The “Kinnikuman” comes back to life with a strong ally
出典 : Amazon.co.jp
Perhaps the most successful manga sequel to an old hit is Kinnikuman.
Although it was created in the 1980s, the sequel has been very well received in the 2010s, and every time the latest episode is updated, the active superheroes are trending.
It’s doing well commercially, even if not as well as it did in its heyday, and is an undisputed success story.
However, there are twists and turns in this Kinnikuman sequel.
When the first sequel was serialized, it was titled “Kinnikuman II” and was a story about the next generation of superhumans.
Since the time of the previous series, the art skills of the writer, Yoshinori Nakai, had improved greatly, the next generation of superheroes such as Kevin Mask were accepted, and the series continued to grow steadily, but the second part, “The Ultimate Superhero Tag Team Arc”, saw a sharp drop in popularity.
In particular, he was booed outright for lowering the stock of Neptune Man and Mammoth Man, the popular superheroes of the old series.
It was thought that Kinnikuman would fall from grace, but the “Perfect Superhero Hajime Arc”, which was the next legitimate sequel to the old series, turned around and was met with a storm of praise.
Not only the old fans, but also the younger generation who were first introduced to Kinnikuman through this series were very popular.
It’s well known among fans, but it seems that this comeback was greatly influenced by the power of the editor in charge, “Yamachan”.
The editor in charge, who is a Kinnikuman fanatic and full of love for the series, acted as the brain behind the comeback, which allowed for consistency with the past series and the reuse of settings, and ensured that the superheroes from the previous series were not portrayed in an uncool manner.
More than anything else, it can be said that the efforts and personalities of Yudetamago-sensei and his team, who have never hidden the existence of such a brain to the fans and have continued to face the work of Kinnikuman with sincerity, have revived the trust of the work and the fans.
To Love Love Lu awakened by changing the magazine
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No matter how good the production side is, if the environment doesn’t make the most of their abilities, it won’t be reflected in the work.
To Love Love Lu” made this known to many manga fans.
Initially, this work was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, and was so successful that it was made into an anime, but the series was terminated because “a manga with a sexy line is not popular in surveys”.
However, it was later changed to “To LOVE-Ru Darkness” and a sequel was started, changing the title to “To LOVE-Ru Darkness” and making a new home in Jump Square.
As a result, while the old series had a total of 18 volumes and a circulation of 7 million copies, Darkness had a total of 18 volumes and a circulation of over 9 million copies, and sales increased compared to when it was serialized in JUMP.
At the time, Jump’s circulation was around 2.8 million copies, while Jump Square had 360,000 copies at the start of the Darkness serialization.
Even though there was such a difference in dissemination rates, the number of readers of the manga developed into an extraordinary situation where the number of readers actually increased.
I don’t need to tell you the reason for this.
The reason for this is that the magazine was no longer published in a boys’ magazine, and the ban on the drawing of Yabuki Kentaro was lifted completely.
Moreover, the change in the field has awakened Yabuki-sensei himself, and not only has the degree of exposure increased, but he has also performed a series of divine feats to express this and that using various techniques that ordinary people would never think of.
He became well known for being “more erotic than adult manga” and “the original is the most dangerous than any thin book”, and succeeded in gaining a large number of new fans.
The success of the live-action Rurouni Kenshin movie has created a lot of anticipation
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In terms of commercial success, it’s hard to miss this one.
It was a signature title that supported Jump in the late 1990s, and a sequel titled Rurouni Kenshin – Meiji Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Roman Tan, Hokkaido Edition began in 2017 on Jump Square.
It was released in three volumes and was a huge hit.
The success of the Ruroken sequel was due to the success of the live-action movie.
Even though it was a work that created an era, if nearly 20 years have passed since the series ended, it will inevitably fade away.
The author, Nobuhiro Watsuki, made an anime with “Busou Renkin”, but there was no work that became a long-running serialization, and if the Hokkaido version had started directly, the image of “relying on the popular works of the past” might have been prevalent.
However, the live-action movies that were released in 2012 were all huge hits, which gave the work a sense of being active, and people were looking forward to the sequel to the manga, and the sequel started at a time that everyone was comfortable with.
Also, the fact that the design was heavily influenced by the previous series seems to have worked well.
Watsuki is the type of manga artist who can change the designs at will, and from “GUN BLAZE WEST” to “Embalming”, he has drawn different designs to suit the work, but the Hokkaido version is not much different from the Ruroken series of nearly 20 years ago, and readers at the time seemed to be able to smoothly get into the story.
The fact that they were doing a trial run with the remake manga “Kinema Edition” was probably a big part of it.
This “effort to bring the picture together” is one of the conditions for the success of the sequel.
Summary
There’s a lot of luck and timing that goes into whether or not a sequel is successful, but I think the minimum requirement is that you feel the love for the work.
I’m sure there’s a lot of opinions about writing a continuation of a hit once it’s completed, but if I’m going to be sent out into the world anyway, I want to read a sequel that values the work!
