Impact of Marie’s Marriage Edition

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

More than the Kimchi incident, which has been pointed out as a symbol of the fishy slump, is the Marie marriage chapter in volumes 21-22.
To give you an outline of the story, it’s a story about Marie’s impending unwanted marriage, and Raku bursts into the ceremony, forcibly takes her away, and with the help of his fiancée’s smart plan and father’s persuasion, the marriage proposal disappears and it’s happily ever after.
The story of how the wedding ceremony is ruined has been used in many films, including the old movie “The Graduate”, and while it’s tongue-in-cheek, it’s not as damning as it should be.

The problem with this episode is that Raku’s behavior is extremely selfish.
Up until this point, he has been withholding replies to Marie’s repeated requests for favors from her, and now the blame falls on him for stepping into her family’s affairs with his feet, without any intention of taking responsibility for them, and then intervening and taking her away without any constructive follow-up or care.

Marie didn’t want to get married, and it’s clear that Raku’s intrusion resulted in her life moving in the right direction.
She’s still in high school, and we can consider her to be young enough to act with no second thoughts.

However, it’s not appropriate for her to take such a step with someone she doesn’t like.
He doesn’t seem to be thinking about Marie properly, he is only playing with her heart, and since Marie’s fiancé is a personable person, his youthfulness and irresponsibility are exposed even more.

After this Marie’s marriage chapter, a search for “fake protagonist” resulted in “scum” and other search suggestions being filled with abusive language. (Still ongoing as of December 2019.)
It is not uncommon for an entire episode to be called a “farce” because the problem was finally resolved so stupidly.
As a result, it is a legendary episode that will remain in the history of manga in a bad way.

So what effect did the “Marie Marriage Edition” have on sales?
Let’s look at the Oricon sales data for each volume.

Volume 20, 350,000 copies
Volume 21, 334,000 copies
Volume 22, 316,000 copies
Volume 23, 297,000 copies
Volume 24, 282,000 copies
Volume 25, 262,000 copies

It’s true that there was a downward trend, but it’s not like there was such a glaring downward trend in volumes 21-22.
However, considering that Marie Marriage Arc was published in JUMP between August and October 2015, just before the release of volume 20, and comics sales had been stable at around 400,000 copies up to volume 19, it can be assumed that the Marie Marriage Arc was the catalyst for a somewhat large drop in circulation.
Nevertheless, it does not mean that the sales have fallen off hopelessly and there are enough fans to keep up with the series.

Incidentally, if they are going to produce the third season in one volume, it is expected to be in the 18-19 volume range, so it is unlikely that they will be making an anime of the Marie’s wedding episode.
Therefore, it does not mean that the third season was not made because of the concern of this episode’s visualization.

Is the real reason for the production?

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

The average of 4,000 disc sales for two seasons is a bit below the level of anime that typically gets sequels made.
However, when it comes to comics that are selling well, sequels are often made regardless of disc sales, and this is especially true of Jump works.

For example, the second season of “Shokugeki no Soma” did not even reach 1,000 discs, but the following year a third season was aired, and even after the conclusion of the original work, a fourth season was produced.
Before the second season aired, the total number of comics published reached 10 million copies (19 volumes / average 530,000 copies), and it is assumed that the strong sales were the main reason for the success of the series.

At volume 23, the series has a total of 10 million copies of Nisekoi, so it’s slightly less than the single-volume sales of Shokugeki no Soma.
However, the difference is not so great, on the contrary, the disc sales are much higher, and with the high sales of the bundled edition with OVA and the popularity of the merchandise, the profit generated by the work is not inferior to that of the other series.
Therefore, it’s not surprising that a third season of Nsekoi was produced.

But in spite of that, the reason why it wasn’t made is because of the decision of the production company.

Shueisha, Shaft, Aniplex, and others were involved in the production of Nisekooi.
JUMP increased the number of romantic comedies such as “Yuna-san of Yuregiso” and “Bokutachi wa Gakushu ga Dainai”, Shaft started production of “Kizumonogatari” trilogy in earnest, and Aniplex started distribution of “Fate/Grand Order” and started to focus on Fate related issues, so it seems that they may not have been able to devote resources to the planning of the third season of Nsekoi.

Summary

If the live-action movie had been a hit, there might have been a future where a third or fourth season was made.
At the time of the serialization, the Marie Marriage Arc was heavily criticized, but now I think it can be enjoyed as a story, so I really wanted it to be made.