Though, to be fair, even before I decided to call this the "Post-Arakawa Era" I had already decided where my stopping would be, simply because I felt that it was truly a fitting title to end on. So, without further ado, let's see what (at least half of) Shonen Gangan's current catalog of serializations look like.
We begin with what is the longest manga to debut during the "Post-Arakawa Era" of Shonen Gangan... but, much like with A Certain Magical Index's length, it's kind of cheating because this is an adaptation of a prior light novel, not an original work. Shin Araki first got his start as a writer for a gaming magazine in Japan, but his prior experience in creative writing eventually got him the chance to make his novel debut in 1994 with The Crest of Waltzer in Dengeki PC Engine magazine. This was actually a semi-interactive serialization where readers could submit by mail their responses to what was happening in the newest issue, which in turn would result in Araki adjusting the story. Araki would move over to writing original light novels here on out, with a number of them having some decently multi-year runs, and that brings us to January 2015, which saw the debut of Classroom for Heroes under Shueisha's Dash X Bunko imprint, which featured art by Haruyuki Morisawa. One month later a manga adaptation debuted in Ultra Jump titled Classroom for Heroes: The Empress of Flames, with art by Takashi Minakuchi, but that was short-lived & ended later that August after only one volume.
This finally brings us to October 2016, where over in Shonen Gangan was the debut of a new (subtitle-less) manga adaptation of Classroom for Heroes, this time with art by Koara Kishida. This tells the story of the students of Rosewood Academy, a school created after the legendary Hero defeated the Demon Lord so as to make sure that there will always be other "heroes" out there to protect the world from evil. Specifically, the story stars Earnest Flaming, the top-ranking student at Rosewood who's been nicknamed "The Empress of Flames", & Blade, a carefree transfer student whose skills at combat rivals Earnest's... and is actually the very Hero who saved the world & now only wants to live a "normal" life, despite being enrolled at a school for heroes. While the concept sounds admittedly a bit generic, Classroom for Heroes is a series that fully knows what kind of story it is & has become known for its self-aware habit of poking fun at itself & the various tropes seen in a story like this, and that's likely what has helped keep both the light novel & the Gangan manga adaptation going to this very day. As of this overview the light novel is currently 15 volumes in (though it's seemingly been on hiatus since late 2023), while it was just recently confirmed that the Gangan manga's 24th volume in Winter 2026 will be its last, so it's nearing its end. This makes Classroom for Heroes the fourth-longest manga in Shonen Gangan history (after Nagasarete Airantou, Violinist of Hameln, & A Certain Magical Index), & by far the longest manga to debut in the "Post-Arakawa Era" of the magazine, though the fact that it's an adaptation of a light novel can maybe feel a bit like an asterisk. Yen Press started releasing the light novel in 2024, & therefore is currently only six volumes in, while the Gangan manga adaptation is currently only available digitally via Comikey & Manga Up!. There was also a TV anime adaptation in 2023, which was simulcasted by Crunchyroll & in 2024 saw a physical release in English.
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We now move over to 2017 for our next still-running Shonen Gangan manga, which is technically the return of a long-time Gangan mangaka, but one we hadn't covered previously. The main reason for that is because neither of Taichi Kawazoe's prior manga, 2010-2012's Banoten! & 2014-2015's Mystery Solving Drill, actually ran for that long to be truly notable, and of them only Banoten! actually ran in Shonen Gangan, as Drill was a Gangan Online serialization. However, as the saying goes, "third's time the charm" as in July 2017 Kawazoe returned to Shonen Gangan with their third series, and it's the one that truly has stood tall over what they had made prior: Immoral Guild. The series stars Kikuru Madan, an expert monster hunter who feels that he's wasting his youth with his current expertise & plans to retire soon so that he can pursue college & love. However, he's convinced to take one last job by accompanying a young martial artist named Hitamu Kyan... but she's both inexperienced in actually fighting monsters & her ability to replenish mana makes her immensely appealing to said monsters, who wind up putting her into "compromising" situations. Not wanting to end his career as a hunter on a bad note, Kikuru decides that he'll train Hitamu (as well as other women who eventually join their party) to become a proper hunter before retiring.
