Highlights

  • Several amazing manga series were canceled too soon, including Vagabond.
  • Act-Age, on the other hand, was canceled after the mangaka's arrest, leaving an educational angle untapped.
  • High School of the Dead is another example. The incomplete status of the manga leaves fans wondering about the story's future.

Hundreds of chapters of manga are released every year, with all of them vying for the attention of the masses. Some bring the series they are attached to massive fame, even becoming international mega-hits. Manga like Naruto and Dragon Ball Z, for example, have taken on lives of their own, delving into every manner of medium a person could think of.

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Some manga go in the complete opposite direction, though. For some, a project might've been cut short for one reason or another. Alternatively, maybe the story just ran its course, leading to its natural end. Either way, fans may come to the conclusion that it wasn't a manga's time to go. What follows is a list of manga that just ended way too soon.

6 Vagabond

An Extremely Detailed Work Of Historical Fiction

Ittosai Ito vagabond

Author and Illustrator

Takehiko Inoue

Date Started

September 3, 1998

Number of Volumes

37

Status

Hiatus

While not canceled, it's been years (nine to be exact) since this incredible series has been updated. While Takehiko Inoue has promised a return to the story sometime in the future, many fans seem hesitant to get their hopes up.

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That's probably due to the fact that each panel of Vagabond is meticulously gone over, with Inoue using tools like a menso brush and paint to bring his incredibly detailed panels to life. It may be hard to believe a mangaka who has been away from this particular story for so long could get themselves back to the solitary lifestyle that such work must require.

5 Act-Age

Learn About The Hard Work Of An Actor

Rui Yonagi And Riku Ogami Play Fighting In Act-Age Manga

Author and Illustrator

Tatsuya Matsuki & Shiro Usazaki

Date Started

January 22, 2018

Number of Volumes

12

Status

Canceled

Act-Age followed an incredibly good method actor on her journey to stardom. Accompany that with an educational angle, that taught readers about the often mystified acting profession, and Shōnen Jump had another fresh hit on their hands.

However, tragedy struck when the mangaka, Matsuki Tatsuya, was arrested for some extremely unacceptable behavior. This led to the abrupt cancelation of the manga, which was a completely understandable outcome of the whole ordeal.

4 Sweat and Soap

A Fresh Angle In The Romance Genre

Sweat and Soap manga

Author and Illustrator

Kintetsu Yamada

Date Started

June 21, 2018

Number of Volumes

11

Status

Completed

Sweat and Soap indulge in one of the more unique workplace romances in the manga, with the main character Asako's smell being the driving force behind it. What's more, it ditches the classic "will they, won't they" romance trope and focuses on a full-fledged relationship, and the life that the two leads are building together.

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From dating to moving in together, things move kind of quickly for the two love birds. So much so that fans might wish that the series slowed down a bit just so they could spend more time with this oddball couple.

3 Fire Punch

Short But Brutal Action Manga

Fire Punch

Author and Illustrator

Tatsuki Fujimoto

Date Started

April 18, 2016

Number of Volumes

8

Status

Completed

Amid an apocalyptic winter, Agni's home village is laid to waste, and his sister is burned alive in front of him. However, his regenerative powers make it so that the flames that engulf his body live on forever, setting Agni on a burning quest for revenge.

Being the first serialized manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto,Fire Punch showcases the mangaka's many idiosyncrasies that would be refined in the wildly popular Chainsaw Man manga. Here, though, an incredibly messed up world is established that could have done with a bit more exploration, which the manga's short eight-volume run just didn't have the time to provide.

2 High School Of The Dead

Horror That's Easy On The Eyes

Highschool of the Dead Manga

Author and Illustrator

Daisuki Sato & Shoji Sato

Date Started

August 9, 2006

Number of Volumes

7

Status

Canceled

In the time that it was taking for new chapters of High School of the Dead to be written, an entire season of a slickly animated television show was produced. That anime was then dubbed, sending the series into the stratosphere, with fans clamoring for more of the manga's unique blend of gore and sex appeal.

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Tragically, the author of the acclaimed manga passed away after a battle with coronary artery disease, leaving the manga never to be completed. Of course, lovers of the manga's art would find solace in illustrator Shōji Satō's Triage X. But readers of HOTD will always be left wondering what harrowing situation Komuro and the crew would find themselves in next.

1 All You Need Is Kill

Kill, Die, Reread

Characters from All You Need is Kill

Author and Illustrator

Hiroshi Sakurazaka & Yoshitoshi Abe

Date Started

January 9, 2014

Number of Volumes

2

Status

Completed

Having gone through several iterations, from a Light Novel to an American live-action film starring Tom Cruise, All You Need Is Kill is a story that was never meant to last long. This is a shame because the "Groundhog Day, but in the middle of a war" idea is just too cool not to do more with.

For instance, eventually, in the story, it's discovered that the time loop is caused by a particular unit within the alien horde that the United Defense Force is up against. So why not continue the story, maybe following other, unrelated soldiers, as they come to similar realizations, or otherwise try to combat such a powerful foe?

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