Warning! Contains spoilers for Witch Watch Chapter 94!In recent years, Shonen Jump has become infamous for ending series before they get a chance to shine, but one of their currently running series is showing how its canceled manga can return. That manga is Witch Watch, a comedy series by Kenta Shinohara following the misadventures of the young witch Nico and her various supernatural bodyguards. Shinohara is a veteran mangaka, previously having written Astra Lost in Space and Sket Dance. And in the latest chapter of Witch Watch he is bringing one of these older series back.
In chapter 94 one of Nico's bodyguards Kanshi is helping out at a wedding and a funeral at the same time. This leads to the typical sort of wacky antics that make Witch Watch generally a pleasure to read but at the end it is revealed that the wedding was for two minor characters from Sket Dance. Roman, another character from Sket Dance who can break the fourth wall, surprisingly appears at the end of the chapter and comments on Witch Watch's second anniversary coming up. Then, talking to one of Sket Dance's protagonists Himeko, she mentions that the two series will be having a crossover in the next chapter.
Crossovers Can Be a Fun Way to Give Shonen Jump Fans Closure
This is a very clever way to give Sket Dance fans more of the series they love. Sket Dance shares a lot of similarities with Witch Watch. Both focus on high schoolers that help out their classmates and have various wacky misadventures. In addition, with both being created by Shinohara, they share a similar art style and sense of humor. It seems that Himeko and the other Sket Dance characters will be much older in the crossover, now being working adults, which is a very good sign of fans of the series who have wanted to see what its characters did after high school.
Sket Dance's return sets an exciting precedent for other finished manga to come back as well. Even if it isn't getting a full series revival, the next Witch Watch chapter will likely be filled with enough great moments to leave Sket Dance fans satisfied. Many other finished manga also don't need a lot of extra chapters to make fans happy, just an acknowledgment of what the characters are doing after their initial series ended.
Unfortunately, this sort of revival works best for comedy manga, as they don't have complex storylines to wrap up upon cancelation. But even seeing characters from more dramatic series Shonen Jump canceled appear and briefly summarize how their conflicts were resolved would make fans happier than never seeing those characters again. By having their canceled series return in crossovers, Shonen Jump can soften the blow of axing these series prematurely and make fans more willing to get invested in new manga.
Witch Watch Chapter 94 is available to read from Viz Media.