If you’ve been reading manga from Weekly Shonen Jump, you probably see this situation unfolding many times.

First, you come across a new manga that is replacing the long, popular series that has just ended.

And the next thing you know, the same manga that you came across a few weeks or perhaps months ago is getting its final chapter.

Does the story is reaching its end?

More or less yes. But rather, it’s more like the manga is being forced to end simply because its popularity is dwindling. So, the publisher has no choice but to axe the unpopular manga and replace it with another new manga.

That’s what happened to Guardian of The Witch where it ends with only 19 chapters in total.

Is the manga that bad?

To be honest, I don’t think that Guardian of The Witch is that bad, story-wise.

Sure, the story can be a bit meh to some people since the theme of the story tends to be about magic, good vs. evil, and friendship.

But if you compare it to the other manga that got axed before it, I will say that Guardian of The Witch is still much better.

It may not be the manga that I’m so looking forward to reading every week. But it’s still somewhat sad to see that the manga has to go.

But some of the manga deserved to get axed, though

Okay, that seems cruel when I say this. But some of the manga do deserve to get axed simply because the story isn’t that interesting at all.

In fact, some of them start to get weird too as the story is progressing.

That’s what happened to Double Taisei. The story starts off just fine during the first few chapters. But for some reason, the story starts to escalate into something weird later on.

And it becomes even weirder to the point where I have no idea what’s going on anymore.

I’m fine with a weird story. But for a story like Double Taisei, it shouldn’t have a story that will take for the weird turn. It feels like the manga itself is moving into the gag manga territory.

I’m not sure if the story intends to be like that. But I have a feeling that a sudden change must have something to do with the editor’s advice to turn Double Taisei into a gag manga.

Well, it’s not surprising considering that gag manga tends to stay much longer Weekly Shonen Jump.

But with such a strange change of tide, I don’t think it can save the manga anymore.

Thus, it got axed months later. But at least it still lasts much longer than Guardian of The Witch.

This is normal in Weekly Shonen Jump

For many of us, seeing so many series in Weekly Shonen Jump getting axed makes you think that the magazine itself has a picky readership.

Well, that can be true to the some extend.

But the reason why we’re seeing so many manga getting axed is simply because they have so many manga being serialized than any other publications.

Even Jump Plus doesn’t have as many series as the one in Weekly Shonen Jump.

Sure, the readership for Jump Plus isn’t the same as the one in Weekly Shonen Jump since Jump Plus tends to cater to a much older demographic.

But the amount of manga that is serialized in Jump Plus isn’t that many compared to the one in Weekly Shonen Jump.

It’s because of this reason that you see less manga in Jump Plus getting axed.

The type of series that gets serialized in Jump Plus matters too. Most of the series in Jump Plus tends to have a complex storyline and without much action too.

At least the Jump Plus readership tends to be more patient when it comes to a story like Guardian of The Witch.

Perhaps the manga may have a better chance of survival if it gets serialized on Jump Plus rather than on Weekly Shonen Jump.

Popularity is a fickle thing

I won’t deny that gauging the popularity of the manga isn’t an easy thing to do.

The manga that you think will become popular turns out to be a dud. And the manga that you think will get axed sooner or later turns out to last much longer than you thought.

I’m sure that you’ve seen this yourself too.

So, don’t be surprised when the manga you enjoy reading suddenly gets axed in the coming week.

That’s what happened to me when I read the final chapter of Guardian of The Witch. With the manga is heading towards the end without much explanation in between, it’s clear that will be the last time I’ll be reading that manga.

For the most part, I never care about the manga that got axed since I know that those manga deserved it.

So, it’s a strange thing for me to do for a manga like Guardian of The Witch.

I may not recommend this manga on my blog. But at least it’s worth mentioning here.