Review: DEMON SLAYER

 The 2010s was a sterling decade for Weekly Shonen Jump as far as content was concerned, with a steady and fairly diverse selection of big hits.  I could have chosen any number of recent series for this spot, but it just felt right to pick the one that became the biggest sensation during the pandemic, as well as the one with a movie that's making records for anime movies in the US as I write this.

DEMON SLAYER (Kimetsu no Yaiba), by Koyoharu Gotouge.  First published in 2016 and first published in North America in 2018.

PLOT:

Tanjiro was just hoping to sell some charcoal to help support his mother and many siblings.  When he returns home, he discovers that his family has been slaughtered by demons.  The only survivor is his sister Nezuko, but she has transformed into a demon herself.  Tanjiro is determined to save her, but his only hope of doing so is to become a demon slayer himself through long, arduous, and dangerous training.

Review: BOBOBO-BO BO-BOBO

The 2000s produced a lot of Weekly Shonen Jump's bigger (and longer) hits, but for every hit there were duds like this.

BOBO-BO BO-BOBOBO, by Yoshio Sawai.  First published in 2001 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

Six insidious Cyber Knights threaten to destroy all the practitioners of the mystical Fist of the Nose Hair technique.  Only one remains: Bobo-bo Bo-Bobobo.  Together with his extremely strange allies and Beauty on the sidelines, they will fight for their freedom in the biggest, silliest fights ever.

Review: YU-GI-OH!

People forget this particular series started out as a Weekly Shonen Jump series, but is it worth remembering over 30 years later?

YU-GI-OH! (Yu-Gi-O!), by Kazuki Takahashi.  First published in 1996 and first published in North America in 2003.

PLOT: 

Yugi Motoh is a happy-go-lucky teen with a fondness for puzzles and a tendency for him and his friends to get into trouble.  Luckily, he has a secret weapon.  Yugi's grandfather gave him an ancient puzzle, which turns out to have dark and ancient spirit within it.  Whenever he needs help, this spirit can possess Yugi and allow him to enact revenge against his oppressors with games of his own where the stakes can be deadly.

STORY:

Before there was a card game, an anime, or even jokes about card games on motorcycles, there was just a quaint little shonen manga about puzzles.  It's hard to imagine such a series inspiring such a long-lasting franchise.  Yet there's a certain quirky je ne sais quoi to this series that might explain how it got popular in the first place.

On the surface, Yu-Gi-Oh! seems almost embarrassingly earnest.  Yugi is so sincere, so gentle, and so hapless that it almost feels like parody.  The same could be said for Yugi's friends.  Anzu is your typical Token Shonen Manga Girl: kind, motherly, mildly prudish, and the object of awkward, immersion-breaking fanservice.  Jounoichi and Honda are your standard enemies-turned-allies, whose rowdier, hornier natures serve to kickstart most of the plots in this volume.  There's a lot of discussion about The Power of Friendship.  So what makes this any different from anything else running in Weekly Shonen Jump at the time?

You could point to the focus games of chance and you'd be partially right.  It's kind of a dorky focus, but it's a relatively novel one and one that allows for a lot of variety.  Just in this volume alone you have a knife games, dice games, silence games, motion games, all of them more ludicrous than the last.  If you ask me, though, where Yu-Gi-Oh! shines the most is whenever Yugi's spirit-possessed self comes out.  There are no Shadow Realms to be found here - this version of Yugi has a competitive, even sadistic edge, and has no problem punishing those who would bully or exploit him and his friends with madness and even death.  It's a concept that speaks to any child that was ever bullied and the edginess that Takahashi brings to it makes it all the more appealing to its target teen audience.  It feels like Takahashi's personality as a mangaka truly shines in these moments.  These moments got me through the dopier parts and they're the ones that stuck with me after I put the volume down.

ART:

Takahashi's character designs are fairly typical of their time.  There's a lot of goofy hair styles and some rubbery faces, but they lack the sharper edges of this series' post-card game overhaul.  There is something kind of comical about how different Yugi and his grandpa look in comparison to the rest of the cast.  They're at least half the height of everyone else, with big round eyes, barely any nose, and strange, almost sculpture-like hair.  Yet I would be lying if I said that the design for Yugi's possessed self wasn't gloriously edgy.  It's not just that his clothes take a turn for the goth, it's that his very expression takes on a manic, wicked edge.  Even the inking becomes darker whenever he's around.  Those moments sell the transformation and liven up what is otherwise a pretty average-looking manga.

