The Decline of Straight Battle Manga?

Has the end come for Jump battle manga? Or a better question, have the Jump battle mangas become too long? Have they been turned into cash cows for a publishing company that is first a business and second a gateway to one of, if not the, most influential and successful manga magazine? When has a manga gone on for too long for the backlash to set in?

These are all questions that I have seen floating around on the net and thought about personally from time to time when I contemplate what remains popular in certain manga magazines and why. Within Jump alone there has been a shift in what genres are gaining attention and popularity. Kuroko no Basuke, the relatively new Haikyuu and one of the latest manga that started serialization, Cross Manage, all indicate that sports manga are back on the raise. Where as the pushing of Nurarihyon no Mago and Bleach to finish indicates, to me, that the straight battle manga are losing popularity and fans are responding accordingly.


Of course, the continued success of Naruto and One Piece would lead others to believe that straight battle manga are still popular. While I would agree that they are still popular, we have finally reached market saturation. Very similar to the vampire boom in American pop culture, I think that Jump has seen that the straight battle manga are finally seeing a decline and a slight backlash. Just look through tumblr and twitter to see the mountainous amounts of negative comments each week for Naruto. Without fail I see a comment from a loyal reader that left the story because it was just getting nowhere and they felt slightly betrayed by Kishimoto for ruining a good plot/series.

The main reason why I started to feel this way was because of the recent addition of Cross Manage to the Jump magazine. Looking at the list of manga that has come out this year in Jump:

• Haikyuu!!
• Kurogane
• Ansatsu Kyoshitsu
• Takamagahara
• Retsu Date Senpai
• Cross Manage
• Koisome Momiji
• Sensei no Bulge
• Nisekoi

Out of these titles, there are only 3 that I would name a straight battle manga and 1 of them has already been cancelled and the other 2 I haven't really seen much buzz about. This could also be do to the fact that they are all so very new and they have not gained a larger following at the moment. Yet there are 2-3 sports manga that have been serialized in this last year along with a surreal classroom fight and a romantic comedy. Haikyuu!! seems to be doing well as Jump is pushing it not only in the magazine but on it's website as well. With the recent addition of Cross Manage that semi subverts the standard female-manager theme, I would say that Jump themselves might be seeing less battle manga submissions, or they are being much more careful in what battle manga they find compatible with their audience. I believe this is Jump/Shueisha jumping on the rising success of Kuroko no Basuke; which just ended a very successful anime season. 

All of this being said, I know that battle manga are still going to rule the shōnen manga world. Shogakukan has Magi coming out this next week as an anime Conan still has a huge fan following. Kodansha has Fairy Tail and Code:Breaker, but Baby Steps, Area no Kishi, and Hajime no Ippo have a huge presence in their Shonen Magazine. I have seen a subtly growing shift in the amount of battle manga that is coming out. For example, Shogakukan jumped on Arakawa Hiromu's slice of life Silver Spoon for weekly publication to huge success. 

As you have probably been able to deduce from reading so far, I am extremely happy about this shift. As exciting and engaging as straight battle manga can be, there is just a point where they become redundant and too much. I have long been of the opinion that the big 4 (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Reborn) have gone on for a little too long. After so many years, it becomes an issue of continued quality for me. The mangaka is allowed to throw anything that they want into the story (i.e. Prince of Tennis) and the whole story starts to deteriorate into a giant mess of characters, unfinished plot points, and fighting. In fact, I use Prince of Tennis as the measuring stick for when a manga has gone on for too long. 

And yet, there is now a Shin Prince of Tennis where the mangaka is again allowed to do whatever he wants, but now it's in Jump Square. Animate stores and the online shop are overflowing with merchandise girl fans can buy of their favorite character without really caring about the story that goes into it. This is when a great manga has been turned into a Shueisha cash-cow. 

Have the big 4 turned into cash-cows? I would have to say yes for Naruto and Once Piece. We could even add Gin Tama into this mix because it just never seems to end either. Walk into any souvenir shop in Japan and you will find city themed cell phone charmes with all of Naruto, Luffy, and Gintoki playing with deer in Nara, eating takoyaki in Osaka, and climbing the Tokyo Tower. One Piece has so much stuff that they have opened a whole store completely dedicated to it. Again, another cash-cow.

I have always been of the opinion of quality or quantity. I want my manga to be the best that it can be without any artificial flavors, colors, or dyes making the product less organic. Give me Death Note and Bakuman quality plot, drawings, and pacing over open-ended manga that take up more time than they should. I cannot be the only reader who feels this way. 

Review! Comment! I would love some discussion on this issue! 

Thoughts and Ideas on Kubo Tite's Bleach Manga

It has been well over 2 years since I last read this manga. I remember eagerly awaiting each chapter and marathoning the anime when I was a senior in college. I loved it. The characters, music, plot, designs, everything about this manga appealed to me and I just could not get enough of it. Of course, I am not a very patient person, so I marathoned the anime, streak read the manga, and then got tired of waiting for the next chapter to be released. It would slip out of my mind for a while, pop up, and then I would repeat the same process all over again.

