MILLION TAG award winner and creator of the popular Shonen Jump+ manga Beat & Motion, Naoki Fujita, announced on the last page of chapter 47 that the series will officially end with the release of chapter 48 on January 25, 2025.
The series began serialization on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ website and app in February 2023. An original anime adaptation (ONA) is in production and is licensed by Netflix, as well as releasing five volumes.
Considering that the series originally started being serialized on the service due to Natsuki Fujita winning the reality TV series MILLION TAG, it's great to see this manga take off like this. Especially when remembering that Shueisha only promised the winner a minimum release of one complete volume, which was only about four chapters when Beat & Motion started.
Beat & Motion is a manga about Natsuki Fujita's passion and success
With some of Shonen Jump and Shonen Jump+'s biggest hits coming to an end, Shueisha is in dire need of fresh faces. One of the biggest media channels recently used to find these new talents is the reality TV show called MILLION TAG. It is described as “An audition documentary series following the discovery of the next big comic artist”.
When the show originally aired, it featured six emerging artists facing off against each other to try to win 5 million Japanese yen, the chance to have their work serialized in Shonen Jump+, one episode Physically published books of that work and an anime adaptation from Netflix.
Natsuki Fujita, creator of Beat & Motion was the winner of the contest and used that success to create a work that is truly a “love letter” to creators struggling to stay motivated. while developing their natural talents and skills.
Beat & Motion is a beautifully illustrated debut manga series about Tatsuhiko, a young man passionate about art who wanted to become an animator as a child. After being bullied, he turned to music and formed a short-lived band.
After the band broke up, Tatsuhiko closed himself off and became skeptical of those around him. After loudly berating his friends for having dreams and being scolded by a certain drunk woman, Tatsuhiko suddenly feels inspired to make animation again. He was then contacted by an artist he had long admired and the two began pursuing their passions together.
While it's sad to see the series end, it had a great run and did everything it needed to in terms of storytelling. Plus, there's still an anime adaptation in the works, so chances are anime and manga fans will see a lot more of Beat & Motion in the future.