As one can guess from a certain word I put in quotation marks, as well as the name of the manga itself, Immoral Guild is very much a series focused primarily on erotic imagery, & especially in putting Hitamu in all manner of "compromised" scenarios. In fact, the manga itself is officially described as a "Hunting Erotic Comedy" & "An Extremely Controversial Work in Which the Heroine is Subjected to Constant Humiliation," so one can't say that it isn't honest about what it is, and when initially serialized things like bare breasts & underwear is censored; the compiled volumes, though, are 100% uncensored but still never enter hentai territory. However, while the erotic comedy is the manga's primary appeal, Immoral Guild also does get serious every now & then for what it calls "Named Battles", and while Kawazoe was initially worried that the manga would lose its popularity after it went serious for the first time, the opposite wound up being true, and the Named Battles seen in Volume 9, in particular, would wind up being immensely popular with reader surveys at the time. Clearly, the readers in Japan have come to care enough about the cast Immoral Guild so much that putting them in serious storylines actually work out extremely well, similar to how a manga like Gintama could swap between zany gag comedy & deadly serious battle manga without missing a beat. That would likely explain why Immoral Guild is still running to this day, with Volume 17 being the most recent volume in Japan, as of this overview, having come out this past March. Where there is no physical release of Immoral Guild in English, Square-Enix does offer it via Manga Up!, while the TV anime adaptation from 2022 was simulcasted by Hidive, where it was infamous for its TV-mandated censorship, followed by an uncensored physical release on Blu-Ray by Sentai Filmworks in 2023.
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We had plenty of Dragon Quest manga back in the "Original [United] Era", but I haven't covered any Final Fantasy manga that ran in Shonen Gangan yet since the creation of Square-Enix. The reason for that is actually kind of simple: None of the ones until now were really worth mentioning. February 2004 to June 2005 saw Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Hatenaki Sora no Mukou ni by Ryonosuke Ichikawa (who later made Blade Sangokushi, a title I admittedly should have covered), while 2011 to 2014 saw Takatoshi Shiozawa serialize a pair of Final Fantasy Type-0 manga (an adaptation of the early part of the game, followed by a prequel series starring Kurasame Susaya, the mentor of the game's main cast), but aside from the Type-0 prequel lasting five volumes none of them really sounded noteworthy... especially when compared to the Final Fantasy manga in Shonen Gangan that's been running for nearly 10 years now. The idea of an original story that simply relies on the concepts, themes, monsters, spells, etc. of the Final Fantasy series had been done before in the 00s with the TV anime Final Fantasy: Unlimited (though it was initially conceived to tie in with the PS2 RPG Unlimited SaGa, hence why they both have the word "Unlimited" in their titles), and it was done again with the August 2017 debut of Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger by Hazuki Minase (story) & Itsuki Kameya (art), with Minase in particular being a long-time writer by this point, most notably for the light novel series C³: Cube×Cursed×Curious & the TV anime Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya. Similar to FF:U, Lost Stranger stars two characters who find themselves in a fantasy world, but for Lost Stranger Minase & Kameya went with the modern-day isekai standard, i.e. Truck-kun!
Yes, Lost Stranger stars Shogo Sasaki, an employee at Square-Enix & longtime Final Fantasy fan, & his sister Yuko, who are both hit by a truck & killed, only to find themselves teleported to a world similar to that seen in various Final Fantasy games. Specifically, Lost Stranger looks to take the most inspiration from the franchise's second MMO, Final Fantasy XIV, with Shogo portrayed as a massive fan of the game & is even shown playing it at times via flashbacks. Therefore, the manga is more on the "fantasy" side of things when it comes to the world Shogo & Yuko find themselves in, rather than the more "modern" worlds seen in certain entries. While Minase had plenty of experience with writing before this manga, Itsuki Kameya was a little more new to things, having only had one prior manga (Kaidan Tochuu no Big Noise over in Big Gangan) & was one of the illustrators for the free-to-play mobile RPG Star Ocean: Anamnesis. In fact, Kameya actually became the artist for Lost Stranger by way of winning a contest Square-Enix held to determine who would draw it, which is oddly fitting for an isekai manga loosely based on an iconic RPG franchise. Anyway, Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger has managed to be THE FF manga for Shonen Gangan, quickly outliving any of the prior serializations & is still running as of this overview, with Volume 14 coming out in Japan just the week prior to this piece going live. Yen Press quickly got the license to the manga, too, and almost immediately kept a release pace that puts it roughly one year behind Japan at all times; Volume 13 is currently set for an August 2026 release.
