To drop or not to drop - Long series that lost its touch

[Kinny Riddle]

^ Kinny what monthly series have you been reading?

At the moment, just Ga-Rei and Pandora Hearts.

Pandora Hearts must be like the most underrated series of 2009, slipping through everyone's radar. Its twisted Alice in Wonderland feel and great story and characters makes for a good read. (Probably more twisted than the current Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie out now)

I got attracted to Ga-Rei because of the awesome prequel anime Ga-Rei: Zero, though the manga is more lighthearted and feels a bit like Series B at the beginning. While it's not exactly the best thing since sliced bread, as it does resort to fanservice time to time, its storytelling is still better laid out than B could ever offer.

I totally agree on the monthly series as staying more consistently high quality, but they just take so loooooong.

In a way, monthly manga is not unlike serialized light novels. A single compilation volume may take 4-6 months, or even a year to come out. But the wait's definitely more worth it than the wait for a weekly manga.

Shonen Jump may have lost its way after the euphoria in the 1990s of DB and Slam Dunk, with only OP matching those two in volume sales. Back when those 2 were serialized, weekly sales for Jump was nearly twice as many as today's. Death Note was probably the last Jump series to really be considered awesome during its brief run from 2003 to 2006, simply because it didn't feel like a Jump series at all.

[yajra03]

weekly series are ok, but if they make it a long series it will become boring. monthly is also ok. fyi the #1 series today is a monthly installment which is the fullmetal alchemist .

[b0mb3r]

what about bakuman kinny?

[ben1234]

You have no idea how bad Bakuman is doing in Jump right now

Even though it suddenly shoot up in the rankings for the past few weeks, expect it to go back to the bottom 5 soon

[Kinny Riddle]

You have no idea how bad Bakuman is doing in Jump right now

Even though it suddenly shoot up in the rankings for the past few weeks, expect it to go back to the bottom 5 soon

Really? I thought reviews of it were not bad. Maybe it was too "un-Jump-like" for the magazine's target audience, which obviously would prefer long and stretched out battles of series like N and B.

Maybe that would also explain why fan-servicey harem series like To-Love-Ru and Ane-Doki (by the author of Ichigo 100%) failed to last long in Jump. They would have done better in any other seinen magazine.

BTW, ben1234, I'm gonna adopt half of your suggestion. Series B is currently still in mindless filler, so I guess now would be the right time to cut off all my attachments with its anime, lest I get stuck again once it resumes the manga storyline. That's gonna be one massive burden off my shoulders. So thanks for the suggestion.

Will make a decision on series N soon as well, as this page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Na ... n_episodes) seems to suggest we're currently in filler-dom again. I've not yet watched the eps that I've leeched to confirm that. Will do so once I get home from work, as you can't exactly DL subs in a workplace, no?

Update: Yup, series N is in filler mode for now. Though I'll have to wait and see if it comes back for the Spring season, if not, it's gonna make my decision to drop it so much easier.

For their respective manga, I now only read 4 months worth of chapters in one-go, since nothing ever happens. Will still be collecting the manga volumes when they come out for now.

[b0mb3r]

^ still think you should dropped the N series. remember the 100 episode fillers from the 1st arc.

[Kinny Riddle]

^ still think you should dropped the N series. remember the 100 episode fillers from the 1st arc.

I never did bothered with their fillers. In fact, I stopped watching at exactly the moment that they started their fillers during the 1st arc as I know there's no way they can do anymore manga at that point of the story, as they're only about 1 year behind the latest manga chapters. God knows how on earth that filler managed to drag on for over 100 episodes.

[b0mb3r]

^ still think you should dropped the N series. remember the 100 episode fillers from the 1st arc.

I never did bothered with their fillers. In fact, I stopped watching at exactly the moment that they started their fillers during the 1st arc as I know there's no way they can do anymore manga at that point of the story, as they're only about 1 year behind the latest manga chapters. God knows how on earth that filler managed to drag on for over 100 episodes.

I wish I was smart as you at the time cause I didn't read the manga back then so I thought it was manga-material but after watching like tons of fillers I realize something was iffy about it. I was an idiot.

[Kinny Riddle]

For the Spring 2010 anime season I have watched a record 8 shows at once, this makes it much easier for me to make the crucial decision to drop the anime of both Series N and Series B, despite both returning for the manga arcs this season.

Spring 2010 has now nearly come to an end, and I find I no longer have any desire to pick up both series ever again. In due time, I shall be slowly phasing out of my purchasing habit of the manga volumes as well and stick to scanlations wherever they're available from then on.

[Beware the talking cat]

*clap clap*