For those of us who have had the joy of reading or watching Bakuman, we know that Jump has a system in place that ensures a constant stream of new series being introduced throughout a given year. This takes place in the form of a serialization meeting, within this meeting all the heads of departments will give their views on a selection of manga currently up for possible serialization and ultimately decide which series will be given the go-ahead and what series that they will replace.
This is a nice idea and gives a chance to new mangaka with the dream of being serialized in Jump, plus it also keeps Jump new and fresh for the readers. But it also means that a series or a couple of series will be ending and in some cases, it may be the right decision but in others, they were cut short before there time just because that’s how this system works. Other magazines on average tend to have longer running series because they don’t know employ the same system and so extra care must be taken in choosing which series get published but this allows us the reader to enjoy a series as it unfolds before us until its intended ending. Whereas in Jump we may cry out as a series gets cancelled in favour of another that is doomed to even earlier cancellation just because that is the system.
There is a conflict within me because I know that this system is there to give chances to new mangaka and bring new series to us the readers but all too often I have tasted the bitter tears of a cancellation. Of course, even the experts that run Jump can only guess (a really well-educated guess) at what will be successful within its pages and a series can have all the required elements to become that success but still fail. More often than not we the readers can see from the first couple of chapters whether that series will last or not. I’m not saying that the fans of jump know more about manga than the editors but rather sometimes its the system working against itself, by publishing a manga that maybe the best of its competitors at the meeting but what about compared to the series currently running in Jump? I don’t think its as simple as taking the best from one pile to replace the lowest ranking from another.
Well, there’s my thoughts on this subject, please leave a comment on how you feel whether it be conflicted like me or just think it works fine as it is.