Dissecting the Magazine - Harigane Service - High Expectations?

Information on the series

Harigane Service was a volleyball series written and drawn by Ara Tatsuya. It was his first serialised work and it was based on his previously published one-shot named Pinch Server. Harigane Service began in the 26th issue in 2014 in late May, around one year after the Pinch Server was published. It has since received a direct continuation named Harigane Service Ace.

2014 and The Beginning - Burnt Start?

The series by all means started off well and was popular within the readers of the magazine. It was placed high by the editorial department in the table of contents and also received a Lead CP at chapter 12. This highlights the early popularity but also the support from the editorial department which wanted to capitalise on this early popularity. Eventually, it stabilised in the middle of the magazine through out 2014 and some of the steam it seemed it had slowly disappeared.

This continued in 2015 with placements in the beginning of the year being within the middle tier and at moments it even in rather low placements within the bottom tier of the magazine. Things would change as it neared its 50 chapters with two Lead CPs coming in issue 19th and 25th respectively and it placements rose to top tier again. This increase in popularity in the magazine was highlighted in increasing volume sales and the editorial department probably wanted to capitalise on this moment to market the series. Of course, this moment was also tied to the content of the series which was reaching a match and climatic point with the MC finally playing in a match.

The rest of 2015 continued in the same trend with the series becoming a common feature in the top tier of the magazine in regards to the table of contents. It obviously held editorial support and readership support as its sales continued to grow. It eventually made it to the cover of the magazine in issue 34 and this was the clear sign of the series rising status in the magazine. One was not enough and it was again the cover of the magazine in issue 44, only 10 issues after the last one. The series had exploded and rightfully so as content wise it was at a heated match which volume sales wise marked the series best moment so far at least according to oricon and shoseki. From the rather possibly disappointment to a great rising star, 2016 promised a lot for the series future but did it deliver?

2016 - New face of the Magazine? Optimism and Future.

The year started in the same vibe the last one had finished in. It was highly placed and received Lead CPs and Covers including two in a row in issue 14 and 15, the second one was shared with Yowamushi Pedal, the pilalr of the magazine. At the same time, Harigane Service managed to for the first time appear in the top 50 oricon best selling manga of the week. With all of this came character popularity contest which was started in Issue 8 and its results were revelled in issue 14 with a cover and a Lead CP with it having a Lead CP for the following two issues as well.

*17,648 (6)　Harigane Service Vol.9

*16,138 (5)　Harigane Service Vol.10

*19,834 (7)　Harigane Service Vol.11

Source - Oricon

This was by all means the best moment for Harigane Service in the magazine. Its sales were great and on the rise, within the magazine its treatment was by all means of a star series together with the likes of Baki Dou and Yowamushi Pedal. However, editorial support slowly drifted to new promising series like Rokudou no Onnatachi, and this was clearly expressed by a decrease in the Lead CP and CPs Harigane was given in comparison to the start of the year.

2017 - Current - From Star to Supporting Character.

2016 had already ended in a lower note. This at the start did not mean much as new series with potential had begun and needed to be pushed and favoured by the editorial department. However, whilst it still received high placements through the first half of the year, the drain of editorial push was starting to show with lower placements becoming more recurrent and Lead CPs and CPs coming with less frequency.

In reference to volume sales, they had shown stagnation firstly and gradually a slow decline without oricon sales, as it did appear in the top 50 best sold volumes in release week, these are in reference to shoseki numbers. This decline reflected within the magazine as well where its placements dropped to low level by the end of the year. This was no longer simply because editorial push was drained towards Beastars, Rokudou no Onnatachi and other new series but a signal of the loss or stagnation in popularity.

If 2017 ended at the series lowest point so far, in 2008 it reached a new low. It became throughout the year a common feature in the bottom of the magazine. There were occasional CPs and a Lead CP for the commemoration of its 200th chapter but this did not raise its placements. All evidence expressed the loss of the star status it held briefly for a moment from 2015-16. It all started with the rise of of new promising series taking editorial support but also its sales and popularity degraded in the magazine. In the end, this all culminated in the end of the series in Issue 46.

In issue 50, it reappeared in the magazine as Harigane Service Ace. The series is a direct continuation. Since its return things have not shown much difference from before in that it still lingers at the bottom middle tier of the table of contents. It sales seem to be stable at the moment but it obviously has taken a step back from other big series like Beastars, Iruma-kun that have taken the limelight of the magazine at the moment. In essence, Harigane has degraded from a former star of the magazine to a mid tier important supporting character after all it is participating in the 50th anniversary select manifesto and the charity auction. However, in comparison to other series that are relatively new some of which have anime adaptations coming, it definitely has fallen down the pecking order. It has become a bench warmer a bit too early and the new series that have the limelight have the time to shine which Harigane Service had but lasted for only a short period of time. Sadly, Harigane Service was probably meant to be so much more but in the end it did not meet those high expectations but it is still without a doubt a successful series.

