While shonen franchises like Dragon Ball and One Piece are continuing to tell new tales for anime fans, not every manga that arrives in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump is safe from cancellation. In fact, we here at ComicBook.com have been reporting in recent days on quite a few canceled series that prove not every manga is bulletproof when under the shonen umbrella. Unfortunately, we have more bad news for manga readers as the first month of 2026 draws to a close, with one of the biggest sports anime has recently released its final chapter.
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Harukaze Mound is a baseball-focused manga series, originally arriving in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump in June of last year from writer Togo Goto and artist Kento Matsuura. Originally published as a one-shot in 2022, the special helped give the sports series the bump it needed to become a full-fledged manga from Shueisha. While there have been anime franchises that focused on baseball in the past, including Ace of Diamond, Major, and One Outs, Harukaze Mound puts a twist on the sports anime trope with its stars. Focusing on twin siblings Nagiharu and Aokaze Kuzumi, who are right and left-handed players, the manga followed their high school sports adventure before recently releasing its final chapter, Chapter 30, in the latest issue of the publication.
The Future of Harukaze Mound
While Shonen Jump rarely makes an official comment regarding why a series has been canceled, there are ways to understand what might be next on the chopping block. When it comes to each issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, the magazine typically places the more popular series at the front of the list, with less popular series skewing more toward the end of each issue. For Harukaze Mound, the final chapter was dead last in the rotation, with the likes of Gonron Egg, The Mage Next Door, and Hero Girl and Demon Lord Call It Quits taking the spots above it. As for the most popular, the list includes the likes of Witch Watch, Ichi The Witch, Sakamoto Days, Jujutsu Kaisen Modulo, and Kagurabachi.
In response to the release of Harukaze Mound’s final chapter in Japan, artist Kento Matsuura shared a message to the fans, reading, “I’ll keep drawing manga, believing in myself. I’ll be back. Thank you for everything.” While the chapter has hit the stands in Japan, fans will have to wait a few days for the grand finale to arrive on Viz Media’s website. Luckily, this gives you time to read the manga in its entirety. While an anime adaptation hasn’t been confirmed, it is possible for canceled shonen series to be given an animated revival, with Harukaze Mound being the perfect length for a potential movie. Harboring a style reminiscent of the soccer series, Blue Lock, perhaps this baseball series might find new life with a possible return to the screen.
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