ROBOT×LASERBEAM

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ROBOT×LASERBEAM

A manga about an high schooler named Robo who has extreme precision and control in swinging golf clubs.

This sports series was Tadatoshi Fujimaki‘s follow up to the popular Kuroko’s Basketball. Manga artists who have to launch a new series after finishing a successful series have added pressure to create a new work that will be judged against their previous work. Unfortunately Fujimaki was unable to find that continued success with ROBOT×LASERBEAM and it was eventually canceled after 1 year. Personally I liked this series on golf but I’ll say it again, “Sports don’t do well in Weekly Shonen Jump.”

Available in English from VIZ.

~dakazu

Shudan!

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Shudan!

A manga about the players at Hamanishi Football Club including their newest female teammate.

Takuma Yokota had a semi-successful run in Weekly Shonen Jump with Sesuji wo Pin! to before he returned with Shodan!. Unfortunately this manga fell victim to the curse that sports manga don’t do well in Jump. The large cast here didn’t really help anyone stand out despite the emphasis on a female player joining the boys team. It ended quickly. Luckily Takuma has found success with other work outside of Shueisha.

~dakazu

Tomatoypoo no Lycopene

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Tomatoypoo no Lycopene

A comedy manga about Lycopene, an adorable Toy Poodle born from a tomato stalk.

I have to be honest. I completely forgot this manga ever existed in Weekly Shonen Jump. I personally had no interest in this series while it was serialized. Now that I’ve gone back and read it, I can see how the juxtaposition of cute characters with 4th wall breaking jokes makes for some decent comedy bits.

This series was transferred over to Jump+ when Kouji Ohishi suffered from health issues and is still on-going right now. I’m glad Ohishi is still continuing this series compared to the fate of all the other canceled series in Jump.

~dakazu

Full Drive

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Full Drive

A manga about a young ping pong player who returns from Germany to make his debut in Japan.

Here is yet another example of how sports manga typically do not do well in Weekly Shonen Jump. Works like Full Drive are well drawn and Genki Ono should have found success and popularity but it didn’t and it was canceled. I truly feel like Haikyu!! and Kuroko’s Basketball are oddities for gaining popularity in Jump.

~dakazu

321 – Guest Gaiden 8 – Pop Life & Look Into My Eyes with Matt Haasch of Star Fruit Books

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321 – Guest Gaiden 8 – Pop Life & Look Into My Eyes with Matt Haasch of Star Fruit Books

This week we’re joined by the owner of Star Fruit Books, Matt Haasch! Matt talks about what prompted him to start his publishing company and what he hopes to accomplish in the future! Then we discuss two series from Star Fruit Books: Q-ta Minami’s Pop Life and Look Into My Eyes by Yoko Miyako!!!

Continue reading →

BOZEBEATS

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BOZEBEATS

A manga about a wolf raised human who is recruited to join religious monks who incorporate modern weaponry to battle demons threats.

We’ve discussed this on an older episode.

I feel bad for BOZEBEATS because Ryoji Hirano is such an incredible artist. His action scenes are flashy and exciting and the weapons the boze use are highly detailed. Unfortunately this series suffers with it’s overly complex main character. Making him a wolf child is just going too far. The one shot version of this manga focused on the adult monk who recruits the wolf boy and honestly they should have just kept him as the protagonist. I wonder if Hirano and his editor changed the main character to appeal to Weekly Shonen Jump readers but ultimately that back fired and this was yet another series that got canceled quickly.

~dakazu

Ziga

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Ziga

A manga about a young man who’s nightmares come to life when a giant monster destroys his city.

We’ve discussed this on an older episode.

I think there’s a fundamental problem with your story if your twist is obvious to the reader. Writer Rokurou Sano tries to setup this big reveal a few chapters down the line but it made the preamble was just a waste of time. Kentarou Hidano is a fine artist but nothing in Ziga really stood out and impressed me. I think the readers of Weekly Shonen Jump agreed as this one was canceled really fast.

~dakazu

Invade You!

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Invade You!

A comedy manga about an alien trying to hide his secret identify from his inquisitive classmate.

We’ve discussed this on an older episode.

There isn’t too much to say about this series. It was decently drawn and decently funny and therefor it didn’t do well in Weekly Shonen Jump and was canceled. Kazusa Inaoka is currently doing a short serialization called Bunkiten limited for the digital version of Jump. I hope he finds success in that.

~dakazu