When should any given manga end? This three way waltz between the will of its author, the collective demand of its fans, and the aims of its publisher makes every single case unique, meaning no prescribed “ideal longevity” exists in the world of manga. Myriad external factors such as, but not limited to, popularity, total readership, profitability, needs of the story, the overall manga landscape, human relations, whims of the editorial department, author health, and access to quality assistance over time amongst other practical and esoteric conditions all affect both the existence of a manga and its ability to continue serialization. Some series get designed with a limited scope at the outset and others shoot for the stars, building in ways for extension if it does well from the get go. Some promising manga get cancelled too early whereas some others receive mandated editorial life support due when it's clear no blood remains to be squeezed from its metaphorical stone.

Unlike novels which permeate bookshelves upon release as start to finish complete narratives, the majority of manga releasing first in weekly or monthly installments of manga magazines nearly necessitates the flexibility of any serialization.  The corresponding debate as to how long a series should chug on for very much coalesces around shonen manga in particular, though not exclusively, for two broad reasons; Both in Japan and around the world Shonen manga command the most popularity, meaning tons of people lock in on their serialization whose participation as readers & merchandise consumers can directly keep a series going, and the simple fact that these boys magazine comics more than other genres aim for narrative longevity and flexibility from their inception.

Shonen manga with its simple to utilize “train, battle, win, new challenger” formula allowing a shonen series to proliferate as arcs, any of which could be turned into an end point for a series or spring point to the next arc depending on the aforementioned factors, lends itself to fans and editorial boards alike debating whether a series should continue endlessly, gracefully be allowed to end at an author or story’s liking, or simply get canned due to lack of interest. Though not to minimize the following issue as it's all too real an issue, putting aside cases of manga author health as to more laser focus on the idea of whether an individual series should end or not for its own sake, looking at a currently running shonen manga mega hit like Blue Lock and the definitive Shonen Jump battle manga Dragon Ball offers insight into what happens when series exist in perpetuity.

Hearsay of Akira Toriyama wanting to end Dragon Ball after the Frieza Saga and, again, following the conclusion of the Cell Saga persist  in fan chatter. Relatively recent interviews with Shonen Jump editorial reveal that Toriyama did not exactly want to call it quits after Frieza, they collectively had trouble figuring out Dragon Ball’s next steps, though said Editors did confirm that in fact he wanted to call the series done definitively after Cell. Due to the franchise’s overwhelming popularity and profitability, Shueisha and co indeed did apply pressure to the late great mangaka, though his editorial team worked a compromise where Toriyama could incorporate new ideas and artistic styles to his liking thus giving us the Majin Buu Saga; A rather odd arc for the series to “finish” on, with a big cuddly magic-based not-so-bad guy who Goku fails to quite defeat conventionally.

Converse to Dragon Ball which started out as an open ended adventure comic that Toriyama and his editors narrowed into a series of consecutive battles, Blue Lock begins with a laser tight and unique premise that distincted itself from the majority of sports shonen series to come before it; Namely a series where in world where the individual players need to fend for themselves in the team sport of soccer, jumping around from one make shift team to the next, all the while with lower performing players getting eliminated until one ultimate striker stands. A far cry from the friendship and comradery that defines most shonen sports, Blue Lock’s breath of fresh air succeeded in winning over fans around the world, but with that came the need to keep the series going which ultimately necessitated moving the goal posts of player elimination, introducing new players, teams, and tournaments outside of the original “Blue Lock” program set up, and bringing the manga to a place where another tournament can always be tacked on as demand for the series continues.

Lots of fans love the Majin Buu arc in that it offers something slightly errant to the Dragon Ball Z standard, but perhaps if Toriyama had gotten to end the series after Cell he may have penned a third masterpiece series as opposed to sticking with very occasional one shots. Seeing as Dragon Ball can continue ad nauseum with new animated iterations one of the next post Toriyama’s death anyhow, it's hard not to imagine what if he could have moved onto a new series earlier. When it comes to Blue Lock, the series’ overall popularity maintains its dominance, perhaps reinforced by 2025 being a world cup year. In the process though, it shelved its original promise of divining individual players and finds itself further diluted with each new major arc. If readers just want to take in more soccer and nothing else, throw our complaints to the wolves as it delivers there, but its cohesion as a manga in totality suffers. Considering shonen manga by design can endlessly continue, and readers can hop on or off by arc in most cases, maybe that doesn’t matter.