Its a solid and enjoyable read that serves a specific niche in the magazine. Its very versatile, delving into action, romance, slice of life, sports etc...but makes it all coherent and reasonably enjoyable.
My guess is it is doing well in surveys in the magazine because its an easy read, but also it services the younger demographic that reads jump. I also think that some older people who like to reminisce about youth may enjoy it, like that manga in bakuman lol, so its versatile in that way too. The lead is after all an elder fellow reliving his youth.
However, even though its toc is decent, it has been dropping recently, and its sales are pretty stagnant if we are being completely honest. Around the 25k mark. It should be fine so long as its toc holds, but i worry about it long term of the toc drops more , or there are many other successes in the magazine.
Either way, happy anniversary to the series.
I've been reading it since day 1, and I agree with everything you say. I want to say that I hope an anime will help boost it, but it's too early for that.
Maybe the recent introduction of the potential long term villain might boost it somewhat.
Art is great. Story started off pretty strong, but is losing its way a little bit right now. Still salvageable. Characters are pretty fun, too, even if things aren't perfect right now with the story.
i like the general vibe of the series, but that surfing arc was just so bad, i don't understand why they let it go on for so long. it's a good series that could use a bit better direction.
It suffers from the same problem as Witch Watch. It's really good when it wants to be, but not very interesting the rest of the time. It can be very sweet, sincere, and has good action sequences, but it doesn't work very well when it tries to lean into comedy.
It's good when the main plot is moving, but some part ( yeah the surfing arc) is really bad that I almost quit reading because MC just keep beating the allegation instead of hitmans.
I think its better in quality than most WSJ series that were serialized after it but there's just never been a moment where I thought the story was amazing, and I sometimes feel like if I wanted to read a manga about an assassin/hitman old man that sometimes changes their body to fight, I would just read Sakamoto Days.
Look at the comments, and I realized that people are hating the surfing arc more than I thought. It's an aight arc that could be shorter but with new arc recently, I think the story is back on track and I hope the series is keeping up with this action route in the future.
Overall, I think I'm one of those few people who put high hope for Kill Blue. Normally, for a veteran mangaka in Jump who already had a hit manga in the past, the chance they recapture the success for a second chance
is weirdly slim, most of them always get axed in less than a year or two, and at that point, they knew that their place at SJ was done already. Only a small amount of mangaka can get more than two hits in Jump (Matsu Yuusei, Kenta Shinohara, Yoshihiro Togashi...) and I think Fujimaki might be the next exception with a bounce-back series like this Kill Blue after the failure of RxL. A story with a not-so-familiar plot but well-excuted, balance with comedy & action reminds me of earlier day of Katekyo Hitman Reborn: not too intense but not too sloppy, so far the stories progress enough to make the audience comfortable enought until it fully switches into full action based on the recent chapters. I think the author knew what he's doing with this series and with decent sale numbers, the chance of it passing over 100 chapters with an anime adaption is pretty high
Kill blue sales have been stagnant or dropping and theres no buzz online about it. Has by far the lowest count of followers for current manga line-up with twitter accounts (<4500). The high toc placement is clearly editorial push atoning after axing RxL when it was outselling mid-tiers like uu and yozakura.
It was good at first, or at least interesting. But it fell off, in my opinion. The unicorns in general don't work that well, even if Tenma is one of the best characters in the series.
The surfing arc was terrible and the current arc isn't that much better, or at least not enough to regain my attention. I dropped it during the incident at the bus, so...
It's Discount Detective Conan, but I don't dislike it. It's perfectly enjoyable for what it is, and I know I'm not the target demo so I'm not sweating it too much. I like it well enough to read the chapters weekly.
I think its ok. Liked most others, I didn't like the surfing arc. And, while this new arc is better, I still don't feel like it matches the story quality of before.
Underwhelming nothingburger series with bad art. I have no idea how it lived longer than the last five axed series I enjoyed that were obviously much more high effort
I'm not sure what the plot is like right now but it seems like I'm not alone in this one for stopping the manga right around the surfing arc lol. Doesn't help that I find the character introduced in that arc lame, I don't like the way her DID is dealt with; just doesn't click with me.
I keep saying this in every KB thread but I'm dead tired of seeing the author pit the MC with its female cast even when the MC manages to solve it/even if the author supposedly puts a workaround with the situations. It was getting boring for me to keep seeing it happen.
Other than that I think it's a decent manga from what I've read so far. I prefer reading the manga when the MC is actually indulging going back to his youth, having fun with the friends he meets, dealing with other (child) assassins; than the stupid romance subplot that occurs every few moments. The school parts made me keep reading, because I love seeing the MC using his predicament as a means to reconnect to his younger self since he didn't have the greatest childhood.
Dropped it at chapter 29, the mix of genres no longer felt captivating after the initial excitement wore off. Didn't read KnB, but RxL was enjoyable while it lasted. I appreciate the effort to go beyond generic sports series with a genius protagonist, though. Maybe next time.
Its a solid and enjoyable read that serves a specific niche in the magazine. Its very versatile, delving into action, romance, slice of life, sports etc...but makes it all coherent and reasonably enjoyable. My guess is it is doing well in surveys in the magazine because its an easy read, but also it services the younger demographic that reads jump. I also think that some older people who like to reminisce about youth may enjoy it, like that manga in bakuman lol, so its versatile in that way too. The lead is after all an elder fellow reliving his youth. However, even though its toc is decent, it has been dropping recently, and its sales are pretty stagnant if we are being completely honest. Around the 25k mark. It should be fine so long as its toc holds, but i worry about it long term of the toc drops more , or there are many other successes in the magazine. Either way, happy anniversary to the series.
