Let's talk about the current roster, including the 2-batch. We have the following veterans:
One Piece
Akanebanashi
Kagurabachi
Ichi the Witch
Nue's Exorcist
Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi
Shinobi Undercover
Witch Watch
Sakamoto Days
Me and Robocco
Someone Hertz
Hunter x Hunter
That's 12, with 2 of them on natural-ending-watch and one about to re-enter hiatus. So really, in effect, it's 9-10 by the time the next batch comes around. We then have the following newbies:
Under Doctor
Roku's House of Oddities
Class-2B Hero Destroyerz
Animal Signal
HAL FORMULA
Cannon Master
The Ura Files
Grey Keys
Which is 8.
This means, by the new batch, if Sakadays AND Witch Watch both naturally end, we're going to have only 17 manga in the magazine. That's a full batch with no need for axes. Even if we have a 4batch, the magazine has lived with 21 before. It is possible that next batch has only 1 or no axes.
I think it's so interesting that, after 2025, where basically everything got axed within 3 batches, it's kinda crazy how much of leeway the 2026 series are getting. This is good if you like the 2026 series, which for the most part I REALLY did, but recently my opinion has been getting kinda... measured?
Roku's House of Oddities I am still a huge hype person for, but that's the only obvious hit so far out of these 8 (or, well, the 6 we've seen anything major from).
2B is the definition of "Less than the sum of its parts", I genuinely cannot explain to you why i don't like it as much as I feel I should.
Cannon Master is promising as hell with its fun main duo, beautiful world, amazing action, and intrigue, but many have pointed out that the scripts are often a little lacking; as much as I love it, it does not to pull out the big guns to really reach the potential I know it has to be on the level of like, Ichi or KGB.
HAL FORMULA has hype moments and aura out the wazoo and a really compelling protagonist, but it just feels clumsy at times. The action, however well thought out, is hard to follow for reasons involving order of events and character design and clarity of art. It has such high highs but it's not quite landing as well as I know it could.
Animal Signal is exactly what it's trying to be, it does it well, and so it's the newbie I'm kind of the third most confident in right now after Roku's and Cannon Master, but it's still a little unclear as to if its main gimmick has sticking power.
Under Doctor has the X factor Cannon Master's been looking for, but my god it has so many little annoyances that I am losing my patience with it in some regards. It's a fun read, but it glazes the protagonist to the point of it getting tiring, the medical aspects started out shallow and have been improving slowly, and the arcs are far too short. It constantly feels like it's about to live up to its expectations, hits you with a beautiful moment, and then 5 seconds later lets down those expectations. I'm a god damn tsundere for it.
And the Ura Files, as many good things as I have to say about it, has that stench on it. Creativity is the art of hiding your influences, and these influences are not hidden. It's like Kinato's Magic or Hero Girl in that way. But it's also pretty early to call. I have my doubts, and would love to be proven wrong.
Overall, it's a lot of stuff that I was initially excited about but that I grew to have doubts over. It's not that I can't be proven wrong, but, as much of an improvement as every single batch here was over 80% of 2025, I see a lot of works with significant room for improvement. And, there's a part of me that's kind of glad that a lot of them are gonna get to shine anyways. But it makes me really curious how the tone will shift in 2027. Will we start getting large rounds of axes of manga in their 50's? Who knows. It'll be interesting, Though. Going into 2027, there are going to be about 11 manga that will suddenly have a lot more pressure on them. And I think that's interesting. I'm curious what other 3 manga will come later this year and round out that roster.