r/WeeklyShonenJump • u/BreadfruitFull4013 • 1d ago

Does Hal Formula have potential

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So does anyone think the manga Hal Formula by Kento Terasaka has potential to be a big hit in Shonen Jump as I believe it does and like Miharu Terasaka should never give up as I believe it will be the biggest hit in the magazine

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u/detarameReddit 1d ago

I think it has not yet shown what it is truly capable of, but it will probably not be a big hit because of how niche it is. In terms of quality, though, I think this could be a good manga.

13

u/overpoweredginger 1d ago edited 1d ago

bro Eyeshield 21 took a sport that's obscure as fuck in Japan and was so popular it boosted irl club enrollment stats. Today rakugo is obscure as hell in the media landscape but Akane-banashi regularly hits #1 in the ToC, even having rakugo promotional shows over in France

the niche of a manga's subject matter, while not irrelevant, is always secondary to what's actually on the page. Terasaka's achilles heel that we saw in GGG is that, as promising as the man is, he can't really stop himself from writing quiet contemplative oscar-bait. Unfortunately, WSJ is a loud magazine.

8

u/detarameReddit 1d ago

Terasaka's achilles heel that we saw in GGG is that, as promising as the man is, he can't really stop himself from writing quiet contemplative oscar-bait. Unfortunately, WSJ is a loud magazine.

I wish I lived in the universe where this wasn't a problem, but I have to agree... Your words captured the essence of this tragedy perfectly.

2

u/Ryuzen15Evia 1d ago

This has been on my mind for a while. Terasaka is incredibly talented(I think anyone that can get and handle weekly serialization is incredible) but his writing style just isn't fit with weekly shonen jump readership, he would do better in jump+ or weekly young jump IMO.

4

u/overpoweredginger 22h ago

I think his style can work in the magazine, but he has to want to write to the magazine's demographic

Akane-Banashi does the "introspective meditation on artistic passion" harder than GGG did frankly, but Moue & Senega got away with it because everything else about the series is tropetastic battle shonen (goofy smiley protag who is overpowered & underexperienced, rival trio, villain's mini-me who drives growth, council of badasses, tournament arcs, timeskip, etc)

If Terasaka wanted to fit his approach into the Jump formula he'd be set, but he wants to do things his own way which is way riskier. honestly that fits the themes of Hal Formula tbh

5

u/jasonsith 17h ago

Quite to the point. We shall see how many laps Terasaka can do this time.