For the first time since 2015, a gap has opened up in Kodansha’s manga line-up when its Fire Force series comes to an end. As the manga series Fire Force enters its final arc, the current big-name manga line-up is likely to undergo yet another huge shift.
Soul Eater author Atsushi Okubo and Kodansha, one of Japan’s largest manga publishers, are behind Fire Force.
With its focus on the young man with fire-based abilities, Shinra Kusakabe, Fire Force follows the exploits of Shinra and the Special Fire Force teams as they battle demons known as Infernals, which can manifest in the form of anybody, at any moment. Finally, answers will finally be given to all the mysteries that have been plaguing this series for so long, as this last arc begins.
In Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine, Fire Force is currently one of the most popular comics, beating only extreme long-runners like Hajime no Ippo. As long-running, serialised shonen action series are used as anchors in manga magazines, new series are introduced on a regular basis to establish a fanbase and carry the torch when a previous pillar series comes to an end, allowing other titles to take its place.
Both Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine and its main competitor Shueisha Weekly Shonen Jump have had difficulty in recent years identifying an heir to the long-runner throne. Apart from Fire Force, Kodansha’s popular Tokyo Revengers is also in its final arc, while Shueisha’s My Hero Academia is racing towards its finale and Dr. Stone is also close to its end. For both publications, several of their current popular series are ending.
Even the series’ author, Jujutsu Kaisen, has claimed that he hopes to conclude the series with 200 chapters or less, which puts the series’ conclusion even closer. Both Shonen Jump and Dragon Ball have suffered greatly from the loss of long-running characters in the past, most notably with the cancellation of Dragon Ball in the mid-1990s.
Manga may be more popular than it’s ever been, but if no new long-running core series emerges to keep magazine readership strong, that position might alter rapidly. For the first time in over a decade, the universe of Inuyasha has been brought back into print thanks to series like Yashahime, which both publishers have turned to developing sequels from popular titles in their back catalogue.
All of this means that a big shift in the manga industry’s environment has never been seen since Naruto and Bleach came to an end in the mid-2010s, when the Big Three of Shonen Jump broke apart. Many of the shows featured below began their runs around the same time, which is no accident. When renowned manga series like Fire Force come to an end, manga fans can’t help but be excited for a brave newcomer to shake things up and maybe change the way comics are read for years to come.