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!

 

[Shinuki no Reborn]

Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #49 (2026)
00. Ichi the Witch (Cover & Lead Color Pages)
01. Sakamoto Days
02. One Piece
00. Roku's House of Oddities (Color Page)
03. Akane-banashi
04. Someone Hertz
05. Shinobi Undercover
00. Superpower Battle Fantasy Club (One Shot by Tatara Kyo, Color Page, Golden Future Cup #6)
06. Me & Roboco
00. Under Doctor (Color Page)
07. Graykeith: Translator Daemonica
08. Witch Watch
09. The Ura Files
10. Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi
11. Animal Signal
12. Nue's Exorcist
13. Hal Formula
14. Cannon Master
15. Class 2B Hero Destroyerz
16. Kagurabachi

Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #50 (2026) - Information!
Akane-banashi (Cover & Lead Color Pages)
Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi (Color Page)
Me & Roboco (Color Page)
Shishikabane (One Shot by Maki Gyujirou, Color Page, Golden Future Cup #7)

 

[tirakai]

Veterans just continuing to their one biggest hit forever is totally normal for Jump. Heck, pick any random hit 90s series and it's more likely than not that the author's done a full sequel since then if not multiple.

Some had other hits in between then later returned to their biggest hit (like Otokojuku), some had multiple flops then got stuck continuing their big hit since it's the only success they had (like Midori no Makibao), and some began a sequel or spin-off immediately afterwards never even trying to make a new original series (like Nube), but a huge portion of if not the majority of pre-00s authors have made sequels at some point.

There's only a small number who've returned to WSJ itself for continuations instead of other, less competitive publications, but authors continuing their big hit years after the fact is totally normal.

 

[Kiaida]

There's only a small number who've returned to WSJ itself for continuations instead of other, less competitive publications, but authors continuing their big hit years after the fact is totally normal.

My issue isn't with that. Miyashita didn't even start the Otokojuku (that got one of these late axes like Nura, Shaman King, etc) sequels before he was axed twice with brand new WSJ series. Same thing happened with other authors like Yudetamago and Yoichi Takahashi.

New series had space to grow because they weren't running a line-up full of series like Kinnikuman Nisei, Akatsuki Otokojuku, Weed, Reibaishi Izuna, Souten no Ken, etc.

Leaning on sequels in the main magazine is what isn't a good look when it should be the place for new works. Bleach ended a long time ago as well, Closest thing is Tsubasa's World Youth and even that burned through the original goodwill and ended prematurely.

 

[Hawke]

Bit silly to call this a sequel, like you can be honest and say you haven't read it or are choosing to ignore the reality of it where a very open-ended one shot that had story implications hinted for years and was promised to follow up on is very much an additional arc and not a real sequel, and not one instigated by an EiC desperate to save a magazine that's fine without it.

Just be honest and hate on it normally guys, if the lineup can pretend it's 2014 your hating can also be like 2014's transparent hating. I personally will be very much enjoying the next few months, lots of treats for me!

 

[BelTL]

two sequels in 2026 within the main magazine is kinda a bit too much, especially when wsj is such a cut throat magazine

 

[Shockzz1234]

Bit silly to call this a sequel, like you can be honest and say you haven't read it or are choosing to ignore the reality of it where a very open-ended one shot that had story implications hinted for years and was promised to follow up on is very much an additional arc and not a real sequel, and not one instigated by an EiC desperate to save a magazine that's fine without it.

This is also kind of a fair point? Like what makes a sequel series a sequel series?

Is it time in universe? Or is it the title and/or how it's marketed? Is it how much time has passed in real life?

If Bleach came back and it was simply still called "Bleach" would it be classified to people here as a sequel series or just a continuation of og Bleach and another arc?

Meanwhile, if it was called "Bleach: Hell Arc" or "Bleach: Kazui's Hell Adventures" or something, would that then make it a sequel series?

 

[Satuuuuuuurn]

If it comes back and it starts at chapter 687 and volume 75 I guess it would just be a continuation rather than a sequel, but we also don’t even know if this really exists yet so of course there’s not much to talk about there

 

[JBC008]

A list of previous EICs, you mean? Shinuki, you got this list somewhere? I wanna see, lol.

Yeah, that’s it.

 

[Dongus]

I'm not surprised that they're bringing Kubo in the moment Sakamoto Days ends. Sakamoto Days never quite hit the mainstream as hard, but it was doing a lotta heavylifting carrying the magazine. The only manga on that level would be Kagurabachi and Ichi The Witch, and the former is going into hiatus. This sets a precedent that Kagurabachi could go on break whenever necessary, which is good for the author, bad for the magazine. So something that could immediately stabilize the magazine when a hit naturally ends makes sense to me. Witch Watch is also in the ending legs by the way.

