As I write my third review of a cancelled Jump manga I wonder if theres any point in rewriting Jumps harsh cancellation protocols for the fourth time in my reviews. Its a theme that comes up often because I end up reading a lot of cancelled manga and I enjoy reviewing them sometimes more than I enjoy reading them. Because even though I genuinely feel sad for the mangaka themselves rarely do cancelations affect me. The one that affected me the most was probably Hungry Joker by Yuuki Tabata mangaka that some of you may know of all the way back in 2012 when I wasnt that familiar with Jumps system. And for 8 years I was angry that Hungry Joker had been cancelled but no more. I finally found something else being angry that Agravity Boys got cancelled. 600https://i.ur.com/uK7mmAp.png Agravity Boys started in the second week of December of 2019 and lasted all the way back till today 4th of January 2021 if youre reading this in the future. If you are was 2021 better? I hope it was More than a full year in Jump reaching a round 50 chapters is not a bad run at all for an axed manga. Most of them last between 15 and 30 chapters. But to say that it lasted that long because the company kept giving it opportunities and it failed would be wrong. Agravity Boys lasted this long because Jump lost a lot of mainstay titles throughout last year. If were counting and I am they lost 7 established manga in 2020 thats fucking insane. So rookies had it easier this year and that reflects in runs like Agravity Boys and Moriking that lasted longer than they would in any other year. The reason Agravity Boys got axed was a lack of growth within the magazine and I put a lot of that blame on Jump itself as it never showed any interest to promote this manga in any way shape or form. A lot of times it felt like Agravity Boys didnt even exist. Being absent of volume publicity and relegated to the back of the magazine with only two color pages throughout its 50 chapter run. The fans that it gained on its first couple of chapters are probably the same fans that it had on its last. If you dont talk about it its normal that people dont find out about it. But if you clicked on this review for the review and to know what Agravity Boys is Im sorry about the tangent. Agravity Boys is the story about four male teen or boy astronauts that are sent to the planet of Alpha Jumbro to study it and know if its viable to live but very early in their trip Earth is sucked by a black hole and everyone they love dies. Its up to them to survive in this brand new world as the last four humans alive. Yup as you thought it is a pretty funny gag manga. No for real its a gag manga. The story doesnt really revolve around them struggling to survive or deal with existential crisis by virtue of being alone and more so in four best friends hanging around in a new place. The main plot isnt too relevant and the manga never pretends to care too much about it. Agravity Boys is more the Me The Boys or the Boys Locker Room memes in manga form. This is shown from chapter one where they meet the Higher Being that gives them a device that can turn one of them into a girl. And the rest of the chapter is them arguing about which of them should turn into a girl. Chris looks like one already but what if the chest size is relative to the penis size? Maybe Baba should do it. From there on out the story is very episodic in nature with our characters finding themselves in stupid situations as they meet more characters and the universe of AB expands. From finding a toilet to take a dumb to venture into galactic streaming to play a game of Bass ball dont confuse that with Baseball completely different stuff to make a fan QA to thank for the color page each chapter strays further from the starting plot and I would say thats a negative if I thought that was the strong point of Agravity Boys but its not at all. Rather you should read Agravity Boys because of its great comedy and fun characters. The episodic nature and the occasional extremely bonkers oneoffs are the charm of this series. That and of course the characters. The cast of Agravity Boys grows throughout the series with a couple of other recurring characters but it starts with only the four titular Agravity Boys and its clear that this story is about them so if this manga is going to focus on the interactions between them first and foremost its very important that they are good characters. And they are. 400https://i.ur.com/0L2dzqp.png Chris Erwitt is our american hero and he is mostly the joke of the first couple of chapters as he looks very much like a beautiful girl. And while that joke reappears pretty often as every character male and female is fooled by Chris charming looks he also serves as the straight man of the group. Seen more often than not questioning everything that is happening he is the audience expected reaction to whatever the others are doing. Gerald Zeman is