After 36 chapters, Shonen Jump's modern-day fantasy series Doron Dororon will be coming to an end. The demon-slaying manga series will release its final chapter this August.
Doron Dororon by Gen Oosuka (Golem Hearts) debuted in Shonen Jump in November of 2021, alongside two other series: Protect Me, Shugomaru! and Ayashimon. Of the three, Ayashimon ended first in May 2022, followed by Shugomaru in June. Doron Dororon follows a protagonist named Dora Sasaki as he strives to become a samurai entrusted with slaying man-eating demons known as Mononoke. With the aid of a friendly, shape-changing Mononoke named Kusanagi, the pair begin working to achieve this dream of protecting the innocent and proving to everyone that Mononoke and humans don't have to be enemies.
According to information from the reliable manga news Twitter Manga Mogura RE, Doron Dororon is now set to end with its 36th chapter, which will debut in the August 29, 2022 issue of Shonen Jump. While the series had a fairly strong start and a lot of potential, Doron Dororon soon began to lean heavily on some typical shonen action genre cliches that dulled interest. A small, cute mascot character, a protagonist whose main trait is determination, enemies who are primarily man-eating monsters with little motivation besides causing death and despair... they're not only all ideas that have been seen before, but were also handled better in other recent, critically-praised series like Demon Slayer. The series introduced high-ranking samurai known as Officers as well, mirroring similar groups in other series like Demon Slayer's Hashira or Black Clover's Captains. And, like Hashira, the series has indicated that these Officers also have distinctive fighting styles--although it seems readers will see very little of them.
Unfortunately for fans of Doron Dororon, the writing has been on the wall for the series for a while. For months now, chapters have rushed through both story and fights, resolving in only a few panels a fight that would typically last at least three to four chapters in any other series. The last chapter published before the announcement of its cancellation, chapter 35, revealed Doron Dororon's deadliest monster and set up for a climactic fight, which will likely conclude rather quickly and unceremoniously in order to wrap up the story in its one remaining chapter. With its fellow new series having already ended and readership in Japan's popularity polls dropping, it became clear that Doron Dororon's ending would also be imminent in order to free up that spot in Shonen Jump's lineup.
With competition for one of the very exclusive slots in Shonen Jump being so intense, this sort of abrupt ending is unfortunately common among manga series. Although it's not known at this point what will replace Doron Dororon, one can only hope it will be something that gets a proper ending.
Source: Manga Morgura RE