Re: Weekly Shonen Jump [2011] - Discussion and TOC Talk - Part 2
It is to early to be proclaiming any series doom, especially with new series premiering less than a month ago and no real idea when the next round of cancellations are coming. There is also the Hunter x Hunter factor: a series will be saved from cancellation whenever it goes on hiatus again, assuming it does. There is a minimum of four more issues before HxH can go back on hiatus.
Kagami has not fared well in the TOC recently, that much is true. Three recent issues in the bottom five as well as a number of issues where (for all intensive purposes) unranked series like Hunter x Hunter and Kochikame pushed it out of the bottom five. Kagami has ranked in the middle frequently enough that nothing can be assumed. Medaka yo-yo'ed between the bottom five and middle when it was new and was not canceled. Jump seems to cut new, non-action manga a lot of slack as there are so few examples at any given time. It should also be remembered that the TOC is not a one person - one vote poll. Votes are weighted by age and gender. No matter what the actual composition of readers, votes from middle school boys who may be embarrassed to vote for a romantic comedy will always outweigh votes from readers over sixteen. Thus action manga tend to be artificially inflated while slice of life and romcon tend to be artificially low. A series like Kagami may be getting enough votes to survive but the editors are pushing it down the TOC to make room for manga that most appeal to Jump's target audience. I would not take a color page as sign of survival but unless Kagami becomes a fixture in the bottom five I would delay proclamations of doom. Always remember: Medaka Box and Akaboshi each had early rankings similar to Kagami. The vast majority of thread regulars declared that Medaka would be canceled and Akaboshi survive based on the logic that Jump gives preference to action and there is never much room for anything else. The actual fact is that action manga are a dime a dozen while it is a real challenge to find comedy, slice of life, and romcon manga. With even a little support the editors will not cancel non-action, it is to hard to find publishable replacements. As long as Kagami continues making occasional visits to the middle of the magazine (sixth from bottom or above) it will survive.
---------- Post added at 03:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:19 PM ----------
Do you remember Bokke-san? It was promoted right before the end as well. I'll agree with you that it's not over yet, but I doubt anyone will really be shocked to see it go. Being excluded from Jump Next! may not spell a death sentence, but it definitely isn't a good thing either...
Bokke bottomed out as soon as Asklepius and Meister were canceled. Both series cushioned Bokke, which rarely ranked higher than sixth or seventh from bottom. That was also the period when To Love Ru and Neuro were permanent bottom five for six months or more, without being canceled. A lot of new series seemed to be safer than they were, as only the most pathetic fell into the bottom five immediately. Bokke is also a case of an easily replaced action/fantasy manga.
