Sunday X Champion - A Comparison of the Moment.

Image from Takekawa x Ichihara Interview 

Sunday and Champion are rather different magazines even thought they are both weekly shonen magazines. Historically, they have different origins and part of this is why they are separated by over a decade in terms of age. However, the history of these magazines is a topic for another post in the future. This time we will be focusing on the current moment. Over half a century after their creation how are these magazines at the moment? How do they compare to each other in terms the current series, but also what they tend to serialise and what has been successful recently. 

One of the first thing to highlight is how Sunday has a title massive title with iconic cultural status ongoing in the magazine. Of course, I am talking about the unaging not quite a child 'Detective Conan.' This provides a pillar for stability for the magazine as the series seems to be as popular as ever, its movie are racking in at the box office and its older and recent spin off works were also incredibly popular. 

Detective Conan vol 96 - Gosho Aoyama

Champion does not have a series with this similar level of sustained popularity. Of course, it still has popular titles such as Baki, Super Radical Gag Family and Yowamushi Pedal. However, these series have not maintained the high level of popularity they had in the past and in addition they were never really as iconic or as popular as Conan. Conan has in sense has remained unchanged since the start but its audience never moved on. In contrast to Super Radical Gag Family, where audiences moved to other styles of gag manga and the The Parents Associations (TPA) quibbles with probably hindered it as well. Baki in a sense was also effected by this as its kind of failed to keep its audience connect in the same way that Conan has over so many years. Conan's multimedia success is probably a big reason for this as it continues to have a gateway with audiences outside of the magazine sphere in a way that the Champion hit series I have mentioned simply cannot.

Position of the magazine 

However, another pillar of stability for the magazine is its turn to successful veterans in recent times. This can be illustrated by returns of Kenjiro Hata (Tonikaku Kawaii), Syun Matsuema (Kimi wa 008), Kotoyama (Yokufushi no Uta), Takuya Mitsuda (Major 2nd), Rumiko Takahashi(MAO) and Kusuba Michiteru (Daiku no Haito). All these authors had previous successes in Sunday and a lot of baggage and they all have on going series in the magazine at the moment. The series of these authors all are reasonably established in the magazine at the moment with most of them having their run break past a year at least. Therefore, we can reasonably argue that this turn to these veterans was part of the magazine turn to a pair of safe hands in the current troubling period for shonen magazines. 

Champion has attempt the same but returning veterans had not had the same level of success. They have veterans too, firstly there are the ones who had previous hits in the magazine are the ones that are still writing continuation of those hits series such as Itagaki Keisuke (Baki series) and Hamaoka Kenji (Super Radical Gag Family series). In addition, Masahiro Anbe (Shinryaku Ika Musume) is one of the few that had a prior hit in Champion and who returned with another successful series. In a similar vein is Ishiguro Masakazu  but his success prior to starting Furutto on Thursday was not in Champion and one could argue this is likewise the case for Sogabe Toshinori (Yankee JK Kuzuhana-chan). Wataru Watanabe could also be seen in the same vein as two previous authors, but before Yowamushi Pedal, he had limited experience and not a lot of success in his baggage. 

Shuukan Shonen Hachi - Akita Shoten 

However, this does not mean Champion did no try to bring back veterans. in fact, in recent times  Hirakawa Tetsuhiro (Himawari), Masuda Eiji(Weekly Hachi) and Hosokawa Masami (Toubousha Elio) all returned. Neither was able to create a successful series and I do not blame them. The magazine is constantly shifting and in part this is caused by how much smaller shounen magazines have become, they do not have the same readership base they might have even only a decade ago. This obviously spills onto the authors and they have to constantly adapt to the changing scenario and develop stories that can catch different audiences. 

In Sunday, not all returning veterans have had the same level of success as well. Kotoyama. Rumiko Takahashi and Takuya Mitsuda stand out as having found decent success admittedly the later has done this through a sequel to his most well known work. The others Kenjiro Hata, Syun Matsuema and Kusuba Michiteru have not found the same degree of success and the latter is the most notable one in his lack of success with Daiku no Haito. 

