Obscurity, much?/Weekly Shonen Jump

The English print version of *Weekly Shonen Jump* boasted that they have "the world's most popular manga". This is always the case, right? At least for manga from the Japanese *Jump*, wrong. For every successful *Weekly Shonen Jump* manga out there, there are some manga in the magazine (or even anime adaptations of said manga) that fail to live up to these expectations and become obscure in the process.

A few restrictions for this page (and related subpages):

* Just because it was pulled from streaming (be it Amazon, Funimation, Hulu, Crunchyroll, Netflix, etc.) doesn't make a show an automatic candidate for this trope. There needs to be evidence that the series garnered low viewership during its time on the service.
* With the exception of legacy examples (documented before January 1st, 2023) and anime/manga that haven't been exported (in which they can be documented 3 months after their Japanese premieres), only ended/cancelled anime and manga can be documented.
	+ If an anime without much of an audience ends before the manga it's based on, the example should almost exclusively be about the anime until the manga itself comes to an end.
* Please note that this list is only for *Weekly Shonen Jump* manga with their own pages on Wikipedia. Anime adaptations, if any, will be counted on this list, as well as manga serialized in WSJ's spin-off magazines.

Akira Toriyama has his own page.

* *Magical Taluluto*. This includes the manga, the anime, and the anime films. Especially if you live outside Japan.
	+ None of the games are available outside Japan, either. That's another story entirely, though.
* Until 2014, *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*, *full stop* (the manga hasn't been released in its entirety, only few videogames were released, and in America, part 5 is only legally available in anime form). It took until Crunchyroll started streaming it to roll it onto the mainstream, albeit with name changes (something not seen since 4Kids was taken down), though due to rights issues rather than Americanization. The OVA is mentioned on the anime and manga page since this series has since jumped to *Ultra Jump*.
* If you're wondering why no one outside Japan or Europe heard of *Fist of the North Star* until the "omae wa mou, shindieru" meme, blame original licensor Manga Entertainment for them not dubbing beyond 36 episodes of the anime. This was the reason Discotek Media only released it in a subbed format. And that's not counting its various sequels (provided you lived outside Japan):
	+ The novel version of *New Fist of the North Star* outside Japan. ADV Films averted it with the anime in North America until they shuttered.
	+ None of the *Fist of the North Star: The Legends of the True Savior* films were released outside Japan, and are therefore obscure outside Japan.
	+ The *Fist of the Blue Sky* anime outside Japan (*both* of them).
	+ *Hokuto Gaiden*. Again, obscure outside Japan.
	+ *DD Fist of the North Star* *barely* averted this thanks to Crunchyroll. Keep in mind, this only applies to the TV Tokyo version. The 2011 series? Definitely obscure outside Japan.
	+ *Hokuto no Ken: Ichigo Aji*. Crunchyroll simulcast it, sure, but once the series ended, no one except the biggest *Fist of the North Star* fans was watching it in America.
* One of the first titles ran in *Jump* was *Harenchi Gakuen*. Because of the controversy in Japan (which involved the manga being considered too racy for a shounen at the time), it is obscure in America (and everywhere else outside Japan).
* *Dokonjō Gaeru*, aka *The Gutsy Frog*. One of the first, if not *the* first *Jump* manga to get an anime. Unfortunately, the only place it aired in the US was in California and it otherwise is obscure in America.
* *Play Ball*, thanks to being a sports anime, is obscure outside of Japan.
* *Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo*. What, is the title too long? Shorten it to *KochiKame*. Still don't know it? The anime has seen release in a few countries, but *not* in America.
* *Ring ni Kakero*. Put it all in distribution numbers, and it's still obscure outside Japan.
* The original *Kinnikuman*. *Ultimate Muscle* is less obscure than it, if only because of the 4Kids dub of *UM*.
* *Stop!! Hibari-kun!* (as well as any other romcoms that run in *Jump*), though this specific instance was because of the titular character being a boy who dresses like a girl, which would instantly make it unexportable to America at the time it was made. This has since changed, thanks to more anime being localized exclusively for teens and adults and Shoujo Jump. Additionally, due to the memes from both *Fate/Apocrypha* and *Blend S*, this may soon be subverted if Discotek picks it up.
* *Saint Seiya*. Make some popcorn, this will take a bit:
	+ Viz Media took a really long time to release the manga version, taking six years while the original Japanese printing only took four years.
	+ Even when Viz finished up the original, they didn't get to the others. Thus, *Saint Seiya: Next Dimension* and *Saint Seiya Episode.G* is this outside of Japan.
	+ Then we get to the anime. *Three* English dubs of the anime were produced, and the first two dubs only got 60 episodes dubbed, by DiC and later ADV (misplacing the former's dub in the process). *Saint Seiya: Hades* was never released outside Japan and thus is obscure everywhere else. It took until 2019 for Netflix to finally avert this by giving the original a new dub (one that may very well complete the dub for the first time in America). As for the others, they're available for streaming.
* *Rokudenashi Blues*. Similar to *Ring ni Kakero*, put it all in distribution numbers, and you'll know how obscure this manga is outside Japan.
* *Keiji*. All but the 2013 anime are obscure outside of Japan.
* *Jungle King Tar-chan* outside of Japan once again, *especially* since Tarzan was adapted by Disney.
* *Ninku*, once again, is obscure outside of Japan. Judging by this list, it's pretty obvious by now.
* The anime version of *Whistle!*. No need to explain how this happened.
* Parodied in *Bakuman*. While the manga and anime itself has a cult following, there are tons of fictional manga that manage to never become popular (or if they started out popular, they drop in popularity) and eventually get cancelled. These include:
	+ *Kiyoshi Knight*
	+ *Hideout Door*
	+ *Business Boy Kenichi*
	+ *Detective Trap*
	+ *Run, Daihatsu Tanto!*
	+ *Otters 11*
	+ *A Time of Green Leaves*
	+ *Rabuta & Peace*
	+ *Anything* by Toru Nanamine can count. Not helping was that Nakai managed to get the entire online group to pull out of Nanamine's manga, cancelling it. And that was only the beginning for Nanamine; the end came when *100 Million and the Beautiful Girl* only ranked fourth... then Nanamine got banned from *Jump* (*Weekly Shonen Jack* in the anime).
* *Jimoto ga Japan*. When it first got serialized, Viz ran some preview chapters in English. Nobody saw them, so cancellation ensued. *Then* the anime announcement. So far, Japan-only. Not even a simulcast came out. The anime itself also has a mention on TV Tokyo's own page.
* *Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo*: In North America, the show's been re-issued to the point where it's almost impossible to be an anime fan (especially one who grew up on Toonami in the 2000s) and forget about it (nevermind that one of the re-releases downplayed Dubless Series by having the dub yet lacking subtitles, something Discotek fixed when they got it). Despite this, aside from a dedicated fanbase in Spain, the anime's fairly obscure in the rest of the West.
* *Hikaru no Go* is about Go, a sport which is obscure outside of Asia, so the series would be obscure in the West too, right? Wrong; in fact, the anime and manga are one of the few pieces of media about Go to have *any* sort of cult following in the West.
	+ Played straight in the Anglosphere sans North America.
* *Shaman King*: The 2001 series went from being considered one of 4Kids' best dubs to being a cult hit *at best* in the West. The DVD volumes (which only contained an uncut dub) are out-of-print, the manga got a reboot anime, and the 2001 anime remained unlicensed until June 2021.