A legendary Shonen Jump franchise has officially come to an end with the release of its final chapter 27 years after its story first began. This year has been a milestone one for Shueisha’s various Jump franchise thus far as while there haven’t been as many outright cancellations as there were last year, more of the longer running hits have come to their respective ends. This also includes many of the other long running hits that have since moved from Weekly Shonen Jump to the other Jump magazines and schedules.
There are even more Shonen Jump franchises preparing to reach their own grand finales in the near future before the year comes to an end, but now another legendary franchise has come to an end with the release of its final chapter. Following an announcement earlier this year that series creator Takeshi Konomi was working on the final few chapters of his long running The Prince of Tennis II series, the final chapter has now released to bring it all to an end.
Takeshi Konomi first announced that The Prince of Tennis II would be coming to an end last Summer, and has been working through the final chapters of the series ever since. With its monthly release schedule as part of Jump SQ magazine, the series has been steadily getting ready to say its goodbyes. It was then revealed earlier this Summer that Konomi was officially working on the final chapter, and that grand finale has now made its debut on shelves in Japan this month to bring it all to an end. It’s just not that big of a deal in other regions.
The Prince of Tennis II is still a major series in Japan despite the fact that it never really got its due in the United States, and that’s especially true for how much demand for this final chapter has been in the region. Jump SQ’s September issue (that contains the final chapter) actually announced it would be taking on the magazine’s first reprint in 19 long years due to just how many fans are hoping to get their hands on the final chapter and any of the extras that might be included for the occasion. That further demonstrates just how legendary it all is.
The Prince of Tennis II releasing its final chapter after 17 years comes 27 years after the debut of the first series that started it all. The Prince of Tennis first launched with Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1999, and ran for nearly a decade before it came to an end. Then Konomi kicked off the official sequel series a year later in 2009, and that manga had continued to this year. But it’s just not that big of a deal in the United States likely because its anime never really got off the ground.
The Prince of Tennis made its debut not with Toonami, but with the failed Toonami Jetstream streaming platform. This was long before anime streaming became the norm, and thus it just didn’t get as much traction as some of the other bigger franchises on the TV block. That has piled on over the years to bury it underneath all sorts of other hits, and now you can’t even legally read the latest chapters of the manga like Shueisha’s other hits. It’s certainly not what a legendary franchise like this deserves.
