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.

2020 - Series and Authors to Look Out for 1

I have in this blog mostly on analysed champion stuff but I decided to branch out, after all I do read more manga than just the ones in champion magazines. It was then that i stumbled on the idea of waiting about  authors that still not have a series yet have shown potential in one-shots and the likes.
Perhaps to follow through in this process I will also look at new series that might be worth looking out for in 2020.

I will explore first two promising authors with origin in Champion magazines.

Fukuyama Hana - Sweet and Bitter Drama

After a short serialised of omnibus love stories usually homosexual but not always. They were not sweet love stories either and without spoiling some are rather bleak and saddening. It is not the topic of her work that makes me think of her as a very promising author but also the way it was presented and constructed. Her omnibus stories had a realistic touch because they were not overtly happy but also not overtly dramatic either, it had a balance. It was through this balance that most stories did manage to touch me in a real sense, not as tear jerker or a cute story but as a real human romance drama.

The panelling and perhaps the lack of bold emphasising lines in facial expressions for dramatic purposes made the series seem more easy to read, in a way that it was the reader role to read the characters subtle expressions. Similarly, the story is not told to the reader but are visually presented it, and by doing every chapter is more satisfying and surprising at the end.

From my research on her, she is openly lesbian, it is listed in her twitter profile. In addition, she was an assistant of Shinobu Seguchi towards the end of Shuujin Riku, and Ittan no Ko was her first publication. I believe she has a lot of talent for any genre but in the short term possibly I see her making a very good mature romance manga.


Arai Shuntarou - Subverting Expectations

Arai Shuntarou, first publication was Hoshi no Kyoudai in Bessatsu Shonen Champion, it came when he won the encouragement award of in the 5th edition of Next Champion. Since then he has penned down many one-shots in Bessatsu as well as Weekly Shonen Champion.

He is very creative and can write pretty much anything but his work have his own special vibe which originates from his sketchy style that adds a mysterious touch. In his most recent one-shot Ishumemuri, the mysterious mood the peculiar background creates is incredible.

His creativity is present not only in his art but also on his writing, this was shown in his short series 3, a yankee series.  In it every character had special shadows that stood out behind them which expressed an inner felling of the character. It is one of the uniqueness of his style.

His art has improved over the one-shots and his knack for writing one-shots with punchlines at the end that subvert expectations is incredible. In series this would be more difficult and perhaps a series that would allow him to express all that creativity would be the for the best. This is perhaps why I do not see him sticking to shonen manga specifically but delving in various other demographics and genres.

For today, it is these two but next time I will have more and perhaps a few series as well on top of promising authors.

Houkago Teibou Nisshi - Introduction, TV Anime Details and Expectations.

Houkago Teibou Nisshi - Kousaka Yasuyuki
Serialised in Young Champion Retsu
Genre - Slice of Life

Setting and Synopsis -
Houkago Teibou Nisshi starts off with the main character, Tsurigi Hina, who favours indoors activities, she has a love for knitting. Hina and her family move to the small beach town of Ashiya-machi in Fukuoka, Kyushu. She and her family had previously lived in Ashiya-machi as it happens to be the home town of her father. After a meeting with a member of the Teibou club, she gets pressured into joining the club and involved in outdoor activities like fishing.

Story and Comment

There is no story as such in Houkago, after all its a series about a girl coming out of her shell and discovering new things and various different ways to have fun that might have otherwise been difficult if not impossible in Kanto. I do believe there is both a fulfilment and a role in the development of the person in trying different things such as fishing and other activities of leisure but i do feel perhaps a bit irked is that it might be subtly saying indoor activities are not as fun and fulfilling as outdoors. Indoor activities like knitting, playing board games like chess and the likes can not only help with the development of motor skills but also help in the development and maintenance of the brain.  This might perhaps not be the intention of the author at all but It was just something that I felt like highlighting.

In addition, the plot device of that leads to the Hina joining the club seems to me like bullying, it is especially highlighted by the unwillingness of Hina at first to go to the club. Her enjoyment of the activities does eventually mean it is forgotten but it leaves a bitter taste of a poor plot device that is commonly used.

In other aspects like the technical side of fishing, the series seem to be well researched. So it can be something that could get people interested in fishing, in a similar way that Yuru Camp got many people into camping.