Is it a smart decision or is it cowardice? For me, I'm fine with it coming in when a big series ends to fill that slot, rather than axing some newbies to make way. If Kubo is here for the long-term to keep the boat afloat, I'm okay with that.

While it's better to nurture new series into being hits, some series have just hit their ceilings, and nothing editorial can do will break them past that.

 

[Reyes]

 

[Kiaida]

While it's better to nurture new series into being hits, some series have just hit their ceilings, and nothing editorial can do will break them past that.

Might as well debut a few Dragon Ball spin-offs and sequels then if nothing can sell better. The point is these things are old and can do well anywhere by themselves, if you go by this logic, Jump as we know it is over and it turns into another nostalgia pandering machine like a ton of things are now. Never growing and stuck on milking a decreasing old user base without even trying to get new fans.

Also, it's not like they need it. One Piece is much bigger than Bleach just like it eclipses everything else, if magazine sales barely went down when Jujutsu Kaisen and MHA ended, they won't go down over Sakamoto Days.

 

[monstera11]

Crazy the amount of people glazing bleach now. I followed Bleach serialization back then, and i remembered all the clownings.

Maybe the old fans has mostly left and these newer ones got to know it from tybw

 

[Hawke]

This is also kind of a fair point? Like what makes a sequel series a sequel series?

Is it time in universe? Or is it the title and/or how it's marketed? Is it how much time has passed in real life?

If Bleach came back and it was simply still called "Bleach" would it be classified to people here as a sequel series or just a continuation of og Bleach and another arc?

Meanwhile, if it was called "Bleach: Hell Arc" or "Bleach: Kazui's Hell Adventures" or something, would that then make it a sequel series?

If it comes back and it starts at chapter 687 and volume 75 I guess it would just be a continuation rather than a sequel, but we also don’t even know if this really exists yet so of course there’s not much to talk about there

I can see the merit and reasoning in these, but I'd think that even with the Hell Arc subtitle appended onto it as someone who is deeply invested in Bleach enough to make a judgment call here....I wouldn't call it a sequel! Yes it's a post-script arc but it's also something that clearly was never elaborated on but slowly hinted at over time and I'm excited to see Kubo revisit it. I see the logic in calling it a sequel but for me it's still just a continuation that happens to be after a very long time from the original serialization and that's fine, arbitrary as one might call it.

 

[Shockzz1234]

Crazy the amount of people glazing bleach now. I followed Bleach serialization back then, and i remembered all the clownings.

Maybe the old fans has mostly left and these newer ones got to know it from tybw

Despite my personal love for Bleach, you are not wrong. I read it week to week back in the day and lemme tell you, OOOOFF, people hated it. General consensus was that people hated the Fullbring Arc (I always liked this arc tbh), actually quite liked the start of TYBW, but then hated everything after the Masaki/Isshin "Everything But the Rain" flashback of TYBW (basically from the 2nd Quincy invasion onwards). I was part of two Bleach-specific forums and remember people dropping it and thus eventually leaving the sites left and right.

I can't really tell you what led to a reversal in general opinion. I think it's maybe a combo of: A - people who were young then and loved it are grown up now and can defend it, kinda like the Star Wars prequels, B - It's a series that is way better binged (tbf this was true even back then), the TYBW anime made people get into it and binge it, C - TYBW anime being good, D - Over the years, I've seen it come to light how bad the anime adaptation is, and I've seen several people who watched the anime re-experience the series through the manga and enjoy it way more and finally E - we've had several series since then end and end HORRIBLY (Food Wars, Seven Deadly Sins, The Promised Neverland etc) which made people realise that Bleach's ending (and Naruto's, because that was another one that was shat on back in the day) actually weren't that bad in retrospect.

But there's most def been a shift, yeah.

I can see the merit and reasoning in these, but I'd think that even with the Hell Arc subtitle appended onto it as someone who is deeply invested in Bleach enough to make a judgment call here....I wouldn't call it a sequel! Yes it's a post-script arc but it's also something that clearly was never elaborated on but slowly hinted at over time and I'm excited to see Kubo revisit it. I see the logic in calling it a sequel but for me it's still just a continuation that happens to be after a very long time from the original serialization and that's fine, arbitrary as one might call it.

I can agree with this, but of course people have different thoughts on what makes a sequel a sequel lol.

 

[Dongus]

Might as well debut a few Dragon Ball spin-offs and sequels then if nothing can sell better. The point is these things are old and can do well anywhere by themselves, if you go by this logic, Jump as we know it is over and it turns into another nostalgia pandering machine like a ton of things are now. Never growing and stuck on milking a decreasing old user base without even trying to get new fans.

