Super_Boom said:
Hm, do you have a source for that? I read a blurb on /a/ a few months ago that claimed Togashi had drafted a lot of the new arc, but was still recovering from his back injury. No idea if it was legit or not. I read that he negotiated a really lenient contract with Shueisha, which is why he's able to take so many breaks, but I wouldn't be suprised if he'd finally burned out. He's kind of a control freak from what I gather, which isn't a good trait to have in such a demanding industry. I haven't read Bleach in a while, it seems like it's really been dragging on lately. The new villains just seem so uninteresting compared to the Arrancar and Aizen. It just feels like non-stop fights with little to no real character development, which is something Kubo used to be fantastic at. I still plan to finish it, but I really hope it picks up again. No idea if that's positive or not for volume sales, but Jump readers haven't been rating Bleach very highly lately; I'm pretty sure it was at the bottom of the last poll they ran. Not sure I'd really include it with the big 3/5 anymore...seems like Toriko and Assassination Classroom have passed it quite handily in Jump manga rankings. |
The big 3 or 5 is not due to overall rankings. It's due to rankings at one-time and longevity, impact on the genre. Btw, if you have not been reading Bleach then you have been missing out. This final arc (1000 Year Blood War Arc) is so far the best even better than SS arc. Aizen is back, Ichigo's new powers are amazing which we finally found out why/what his powers are as they were not what we thought all this time. Neliel, Grimmjow, Harribel the Espada are back & even a few Fullbringers are back! The Zero Squad Division finally make thier appearance. Also the new main villain Juha Bach is ruthless & OP. Awesome bad guy! So many unaswered questions have been addressed like with Ichigo's parents backstory mom/dad. New Bankai's unvealed among countless other things that needed to be wrapped up b4 the Manga ends. I think like Naruto it will end at Chapter 700 which should be around the Fall of 2016. Chapter 657 will drop next Thursday. So the math dictates sometime around the Fall of 2016 for 700 to get here. (Japan has a lot of weird holidays no Manga comde out on & Kubo will hopefully remain healthy) Now idk for sure if 700 is the end or not, but seems about right imo. This final arc started at Ch.480 so it will end up be the longest & imo the best of all the arcs. Although Bleach actually had some decent if not down right solid fillers unlike other long running anime's ("cough Naruto", which I like Naruto. Although I heard that Kishimoto is going to start up Naruto again next year. That is disappointing as I was looking forward to Boruto/Sarada with just Naruto/Sasuke in the background)
Regardless yes, there are weekly rankings in Japanese Manga & Bleach fluctuates wildly from top 5 to 13. Bleach still stays around 3 Million sold per year every year since the anime stopped (early 2012) which is very respectable for a Manga without an Anime for 3+ years. I fully expect this final arc to be animated around 2017 when it wraps up. Money is to be made here with a lot of great content to work with. At one time Bleach was ranked #1 even in front of Naruto & One Piece in Japan 2007ish or so. That said, in the West aka USA/EU Bleach has remained #2 just behind Naruto in popularity forever it seems. There is still a massive audience in Japan, but even more-so outside of Japan to see this final arc animated.
As far as HxH, I remember reading that Shonen pulled the plug on it finally. I mean it is hard to blame them with all the massive long breaks the Mangaka took. The last I read is that it was over for good. They were gonna leave it be as it is. No further Manga's of HXH to be made. Maybe he got a new deal with promises made to keep on schedule or something, but idk and have not heard anything reliable yet to lead me to that conclusion.
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