in the future, think their art is very good, just needs work on other things)
- Drawn to the Fire (Idk basketball rules super well, but can you even pass to yourself? Lol. Anyway, good to see our MC has some cocky energy about him during games tbh)
- Class 2-B (I feel like it's getting steadily better each week, but it's still nothing special tbh. Idk if it'll survive long enough to get to a point of "good" but since it's by a famous vet it should get to at least like 50-ish chapters like Samurai 8 or Golf...whatever it was called by the Kuroko author)
- Me and Roboco

Tier 4 (Bad):
N/A


Overall an ok week, I was really feeling One Piece and KGB's absences though.


Apologies if there's any spelling mistakes or something that doesn't make sense, or if i even forgot a series lmfao, I'm a bit drunk making this post. Blame Arsenal, COYGGGGG =P

 

[Kiaida]

Twieet ranking:


Unusual week without One Piece and Kagurabachi, but not a good thing for Destroyerz to not rank. Volume 1 should sell well anyway, so let's see how it'll develop over time. Not a lot of hope for all of this year's newbies so far imo.

 

[Shinuki no Reborn]

Twieet ranking:


Unusual week without One Piece and Kagurabachi, but not a good thing for Destroyerz to not rank. Volume 1 should sell well anyway, so let's see how it'll develop over time. Not a lot of hope for all of this year's newbies so far imo.

Taking in count the last weeks number of tweets for One Piece & Kagurabachi (excluding the anniversary one) Nue would still very likely be in 1st place if both had chapters

Alien charted it highest because of the "Decisive Battle" editor note and same with Kiyoshi because of the "Final Battle", it's actually pretty funny how Kiyoshi Twitter felt the necessity to almost spell it's the final fight of the arc, i genuinely think the person behind the account noticed the unnusual amount of tweets about it

"He faces his final battle with the awakened Bobo"

The tweet is full of quotes from jp fans lol

 

[WyldViolet]

I don't think every flop merits a deep analysis. Maybe it's just because it's terrible?

"Terrible" is subjective, so it's perfectly reasonable for people to discuss and analyze why they personally thought it bombed. Analysis is the entire point of this thread.

--- Double Post Merged, May 20, 2026, Original Post Date: May 20, 2026 ---

Has this been posted already?

Ooh, I remember Lady Justice. The problem with the series wasn't the ecchi though, it was that it was boring. Characters weren't interesting at all. Good art though.

 

[Wookitake]

Indeed.
For those who don’t use Twitter like me, here’s an article.

Former Weekly Shonen Jump manga artist says editors insisted on erotic content as a precondition to publishing superhero series with a female protagonist - AUTOMATON WEST

Ken Ogino, author of the cancelled Shonen Jump title Lady Justice, recently talked about the manga's behind-the-scenes.

automaton-media.com

This is really interesting. Has something like this been reported earlier? It speaks a lot about the culture there.

 

[Shinuki no Reborn]

Pretty good to read all answers from you guys, i agree with most of the general arguments, i would like to add that like i comment a while ago, i feel like the premise text in the series preview would have result in a much better series than the actual one, basically a actual deathmatch wrestling series in a desert island where a group of professional wrestlers are sent thinking it would be just a typical event but turns out to be they're trapped in something like Squid Games but having to fight against aliens instead of the child games to entertain a group of secret billionaires.

Hitoner has a twitter account open. When is UD's going official?

『ヒトナー』公式 (@hitoner_pr) on X

少年ジャンプ＋で隔週水曜連載中！ 屋宜知宏先生「#ヒトナー」の公式アカウントです。 📕コミックス第1巻発売中‼️ 無料試し読みはリンクからご覧ください。 ↓

x.com

--- Double Post Merged, May 19, 2026, Original Post Date: May 19, 2026 ---

Also, it seems like hitoner is eligible for the digital slot for tsugimanga 2026. No bother guessing who's winning that one.

Really happy to see Tomohiro Yagi finally getting his success, and here we have yet again another former WSJ failed author finding success on Plus...

Has this been posted already?

Thanks for posting the Tweet Jhonathan but i would also ask next time just includes what the tweet is about

Jump seems to have a history with restraining the author.

Kubo in Kluboutside talked about a case like this:

Q113.
Will you ever publish a continuation of your one-shot stories like Rune Master Urara.

A113.
Urara had a story prepared for the purpose of serialization but it didn't get past the serialization meeting because it had a female protagonist in a battle setting and the story was hellishly dark. I'm not interested in drawing dark stories right now, but I might do it if I get a lot of free time

Different eras, different "rules", but always restraining

Well, to be fair this is just a example of editors doing their job

Indeed.
For those who don’t use Twitter like me, here’s an article.

Former Weekly Shonen Jump manga artist says editors insisted on erotic content as a precondition to publishing superhero series with a female protagonist - AUTOMATON WEST

Ken Ogino, author of the cancelled Shonen Jump title Lady Justice, recently talked about the manga's behind-the-scenes.

automaton-media.com

It's interesting and everything but this part: "I’m feeling envious since Jump now lets its creators depict female protagonists even without erotic content."

It's really not accurate, literally in the same round Sesuji wo Pin started with a female main alongside the male, next year after Lady Justice ended The Promised Neverland started, so Jump was definitely not forcing authors to only include female main characters with fanservice around them.

This is really interesting. Has something like this been reported earlier? It speaks a lot about the culture there.

