Shonen Jump is The Best It’s Been In Years: Here’s Why

Shonen Jump is one of the longest-running manga magazines in Japan, but with its current lineup of titles, it’s the best it has been in years. This is saying something, given the publication’s long history of excellence, serializing many of the medium’s most iconic stories. But surprisingly, what the magazine’s current manga are all simultaneously doing even rivals the era during which the big three were at their peak.

Shonen Jump has historically been supported by its incredibly popular flagship series. While the ones many fans will most likely associate with this are the so-called “Big Three” made up of Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece, this sort of business model was in place far before those series rose to prominence. In the 90s, Shonen Jump serialized other popular manga like Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Slam Dunk, all of which made the magazine a juggernaut of the industry. Then, after the end of Bleach and Naruto, the magazine produced various other hits, such as My Hero Academia and the modern-day “Dark Trio” of Hell’s Paradise, Chainsaw Man, and Jujutsu Kaisen.

The inevitable issue with relying on these sorts of flagship series is that they will eventually end, requiring Shonen Jump to find new ones to replace them. This has led to a trend in recent years where the magazine will brutally cancel many series before they get the chance to actually gain a following and show what they could do. The pages of Shonen Jump had always been competitive, but the magazine started getting so selective that many series didn’t even make it to 20 chapters. These manga became dubbed by fans as the “Under 19 Club”, both a pun on the canceled series U19 and a grim reflection of how little time these stories got. This, of course, made it feel much less worthwhile for fans to get invested in a new series, which hampered general enjoyment of the magazine.

Shonen Jump‘s Flagship Series Are All Great Right Now

Shonen Jump has actually handled both of these two elements of its magazine recently, which has made it the best it’s been in years. To examine this further, let’s first examine the state of Shonen Jump‘s flagship series right now. Of course, Jump has some of its most popular series, like Chainsaw Man, Kaiju No. 8, and Spy x Family in its digital Jump+ publication. While these are important to the brand’s general success, they are separate from the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. In terms of the physical magazine itself, the most popular series are One Piece, My Hero Academia, and Jujutsu Kaisen, all of which are currently in some of their best arcs.

Part of this is because they are each in their final arcs, which enables them to give fans the moments they’ve been waiting for quite some time. Jujutsu Kaisen has finally shown Gojo vs Sukuna in an all-out battle that is one of the best in any shonen manga, Jump or otherwise. My Hero Academia is continuing to intensify its Final War, with Bakugo and Deku each taking on one of the main villains, Shigaraki and All For One. And while One Piece isn’t quite done with its story just yet, it has entered its Final Saga, and as such is revealing new exciting lore details that fans didn’t even know they wanted.

Shonen Jump‘s Other Series Provide a Lot of Variety

Shonen has become so much more than high-octane action manga

Outside these flagship series, Shonen Jump‘s other manga truly has something for everyone. For more typical battle manga, Undead Unlock contains one of the most interesting power systems of any modern shonen series. In terms of fight choreography, Sakamoto Days consistently pushes the envelope of what a manga fight can be, crafting some of the most innovative and epic battles out there. And if a reader wants battles on a larger scale, The Elusive Samurai is a great historical fiction story that brings an ancient Japanese war to life with some of the most fun characters in the magazine.

Perhaps most surprisingly, though, is the high quality of the magazine’s non-action series. Blue Box is a perfect example of being a mixture of a Sports manga and a romance, that leans much more into its love story elements than Shonen Jump series normally do. The Ichinose Family’s Sins and Cipher Academy both go in a much more cerebral direction, with the former being a mind-bending mystery following a boy with amnesia and the latter being a battle manga where characters fight using codes instead of physical attacks. Akane-Banashi is arguably the hardest to classify of all the newer series, focusing on the Japanese performance art of Rakugo and somehow translating this into a shonen framework perfectly.

Shonen Jump Has Fixed Its Cancelation Issues

Even the newest series in the magazine have something to offer for fans willing to take a chance on them. While Shonen Jump has acquired a bad reputation for canceling series before they get a chance to properly develop, it seems that lately the magazine has been more willing to let these have time to end well. While there are still some series that end before their 20th chapter, these are much fewer than before, and the ones that do seem to have much more satisfying endings. Not all of these new series are up to the high standard that many of the other Shonen Jump manga set, but they can still be a fun change of pace from the more well-established stories.

With all of these stories serializing simultaneously, it has never been a better time to be a fan of Shonen Jump. This isn’t even delving into all the excellent manga that have been released on Shonen Jump+, like the wholesome Spy x Family, the bombastic Kaiju No 8, and the groundbreaking Chainsaw Man Part 2. While this level of quality must inevitably decline as many of the series making the magazine so great right now like Jujutsu Kaisen and My Hero Academia end, fans can still enjoy it while it lasts. Shonen Jump isn’t just the best it’s been in years, it’s also likely the best it will be for some time to come.