While Weekly Shonen Jump has been the home of many of the best known manga series of all time – such as Dragon Ball and One Piece – for every mega success the magazine finds, there are dozens of series which come and go without making a ripple, much less a splash. Getting a series in Shonen Jump is often a major break for a manga artist (or mangaka), one which can radically alter the course of their career, so competition is fierce. But even if one manages to get a series into the magazine, it’s far from a guarantee of success. In fact, the editors may not even give you a real chance.
A phenomenon observed by manga fans is that while some new series are given a position of prominence in the magazine, up front alongside the long-running and popular series, others are scarcely even given the chance to get started before cancellation brings the story to a premature end. Those that fall in the latter category are referred to as candidates for the “Under 19 Club,” a group of Shonen Jump manga series that are cancelled before reaching 19 chapters in length (with a weekly release, that’s about a 4 month run). The name is derived from a truly bizarre series called U19, which features some questionable content and a premise that was doomed to fail, centered on a character named Eiji who develops a superpower known as “Libido,” leading him to join the eponymous rebel group. U19 ran from February to June of 2017, ending after 17 chapters. An edited page from U19 appeared on the Japanese imageboard 2channel after its cancellation, replacing the faces of U19‘s rebels with those of characters from recently canceled Shonen Jump series, sparking a meme which eventually spread to international manga fans as well.
The Under 19 Club
![Shonen Jump’s “Under 19 Club” Reveals How New Manga Are Set up to Fail](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Under19-manga.jpg)
The Under 19 Club is more than just a meme, however. This simple idea captures one of the biggest issues that the manga industry in general and Shonen Jump in particular face. Competition to get into major magazines is so intense that there’s always a replacement series ready and waiting to go should any of the current series fail to succeed immediately. A reader survey accompanies each issue, and these survey results can have a powerful effect on what’s featured. If a new series isn’t being well received, it may start to slip back further into the magazine as other series gain favor, which many take as a sign that membership in the Under 19 Club is imminent. As new series debut, fans even make bets on how likely the newcomer is to wind up in the Under 19 Club, which can begin to build up an idea that it’s already doomed, and thus become a self-fulfilling prophecy. While Shonen Jump’s editors have often stated that placement closer to the front or back of the magazine shouldn’t be taken as an indication of their confidence in a series, fans are confident there’s a correlation.
Aside from the potential for reader feedback to snowball, there’s another issue at work. Those most likely to respond to the reader surveys are also those most dedicated to the magazine and its contents. After all, someone subscribed to Shonen Jump magazine is already a fan of at least one of the series running in it, if not more. This appears to have a knock-on effect where series that are similar to those that are already running in the magazine get more attention than those that aren’t. Thus, new series that closely resemble an already running series (like Black Clover and its many similarities to Naruto and Bleach) appeal to the people most likely to give feedback, potentially inflating the sense of their success where more innovative or slower-paced stories invite the opposite result.
How the Under 19 Club Shapes Manga
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Of course, none of this is to say that every series that’s in the Under 19 Club would’ve been great had it continued. Indeed, most are like the club’s namesake: low quality in terms of art or writing, full of problematic content, or unable to inspire fan enthusiasm. However, there are also several potential lost gems. Gen Oosuka, the creator of Shonen Jump‘s newest series Doron Dororon, wound up with his previous work Golem Hearts becoming an Under 19 Club member shortly after the idea was created, as it ran from October of 2017 to February of 2018. The series’ world of magically animated golems that have become an essential part of society had potential, and the one-shots which preceded its serialization make this readily apparent. Problems with it largely arose because the serialized version tried too hard to follow the traditional shonen action series formula, perhaps attempting to appeal to influential readers, but instead warping the story out of the form that suited it best.
Oosuka’s second chance with Doron Dororon suggests Golem Hearts‘ failure taught the mangaka a very clear lesson. While Doron Dororon still feels sincere and well crafted, it’s much more clearly aligned with the modern iteration of the shonen action formula: a powerless protagonist whose dream is to have a job that requires extraordinary abilities obtains those powers in an unconventional way, which puts him closer to his goal while drawing lots of attention, both positive and negative. The art is good, as it was in Golem Hearts, and the story’s tone strikes a balance between drama and humor, but after even the first chapter, it’s not hard to guess at some of the upcoming plot points simply because it seems to advertise an intent to stick close to that formula, at least for now. In the context of Golem Hearts, Doron Dororon suggests that the Under 19 Club doesn’t just select for a certain kind of story, but motivates creators to follow conventions in order to keep their work from being dumped before it can develop a following.
Escaping the Under 19 Club
![One Piece vs U19](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/One-Piece-vs-U19.png)
Creative and unique manga suffer most in a situation where stories have to succeed quickly or perish, but even some fairly conventional stories could be forced to become even more formulaic and cliche as a result of the Under 19 Club mentality, where new manga are rapidly cycled in and then cancelled in short order (often without narrative closure.) Responding to reader feedback is important, but catering to only the most diehard fans often leads to creating content that appeals to an increasingly specific niche.
If the industry hopes to begin a new age of growth as manga’s popularity increases around the world, publications like Shonen Jump will have to be willing to take more chances and offer a little more patience with new series.