TV Anime Staff -

The series will be animated by the studio Doga Kobo. A studio that has a lot of experience with similar series to Hougkago Teibou Nisshi like Yuru Yuri and other series which are primarily slice of life and have no overarching plot.

Ookuma Takaharu will be the director, it will be his first time directing a series. He has previous worked as animation director, assistant director in various series like Sabage-bu, Mitsudomoe and Yuru Yuri. Similarly to the studio, he has vast experience in slice of life series.

In a similar vein comes Shimo Fumihiko with the series composition, she has also worked before in various slice of life series like Stella no Mahou, New Game, Anima Yell and many others.

Next is Kumagai Katsuhiro with the character designs which from visuals seem to replicate the original work's art style perfectly. His backlog of works is thin when compared to the others, but the visuals do look good so far.

It is in safe hands but what can it achieve?

Houkago is in a genre that is kind of a stable nowadays, series with a similar mood are present in almost every anime season with hits like Non Non Biyori, Yuru Camp and Gochuumon Usagi desu ka?  in recent years. Thus it might be a question of whether Hougako Teibou Nisshi provides something that slice of life series that were not too successful did not. It is the fishing element that for me makes Houkago stand out, fishing is not typically the topic of a lot of anime, specifically casual fishing. Houkago represents it as exciting activity in itself but it also shows the aftermath by showing different fishes and ways to prepare, cook and eat them. Fishing is after all a fun activity that can be practiced leisurely and competitively in addition it can be done socially in groups or alone. It is this that can be the standout feature of Houkago Teibou Nisshi, so i do believe it can be successful anime.

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.

Elio and Life on the Run

Elio and Life on the Run

Author - Hosokawa Masami
Genre - Historical, Action

Setting

Erio sets it self apart from other series in the first few pages with a historical setting, it is set in Medieval Spain, to be more specifically in the 14th century. A century marked by the spread of the plague causing the death of millions of people. The series does reference the plague so it takes place after the onset of it and hints that the setting is probably late 14th century. There were a series of conflict within the empire in the aim for the throne during this period and again this is referenced in the series and is mostly going to be explored in the series plot in the future. It is a ready made setting with a lot of significant developments which the plot can revolve around and unlike Japanese historical manga which are relatively common, western ones are not so this setting feels fresh.

However, using this type of setting takes a lot of research which is hard work instead of just writing out a story without any basic construction on the world which is pretty much what happens in most manga. In Erio first chapter, the main character is in a prison. This is a problem because prison were not really used in medieval times as a sanction. In fact, shaming, fines and death were the common sanctions for criminal behaviour. Prisons were only used to hold the criminal in wait for his trial. The main character as revealed in the chapter killed his brother, homicide would usually be punished with death. He was presumably judged guilty and imprisoned instead of killed which was what usually happened. I can only see this as a slip up by the author.

Chapter (Spoiler Free)

The chapter itself is feels rather polished, highlighting the experience of Hosokawa Masami. I say this because the chapter fulfils the role of a first chapter. It establishes the premise and introduces the main characters and gives them basic characterisation and hints at things to build in the future. However, it does not seem well constructed and by that I mean the MC being in prison does not seem like it was needed. By this I mean it just explains Erio strength and is creates a background for his character but both these things could have been done without this initial prison. In addition, the way the Lala and Erio met is not the most natural but this is not a significant issue at least I do not see it.
There were some forced exposition from character dialogue that did not seem natural and stuck out like a sore thumb specifically one case in the first few pages.

Art

The art in the series is rather good, the backgrounds are well drawn. Series in champion do not tend to focus in polished art style but one of the key points of Masami is his polished art style.

What stood out for me was the character designs, especially the faces. Masami has always had a more realistic style in relation to faces, with clear nose bridges and detailed eyes.  I say this because the eyes are most important facial characteristics in reading expressions and recognising faces. This is not particularly unique or new in any way but in Champion its the only series with this 'type' of artwork at the moment after Himawari which had similarly a more realistic style.

Panelling

The panelling of the initial chapters was stable action scenes were easy to follow as well as being intense and rather on point in choreography. I did not expect this to be a issue for Masami Hosokawa as he had previous experience in Sugarless, a fighting manga. In general this should not be an area with too many problems because of this prior experience from three previous weekly series, though the first one was a dud, the others both surpassed 100 chapters and were mild successes.