the German genius among genius using all his genius almost exclusively to preverted and stupid theories. Hes probably the most crazy character in this crazy manga and easily my favourite smart man character in any manga back off Light Babazulagi Kiplagat is the giant south african who comes off as the calm and collected big guy but is actually probably the most perverted kid of the group. Bad Boy Baba is also the person in the series with the biggest dick energy. And finally Saga Tachikaze the Japanese character is clearly created to be the main character the glue of the team. While not as crazy as Baba and Gerald Saga nonetheless goes with their antics pretty easily. More than the characters individually Nakamura brings a genuine sense of comradery between the four. With the way they talk interact and support each other there was never once any doubt in me that these guys were best friends for a long time and deeply cared for each other. They reminded me a lot of me and my friends throughout the years the stupid converstations and situations we found ourselves in even the straight man failing to keep control of the chaos. Thats this manga in a nutshell friends being friends and that results in an incredibly enjoyable manga. Thats why the plot doesnt matter much. This mangas most important thing is that feeling of friends hanging out. 300https://i.ur.com/R7kTMvI.png While I dont think every chapter of this manga is a 10/10 it honestly is so weird and out there at times that some people may not find it funny I personally didnt enjoy much the brocoli chapter for example I want to give a special shout out to its final arc. In retrospective the arc was probably a Fuck you Ill do what I want from an author with nothing to lose. It was not the first time I felt Agravity Boys was trolling with the editors and naysayers. Agravity Boys teased some changes of style throughout the series a chapter in specific teased a turn to a more serious plotfocused storyline just for the rug to be removed from under our shoes at the last moment revealing that Nakamurasensei was going to remain true to its comedy roots and if that lead to its cancelation so be it It works because this is a very tongue in cheek and selfaware manga with its fair share of 4th wall breaking. But in the last arc with nothing to lose we just enter the realm of insanity with the Penis World Arc. Yes Penis World Arc. I wont reveal anything more than that because everything in the last three chapters is just pure gold and reason enough to read the manga. It never resolves the plot by the way in case youre wondering but its honestly one of the coolest sendoffs to a canceled manga Ive seen. If Im allowed to talk briefly about something else before we wrap this up I just want to say that even though you probably wont realize it at first Agravity Boys contains better art than it has any right to have. I dont think the manga itself is the best to show the full capabilities of Nakamura but its in the super detailed faces that you can see his talent shine through the cracks. Cant wait to see what he works on next hopefully something thatll show his full range. https://i.ur.com/SYwODsA.png And well so why? Right? Why did it get cancelled? Thats the question. I answered it in a factual way already lack of fanbase growth and I personally think the lack of publicity was the main block it had to face but if we look at the contents well gag manga was rarely the most successful in the magazine but it can thrive. I think Agravity Boys however had the problem of facing a lot of other gag manga. More importantly to me MaguChan whos wholesome comedy somehow is even better than Agravity Boys and Me Roboco which even if I dont think its overall better it certainly excels at its 4th wall breaking jokes. Meanwhile Agravity Boys does them both its good at both but better at neither. It still has its own charm to it and I think it pulls off the absurd humor better than Moriking but that one isnt surviving much longer either so it might be an irrelevant comparison. All in all I spent the entirety of Agravity Boys run recommending it to people it was a ray of light in my 2020 something that made me smile and reminded me of my times with friends in a time where I couldnt hang with them. It was what I needed last year and Im happy it lasted for its entire duration. Being a fan of the series was hard at times because it was clear that it could be cancelled at any time and when it was while sad I cant say I was surprised. But now that is an axed manga would I still recommend checking it out? Yes absolutely Being mostly an episodic manga the ending doesnt feel necessarily rushed and in actuality is the best part of the entire thing. And with 7 volumes worth of content theres definitely enough to enjoy as is. https://pbs.tw.com/media/EQWMj7CXkAUhVV0.jpg To quote a great man: Read Agravity Boys. Master Crash like 300 times in 2020