That's just how serialization works, things are changed all the time during the serialization plan, the editor will give ideas and try to change what he thinks will not work.

Also, that was just his editor advising him about the fanservice, Jump had plenty of series with female main characters without heavy or not ecchi at all around it.

 

[Jhonathan]

Kids aren't filling up rakugo presentations as well and Akane Banashi is one of the longest running series in the magazine. Doubt this matters for a manga that only leans on wrestling to give a powerset to a battle manga's MC.

And Rowlett is popular, Decidueye isn't, it was losing to Incineroar in polls like the Nintendo Dream one when the game released. And now we had a whole decade where Incineroar was everywhere.



Creative freedom is good. So it would be better if he got to drawn the manga he wanted, but current Jump is more restricted in other ways, there's a reason even Shinohara complained about it.

Kids aren't filling up rakugo presentations as well and Akane Banashi is one of the longest running series in the magazine. Doubt this matters for a manga that only leans on wrestling to give a powerset to a battle manga's MC.

And Rowlett is popular, Decidueye isn't, it was losing to Incineroar in polls like the Nintendo Dream one when the game released. And now we had a whole decade where Incineroar was everywhere.



Creative freedom is good. So it would be better if he got to drawn the manga he wanted, but current Jump is more restricted in other ways, there's a reason even Shinohara complained about it.

Indeed.
For those who don’t use Twitter like me, here’s an article.

Former Weekly Shonen Jump manga artist says editors insisted on erotic content as a precondition to publishing superhero series with a female protagonist - AUTOMATON WEST

Ken Ogino, author of the cancelled Shonen Jump title Lady Justice, recently talked about the manga's behind-the-scenes.

automaton-media.com

Sorry. I posted the tweet because it was the original source, but I should've followed the rules

 

[FantasticFootno]

"He faces his final battle with the awakened Bobo"

The tweet is full of quotes from jp fans lol

Glad to see Kiyoshi fans actually existing lol. Very excited for when that anime announcement finally gets announced (as well as its other 2024 compatriots).

 

[Shonenfan]

Pretty good to read all answers from you guys, i agree with most of the general arguments, i would like to add that like i comment a while ago, i feel like the premise text in the series preview would have result in a much better series than the actual one, basically a actual deathmatch wrestling series in a desert island where a group of professional wrestlers are sent thinking it would be just a typical event but turns out to be they're trapped in something like Squid Games but having to fight against aliens instead of the child games to entertain a group of secret billionaires.



Really happy to see Tomohiro Yagi finally getting his success, and here we have yet again another former WSJ failed author finding success on Plus...



Thanks for posting the Tweet Jhonathan but i would also ask next time just includes what the tweet is about



Well, to be fair this is just a example of editors doing their job



It's interesting and everything but this part: "I’m feeling envious since Jump now lets its creators depict female protagonists even without erotic content."

It's really not accurate, literally in the same round Sesuji wo Pin started with a female main alongside the male, next year after Lady Justice ended The Promised Neverland started, so Jump was definitely not forcing authors to only include female main characters with fanservice around them.



That's just how serialization works, things are changed all the time during the serialization plan, the editor will give ideas and try to change what he thinks will not work.

Also, that was just his editor advising him about the fanservice, Jump had plenty of series with female main characters without heavy or not ecchi at all around it.

I do remember we were all hyped for alien headbutt thinking the same as you and a bit disappointed in what we got in comparison.

 

[monstera11]

Extremely axed

 

[Axel7]

Spoilers of alien Headbutt

Sorry for not being able to reply to all the messages, but I'll try to address several points that I think you'll find interesting. There will be some basic spoilers for the first few chapters, but oh well. Regarding the characters, they are all interesting: the protagonist, the boy, and the boy's brother, even though he's just an ordinary human, each contributing his own unique perspective. The same goes for the boy, both when he first explained the basics to the protagonist and when he reacted to what happened with his brother. The plot is truly one of the best out there. It starts with the basic premise of alien invasion, and then around chapter 3 or 4, another alien appears out of nowhere and attacks the others, adding more mystery to the story with another faction or group of aliens, almost like the manga "Versus." Every little we know is great because we discover what's happening alongside the protagonist. We also learn the protagonist's motivation and objective from chapter 1: his family. We gradually get to know them. The fights are equally impressive, some of the best, with the protagonist even using the environment like in Sakamoto Days to defeat the various aliens, each with their own unique characteristics. Then, when people say the protagonist is just someone who yells and punches, he actually did one of the most "mature" things: he rejected what the alien said, giving us a truly impactful moment in the fight's climax.

 

[monstera11]

If they are not announcing Kinato 1 & 2 releasing at same time, maybe there are hope

--- Double Post Merged, May 20, 2026, Original Post Date: May 20, 2026 ---

Sadly it feels like all the west cares about now is action, hype and “aura”. Its very obnoxious.

It is hilarious how Nue always catch strays whenever those mangas that west loves get axed.

People still whine about why xyz get axed while Nue still ongoing blah blah I will never forgive the Japanese blah blah Japanese only love ecchi blah blah

If Nue gets better anime than Sakamoto Days, the tears will be so delicious lol

 

[WyldViolet]

Japanese only love ecchi blah blah

Which is so fucking dumb given Nue isn't even close to ecchi. It's so tame on a fanservice level. These kids should give Kurotsuki no Yaegernaght a try if they want to see what Nue would be like if it actually had ecchi.