Is there a reason for why the DBS Manga can’t become weekly?

[GodVegetto91]

If there’s only ONE thing that bothers me about the Dragon Ball Super Manga, it’s the fact that it only releases once a month. This means that each and every month, you will have to wait an entire month again for the next chapter. Needless to say, this totally SUCKS! (If you’re a Dragon Ball Fan that is.)

Now if i remember correctly, the original Dragon Ball Manga by Toriyama was running in Shueshia’s Weekly Shonen Jump, right? (That’s every week!) So why can’t Toyotaro (who is a young guy, and in the prime of his life!) release his Super Manga weekly aswell? That way, we won’t have to wait a month each time again.

[VegettoEX]

There's no way to answer this question.

Maybe they've tried, and he's just not capable of producing that kind of output on that kind of level. Keep in mind we've seen him progress and go from just literally two pages per month (Victory Mission at launch in 2012) to 45 pages per month (as of Dragon Ball Super chapter 24 in May 2017). So in that respect, they already have significantly upped his output, from a point where the Super manga cut extreme material and required external media consumption to understand, to the point where it now indeed fully acts as a stand-alone story.

(At the end of its run, Dragon Ball was doing 13 pages per chapter. If you have roughly four Mondays per month, that means there were 52 pages of Dragon Ball manga content each month. 45 isn't that far off. Beyond that, the typical weekly chapter these days is actually 19 pages, which means the 45 is actually pretty far behind what would today be 76 pages per month!)

Also keep in mind that the exact opposite just happened with Naruto's successor manga: Boruto got moved from weekly serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump to monthly serialization in V-Jump just a couple months back.

Shueisha clearly has a vision for how they're handling the series, and one would assume that after forming an entire interdepartmental team well over two years ago, they have some kind of concrete roadmap for how they're dishing it out.

[TrunksTrevelyan0064]

In order to pull off weekly releases, mangaka have to work almost 24/7. It's a gruelling, cruel schedule to force someone into. I've been drawing a comic for fun for five years now, and I can barely manage one mediocre-quality page a week, let alone a full high-quality chapter. If I went at it full-time, it would end up feeling like torture and I'd develop all kinds of health problems. It's a miracle Toriyama pulled it off at all (especially considering he calls himself lazy and would prefer to goof off) and never suffered from carpal tunnel or anything (as far as I know).

[Beiga]

To further add to TrunksTrevelyan0064's point, several prolific and successful weekly manga authors have become seriously ill or had to sacrifice major life events in order to meet the weekly schedule.

Yoshihiro Togashi (creator of Hunter x Hunter and Yu Yu Hakusho) has become incredibly sick (the exact illness has never been disclosed, but he has complained about irregular sleep patterns and chest pains. He likely has clinical exhaustion). This has caused the release schedule of HxH to be incredibly erratic, and for many, caused the quality of the series to decline as well with the art specifically being pointed to as crude, and several pages being nothing but large text boxes.

Masashi Kishimoto had to put off his honey moon with his wife for years after he got married due to the schedule.

If you ever read any of Toriyama's own comments on his work schedule, he had nothing positive to say about the weekly grind.



The schedule is insane, and is something I hope will change in a similar way to more anime series switching to the cour/seasonal format rather than producing non-stop.

[Rakurai]

There are numerous reasons, but I'm just going to state the most obvious one: it's about being able to output an average of 17-19 pages per week (number is based on the other Shounen Jump manga I read), and that's something Toyotarou hasn't shown to be able to do (yet).

He currently does 45 pages per chapter, that's only an average of 11-12 pages per week. Simply not enough.

Another one which I think comes into play: he's supervised by both his editor and Toriyama. That's not just one but two schedules to arrange and fit into the monthly release of DBS. I assume if he doesn't get Toriyama's approval or corrections, then he can't release the chapter.

Another reason that's more personal: maybe he just doesn't want to. Shounen Jump mangaka are also notorious for having gruesome, long work hour schedules. And it's extremely rare to get a break outside of holidays unless you're Oda Eiichiro. I can't imagine Toyotarou going to that when he's been comfortable in V-Jump for more than 5 years at this point, even tho his schedule is still hell as confirmed by his last interview where he says he only gets like 6 hours per night.

[JulieYBM]

Labor can have a little rest, as a treat.

[Beiga]

Yeah, the Toriyama aspect is another big wrench in this. In general, I'm glad the series is slower to come out so that the author/artist don't get burned out, but also helps ensure that the final released product is polished and with plenty of time to actually work out the story.

