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.  

Thoughts on Mairimashita! Iruma-kun Anime

There has been news about Iruma-kun's anime. In a incredibly shock, it will actually air in NHK-E. NHK-E is sister channel of NHK General TV and obviously both are operated by public company NHK - E which stands for education. It is a channel aimed at the younger audience. A key point of NHK-E is that it is a nation wide open terrestrial channel for everyone since its a public TV station but of course the viewer has to have paid the TV license fee. Other channel do not necessarily have the same broad reach NHK has, so obviously this will provide Iruma with nation wide exposure.

Iruma-kun will be the first Weekly Shonen Champion to air in NHK-E. It will also be only the first tv series by champion to air in daytime since Black Jack and prior to that was Gaki Deka.

NHK-E, or E tele, has a long past of airing animated works not only Japanese but also foreign works.  Recent anime adaptation that aired in the last few years were Log Horizon, Kyokai no Rinne, Classicaloid, Major 2nd, Radiant all these within the Saturday 17:35 TV Slot.

Baby Steps anime aired in 2014 April. It aired in 17:30 on Sunday. Currently, this slot is occupied by Thomas and Friends. There is a possibility of Iruma-kun airing in this time slot, since  the current and latest season Thomas and Friends, will end around September. However,  the chances are low simply because they might simply rebroadcast Thomas in that time slot until the following season has been completed in Britain.

Baby Steps Volume sales -
│*36238 (3)│*67517│------│------│------┃*67,517 (*10)┃2013/02｜ベイビーステップ 25
│*37882 (3)│*67225│------│------│------┃*67,225 (*10)┃2013/05｜ベイビーステップ 26
│*33584 (3)│------│------│------│------┃*33,584 (**3)┃2013/08｜ベイビーステップ 27
│*36225 (3)│*66443│------│------│------┃*66,443 (*10)┃2013/11｜ベイビーステップ 28
│*36507 (3)│*67856│------│------│------┃*67,856 (*10)┃2014/01｜ベイビーステップ 29
│*57463 (7)│------│------│------│------┃*57,463 (**7)┃2014/03｜ベイビーステップ 30
│*72973 (6)│*94711│------│------│------┃*94,711 (*13)┃2014/06｜ベイビーステップ 31
│*28424 (2)│*86105│------│------│------┃*86,105 (**9)┃2014/08｜ベイビーステップ 32
│*86953 (7)│109537│------│------│------┃109,537 (*14)┃2014/11｜ベイビーステップ 33
│*95096 (6)│------│------│------│------┃*95,096 (**6)┃2015/03｜ベイビーステップ 34
│*54626 (3)│104457│123009│------│------┃123,009 (*17)┃2015/05｜ベイビーステップ 35
│111117 (7)│138013│------│------│------┃138,013 (*14)┃2015/08｜ベイビーステップ 36
│*65174 (3)│122267│141377│------│------┃141,377 (*17)┃2015/10｜ベイビーステップ 37

I will not delve on aspects of the series as I have previously done already in previous posts.

Now lets look at the staff, of excellent quality I must add.

Director: Makoto Moriwaki (Pripara.Tantei Opera Milky Holmes)
Series Composition: Kazuyuki Fudeyasu (Pripara, Tantei Opera Milky Holmes, Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu Ka?, Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken)

Firstly, we have Makoto Moriwaki, a experienced director which has handled a lot of long series, popular series in the past. She and Kazuyuki Fudeyasu have worked together in the past. So they have experience and synergy which is very important between director and series compositor. the fact they have in worked together extensively in the past is uplifting for Iruma-kun.

Works like Pripara in which they collaborated were very successful, obviously it was based on a popular arcade game. it was an anime that was aimed at kids, it aired in the afternoon, but it was popular with people in other age groups as well. Iruma is rather different content wise from pripara and obviously its relatively obscure but previous experience by the key staff in handling family/children orientated series is great news.

The strength of Moriwaki lies in the fact her deep experience with popular anime geared at children which is what Iruma-kun will be trying to emulate. Fudeyasu on the other hand, has worked in many anime of different genres and audiences. He has vast experience and for me personally he has worked in many series, I have watched and enjoyed. As the series compositor, he will be handling the pacing amongst other important aspects so he will obviously play a big role on the quality of the series.

Character Design: Toshihiko Sano (Fairy Tail, Heybot)

Toshihiko Sano does not many works under his name, Fairy Tail and Heybot are the only previous character design work he has done. In Heybot he was one of the key staff handling many important tasks. Heybot was artistically pleasing, at least to me, it  had array of character designs. In addition the character designs in key visual look good and more polished but clearly resembled the manga's artwork.

