Cancelled Shonen Jump Creator to Return With New Series in 2026

One cancelled Shonen Jump creator is coming back for a new series next year according to a recent update from Shueisha. Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine is one of the most competitive Shonen franchises running today. Not only do creators need to release a new chapter every week, but they also need to make waves with fans. There are many that find success, but there are even more that don’t as many series end up being cancelled before they even reach 20 chapters. It’s led to ten series being cancelled this year alone because of that amount of expectation and competition.

So while Shonen Jump is in active search for the franchises that could lead them into the next era, Shueisha has cancelled a lot of other projects that seemed to have potential. On the plus side of this, the publisher continues to work with these creators and has given them multiple attempts at finding an audience with the magazine. That’s the case with Jun Kirarazaka (as spotted by @WSJ_manga on X), who is returning next year with their third attempt at finding success within Shueisha’s network of Shonen magazine releases after being cancelled twice.

Cancelled Shonen Jump Creator Gets Another Shot in 2026

According to a new update from one of Shueisha’s editors, they are looking for assistants to Jun Kirarazaka, who is currently working on a new fantasy action series coming sometime next year. Kirarazaka has a notable history with Shonen Jump as the creator has made two attempts at finding success with the magazine. First with Bone Collection back in 2020, and then three years later with Do Retry in 2023. But neither series found an audience fast enough to last beyond 20 chapters, something fans have increasingly seen in the last few years.

Both of Kirarazaka’s previous attempts were cancelled very early into their attempted runs, so there’s a hope that there’s going to be a better chance with this next work. Helping in those matters is the fact that this new series is actually going to be poised for a release with the Jump+ app in Japan, and the app tends to give its works a little more leeway in terms of how long they get to run. Because it’s not solely focused on popularity or sales with its digital format, it gets a lot of series that are allowed to tell their own stories with as long of runs as they want.

This Shonen Jump Creator Deserves a Better Chance

But most importantly of all is the fact that Jun Kirarazaka deserves a chance to succeed with this next series. Some of the biggest creators within Shonen Jump made their return following cancellations and launched massive franchises like Kohei Horikoshi and My Hero Academia as just a recent example. These creators literally go back to the drawing board to craft an entire new series from the start in the hopes of finding an audience, and come out with something new each time.

Do Retry and Bone Collection are vastly different from one another, and that was only three years of difference between each release. Now that it’s going to be another three years of progress, this creator is likely going to come back with a vengeance with what could end up being their best work yet. Let’s just hope it all works out when this new series hits next year.

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HT – @WSJ_manga on X