Weekly Shonen Jump is the world’s most popular manga magazine. Every week, over 1 million manga fanatics buy the magazine that brought worldwide sensations like Dragon Ball, Naruto, and One Piece. Weekly Shonen Jump is synonymous with success and serializing in the magazine gives authors a shot at achieving, to quote Gol D. Roger from One Piece, “wealth, fame, and power.” But such opportunity raises colossal pressure on authors to satisfy readers, and quickly.
Serializing in Weekly Shonen Jump is often a make-or-break. Editors cannot afford to be waiting around when the next Demon Slayer is sitting just around the corner. And so, a dip in popularity may lead to the magazine’s infamous axe (or cancelation, for those unfamiliar with the street lingo). The stakes are high and so are reader expectations.
That being said, let’s get down to business. Here is the complete list ranking all of the Weekly Shonen Jump titles serialized in 2024 based on their yearly average ToC ranking:
Graphic by Matias De la Piedra – @mangaxrepublic | ONE PIECE © 1997 by Eiichiro Oda/SHUEISHA Inc., SAKAMOTO DAYS © 2020 by Yuto Suzuki/SHUEISHA Inc., AO NO HAKO © 2021 by Kouji Miura/SHUEISHA Inc., BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA © 2014 by Kohei Horikoshi/SHUEISHA Inc., JUJUTSU KAISEN © 2018 by Gege Akutami/SHUEISHA Inc., MADAN NO ICHI © 2024 by Osamu Nishi, Shiro Usazaki/SHUEISHA Inc., AKANE BANASHI © 2022 by Yuki Suenaga, Takamasa Moue/SHUEISHA Inc., SHINOBIGOTO © 2024 by Ippon Takegushi, Santa Mitarashi/SHUEISHA Inc., HIMATEN! © 2024 by Genki Ono/SHUEISHA Inc., WITCH WATCH © 2021 by Kenta Shinohara/SHUEISHA Inc.
If you’re feeling clueless, don’t worry, these are not random numbers I made up. The numbers you see here are the average of all ToC rankings each series achieved in 2024. ToC stands for “Table of Contents” and series up in the ranks are the most voted from reader surveys. For now, think of it like a popularity ranking. There is more nuance to this, so if you want all the deets, read the explanation I wrote in my article about the Top 10 Weekly Shonen Jump starts in the last 10 years.
Seeing how the ranking lists 34 series, it would consume valuable years of my life to expand on every single one of them. Therefore, I will only touch upon the most interesting ToC performances. Let’s get into the analysis!
The winner: One Piece
Graphic by Matias De la Piedra – @mangaxrepublic | ONE PIECE © 1997 by Eiichiro Oda/SHUEISHA Inc.
The list begins with a real surprise to no one. The pirate adventure manga One Piece takes the No. 1 spot with an astonishing average ToC ranking of 2.500! The series has ranked in the Top 3 the whole year, extending its streak of owning the top spot in the magazine to 19 years. It is not all good news though, as the series went on break 16 times, missing out on a third of the magazine issues of the year. It is the second year in a row that Eiichiro Oda, the author, takes this many breaks.
Following Akira Toriyama’s passing, Oda has been cautious regarding his health and took a 1-month break between issues #18 and #20. Additionally, Oda has been working on the production of Season 2 of the Netflix One Piece live-action series costing him some additional breaks. Oda’s deteriorating health and workload are a concern to fans, even more so when One Piece ended the year on a sudden 2-week break due to the author’s poor health.
Rising stars: Sakamoto Days and Blue Box
Graphic by Matias De la Piedra – @mangaxrepublic | SAKAMOTO DAYS © 2020 by Yuto Suzuki/SHUEISHA Inc.
Sakamoto Days and Blue Box are no longer the future, but the present of Shonen Jump, and these final rankings show exactly that. Both series ranking above best-sellers like My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen show how much faith the editorial office has placed in them. The fast-paced assassin manga Sakamoto Days takes second place for a second year in a row with a solid 4.587 ToC average. It is also the second series with the most covers with four, just one cover shy from equalling One Piece. Sakamoto Days is receiving an anime adaptation coming to Netflix in January 2025.
Graphic by Matias De la Piedra – @mangaxrepublic | AO NO HAKO © 2021 by Kouji Miura/SHUEISHA Inc.
