User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 496: Forward, Review./@comment-27337151-20160803065130/@comment-1776824-20160805015810

"Bad" is subjective. Just because something is not popular doesn't make it bad. For instance, I liked it. Others didn't. Like I said, Shueisha can manipulate rankings to end series they no longer think are making them money. They think Bleach is a waste of time and money, so Shueisha terminated Bleach in time for it's 15th anniversary because that is when the rollover period is. Kubo is not at fault for any of this. He put out what he thought was good and then people didn't like it. If people didn't like his ideas, then okay. But he shouldn't change his whole story to revolve around what he thinks the fans will like (this sounds like a contradiction given what we say about Mashima, but it's really not). He should just write what he wants and if people don't like it, then that's too bad, and that's ultimately what Fairy Tail is right now, and look at how crazy popular that is.

To Shueisha, something doesn't have to be "good" or "bad". It just has to be non-profitable (in their eyes). And despite that fact that Bleach still manages to sell quite a bit of volumes in spite of an axed anime, and a poor reputation says a lot about its merit. In short, Shueisha are just assholes. Notorious ones. Welcome to the manga industry.