And yet it still lives. Go to any anime convention in the US, and probably anywhere, and you will find a group of Bleach cosplayers who either planned it, or all came separately and found each other. The designs are simple, yet detailed enough that a good cosplayer can truly recreate that character. In a lot of ways, that reminds me of Kuroko no Basuke. Both Kubo and Fujimaki design their characters the same way; which denotes that Fujimaki was influenced by Kubo in some way. Though that is just conjecture and has no hard evidence behind it. 

The further into this JUMP manga marathon I get, the more I enjoy it. When you read a book or series that you liked when you were younger it usually makes you a little horrified at the person you used to be. Surprisingly, I've really enjoyed rereading this manga. It never made me feel nostalgic or shake my head at my past self and start questioning why I liked it. I was able to easily reenter that world and laugh at areas I had forgotten or hadn't read yet. 

Bakuman - The Non-Mainstream, Mainstream Battle Manga

I was living in Japan during the height of the Death Note boom. My students would come in imitating L in their seats during class and would pull out their copies of the manga in the lobby as they were waiting for class to start. A bilingual student and I often talked about manga, anime, and light novels in class because I openly talked about how I liked them to get my students to talk to me. One of the best decisions I ever made because the students didn't feel embarrassed telling me their favorite series and characters. Since most of their favorites were mainstream hits like Naruto, One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Bleach it was easy for me to jump, pun unintended, into a conversation with them. So when I confessed to never having read Death Note I got gasps and numerous remarks about how I HAD to read it. Needless to say I did, and that was where I was introduced to the glory that is the Obata-Oba mangaka duo.

It is always the sophomore effort that gets the most scrutiny from fans and critics. People can pull out an amazing work and get lucky with the popularity, but it actually takes skill to pull out that same popularity with a different idea and setting without failing to the hype and the inevitable comparison. Bakuman is a one series wonderland. I'm not sure how else to describe how amazingly wonderful and enjoyable this manga is. Not only was it a genius move by the veteran manga duo of Obata and Oba, it celebrates everything that fans enjoy about manga. This manga is compelling, funny, relatable, and with a large cast of entertaining and wonderful characters. A plot filled with suspense, comedy, tension, intrigue, and romance brings all of those characters and that world to life in a way that I have yet to see in a Weekly Jump manga series.

Eyeshield 21 - Shōnen Jump Manga Marathon #2

To continue with my Shōnen Jump Manga Marathon, I picked an older manga that is also related to the post that I made last week about Kuroko no Basuke when I quoted a forum post comparing the characters and their "super skills". Even before I made the last post, I knew that Eyeshield 21 was going to be the next Jump manga I read specifically because I wanted to weigh in on the comparison. The Eyeshield 21 anime came out while I was in college and the manga was serialized from 2002 - 2009 in Weekly Shōnen Jump. Spaning 37 volumes and 333 chapters all together, the manga focuses on Sena and how he becomes involved with his schools American Football Club; which consists of 3 members including himself. The manga-time for this story is only a year, or a little less than.

As an American, I was tickled pink by the fact that there was a manga that dealt with American Football. From what I understood American Football is like Aussie Rules Football, way more popular in their home countries and generally ignored by the rest of the sports loving world. Was I wrong about that? Soccer is still king my friends.

Shonen Sports Manga and Kuroko no Basuke

As you all saw for my last post, I read the Kenshin manga in anticipation for the live action Rurouni Kenshin movie coming out at the end of this month.  While I was reading the manga, I got to thinking, 'How long has it been since I read any Jump manga?' I stopped reading and thought about it for a while and I decided that it had been a solid couple of years since I had put Naruto on hold because I had caught up with all the scanlations I could get my eyes on. 

Then when I thought about it a little harder, I admitted to myself that I really hadn't read other Weekly Jump manga besides Naruto. Case and point is that it took me many years to actually read Rurouni Kenshin or Shaman King, I gave up on Prince of Tennis when I was in college, I never read Eyeshield 21, and when the anime for Nurarihyon no Mago was a flop I stopped reading. These titles are really the only Weekly Jump manga I've ever read. Prince of Tennis was probably the first one I got into and then Naruto followed, but I started those back in high school and that was almost 10 years ago now. 

Being a self-proclaimed manga scholar, I am actually a little disappointed in my own readership. A couple years ago, I was talking with a friend about how we both knew and could recognize One Piece cosplayers and knew of the manga, but we had no idea what it was about. Later that same friend told me she was going to watch the anime since, 'It's so popular that I feel I need to watch it to really understand why and have an opinion on it'. Weekly Jump manga have the most readership and usually the largest audience. Look at how Naruto and One Piece are all over Japan. Not just in manga and book stores, but there are Naruto, Gintama and One Piece goods in souvenir shops, Uniqlo makes branding deals and sells special graphic t-shirts, and travel agents book trips for families on a replica Lufy ship. They have become a central point in Japanese popular culture and not only for the original manga readers. 