Compared to last year, Blue Box jumped one position ahead and ranked third with a 5.085 ToC average. I must say, it is rare to see a romance manga rank so highly in Weekly Shonen Jump. The last romance manga to make it to the Top 5 was the high school romcom Nisekoi, back in 2012. Blue Box has settled in the Top 5 since 2022, so it is quite a big deal. In my opinion, Blue Box is the best manga in the magazine, balancing romance and sports splendidly. It simply knows how to win your heart over and hit you in the feels. So seeing it rank so highly is not a surprise to me. Don’t believe me? Check out the manga on MANGA Plus or watch its gorgeous ongoing anime available on Netflix, which has been nothing but pure wholesomeness.
Shonen Jump in trouble? My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen end
Graphic by Matias De la Piedra – @mangaxrepublic | BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA © 2014 by Kohei Horikoshi/SHUEISHA Inc.
In their final stretch, My Hero Academia narrowly outperformed Jujutsu Kaisen with an average ToC ranking of 5.130, edging ahead by just 0.042. Over the past few years, both series have been plagued by frequent breaks due to the declining health of their creators—Kohei Horikoshi, the author of My Hero Academia, and Gege Akutami, the mind behind Jujutsu Kaisen. The former took ten breaks, while the latter took eleven, reflecting the immense toll of serializing in Weekly Shonen Jump. But their suffering is finally over and their perseverance has paid off, with My Hero Academia concluding with a remarkable finale.
Graphic by Matias De la Piedra – @mangaxrepublic | JUJUTSU KAISEN © 2018 by Gege Akutami/SHUEISHA Inc.
My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen coming to an end this year is arguably the biggest hit to the magazine’s roster since Demon Slayer, The Promised Neverland, and Haikyuu!! ended in 2020. Besides One Piece, Shonen Jump is now void of big sellers. Sure, Sakamoto Days and Blue Box are doing quite well, but they simply can’t match the size of these two titans. With two flagship series gone, you can imagine how desperate the editors must be searching for a new hit. So I wonder, who will save Shonen Jump?
Ichi the Witch to the rescue!
Graphic by Matias De la Piedra – @mangaxrepublic | MADAN NO ICHI © 2024 by Osamu Nishi, Shiro Usazaki/SHUEISHA Inc.
Well, that didn’t take long, did it? Yuu Saito, the new Weekly Shonen Jump Editor-in-Chief, knew he was in trouble and called the Avengers: the first-ever female mangaka duo to serialize in Weekly Shonen Jump. The story is penned by Osamu Nishi—author of the fantasy comedy Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun from Weekly Shonen Champion—and illustrated by the immensely talented and fan-favorite artist Shiro Usazaki, known for her incredible work on Act-Age. Notably, Act-Age was canceled in 2020 following the sentence of its writer, Tatsuya Matsuki, who was charged with committing coerced indecent acts on two female middle school students. Please note that Usazaki had nothing to do with Matsuki’s crimes and was an innocent victim of the consequences of his arrest.
It took nearly four years for Shiro Usazaki to come back with a new manga, and boy was the wait worth it. Ichi the Witch, a fantasy series where a man becomes a witch in a world where only women can be witches, has had a stellar start with an average ToC rank of 5.750. Having three color pages within the span of 12 chapters is a testament to its overwhelmingly positive reception from readers. It is still too early to call Ichi the Witch a hit, but I can confidently say that, more sooner than later, it will become one. The future is promising!
Anime boost gone missing? Mission: Yozakura Family and The Elusive Samurai
Graphic by Matias De la Piedra – @mangaxrepublic | YOZAKURASANCHI NO DAISAKUSEN © 2019 by Hitsuji Gondaira/SHUEISHA Inc.
When an anime adaptation of a manga airs, it is normal for its ToC rankings to rise due to an influx of new readers drawn in by the anime. However, Mission: Yozakura Family found a way to become the exception to this trend. While its rankings did see a slight improvement during the anime, they ultimately fell through, ending with an average ToC ranking of 9.458. Mission: Yozakura Family has always been a well-rounded underachiever and it seems likely it will continue like one until its very end.
Graphic by Matias De la Piedra – @mangaxrepublic | NIGEJYOZUNO WAKAGIMI © 2021 by Yusei Matsui/SHUEISHA Inc.
On the other hand, The Elusive Samurai, written by Yusei Matsui, author of the global hit Assassination Classroom, did see a boost. Sure, it ranked below Mission: Yozakura Family by a margin of 1.202, but the final placings are less important than the overall trend. In this case, The Elusive Samurai has consistently gained traction, accelerating even faster following the release of its beautifully animated anime adaptation by CloverWorks. While it may not have created waves across the world, The Elusive Samurai stands out as one of the best anime to air this year.
The Nakano bias: Kagurabachi rises and Undead Unluck plummets
Graphic by Matias De la Piedra – @mangaxrepublic | KAGURABACHI © 2023 by Takeru Hokazono/SHUEISHA Inc.