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.

Musings on new romcom manga series

New harem romcom series in the magazine - 

A job post in Ganmo spoiled the news of an upcoming romcom harem new series will soon be within the pages of Weekly Shounen Champion.

The author of the series is likely to be Shokubai Hiroomi, a newcomer which won the NEXT CHAMPION Grand Prize in 2017, his winning one-shot 'Hugo' was a sci-fi adventure. I believe his art is in rather advanced stage with a polished analog artstyle. More recently, he has posted sketches of female characters possibly characters in the new series and these all look good.

There are series in the magazine at the moment which one could argue are harem romcom, most notably Rokudou no Onnatachi. However,  Rokudou has little to no focus on romance even if it is a  series with a harem and comedy. Therefore, I feel like it is inappropriate to call Rokudou no Onnatachi a harem romcom. Rokudou at its heart uses the love and friendship theme simply as a driving factor to the action and coming of age developments of the characters, which the series is all about. It is not about harem romcom antics.

Hence the magazine has no harem romcom. Romance and comedy are both genres that are a staple in the manga industry and the mix of these genre is common specially in Shonen series.  The aspect of harem became a popular addition to this duo and there are many successful shounen harem romcom series.


Romcom Boom?

There have been many romcom successes in recent times, in the other shounen magazines recently, most specifically, Gotoubon has been a big success. The anime for it was incredibly well received and its sales rose significantly. This together with Bokuben which shares a rather similar plot whilst it sells less also sells well. There are also many other works such as Kaguya and Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu which has garnered a lot of traction over the past few months and shot up in popularity. There are many others in other magazines but I just wanted to highlight a few that I know are within the romcom genre and are relatively successful.


Romcom series in Champion - A look at the past

Looking at the past of Shounen Champion, harem romcoms or other type of romance series have not had a lot of success. Looking only at the past decade, the standout harem romcom hit was Jitsu wa Watashi wa but unlike Gotoubon or Bokuben it was significantly more comedy orientated. There other romcom most notably was Nikoben, a romcom with a main character that liked making cute bento. A nice gimmick but it was not very popular and ended in 5 volumes of which only 2 were released physically. Likewise Tsujiura-san Chupacabra another romcom which was more quirky and gag like also failed to achieve any success however it had all its volumes released physically unlike Nikoben. There were others romcom series like Hanekoi Lion, a sports romcom, but with very little success.

In fact, prior to Jitsu wa Watashi, the other big harem romcom hit would probably be Eiken. Eiken received anime adaptions in the form of OVAs but its main gimmick was the ecchi aspect with main female characters having rather large bust size. If one goes back further in the mid 90s, the romcom hit was Oyama! Kikunosuke. Once again, this series was very high in ecchi material. This in fact was the trend with romcom series in Champion until Jitsu wa.

However, whilst looking at the past successes might highlight the general trend of the magazine over the years, things are not static and change over time and Jitsu wa Watashi wa success highlights this. Hence, reading into the past has its limits when it comes to seeing what kind of new series this new harem romcom will be.

Expectations 

I have delved too much on past series and successes and failures but of course does this say anything about the new series? Yes, because whilst past successes do dictate what the editorial department pursues in newer series and this is specially strong in a industry that values safety which results in  creativity being hampered.

I suspect as a result of this, this new series is quite likely to be in a contemporary school setting. In addition, like many other romcom, I do not expect it to use this setting in any creative way apart from simply being the place the main character can meet the female characters. It could easily be a swapped for any setting that could do the same function like for example a workplace setting. This does not usually happen in a shounen magazine because readers tend to be school age, high school to be more precise.

Without any synopsis or image of the new series, this is mostly speculation but I do not expect it to drift away from the common stereotypical format that surrounds this genre. Whether this will better or worsen its chance of surviving, I doubt it since after all harem romcom series are all about cute girls and usually happy romance and comedy and light in drama. They are not renowned for social critiques, well crafted stories or in-depth characterisation. However, this is not exclusive to romcom series and is absent in most shounen and even seinen manga.

If the series in not in a school or contemporary setting. i will be surprised but at the same time it will probably catch my interest more that way but of course things do not work that way.