I mentioned in prior parts about how prolific Masahiro Totsuka was during his time with Shonen Gangan, either drawing or writing multiple manga (oftentimes multiple ones at the same time) for the magazine from the early 2000s all the way to the mid-2010s, but the same really is true of Eita Mizuno... and they're still with the magazine to this very day! Yes, after working with Kyo Shirodaira for Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning & Spiral Alive, then adapting the seventh "episode" of Umineko: When They Cry, & then reuniting with Shirodaira one last time for the short-lived Tengai-san is Surprisingly Ordinary, we've finally reached the Shonen Gangan manga that Mizuno is currently making, Otherside Picnic. Debuting in March 2018, Otherside Picnic is yet another light novel adaptation, in this case being based on the series by Iori Miyazawa (story) & shirakaba (art) that debuted a year prior & is still being published by Hayakawa Publishing, the company behind S-F Magazine, Japan's first successful commercial science-fiction magazine (that's still being published to this very day!). Miyazawa, in particular, is an author who previously worked under the pen name Uokeri & helped create the world settings for Japanese tabletop RPGs like Sataspe & Insane before moving over to light novel writing under their real name, debuting in 2011 with the series In Regards to My Magic Sword Being So Damn Noisy; shirakaba, in comparison, looks to have debuted with Otherside Picnic.
As for Otherside Picnic, it tells the story of Sorawo Kamikoshi, a college sophomore who has a love of urban legends, ghost stories, & exploring abandoned environments. One day she discovers a door in an abandoned building that leads to "Otherside", an alternate world filled with monsters & the like that originate from urban legends & online creepypasta. While exploring Otherside for the first time Sorawo is nearly killed, but is saved by Toriko Nishina, a gun expert who's already explored Otherside many times. The series focuses on Sorawo & Toriko repeatedly entering Otherside, discovering more about the world (all while being affected by it, by way of powers both find themselves acquiring), finding people who have been trapped inside it, and all with a tinge of appealing to the yuri fans by way of Sorawo & Toriko's growing friendship. Inspired in part (& in title) by the 1972 Soviet novel Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Otherside Picnic is clearly a very different kind of isekai story than what has become the norm, and in fact in Japanese doesn't use the word "isekai" in its title, but rather goes with the compounded word "urasekai", i.e. "reverse/opposite world". That likely plays a big role in the continued success & serialization of both the light novel, which is currently 10 books in, & Eita Mizuno's manga adaptation, which just saw its 16th volume published in Japan a week prior to this piece going live; like some other "modern" Shonen Gangan titles, Otherside Picnic also gets simulpublished over at Gangan Online in Japan. Both the light novel & manga are receiving English releases, with J-Novel Club handling the former & Square-Enix Manga handling the latter, while the 2021 TV anime adaptation was simulcasted by Crunchyroll, followed by a physical release on Blu-Ray in 2022.
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OK, let's take a break from manga that's still running & cover two notable (if relatively short) manga that actually have ended, shall we? One month after the debut of Eita Mizuno's manga adaptation of Otherside Picnic saw the debut of The Elf and the Hunter's Item Atelier by Umetaro Aoi, who prior to this only had a single, short-lived manga to her name with 2012's Yuzu Bento, which ran in Big Gangan. The series was very much a "what it says on the tin" concept as it followed the life of Magritte, an small elf who runs an atelier in the forest & has a human hunter named Yura in her employ, as needed. Due to their differing races, while Magritte looks young she's actually much, much older than Yura, and in fact saved Yura from possible death when he was a child, and the manga was pretty much a laidback & relaxing look at the life Magritte & Yura had running the atelier in the forest, with likely a touch of romance between the two, or at least a familiar closeness, despite their massive age difference.
To be honest, there isn't really much to say about this manga, but it's still noteworthy for running just about a solid three years in Shonen Gangan (along with a simulpublish in Gangan Online), ending in March 2021 after 33 chapters across five volumes, and more than likely made for a nice & calm counterpoint to some of the wilder action & comedy manga that were running in the magazine alongside it. It never received an adaptation of any sort, and while it hasn't received any sort of physical release in English it was added to Manga Up! in late 2024, so it can be read in its entirety officially in English. As for Umetaro Aoi, she would follow up The Elf and the Hunter's Item Atelier in December 2023 with The Cynical Knight and the Gentle Princess, which is actually still running in Shonen Gangan as of this overview, & is currently at four volumes, but since it debuted after my cut-off for this overview series (& therefore would technically be a part of what I'd say is Shonen Gangan's current "era") it won't be covered here.
