Champion in 2021 - A Quiet Year

WSC 2021/27

2021 was a normal year for Champion for the most part with some interesting moments here and there. The main notable moments were the announcements of "Ippon" Again! anime, Grappler Baki 30th Anniversary and the return of Itagaki Paru as well as the sudden appearance of Oshikiri Rensuke.

How has the magazine changed?

The year was rather normal and there was not much change, only one long running series ended excluding Yuuenchi, so the magazine for the most part only changed as far as cancelled series were replaced by other stuff. Some of these replacements like Kurobane Hakusho, Isekai Chef that begun earlier in the year, the former which was already cancelled and the latter is likely heading in the same direction cemented a slow change in the magazine. However that was the first half of the year, in the second half there were 4 new series, Hachigatsu no Cinderella Nine S, SANDA, Lupin Sansei Neighbour World Princess and Geniearth. Two are new series by veteran authors, one of which had recently finished her big hit Beastars that ran in Champion, whether they will be successful is up in the air at moment. The other two are manga adaptation of multimedia projects and whilst i doubt these are going to be long term projects, they do shake up the magazine in the short term. 

The biggest shake up to the magazine was probably not caused by a new series however, it was by a series that exploded in popularity and it achieved a whole different status in the magazine. That series was Tougen Anki, the battle urban fantasy series that draws from the Momotarou folkloric story, it exploded in social media and its sales grew to great levels that was topped with it receiving a cover which together with the load of colour pages commissioned has probably drained a lot from the author. who had to take a break for a week during the year. These were the changes in the magazine in the year and it was by all means a rather stale and boring year for the magazine when it comes to any seeing any real big change to the roster.  Hopefully next year, with more things looking like they could wrap up maybe there will further changes.

Anime!

The only anime announcement in the magazine was "Ippon" Again! back in the beginning of July. It was one of the series that I highlighted as possibly receiving an anime in 2021, but it was very much based on its content and of course the biggest hindrance to it was its low sales. It seems the former won out in the end and it will be receiving an anime but we do not know if it will be a TV series or something else yet, so that is still up in the air. 

Opinion

Personally, the year of 2021 was very weak, the new series for the most part are rather boring. The loss of Rokudou was felt even thought the series had lost a lot of luster for me in this run up to the end. Hopefully, Nakamura-sensei returns with something in due time, and given how quick his turnaround from pro debut to series was, I doubt it will take too long. 

I hope if Nakamura-sensei returns that it does not end up like Itagaki sensei's return. What do I mean by that? Sanda embodies the weakness of Beastars which was the convoluted storyline and a whole lot of shock factor. The good parts of Beastars which were the initial parts were abandoned, so its just a boring series.

The other new series for the most part were annoyances. Manga adaptation of multi media projects feel like filler to try and get the fans from those projects to read the magazine, and whilst this is not new it has this time taken up a lot more space than I feel is deserved. 

So overall, 2021 was a slog to go through, one of the worst years in recent years bar 2017 which was partially caused by the shift in the editorial department.