One thing that has impressed in the latest years has been the growth of the series since the sequel started. Its circulation has jumped from 1.5 million when the first series ended to around 4.5 million at the moment. This growth could be explained by its popularity in Piccoma and others online manga reading services where it is available to read. In part this explains the series still rather middling position in the table of contents and the lack of editorial push. However, it also show that the series still has life in it and possibly with a push for a media project it could potentially become the hit it was expected to be.

Musings on new romcom manga series

New harem romcom series in the magazine - 

A job post in Ganmo spoiled the news of an upcoming romcom harem new series will soon be within the pages of Weekly Shounen Champion.

The author of the series is likely to be Shokubai Hiroomi, a newcomer which won the NEXT CHAMPION Grand Prize in 2017, his winning one-shot 'Hugo' was a sci-fi adventure. I believe his art is in rather advanced stage with a polished analog artstyle. More recently, he has posted sketches of female characters possibly characters in the new series and these all look good.

There are series in the magazine at the moment which one could argue are harem romcom, most notably Rokudou no Onnatachi. However,  Rokudou has little to no focus on romance even if it is a  series with a harem and comedy. Therefore, I feel like it is inappropriate to call Rokudou no Onnatachi a harem romcom. Rokudou at its heart uses the love and friendship theme simply as a driving factor to the action and coming of age developments of the characters, which the series is all about. It is not about harem romcom antics.

Hence the magazine has no harem romcom. Romance and comedy are both genres that are a staple in the manga industry and the mix of these genre is common specially in Shonen series.  The aspect of harem became a popular addition to this duo and there are many successful shounen harem romcom series.


Romcom Boom?

There have been many romcom successes in recent times, in the other shounen magazines recently, most specifically, Gotoubon has been a big success. The anime for it was incredibly well received and its sales rose significantly. This together with Bokuben which shares a rather similar plot whilst it sells less also sells well. There are also many other works such as Kaguya and Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu which has garnered a lot of traction over the past few months and shot up in popularity. There are many others in other magazines but I just wanted to highlight a few that I know are within the romcom genre and are relatively successful.


Romcom series in Champion - A look at the past

Looking at the past of Shounen Champion, harem romcoms or other type of romance series have not had a lot of success. Looking only at the past decade, the standout harem romcom hit was Jitsu wa Watashi wa but unlike Gotoubon or Bokuben it was significantly more comedy orientated. There other romcom most notably was Nikoben, a romcom with a main character that liked making cute bento. A nice gimmick but it was not very popular and ended in 5 volumes of which only 2 were released physically. Likewise Tsujiura-san Chupacabra another romcom which was more quirky and gag like also failed to achieve any success however it had all its volumes released physically unlike Nikoben. There were others romcom series like Hanekoi Lion, a sports romcom, but with very little success.

In fact, prior to Jitsu wa Watashi, the other big harem romcom hit would probably be Eiken. Eiken received anime adaptions in the form of OVAs but its main gimmick was the ecchi aspect with main female characters having rather large bust size. If one goes back further in the mid 90s, the romcom hit was Oyama! Kikunosuke. Once again, this series was very high in ecchi material. This in fact was the trend with romcom series in Champion until Jitsu wa.

However, whilst looking at the past successes might highlight the general trend of the magazine over the years, things are not static and change over time and Jitsu wa Watashi wa success highlights this. Hence, reading into the past has its limits when it comes to seeing what kind of new series this new harem romcom will be.

Expectations 

I have delved too much on past series and successes and failures but of course does this say anything about the new series? Yes, because whilst past successes do dictate what the editorial department pursues in newer series and this is specially strong in a industry that values safety which results in  creativity being hampered.

I suspect as a result of this, this new series is quite likely to be in a contemporary school setting. In addition, like many other romcom, I do not expect it to use this setting in any creative way apart from simply being the place the main character can meet the female characters. It could easily be a swapped for any setting that could do the same function like for example a workplace setting. This does not usually happen in a shounen magazine because readers tend to be school age, high school to be more precise.

Without any synopsis or image of the new series, this is mostly speculation but I do not expect it to drift away from the common stereotypical format that surrounds this genre. Whether this will better or worsen its chance of surviving, I doubt it since after all harem romcom series are all about cute girls and usually happy romance and comedy and light in drama. They are not renowned for social critiques, well crafted stories or in-depth characterisation. However, this is not exclusive to romcom series and is absent in most shounen and even seinen manga.

If the series in not in a school or contemporary setting. i will be surprised but at the same time it will probably catch my interest more that way but of course things do not work that way.