Also, it's not like they need it. One Piece is much bigger than Bleach just like it eclipses everything else, if magazine sales barely went down when Jujutsu Kaisen and MHA ended, they won't go down over Sakamoto Days.

I mean, yes, One Piece has been and will always carry the magazine, but putting all your chips in one basket is a recipe for disaster. At the very least, I would always have a consideration if One Piece itself isn't able to continue for whatever reason. If I were to take the currently running series and arrange them generally around their sales, it'd look something like this.

Big Hits
01. One Piece
02. Sakamoto Days
03. Blue Box
04. Kagurabachi
05. Ichi the Witch
06. Akane-banashi
07. Someone Hertz
08. Witch Watch
Questionably Successful
09. Under Doctor
10. Nue's Exorcist
11. Shinobi Undercover
12. Hima-Ten!
13. Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi
14. Me & Roboco
15. Kinato's Magic
No Count
16. Roku's House of Oddities
17. Class 2-B: Hero Destroyerz
18. Drawn to the Fire
19. Animal Signal
20. Hal Formula
21. Canon Master


Then, subtract the series that are looking to end or frequently go into hiatus, and we get...


Big Hits
01. Ichi the Witch
02. Akane-banashi
03. Someone Hertz
Questionably Successful
04. Under Doctor
05. Nue's Exorcist
06. Shinobi Undercover
07. Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi
08. Me & Roboco
09. Kinato's Magic
10. Roku's House of Oddities
11. Class 2-B: Hero Destroyerz
12. Drawn to the Fire
13. Animal Signal
14. Hal Formula
15. Canon Master
16. Axed Harem Manga
17. Axed Battle Manga
18. Axed Documentary Manga About Bob Marley

So unless the series under the No Count line manage to breach past Questionably Successful and enter Big Hits, it's entirely possible for the magazine to run an issue where 5/6 of the series being published are selling around 20k or below. Sure it doesn't factor in HxH returning, but that one will eventually go into hiatus again. A new batch would likely only inflate the Questionably Successful line, and at best, only remove Kinato from the equation.

Should they just make a thousand Dragon Ball spinoffs to keep the magazine afloat? Only if Toyotaro is up for it. Should Bleach have gone into Jump Plus instead with a flexible schedule for Kubo to work with? Ideally, yes. But with the mag looking this dire in the coming year, some level of insurance would be beneficial.

 

[Shonenfan]

The entire world cared about Samon-kun. I'll ensure that future generations will never forget Samon-kun so that the entire world can continue to mourn his premature demise.



The issue isn't that old super successful veterans come back to Jump, that's the DNA of WSJ going all the way back to the 70s. The problem is that these super successful veterans are just doing their super successful series in WSJ when that's the one thing they basically never did in the past. You listed all those authors who came back during Nakano's time and none of them just did "original successful series' sequel". They all did a new idea, with new themes they wanted to attempt, with new characters and worlds they wanted to share. Some succeeded, some didn't. That's the Jump cycle. And yes, on the very rare occasion a sequel was published in WSJ itself (there's the whole Jojo's thing, but each part can essentially stand alone as its own unique franchise so I think that's its own category. More talking about things like Captain Tsubasa's original sequel, Boruto, the Bobobo sequel, etc.), but that's it, it was very rare. Saito's done two in his first two years (assuming this is Bleach, and not Burn the Witch S2), maybe 3 because I also remember reading something about The Promised Neverland doing something for its 10 year anniversary.

And it's not even like I hate Kubo for doing more Bleach. If he wants to devote his career to Bleach and he considers it his baby, more power to him. Artists should do whatever they feel is right. He certainly doesn't need to think about the money at this point. But the thing that made Jump unique is that they didn't dwell on the past and always looked towards the next great mangaka. Pushing these sequels to other magazines didn't just help those other magazines by giving them a pillar to work with and a headstart on a huge fanbase, it helped the series by lesser known authors get a chance to shine in WSJ because they get to publish in the magazine that had those titans, but maybe they could fill the void in those people's hearts. You can't really do that if now we just assume at some point we'll get Haikyu!! 2 or MHA: DekuxBakugo's kid's series in WSJ. I don't need to care about any of the unknown author's series anymore.

I just think it's a coincidence. Modulo was very different from JJK with only three characters returning in an important role (itadori, Mahoraga, and Mahito); it was a short series that served more as an epilogue. Bleach Hell Arc was teased (and likely planned) back when Nakano was EIC and it ending on a cliffhanger was very intentional setting up its comeback. The promised Neverland thing is probably at most 4 one shot sized chapters that fill a volume to celebrate the TPN anniversary. No more than 1 slot is being taken if Bleach does come back to WSJ. Frankly, if that brings people back to the magazine then maybe more people would read the new series that are being done.

