State of the magazine

Champion has been hit a stride recently with popular and series with good sales emerging and establishing themselves in recent years. I want to sketch in this post how I imagine the current situation of the magazine regarding the new hits and its position for the future.

First of I would like to base this analysis through series, so it will be separated in segments.

The Vampire Dies in No Time

Vampire Dies in No Time had an anime announcement not long ago, it also has been a established series in the magazine for close to 5th years already. It has always received support and cooperated with other popular series in the magazine namely Jitsu wa Watashi wa and more recently Mairimashita! Iruma-kun. In terms of its place and how it plays in for the magazine current situation it is a series with promise and the anime could give the magazine another hit if it fulfils its promising status.

Mairimashita Iruma-kun

There is not much to say about Iruma, after its initial years it great to be an astounding success with the help of a stellar anime adaptation. It has become the best selling series in the magazine and its spin off is also one of the best selling series in the magazine. It really is a big hit and one of the pillars of the magazine at the moment and for the future as it looks like it could last a long while, in a sense its success serves to overshadow and pivot the magazine to the future as it looks past its older hits like Baki and Super Radical Family.

Koe ga Dasenai Shoujo wa [Kanojo ga Yasashisugiru] to Omotteiru

A new series but one that represents a different way to look for series. Koe is a series that found its popularity first online as it was shared online via twitter by its author. I highlight this because in essence this series is a safer bet to serialise as its has a degree of popularity but it also might bring people not familiar with champion to the magazine. I do think this something that will continue happening and probably expand if Koe finds success. In fact, however, Koe is not unique in this aspect Meika and Sachio had a similar route and occasionally artists are scouted via twitter by editors nowadays and it will only expand in the future. Hence, whilst this series is in itself not important at moment it signals a new sort of serialisation in Champion and magazines in general. However, at the same time it also highlights a potential gloomy aspect which I will highlight further on.

Yowamushi Pedal

Yowamushi Pedal is a very successful series and it still holds a great deal of importance to the magazine. It has however declined in sales and that was to be expected from its peak a few years ago now especially as there is no news of a new anime. It has a live action film set for this year and whilst it might renovate interest in the series and increase sales again, I can not say I am confident. Regardless of that Pedal is not going anywhere any time soon, its position in the magazine is still firmly of a central pillar even after over 10 years and I do not see this changing in the near future.

Worst Gaiden Guriko

A spin off of a popular series, for the future this series shows together with Makai a future that I am not particularly excited for, a magazine with spin off of popular series. I prefer this series to be in side magazines as well but their sales and popularity have propped up the magazine and its probably going to continue being a trend.

Appare! Urayasu Tekkin Kazoku

A big hit series, but one that has lost a that status in the magazine in recent years. The recent drama brought a new highlight but I expect the series to continue to be a mid level series in the magazine which will end when Hamaoka decides its time.

BEASTARS

Like Iruma-kun, one of the newest biggest hits in the magazine, however, unlike Iruma its close to its ending so its place in the future of the magazine depends heavily on the following work of Itagaki Paru and whether it will be in Champion or not. However, at the moment it is one of the biggest hits of the magazine and a sustaining pillar of the magazine but probably not for much longer.

Atsumare! Fushigi Kenkyuubu

Masahiro Anbe's latest hit that started in the same new series round. It is a successful series but one which has potential if given an anime, but at the moment its firmly a secure series in the middle of the magazine. It can continue for much longer, so it probably still has a long way to go for any ending.

Harigane Service Ace

The sequel to the popular series Harigane Service, at this point the series sales have declined significantly from its past glory but it will continue to run in the magazine for the coming future or at least one to two years. I however, only see it as a middle pack series which is past its best especially if it is not given any anime adaptation or similar.

SHY

A new series that might eventually become a standout series but at the moment its struggling to establish a clear position in the magazine, part of this originates from its lack of substantial growth in sales according to shoseki. Its future is up in the air and I am not personally confident in saying this will be a new standout hit but a middle pack series.


Rokudou no Onnatachi

Rokudou is by all means a middle tier success in the magazine and it is undoubtably quite far into its story, so it should head towards end in the near future. So in short it a sales that sustain the magazine in the middle tier but one which will probably never become big enough to be a pillar of the magazine.


Overall -

The magazine features all these series with varying degrees of importance and potential for the future. However, Champion is probably in a rather decent spot at the moment, the recent hits of beastars, and iruma-kun have given the magazine new big hits that it had not had in a while. However, it also has shifted to relying on series from the internet and spin offs for what i assume is safer bets for success and whilst former is not technically and issue i do find an issue with the latter.

