Anime & Manga that got cancelled

[agc161]

After recently finding out that that the Shaman King Manga got cancelled before the author could finish it this Basically pissed me off to no end as it made all time and money i invested in the series a waste of time.another offender is the Saint seiya series which was finished(as far as i know) but hasn't finished being dubbed and brought over to the states.

are there any other examples were any Manga/Anime got cancelled before they could end,start or for any other reason? ( I fear the Get Backers manga might have suffered from this though i don't know for sure, Can anyone confirm if it has an ending or not?(NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

[Armless Penguin]

Oddly enough, since it spurred this thread, SHAMAN KING will actually finish up its run in JUMP SQUARE, according to recent news. So take heart.

Anyway, manga in Japan is cancelled pretty frequently if it doesn't catch on, just like comics are over here. A complete list would probably be impossible to get. And there have been a number of examples of American companies dropping titles they'd been in the process of translating.

EDIT: And yeah, GET BACKERS ended in Japan almost a year ago.

[The Xenos]

A friend of mine in Japan said there are tons of new series that don't make it that long and get canceled. They last like a year if that or something. Of course only a handful of fans know how the industry works. I swear most of them think of manga only as full volumes they buy down at the local Borders. ugh.

[jabrams007]

On a some-what related note, is there any word on whether Blade of the Immortal, Berserk, Battle Angel Alita, or Vagabond will ever be finished? (Holy Aliteration Batman!)

[ChrisIII]

I'm pretty sure "Gundam X" didn't get finished properly due to poor ratings.

[Sir Lord Harris Chesterton]

Katsuhiro Otomo's Fire-Ball comes to mind. Would've been nice as a series, but still works as a one-shot well enough.

[Sabrina_Fried]

The english translation of Satsuma Gishiden that Dark Horse was doing has apparently been canned, or at least put on 'indefinite hold.' And I don't see Tokyopop doing much with Peacemaker. Somehow I was expecting more than one book from them by now.

As for the original japanese versions, I'd imagine that manga gets cancelled all the time over there, just like comics get cancelled all the time over here for poor sales, budget cuts, etc.

Sabrina

[LordEd1976]

I believe the originla Japanese version of Southern Cross was cancelled before it could end. Ditto Pilot Canidate.

[Melbourne Mew Mew]

Mobile Suit Gundam (original)
Ideon

[Len Ikari145]

The anime of Rave Master covered only half of the manga. Rurouni Kenshin was cancelled because of the excessive fillers after the Kyoto arc.

[The Xenos]

On a some-what related note, is there any word on whether Blade of the Immortal, Berserk, Battle Angel Alita, or Vagabond will ever be finished? (Holy Aliteration Batman!)

I've read Berserk and Alita. I've read scanlations of Berserk (along with buying the US ones) and last I checked there was still no end in sight. Alita on the other hand seems to be maybe be wrapping things up. They had some major flashbacks telling the history of the world, so I think that could be a sign of wrapping things up. Maybe.

[Nik Hasta]

Jyuuki Ningen Jumbor was cancelled, also by Takei.

I liked that series, giant constructicon-esq robots and super-science.

[darksaint124]

The anime of Rave Master covered only half of the manga. Rurouni Kenshin was cancelled because of the excessive fillers after the Kyoto arc.

And the manga for Claymore is still on-going, while the anime ended after the War in the North.

[Ghost]

Zombie Powder is the king of canceled manga. Only four volumes, but damn, they were awesome.

[Inkthinker]

On a some-what related note, is there any word on whether Blade of the Immortal, Berserk, Battle Angel Alita, or Vagabond will ever be finished? (Holy Aliteration Batman!)

I've read Berserk and Alita. I've read scanlations of Berserk (along with buying the US ones) and last I checked there was still no end in sight. Alita on the other hand seems to be maybe be wrapping things up. They had some major flashbacks telling the history of the world, so I think that could be a sign of wrapping things up. Maybe.

Yeah... um... without giving anything away, the ending of vol. 10 throws the whole Battle Angel Alita: Last Order series into a knot with a rather serious twist. I can't tell if he's going to end it soon or not, the twist is probably going to piss off a major chunk of the series fanbase if it ties up too soon, now. But Kishiro is no stranger to pissed-off fanbases, I think, and he's been known to tie stuff up rather quickly if he wants to (note the somewhat rushed endings to Aqua Knight and the original Alita). I'm caught up on the tankobon, but not the chapters, so I have no idea where it's going past that point. He may be intending to wrap up the LO series, but if that's the case he'd better have plans for a new one.

Berserk has had some scary long hiatus breaks in the last couple years, as much as 4 months in one case if I recall, but I haven't heard Miura's quitting yet. But from the way he's plotted the most recent chapters, the series could easily carry on to 40 volumes. He's said in interviews that his favorite novels are from some infamous fantasy series that's over 100 books long, which might give you some sense of his ambitions...