Music: Akimitsu Honma (Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii, Kyokai no Rinne)

Akimitsu Honma is again not someone with a wide list of works under his name, in anime at least. In the music production business he has an wide list of works, it seems to be his main job. There is not much I can say about him but he seems experienced in the music field so he should be able to do a good job.

Studio: Bandai Namco Pictures

Because the main staff are mostly composed of freelancers  there is not much to comment on the studio itself. BN Pictures is the studio tied to Bandai Namco. It was created when they decide to transfer all IP aimed at children and family orientated away from Sunrise. Some works under its name are Aikatsu, Gintama and the previously mentioned Heybot.

Whatever the end product ends up looking like the staff for me personally seems capable of delivering a good product. This is obviously a manga that NHK and other producers see potential in
 in pushing forward. It is a happy fun series that will be aiming directly at younger audiences so if it catches popularity it  could be a big win for Champion but we shall wait till Fall to see what happens.

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.

2018 Trends of New Series in Weekly Champ

2018 has passed and the magazine changed and new head editor completed one in his new post. Beastars breaking out and Iruma-kun graduallly gaining more popularity came at a good timing to balanced out the loss of key series notably Shuujin Riku, Dokaben Dream Tournament and Samejima, Saigo no Juugonichi due to Takahiro Satou's tragic passing which unfortunately means the manga will be left unfinished. 

2018 might have been a great year for some ongoing series, however, it was not the best of years for new series. There are currently 4 series from 2018 still running in the magazine and they seem to have mild popularity but have not stuck out as hits so far. They could eventually become hits in the future and I put my hopes into 'Ippon' Again to become a hit eventually. As for the other two, it is still up in the air but they are not disliked but have not sold too well judging by Shoseki estimates. I know shoseki does not cover net store sales or specialty comic shops like Ana no Tora; so in a sense there is a need to be conscious that it does not give a full picture of the sales of a series.

One thing all 4 series Junior, Oni no Youna Love Comedy and 'Ippon' Again share is the presence on twitter be it from an official account or the author himself. Editor and authors should not underestimate how useful having online exposure in social media is.  For instance, the editor for 'Ippon' Again is quite active and recently he shared the first chapter of the series in tweets and it gained traction with it having now close to 1.8k retweets and 4k+ likes in a few days. In advertising the series this way they can attract non-champion readers who might buy the volumes and maybe even the magazine.

Trends of new series

Since the new head editor took charge, he pushed quite rightly for sports series as they are historically a popular genre in Shonen Champion. 'Ippon' Again and Junior, judo and soccer series respectively,  are still ongoing but Mound no Taiyou, a baseball series, has ended. It is quite unusual for Champion not to have a baseball series after Dokaben has featured in the magazine for many years.

When it comes to other series, this was a year with Baki Dou, Super Radical Family and Harigane ending but returning soon after with a different name, in Baki Dou case, the same name with just 'Baki' in katakana differing from the past name. So there is not much to comment in these 'new' series. 

There was also an attempt to push action based fantasy series like Great Old, Gyakushu Inferno, Akatora used a historical setting it was a fantasy series. All three did not succeeded and none are left in the magazine at the moment. I can not pin point why these manga failed but fantasy series have always struggled in WSC. These series firstly, Great Old, I believe the name of the series is peculiar and unattractive plus the start of the series was a bit muddled and confused the reader. Gyakushu Inferno suffered from similar issues with awkward pacing and battle scenes being a hard to follow plus the art was lacking in some places. I did not follow Akatora closely but it seemed too simple and cliche and the story took too long to get moving.

Battle orientated shonen series with a fantasy aspect have a big commercial appeal. In other weekly shounen magazines namely Magazine and Jump, Sunday much less so, it is something that usually has space in the magazine. Champion has lacked successful series in this regard, there only a couple that managed to become hits in the magazine notably Full Ahead! Coco, Goku Road, Kakugo no Susume. In the interview for the 50th anniversary of WSC, in the recent issue with Hideyuki Yonehare, he mentioned the difficulty to get editorial support to serialise Full Ahead! Coco. This, he adds was because they were a bit reluctant due to the relatively lack of success of fantasy series had in the magazine. It ended up being a big success but successes in the same genre have been sparse after it. Hakuaki Kyouryuu Kitan Ryuu no Kuni no Yut, a fantasy adventure series featuring dinosaurs, was one of those and together with a sequel it ran for a total of 14 volumes, not a long series but a success, it has featured in the 50th anniversary introduction project. Finding a fantasy, that is serious and battle oriented unlike Iruma-kun will be a struggle but a feature the previous all shared is their unusualness.

I did not count Saint Seiya Next Dimension or Lost Canvas series since they obviously held prior popularity that was to their benefit.

