Val x Love’s Anime & the State of Monthly Shonen Gangan
Written on May 11th, 2019
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So now that I've had time to let the news sink in, I feel like talking about Val x Love, why I'm surprised it's getting an anime, and why I'm happy it is. People don't normally think about Square Enix in the context of manga, but manga publishing is actually a huge part of their business. Square Enix runs several manga magazine serializations, including Monthly Shonen Gangan, which is the magazine that serializes Val x Love. I've always been a fan of the Gangan Comics brand, even though I've only collected a handful of their titles, but a lot of their titles seem to have a certain style to them that I really enjoy. The biggest thing I'm grateful to them for is that they're responsible for making the Higurashi and Umineko manga adaptations such a big success, by partnering with several artists to each draw an arc in their respective series, and spread the different stories out among several of their magazines. Anyway, let's talk about the reason why I'm surprised Val x Love is getting an anime. First starters, I get the impression that Monthly Shonen Gangan in particular just isn't very popular anymore, at least when compared to big names like Jump. The height of the magazine's popularity was absolutely the Fullmetal Alchemist boom. That is without a doubt the biggest franchise to come from Gangan, followed closely by Soul Eater. But, both of those franchises have ended, and I think Monthly Shonen Gangan is in a position where it lacks a solid hit to carry the magazine. The strongest title it's currently serializing is the manga adaptation of A Certain Magical Index, but that's only an adaptation they're serializing through a deal with Dengeki Bunko, and not an original manga written for the magazine. If you put Index aside, and look at the currently serializing titles in the magazine, only one has gotten an anime adaptation. (last year's "As Miss Beelzebub Likes") It's gotten to the point where I felt like Shonen Gangan's sister magazines have surpassed it in popularity, especially Gangan Joker and Big Gangan, both of which have several titles that have gotten anime. So, even though it's just my speculation that popularity dropped after Shonen Gangan's big hits ended, where does Val x Love come in? Val x Love launched in the magazine in December 2015, with story and art by Ryousuke Asakura, who was already contracted with Square Enix when he drew the manga adaptation of the "A Certain Magical Index: Miracle of Endymion" movie for Shonen Gangan. However, Val x Love is his first project with his own original story. The tagline for promoting Val x Love was "ガンガン史上最エロ ラヴアクション!!", or "The most erotic love-action series in Gangan's history!" Basically, Val x Love was promoting itself on the fact that it would be lewder than any other manga serialized before in any Gangan magazine. Definitely a good tactic for drawing the eye of fans like me who enjoy a good ecchi manga, lol. Now, don't misunderstand here. There is no way a series like Val x Love can ever come close to the level of success of something like Fullmetal Alchemist or Soul Eater. I know this, and I'm sure Square Enix realized it too. But they did need titles that leave an impact to get more eyes on their brand. Historically, Gangan has never been a brand that has particularly catered towards ecchi fans, even with some fanservice taking place in a few of their titles over the years. So I think they likely greenlit Val x Love in order to try and reach a new audience. Did it work? I have no idea. But clearly, Val x Love managed to be successful enough to get an anime adaptation greenlit. And honestly, I think that's one of the best things that could happen for this series in particular. After Yen Press started publishing Val x Love in English (a natural result of their close relationship with Square Enix), I picked it up on a whim since I was a fan of both Gangan and ecchi manga. Honestly, it was a bit difficult for me to get into at first. The series definitely felt (and looked) like the kind of manga I expected of Gangan, with it carrying a somewhat-complicated backstory about valkyries and Norse mythology and all that, but at the same time it was trying to be a fun harem comedy with an insecure main character who looked weird. I did like it, but it just felt strange, and it took me until Vol.3 at the climax of the story's first arc for me to really get into the series and start calling it a favorite. It was Asakura's first original manga after all, so I think he's growing as a storyteller with this series. I recently read Vol.4 for myself, and now that I've gotten into the flow of the story, I do think it's a very fun manga. Anyway, I always wanted it to get an anime, but its circumstances of being an ecchi title in a (possibly) unpopular magazine led me to never really get my hopes up about that happening, but I'm glad it did. I personally think this is a story that would be very suited to being told in the anime format, because I feel like with an anime it'd be much easier to get into the world and concept of the show early on, making it easier to get attached to its characters more quickly as well. Gangan took a chance with this series, and as far as I can tell, it seems to be paying off and doing quite well. I'm certain the anime will boost sales of the manga more than ever as well. It won't become Gangan's new major hit, but it's a title that's keeping their brand alive and will bring more eyes to their magazine for the day when they do manage to find another big hit on their hands. There's still no news on who's making the anime or when it'll air, but whenever that happens, I'll be there and hyping it up as the big anime of whatever season it'll air in. :) Ecchi fans rejoice, because assuming the anime doesn't tone anything down, this will be one of the lewdest TV anime of the past few years! (inb4 Jump+ goes "Not so fast!" and slaps World's End Harem on TV around the same time. Such a thing would be a true pity for Gangan, the underdog of the manga world...) [Back]
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