As for Blade of the Immortal, I have no idea. I'm despondent that Dark Horse dropped the monthly edition, 'cause I believe we were fairly close behind the Japanese chapters, but Samura sure has hit a lull in the plot that's terribly disturbing... he's had Manji out of the picture for how long? And without Manji, the action in general has been terribly weak. I don't know where he's taking it, but I hope it gets back to form sooner rather than later.

As far as I know, however, none of these series is in any danger of being cancelled... their creators may burn out, but their fanbases are strong both domestically and overseas to my understanding... of all of them, BotI is probably most "at risk" of cancellation because of Samura's plotting and his odd predilictions towards a sort of... raw content, both in his manga and his other works, which may limit his audience to some degree.

-EDIT-

Wiki says that the prison arc has ended in Weekly Afternoon (the phone book that BotI is published in), and that the series is now on the fifth and final story arc. So I guess Samura has the ending laid out and he's headed for the finish line.

[Tumbido]

another offender is the Saint seiya series which was finished(as far as i know) but hasn't finished being dubbed and brought over to the states.

Saint Seiya currently has 3 prequel ongoing mangas, and the end of the original manga so far is still going to be animated. Kurumada still wants the whole series to wrap up with the Heaven Chapter, but it's taking its sweet time.

[Program]

On a some-what related note, is there any word on whether Blade of the Immortal, Berserk, Battle Angel Alita, or Vagabond will ever be finished? (Holy Aliteration Batman!)
Inoue plans to finish Vagabond in a few volumes.
http://manga.about.com/od/mangaartistswriters/a/TakehikoInoue_2.htm

Weekly Shounen Jump (as manga magazines generaly do) tend to cancel a lot of series if it's not popular after the first few chapters. Busuo Renkin was cancelled after a few volumes though I think.

[Inkthinker]

Man... I wonder how many plot threads he plans to leave dangling, then. It doesn't seem like he can tie it all up in three volumes unless the plot picks up a good deal... hell, the battle with the 70 Yoshioka looks to take up a tankobon all on its own. I wonder if he plans to take it all the way to Ganryu island?

[The Xenos]

Oh yeah, let's not forget the chronically delayed Shonen Jump manga Hunter X Hunter. I think the creator got sick or something for a while. I think it's still on hiatus, but heard word of it coming back.

Yeah... um... without giving anything away, the ending of vol. 10 throws the whole Battle Angel Alita: Last Order series into a knot with a rather serious twist. I can't tell if he's going to end it soon or not, the twist is probably going to piss off a major chunk of the series fanbase if it ties up too soon, now. But Kishiro is no stranger to pissed-off fanbases, I think, and he's been known to tie stuff up rather quickly if he wants to (note the somewhat rushed endings to Aqua Knight and the original Alita). I'm caught up on the tankobon, but not the chapters, so I have no idea where it's going past that point. He may be intending to wrap up the LO series, but if that's the case he'd better have plans for a new one.


Do you mean Vol 9? Or have you seen the Japanese Vol 10? Cause Viz released the US edition of Vol 9 last Sept and Vol 10 isn't out yet. Hell, Vol 8 and Vol 9 has some stuff that I could see pissing off some fans. I admit it was.. bizzare and out of the blue. Yet I still enjoyed the hell out of it even if it was rather a strange detour with a surprisingly important ending.

[OverMaster]

P.Q. Angels comes to mind. Apparently, Naoko Takeuchi can't score a hit with anything not named 'Sailor Moon'.

[Libaax]

Hunter X Hunter has made a comeback in Japan according to scanlations fans.


A great manhwa called Island was also canceled. Drawn by Kyung-Il Yang of Shin Angyo Onishi fame. Sadly i read it was canceled cause the artist and writer was to go to japan to do a manga for japanese publishing.

Leaving a great manhwa without an ending.

[Inkthinker]

Do you mean Vol 9? Or have you seen the Japanese Vol 10? Cause Viz released the US edition of Vol 9 last Sept and Vol 10 isn't out yet.

No, I mean Vol. 10, not yet released in English but available in Japan. It returns to the story of Alita and the ZOTT and her secret mission to retrieve Lou's brain.

I don't even want to talk about the twist and its repercussions, it'll lead people to start guessing what it is or someone spoiling it, and I really think it's one of those things that just needs to be read in context. But yeah... if he doesn't wrap it all up with Vol. 11 and then start a new Alita series, then I'll be surprised if it doesn't all carry on for a good while longer.

[Sabrina_Fried]

An update to my original post:

I was in a comic shop I don't regularly visit last weekend and I found a copy of vol 2 of Tokyopop's Peacemaker series, which apparently came out in December. So it's not dead yet, just being released very infrequently, and most of the regular comic shops don't seem to be receiving and/or ordering it.

Sabrina