Sunday 7 February 2021

Thoughts on Past Cancelled Manga from Champion

Looking past at these series and trying to make comments on why they failed was not as easy as I thought. Some of these series performed reasonably whilst other faired quite poorly, but I though some that did really poorly were not as bad after looking at them again. Perhaps, the timing was a problem after all some of these series released a few years back and whilst that might not seem like a lot of time champion has changed a lot. Series like Iruma kun became successful as well as more recently Tougen Anki and many others that are not very 'champion-esque.' It also picked up series from twitter which in themselves was new but one specifically has yuri vibes and a clear slice of life focus which are quite a new thing for the magazine. I dragged this on but for me it seems like some of these series might have succeeded if only they were released now, so just keep that in mind as I try to give my thoughts on why they were cancelled. 

Kurotora Vol 1













Kurotora by Suzuki Kai 

An action series in historical setting with supernatural elements, this was not exactly a very champion series even though now it feels like it would feel more at place. in 2015, this series just seems to me failed to grab the attention of enough people to survive, it is not exactly terrible. I do feel like a series like this would be better received in current champion and this is the case for most of these series to be honest. 

Magicalo Magical vol 1

Magicalo Magical by Donsoku Mainichi

A series with polished art but it had a hectic first chapter, I think the author probably needed to be a bit more careful at organising his story to be a bit simpler. It still had a lot of promise for an ecchi fantasy series and I hope the author found success somewhere. Magicalo Magical had all its volume published and its first volume sales were good compared to most other cancelled manga but they dropped rapidly. 

Sumeragi Dressers Vol 1













Sumeragi Dressers by Matsumoto Yutaka 

This series has an interesting setting in a it resembles SHY in that it has a female main character that gets involved into being something of a hero. It is however more focused on the ecchi and comedy and it was not bad but Matsumoto's sensei art was not polished enough and it could have been more organised. His latest one-shots had much better art and both had female main characters which are not as unusual in champion anymore. A part of me wished he had a chance to reform this series and have it serialised again. 

Nikoben Vol 1













Nikoben by Hikari Sumi 

A romcom with perhaps a strange gimmick. The main character loves to make cute bentos but he is admonished for it by his father because it is seen as a girly thing. He gets involved with a cold girl from his class who eats a hinomaru bento and thats how the romcom ball gets rolling. The gimmick is not bad but it does not stick out since it does not fell gourmet so it kind of falls flat. First chapter moved a bit too fast and I am sure that affected the pacing of the story. In terms of art, Hikari Sumi style whilst not unique is polished but with two series axed, he seems to struggle with managing the story of his manga even if the ideas of both seemed good. He continues to work as Itagaki Paru's assistant and maybe he can learn from it.

BADBROS Vol 1













BADBROS by Satou Shuuichirou

The underground not quite death game but prison baseball setting was a nice spin on the sport genre. The first chapter does not feel fast or slow but decently paced, the art is also not bad. I am not exactly sure why this performed so poorly but Blue Lock from Magazine shows that there is market for this sort of sport manga. The head editor could try putting a series like this again especially with Riku gone as well. Though the illustrator and author went their own separate way.

Seigi no Satsujinki Vol 1













Seigi no Satsujinki by Suzuki Yuuta

A somewhat confusing start did not help it and it took a while to clear up which also did not help. Suzuki Yuuta ability with one-shot is unquestionable, his one-shots all were eery but incredibly creative.
The series however was a bit unclear and probably left readers behind. Perhaps he should do something with a more episodic edge than slowly unveils into a larger story.  

Maruyuu Kunoshima-san Vol 1













Maruyuu Kunoshima-san by Kisanuki Tani 

Another work with an interesting setting, a girl inspired by a hero (in a more fantasy jp sense than the SHY sense) in her childhood aspires her to become part of the HSC - Hero Support Company. The start seemed well paced even if it possibly contained a bit too much exposition. The art could be better as well but I feel like this sort of story could be more successful in current champion.

Utsurou Kimi To 1













Utsurou Kimi To by Shirato Yuusuke & Hajime Furukawa -

Another work that was rather polished but that performed poorly. One of the reasons for that I believe was the slow passing, the story was incredibly slow to get going and for the sort of series it was, a supernatural battle series, that was probably a mistake. The author and illustrators went their separate ways,  so any new stuff by them would be different. 


Amayama Maya -  

Chikakarachika and Otae-san Kyou mo Tabetai Vol 1














 Otae-san Kyou mo Tabetai by Amayama Maya.

Both work had very peculiar setting. Otae-san had cannibalism as one of its themes but in a sense the issue with these stories for me were how they were rather messy, in the sense that the story was a bit all over the place. The author has interesting ideas but how he manages them is a bit underwhelming.

Uten Kekkou Vol 1 
Gyakushuu Inferno Vol 1













Gyakushuu Inferno by Shigemoto Hajime 

His art improved a lot since his last series. It also feels a lot more organised though it felt like the series just did not grab the attention of the readers. It was slow to get going and overall I think the author had a  interesting idea with this work but I guess he was unable to balance his story in a way that could get people interest. 

Junior Vol 1













Junior by Haitani Otoya 

Of the recently cancelled stuff, Junior is one of the longest at 6 volumes and they all were released in print too. This was a polished work in terms of art and story but it failed in exciting the reader when it came to the actual sport part. His recent short story on boxing was much more interesting in that aspect and it had an much more developed back story as well.

Ashigei Shoujo Komura-san Vol 1













Ashigei Shoujo Komura-san by Haiba Nemumi

There is nothing, I can really say the story was centered on foot fetishism and perhaps it wore itself too thin because of that. As a one-shot it worked but it feels like the series needed to be a bit more. 

Boryaku no Panzer Vol 1













Boryuaku no Panzer by Furuta Tomohiro

This one was quite an absurd like ecchi manga. The problem for me of this manga was that the ecchi did not feel sexy (eechi) and the comedy was almost always based on the ecchi also did not work as a result of that. It is more series specific comment, so it will depend on what the author wants to do in the future.

Dorakon! Vol 1













Dorakon by Shokubai Hiroomi

Dorakon was much better than Panzer with its ecchi. However, the romcom aspect felt very uninspired, It was not too funny and lucky pervert was quite prominent, the story felt rather underwhelming as a result and this was probably the biggest issue for this series. The example of Yankee JK which is not exactly very inspiring but its more down to earth and stable is probably what Dorakon should have been.

The author names without links are the ones I could not find any SNS or website and the likes. If you do know or can find it, please let me know in the comments.

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