Shonen Jump Analysis Expects Big Things from Jujutsu Kaisen and Act-Age
As many major Weekly Shonen Jump series have come to an end over the past few weeks, the magazine [...]
As many major Weekly Shonen Jump series have come to an end over the past few weeks, the magazine is expecting big things from rookie hits like Gege Akutami's Jujutsu Kaisen and Tatsuya Matsuki and Shiro Usazaki's Act-Age. Not only has the magazine recently seen the end of Koyoharu Gotouge's Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Tadahiro Miura's Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, but it will soon say goodbye to other pillars such as Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu's The Promised Neverland and Haruichi Furudate's Haikyuu!! within the next few months. But the magazine isn't worried at all.
In a recent article about the state of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from Yahoo, the editorial department for the magazine is expecting Jujutsu Kaisen to be a huge hit with potentially ten million copies of the manga in circulation by the time the anime hits this Fall. Not only does the series already have over four million copies in circulation, but it's been a cult hit since its debut.
As for Act-Age, the series has been popular in a completely different way. It may not have as high of sales numbers as Jujutsu Kaisen, but this series has been the face of several major real world collaborations with companies like JVC. Although an anime is reportedly in the works for the manga, the series is first branching out with a live-action stage play and will presumably help Act-Age get even further into its demographic.
Both of these manga hit back in 2018, and will presumably be part of the major effort to present a brand new face for the Shonen Jump magazine. Just as we have seen with a popular hit like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Jujutsu Kaisen's anime will most likely have a huge impact on its manga sales as well.
Although it will be difficult to have the same kind of lightning strike twice, these successes are a good sign for the future of the magazine. Not to mention all of the other running mainstays such as Eiichiro Oda's One Piece and Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia that are still as mega popular as they ever were.
But what do you think? Will Jujutsu Kaisen be a huge hit for Shonen Jump going forward? What about Act-Age? Will it take an anime adaptation to push these series over the top? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!