Perhaps one of my favorite short lived mangas, Zipman!! is the creation of Yusaku Shibata. Name not ringing any bells, well maybe you'll recognize MHA's creator, Kohei Horikoshi. Shibata is one of his former assistance. And I'm gonna be honest...I think Zipman is the better manga.

Now, I can't say that objectively. I mean, Zipaman is one of the many tombs in Shonen Jump's graveyard, but I loved Zipman to the point where the crunch can't be ignored or denied. Kaname is a much more relatable and enjoyable protagonist to Deku; Kaname is a super athletic high schooler, borderline superhuman. And his powers as Zipman is just cooler and more overtly explained than the powers ex machina One For All has going for Izuku. On top of that, Kaname & Koshiro are a much better duo than Izuku & Bakugou - Koshiro might be abrasive, but it never feels overly abusive and he doesn't go too far to become unlikeable.

I also think it's just an over all better superhero story. It feels like Zipman actually understands the genre, where as I feel MHA just uses it as window dressing. I like to think that if Zipman came out more around now, with MHA supposedly coming to an end, it'd have a much better chance. I'd hate to blame MHA since Zipman is more based on Tokusatsu heroes while MHA is more based on comic books, but I really think a big part of Zipman's downfall was because it could be easily compared to MHA and, I'll be honest, Zipman took more of its sweet time when compared to MHA.

But, oh well. Shonen Jump is a cruel mistress. Hopefully Shibata tries again with another tokusatsu-themed superhero manga. His suit designs were amazing, so I'm confident he can bounce back!