1. WITCHRIV runs on Shonen Jump+, not in the weekly Shonen Jump magazine
WITCHRIV is a web serial by Hakuri, published on Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ app and site. Chapter 1 went up on October 23, 2025, and as of summer 2026 it is still announced as updating every Thursday.
Not the weekly
Shonen Jump magazine
↓
Shonen Jump+
↓
Collected volumes come out under Jump Comics
Calling it a "Jump series" is fair, but saying it's "in Weekly Shonen Jump" gets the platform wrong.
2. The Ancient Magus' Bride isn't finished: the "Beast Slayer" arc is running now
The Ancient Magus' Bride switched publishers and platforms, and it's now serializing a new arc, the "Beast Slayer" arc, on the web manga site Comic Growl. Volume 24 came out on April 8, 2026, and volume 25 is scheduled for October 8, 2026.
The school arc in anime season 2 feels like a big stopping point, so it's easy to assume the whole story has ended. But the original manga has moved on to the next set of problems.
3. Chiikawa volume 8 is the latest collected volume, with the full "Siren" arc
Kodansha's volume 8 came out on November 21, 2025, and includes the complete "Siren" arc. The chapters first appear on the creator's X account, and the books are put together from those social media posts plus newly drawn extras and touch-ups.
So the order isn't as simple as "the book is the source and the anime follows behind."
Posted on X
Comes first
↓
Collected volumes
Long stories edited volume by volume
↓
TV anime and movie
Adapted separately, with their own picks and production schedules
4. The movie has reached the long story in the latest volume 8
Chiikawa the Movie: Secret of Mermaid Island opened on July 24, 2026. It adapts the mermaid island and Siren-related long story that volume 8 collects, so the movie got to the main long story of the newest volume very quickly.
That said, the TV anime hasn't worked through volumes 1 to 8 one by one without skipping anything. The short stories were picked and rearranged for broadcast, and the movie adapts the long story on its own.
5. Why the books seem slow
A social media serial can publish just a few pages at a time, straight to readers. A collected volume has extra steps:
- Deciding which chapters go in
- Drawing new pages and adding touch-ups
- Editing the page order and the reading experience
- Cover design, special editions, printing and distribution
- Coordinating with the anime and merchandise
That's why readers who follow the posts on social media think, "It's only volume 8?" The updates aren't really slow. It just takes a long time to rebuild a stream of posts into a published book.
6. Check serial status by splitting it into "platform," "latest chapter," "latest volume" and "adaptation"
Questions like "Is it still running?" or "Has the anime caught up?" get less confusing if you break them into four parts.
Where is it published?
How far does the latest chapter go?
Which volume is the latest book?
What did the adaptation choose to cover?
With web serials, social media serials, printed volumes, TV shorts and theatrical features all running side by side, no single word like "latest" can pin down where a series stands.
7. Wrap-up
- WITCHRIV is a series on Shonen Jump+
- The Ancient Magus' Bride is still going with the "Beast Slayer" arc
- Chiikawa volume 8 is the newest book and collects the Siren arc
- The movie reached that long story, but the TV version didn't go through every volume in order
- With social media series, the original posts, the books and the adaptations each move on their own clock
The feeling that something is "slow" or "caught up" comes from each format having a different production speed.