Whatever happens, the magazine will be gradually changing into what the new head editor envisions obviously this will be done with support and ideas from the others members of the editorial department. So it is just a wait an see, series like Ashigei and Panzer show his intent to add more ecchi material together with Atsumare and Rororro becoming ecchi themselves as well. Now it just wait and see what rests in stock for the rest of 2019 when it comes to new series.

Two TV Anime for the 50th Celebration

In the recent issue 10 of Weekly Shonen Champion, there were announcements for TV anime adaptations for Mairimashita Iruma-kun and Beastars. These are announced as projects of the 50th anniversary, so is that a reason to believe they are both airing this year?  Regardless of this, a Beastars did not come as a surprise but Iruma was one. I firmly believed that The Vampire Dies in No Time would be the next series to get an anime but it seems i was mistaken, though i still believe it will get one eventually.

Beastars's animation will be handled by Studio Orange. Beastars will be just the second TV series it will be in charge of, 'Houseki no Kuni' was the first in 2017. Prior to Beastars, it also was in charge of animating the film 'Monster Strike the Movie : Sora no Kanata' in 2018. However, the studio has done subcontracted work in various other series in CGI.

A visual and teaser have been released, but it is too little to pass any judgement on quality. Nevertheless,  Orange seems like a reputable studio even though it is relatively unexperienced in heading projects.

I believe the content being adapted is of quality and the studio will know that and expectations will be high due to the renown Beastars got with the awards. The beginning of the manga is very strong in leaving a lasting impression especially by showcasing Legosi inner conflict and reflecting the unspoken tension between the carnivores and herbivores as a result of the murder. The first three volumes in particular for me are the best part of the series as of yet : and It is also the reason it got the acclaim it currently has.

Animation is held to be of great importance by the viewing public and 3D CGI animation still hold a lack of appeal for the core western anime fanbase, excluding fans of animation in general which probably enjoy CGI or other forms of animation made by many film animation studios. However, successes by CGI anime in Japan shows that this stigma is not present or at least not as strong in the Japanese audience.

In contrast to these people, I sincerely do not think the animation will be the biggest hurdle in the making of the Beastars TV anime, after all Beastars is not an action series but a human (animals in this case) drama series. The animation will have to be designed and worked to fit certain scenes that together with other equally, or more, important aspects such as sound and directing will play a uge part in the response of the audience to a scene. A lot of work will be needed to paint the right ambience and this is where the mixture of music, visual effects come into play as an anime can appeal to senses that manga simply cannot. How these will be used not only to replicate the feel of the manga but also add an extra layer to it, specially in the scenes of Legosi's inner conflict, the play arc or the visit to the back market arc, is a question will only answered when the series inevitably debuts in the near future.

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun

Iruma-kun has being seeing an increase in popularity recently and this stabilised its position in the magazine which had been shaky for a long time. The increase in popularity could be partially due to its increased exposure online. The series has become available to read online on Line, Piccoma and others online manga sharing platforms that allow manga to be read for free with some restrictions. This is not unheard of, Harigane Service also gained a lot of popularity in the same way.

The school fantasy setting of the manga allows the manga to flirt with a lot of genre. One is comedy which is the main one, however, there are drops of romance, action and slice of life. So, this broadness in appeal gives it leaway to play on different themes like friendship, coming of age and family which are a corner stone of shonen manga.

Iruma, I believe will need good animation for the TV anime adaption to be successful. Iruma is more action driven so the animation holds more value. Specially since Iruma is comedy series based in characters actions and the wacky developments.  Scenes are composed significantly differently as a result, the pacing has to be controlled to balance out the series with comedy and its other aspects. The voice acting plays a much bigger part with punchlines having to be done in a certain way to enhance the comedic effect.

The pacing will be important in making sure things are progressing smoothly and giving time for the scenes to have their effect. In a 13/12 episode seasonal anime format which is the main format for anime series at the moment. Using a simple division, 3 chapters per episode would be needed for the anime to cover till chapter 38, which is the epilogue of the first arc in the series and seems to be the most appropriate ending place for the the anime. Dividing the chapters by the number of episodes is obviously a simplistic way of looking at it, since action oriented episodes can cover many chapters.

Example -
Episode 1 - 1+2
Episode 2 - 3+4
Episode 3 - 5-8
Episode 4 -  9-13
Episode 5 - 14-16
Episode 6 - 17-19
Episode 7 - 20-21
Episode 8 - 22-25
Episode 9 - 26-28
Episode 10 - 29-33
Episode 11 - 34-35
Episode 12 - 36-38

Whatever happens, I believe Iruma will probably be linked with Narou series. The trend these series have set might benefit Iruma when it airs. However, without any news of the studio or any visual teaser, there is really nothing to pass judgment on at the moment.