DIssecting the Magazine - Mairimashita! Iruma - The Star has arrived.

Mairimashita Iruma-kun began in Issue 14 in 2017 of Champion. Its has had a bumpy ride to its current position as the one of the best selling series in Shonen Champion. Its debut in march in 2017 came as a surprise perhaps because it was a fantasy school life manga, genres that have not traditionally made significant success in Champion.

Start and Limbo

However, Mairimashita! Iruma-kun found an audience and its first few volumes sold relatively well according to data from shoseki. Its placements in the magazine somewhat contrasted this as whilst it initially received a opening colour page for its volume 1 release, it after this initial push by the editorial department it was left often in low placements. It seemed like the series had fallen to back seat and was possibly in even danger of cancellation as it often drifted towards the bottom of the table of contents. It came to end of its first year of existence in this limbo state. It did not seem like it had a significant future in the magazine even if its sales were not poor.

2018 and Reprints -

2018 was a year that led to a completely different scenario for the series, it started in the same trend as 2017 in the bottom of the magazine more often than not and with a complete lack of colour pages. However,  volume 6 release marked a different scenario when all volumes of the series were finally reprinted for the first time. Moving onwards from this it started to find it itself more often in middle of the magazine throughout most of the remainder of 2018 eventually receiving an opening colour page to celebrate the release of volume 7. This did not mean a complete change as it still often featured in the middle and sometimes in the bottom part of the magazine however whilst it did not receive significant attention or promotion yet it continued receiving reprints and growing in sales from volume to volume. 2018 was by all means the year in which Iruma turned its fortune as it started as a cancellation candidate and ended it as a established middle tier series in the magazine. However, 2019 would bring even more surprises for this series.

Becoming an Idol in 2019

The year started hot coming directly of the rise sales of the previous year and the series expanding popularity. It quickly received a opening lead colour page in the first December double issue and it was soon followed by the volume release in February with the anime announcement in another opening colour page. This trend of colour pages would continue throughout the year. In addition to this Iruma-kun placement soon started to be on the higher end spectrum, it still sometimes had middling position but it was now rarely ever in the bottom part.

After the anime announcement came its participation in the masterpiece revival project and a interview with Osamu Nishi in the magazine, both things that highlighted the series had a growing star power in the magazine. In addition to this its first popularity poll had started.

Part of this highlight in the magazine came from its growing sales showcased by the rise of circulation numbers which were at 900k at volume 11 and by volume 13 had reached 1.2m before the anime had aired. This continued by the time of the release of the anime it had reached 1.5 million copies in print, an incredible milestone for a manga that had been previously in limbo in the magazine.

The anime started airing in October and not only had did it air in NHK-E and had a prime time slot at 17:35 something a champion series had not had since Gaki Deka in 1980s. It found significant success and gave a major sales boost to the series.

Achieving the status of a major player in Champion.

The year started with increasing sales with circulation numbers increasing rapidly reaching 2.5m by the end of January. it was given a renewed boost in popularity after reruns in the holidays in the start of the year. Alongside this boost in popularity came its first cover in Champion and another popularity poll and the milestone of 3 million copies in print by the end of the anime, which announced a second season for the following year. A few months after we not only close to the release of volume 17 and the results of the 2nd popularity poll another cover its second in a few months but it also revealed the series reached the 4m copies in circulation milestone, an incredible achievement.

This success made it one of the biggest series in the magazine and it has received a spin off currently running together with the main series in Champion with another one planned for the future. Its was a somewhat arduous path that Iruma since it started off well but dropped off but eventually found it strides from 2018 onwards until this current peak in 2020 which might not be a peak at all yet.

Thoughts on The Vampires Dies In No Time Anime Announcement

The Vampire Dies in No Time had an anime adaption announcement in the latest issue of Weekly Shonen Champion. It is one of the oldest series in the magazine having begun serialisation in 2015, almost 5 years ago. The Vampire Dies in No Time is a gag manga like the title suggest it focuses on a Vampire that dies at the drop of a hat, alongside this rather weak vampire is a wide cast of quirky characters.

The Vampire Dies in No Time had flirted with an anime adaption many times, the first notable time was in its volume 5 dust cover, which included the words 'anime announced' and in much smaller print next to it the words ' fervent hope.' It was an interesting gag in itself and it fooled people both non Japanese speakers and some Japanese speakers. Its next flirtation with an anime came in Anime Japan and its 3rd placement in 2018 the series we want to see animated ranking for that year's event. This was followed by comments jokingly made by the author on twitter on the ease of animating the series, citing its mascot, and modern setting as examples of this.

First, I want to highlight what Vampire has in common with two specific series that they have both been animated as well. Super Radical Gag Family had its anime in the 1990s and its episode were short only 7 minutes which usually adapted a chapter of the manga. It was an adaption very faithful to the manga in aesthetics but it never received more than one season. It was however what I would call a perfect adaption of the manga's art style and comedy and whilst its hard to galge its success since there is not much data, it probably was not a massive success as it never got a second season.

Mitsudomoe in contrast to Radical Family has a gag style focusing more on ecchi and misunderstandings whilst Hamaoka tends to focus gag's on its eccentric characters and their often stupid and absurd hijinks that have equally lead to absurd results. Mitsudomoe style fits well in a romcom gag style manga and whilst The Dangers in My Heart is not gag centered it is a turn to romcom that I though fit Sakurai Norio style, I digress but what I want to highlight is that when Mitsudomoe was adapted into anime in 2010, it in my view was also a very good adaptation of the manga's material and whilst it was not a hit it did lead to a increase in manga sales. 

The Vampire Dies in no Time in comparison to both these series has are more visual like Super Radical Gag Family and Mitsudomoe. Between those two I would say closer to Super Radical Gag Family because its gag often delves into parody about the editorial department and even the publisher of the manga alongside the antics of the large cast of characters which often end up rather unexpectedly in a comedic sense.  However,  its comedy is more similar to series like Gintama, since it has more often than not a slapstick style of comedy, which is similarly featured in Gintama but in a more modern Japanase setting like Osomatsu-san.

If its not obvious enough vampires exist in this setting as well as other supernatural creatures. Vampire do cause trouble and there are as result vampire hunters and a research centers for the troublemakers. The nature of the trouble caused by vampires and others supernatural creatures is a big focus of the comedy in the series because quite often they range from perverts to public nuisances.  It is part of this cast of characters and how opposing groups involve themselves in many different hilarious situation that reminds me of Gintama. 

I will ponder on its potential for success when we receive more information on whether it will be a tv anime or some other form. So I will refrain now from commenting because it would be like putting the cartridge before the horse.