Putting together “Shonen Jump” and “dying” in the same title does not bode well for manga fans, I imagine. But fear not, this isn’t about the Weekly Shonen Jump, nor about the American one - two of its more popular variations. As ANN reported last night, Japanese publisher Shueisha will cease publication of their Monthly Shonen Jump magazine this summer, due to poor sales. And by “poor sales”, they mean about 380,000 copies a month (and to think that I used to write for a magazine that couldn’t even sell 20,000 copies a month… and that’s actually great where I come from!).

The last (July) issue will hit newsstands on June 6, and around that same time Shueisha will reportedly start a new magazine. It’s not yet known what manga titles it will feature, but it will probably take over some of those from Monthly Shonen Jump - which is currently serializing titles such as Claymore, Beet the Vandel Buster, Kotokuri, Kuroi Love Letter, Anoa no Mori, and Gag Manga Biyori.

Other than Claymore, none of these ring a bell. And even that one, I’m not particularly familiar with, so no tears shed here. Then again, we wouldn’t cry even if the Naruto manga from Weekly Shonen Jump were to be terminated. On the contrary! Anyway, a Claymore anime series is currently in the making at Madhouse, and it should premiere in April. So I doubt they’ll terminate the manga anytime soon (probably gonna be moved to that new magazine).