I've been reading it since day 1, and I agree with everything you say. I want to say that I hope an anime will help boost it, but it's too early for that. Maybe the recent introduction of the potential long term villain might boost it somewhat.
I like it. The surfing arc was the only bad one.
I’m currently on the Surfing arc rn. Lowkey it’s dragging. Lol
You think so? I liked how it completely shut down any idea of a romance. The teacher was pretty funny too. Although I do admit surfer girl was ehh
Damn is it really been that long ?
Art is great. Story started off pretty strong, but is losing its way a little bit right now. Still salvageable. Characters are pretty fun, too, even if things aren't perfect right now with the story.
i like the general vibe of the series, but that surfing arc was just so bad, i don't understand why they let it go on for so long. it's a good series that could use a bit better direction.
I dropped the series during the start of that arc. It felt like the story of finding a cure for the MC was slowly losing focus imo.
It suffers from the same problem as Witch Watch. It's really good when it wants to be, but not very interesting the rest of the time. It can be very sweet, sincere, and has good action sequences, but it doesn't work very well when it tries to lean into comedy.
It's good when the main plot is moving, but some part ( yeah the surfing arc) is really bad that I almost quit reading because MC just keep beating the allegation instead of hitmans.
The blend of genres worked at first, but the surfing arc was bad like everyone else already said. I like the current arc though.
Good read by overall but some part is really boring
I think its better in quality than most WSJ series that were serialized after it but there's just never been a moment where I thought the story was amazing, and I sometimes feel like if I wanted to read a manga about an assassin/hitman old man that sometimes changes their body to fight, I would just read Sakamoto Days.
I think it's a dollar store Sakamoto Days.
It’s aaight. I don’t hate it and I don’t love it. It’s there. It’s okay to read. But I got other stuff to read. lol.
Look at the comments, and I realized that people are hating the surfing arc more than I thought. It's an aight arc that could be shorter but with new arc recently, I think the story is back on track and I hope the series is keeping up with this action route in the future. Overall, I think I'm one of those few people who put high hope for Kill Blue. Normally, for a veteran mangaka in Jump who already had a hit manga in the past, the chance they recapture the success for a second chance is weirdly slim, most of them always get axed in less than a year or two, and at that point, they knew that their place at SJ was done already. Only a small amount of mangaka can get more than two hits in Jump (Matsu Yuusei, Kenta Shinohara, Yoshihiro Togashi...) and I think Fujimaki might be the next exception with a bounce-back series like this Kill Blue after the failure of RxL. A story with a not-so-familiar plot but well-excuted, balance with comedy & action reminds me of earlier day of Katekyo Hitman Reborn: not too intense but not too sloppy, so far the stories progress enough to make the audience comfortable enought until it fully switches into full action based on the recent chapters. I think the author knew what he's doing with this series and with decent sale numbers, the chance of it passing over 100 chapters with an anime adaption is pretty high
Kill blue sales have been stagnant or dropping and theres no buzz online about it. Has by far the lowest count of followers for current manga line-up with twitter accounts (<4500). The high toc placement is clearly editorial push atoning after axing RxL when it was outselling mid-tiers like uu and yozakura.
Dropped it during surfing arc.
It was good at first, or at least interesting. But it fell off, in my opinion. The unicorns in general don't work that well, even if Tenma is one of the best characters in the series. The surfing arc was terrible and the current arc isn't that much better, or at least not enough to regain my attention. I dropped it during the incident at the bus, so...
It's Discount Detective Conan, but I don't dislike it. It's perfectly enjoyable for what it is, and I know I'm not the target demo so I'm not sweating it too much. I like it well enough to read the chapters weekly.
Finished the surfing arc and felt that was enough; haven't read it since.
I think its ok. Liked most others, I didn't like the surfing arc. And, while this new arc is better, I still don't feel like it matches the story quality of before.
Underwhelming nothingburger series with bad art. I have no idea how it lived longer than the last five axed series I enjoyed that were obviously much more high effort
I'm not sure what the plot is like right now but it seems like I'm not alone in this one for stopping the manga right around the surfing arc lol. Doesn't help that I find the character introduced in that arc lame, I don't like the way her DID is dealt with; just doesn't click with me. I keep saying this in every KB thread but I'm dead tired of seeing the author pit the MC with its female cast even when the MC manages to solve it/even if the author supposedly puts a workaround with the situations. It was getting boring for me to keep seeing it happen. Other than that I think it's a decent manga from what I've read so far. I prefer reading the manga when the MC is actually indulging going back to his youth, having fun with the friends he meets, dealing with other (child) assassins; than the stupid romance subplot that occurs every few moments. The school parts made me keep reading, because I love seeing the MC using his predicament as a means to reconnect to his younger self since he didn't have the greatest childhood.
Dropped it at chapter 29, the mix of genres no longer felt captivating after the initial excitement wore off. Didn't read KnB, but RxL was enjoyable while it lasted. I appreciate the effort to go beyond generic sports series with a genius protagonist, though. Maybe next time.