Champion currently has two novel spins offs and two manga spin off, whilst the novel are harmless because they occupy only a couple of pages the series take a slot that could be given to a original work, potentially a successful one. It is a fall back measure for safety and I can understand in this difficult period for magazines that they seek safety instead of taking more risks. its normal and common in fact other shounen magazines tend to serialise things that they have found success with before. However, obviously this is only a problem because of the limited size of the magazine and you might know what I am trying to hint at here. I believe digital platforms for manga will only grow bigger, not only because they have no clear demographic so they can appeal to wider audiences and are in fact more convenient.

Akita Shoten has dipped in to the water with Manga Cross but it does not reach the level of other platform like Jump+ and the likes. It has various series of various genres that target differences audiences and it also has a re-serialisation of Ika Musume, Crows and AI no Idenshi for people that register in the platform.  I do think they should expand and republish their older series this way. They also occasionally have series from WSC feature at least some chapters for a limited period of time and I think they should do this from the onset as the series begins it serialises up to 1 or two volumes of chapter so it could give these titles more chance of exposure from the onset. 

This in fact makes me wonder to the digitally dominated comics market in Japan asian neighbours which instead of offering free to read with limitations to coerce people into buying the physical volumes, in these places there is less of an emphasis on this. In fact, they instead focus on monetising chapters after a certain threshold with usually cost small amounts of money but with the amount of readers it is worth it. I do know these webtoons can and are occasionally released physically but it is often a second thought and not all series receive this. Of course, the predominance of digital allows publishers and authors to cut out the manufactures and vendors and keep a large part of the profit for themselves. In addition, it also makes second hand sales impossible which is an annoyance for the publishers in Japan.

I do not think the Japanese market will transition to something resembling its neighbour but I do believe digital platforms will become bigger and not smaller, so Manga Cross has probably a more promising future than the WSC itself. However, I do feel like the magazine is in a good spot at the moment but I am not optimistic about the future and I see a shift towards a digital platform as the future for smaller publishers. 

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.

WSC decade

At the turn of the last decade, WSC had just commemorated its 40th anniversary with various projects and had found what would be its biggest hit of the century - Yowamushi Pedal. It was a decent end to the last decade which put the hurdle at a rather high level for the start of the following decade.

In highschools there was the football in Angel Voice, Samejima in his path to the world of sumo in Bachi Bachi as well as the heated road racing in Yowamushi Pedal. At the same time in Clover, it was time for fishing and punching, Nanba DeadEnd was equally about punching but also gags. In Mitsudomoe, the three sisters were at heart of crazy middle school hijinks and Squid Girl attempt to take over the world went less than smoothly. In 2010, there would be more fighting added to the magazine with Sugarless but also the guardian of hell Cerberis would make an appearance.

In 2011, it was the time for jail time with Prisoner Riku, Soon, the one dose of Saint Seiya was not enough and the arrival of The Lost Canvas would cover the frequent absent of Next Dimension. 2011 would also be the end of Nanba's fight. And the sky went grey with Sora ga Haiiro Daikara as Cerberis was also put to bed.

Zombies would awaken in 2012 in Bio Hazard manga adaption. Dokaben and Bachi Bachi said goodbye and left and but returned before they were missed with Dokaben Dream Tournament and Bachi Bachi Burst respectively. Versus Earth brought aliens and a fight for survival whilst Meitantei Mani bought about various different eccentric cases.

Lies and cute supernatural monsters showed up in Jitsu wa Watashi wa in 2013. In Shin Garouden, there was martial arts galore in contrast to the show of stupidity in Ikkinkonbo Z The weather went mad in Utten Kekkou and the artists of tinplate showed up to play baseball.

Baki decided to take a path his own in Baki Dou, at the same moment Utten Kekkou fizzled out   whilst volley balls were pumped in Harigane Service but the ones in Angel Voice were put back in the closet. Instead of fists it was time for swords to be lifted in Kurotora as Shin Garouden was put to rest. Bachi Bachi Burst rebranded to Samejima, Saigo no Juugonichi in its last instalment whilst Meitantei Mani retired. However, a new group of girls detective emerged to replaced her in Kyodai - Shoujo Tantei to Yuurei Keikan no Kaiki Jikenbo, whilst the stupidity in Ikkinbonzo Z migrated to Gmen.

The judo club was shut down in Uchikomi because the zombies had returned in Bio Hazard.  The swords returned to the sheaths in Kurotora and instead the racket was picked up by the boys over at Shonen Racket. The vampire appeared but died in no time, and the robots and humans met in AI no Idenshi to sort out their problems.

The bad girls were let out in Rokudou no Onnatachi, and the animals became humans in Beastars. In addition the mystery club avoided disbandment in Atsumare! Fushigi Kenkyuubu.

