Agreed, he was too much of a male chauvinist! Remember Cattleya from Rave? Hiro intended to make an uncle (Makarov lookalike/doppelganger) instead of an older sister for Haru! Not only that, but the way he handled women in FT was terrible! Erza for plot, Lucy for fanservice, Cana for Fairy Glitter spamming (post Tenroujima Arc), Mira for hype... They were used as tools!
EDIT: No shounen means no action-filled story, right? hmm... yeah, I think I got it now. Sorry about my misinterpretation and still agree with you, since no shounen > no battles > no death flags. That's more fitting for him than this.
In fairness, aside from Lucy arguably filling mainly a fanservice role (and then you have to say isn't Gray more or less there for the exact same thing for the female audience?) the rest is just bad writing, and the dudes got just as bad a deal out of it, especially Natsu in the last couple of arcs, absolutely wrecked as a character to make him a deus ex plot device...
We all know that Mashima is very secretive with ads, he just drops dripper tracks to prepare the way.
Equally remember that he does not seem to be very well Health, so maybe his next series could be shorter.
Something that I would like more than a sequel to FT is that it made a kind of Sequel to ALL of its stories, something like a Multiverse where I join all the universes of Manga that I believe but with some new character to explore and close the plot holes that remained.
I’d have to say I disagree, the whole final arc felt like he had serious burnout to me. Think we’ll see something completely different in style and tone (and probably not for a while yet?) maybe he’ll commission out a spin-off series again to another artist, or return to it a few years down the line (he’s left it very open in case he wants to revisit it).
After for the last arc it is possible also that the editors were that told to him that it had to finish as soon as possible.
The for 11 years anniversary, which I recall (as other people say) is suspicious as manga end usually the mangas end with pairs figures: 10 years, 12 years, 15 years, 18 years, 20 years in for example.
So big possibility that the idlers told him to finish quickly.
Especially as Mashima continues to draw a lot of FT drawing, if he really wanted to go to his new manga or if he was really fed up with FT, he would stop short.
And if he has so much time to "lose", he had to continue FT and rallied at least the final bouts.
It was stopped in chapter 545, it could have done at least another chapter to finish at 600.
Even if we have passed the anniversary, it's okay, we (the fans) would be very happy.
So that's why it's "caught", it must be spin off to compensate and the anime changes some passage.
Mashima see that the fans are still there and want the FT and he is listening to these fans.
I could see mashima's next work being a FT spinoff with a focus on an entirely different cast. FT has enough plotholes it would require a mountain's worth of dirt to cover. In particular there is "ankseram" who is presumably responsible of zeref and mavis' curse but in turn never had a shred of relevance to the actual story. A FT spinoff with ankseram as the main antagonist would make sense to me, specially considering mashima did kinda say he didn't intend to focus on ankseram in FT.
I’d have to say I disagree, the whole final arc felt like he had serious burnout to me. Think we’ll see something completely different in style and tone (and probably not for a while yet?) maybe he’ll commission out a spin-off series again to another artist, or return to it a few years down the line (he’s left it very open in case he wants to revisit it).
When I hear the word burnout I think of my dad who is a workaholic which I'm worried that my dad is going to work himself til he burns out though at least my dad knows when to take a break once in a while. Even I think Mashima can get another artist/mangaka to do the spin offs which can be the same people who did the spin offs last time and if there's a spin off Mashima wants to do like a spin off about the events from 400 years ago or a spin off about Natsu/Zeref's childhood.
After for the last arc it is possible also that the editors were that told to him that it had to finish as soon as possible.
The for 11 years anniversary, which I recall (as other people say) is suspicious as manga end usually the mangas end with pairs figures: 10 years, 12 years, 15 years, 18 years, 20 years in for example.
So big possibility that the idlers told him to finish quickly.
Especially as Mashima continues to draw a lot of FT drawing, if he really wanted to go to his new manga or if he was really fed up with FT, he would stop short.
And if he has so much time to "lose", he had to continue FT and rallied at least the final bouts.
It was stopped in chapter 545, it could have done at least another chapter to finish at 600.
Even if we have passed the anniversary, it's okay, we (the fans) would be very happy.
So that's why it's "caught", it must be spin off to compensate and the anime changes some passage.
Mashima see that the fans are still there and want the FT and he is listening to these fans.
Didn't the same thing happen to Bleach/Toriko? Well since Mashima is listening to his fans I hope Mashima does an extra chapter in volume 63 about the 100 Year Quest since a lot of people want to see Mashima draw the 100 Year Quest.
When I hear the word burnout I think of my dad who is a workaholic which I'm worried that my dad is going to work himself til he burns out though at least my dad knows when to take a break once in a while. Even I think Mashima can get another artist/mangaka to do the spin offs which can be the same people who did the spin offs last time and if there's a spin off Mashima wants to do like a spin off about the events from 400 years ago or a spin off about Natsu/Zeref's childhood.
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Didn't the same thing happen to Bleach/Toriko? Well since Mashima is listening to his fans I hope Mashima does an extra chapter in volume 63 about the 100 Year Quest since a lot of people want to see Mashima draw the 100 Year Quest.
Mashima sacked atleast 2 of his editors in the past so I doubt they will have much influence on him.
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I think and say again and again that Mashima should write a Seinen series this time.
Seinen, as a genre, has the widest appeal of any anime genre, not just limiting itself to targeting one demographic with specific goals of that demographic in mind. Technically seinen is supposed to be targeted at young men, aged 18-40, but these series can often be mistaken for shounen series, since lots of shounen series like Fullmetal Alchemist, Death Note, and Attack on Titan are starting to have more ambiguous morals, darker themes, and more character development, which is the hallmark of seinen which sets it apart from the more idealized action of shounen. And likewise seinen series can also have romance as a main feature, which leads to a wide appeal among shoujo fans.