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Four months after The Elf and the Hunter's Item Atelier debuted we saw our next notable Shonen Gangan manga from this "era" that also has already ended. Despite the proliferation of isekai stories in the past 10-15 years, Shonen Gangan hasn't really had that many notable series that utilized the concept, though this final part of the overview series has already featured two with Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger & (technically) Otherside Picnic. Well, August 2018 marked the debut of another one, though in this case it was strictly a "reincarnation" story without the need of an alternate world, with Slime Tensei. Dai Kenja ga Youjo Elf ni Dakishimeraretemasu/Slime Reincarnation. The Great Sage is Hugged by His Adopted Elf Daughter. Similar to Classroom for Heroes & Otherside Picnic, or even A Certain Magical Index before those, Slime Tensei. was yet another light novel adaptation, this time a short, three-book series from 2017 to 2018 written by Rui Tsukiyo (best known today for titles like Redo of Healer & The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat) & featuring illustrations by ichiri. In fact, this manga adaptation drawn by Kinako Warabimochi debuted right around the time the final book for the light novel came out in Japan. As the (pre-requisite for many modern light-novels) self-explaining title states, Slime Tensei. told the story of Marin Enlight, a "Great Sage" who was nearing the end of his life, but upon death finds himself immediately reincarnated as an "Infinitely Evolving Slime" that he had managed to create before passing. While he was fine with this new life Marin winds up getting caught by Orphe, his third-oldest adopted elf daughter, who puts a subjugation spell on Slime Marin & makes him her familiar. While continually getting hugs from Orphe, Marin decides that until he can eventually evolve into a human form he'll keep his true identity a secret from his Orphe & her adoptive sisters, all while Marin does whatever he can to protect them from harm.
Since the original light novel wasn't all that long, it's not surprising that the Slime Tensei. manga adaptation didn't last terribly long, though it still managed to run for just shy of three whole years, ending in April 2021 after six volumes. Rui Tsukiyo has continued to make light novels, while Kinako Warabimochi has continued to make manga, both alongside Slime Tensei. & since it finished, over at Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara; currently Warabimochi is making the four-panel birdwatching manga Shiawase Trimming: Happiness bird within you.
OK, back to still-running Shonen Gangan manga for our next two titles. If you were to look at the full title of our next notable manga it'd be understandable to think that this was yet another adaptation of a light novel, due to many of them nowadays having ultra long titles that describe the basic concept, in a nutshell. However, this is indeed a manga-original work... though it is written by a light novel author. Like many modern-day light novel authors, Kota Amana got their start on the website Shosetsuka ni Narou, where anyone can self-publish a novel (for better or worse), and Amana continues to write on "Narou" to this very day. However, Amana also gets published officially, with their two most well known works being Otherworld Concierge & Fantasy Gourmet, with the latter receiving a manga adaptation in Gangan Online from 2016 to 2020. It was during that point where Amana decided to debut another new work, this time over in Shonen Gangan, but instead of being an adaptation of one of their Narou novels it'd instead be made for manga first. So on September 2018 the series Vermeil in Gold: The Failing Student and the Strongest Scourge Plunge Into the World of Magic made its debut, with the artwork being done by Yoko Umezu, who looks to have been a complete newcomer due to a lack of any readily available information regarding their past. Vermeil in Gold tells the story of Alto Goldfield, a first-year student at Ortigia Academy of Magic who gets an "A" in every class... except for summoning. With the risk of needing to repeat his year if he doesn't perform a successful summoning, Alto reads from a grimoire found in the school's library & manages to summon Vermeil, a powerful (& very voluptuous) succubus-like demon who loves the sheer amount of mana found within Alto (which is why his summonings have previously failed, as other spirits feel overwhelmed by that), so she agrees to be Alto's familiar.
And, yes, we once again have another of the Shonen Gangan standard: A romantic comedy featuring a male lead who winds up having to deal with various women being around him, as while Vermeil's attitude towards Alto is more teasing (though she does need to kiss him in order to drain his mana, since she needs it to live) there are Alto's various female classmates, most notably his childhood friend Lilia. To be fair, as of right now Vermeil in Gold is the third oldest of this type of manga in Shonen Gangan that's still running, behind Immoral Guild (which alternates between erotic comedy & serious action manga) & Nagasarete Airantou (which has effectively become Shonen Gangan's equivalent to Kochikame), so there's a bit of a novelty to Amana & Umezu's series that's allowed it continue on to this very day, with it currently at 10 volumes. While there is no physical release of the manga in English, Comikey & Square-Enix do offer it digitally via Manga Up!. Meanwhile, the 2022 TV anime adaptation did get simulcasted by Hidive, followed by a physical release on Blu-Ray by Sentai Filmworks in 2023 (& then a steelbook re-release in 2024, so it must have performed well for them), where the title was altered slightly to Vermeil in Gold: A Desperate Magician Barges Into the Magical World Alongside the Strongest Calamity.