In Biohazard, the zombie apocalypse had ended as well as the trouble of AI and humans in Ai no Idenshi. The boys gathered the balls ands put down the racket down in Shonen Racket. In Himawari the delinquents became idols and the girls become magical girls in Magical Girl Site.

He had a dream to become a mangaka in Weekly Shonen Hachi. Finally, Prisoner Riku was no longer a prisoner. Urayasu became quieter with the end of Maido! Urayasu Tekkin Kazoku but there was not enough time to rest as Kotetsu and his troupe returned in Appare! Urayasu Tekkin Kazoku. The ball and boots were let out and the swords were unsheathed in Junior and Akatora. Baki Dou cahnged to Baki Dou and the girls revived the Judo club in 'Ippon' Again.  The Serve in Harigane Service was not enough and it returned with an Ace in Harigane Service Ace. The ink ran out for Hachi and the dream was over in 2018.

It was Ashigei that took one step to start  of the 50th anniversary celebration. Guriko did his worst in Worst Gaiden Guriko by fighting and Junior retired early and Akatora lost its edge.  Dragon, fox and many other goddesses of all types as well as tits showed up in Dorakon, whilst the criminal was let loose in Toubousha Elio. It was up to Shy to capture and fight the criminals as well as the heart.

Sales and speculation on success of anime.

Anime or any other media project are gradually becoming more important nowadays for manga publisher in Japan. Not only can they provide increased exposure within the domestic market, but also to the international market. So as a result the media department is becoming more important in any publisher. To relate to how this means anything to Shonen Magazines and specifically Champion, I will look at previous series in WSC that received anime in recent times and how these fared. Following, this I will take the chance to compare them to the Champion series that had anime announced recently. I make reference here to anime only because it is the most popular media project for manga, there are live dramas, movies, games and the likes too of course.

Yowamushi Pedal was placed in 10th in the Kono Manga ga Sugoi list in 2010. However, this alone did not boost its growth. Its sales had been gradually growing from volume to volume until it reached an apparent peak prior to the anime. It sales increased significantly throughout the first season of the anime which was very popular.

**│*23,586(7)│ -----│ -----│------┃*23,586(7)┃2010/06｜Yowamushi Pedal 10
**│*19,755(4)│------│ -----│------┃*19,755 (4)┃2010/09｜Yowamushi Pedal 11
**│*25,674(6)│------│ -----│------┃*25,674 (6)┃2011/02｜Yowamushi Pedal 12
**│*17,913(3)│*31,135│ -----│------┃*31,135 (10)┃2010/06｜Yowamushi Pedal 13
**│*21,789(3)│------│ -----│------┃*21,789 (3)┃2010/09｜Yowamushi Pedal 14
**│*32,691(5)│------│ -----│------┃*32,691 (5)┃2011/02｜Yowamushi Pedal 15

Pre TV anime

**│*35,504(3)│------│ -----│------┃*35,504 (3)┃2013/03｜Yowamushi Pedal 27

**│*41,272(5)│------│ -----│------┃*41,272 (5)┃2013/05｜Yowamushi Pedal 28

Anime Airing

**│*43,731(3)│*76,804│ -----│------┃*76,804 (10)┃2013/12｜Yowamushi Pedal 31

**│*70,706(5)│*96,824│ -----│------┃*96,824 (12)┃2014/01｜Yowamushi Pedal 32
**│*111,432(6)│*135,902│ -----│------┃*135,902 (13)┃2014/04｜Yowamushi Pedal 33
**│*89,559(3)│*146,799│ -----│------┃*146,799 (10)┃2014/06｜Yowamushi Pedal 34

Source - Oricon

Yowamushi Pedal V19 - 3M
Yowamushi Pedal V29 - 4M - Mid 2013
Yowamushi Pedal V30 - 5M - October 2013 - Start of the anime.
Yowamushi Pedal V35 - 10M - September 2014

Mitsudomoe was a strong seller prior to its anime announcement in late 2009. The TV anime aired in July 2010 during the summer season, a bit after the release of the 9th volume at which point it had 1M copies in print. The boost it received was decent but not astounding possibly due to the anime poor performance. It was received a second season which aired in Winter 2011. Mitsudomoe soon after went into a long hiatus that ended when it was moved to Bessatsu Shonen Champion.

