Why So Many Popular Manga Series Are Suddenly Getting Sequels

Why So Many Popular Manga Series Are Suddenly Getting Sequels

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As Boruto and Yashahime expand their franchises and Bleach postures for a return, manga fans are asking why so many beloved manga have new sequels.

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Why So Many Popular Manga Series Are Suddenly Getting Sequels

In recent years, anime and manga have seen a surge in the number of sequel series being put out. It’s not exactly unprecedented: one famed example is Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, which went from an original and a sequel series to a generations-spanning epic. However, it seems as if almost every big-selling manga franchise from the 2000s is back with a new series, so why is that the case?

Naruto ended in 2014, but was continued with Boruto in 2016, and was arguably the first of this trend. Boruto follows Naruto’s son, along with the children of other major characters from the series, dealing with some of the same villains their parents faced and the consequences of their parents’ actions during the original story. Inuyasha has similarly returned with the anime-first sequel Yashahime, with a manga due to start on September 25, 2021. Rurouni Kenshin took a different tack, following the same characters through a new story called ‘The Hokkaido Arc,’ while Bleach has set itself up for a return featuring a mix of both the original cast and their children. Dragon Ball Super and Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card also fall into the category of sequel series, albeit a bit more directly. So what’s going on?

The end of the Big Three

Why So Many Popular Manga Series Are Suddenly Getting Sequels

For anyone familiar with modern-day Hollywood’s love of reboots and franchises, it’s not hard to take a few guesses at what’s happening. Since a sequel series automatically comes with name recognition and a built-in fan base, they tend to be relatively safe investments, likely to be profitable. For series that have been dormant for a while, like Inuyasha or Rurouni Kenshin, the creators can bank on some nostalgia factor as well, from people who read the originals and have positive associations. It also helps to introduce the franchise to a new generation of fans, who are likely to be more open to a sequel series that’s still partially pitched as a new adventure with original characters. But while there’s clear financial sense in building on what’s already popular, that’s not the full story.

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There’s another aspect to consider, and that’s the relative success of manga over the last 20 years. As manga has spread internationally, building up audiences around the world and outside of Japan, the industry has been able to grow. However, much of the initial growth of manga was based on a small number of wildly popular series, such as the long-running “Big Three” of the 2000’s: Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece. While One Piece continues to this day, Naruto wrapped up on its own terms, and Bleach’s popularity eventually collapsed in on itself, leading to an abrupt flash-forward ending. But as those two series made room for new works, there wasn’t really a clear inheritor to their spots as long-running tentpole series for Shonen Jump and other manga magazines.

New manga series aren’t filling the gap

Why So Many Popular Manga Series Are Suddenly Getting Sequels

That’s not to say that new series haven’t been popular; some of them, like Tokyo Revengers’ incredible sales over the summer, have taken off quite well. Demon Slayer’s record-smashing film release drove sales of its manga as well. And certainly My Hero Academia has proved to be an instant classic, putting Deku right up there with Ichigo and Naruto. My Hero Academia is arguably the closest to being the spiritual successor to the Big Three, but there’s a problem with all these series: their manga have either ended or have indicated they will be ending soon.

Even other less popular but still successful titles, like The Promised Neverland, were never meant to run indefinitely, and ended before their popularity even peaked. While there have been some attempts at creating new long-runners, like Black Clover, they haven’t really caught on the way the original Big Three did. Black Clover itself has often teetered on the edge of cancellation, but has managed to hang on partly because nothing has emerged to replace it. Manga has reached new realms of international success because of these tentpole series, but without new series to take the weight, sequel series are the best way to continue that trend.

Manga needs tentpole series

Manga publishers like Shueisha and Kodansha have heavily relied on tentpole series to move comics. If someone bought an issue of Shonen Jump to read Naruto, they likely also gave the other series running alongside it a try, making it more likely they’d find a new favorite that provided a reason to stick with Shonen Jump even after Naruto ended. Even the structure of the anime industry tends to be based around moving manga, as with Tokyo Revengers. Without a popular tentpole, there’s no big name to catch eyes and generate purchases, which in turn keeps the smaller series from building an audience while they’re ongoing. For example, with the exception of One Piece and Hunter x Hunter (which is on indefinite hiatus), the oldest currently running series in Shonen Jump is My Hero Academia, which started in 2014, followed by Black Clover, which started in 2015. The true long runners just aren’t there.

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This has caused a bit of a panic in the industry, as manga publishers desperately search for the next big thing to keep their magazines afloat. One of the most obvious ideas, of course, is to go back to something old and reliable and revive it, which is exactly what’s happening. A series like Boruto brings back Naruto fans, allowing the same franchise to take up its old position as a manga tentpole. While this tactic has been mildly effective so far, it’s not necessarily reliable in the long term. If the sequel series fails to hold the interest of old fans of the original, interest can collapse rapidly. There also has to be a careful balance of continuity for fans while staying approachable for newbies, as a series so buried in continuity that only a small group of superfans of the original are interested isn’t fulfilling its vital purpose (something that’s also an issue for remaining tentpole One Piece, with its 1000+ chapters).

While the manga industry as a whole may be doing relatively well in recent years, the nervousness about lacking tentpole series has led to an abundance of sequel series – a mixed blessings for fans, as it helps the industry and revives old favorites, but threatens stagnation if newer series don’t break through in the meantime, and opens the door to sequels based purely on financial gain rather than creative expression. While it’s great to see so many old series returning to help manga stay strong and keep building a reader base, fans of the art form should try and be generous with their attention and try out new manga series, as otherwise even the revived tentpoles will eventually buckle.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/why-manga-sequels-boruto-bleach-dragon-ball-inuyasha/

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