Excluding, Major 2nd as it is a sequel to a beloved and massively popular, the biggest hits from Sunday in recent times have come from more inexperienced authors such as Oda Tomohito with Komi-san wa Komyshou wa and Sousou no Frieren from Yamada Kanehito and Abe Tsukasa. Of course, many inexperienced authors fail and thats why veterans are a bet with much less risk. However, at the same time veterans have higher a pay rate and therefore many veterans can mean the profit margin of these magazine, which are low to begin with, are even lower. Perhaps this is one of the reasons Sunday has had to hike its price up and reduce its number of pages, so everything has its downsides. 

Champion on the other hand clings to certain veterans but most of the magazine is formed by inexperienced authors or first time authors. There are sometimes experienced authors like Sogabe Toshinori or even Uchida Kohei (Kurobane Hakusho), they are not authors with a massive success however. This means their pay rate is probably not on the level of authors like Rumiko Takahashi or Takuya Mitsuda and that is probably why Champion even though it is from a much smaller publisher is 20 yen cheaper whilst at the same time having more pages than Sunday. 

Recent Trends  

Sousou no Frieren in Cover of Sunday - Yamada Kanehito & Abe Tsukasa

In recent times both magazines have serialised things that were not traditionally seen in shounen magazines in the past. Sunday for once has come to focus a lot in slice of life series and series with a much slower pace. Things like Maiko-chan, Komi-san, Daiku no Haitou,Yokufushi no Uta and Sousou no Frieren are obviously not similar in genre but they all have a slice of life touch and are usually take more time to develop and they are not overtly dramatic either. They are instead all works that give a positive feeling to the reader. Obviously this is not all Sunday serialises but it has grown to focus on these aspects much more in recent times.

On the other hand, Champion is rather hard to pin point. It does not have a clear focus and things are a bit more erratic. In recent times it has taken popular series SNS and made collabs with a popular television program, serialised spin off of its popular works. So things are a bit more peculiar when it comes to champion, there is no clear trend in what is serialised and the very fact it can pick up three series from SNS in one year shows that. It feels like the magazine is always changing and adapting and thats probably a consequence of the lower circulation number which means the magazines have to find new ways to attract new readers whilst at the same time keeping old fans interested. 

Final Thoughts 

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun in the cover of Champion - Osamu Nishi

Both these magazines are quite different. At the moment, Champion feels like it is in a changing possibly due to the popularity of Mairimashita! Iruma-kun, which has meant the editorial department brought other feel good slice of life series to the magazine. At the same time, it also brought more battle orientated series which have found some success in a genre which had traditionally done rather poorly in Champion in the past. It does feel like the magazine is changing whether its for the best depends on each person's personal taste though.

Sunday has not had the same sort of change as Champion in recent times. The slice of life turn is not necessarily recent and it has continued to drift along that wave and I doubt it will stop anytime soon because it has been successful venture. In addition, Sunday has in a sense its own author 'academy' and by that I mean the authors that publish in Sunday are usually groomed in Sunday's wider editorial framework.  Therefore, these trends of the magazine can be more everlasting since the authors are groomed by the Sunday editorial department. 

This is completely different from Champion that serialises many authors from other areas. It does not tie itself with only authors groomed through its editorial department in fact most authors come from elsewhere when it comes to Champion. This is probably why it has less defined trends in recent times but both types have its downsides and upsides so its a mainly question of the overall editorial line each editorial department has. 

Links -

 Interview between Sunday head editor and Champion head editor

https://natalie.mu/comic/pp/weeklychamp01

If  you enjoy reading these posts, please consider leaving a comment, I would love to hear suggestion for stuff you would like me to write about. 

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.

Where are they now - Axed authors from Champion

Suzuki Kai - Author of Kurotora (ended in 2015) 

Kurotora Vol 1

Latest work - 'Bokura no Seishun Mokushirou' one-shot in 2016-15.

Donsoku Mainichi - Author of 'Magicalo Magical' (ended in 2016) - 

Magicalo Magical vol 1

Latest work - he/she has published nothing ever since. (possibly changed pen name?)