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And now, as the saying goes, for something totally different than what we just covered! We've seen a number of notable Shonen Gangan manga initially get their starts in other Gangan-branded publications, both physical & digital, but this is the first time we'll be going over a title that first appeared in Gangan pixiv. Launching first in beta on September 10, 2007, pixiv is an online artist community & social network service conceived of by Takahiro "Bakotsu" Kamitani, & only 19 days in had over 10,000 users, resulting in Kamitani needing to create a proper company (Crooc, now pixiv Inc.) in order to maintain the service, as it almost immediately grew past his ability to do it alone. Today pixiv has over 100,000,000 users that have shared well over 115,000,000 illustrations & 21 million novels, so it's only natural that Square-Enix felt that it was a place to work with. So on February 22, 2017 Gangan pixiv was launched with two titles, and on February 17, 2018 a third manga debuted with A Man and His Cat by Umi Sakurai, who had previously made the manga The Vampire Called God for Gangan Online from 2014 to 2017 & totaled six volumes. As the title states, this manga is about Fukuyi Kanda, an older man whose wife recently passed away, who decides to adopt Fukumaru, a chubby Exotic Shorthair cat who's always passed over at the pet store for the younger kittens, and the series shows the life they have together, two "unwanted/abandoned" entities who find kinship in each other.
Since so many people love cats it's easy to see why A Man and His Cat became a big hit on Gangan pixiv, with Sakurai also sharing the manga in bits on her Twitter account, and just over a year later Square-Enix decided that it deserved to be serialized physically. So the April 2019 issue of Shonen Gangan featured the print serialization debut of A Man and His Cat, and it's continued to run in the magazine to this very day, where it's currently at 16 volumes, making it one of the longest manga to have debuted during this "Post-Arakawa Era". While it hasn't received an anime adaptation yet it has already received a live-action TV drama, where the cats were portrayed by puppets, a mobile puzzle game, a picture book, & even a motion comic short meant to promote the manga. Meanwhile, A Man and His Cat would also become one of the first releases of a brand new endeavor launched by Square-Enix...
Up until this point all Gangan manga, regardless of magazine, saw international release by way of traditional licensing out to third-party companies. Over in North America Square-Enix initially relied primarily on Viz Media when it came to bringing its manga over into English up to the first half of the 00s, as seen with titles like Fullmetal Alchemist, O-Parts Hunter, & Record of a Fallen Vampire, while starting in the second half of the 00s Square-Enix decided to work primarily with Yen Press, with Yen even doing digital re-releases of some titles that Viz first released, though Viz managed to hold on to the rights to Fullmetal Alchemist moving forward; there was also the occasional other company deal, like Seven Seas putting out Dragon Quest Monsters+. However, with the English manga market only continuing to grow & expand over time, even when it often seemed as though it was on the verge of bursting again (as it had done back in the mid-to-late 00s), it only made sense that Square-Enix would eventually want to cut out the middleman & start self-publishing in North America.
So on May 17, 2019 it was announced that Square-Enix would team with Penguin Random House to launch its own publishing imprint in North America, simply titled Square-Enix Manga & Books. As the name indicated, this was for more than just manga, as seen with its launch line-up of Final Fantasy XV: The Dawn of the Future (a novel based on the RPG), Hi Score Girl (which ran over in Big Gangan & had ended the year prior), A Man and His Cat, & even a new hardcover "Perfect Edition" release of Soul Eater, which had first been brought over by Yen Press; Soul Eater Not! would later be given the same hardcover treatment. Seven years later Square-Enix Manga & Books has already assembled a rather large catalog of titles, though it is worth pointing out that the only "vintage" manga it's put out so far has been Dragon Quest: The Emblem of Roto (renamed to The Mark of Erdrick), which is understandable for an imprint that isn't even 10 years old yet. However, I think that's what makes an overview series like this all the more relevant, as it shows the vast catalog of completed manga that Square-Enix Manga & Books could potentially delve into, if it truly wants to.
Anyway, back to the modern-day Shonen Gangan!
We've got two more finished manga to go over, and we begin with the most recent notable finale to have happened. First up is an neat little counterpart to A Man and His Cat, as it first appeared online before getting a "traditional" serialization over in Shonen Gangan. Imari Arita first got their start with the series Happy End (technically "Happy Wend", since it uses the obsolete katakana "ヱ/we"), which ran in Shonen Gangan from May 2017 to January 2019 & totaled five volumes; not quite two full years, so I didn't count it here. A month later Arita started up a new manga, but went with what was becoming something more commonly seen in a now-always online world: Twitter. Yes, on February 2, 2019 the first ever portion of Shachiku-san wa Youjo Yurei ni Iyasaretai./The Corporate Slave Wants to Be Healed by a Little Girl Ghost. debuted on Imari Arita's personal Twitter account, which told the story of Fushihara, the titular "Shachiku/Corporate Slave" who works tirelessly at a black company somewhere in Japan, continually working overtime regardless of the stress that builds up. However, Fushihara also has the ability to see ghosts, and one ghost in particular (that of a nameless little girl) tries her best to help Fushihara out by encouraging her to leave & go home, despite getting lonely whenever Fushihara actually does leave. That's the basic gist of this series, a workplace comedy about an overworked (& likely mistreated) employee & the various ghosts she encounters, both at work & at her apartment complex, alongside various other characters, some of which can also see ghosts.
