It’s no secret that Shonen Jump is in a very precarious situation right now. With One Piece officially in its final saga and both My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen having recently ended, they’ve either lost or are on the verge of losing their biggest hits, and their readership will surely plummet because of it, not unlike it did in the 90s after losing both Dragon Ball and Slam Dunk.

Shonen Jump is certainly in trouble right now, but it might not be as bad as people think. In recent years, some newer manga have slowly but surely been developing large fanbases with readers, with works like Sakamoto Days and Takeru Hokazono’s Kagurabachi on their way to at least become big hits in their own right, if not future tentpoles of the magazine. Out of everything that’s currently being published, however, Osamu Nishi and Shiro Usazaki’s Ichi the Witch is the manga that gives Shonen Jump the best hope for years to come, and overall, it’s easy to see why.

Ichi The Witch Is The Ultimate Team-Up Of Some Of Manga’s Biggest Stars

What Makes Ichi The Witch's Creators So Great

One of the more practical reasons why Ichi the Witch is good for Shonen Jump is the prestige behind its creative team. Series writer Osamu Nishi is best known as the creator of Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun!, one of the biggest weekly serials currently running outside Shonen Jump, and her penning Ichi the Witch while still working on Iruma-kun was a major shock to fans all over. Shonen Jump landing one of the biggest talents among their competitors in Osamu Nishi was a major get for the magazine, and overall, it’s been nothing but a net positive.

What’s been just as exciting, however, is Ichi the Witch being illustrated by Shiro Usazaki. Shonen Jump fans will recognize Usazaki as the illustrator of Act-Age, a manga that was well on its way to becoming a massive hit before it was abruptly canceled not because of poor sales, but because of horrendous actions committed by the author. As such, Ichi the Witch being illustrated by Shiro Usazaki is a big deal because it’s a chance for her to get her due after how things went with Act-Age, and that’s been nothing but great to see.

Bringing it all together, of course, is the fact that the duo behind Ichi the Witch consists of two women. While the creators of some of the most popular manga in and out of Shonen Jump like Fullmetal Alchemist, Sailor Moon, Reborn!, and Blue Box were all women, it’s rare for multiple women to collaborate on a story outside groups like Clamp or Peach-Pit. Shonen Jump having an all-female creative team behind Ichi the Witch makes it a revolutionary series purely from conception, and that’s been one of the biggest draws to its tenure in Shonen Jump since day one.

Ichi The Witch Has Some Of The Best Writing & Visuals Of Any Modern Manga

One Of The Best New Additions To Shonen Jump, By Far

Ichi the Witch has plenty of talent behind it, and it’s been living up to the hype every chance it gets. Not only is Shiro Usazaki’s artwork as gorgeous and detailed as ever, especially whenever she gets the chance to fully show off in an action scene or a double spread, but Osamu Nishi’s writing always does wonders to complement everything with how well she balances quirky comedy with serious action and drama. Ichi the Witch has easily become a hit thanks to its perfect balance of great art and writing, and that’s a feat not every manga can achieve.

The best part about Ichi the Witch, of course, has been seeing how its strong points have evolved throughout the story. Not only does the art keep finding new ways to look as great as possible, but the narrative has also continually grown as the world and characters become progressively more developed, with Ichi and Desscaras and their dynamic being the biggest standout, by far. Ichi the Witch continually finds new ways to make its already strong points even stronger, and it’s been one of the best Shonen Jump manga to read in recent years because of that.

Will Ichi The Witch Become Shonen Jump’s Next Big Thing?

Will Ichi The Witch Save Shonen Jump?

It’s easy to see why Ichi the Witch has been such a hit, but whether it will truly become Shonen Jump’s next big thing is another story, entirely. As big as Ichi the Witch is now, there have been plenty of examples of manga that started fairly popular, only to lose it for one reason or another and either fade into obscurity or be outright canceled. As such, Ichi the Witch’s current popularity might not indicate how popular it will be in the future, and with how good the story is, that would be unfortunate to see.

That being said, not only were sales of Ichi the Witch volume #1 so good that it was sold out nearly everywhere for weeks, but the series has already been on the cover of Shonen Jump three times across six months, something not even Kagurabachi accomplished, so Ichi the Witch’s breakout success means there’s little reason to assume it won’t become one of Shonen Jump’s biggest hits. Ichi the Witch is easily one of the best things to happen to Shonen Jump both creatively and financially, and it will be great to see how much it can grow, going forward.