Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san Changes Magazines and Moves to Champion Cross

The manga Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san is leaving Monthly Shōnen Champion and moving to the Champion Cross website. The announcement came this October 7 through the series' official account, which confirmed that the move starts at the end of this same month with the Sano noodles arc.

The series had been running in Akita Shoten's monthly magazine since 2013 and has already accumulated 117 chapters. The account clarified that chapter 24 of the current print run will be the last before the jump to digital format. From there, the story continues on Champion Cross without interruptions.

For those who follow the collected volumes, there's good news: the change doesn't force anyone to buy anything again. The collected volumes will continue to be released under the same publishing label as always. The account itself summed it up with "you can keep enjoying it just as before."

A move marked by the author's recovery

The move comes after a difficult year for Narumi Naru, the creator of the series. In June, he revealed that he had been involved in an accident through no fault of his own and that he was focused on his treatment and rehabilitation. In September, he gave a more specific update: he assumed he would not recover his previous physical condition and that his goal was to adapt his way of working to the new situation.

With the announcement of the move, Narumi wanted to avoid misunderstandings. On his personal account, he explained that the move is not because his injury prevents him from continuing to draw, and that he has already recovered his daily life. "It's just that the way I work on drawing can no longer be the same as before and I need to find other approaches," he wrote. He also insisted that this is a change of location within Akita Shoten, not an editorial hiatus.

The series has enough drawn material to stay on schedule for a good while, so the publication pace should not be affected in the short term. A different matter is Norainu to Tenshi-chan, his other series in Monthly Young Magazine, which has been on pause for some time.

A manga that is already a ramen classic

Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san follows Koizumi, a quiet and mysterious student who is actually a voracious ramen devourer. Each chapter visits a different restaurant in Japan, with real facts about broths, noodles, and toppings. It's one of those series that leaves you hungry and with a list of restaurants saved on your phone.

The manga jumped from page to screen with an anime in 2018 and a live-action series in 2015. That made it one of the most recognizable food series of the last decade, on par with others like Isekai Izakaya Nobu or Kodoku no Gourmet, though with a more obsessive and fun edge.

The move to Champion Cross will take effect at the end of October, with no exact date yet. The Sano arc will serve as the starting point for this new digital era. Do you follow the series in English or do you read it directly from Japan? I'll read you in the comments.