**│*22,101(7)│ -----│ -----│------┃*22,101(7)┃2010/06｜Mitsudomoe 6
**│*24,883(5)│------│ -----│------┃*24883 (*7)┃2010/09｜Mitsudomoe 7
**│*11,851(3)│*29,536│ -----│------┃*29536 (*10)┃2011/02｜Mitsudomoe 8
**│*23,771(6)│ -----│ -----│------┃*23771 (6)┃2010/06｜Mitsudomoe 9
**│*34,985(5)│------│ -----│------┃*34,985 (*5)┃2010/09｜Mitsudomoe 10
**│*45,896(6)│------│ -----│------┃*45,896 (*6)┃2011/02｜Mitsudomoe 11

Source - Oricon

Shinryaku! Ika Musume at the time of its anime announcement had 7 volumes released, with 450k copies in print in total. The sales had been steadily growing and the anime enhanced this growth and gave it a notable boost. It also received a second season as the anime itself was reasonably popular unlike Mitsudomoe anime which gave a boost but was a failure.  

**│*9,669(4)│ -----│ -----│------┃*9,669 (4)┃201/｜Shinryaku! Ika Musume 5
**│*11,484(4)│ -----│ -----│------┃*11,484 (4)┃201/｜Shinryaku! Ika Musume 6
**│*24,097(5)│------│ -----│------┃*24,097 (*5)┃201｜Shinryaku! Ika Musume 8
**│*13,813(3)│------│ -----│------┃*35,419 (*10)┃201｜Shinryaku! Ika Musume 10

Source - Oricon

These are the three WSC series that received anime a while ago and I had access to sales and print data thanks to 5ch for the most part. I excluded Jitsu wa Watashi wa because the anime failed to give any notable growth to series, largely due to the big failure of the anime. The series's sales were stagnated, prior to the airing of the anime it had 1.5M copies in print. Its last update in numbers of copies in print showed 2.5M copies in print with 21 volumes. Another series, I excluded, is Magical Girl Site the series was in decline and the anime might have simply slowed that down but it was still a failure. As for Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau anime, I excluded because I do not hold enough data to display.

Beastars had a decent sales even prior to winning the awards and gaining significant exposure. its print numbers tripled during 2018. It became a massive success and is still growing albeit at a slower pace.

Beastars V6 - 600K - Prior to winning awards
Beastars V7 - 1.1M
Beastars V8 - 1.3M
Beastars V10 - 1.8M

Source - Heiji


**│*12823(5)│------│ -----│------┃*12823 (*5)┃2017/11｜BEASTARS 7 
**│*29494(6)│------│ -----│------┃*29494 (*6)┃2018/05｜BEASTARS 8 
**│*20522(3)│*43185│ -----│------┃*43185 (10)┃2018/07｜BEASTARS 9 
**│*23223(3)│*46482│ -----│------┃*46482 (10)┃2018/09｜BEASTARS 10 
**│*30531(4)│*50822│ -----│------┃*50822 (11)┃2018/11｜BEASTARS 11 
**│*29228(3)│*56657│ -----│------┃*56657 (10)┃2017/11｜BEASTARS 12 


Source - Oricon.


The Oricon sales did highlight to some degree the increase in sales when compared to the increase in print numbers. This increase was made possible largely due to the publicity coming from awards mainly the Cartoon Prize Award and but less the 2nd place in Kono Manga ga Sugoi rankings. Beastars, however, did not just bag these awards it received others, some of lower publicity value but of higher critical value.

Darwin's Game sales seem to have reached a peak at the moment. It grew significantly from the first few volumes and it gradually reached a peak within the last few volumes at least in regards to its sales shown in Oricon. There is still nothing new on the anime. The worries about this anime is the tire of death game series with recent anime series in this genre performing quite badly, though this was not because of the genre alone, obviously there were others factors involved. 

Darwin's Game V16 - 2M
Darwin's Game V16 - 2.2M

Source - Heiji

**│*24716(3)│*51635│ -----│------┃*51635 (10)┃2018/07｜Darwins's Game 13 
**│*30160(4)│*50684│ -----│------┃*50684 (11)┃2018/09｜Darwin's Game 14
**│*28708(5)│*47576│ -----│------┃*47576 (12)┃2018/11｜Darwin's Game 15 
**│*24700(4)│*42489│ -----│------┃*42489 (11)┃2017/11｜Darwin's Game 16 

Source - Oricon

If there is anything to take from this is the obvious that the boost the manga receives is usually directly correlated with the popularity/reception of the adaption. However, there is something else. Manga that are already popular are likely to get bigger boosts. Yowamushi Pedal was very popular within the magazine and sold very well for a Champion series, in others words it sold well within a restricted environment since Champion is a minor magazine, before going into an anime. The anime was successful and exposed the series to a wider readerbase that previously might not have seen or heard of the manga because it was within this restricted environment with in the Champion readerbase. Obviously, social media and words of mouth online can spread like fire and a manga can become really popular even if its in a minor magazine, a restricted environment. There are other variables that have to been taken into account such as the publisher and their economic status, a bigger publisher will have more money to promote their products.