What are some "guaranteed sells" in manga?

>>146368295
I don't think you've read very many manga if you think those are guaranteed to make things popular.

>>146368367
Maybe the latter one was a bit of a reach I know. But can you think of any examples of the other three that aren't?

Everyone digs giant robots.

>>146368295

depends on the demographics

1) for shounen, you obviously need a boy main character, and he can't be too old

2) he either needs to be born with special snowflake powers.. or inherit it

3) He is thrust into a world, or society he doesn't understand because of that

4) He needs a set goal in mind. Something that invokes an emotional response. If the main character's goal is to sit on his ass and play games all day, he probably won't be popular with Shounen demographics

5) He needs a good rival. A good rival is 100 times more important than a love interest

6) You need to be able to actually understand the art.

Shounen audience are young and still growing up. They need an idealistic main character. They must have some ambition. As Death Note shown, however, The main character don't need to have a perfect moral compass.

Light Novels audience are otaku who, to be honest, are often already broken people. They're more cynical. More easily hurt emotionally. So the main character of a LN reflects that. They have special powers to cheat in a world that is perceived to be unfair to them. And they often play the victim card.

>>146368456
I don't like mecha in manga.

Nothing ensures a manga will be popular.

I'd rather read about a square and a triangle in colors never been seen or done before by man.

Romance subplot that goes fucking nowhere, yet lasts the entire series.

>>146368295
This may be surprising but today bad writing is the most successful seller.

>>146368433
>Time-travel
https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?category=Time+Travel
Probably like 90% of these.
>Moral ambiguity
Arigatou, but also like eight million other things.
>original spin on a historical premise or relatable idea (alchemy, dreams, exorcism)
That's pretty vague, but there was some mediocre josei called Omumedai that dealt with two clans fighting to collect dreams, and no one cared about that. And there was that awful WSJ battle shounen years ago about combat-mining or whatever that got canceled like two volumes in, etc.

Seriously, if you think there's any simple element that will guarantee a manga's popularity, you're probably a newfag who's completely unaware of how many fucking manga there are.

>>146368906
Wow, thanks anon. I'd never had anyone breakdown the difference between Shonen and LN like that before.

>>146368650
Er, I think you misunderstand. I'm sure those are staples but not necessarily what I'm looking for. On top of that, those can be defied... Claymore comes to mind as one that doesn't really fit any of those if I recall.

panty shots.

>>146369094
Cool thanks anon. And I've looked at and dropped a fair share of manga over the years. I don't jive with /a/ much. However, a few weeks ago there was a thread about time-travel being so popular lately, and a few people commented that OP had discovered the number one sure sell for any manga.

>>146369145

Claire was certainly a special snowflake
Her motivation was revenge

Incidentally I think it also failed because Priscilla was a shit villain

Sports manga has to have a protagonist extremely skilled in one area for some completely unrelated and nonsensical reason who will best friends with a scrawny nerd who loves the sport, is far worse than the protagonist and will explain all the rules to the reader.

File: Qualia_Chapter_010_pg01.png (148KB, 800x1170px) Image search: [Google]

148KB, 800x1170px

>>146368295
>time-travel
>moral ambiguity
>original spin on a historical premise or relatable idea (alchemy, dreams, exorcism)
>a long journey towards something that seems unattainable

So Qualia the purple?

>>146370017
It's a novel adaptation though. It's popularity is a bit different