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Despite how contentious a series it is, there’s no denying thatTokyo Revengersis one of the biggest anime franchises of the past decade, even compared toShonen Jumpfranchises. Both the anime and the manga have been major hits pretty much everywhere in the world except for the West, and with the manga selling over 80 million copies worldwide, it’s objectively one of the best-selling manga of all time.
Tokyo Revengersis easily one of the biggest successes of the past decade, and its creator, Ken Wakui, is hardly a one-hit wonder. Wakui has written other manga to varying degrees of success, and his debut work,Shinjuku Swan, ran for even longer thanTokyo Revengers. Yet despite all that,Ken Wakui’s latest manga,Astro Royale, was canceledafter just a year of serialization inShonen Jump, and as weird as that might be, it’s unfortunately easy to see what went wrong.
Why Astro Royale Lasted As Long In Shonen Jump As It Did
Astro Royale Was Hardly The Worst Shonen Jump Manga Of The 2020s
Before discussing whyAstro Royalefailed, it’s important to break down why it lasted inShonen Jumpfor as long as it did. For starters, withTokyo Revengersbeing one of the biggest manga of the decade,Shonen Jumpprobably wanted to capitalize onTokyo Revengers’ popularity, especially sinceShonen Jumpwas losing its biggest hitswithMy Hero AcademiaandJujutsu Kaisen’s back-to-back finales. Something similar happened when Masashi Kishimoto followed upNarutowith the abysmalSamurai 8, so overall,Tokyo Revengers’ massive success undoubtedly played a big part inAstro Royalelasting as long as it did.
Another point is how lackingAstro Royale’s competition was. While it couldn’t compete with the likes ofOne Piece,Sakamoto Days, orKagurabachi,Astro Royalealways performed about as well asShonen Jump’s other middle-ground stories likeKill Blue,Nue’s Exorcist,andUndead Unluck, and there were plenty of new stories after it that were almost instant failures likeDear Anemone,Kyokuto Necromance, andHakutaku, as well. In short,Astro Royalemanaged to survive a year inShonen Jumpby always being just above some of their worst-performing stories, although even that ended up not being enough in the end.
That doesn’t mean thatAstro Royalesurvived purely on luck, of course. Not only is the paneling and overall artwork just as great as it was inTokyo Revengers, if not greater, but the premise of combining a post-apocalyptic setting with supernatural yakuza action was very unique, and Hibarumade for an engaging protagonist, as well.The biggest reason whyAstro Royalelasted as long as it did was that it had a lot going for it both visually and narratively, and while it ultimately failed, it was still one of the best newShonen Jumpmanga of 2024, by far.
Astro Royale’s Writing Didn’t Have The Hook It Needed To Be A Hit
Why Astro Royale’s Writing Ultimately Fell Flat
Even ifAstro Royalewasn’t the worst manga, it was still a failure, and much of that comes from the writing. While the supernatural, post-apocalyptic setting was a good one, the series never did much with it after the first few chapters, and the manga’s battle system of Astros was never fully explored, thus making it feel far too generic than need be.One ofAstro Royale’s biggest failings was that it never gave its world as much development as it needed to be interesting, and unfortunately, it never improved that before it was canceled.
Further compounding that problem wasAstro Royale’s lackluster pacing. While it’s not uncommon for manga to have fast pacing, especially in weekly serials,Astro Royaleseemed to just move the story from one action set piece to another, never giving the characters or the readers any time to relax or process new events. Stories likeJujutsu Kaisencan get away with that by filling their arcs with plenty of great character development and world-building, but none of that was present inAstro Royale, soit’s hard to seeAstro Royale’s fast pacing as anything but a detriment to its story.
Astro Royale Didn’t Understand Why People Loved Tokyo Revengers' Cast
Astro Royale’s Characters Just Didn’t Work Compared To Tokyo Revengers
The biggest issue withAstro Royale, however, was with its characters, especially when compared toTokyo Revengers. While the cast ofAstro Royalewas fun in a vacuum, they never received much development beyond their most basic personalities, and only a few of them were strong enough for that to be okay. By comparison,Tokyo Revengersgave its heroes and villains alike plenty of great development from the get-go and never stopped, and overall,Astro Royale’s lack of character work feels even worse when compared to the great character work ofTokyo Revengers.
That comparison is especially apt when comparing the protagonists of each story. As controversial asTakemichi ofTokyo Revengerswas, he still had great development as the heart of the story who always held the cast together; by comparison, Hibaru ofAstro Royalenever developed much beyond his basic desire of wanting to be an honorable yakuza boss, thus making him feel incredibly flat.Astro Royalehad a better protagonist thanTokyo Revengerson a surface level, but its lead ended up being far more shallow, and that was probably the biggest reason why it failed.
Could Astro Royale Have Done Anything To Stay In Shonen Jump?
Was There Any Hope For Astro Royale?
Astro Royalebeing a failure is impossible to deny, and that begs the question of whether there was anything it could have done to survive inShonen Jump. The biggest issues withAstro Royalewere its fast pacing and the lack of development for its characters, and while the fast pacing could have been manageable, fleshing out the cast would have been necessary to make each arc feel less tedious.Astro Royale’s best chance of success would have been by improving its characters, and with the great art to go along with it, it probably could have been a hit.
All of that is hypothetical, of course. Oftentimes, a manga can do everything right and still get canceled for reasons completely out of its control; the long history ofcanceledShonen Jumpmangais a perfect testament to that, so unfortunately,Astro Royalestill might have been canceled just as fast if it had executed its story better, if not faster.Astro Royalewill go down as just a footnote inShonen Jump’s history and a poor follow-up toTokyo Revengers, but if anyone is looking for a good, short read, it’s still worth checking out.
