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Answerman - Is Shonen Jump Still Popular?

Last volume of Naruto was released in 2015. That may have been it?

It is safe to assume that when "Naruto" and "Bleach" ended, a lot of readership went down since those and OP were pretty much the flagship WSJ titles.

Frankly I'm probably the only one who hates the big rise in technology sometimes...whatever happened to people reading from actual paper books instead of on a computer/device/any piece of technology?

I dunno, maybe it's just me considering I came out before and I don't have, can't afford, and don't like the ideas of using digital stuff like phones to do things you could just do without using those things...

GATSU wrote:

And yet, strangely enough, I still see actual physical newspapers being delivered to my neighbors' houses in America.

While newspapers sales are on the decline to the point some papers are printing less (if at all) its not to where the whole industry is in that state....though who can say where things will be in the next 20-30 years.

And yet, strangely enough, I still see actual physical newspapers being delivered to my neighbors' houses in America.

Interesting to read that the shift in readership is part of Shonen Jump anime going toward a seasonal approach. I can't say I mind that from a structure perspective.

Except doing seasons has always lead to a much faster decline than continuous airing does.

On a personal note, I used to be really into US superhero comics, and at one point was buying 8-10 every month. In hindsight, I wish I had bought them in trade paperback instead of collecting the individual issues. That way, instead of sitting in a bunch of boxes that I haven't opened for years, they could be sitting on my shelves.

Not true! Oricon re-incorporated in 1999 but they've been around since 1967 as Original Confidence Inc.

Shay Guy wrote:

not sure about 2015.

Last volume of Naruto was released in 2015. That may have been it?

Not surprising seeing as the continuing reduction in birth rate in Japan is catching up to interest and sales. One can not sell to customers that simply don't exist as the older one's grow up, move on, lose interest, or simply die off. One thing that I wonder is if these magazines go under how will publishers know what series, or one-off is going to be great, or tank if there are no voter cards to send feedback on in digital platforms?

But honestly, I still think of two things:
1- MHA needs some anime-original content, and I'm more than sure that Horikoshi, or some of the anime writers will provide something in the end. Don't tell me that the lenght of the arcs in the manga if fine, because other people will tell you that each arc is still missing development in some areas.

No, it doesn't need any filler, why would you want that crap? The length of the arcs in the manga is fine and the seasonal approach is the best thing that could've ever happened to adaptations, if the anime catches up to the manga, then they can wait until there's enough material to adapt. And about the development part, you can basically say that about every manga ever, please. Not only do these seasonal adaptations avoid terrible filler, but they're more consistent animation wise.

I'm so happy that the long running approach is dying, because it honestly brings nothing positive to the adaptation. I recently got into One Piece, the manga. After a few weeks I stumbled upon a clip from the anime that adapted an earlier part of the manga and boy does the animation look like garbage. There are great long running adaptations like Yu Yu Hakusho, which keep it short and actually improve the manga, instead of having 200 episodes of filler, but that was from 1992, then you have Hunter x Hunter 2011 which had a lot of chapters ready to be adapted and it lead to one of the best adaptations ever for a long running shounen manga. You got angry because of AOT and Blue exorcist, but those 2 are monthly publications, it takes much longer for there to be enough source material for more anime seasons, it's completely different from weekly manga and not the best example.

And then you go on about how series never have an ending and always tease you to read the source material and how that wasn't a thing in the 80s-90s. That is not true, just because you watched a few anime from that time period that had conclusions that doesn't mean that there aren't 10 times more anime that also end on a cliffhanger or don't end at all, like it is nowadays. This is the reality of anime, you either take it or find a different medium to enjoy. Or you could go read the manga or light novel that the anime is based off of, how hard can that be? Anime adaptations have always been and always will be advertisements for their source material.

By the way, later on One Piece's anime will move from filler arcs to just padding out every episode so each of them covers only one chapter, or even half a chapter, of the manga. You'll have garbage-looking animation AND a snail's pace. There was one episode in which half of its running time was just reaction shots, for instance. In the manga, you had a bunch of reaction shot panels, but the clowns at Toei decided they'd give a reaction shot to each and every bystander.

Granted, they're getting better at this (and they excel at padding out comedic moments), but if One Piece ever got into a seasons system, I think every fan watching the anime will be thankful for that. I don't know if the kids it's aimed at would take too well to it though.