Matsumoto Yutaka - Author of Sumeragi Dressers (ended in 2016)

Sumeragi Dressers Vol 1

Latest work - 'Ikoku no Hime no Lupgirl' in 2019-50. Alongside this he also published another one-shot.

Hikari Sumi - Author of Nikoben (ended in 2016) 

Nikoben Vol 1

He was the illustrator for the series 'Last Order' that was published in Heros online manga service. 

Satou Shuuichirou - Illustrator of Badbros (Ended in 2016) 

BADBROS Vol 1

Latest work - 'Kidou Katen Reizoku' one-shot in 2018-09. Alongside this he also published another one-shot in Bessatsu Shonen Champion.

Suzuki Yuuta - Author of Seigi no Satsujinki (ended in 2016)

Seigi no Satsujinki Vol 1

Latest work -'Henryou Mieru Sasa' one-shot in 2018-11 in Bessatsu Shonen Champion. Alongside this he/she published another 5 one-shots and had a short series in WSC from 2017-23 to 2017-24.

Kisanuki Tani - Author of Maruyuu Kunoshima-san (Ended in 2017) 

Maruyuu Kunoshima-san Vol 1

Latest work - 'Classmates' oneshot in 2017-50.

Urata Kazuhiro - Author of JINBA (ended in 2017) 

JINBA Vol 1

Latest work - he/she has not published anything ever since.

Shirato Yuusuke - Illustrator of Utsurou Kimi To (ended in 2017) 
Latest work - illustrator for 'Hibari Blink' oneshot published in 2019-09 Bessatsu Shonen Champion.

Hajime Furukawa - Author of Utsurou Kimi To (Ended in 2017)

Latest work - he/she has not published anything ever since. 

Utsurou Kimi To Vol 1

Amayama Maya - Author of Chikakarachika (ended in 2015) and Otae-san Kyou mo Tabetai (ended in 2018) 

Chikakarachika and Otae-san Kyou mo Tabetai Vol 1

Latest work - he/she has not published nothing ever since. 

Ikada Kai - Author of Great Old (Ended in 2018) 

Great Old Vol 1

Latest work - 'Dosanko Gyaru Namaramenko' serialised in Jump +. 

Shigemoto Hajime - Author of Uten Kekkou (ended n 2015) and Gyakushuu Inferno (Ended in 2018)

Uten Kekkou Vol 1 

Gyakushuu Inferno Vol 1

Latest work - 'Gakkou no Hasegawa-san' oneshot published in 2020-05 Bessatsu Shonen Champion.

Mizumori Takashi - Author of Mount no Taiyou (Ended in 2019) 

Mound no Taiyou Vol 1

Latest work - 'Bocchi wa Ace wo Lead Shitai serialised in Manga One.

Haitani Otoya - Author of Junior (ended in 2019)

Junior Vol 1

Latest work - 'Jinx' short series from 2019-47 to 2019-49.

Saitou Keigo - Author of Akatora (Ended in 2019) 

Akatora Vol 1

Latest work - 'Kizudarake no Piano Sonata' serialised in Jump +.

Haiba Nemumi - Author of Ashigei Shoujo Komura-san

Ashigei Shoujo Komura-san Vol 1

Latest work - he/she has not published anything ever since.

Furuta Tomohiro - Author of Boryaku no Panzer (Ended in 2019) 

Boryaku no Panzer Vol 1

Latest work - he/she has not published anything ever since. 

Shokubai Hiroomi - Author of Dorakon (Ended in 2020) 

Dorakon! Vol 1

Latest work - he/she has not published anything ever since. 

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.

MANGA CROSS and Other Digital Platforms

Manga Cross is Akita Shoten's new platform and I wanted to talk to it in more detail in its own separate post after the last post. I also want to explore other more successful digital platforms by bigger publishers to expand this post into a wider exploration of the rise of manga published in digital platforms.

 The rise of digital platforms started relatively recently with Jump +, Magazine Pocket and publishers have put more effort into pushing them by publishing more and more series but also creating a great platform for reading in mobile and other platforms.