It is not surprising that Tower of Heaven and Tartaros which are most probably the darkest arcs in FT,are the most popular ones also.
What sets seinen apart is usually its maturity. Shoujo and shounen tend to have more simplistic goal-based morals and plots. Seinen tends to be more emotionally mature, with layered characters who undergo growth, progression, and deal with ambiguous morals, ambiguous storylines, basically they're just a bit more mature in terms of characterization and storytelling rather than being of the "childhood wish-fulfillment" variety.
These shows can also tend to be a bit darker and a bit more mature-themed. Sexual themes can be overt rather than just fanservice-y. Guns, gritty realistic violence, gore, and themes of death are more common in seinen series.
I am not saying Mashima should litter the series with dead bodies but there should be deaths unlike the final arc of FT where even Makarov didn't die.
In fact killing too much characters also become quite intolerable.There should be fear among the readers that any character may die.But in the last arc of FT there was no risk .Many characters had death flags but we perfectly knew none of them will die in the end.There was no suspense.
The power of feelings should be kept to minimum while characters(Protagonists) should portray steady increase in the power level.
So I hope Mashima will write a Seinen series next or at least a Shounen as dark and similar to "Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure".
And it is not like that he should write a series as dark as " Berserk".Moderately dark like Jo Jo is enough.
If he does all these I am sure there will be very little complaints.
And if we see the top selling mangas we will notice that Tokyo Ghoul,Kingdom and Jo Jo all have huge sells and is always at the top of the list.
SNK though not a Seinen,is quite dark and had huge sells last year.In the past in one fiscal period it had even touched One Piece in the amount of sells even though it's a monthly Manga while One Piece is weekly.
And regarding Romance,I think his romance portrayal in Rave Master was pretty good so he should keep it like that.
Toriko was canceled because it did not have the expected success.
Bleach was in a free fall, limited to loss if one believes the figures but made 15 years.
And the rumors were the editors who decided to finish the manga for the anniversary of the 15 years, without warning Kubo of or the 10 remaining chapter and that it was impossible to finish the manga in chapter.
After his rest of the rumors.
But FT that I know it was not the case, its got small but great drop and especially not to the point of being lost, NNT will have more popularity now than FT.
But FT stayed in the magazine's popular 1 st manga.
Toriko was canceled because it did not have the expected success.
Bleach was in a free fall, limited to loss if one believes the figures but made 15 years.
And the rumors were the editors who decided to finish the manga for the anniversary of the 15 years, without warning Kubo of or the 10 remaining chapter and that it was impossible to finish the manga in chapter.
After his rest of the rumors.
But FT that I know it was not the case, its got small but great drop and especially not to the point of being lost, NNT will have more popularity now than FT.
But FT stayed in the magazine's popular 1 st manga.
WSM went 20 straight years with having a magazine with something in it done by Mashima and they're aware Mashima could continue FT while SDS is ending this arc.
WSM went 20 straight years with having a magazine with something in it done by Mashima and they're aware Mashima could continue FT while SDS is ending this arc.
Wait where was it mentioned NNT ending this arc?But anyway that's offtopic.
My real point is FT for last 2 years had fallen in quality and had some things which led many fans to criticise it.As a fan it pained me in seeing people criticising FT.This is also why it's sales fell.
Unlike in Rave or the early FT.
And when I see dark series's like SNK,TG:Re and Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure are among the most popular and create a genre in itself and have huge sells(BTW Jo Jo is continuing since 1987 till date and it is a style of life in Japan .The JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga has over 100 million copies in print, making it one of the best-selling manga series in history, and has spawned a large media franchise that includes several novelizations and video games, action figures, a jewelry line, and even snack foods).
I will love to see Mashima too creating something like that.
So if he writes a dark Shounen or Seinen next,I am pretty sure it will be a super hit.
Yes I agree, but it's been 2 years since NNT is above FT.
Knowing that we were coming on the end of FT so his cheek a bit too.
And for the numbers we see that there has been a decline yes, but it is not monstrous this drop, it's still very good numbers.
While bleach was really down the rankings or even not in the rankings and its lasted more in 5 years or bleach kept going down.
He was in the top 3 with one piece and naruto and went on to the top 20-30
And toriko was worse.
So I maintain that FT could continue with numbers like that, at least 15 chapter to make 600 chapter, or even 1 year to do the 12 years of manga or maximum 4 years longer to do the 15 years.
Just the time for an arc that has been centered on Ank.
Yes I agree, but it's been 2 years since NNT is above FT.
Knowing that we were coming on the end of FT so his cheek a bit too.
And for the numbers we see that there has been a decline yes, but it is not monstrous this drop, it's still very good numbers.
While bleach was really down the rankings or even not in the rankings and its lasted more in 5 years or bleach kept going down.
He was in the top 3 with one piece and naruto and went on to the top 20-30
And toriko was worse.
So I maintain that FT could continue with numbers like that, at least 15 chapter to make 600 chapter, or even 1 year to do the 12 years of manga or maximum 4 years longer to do the 15 years.
Just the time for an arc that has been centered on Ank.
They should have ended it on July 7th 7777 I agree it needed another arc to really finish it and have the last one end sooner and get rid of Acnologia returning after Irene's death.
Remember Cattleya from Rave? Hiro intended to make an uncle (Makarov lookalike/doppelganger) instead of an older sister for Haru! Not only that, but the way he handled women in FT was terrible! Erza for plot, Lucy for fanservice, Cana for Fairy Glitter spamming (post Tenroujima Arc), Mira for hype... They were used as tools!
I agree it needed another arc to really finish it and have the last one end sooner and get rid of Acnologia returning after Irene's death.