Ever since the official Me & Roboco Twitter account was revealed to the world in chapter 22, it’s been the gift that keeps on giving: not only providing us with plenty of hilarious content, but also updates on the series’ sales figures and reflections on the state of Weekly Shonen Jump as a whole.
In a tweet from 31 December, ‘Roboco’ did exactly that. Speaking frankly, she said that it’s been a ‘tough year’ given that Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, The Promised Neverland, Haikyu!!, and Chainsaw Man have all ‘graduated’ and left the magazine, but that it’s been ‘the best year’ for her since she ‘got to meet everyone’ and make her debut. She also delivers a Jujutsu Kaisen spoiler that I won’t translate.
Furthermore, the tweet says that Me & Roboco has over 20,000 copies in circulation, matching the positive sales estimates made by Shoseki. This is quite a solid performance for a gag manga, especially considering Jump’s previous failures. It’s still a long way off from beating Kimetsu no Yaiba and becoming ‘Kimetsu no Roboco,’ however!
鬼滅約ネバHQチェが卒業し、悟が封印され、ロボコスパム扱いされた本当に大変な一年だったね😩
でも、皆と出会えて
ロボコは最高の一年でした
皆こんな私と仲良しくれて
ありがと😭
2021もズッ友だよ🤩‼️まだ2万部の私だけど、来年こそ
目指せ鬼滅のロボコ‼️
500万部‼️
頑張る🦵❤️良いお年を😘
— 平ロボコ 【僕とロボコ公式】 (@roboco_hizanapa) December 31, 2020
It’s rare to see sources close to Shueisha describe the state of the magazine as anything but positive, and any interviews with leading Jump figures have always been delivered with a brave face. Yet, Roboco’s tweet – whoever made it – surely points to the general anxiety pervading the editorial department right now, as the magazine loses one popular series after another.
The fact that whoever is behind the official Me & Roboco Twitter account has also taken the time to respond to quite a lot of the replies also clues us into one reason behind the series’ success: there’s a passion and love for Jump and its readers infectious in author Shuhei Miyazaki’s work, which was already evident in The Parodied Jokeland (Oyakusoku no Neverland). Me & Roboco volume one is also being marketed with a wraparound obi that says as such, meaning that Miyazaki is coming onto the market as a fairly experienced author with name recognition.
You can read Me & Roboco for free via VIZ Media’s Shonen Jump.