A big year for WSJ with Hero Aca and JJK both ending. Luckily for me, I quite liked a lot of the new series that debuted this year, even if some of them did end up getting canned 🙁
General comments on each series that didn’t get axed:
- Kinda surprised that One Piece didn’t rank even once.
- Not surprised that Hero Aca didn’t rank even once. Also not surprised that JJK ranked highly in the final chapters.
- Mission Yozakura and Undead Unluck in the super long final battle stage 🥱
- Roboco didn’t get any better
- Sakamoto Days, The Elusive Samurai, Witch Watch and Akane-Banashi keeping steady in terms of quality.
- Liking Blue Box a bit more now, maybe because the two main characters have gotten together, Hina has gotten over Taiki (and has her own potential romance) and more focus on Kyo.
- Kill Blue is still really wut
- Happy to see Ruri Dragon back! Enjoying it despite it never ranking
- Hunter x Hunter killing it, ranked first in all of it’s showings except two
- Kind of bored of Nue’s Exorcist now. It was entertaining at first but now it’s taking itself too seriously
- Finally getting into Kagurabachi, maybe cos it’s finally dropping some hints about the events that have lead to the current situation.
- Super Psychic Policeman Chojo taking the spot that Roboco occupied before I got annoyed with it
- Astro Royale felt like the wannabe replacement for Hero Aca. I like it, but I don’t think the foundations are strong enough for it to be a long-lived series
- I love Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi 🤣 Hoping it will fall into the Mission Yozakura/Undead Unluck/Mashle B-tier level and hang around for a fair while since I don’t think it will become a WSJ pillar hahaha
- Hima-Ten is ok. I would have probably been less harsh on it if Syd Craft: Love is a Mystery hadn’t released, Syd Craft is definitely the better harem rom-com.
- I probably had too high expectations for Ichi the Witch. It’s fun enough but I wouldn’t say I look forward to new chapters.
- I really like Shinobi Undercover as well, it’s nicely drawn, has good humour and battle scenes. I think it also has the groundwork done to become a long-lived series. I would like this to get big…
- Hakutaku is edutainment and I like edutainment.
And in memorial:
Farewell, you are missed 😢
Good job Cipher Academy, defying the odds for a pretty long run 🤣 I look forward to reading this in tankobon where I will actually be able to zoom in on the walls of text and see what they say (the compression on the app made a lot of it illegible 😠) Two on Ice was the sports manga I wanted but no one else liked… Jujutsu Kaisen totally kicked ass in the final stretch and I’m glad for Akutami-sensei that they weren’t forced to drag the series out.
Bye, I enjoyed our time together
Welp, WSJ tried for their sports series this year I guess, I quite liked Green Green Greens although I much preferred Two on Ice. I really liked the science focus of Dear Anemone. Psyche House was cute and fun. Yokai Buster Murakami ended up being pretty damn hilarious.
Wait, you existed?
Damn, from Takopi’s Original Sin to The Ichinose Family’s Deadly Sins, talk about a fall. The series veered around so much it ended up becoming forgettable. I just don’t careabout MMA I guess, sorry Martial Master Asumi. Shadow Eliminators was forgettable from the get-go and MamaYuyu had so much potential but squandered it all 🙁
Sorry, but good riddance
Y’know I quite liked Aliens Area which is why I think I disliked Kyokuto Necromance instead of just thinking it was forgettable. Soooo generic and boring. My Hero Academia I’ve been hating on for a long time so no surprises here.
First Place – Witch Watch (37 Points)
I wasn’t expecting this one to take first place because I haven’t been as enthusiastic about the series since Nico became a kid again. But I guess it just goes to show how good the writing is since it placed quite consistently throughout the year. Ban was a good addition to the cast and the current flash-back arc *is* very cool.
Second Place – Jujutsu Kaisen
(26 Points)
This series didn’t rank that often but when it did it was usually for the max 3 points. Some really awesome moments in the final arc of this series. The way Akutami-sensei likes to play the long game with set-ups and reveals really showed since the series was heading towards a conclusion. Now I’m actually pretty excited for the rest of the anime.
Third Place – The Elusive Samurai
(25 Points)
The Akiie arcs were really great. He was such an awesome character who also brought out some really good reactions from Tokiyuki. The time-skip with Tokiyuki and co becoming more independent and reliable also made it more fun as they were able to go on quite interesting missions. I also really like how Natsu joined their crew (that happened this year right…?). Maybe 2025 will be the year they get Fubuki back 😭
Useless Stats
This was the year where I got invested in the C-tiers I guess haha. From Two on Ice to Dear Anemone to Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi to Shinobi Undercover, there was a clear trend in these series ranking as they debuted (and then in some cases disappeared….)
- Two on Ice – 22 points
- Dear Anemone & Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi – 19 points
- Hunter x Hunter & Akane-Banashi – 18 points
- Yokai Buster Murakami – 16 points
- Shinobi Undercover – 14 points
Conclusion
2025 will be interesting now that the only BIG series left is One Piece (and Hunter x Hunter while it lasts) and the two remaining long-running B-tiers (Mission Yozakura and Undead Unluck) will end. Kagurabachi is stepping up though and Blue Box and Elusive Samurai both got an anime which would hopefully have helped to raise their profile. With Sakamoto Days and Witch Watch also getting anime in 2025, hopefully they will also get a boost. Now just Akane-Banashi and Kagurabachi waiting for adaptations I guess (oh wait, Kagurabachi has an anime confirmed? I missed that lol).
I’m kinda hoping that the departure of Hero Aca and JJK will give Astro Royale, Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi and Shinobi Undercover some breathing room to grow into solid series. But I also don’t think any of these will become the next BIG one, so it will be interesting to see what new series debut and manage to make a mark.
Categories: Weekly Shonen Jump Impressions
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