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Originally Posted by CaptainSmoker
I have to agree with freeter, KJ isn’t stupid he knows his entire fan base yearns for something we can identify as an ending. KJ has a strange fan base (yes us) I don’t think any other fan base in the manga world is as starved yet tolerant as us. I keep coming back in search of some sort of redemption only to be slapped with nonsensical humor and resets. I think SR fans see the potential of the series yet the author refuses to capitalize upon it. He persistently ignores the fanbase and pulls off these ridiculous parodies and other useless gags, he’s simply trolling everyone. If you keep feeding your dog nothing but bare bone you‘ll have one angry puppy in no time, its about time to see some the meat!
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I love how, in the same paragraph, you say that KJ isn't stupid, but that he's a troll. ^_^
I understand that the ending to SR was frustrating. I *get* that. And I know that, after that ending, having the release schedule shift to monthly and to get two parody chapters in a row is rough. But to say 'I keep coming back' after two chapters is a bit over-reactive, that's all I'm saying.
Let me be theoretical for a second, here. He ended the manga in an odd spot. In a perfect world the ending would've been better, but maybe he wanted to give SR a nice capstone that ended Tenma's story. Now that it's over, he takes a break and writes some parody chapters as filler while he works on the main story. He does a survey to see which aspect of School Rumble people like the most. I understand that on the interwebs people love the Harima/Eri/Yakumo, and I concur with that sentiment, but maybe he wanted to get some up to date info from people who weren't forum goers.
Now he has that information, sees how popular each aspect of school rumble is from something of a broader sample, and now is writing new chapters that accentuate what he thinks the fans want to see. And when his filler parodies run out, we'll be away with a new story.
This is theoretical guess work on my part, you could even call it fantasy. I certainly hope its true. It is just as likely, if not moreso, than the "He is a troll lol" theory.
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I don’t know much about the manga industry and how it works but marketing is pretty simple, you cant market a product no one likes. I just believed it to be common sense that a manga that is only published once per month needs to deliver to its fan base consistently or they too will abandon it, these parodies are not swaying in new readers… its pushing readers away!!! No matter how funny they are… it seems at this rate Srz will be canceled before it can even have a chance to return to its old glory.
To me It would be very strange if Srz shifts randomly back to the original plot in a later chapter at this point wouldn't it? If we were to have a sudden return to the main story line in chapter 4, for example, how can anyone blame fans for jumping ship? I think Srz is entirely a parody series unfortunately. At this point I believe KJ is determined to see this parody stuff through but may decide to return to SR’s story in a Harima Rumble series or something in the future.
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People who write things are not necessarily marketing geniuses. I agree, from a marketing perspective this is a moderate disaster. Even under my 'dream scenario' above, it's foolish of him not to communicate more clearly that the main story will continue, if it does so.
However, to say that he's pushing readers away based on internet forum feedback is not necessarily accurate. Internet forum traffic doesn't always reflect sales. Even on the aforementioned 4chan, I'm sure, when it comes down to it, most of the noise on any School Rumble thread comes from under 50 people. And that's hardly indicative of market trends. It's indicative of those 50 people's opinion.
I'm too lazy to go look this up, but I believe there was three designations for chapters in School Rumble, A plot, B plot, and one that was used for a group plot once. They were based on musical annotation, IIRC. sharp, flat, natural, not necessarily in that order. The chapters thus far, if forum info I recall reading is accurate, have been notated as being natural chapters, I think. So it is conceivable that when the story picks back up, we may see a 'Sharp' or 'Flat' chapter 1 that starts the story.
And again, this is hopeful thinking on my part. However the main evidence I have for this is the survey, it fits. And it just seems more likely than accusing this brilliant author who wrote this story that we love of not 'getting' his own story. Or of accusing him of 'trolling' his fans by writing an all parody series from here on out.
In all likelihood the correct answer is probably either mine, or that he is doing parodies from now on for a certain reason, whether it be he got tired of School Rumble, that it got canceled and the editors of the new magazine wanted a parody manga and he just threw this together, or some other reason. He certainly isn't doing something he thinks will be unsuccessful in order to piss off his fan base.
I'm just asking for a bit of rational thought here guys. I know that reading Parody Rumble after the ending School Rumble had is tough, but let's not lose all reason or give up on hope just yet.