Discussion Jump's 6 - 66 Days Later

[Kaoz]

On February 6, 2017, Weekly Shounen Jump added the romcom We Never Learn to its line-up and followed up on a mostly weekly basis with the action series U19 and Demon Prince Poro's Diaries, another romcom in Hungry Marie, the sci-fi adventure series Dr. Stone and finally Robot x Laserbeam, a golf manga.

Now that 66 days have passed since the first of these six series launched, we are curious what you think of them:

• Which series did you check out? Did you pick up any of them?
• What do you think about the ones you read? Would you recommend them?
• Which series do you expect to stay in the magazine long-term and which ones do you think will be axed soon?

With the end of some prominent series like Naruto, Bleach and Toriko in the past years, one or more of these new additions could turn into a flagship for the magazine. Looking forward to reading your views on the questions posed above and any other thoughts you might have on this topic.

 

[4649]

We Never Learn - It's clean fun. I don't love it but I don't hate it either. I think it's going to run into problems if it becomes a long series though. They are already in third year and there can only be so many tests. Most manga will drag out one school year over multiple real life years without any problems but I think just because the way this story is set up it's going to be harder for me to suspend that belief.

U19 - I like dystopian future stuff. Battle Royal was one of my favourite movies. I was hoping for a kind of Battle Royal with super powers, but I could just never get into this series. It's the only series I dropped from the new batch.

Poro - I hated the first two chapters but it slowly grew on me. When they added Ruika and God is when I started liking it. The chapters are just warm feel good chapters. It's easy to read but not a lot happens in the series. I think it's doomed though unless there is a lot of readers like me that hated the first two chapters but liked the rest.

Hungry Mary - I like the series. I was a fan Beezlebub until the last year or two of serialization which I thought was pretty bad. My only complaint about the series is that it's too similar to Beezlebub. They characters all look the same, the story style is super similar, and I find the similarity super distracting at times. But I'm enjoying the series and looking forward to each weeks chapter.

Dr. Stone - My favorite from the new batch. I find the setting super interesting. It strikes a good balance of upbeat attitude of a shounen manga and the darkness of the world ending. I also find starting over from zero tech interesting.

Robot - I'm just not a sports fan. I have no problem suspending my belief and dragging a fight over weeks but I just can't do the same for a sports match without losing interest. It looks like it could do well it's just not for me.

 

[Koi Kage]

We Can't Study- I actually like the series and plan on reading it for as long as it's serialized. We Can't Study doesn't throw that it's a romcom in you face like a lot of previous series have, though personally I can't bring myself to call the series a romcom since two of the characters don't really seem to show any romantic interest in the mc. I can see this series potentially lasting around 100 to maybe 120 chapters in total.

U19/Demon Prince Poro's Diary- while I did enjoy what I read of the series I ended up placing them on the "to be read later" list for the simple fact of not being able to read them in English.

Hungry Marie- This is the series I dislike the most and out off all the new series this the one I have the least faith in it surviving long term. I enjoyed the authors previous work and it's somewhat random plot it at least was cohesive; Hungry Marie on the other hand, in my opinion, feels like two separate plots that have been forced together in hopes of a great story. To me this is one of two series of the new batch that feels over hyped.

Dr. Stone- I don't like the series I can see it lasting maybe 3 volumes worth of chapters but not much longer then that. The series, to me, lacks depth of plot what I mean by this is that yes the modern era has been thrown back to the stone age but the emanate danger that should be felt isn't present in the series. This the second series in the new batch that I personally think is over hyped.

Robot X Laserbeam- This series is actually the one I most like out of all the new series. Yes it's a sports manga with over exaggeration on the mechanics of the sport, but what makes this series good to me is how the mc has the mentality of how a person in real life would act around golf. Hopefully it stays in the magazine for a while.

 

[Spirit]

We Can't Study - It's certainly a feelsy romcom alright. But to my pleasant surprise I've found that I enjoy it. While I admit it's not something that I follow weekly, It had a strong foundation with fun characters and a pretty decent plot line. However, I get bored of Romcoms very readily so it's just a matter of time to see whether I keep up with this manga or not.

U19 / Poro - The fact that English Edited Mangas are a rarity for these series makes it hard for me to become invested in them. Add that to that fact that I don't like Poro's Art Style or premise, and I can't be bothered picking up what I feel will be a lackluster Boku no Hero Academia that is U19, I won't be picking up either of these series.

Hungry Marie - I don't hold much hope for this series' success if I'm honest. It feels a little forced after something as good as Beelzebub, and the character rip offs don't appeal to me at all. I've read and seen enough funny gender benders to know that this one certainly isn't for me. I just don't feel capable of looking forward to the next chapter. It's a disappointed no go from me.

Dr. Stone - I really like Dr. Stone. It's got a fun and interesting premise and great art. I still don't think it will be very successful but it's a solid manga as far as foundations go. I just feel like could get a little boring after a while if things keep moving in the same direction. However I'm sure the author has thought of this already and is already planning to change the game before our very eyes.

Robot X Lazerbeam - Easily my favourite of Jump's new season of manga, RxL is brought to us by a renowned Sports Mangaka. Kuroko no Basket was the only Sports manga I've ever enjoyed apart from PoT/NPoT and this is carrying over to his new series well. I really like the dynamic that the main character brings to the series and it even makes Golf look fun. That alone deserves an award.

Final Verdict: This season of new manga was mostly a disappointment for me personally but RxL and Dr. Stone have stood out among the others. I think these two will go far and I am/will be following them both weekly.

 

[Riku]

We can't study: absolutely hated it. All three main characters were pretty horrible persons. Particulary the girls. So judgemental, so rude and arrogant. I didn't find them funny or quirky. I just thought they were kinda douchy.

Dr. Stone: liking it quite a bit this far. The concept is definetly something fresh. And it has already taken new directions, to keep it fresh. Science is always interesting. As is survival fiction. I Like the dumb/genious protagonist pairing. And the fact that they were already friends and respect each other. Usually there would be some cringy story how they are from different social classes, one bullies the other first and then they need to proof rhemselves to each other to gain mutual respect and be friends. Not here. Here they are just like "Hey, you cool man". Right at the start. Main story hook reminds me of Bakuman - lets do our work first, and then I'll confess my love openly.

Robot x Laserbeam: Pretty nice. Kuroko was always well flowing comic, despite it being my least favorite sport mangas. Had a good start, but didn't like silly direction it took. (Thank god I can always go reread SlamDunk) I have the same fear here. Cant keep normal golf interesting and in 50 chapters they are putting thorough wormholes or something. But this far good. Looks good and clean, flows well, characters are interesting and likeable, but with lot of personality.

Haven't read the others. Robo has the most long term potential. With that they have 3 sports series running, which might be one too many for readers to handle, but who knows. All of the three are quite unique in style.

Dr. Stone has big potential, but that potential to be reached demands pretty damn solid writing, and this far it hasn't been too emotionally captivating, mainly just interesting.