Arita's new manga on Twitter got attention, though, which made Square-Enix sure to get a hold of it, & later that August two things happened. First, a physical Volume 1 of the manga, collecting everything that had been posted on Twitter, came out on August 9, 2019. Second, Shachiku-san wa Youjo Yurei ni Iyasaretai. made its debut in Shonen Gangan in the September 2019 issue, turning it into a traditional serialization. Despite what honestly sounds like a pretty basic concept, though, Arita would go on to serialize their second series all the way until February 2026, not too shortly before I started this entire overview series(!), resulting in a final total of 195 chapters across 14 volumes. While there is no physical release of the manga in English, Square-Enix did start offering it digitally via Manga Up! in 2023. There was also a TV anime adaptation in 2022 that Crunchyroll simulcasted, now using the title Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost, though in this case the anime still hasn't received a physical release; the manga's English release uses the same altered title as the anime.
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We finally leave the 2010s & move into the current decade with our next notable Shonen Gangan manga, and it's the return of matoba after just four-months. Yes, after serializing the final chapter of As Miss Beelzebub Likes it. in June 2020, matoba only took the next three issues off before returning in October 2020 with their next series, Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included. This manga told the story of Shintaro Tokumitsu, a high school student living by himself in a large studio apartment, where his aunt is the landlord, & works part-time at a restaurant, though his parents do send him an allowance to help out; in other words, a quiet but uneventful life. One day, though, Shintaro comes across a girl named Towa, who in reality in an angel from Heaven who has been sent down to Earth by God to learn about humanity. However, Towa is immensely naïve & can be easily taken advantage of, so Shintaro offers to let her live with him while she comes to better understand humanity, for both good & ill. As is tradition for stories like this, though, Shintaro slowly realizes that a number of his (female) classmates & coworkers are actually non-humans, like Towa, including a vampire, a kappa, & a yuki-onna.
To be fair, while this concept isn't exactly original (even for Shonen Gangan) it also wasn't really competing with anything similar that had also been running for a while, as My Monster Girl is Too Cool For You had ended earlier in 2020. Therefore, there was technically an opening for this take on the harem-esque manga that Shonen Gangan really has become very much known for, and matoba took full advantage of that opening to offer their take on the idea. In the end, Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included would run for just a little less time than As Miss Beelzebub Likes it. did, with its 48th & final chapter appearing in April 2025, giving the series a total of eight volumes. Yen Press would license the manga for English release, showing that the relationship between Yen & Square-Enix was still strong despite S-E launching its own publishing business in North America, and as of this overview the final volume is currently scheduled for English release on July 28, 2026. A TV anime adaptation came out in 2024, which Crunchyroll simulcasted, but there has yet to be a physical release. While matoba took very little time between works after As Miss Beelzebub Likes it. ended, they've been on a much longer hiatus after finishing Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included, though I imagine they'll return with a new work in due time.
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Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger must have been feeling lonely as the sole "traditional" modern isekai story in Shonen Gangan, i.e. someone finds themselves in another world after dying, because in late 2020 it was joined by another long-running isekai manga. There's really not much info out there about Koyoshi Nakayoshi prior to their serialized debut in Shonen Gangan, but their Twitter account dates back to 2018 so it's entirely possible that they got their start simply sharing their art online & was found by an editor at Square-Enix. Regardless, Nakayoshi made their debut over at Shonen Gangan in November 2020 with The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World, which takes the isekai concept & merges it with tokusatsu. The manga stars Togo Asagaki, the leader of the sentai team Kizuna Five that fights against the evil secret society Zetsuender. During an intense battle with Break Up King, Togo (i.e. Kizuna Red) tries to sacrifice himself to defeat their foe once & for all, only to find himself teleported to a fantasy world completely unknown to him. After spending half a year as an adventurer who helps those in need, Togo finds a new ally in Yihdra Arvoln, a young mage who wishes to repair the poor reputation that her family has found itself over the years, as well as other allies in Princess Teltina Liz Wagrel Alvarost, her bodyguard Lowji Mist, & a village chief's daughter named Raniya, creating a brand new squadron for Togo to fight alongside; Yihdra & Raniya even have the ability to transform, similar to Togo, becoming Kizuna Magus & Amen VII, respectively.