I'd rather have a slower release schedule, but with something much more strongly drawn/written. And again, 45 pages isn't too far off from the monthly output from WSJ.

[ankokudaishogun]

Toyotaro probably doesn't want to die of overwork, and Toriyama as well probably doesn't feel to follow the stressing routine of a weekly publication, even if just in a "supporting" role.

[Alruneia]

A weekly schedule would kill Toyotaro. I mean, I'm being a bit extreme, but an instance of a weekly schedule has already been posted in this thread and it is not healthy for anyone to work like that. So while a weekly DBS manga would be nice, I wouldn't wish that workload on him. I can wait. A bi-weekly schedule, however... I believe that a "middle ground" of sorts, with 30 pages every other week, would be possible for Toyotaro to do and be an improvement in the eyes of readers.
However, it's probably awkward to publish on that kind of schedule. I'm by no means an expert on this, but the current schedule and release of the DBS manga is probably in a pretty delicate balance, so even if changing the work schedule is possible, changing the release might not be.

[funrush]

He may be a younger guy, but drawing a manga weekly is an incredibly heavy schedule, with very little free-time and the quality of an artist's work might even decrease due to the increased pagecount.

The workload is so heavy that it's actually kinda common for artists to get sick from overwork. There's a reason Toriyama never wants to do it again. The series Bakuman by the creators of Death Note is worth a read/watch if you're interested, it's about young mangaka and does a good job at showing how intense the workload can be and how much dedication it requires.

[ankokudaishogun]

Also the Naruto sequel, Boruto, is monthly because the artist worked as assistant of Kishimoto for years and flat out stated LIKE HELL he was going to produce a weekly as it was already an infernal workload as assistant.

[Acetona]

Also keep in mind that the exact opposite just happened with Naruto's successor manga: Boruto got moved from weekly serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump to monthly serialization in V-Jump just a couple months back.

Just a minor nitpick: while Boruto indeed was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, it wasn't serialized weekly. It was monthly since the beginning of its run. So nothing changed basicly for the people who read them on the MangaPlus service.

And on topic, I think the art would collapse even more, we had a drop in quality by the ToP arc, I think a weekly basis would be too much for Toyotarou to handle.

[VegettoEX]

Oh, thanks for the correction! I don't follow the series, and clearly should have checked.

[GodVegetto91]

There's no way to answer this question.

Maybe they've tried, and he's just not capable of producing that kind of output on that kind of level. Keep in mind we've seen him progress and go from just literally two pages per month (Victory Mission at launch in 2012) to 45 pages per month (as of Dragon Ball Super chapter 24 in May 2017). So in that respect, they already have significantly upped his output, from a point where the Super manga cut extreme material and required external media consumption to understand, to the point where it now indeed fully acts as a stand-alone story.

(At the end of its run, Dragon Ball was doing 13 pages per chapter. If you have roughly four Mondays per month, that means there were 52 pages of Dragon Ball manga content each month. 45 isn't that far off. Beyond that, the typical weekly chapter these days is actually 19 pages, which means the 45 is actually pretty far behind what would today be 76 pages per month!)

Also keep in mind that the exact opposite just happened with Naruto's successor manga: Boruto got moved from weekly serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump to monthly serialization in V-Jump just a couple months back.

Shueisha clearly has a vision for how they're handling the series, and one would assume that after forming an entire interdepartmental team well over two years ago, they have some kind of concrete roadmap for how they're dishing it out.

Thanks for the answer.

It seems judging by most of the comments on here that the stress and workload would be extreme in that case, even considering that the current monthly releases is already very draining. I suppose it’s definitely still possible though, but that will be up to Toyotaro himself and the authorities to decide. But who knows what the future may hold. I definitely believe that the manga/story will continue after the Moro Arc.

[FatGoku]

Even the greatest mangaka has to take a break.

[JulieYBM]

Labor can have little a rest, as a treat.

[GodVegetto91]

Labor can have little a rest, as a treat.

Why are you making the same post a second time?

[JulieYBM]

Labor can have little a rest, as a treat.

Why are you making the same post a second time?

A. Mommy's tired from working and doesn't remember everything she does.
B. It really does bare repeating, because the thread just keeps going and going. The simplest explanation is usually the best explanation. Also, perhaps we should all learn to step back and apply our own experiences when discussing why other people do the things they do. Surely I'm not the only one who breaks down from working?

[GreatSaiyaJeff]

Personally I don't mind the monthly schedule. It gives it a bit more hype the closer to the 20th each time for me.