It has long been prophesied that Masashi Kishimoto will return to the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump, and after Golden Week we’re finally getting the Naruto author’s comeback series Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru. But that’s not the only series set to start in the legendary manga magazine – rather, Jump is gearing up for yet another wave of new serializations to see in the new Reiwa era and pave the way to the future. Those new serializations are Futari no Taisei, Beast Children and Tokyo Shinobi Squad.
Samurai 8 will be launching in two weeks in May 13’s Jump issue no. 24, and following close on Kishimoto’s heels will be Kentaro Fukuda. His new series, Futari no Taisei, will be launching the week after in May 20’s issue no. 25.
Fukuda is by far the most experienced mangaka to be getting a new series over the coming weeks, having already authored two serializations in Shueisha magazines – those being the bizarre comedy Devilyman in Weekly Shonen Jump from May to September 2015 and the supernatural drama Shinigiwa in the monthly Jump GIGA from July to October 2016. Futari no Taisei will, therefore, be his third serialization as an author and artist.
This experience should give Fukuda an edge over the other new serializations, as most of them are headed up by newbie authors. One such author is Kento Terasaka, who will be launching his new series Beast Children the week after Fukuda in May 27’s issue no. 26.
Beast Children is a rugby sports manga, so I can’t exactly say I’m very excited about this one. That being said, there has been a distinct lack of sports manga in Jump other than Haikyuu!! ever since ROBOT=LASERBEAM got canceled last year – so perhaps Terasaka can fill this niche with his new series.
Last up is the series Tokyo Shinobi Squad, set to launch in June 3’s issue no. 27. This series is similar to Samurai 8 in that it’s being tackled by an author-artist duo – that of Yuki Tanaka and Kento Matsuura, who are tackling story and art respectively.
Duos tend to be able to cope with the hectic weekly serialization schedule better than solo authors due to the division of labor possible between two people, so I’m more hopeful for this series. Furthermore, although author Tanaka might be another newbie, artist Matsuura already worked on the briefly serialized Hono Mieru Shonen series as an artist in Weekly Shonen Jump last year, so this should again give the duo a slight advantage over others.
Matsuura also comes at the recommendation of Act-Age artist Shiro, who congratulated Matsuura via Twitter on his new serialization by saying that “he’s great at drawing.” I absolutely adore Shiro’s work on Act-Age, so I’m definitely going to take up his recommendation and check this one out.
松浦先生作画の新連載たのしみですね。めちゃ絵が上手い。
— 宇佐崎しろ (@uszksr) April 27, 2019
The debut of these four new serializations over the next month or so could be vital in shaping the future of the magazine going forward, as all new serializations do. No doubt the Jump office is searching for its next big hit to bring in the new Reiwa era – and perhaps one of these could be the jackpot. Although it’s easy to be blindsided by the legend that is Kishimoto returning to Jump with Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru, we shouldn’t discount the new blood that is being injected into the magazine either.
What do you think of these new serializations? Will you be checking any of them out? Let us via social media or via our Discord, linked below.