While the general idea of Red Ranger sounds very similar to that of Lost Stranger, Nakayoshi replaces the adherence to Final Fantasy's traditions & concepts to those of tokusatsu, namely Super Sentai, right down to Togo even being able to summon Kizuna Five's giant robot, Maximum Kizuna Kaiser, when in a pinch, with his new friends helping him pilot it. Obviously, part of the appeal of this manga is in seeing the technology-based powers & abilities of Togo contrast with the traditional fantasy aesthetic of the world he's found himself in, where his own friends get confounded by Togo's lack of mana & magical prowess being made up for by his tokusatsu-styled steadfast dedication to justice. To be fair, it's admittedly a very fun little concept, and Nakayoshi has clearly been able to keep it engaging & interesting to Shonen Gangan readers in Japan, as it's currently at 11 volumes & doesn't seem to be anywhere close to ending quite yet. Like some other modern Shonen Gangan titles, there is currently no physical release for The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World in English, but Square-Enix is offering it digitally via Manga Up! as of 2023. Meanwhile, a TV anime adaptation came out in early 2025 that was simulcasted (& even dubbed) in English by Crunchyroll, but as of this piece has yet to receive a physical release; in a neat touch, Nakayoshi has multiple voice cameos throughout as numerous extraneous characters.
Only three more titles left to cover, so let's start with the return of Karino Takatsu! After finishing My Monster Girl's Too Cool for You in 2020, & as she was nearing the end of Dustbox 2.5 over in Young Gangan, Takatsu made her return to Shonen Gangan in June 2021 with Owl Night. This marked a semi-return to the kind of manga that Takatsu originally made her name with via Working!!, as Owl Night was another workplace comedy, this time starring Eichi Usagi, a 20-year old college student in Hokkaido who one night stumbles upon a night club named Owl Night, one where both men & women work together. Through circumstances Eichi winds up also working at the club, and what follows is what is more or less expected from Karino Takatsu, i.e. a four-panel comedy series detailing the somewhat off-kilter coworkers that Eichi works alongside at Owl Night. As is expected with a series made up of four-panel strips, while Takatsu is nearing five whole years of serialization with Owl Night, its format means that currently it's only at six volumes in Japan, though Volume 7 is currently scheduled for release on June 11, 2026.
Really, what's most surprising about Owl Night is that, despite its relative recency, there's really not too much info about it online, outside of the usual listings for collected tankouban, Square-Enix's own webpage for it, & the like. It doesn't even have a Wikipedia page in Japanese, which is kind of shocking, so I unfortunately can't really go into much more detail about it, due to a lack of general information for me to rely on. However, it is still running in Shonen Gangan, & has been for the past five years (which is longer than some titles I've covered in this overview series), so it clearly deserved inclusion here. Also, unlike many of the current Shonen Gangan titles covered in this final part, Owl Night has no official English option whatsoever, not even via Manga Up!; hell, there isn't even a fan translation for it, to my knowledge. Also, in true fashion, Karino Takatsu isn't even doing Owl Night by itself currently, as in 2023 she also debuted Marry-go-round over in Young Gangan, which likewise is still running.
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Technically, if we go off of the name I gave this entire third "era" of Monthly Shonen Gangan, this penultimate entry should really be the final manga we go over... but where's the fun in that?! Anyway, much like with Koyoshi Nakayoshi earlier, there doesn't look to be much information out there regarding Chisaki Kanai, and it's entirely possible that they're yet another example of a mangaka who first got their start sharing their art on modern social networks like pixiv, before getting picked up by a publisher to do things the "traditional" way; one-shot contests are still done today, but they're clearly not the guaranteed start they once were. Regardless, Kanai made their debut in Shonen Gangan in August 2021 with My Dear, Curse-Casting Vampiress, which takes place in an alternate Japan that is under constant attack by vampires, with Isuzu Osaka being one of those who continue to fight back against the vampire horde. However, with humanity slowly losing the war, Isuzu decides to investigate the validity of the story of "Baroque the Vampire Slayer", an indescribably beautiful vampire who allegedly can drive others suicidally mad with her looks. Isuzu manages to find Baroque, who had been imprisoned & tortured for the past 20 years, and now the two work together in hopes of finally saving humanity from the vampires. Not just that, but Isuzu himself can only remember up to just a year prior, so eventually he also tries to figure out who he really is.