Manga Cross is obviously a lot newer, it's only now nearing its second anniversary and I do think it has found a great amount of success for the fact its from a smaller publisher. In addition, digital platforms do not seem to be as attractive to the big authors and new authors as being published in magazines possibly because of pay? I imagine digital offers a lower base pay rate and so it relies more on physical tankoubon sales for money. And of course being serialised usually means you will get a certain level of visibility targeted towards a certain demographic already whilst in digital a good series might be lost in the midst of other series. However, digital gives a more flexible schedule for release and debatably more creative freedom.

What I seek to lead this to was the fact that Manga Cross and these platforms usually tend to be filled with newbies or veteran authors that want a more flexible schedule. In Manga Cross's case, it has a couple of veteran but also newbies alongside authors that first started off publishing their works on social media and the likes.

The Dangers in My Heart

The Dangers in My Heart Cover 3 - Akita Shoten, Sakurai Norio.

One of the few series in Manga Cross by a notable author and one that has had a past struggle with health issues during Mitsudomoe serialisation. Boku Yaba did start in WSC and was planned to moved to Manga Cross after its first five chapters whilst Rororro! continued there, Boku Yaba would be a monthly series with around eight to 10 pages. This allowed her to write this series alongside Rororro! and eventually when Rororro! it ended it became a biweekly series.

Boku Yaba is definitely the pillar of Manga Cross, it has been the most accessed series for the last few months and I believe its success shows a great deal of how digital platforms are more accessible because of the lack of a paywall to read. In addition, the lack of cost means it's usually more accessible for mobile users to just drop in to read a chapter or two. In addition these platforms can have significantly more series than a normal magazine as well as a bigger variation in genre, demographic and the likes. So digital platforms not only link naturally to social media and new forms of reading manga on mobiles and the likes and I believe these platforms will only expand more in the future and will become more attractive for new authors and veterans.

Creature Girl: A Hand's on Field Journal in Another World

Volume 3 Cover (Published by Seven Seas)

Part of this attraction will be because of how they will no doubt provide more chances for authors to write many different series. I touched this before when I talked about variety but here I seek to highlight and showcase this.

Monster Diary is an adult series with sex scenes between the main character and different monster girls. In addition, it also features blood and gore content. In short its the complete opposite to the sort of series Boku Yaba, a cute romcom between two innocent middle schoolers. In clear demographic terms Monster Girl would be in a seinen but one that would feature most likely in more ero leaning magazines like Young Champion and Young Magazine for example. In contrast Boku Yaba would feature in a shonen or possibly a seinen magazine with an older audience but one that favours more fluff series like Comic Alive and so on. However, digital platforms allow these vastly different series to be serialised in the same place and appeal to audiences with vastly different tastes.

This is something magazines can simply not replicate, and to highlight that even more i want to showcase a different series.

My New Boss is Goofy

Volume 2 Cover

My Boss is weird is a very popular series that was serialised on Manga Cross after seeing success on twitter. Its sales are close to Boku Yaba and it matches as one of the most successful series on the platform. However, in contrast to them it is a series for a female audience. In fact, Manga Cross categorises series for Otona (adult), shoujo and shounen so these platforms can catch more audiences then any single magazine could ever do as they can appeal to various different tastes. It can have any genre and even appeal to a niche.

This is where I want to compare it to Webtoon, the Korean platform  and ACQQ, U17 and other Chinese platforms. These platforms like i previously mentioned monetise their series and physical releases are not a regular thing. However, what i want to continue to highlight is how diverse these platforms are. This ability to be more diverse and because of the free to read for limited time business model which naturally lends well into getting people to buy the volume in case they miss chapters. But most importantly, this low barrier of entry is naturally well fit for mobile phone readers and it also gets people directly to what they want to read instead of buying a magazine with another number of series one might not be interested in at all.

In other words, I believe Akita  Shoten and other publishers should invest more in their digital platforms by boosting the amount of series and variety which will obviously mean an expansion in budget for servers and editors. WSC and other manga magazines have definitely seen an increasing decline in sales and even digital seems not to compensate for it as their price has risen substantially. In just recent years WSC, WSS and WSM and even WSJ have had price hikes. WSC specifically went from 280yen to 300yen to the current 320 with a space of three years. Tankoubons have likewise seen price hikes going from 440 to 499 in the same time frame. This is a bigger issue with shonen magazines since seinen magazines have not seen such drops and they are also pricier and not only the magazine but also the volumes.

