I've read a lot of series that have definitely held potential in the beginning of their stories.
However, I've noticed that a lot of series have either gone astray from the potential they once held (Freezing), they've been axed without getting very far (Tora Kiss - A School Odyssey), or they've wound up with a "terrible"/unsatisfactory ending (Shinigamisama ni saigo... & Cage of Eden).

So it leads me to ask:
If you were able to make things different for a series -
A. Have the author create a "proper" sequel
B. Alter the story to prevent it from going astray
C. Prevent the series from ending too early
- in a "one-wish" scenario, out of all the series you've read:
Which one would you pick, and if possible,
what would you like to change about it specifically?

[Side note: Ones I listed above in parenthesis were just examples, so it's not limited to just them.]

B seems to be the only/best option if you really liked the series and then the author just shat on it

lol@lost rabbit
freezing...was about boobs in odd clothes
i think it still is about just that

one series i can see the potential in using something like this would be
Hunter x Hunter
there are alot of characters that should have never been that have taken up alot of space
and for many reasons the ant arc is awful...it feels like they are still on namek

Double Arts probably received the worst axe ever thrown by publishers.
Stuff like mx0 also comes to mind, but I don't know of any manga that was that well received by the community with the one true gripe being axed. Probably could have been that niche adventure fantasy shounen I didn't see so far, not unlike Hoshi no Samidare for seinen and its own genres. And seeing the hilarious popularity of Nisekoi the authors art style can't be an issue... And that story offered typical but unique characters and plot points, creating a unique but compelling world...
I just don't understand it...

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Oh wow, thought this post wasn't going to get any responses given the # of weeks that passed by. Glad to see it was picked up.

@TaoPaiPai
Yeah, that's pretty much what the series summed up to, but I honestly read it years ago (around the time I originally got into manga) hoping for things to develop for the characters (protagonist's + heroine's relationship, the main concern over the alien threat, etc.). I held on for a number of chapters till I realized how nothing was going to develop like I hoped, and it even digressed as to have other characters overshadow the protagonist and the heroine. Idk what's fully going on with the "story" now, but I simply no longer give a crap.

I don't know much about Hunter X Hunter, yet I feel like I can see where you're coming from.

@Lorska
Could u further explain what you're trying to say about Nisekoi?
[Sorry, I'm kinda thickheaded at times]

Sorry I meant "author's", damn smartphones...
DA got shut down and he now works on nisekoi which severely lacks plot progression but is popular because it's harem romcom. You can call it a massive downgrade from before that is much more well received and that is absurd...
Well his art style improves through that but come on...

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in need of romance?
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Yeah, I definietly see what you mean.
Something like To Love-Ru comes to my mind in comparison. Sure it didn't gradually progress every chapter, but I somehow ended up reading it from beginning to end a year or 2 back. I thought it was innocent and actually funny at times.
Only reason I see Nisekoi as popular is that people generally love the general idea of rom-coms (no matter how repetitive it may get), that and this one's being published in Shounen Jump [that alone pretty much explains a lot].

Well let's not forget that this author is pretty much a genius when it comes to facial expressions, probably every chapter so far features at least one new expression that wasn't there before^^
and he does this without the usual dose of ecchi so this is a change, but still, no reason for it to be favored over better works...

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in need of romance?
uncommon, sad, sweet

I miss Double Arts too...
I tried to read Nisekoi out of loyalty towards the author, and since her oneshots were good too, but got really bored.

As for why it didn't work, I've heard people say it didn't really fit any existing niche, neither properly shonen nor shojo: no ecchi, both the female and male character are equally important, and they have to hold hands to fight (which may seem not manly enough), but it's an adventure, there are quite a lot of fights, the romance isn't really developped and it's almost closer to "power of friendship" and slowly powering up through training.

Uh. It was my favorite manga.
I despise nisekoi.

I feel exactly the same.
Another manga that I wish was given a proper chance is Iron Knight, I was really exited about it, and I looked forward what would happen next as the chapter were translated.. and then the scans says that the manga was doing poorly on Japan and that it was about to be canned, It felt pretty bad. Most people on the occidental side said they liked the one-shot and that the manga wasn't as good, but to be honest to me It made sense that the history wasn't as fast paced, or that it didn't have such a dead end, since It was a serialization and not a one-shot, plus they clearly needed to tone down the violence on a Shonen magazine.
Well, all around I was really disappointed with how it got axed so early, and even worst, dropped by the scans because of that.

there's alot of manga's where the author just went, hey let's fk this up and call it a day
bleach <-- several of times naruto good examples of where shit just went fucking hay wire from a early stage.



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Go into detail about them both! I wanna hear it all. :3

Both Bleach and Naruto have terrible power creep. It's probably the no. 1 problem in manga.

This video is about video games, but it really describes power creep quite well.


Other than the power creep, I feel both series have done quite well. They had at least some idea of where they were going to take their story and they've managed not to lose control of the story so far. Of course both stories have their flaws, but it's hard to fault them for doing some things wrong when they've gotten as long as they are.

The series I would like to bring back would probably be Legend of Tyr. It had a lot of potential (although the author really lacked vision on where to take the story) and I would have liked to see more from it.

I'd like to say Mx0 as well. I love it more than any other series out there, but I'm afraid if it were to come back it would fail to live up to my nostalgia.

Like you mentioned I would suggest something to be done with Cage of Eden. A isn't an option, but B and C are. I would remove the last three chapters and continue it, until it ends properly.




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B is the way to go but not how some of you might think.
Gunnm never went bad and had 3 distinct acts but the narrative ended way before the author wanted. He came back a few years later and wrote the last stretch out of existence and continued from there. The 2 quality sequels may have developed a problem with length but the model is sound. He even retconned a version of the original ending into the last chapter of Last Order. Just go back to the moments all went bad and throw the rest of the table.
Most series that went bad did that for a reason though so i consider most beyond saving.

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I didn't really play close attention to Freezing (going to forums, really paying close attention to the story, re-reading,etc.) but one of my main problems is the characters seem too similar. A character pops out and I'm like, "who's that again?" I haven't read it in a long time because a new chapter hasn't come out in a long time but i remember that a lot of the characters are just long-haired blondes.