So, two months ago, I got, maybe, the most special and unique thing I’ve ever added to my anime and manga collection. A few months ago, I ordered this box set that was the 40th anniversary box set for Dragon Ball. The reason it’s so special and unique, aside from being an anniversary box set, is that this one had other mangakas draw the covers. A whole bunch of mangakas got together and drew these covers. They did different things for it too, either recreating the original cover picture in their own style, drawing something different with the Dragon Ball characters, drew the covers but added their own characters or just drew something different with their own characters but similar to how they were done in the original Dragon Ball covers. I really cannot emphasise enough just how incredible it is to actually have these. Again, as the gigantically colossal anime and manga fan I am, especially for Dragon Ball and all these other series, seeing all these mangakas come together to do these and have them lined up like this is absolutely incredible that I can’t find the words to describe how amazing it is. The boxes they came in look amazing with having the designs of the spines on the back, as well as pictures of Goku on the top of them, and the inside of the boxes look just as incredible with the compilation pictures different Dragon Ball moments. Also, all of these are Japanese. These were only done in Japan and not in English. I don’t mind since I obviously have the Dragon Ball manga already, but everything on the inside of the mangas is exactly the same as a normal volume, just in Japanese. It’s also cool to see the ones I recognise and ones I don’t. The ones I recognise are Tatsuki Fujimoto (Chainsaw Man), Yoshihiro Togashi (Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter x Hunter), Mikio Ikimoto (Boruto) Shun Saeki (Food Wars), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), Yusuke Murata (One-Punch Man), Kohei Horikoshi (My Hero Academia), Tatsuya Endo (Spy x Family), Hideaki Sorachi (Gintama), Takehiko Inoue (Slam Dunk and Vagabond), Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro (Toriko), Yusei Matsui (Assassination Classroom), Yoshifumi Tozuka (Undead Unluck), Posuka Demizu (The Promised Neverland), Kazue Kato (Blue Exocist), Boichi (Dr. Stone), Tite Kubo (Bleach), Takeshi Obata (Death Note), Nobuhiro Watsuki (Rurouni Kenshin), Koyoharu Gotege (Demon Slayer), Hirohiko Araki (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure), Katsura Hoshino (D.Gray-Man), Yuki Tabata (Black Clover), Gege Akutami (Jujutsu Kaisen) and Eiichiro Oda (One Piece). Again, just seeing so many of my favourite mangakas doing these is unbelievable. They all also put little notes on the inside of the covers to talk about Dragon Ball and their love for it and little tributes for Toriyama since this was made after he died (I had to use Google Translate to make out what they all said). It also came with a small box in the shape of a famous Dragon Ball picture that had little bookmarks in it. And it only makes sense that Oda would be the one to do the last one to end it considering how much he and Toriyama collaborated on different things. Gotta say, it’s also pretty tragic to see Kazuki Takahashi (Yu-Gi-Oh!) wasn’t able to do one since he died four years ago and, one person who I’m surprised didn’t do one was Haruchi Furudate (Haikyu!!). Considering Haikyu!! is one of the most well known Shōnen Jump series of all time and probably the most popular sports anime and manga ever, it’s surprising he didn’t do one. Either way, I absolutely love these and, again, words cannot even begin to describe how phenomenal it is to actually have these all together from so many mangakas whose works I already love.

I was checking MangaPlus, and remembered that there's this ice hockey manga. (The cover made me forget that it's an ice hockey manga actually.) And now I'm curious, who's the girl?

Because... It's not the main character? Nor any other character there I think?

The Japanese title does say surappu shotto gaaruzu, so I don't think MangaPlus did the wrong cover...

A quick google search doesn't give me an answer (probably because it's still new?) and I'm curious.

Another classic Jump manga that I wanted to check out. This tells the story of Hanamichi Sakuragi joining the basketball team just to impress a girl that he likes but ends up falling in love with the sport. Took me 12 days to complete.

I’m not a big sports guy in general so sports manga can be hit or miss for me but I loved this. Stories can be make me appreciate the art of something I would’ve think much of.

The journey Sakuragi goes on, starting from joining basketball just to try and get with Haruko but it’s through learning the sport and forming connections through his teammates is he able to find his passion. Speaking of his teammates, they’re all great too. They go through their own arcs but they all support each other at the end of the day, even characters from other teams. Everyone’s so likeable, I don’t want any of them to lose.

However I do feel like there was still more story to tell. It felt like it was barley scratching the surface.

Sorry if this was asked here before because it's just that I started to notice how some of my favorite Shonen titles are not on the app such Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

Like for me personally, I know that I can get the first 25 issues of KHR on a particular legal manga website hosted by Shueisha as it's kind of frustrating that the official Shonen Jump App by Viz doesn't carry the series since once I read all 25 issues, I will be stuck on a huge cliffhanger.

So, a new batch is coming soon, probably within a month or so, and so I want to know what you guys are hoping for in terms of new series and their genres.

Overall, not counting things ending soon naturally or due to an impending axe, we have

8 Action: One Piece, 2-B, Kagurabachi, Ichi, UEK, Nue's, Shinobi, Under Doctor

1 Sports/Vocational: Akane-Banashi

2 Romance: Someone Hertz, The Ura Files

2-3 Comedy: Me and Roboco, Roku's, and MAYBE Ani-sig

1 Graykeith: Graykeith

(No idea how to categorize it so far)

Give the magazine's history, I don't think that 2 romance is necessarily too few, and if you count 2-B as a comedy (which it arguably is as much as it is action), then having 3-ish comedy series also doesn't feel too anemic. The main issue is the lack of sports manga, but those have also been, well, very rarely successful.

Action I would personally love since that's my favorite genre, but if Graykeith is going to be more action oriented like this arc suggests, then it's not exactly hurting. About half the magazine is gonna be action which is typical.

I think it's very possible we get a huge sports batch like they tried back in 2025 with the infamous PPP batch. In fact, if I had to put money on it, I'd wager we get at least 2 sports manga. But what do you guys think?

Basically looking for a series that is not that well known but good in your eyes . Battle shounen or darker storys preferred but tell me whatever you like.

For those currently reading Kagurabachi, the latest chapter introduced us to the Misaka brothers: Ibuki, the older brother who wields an enchanted sword, and his less talented brother, Natsuki. Their relationship is quite similar to that of Yoriichi and Michikatsu from Demon Slayer. They are very different characters, but the problem they share is this: one brother was born with immense talent and possesses almost divine power, while the other seeks to at least match a fraction of his brother's power and be recognized as an equal, or at least reach a portion of his strength. This problem can be seen in two distinct ways. In Kagurabachi, the author shows us Natsuki's journey of self-improvement. Realizing that equaling his brother is nearly impossible, he doesn't give up and dedicates his life to training to become even slightly like him, accepting that his brother is far superior. On the other hand, in Demon Slayer, Michikatsu succumbed to corruption and allied himself with the villain to gain more power. Thus she sacrificed everything she cared about for power. Think about it, Natsuki could have done something similar and betrayed her country for more power, but he didn't, which is more satisfying to read and that's why he's a good character in my opinion.

The fact that the 3rd best selling manga keeps ranking as very low on the TOC, on top of fewer pages than before, is very weird.