Oh, while this discussion is not really on 'topic', i feel with the current hiatus, it is fine to lead it.
Now, i reflected a little on why jump is different today. The conclusion i came to is that there are 3 mainreasons:
1) A different media landscape
2) Changing demographics
3) Changing tastes.
With time passing, I don't really feel like this is a novel assessment. This applies to basically every cultural appliance
You could be tempted to ask why jump cannot do a very successful battle shonen anymore even tho that is what they did nonstop for decades.
Well, first of all, jump kinda does.
Isn't this begging the question? Jump
does still do (successful) battle shounen.
Jump has OP, MHA, dr Stone, until recently demon slayer and we could also probably count mashle.
We are honest to each other, the jump lineup is really strong, it also has stuff like chainsaw man, which would be unheard of in the 90s. These are all strong and successful series. So was Neverland.
I thought Neverland kinda sucked (especially) towards the end (but also the middle. The start was amazing), but that's an entirely subjective assessment
Yet, strangely, the ones that get really successful like neverland and demon slayer get cut short. Why? Because of the changing demographics.(2)
Isn't it because those stories kind of reached their end? Beating increasingly strong bosses, gaining more influence or power, etc. until they finally accomplish their goal?
A manga like one piece (or mashle, for that matter) that is more 'day to day' and that you can mostly pick up even if you start late because arcs are relatively independent can run forever.
I think the vast majority of people think the opposite: the story is too large to easily get into, and depending on the medium they pick (and their sensitivities towards... different styles) especially the older arcs could be a turn-off.
But if jump would clog up their magazine with things like neverland or demonslayer that are harder to get into the longer they run, they would always only maintain the fans they have after a peak, but younger or new readers are not going to buy the magazine, because there is no big thing they can get into.That was different when jump was really strong. Their maindemographics were young and really invested kids. They knew what these big series were about, OP, naruto, bleach, hxh, dragonball. But now, lots of japanese kids would ask themselves why they should buy a magazine like jump if they can watch netflix, and the magazine has lots of older readers or women and has to offer a lineup for all of their bases. They need stuff like act age or chainsaw man to invest people into the magazine that ordinarily wouldnt go for one piece or MHA.
I think it's fair to say that media overall (much like say technology) has moved towards presenting itself in a more compressed manner. An easy example is sth like twitter, but games too, becoming shorter, easier, more instalment based (buying short game and DLC separately) etc.. There is definitely a desire to present more compact products as it were. Easy to digest, mentally, but also physically.
For new readers, it would make far more sense to just read the volumes online somewhere. That brings us to 1).. Unlike the 80s and 90s or even 00s, now you have this insane backlog of manga at your fingertips. Why would you buy a magazine just for one piece and MHA if you can instead read these but also dragonball, naruto, death note and so on online without having to wait for one week? That is even true for digital.
So Jump series are direct rivals to former jump series.
To support the product to show support? As in, by buying merch they give feedback that they like a series. I'm not sure if they still do that, but there was a poll in each jump magazine that reflected on how people enjoyed issues from that week. KPop fans do this internationally, but I imagine especially domestically as an integral part of their culture they'd consider buying physical copies of a jump zine. Besides that, in some countries certain sites might be illegal or inaccessible, so that's part of it too (similar to how for example porn sites are prohibited in certain countries)
Why would you give a trainwreck like ghostwriter a chance if you can read bakuman?
But why wouldn't you be able to consume both? People have different tastes. The sheer variety and volume of available manga to an extent proves this. If it captures a niche it's good enough. People can like multiple things, so even a trainwreck could be worth it to at least check out. Whether it'll succeed is, of course, a separate issue.
And then there is the changing taste 2).
Simply put, a lot of people are not really putting up with 'having to wait a week for one chap' anymore. And those who do usually want a quick fix. As in: It gets increasingly hard to do a long series with an ongoing storyline, because the people who still buy the magazine get upset if they just get a transitional chapter for the 1 or 2 big series they buy the magazine for.
And yet this scarcity is part of the appeal. Basically, their demographic are less impatient people than you. Some will defect to consuming older product (or other product altogether), but asking this is like asking why new things that people pay for at all work. Because they support the product. According to your logic, Crunchyroll or Netflix business model would never take off because you can watch anything for free online. People pay for quality and to partake in culture.
So you need to have lots of series that are accessible enough to offer a thrill even for readers that do not care a lot about them.
That is how you end up with mashle, agravity boys or phantom seer. These manga are VERY fastpaces and try to offer some conflict every week (monster of the week format with basically no transitional chapters at all). There will not be a chapter like in one piece in which a conflict is just set up and will be resolved on chapter after. It has to happen inside the chapter, every week.
That makes it more accessible for readers that dont really care about it and makes them more likely to keep buying the mag if they can at least read half of the content without being annoyed, but it makes series more shallow.
Mashle is more successful than many more well renowned manga. But it certainly wont be remembered ten years after it is over with people going 'yeah, mashle, those were the times'.
So you think Jump has like a box of manga that have the potential to be pretty good in the long term but won't be popular or sth? Possible, but I think the alternative is more likely: it's hard to find quality writers. When you can't you default to genre writing. As in, there will always be people willing to consume a genre (Corona Romance is a genre now lol), but there will always be much more people willing to consume something engaging. In other worse, people will consume shounen anime or fantasy that like it. But even people that don't like those genres will be willing to view DBZ or GoT, because those series carry some inherently appealing quality with them.
So, in short, the three reasons i outlined lead to jump having to use measures to combat them.
These measures, in turn, cool off longtime manga fans who are used to different ways.
Imo there are two main differences between shounen now and back then; the starting level and attitude of the MC (more grounded and rational) and the importance of social dynamics
Shounen protagonists in the past came part and parcel with some insane power they had yet to tame. What separated them from everyone else, was their insane (untapped) potential. In the opening arcs, they encounter a rival who physically surpasses them and they work to physically overpower them. Battles are strongly decided by power and talent. Magic systems are (relatively) soft, characters grow fast.
Nowadays, I think that Shounen has shifted focus in a few important ways. The setting tends to be much more grounded and the main character is much more informed about their surroundings. The audience generally finds out information along with the MC rather than it being told to us unilaterally. The audience generally receives the inciting power up with the character (rather than it turns out the main protagonist has the ultimate jutsu all along!!). The main character baseline starting level is much lower (closer to a real human) and the characters train to gain power equal to the norm, rather than further refining their God-given gifts. The rules of magic in these series tend towards the harder side. The reason why the MC has a particular power level or is given a certain power tends to more 'rational' too. It's not entirely different from shounen, but the scope of the MC's power level is generally made clear early on. Information about their heritage, of course, changes things, but thematically the new power-up doesn't break the rules as often as it used to (the new powers still fall in the 'domain' of previously established rules, rather than work along entirely different mechanic).
The setting is also much more sociable. That is to say, the group of people all working towards the same goal as the MC is larger. So not ambition, but actual goal alignment. In general, the central theme of the story resolves much more about a social antagonism (group versus group) rather than psychological antagonisms (being lonely or alone, but powerful). The goals of the protagonist, therefore, generally have something to do with this social cleavage. While friendship is still important, the MC is less of an outcast (or maybe an outcast but less unaware of social norms, because they're more 'normal').