I imagine this hike in price is a way in which profit can still be made from these magazines as they probably have a rather low profit margin for each magazine. However, the decrease in circulation makes it so the price of the magazine has to follow for a profit margin to even exist. It probably is the same for volumes. Investing in digital platforms will not solve this but it will provide an alternative platform that is bigger and more diverse, so it therefore could appeal to a bigger group of people than Weekly Shonen Champion could ever dream of. In fact, this is probably already the case in the current Manga Cross that has in two years given more hits for Akita Shoten than Weekly Shonen Champion. It is a tricky bet but publishers will have to adapt to a new age and there is no better time than now for Akita Shoten to divert its resources to continue building Manga Cross in a good platform for manga readers of all ages and tastes.

With the latest announcement of 4 new series for this July, three of which are weekly, Manga Cross will finally have an original series updating every weekday. Original series were previously only updated on Tuesday and Thursday. This is a big move because it should expand the number of original series running on platform by a lot. These new series are the only ones releasing on Monday, Wednesday or Friday,  yet, so there is still a lot of new series coming in the future to boast these new days it wants to have original series releasing. It is a show of intent that Manga Cross will be a bigger focus and the names of the authors appearing also show that the platform is more attractive to authors. 

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.

Darwin's Game TV Anime Details and Expectations.

Darwin's Game

Darwin's Game TV anime will start airing in Tokyo MX in January 2020. It began serialisation in 2013 and has been one of the biggest hits in the relatively new manga magazine : Bessatsu Shonen Champion. It currently has 3.6 million copies in print with 19 volumes out at the moment. In addition to this it is the first anime adaption of a series in Bessatsu Shonen Champion.

The studio in charge of the series is Nexus, a relatively new studio with few works under their name. like Granblue Fantasy. However, they have collaborated in a numbers of series before such as SHIROBAKO.

The staff is as following

Director - Yokumoto Yoshinobu
Series Composition - Shu Miyama (FLIPFLOPS MEMBER)
Music - Kenichirou Suehiro
Character Design - Kazuya Nakanishi

A relatively unexperienced director in charge of the series, his only previous work directing was Comics Girls another series by Nexus. He has ,however, a lot of experience as episode directors of various series. In this case, there is not a lot to expect but it is an upcoming director with significant experience in direction episodes and his only previous directorship over a series was a slice of life, comedy series, a rather different genre from Darwin's Game.

Series composition will be done by one of the members of the original author of the series so there is not much that could go wrong in that aspect. After all, the author himself should have a greater understand of his work than anyone else in distinguishing the right pace of the series.

Music is rather important for me and the person in charge seems to have a lot of experience working in series with a similar vibe, so this should not be an area of concern.

Character design is from the visuals rather similar to the original work and perhaps that is for the best. The person in charge does not seem to have a lot of experience character design but the visuals do not show any problems.

Darwin's Game story wise is reasonably far into its story, a recent announcement said it will soon enter its last arc. Its sales have not shown any particular upwards trend in volumes sales and it has been that way for the past few volumes at least when it comes to oricon and shoseki, depending on how seriously one takes them for. This has in fact make me hold a particular negative view of the potential of the anime in bringing about a surge in popularity of the series.

The death game genre is a trend that has gone down in recent times, it was a highly saturated  genre in animation a few years ago, with various series like Ousama Game, Killer bites and many others. Many of these series were not really popular. Darwin's Game at the beginning seems very much like a death game but it gradually develops into a battle series involving factions and various scenarios in which life and death are not always at stake. Whether this is something different enough for it to stand out is questionable. It is also not for me to decide this but for the Japanese audience.

In terms of content without going into spoilers, it seems like the series will be relatively fast paced to cover the first major arc and whether this can be made by Shu Miyama to feel natural will be a something hard to achieve.

The PVs do not show too much and judging from that the quality of the animation can be very misleading as it is usually packed for obvious reasons with the 'better' animated parts.

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.