My Dear, Curse-Casting Vampiress is a mix between a vampire-themed action series, a dark romance series, & even a little dash of harem romance, as Isuzu winds up being the affectional focus of various other female vampires, though Isuzu himself doesn't look to be in any way your standard harem lead. In all honesty, compared to almost everything else covered in this final part, My Dear, Curse-Casting Vampiress seems to be almost unlike anything else, and that's probably what's allowed it continue running to this day, with Volume 9 coming out in Japan just this past April. Yen Press releases the manga physically in English, with Volume 8 currently set to come out this August, while Square-Enix offers it digitally via Manga Up! ever since 2023. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if this eventually gets an anime adaptation in the future.
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We end this entire overview series with the manga that, quite literally, can't be a part of the "Post-Arakawa Era" of Monthly Shonen Gangan for one simple reason: It's the Return of the Mack. That's right, after ending Silver Spoon in Weekly Shonen Sunday in late 2019, Hiromu Arakawa spent the next couple of years being a family woman, while also continuing to make both Hyakusho Kizoku - the farmer's days for Shishokan & The Heroic Legend of Arslan for Kodansha... but she clearly must have missed her original "home". Therefore, the January 2022 issue of Shonen Gangan saw the return of Arakawa with the debut of Yomi no Tsugai/Pairs from the Underworld, better known abroad as Daemons of the Shadow Realm, which starts Yuru & Asa, a pair of twins who upon birth were deemed to have been "Born Between the Day & Night" & will wield great power. Years later, once he's become a teenager, Yuru discovers that Asa had actually left their village long ago, that the girl he thought was Asa was actually a fake, and that the village he lives in has actually hidden itself away from the modern world... all right as a woman named Gabby attacks the village with her "Daemon", killing all who stand in her way. This results in Yuru realizing what his "great power" is, which is the ability to command a pair of Daemons of his own (the oni-like "Left" & "Right"), and after escaping the village Yuru now works alongside his real sister & the Kagemori Clan to save the world from destruction. This also means that Yuru fights alongside Gabby, as the village that Yuru grew up in wasn't actually as innocent as it looked.
While there are certainly thematic similarities between Daemons of the Shadow Realm & Fullmetal Alchemist (with Gabby looking like a feminized Edward Elric being a common joke by fans), I think it's fair to say that Arakawa has managed to keep the two unique enough from each other to not feel like a simple case of repeating what worked before & calling it a day. The opening of the series, with its M. Night Shyamalan-esque twist regarding the village & unrepentant violence when Gabby makes her initial attack, has quickly become celebrated in its execution (though, naturally, over time the surprise of it will be harder to maintain for newcomers), and it's clear that Arakawa has made this series her primary focus. Despite only entering its fifth year of serialization recently Daemons of the Shadow Realm has already surpassed 12 volumes in Japan, with enough chapters serialized for a 13th, and shows no signs of stopping. FMA ran for nine years & totaled 27 volumes, so it's entirely possible that Arakawa (& Square-Enix) may be hoping to potentially surpass those stats for Daemons of the Shadow Realm. Since this debuted after the establishment of Square-Enix Manga & Books in North America, it's really no surprise that Square-Enix itself is handling the physical English release for Arakawa's newest manga, with Volume 10 having come out just this past April. As of this overview series there's also a TV anime adaptation currently airing right now that's being simulcasted (& dubbed) into English by Crunchyroll, one made by the same studio that made both FMA anime productions (Bones), and considering its pedigree I would have to imagine that it'll be guaranteed a physical release in English in the future.
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| The cover to the June 2026 issue, the newest issue as of this piece. |
And, with that, we've FINALLY made it to the end of this six-part overview of Monthly Shonen Gangan's history by way of (most of) its most notable serializations... so far. No, I will not be returning to this like I did with The Ages of Jump (I value my own sanity), but it's definitely been really fun & interesting to see the history of Shonen Gangan while writing about these series, and I certainly hope you've found it, at the very least, neat. There's no doubt that I'm now curious about a good handful of Shonen Gangan manga after researching them for this overview series, both stuff that's been given official English releases & stuff that has no translation whatsoever (& likely never will), and ideally the goal was to maybe get some of you curious about some titles you never knew about either. Maybe now we can start asking Square-Enix Manga & Books to bring over more of its manga history, since now there's a resource that showcases what (most of) the most notable works are. As for the story of Shonen Gangan itself, it's so far been an interesting one, without a doubt... and who knows what the future holds for it moving forward.
Regardless, one can only hope that it'll continue to "show no mercy" for another 35 years.