 

[Shinuki no Reborn]

Damn, i just went to sleep and the cat is suddenly out of the bag? That racist dude can't control his ego lol

Sakamoto Days might be starting the final battle, but considering how wild its action gets I don't see it ending until early 2027. And it'd be weird for WSJ to announce the grand return of Bleach... in 6 months.

Apparently is really Sakamoto ending.

A list of previous EICs, you mean? Shinuki, you got this list somewhere? I wanna see, lol.

You mean the name of the former EiC or the successful series under their belt?

 

[Kiaida]

Should they just make a thousand Dragon Ball spinoffs to keep the magazine afloat? Only if Toyotaro is up for it. Should Bleach have gone into Jump Plus instead with a flexible schedule for Kubo to work with? Ideally, yes. But with the mag looking this dire in the coming year, some level of insurance would be beneficial.

But this logic is how you get the cape comic industry where the logic of "Batman and Spider-man sell more" means they're stuck with these characters, a million of their spin-offs and an user base that was trained to only care about them and not give a chance to new stories and characters. It's why it's a toxic cycle that leads to an aging consumer base and lack of new consumers. Even creators are against it because they want to do new stuff and for it to have a fair chance to find its own audience.

Jump almost always had the biggest franchises, but they didn't even give veteran immunity to their biggest authors because the idea is that each generation has their own hits. Other magazines can cover the aging fans that don't want to move on to new series, but it's essential to manga to always have new stories, new creators, works that talk with the current era instead of the past.

If the magazine worked under the logic of "new series can't outsell our biggest past hits, so might as well give up on new stuff" they would just morph into a bunch of Dragon Ball, Naruto, Slam Dunk, etc sequels, prequels and spin-offs and gradually lose relevance as their fans age and new generations aren't interested in a magazine focusing only on long finished series.

And again, I doubt sales go up or down much over these other series. Jump nowadays can only be highly influenced by One Piece, everything else is basically a bonus in comparison when considering magazine sales. Jujutsu's ending barely doing anything to circulation led me to this.

 

[FantasticFootno]

Apparently is really Sakamoto ending.

Is that what you meant by knowing something about a different series? Thats wild then, it still feels like it has over a volume left in the tank. Plus, Bleach returning before the anime finishes airing just feels wrong.

 

[JBC008]

List of former EiC.

 

[Dongus]

But this logic is how you get the cape comic industry where the logic of "Batman and Spider-man sell more" means they're stuck with these characters, a million spin-offs and an user base that was trained to only care about them and not give a chance to new stories and characters. It's why it's a toxic cycle that leads to an aging consumer base and lack of new consumers.

Jump almost always had the biggest franchises, but they didn't even give veteran immunity to their biggest authors because the idea is that each generation has their own hits. Other magazines can cover the aging fans that don't want to move on to new series, but it's essential to manga to always have new stories, new creators, works that talk with the current era instead of the past.

If the magazine worked under the logic of "new series can't outsell our biggest past hits" they would just morph into a bunch of Dragon Ball, Naruto, Slam Dunk, etc sequels, prequels and spin-offs and gradually lose relevance as their fans age and new generations aren't interested in a magazine focusing only on long finished series.

And again, I doubt sales go up or down much over these other series. Jump nowadays depends mostly on One Piece sales, everything else is basically a bonus when considering magazine sales.

Not that I disagree with you, it's not exactly ideal to recycle a series simply because everything else isn't successful. But that fault also lies in the consumerbase who are only interested in those characters, where they even have them arranged into A-list or B-list characters as if they're celebrities. The state any industry is in is both a fault of its publisher and its audience.

It's just that 2025 was an absolute disaster of a year in creating new series, like, absolutely none of them made it out of that year besides Someone Hertz. If there were at least 2 or 3 other series that became moderate hits, this wouldn't even be an option. But as it is, there's a lot of gap opening up in the magazine, and trying to fill it in with new manga from new blood would more than likely inflate the bottom section of the magazine while leaving nothing at the top.

Not doubting whether sales would go up or down for the magazine, but if I put my editorial hat on, I would also feel that I need something to even out the top. I put it all on Kagurabachi which is set to be the next generation's MHAJJKBCNARUTO whatever, but the author's struggling to keep up with the demands that's required of a hit of that level. Yeah, we have Ichi The Witch, but that fella's anime is still in the talks and won't see the light of day until 2029 at best. One Piece can carry the mag, but it's always supported with similarly big hits over the past decades. Kagurabachi's about to reach there but is tripping over itself, Ichi The Witch is still making its way there. In Saito's shoes, I'd be thinking, "Oda and Hokazono want to take a break for a bit, and now all I've got are manga whose anime are far away from happening?"

It's more of a desperation move than a financial decision, but I won't blame anyone for pushing a button like "Bring back Kubo." when they lose Sakamoto Days.