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Lately, Mashima has been giving us a lot of double chapters. He will
reportedly have double chapters for four consecutive weeks (starting week of
April 22, 2015 with chapter 429). At first, I thought it was related to Golden
Week, but that does not last four weeks. Does anyone know why we are getting
four double chapters?


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2015-05-11T12:42:35.797
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2015-05-11T17:31:04.280
2015-05-11T17:31:04.280
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question
fairy-tail manga-production
Why will Fairy Tail have 4 consecutive weeks of double chapters?


I think this is mainly a marketing tactic, meant to attract more readers to
buy copies of the Weekly Shonen Magazine1. When the magazine's copies hit the
bookstore, a front cover caption **Fairy Tail! Double Chapter inside!! ... and
next 3 weeks too!!!** (or something on those lines) will draw the buyer's
attention, and would likely lead to an increase in sales.

Regular readers would buy the magazine no matter what, but the tactic is
mainly aimed at two categories of prospective buyers:

  1. New buyers, that is, people who have never bought (or perhaps, even heard of) the magazine before.
  2. Buyers who are unsure if they should buy the magazine.

People are made to believe that they are getting something "extra", which
often leads to making a buy decision. This, by the way, is not much different
from the "Buy One, Get One Free" offers. It is also quite common for popular
TV shows to have "2-hour specials" every once in a while, which is also based
on the same "principle" (if you will).

Moreover, announcing 4 consecutive editions with double chapters increases
likelihood of repeat business. People look forward to buying the next 3 issues
as well. Buying 4 consecutive issues will lead to at least a sizeable number
of readers "latch on" to the magazine, who would naturally choose to continue
buying later issues as well.

As for why Fairy Tail gets double chapters so often (as against other mangas),
I think it mostly comes down to **"because he is** ~~Erza~~ **Mashima!!"** To
elaborate, Mashima (and his assistants?) are able to spend more time and/or
effort on their manga and can submit two chapters in a week, whereas most
other mangakas may not be able to do so due to personal commitments or other
reasons. As an aside, he published _triple_ chapters of Fairy Tail for two
consecutive weeks a year or so ago. (Chapters 338-340 and 341-343, IIRC)

* * *

1 Weekly Shonen Magazine is different from Weekly Shonen Jump.


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2015-05-11T17:02:27.707
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2015-05-11T17:16:41.650
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answer