Tokyo Revengers ran from 2017 to 2022, with the manga becoming one of the many massive properties of the era. The anime still theoretically isn’t complete, but the manga has ended and left many fans in need of a replacement. Sadly, one manga that was seemingly poised to do so is now coming to its own conclusion and seems to have barely made a mark.
Astro Royale was the newest manga by Tokyo Revengers creator Ken Wakui, and it began its run two years after the mangaka’s previous work. Featuring similar themes and ideas, it arguably should have been a big hit for Weekly Shonen Jump. Sadly, it’s seemingly coming to an end just a year after it started, proving that lightning doesn’t quite strike twice.
Astro Royale Was Set Up To Carry On Tokyo Revengers’ Legacy… Only to Fail
Astro Royale Covered Similar Themes to Tokyo Revengers, But Worse
Image via WSJ
Astro Royale began publication in April 2024 in Weekly Shonen Jump, with this being a few years after the conclusion of Tokyo Revengers. Both are largely in the same genre, with Astro Royale also being a science fiction take on delinquent manga (or “yanki” manga). The story of Astro Royale follows Hibaru Yotsurugi, the son of the leader of the yakuza-esque Yotsurugi-gumi clan. Declining leadership of the group after his father’s death, he instead nominates Terasu Yotsurugi (a friend of his and one of his father’s adopted sons) to take over.
This causes immense consternation among the various adopted brothers, and matters are only made worse by a strange meteor shower across Japan. This event gives several people superhuman abilities, with Hibaru himself gaining the “world’s strongest fist”. Since it started its run, Astro Royale has been collected into four tankobon manga volumes, though none of these have been released in English yet. It was, however, added in English online through the websites Viz Media and Manga Plus. The chatter among readers in Japan hasn’t exactly been robust, namely given the pedigree of the creator behind it.
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Many expected it to truly be the “next” Tokyo Revengers, especially given the thematic similarities. Likewise, the addition of special powers also made it fit right in with most typical battle shonen manga, and this all should have manifested in major success. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and Weekly Shonen Jump has now canceled Astro Royale. This might have taken some by surprise, but in the end, this fate is mor than logical given the way that things were going with the failed manga.
Astroy Royale Failed By Refusing To Do Anything Original
Astro Royale Was a Lesser Version of What Manga Fans Have Been Reading For Years
Astro Royale never made a big splash among manga readers and not just in comparison with Tokyo Revengers. Of anything, the creator behind the new manga was about the only thing that readers found enticing. Astro Royale lacked a particularly compelling plot or cast of characters, with Hibaru Yotsurugi in particular being singled out as a rote, trite and cliché shonen manga protagonist.
The rest of the cast was largely blasé in the same way, so fans had little reason to care or root for them. When it came to the plot, the similarities to Wakui’s Tokyo Revengers only made things worse, as it all felt like a lesser retread. Keep in mind that Tokyo Revengers has itself gained a lot of retroactive criticism, with a lot of its initial popularity now chalked up to mere hype and “aura” more than the actual quality of the work. This was made worse by the manga’s ending, so Wakui’s newest work being seen as a lesser version of this wasn’t a good thing.
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Perhaps the biggest death knell for Astro Royale was the less-than-satisfying action, especially given the demographic. As a battle shonen manga, Astro Royale was always going to live or die by its action, and this was particularly disappointing. It had even more of a focus on special powers and the usual shonen quirks compared to the more grounded Tokyo Revengers, and even that had supernatural aspects by way of time travel. Despite this more grandiose scope, the new manga completely fails to have engaging or interesting battles.
This wasn’t helped by how dull the cast was, but even with that issue, the fights could still have been at least somewhat interesting or inventive. Instead, they’re almost incredible in how boring they are, and this was likely the biggest reason why the manga failed to ever gain much of an audience. If anything, the use of supernatural elements took a plot that might have worked better as a more grounded seinen manga and reduced it to a terrible version of a cliché battle shonen, and this might ultimately be the worst offense. Now, Wakui is seen as something of a one-trick pony, and he can’t even do well within the genre he keeps returning to.
Grounded Delinquent Manga Need to Make a Comeback
Astro Royale and Tokyo Revengers are Part of a Bigger Problem
Tokyo Revengers and Astro Royale fundamentally fail due to the demographic they’re pitched toward, which is a problem with shonen manga as a whole. Yanki/delinquent manga are usually geared toward older readers, being fairly gritty and grounded, while eschewing ridiculous or supernatural elements. As a result, they offer a tonal and genre break from many of the more outlandish, paranormal manga out there. By having a take on these genres pitched to the shonen demographic, there was a chance to have more manga that truly escaped the general mold of shonen manga.
Sadly, that wasn’t the case with either of Ken Wakui’s recent works, which is part of the big issue. Astro Royale is not only just another generic battle shonen, but a dumb one at that. If, on the other hand, it and Tokyo Revengers remained completely grounded in their scopes, they would have been a lot more interesting. Astro Royale could have actually explored the role of the Yakuza in modern Japan and how such a group might try to update itself. This could have been combined with character drama such as Hibaru Yotsurugi choosing his adopted brother to lead instead of himself. From there, the family as a whole would try to navigate both the criminal underworld and the world of legitimate business, perhaps learning that the two aren’t as far apart as they think.
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Battles could have been true street brawls or even underground fights, with the criminal element of the story being involved with both of these narrative aspects. Hard-hitting, gritty and brutally realistic fights of this nature could have been a breath of fresh air among other shonen manga, all while still being showcased in a way that excited those used to the battles seen in Dragon Ball Super and other bombastic works. Instead, it takes the most obvious shonen route imaginable and still somehow flops with it, despite the copious amounts of homework from other properties that it could have copied.
Especially given how much Tokyo Revengers fumbled the ball on the way out, Astro Royale’s failure is one of the biggest shonen manga flops of the past decade. In many ways, it’s similar to the downfall of Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru. Samurai 8 was written by Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of the Naruto manga and anime franchise. Much like how Naruto had a very loose and unique take on the concept of ninjas, Samurai 8 tried to do the same thing by combining “samurai” and space-based science fiction concepts.
Despite the success of Naruto (which was, especially at the time, still fresh in the minds of many), Samurai 8 completely failed at roughly the same time as Astro Royale has now bombed. At the very least, it felt like a story that naturally fit as a manga for the shonen demographic. On the other hand, Astro Royale and its predecessor were mostly just dumbed down versions of a largely more adult genre, and few will cry tears at the loss of either manga.
AloJapan.com