Manga Review: Shonen Jump (2020)
It’s the eighth anniversary of this blog, and time once again to look at the online version of Weekly Shounen Jump! There haven’t been any major changes to the format since last year. One Piece is still the longest-running feature, and is closing in on 1000 chapters! There was a shock ending when the author of Act-age was fired for assaulting women and the series was canceled mid-arc; a particular blow to the artist as she was not involved but still was out of a job. Let’s take a look at what’s new this year!
“Me & Roboco” by Shuhei Miyazaki (who did the Jump character drawing above) is about an elementary school boy and his robot maid. The central gag is that Roboco is nothing like the cute, demure and obedient robot maids common to their near future society. There’s a lot of referential humor, including the central cast looking a lot like that of Doraemon but with their character types twisted. (The “bully” character is actually a swell guy.) I like it, but I know the humor style is a miss for many people.
“Ghost Reaper Girl” by Akissa Saike (Rosario + Vampire) is about an aspiring actress who discovers that she has a talent for merging with spirits, including a scythe and a catboy, and is trying to make a living reaping evil supernatural beings. It’s okay. The most notable thing about this one is that it reads left to right like an American comic book.
“Phantom Seer” Art by Togo Goto, Story by Kento Matsuura, has a young man who can summon a shadow demon team up with a young woman who attracts monsters to hunt monsters. Nice art, but the male lead comes across as kind of whiny. (Yes, yes, he’s got good reason.)
“Our Blood Oath” by Kazu Kakazu is about blood brothers (one of whom is a vampire) dealing with vampires who want to kill or enslave humans. In this setting, most vampires are relatively harmless, but humans don’t make a distinction between them and the evil ones, so persecute those they find. Which then makes the powerful ones go evil. This one took a while to establish a direction.
“Moriking” by Tomohiro Hasegawa is another comedy manga. Grade-schooler Shouta’s beetle turns into a humanoid being, the titular Moriking, who must participate in a battle to become the ruler of all insects. As the series continues, we meet other humanoid insects, most of whom become Moriking’s allies after they are defeated. My favorite character is Shouta’s teenage sister Shouko, who is the only one who realizes just how ludicrous all of this is and is going to have a heart attack before she’s seventeen. Content note: Insects generally do not understand human clothing conventions so there’s a fair amount of nudity.
“Magu-Chan: God of Destruction” by Kei Kamiki takes place in a small seaside village. Magu used to be a powerful eldritch abomination, but was sealed away for generations. As a result, Magu’s shrunk both physically and magically, and a junior high girl adopts it as her pet. Other elder gods and wacky characters have appeared; despite the supernatural aspects, it’s mostly slice of life comedy. One of the better new manga.
“High-School Family: Kokosei Kazoku” by Ryo Nakama is a silly series where a boy is excited to start high school until he learns that his father will also be going to the same high school as he never got beyond middle school. And his mother will be attending for the same reason. And his eight year old sister who’s a genius is being promoted to high school. And somehow family cat Gomez is also in his same class. The art is only adequate, and the humor is understated; this really feels like it should have been a daily comic strip instead, but does have its moments.
“Hard-Boiled Cop and Dolphin” by Ryuhei Tamura has cowboy cop Samejima )”Shark” transferred to a southern island and partnered with a humanoid dolphin police officer named Orpheus. What seems like a punishment assignment turns out to be the adventure of a lifetime, as Orpheus’ ward Chako has special powers that attract the ocean’s worst criminals to the island. There’s some skeevy treatment of the female police officer as a sex symbol, but overall it’s a fun series.
“Build King” by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro (Toriko) is a comedy battle manga set in a world where everything revolves around building construction, and our protagonists are apprentice carpenters. The art is even cartoonier than the creator’s previous series; I’m not a fan. Content note: body function humor, the first female character is introduced with a pantyshot.
“Ayakashi Triangle” by Kentaro Yabuki (artist for “To Love Ru”) has Matsuri, a male exorcist ninja, trapped in a female body by the Ayakashi King. Matsuri’s female childhood friend Suzu (who has special spiritual abilities herself) is not necessarily kept from falling in love with him by this. As you might have guessed from the creator, this series is fanservice heavy. But the art is good, and there are some interesting characters here. Plus nowadays you can hint at bisexuality. Consider it if you liked Ranma 1/2.
“Undead Unluck” by Yoshifumi Tozuka is one of the surprise hits of the year. Fuuko, who brings bad luck to anyone she touches, meets Andy, who can’t die. They are soon pursued by other superpowered people who want to protect humanity from them, or so they say. The series starts out looking like “modern day but with secret superpowers” but then starts getting a whole lot weirder. Good cartoony art, fun characters. Content note: nudity, Andy starts out with a severe lack of understanding of consent which makes the early chapters cringy.
“Mashle: Magic & Muscles” by Hajime Komoto takes place in a world where everyone has magic except our hero Mash, who has developed his physical abilities to ludicrous levels to compensate. Then he’s sent off to magic school! It’s sort of a cross between Black Clover and One Punch Man with a coating of Harry Potter. It’s surprisingly good once enough other characters are introduced to complement Mash’s rather flat personality.
“Sakamoto Days” by Yuto Suzuki is action-comedy. Former hitman Sakamoto may have retired to get married, have a child, and become a convenience store manager, and gained a little weight, but he still lives in a violent world. Shin, a clairvoyant assassin, attempted to kill him in the first chapter, but has now chosen to work for Sakamoto at the store. It’s the newest series as of this writing, but seems amusing so far.
“Kaiju No. 8” by Naoya Matsumoto takes place in a world where giant monster attacks are so common that a special military branch is dedicated to fighting them. Kafka initially failed to pass the entrance exam, but after years working cleanup detail after kaiju attacks, he’s something of an expert on their anatomy. Plus, Kafka’s recently developed a metamorphosis which allows him to become a kaiju himself! Maybe now he can finally stand beside his childhood friend! (Or be killed by her as a menace, same odds.) Looking good with neat monster designs.
Oh, and the biggest series to end this year was Haikyuu!! which leaves Shonen Jump without a dedicated sports series for the first time in maybe ever.
Let’s look forward to another year of manga goodness!