Now that I have opened my eyes to this error in my read habits, I have decided that a marathon of Weekly Jump manga was in order. I will be looking at manga that has been or is currently being serialized in the Weekly Jump magazine. I will mostly be looking at the manga that is currently being serialized and also has scanlations out on the Internet. So, I started with the manga that had the most recent anime, Kuroko no Basuke.

Rurouni Kenshin and Historical Redemption

At the end of this month, the long awaited live action Rurouni Kenshin movie will be hitting theaters in Japan. Never before have I seen such a large response from the anime and manga community over a live action adaption. Yet with Kenshin being such a beloved manga for the community and having hoards of fans not only in Japan but in America, it is unsurprising that this movie is getting people to sit up and take notice.

With the sheer amount of attention and anticipation this movie is receiving, it can only be concluded that this manga has keft a strong impression on the manga reading community. Since I actually hadn't read the manga before, it was pretty obvious that I wouldn't be able to jump into any type of discussion on it's merits and failings without actually reading it. At around 255 chapters, it was a lot of reading and I'll admit to gorging myself on it and then having to stop for a while to pick it up again.

The Guilty Pleasure that is Shōnen Jump and Which Can You Still Not Get Enough Of?

I have a confession to make, I have a very large soft spot for Shōnen Jump manga. Now I know that I've made more than one mention about how I find it frustrating that manga like Naruto and One Piece continue on this slow decaying cycle of power-ups and never ending plots. But, I for one will never tell you that they are not entertaining and a joy to read. Kinda like romance and military trillers for the American publishing world. These genres are guilty reads for some people and it keeps bringing them back decade after decade.


The sheer evolution gold that comes out of Shōnen Jump and Shueisha is mind boggling when put into scale. Shōnen Jump itself has been published since 1968, of course to compete against Shōnen Sunday which was very popular and successful. I mean Naruto has been running a weekly serialization for 15 years come this November. 15 years. One Piece has been serialized for 17. Of course, neither One Piece or Naturo hold a candle to Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo, which has been running in Shōnen Jump for over 30 years. Guess what my friends, thats longer than I have been walking and breathing on this Earth. 


These manga then evolve into anime. Recently the animation world has been flooded with Kuroko no Basket, Medaka Box, Nurarihyon no Mago, Gintama and the return of HunterXHunter. Walk into your local, or website, animate and characters goods abound for these shows. I can find coasters, coasters for god sakes for Ao no Exorcist and Gintama, shirts, clear files, CDs, writing boards, cups, bowls, pencils, boxes, and just about anything else for them there. Why is this?


Of course, part of this is that there are always new little boys to catch in their plot depths, though maybe not if you look at the Japanese birth rate. We as older readers are also always sucked into them too. We've all seen the guy who still wears a Naruto headband, walks around with a Pikachu hat on, and proudly declares himself an Otaku. 


The reason I bring this up is fairly simple, I have been reading Kenshin in honor of the up coming movie. My friends are so happy about this movie and are going wild just thinking about it. I imagine that the online fansubing community has been conducting strategy meetings to be the fastest group to put it together in the best quality fansub. Hell, they probably have a random friend set up to record at the movie theater for them. I'm not even half way through Kenshin yet, but that's my plan for the next couple weeks. I gotta finish it before the movie comes out. 


While I was reading Kenshin, I was struck by how, for lack of a better term, different it was from normal Shōnen Jump titles. I mentioned this after I read Shaman King as well, how Yoh was not the stereotypical Shōnen Jump hero. Instead of putting all his energy and personality into defeating Hao and "becoming the best Shaman King ever", Yoh has got to be one of the most relaxed Shōnen Jump characters I have ever read. Kenshin, instead of being a young idealistic boy who is out to prove himself to the world, or within his own community, has already done so. He is much older, 28, and already possesses skills that put him at the top of the social ranking. 


Then I got to thinking about the whole Jump Universe, yes it deserves to be capitalized. All the Jump spin off magazines need to be involved in this discussion: Jump SQ, Saikyo Jump, V Jump, Grand Jump, and only slightly JumpX. When I look at a lot of the manga that comes out of these magazines, I just can't help but get a little nostalgic for their plot lines. I mean really, they are so entertaining and you are able to suspend your disbelief so well with these titles. I mean really, a world of ninja and pirates that are able to turn themselves into skeletons and giant rubber bands? What's not to love on a sheer ridiculous scale?

So my question is this: What Shōnen Jump or Jump Universe is your guilty pleasure? Do you have a secret bible to Naruto? Have you read and watched every episode of Reborn? Do you yearn for the days of Slam Dunk over Kuroko no Basket? You have a crush on Rukia that hasn't vanished? Are you actually happy that Shaman King now as a sequal? Have you seen the Prince of Tennis musical yet? Or are you still all about Goku and Dragon Ball? Tell me and share it with all and sundry!