Kagurabachi and Undead Unluck stand out with the most interesting ToC trends of the year for one reason only: Hiroyuki Nakano. In June, Weekly Shonen Jump’s Editor-in-Chief Hiroyuki Nakano stepped down and Yuu Saito took over the role. Immediately after this leadership change, Kagurabachi skyrocketed through the ranks, climbing faster than any other series. Initially ranked in the bottom half of the magazine, it soon settled consistently in the top, finishing with a respectable average ToC ranking of 10.313. In contrast, Undead Unluck, which had been ranking quite decently, saw a sharp drop in its rankings, ultimately landing with a modest average ToC ranking of 11.638.
Graphic by Matias De la Piedra – @mangaxrepublic | UNDEAD UNLUCK © 2020 by Yoshifumi Tozuka/SHUEISHA Inc.
Some might argue that the strong performance of Undead Unluck in the first half of the year can be attributed to an anime boost. While such a boost is possible, it didn’t have a significant impact on the series’ popularity. In fact, I suspect that such ranks were due to what I see as the “Nakano bias”—where the former Editor-in-Chief gave preferential treatment to series he is fond of. This bias became apparent when the series’ ToC rankings plummeted after its preferential treatment disappeared with Nakano’s departure.
I am not opposed to promoting a series you see potential in. But if that means having to shunt one of the best-performing series, an up-and-comer, and your best shot at a mega-hit, then that is just self-sabotage, is it? Kagurabachi volume 4 has sold over 120,000 copies in a month—more than twice the sales of Undead Unluck’s best-selling volume. In just five volumes, Kagurabachi has reached 1.3 million copies in circulation, while Undead Unluck has taken 13 volumes to reach 1.8 million copies in circulation. Keep in mind, Undead Unluck‘s last circulation update was back in 2021, and series with underperforming sales tend to withhold circulation updates.
At this point, it must be clear how big of a deal Kagurabachi is, and how Undead Unluck pales in comparison. It simply does not make sense to give preferential treatment to a series that hit a low ceiling ages ago over one that is yet to hit one in both sales and popularity. It is nonsensical! Anyways, the nerd inside me is super excited to see the ToC rankings of an unleashed Kagurabachi next year!
Overweight in deadweight: Hakutaku, Super Psychic Policeman Chojo, Astro Royale, Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi, Nue’s Exorcist, and Kill Blue are axe-worthy material
Graphic by Matias De la Piedra – @mangaxrepublic | NEGAI NO ASTRO © 2024 by Ken Wakui/SHUEISHA Inc.
It’s a long list, I know, and I won’t even bother adding all their charts—they all look like slippery slides anyway. The magazine’s approach has always been simple: Keep throwing spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. Recently, however, the editors have struggled to score a hit. The spaghetti just won’t stick! Their solution? Glue it to the wall, hoping it will hold over time. But readers aren’t walls—something won’t “stick” if it lacks substance, no matter how often it is pushed in front of them. And this poor decision-making—call it wishful thinking that something will eventually stick or reluctance to axe them sooner—has left the magazine weighed down with an accumulation of so much deadweight.
Graphic by Matias De la Piedra – @mangaxrepublic | KILL AO © 2023 by Tadatoshi Fujimaki/SHUEISHA Inc.
Why do I call these series deadweights? Simply put, all of these won’t amount to anything significant, let alone reach the magazine’s high standards, as their sales remain consistently poor, and their ToC rankings, or reader reception, are mediocre at best with no signs of improvement. Despite this, the magazine inexplicably holds onto them. Two examples are Mission: Yozakura Family and Undead Unluck. Both series were given every opportunity to succeed, including anime adaptations, yet their sales remained “unmoved unsold.”
Six series in the magazine are beyond saving. SIX! That’s over a quarter of its lineup. Maybe Nue’s Exorcist and Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi could be spared, for now, only because they are the least bad from the bottom of the barrel. While Saito has made a promising start as Editor-in-Chief—finding a new potential hit in Ichi the Witch, giving Kagurabachi its well-deserved spotlight, and reviving the infamous U-19 axe (i.e. axing a series under 19 chapters)—there is still much work to be done. Clearing out this deadweight is crucial to making room for fresh talent like Kagurabachi, Ichi the Witch, and perhaps, even the next One Piece.
You can read the latest Weekly Shonen Jump chapters in English via VIZ Media’s Shonen Jump website/app or Shueisha’s MANGA Plus website/app. For more ToC charts, check out my thread with all the individual ToC ranking graphs on X/Twitter and Bluesky.
Like this:
Like Loading…
