Mar 28, 2023
Often when a manga is canceled (or “axed,” as it's put), there’s a sort of retrospective readers go through. Many look back through its early history, citing all the potential it had or where there were early signs of mistakes or missteps. Sometimes there’s even bemoaning, regretting the end it got by looking at all the enjoyment found early on. In most recent memory, there’s not a manga that fits this retroactive look better than Earthchild, a manga with a whirlwind of a story behind it. For such a unique case as this, I feel I can’t review it how I traditionally do; rather, ... I’m going to get into a bit of a story that is this tale to fully appreciate just what an odd series of events it is.
To take you back to the beginning, it all started in February 2022, when, suddenly appearing on the Shounen Jump app, Earthchild made itself known to the world. And, initially, reception was quite positive, and for good reason. Telling a sweet but sad simple story, the very first chapter featured quality art, some wonderful characters entangled in a adorable romance, and a tragic end that promised a future of hopeful but difficult times ahead. In all, it was immediately great, and excitement for where the series would keep going was high.
Unfortunately, the future did not quite live up to the excitement created. Not even a single chapter later everything that made the first chapter so phenomenal seemed to slowly but steadily begin fading away. The art remained quality enough, but the writing became…shaky to say the least and, very quickly, the story felt as though it didn’t know where it wanted to go. A goal or obstacle would be set, only to be subverted or entirely avoided within a matter of moments, then repeated the next time. To many, including myself, it was immensely disappointing after the promise the first chapter had shown.
Normally, this on its own wouldn’t be all to surprising for many series on Jump, unfortunately enough. Series often appeared and just as often would bomb, so early promise not living up was hardly anything new. And, as the weeks ticked on, Earthchild continued to unravel at its seams as it rapidly fell on popularity charts and found its plots speeding toward an obvious conclusion for the series that would make the manga a disappointing mess, but a fondly recalled one for its early success.
Instead, though, just as the end seemed inevitable, Earthchild simply…didn’t end. It just kept going on, most definitively disliking it, yet the manga kept trudging along anyway. And, oddly enough, after entirely slaughtering their plot for a conclusion that didn’t even end anything, this next period of the story hit a dramatic turn of quality; suddenly, so much of the original magic had returned alongside some actually decent writing.
It was certainly nowhere near the quality of the very first chapter, but to many, it seemed curious that the sudden quality rise occurred at all. Some even theorized that, perhaps unlike originally believed, Earthchild might actually not be prepared for the end, and that the prior events had only been the prequel to the actual story. At the time, it was really treated more as a jest than anything, yet the idea couldn’t escape the realm of possibility all the same…
Ultimately, the original conclusion proved inescapable; after middling along for several more confusing, oddly paced, and inconclusive chapters, the manga did eventually come to its final end. By the time it happened, most seemed as if they weren’t even able to really feel angered or sad…or anything about it anymore. By that point the manga had run for around seven months and people just couldn’t find it in themselves to care at all anymore.
In all, Earthchild has one of the most fascinating stories of any axed manga; from a spectacularly strong beginning to a quickly middling center to a seemingly defiant sudden resurgent that all the same ended quite in the same way it was leading to (some may even say worse). It’s altogether a hard story to judge; on one hand, objective critique can certainly be leveled at its writing, characters, or spectacularly strange pacing, but, at the same time, there is a wonder of how much could be said to be meddling and cancellation threats from above. No one can truly know for sure, but it was certainly a most interesting ride while it lasted.
[Grade - C]
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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