PRESENTATION:

It should be noted that much like Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, this series ran as one long, continuous one in Japan but was split by Viz for the sake of marketing to those familiar only with the anime.  They also made a curious choice when it came to localizing the name.  While they do stick with the original Japanese names, they include some awkward footnotes on the side noting what their dub names are.  I'm sure they switch things over once the focus shifts exclusively to the card game, although without having read it myself I can't say with certainty.

RATING:

Yu-Gi-Oh! can be kind of basic and looks kind of weird to modern eyes, but when it lets itself get weird and dark it's kind of amazing.  It's kind of a shame that it got famous for something else and became a completely different series because I kind of love this version. 

This series is published by Viz.  This series is complete in Japan with 38 volumes available.  All 38 were published and are currently in print.

Review: DR. SLUMP

 Once again we're looking at a month of Weekly Shonen Jump titles, starting with one of the oldest titles from the magazine to ever see print here from one of its best-known creators.

DR. SLUMP (Dokuta Suranpu), by Akira Toriyama.  First published in 1980 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

Dr. Senbei Norikami has finally put the finishing touches on his greatest creation: Arale, a super-strong android girl.  He tries to pass her off as just an ordinary girl, but thanks to her strength, her curiosity, her willingness to make new friends, and some of Senbei's other inventions, her life is anything but normal.

Review: THE PROMISED NEVERLAND

Despite choosing to focus on Weekly Shonen Jump manga this month, I actually don't read a lot of the long-running series that run in it.  It's not something I actively avoid, it's just that many of them don't appeal to me.  Thus, you can imagine my surprise when one of the magazine's biggest hits currently managed not only to capture my interest with its original look and premise, but retain it.

THE PROMISED NEVERLAND (Yakusoku no Neverland), written by Kaiu Shirai & art by Posuka Demizu.  First published in 2016 and first published in North America in 2017.

PLOT:

Emma loves her home, Grace Field House.  She loves all the other orphans who live there with her.  She loves her "Mom" Isabella, who cares for all the children with tender sweetness.  Aside from the daily academic tests, things couldn't be more lovely for her.  Then Emma and her friend Norman discover the bloody truth behind their idyllic world, and their world view is shattered.  At that point, they resolve to save all the children of Grace Field House while avoiding the ever-watchful eyes of Isabella, a feat far harder than they could possibly have realized.

Review: BOMBER GIRL

Of course, not every series that runs in Jump can be a success.  Sometimes series fail, and fail quickly.  This is one of the few examples of such to see print in English.

BOMBER GIRL (Bonba Garu), by Makoto Niwano.  First published in 1994 and first published in North America in 2003.

PLOT:

In a future Tokyo overrun with crime, bounty hunters compete to bring down the worst criminals with the biggest bounties.  The most notorious of them all is Rashomon Emi, a 19-year-old bombshell known for her custom tonfa sticks and her vicious, no-hold-barred attacks.  Time and time again she and her hapless neighbor/fellow bounty hunter Guy find themselves facing down the outrageous agents of Megalith, a band of terrorists determined to take over Tokyo and remold it in their own image.

Review: KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD

Of course, Weekly Shonen Jump has always had more than gag series and straightforward adventures.  It's been home to more than a few romance stories over the years.  It's just debatable how well they have aged (or even if they were any good to begin with).

KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD (Kimagure Orenji Rodo), by Izumi Matsumoto.  First published in 1984 and first published in North America in 2014.

PLOT:

Kyosuke was just wandering around the park in his new hometown when he met with Madoka.  He was instantly smitten with her, but has a hard time believing that the same sweet girl he met in the park could be a standoffish deliquent at school.  That doesn't stop him from crushing hard on her, something that only becomes more complicated when he ends up stumbling into a relationship with Madoka's spunky best friend Hikaru.  Can Kyosuke sort out his relationship problems and keep his family's psychic powers a secret?

Review: GIN TAMA

If there's one Japanese manga magazine that's made more of an impression on American readers, it's Weekly Shonen Jump.  For decades they've been pumping out hit manga, and it's time to take a look at some of those stories here at the Manga Test Drive.  

That being said, not every Jump title released here is a hit on the level of Dragon Ball Z.  Sometimes they never rise above 'cult classic,' and sometimes it's obvious why that happened.

GIN TAMA, by Hideaki Sorachi.  First published in 2003 and first published in North America in 2007.

PLOT:

In an alternate world where Meiji-era Japan has modern technology and aliens landed instead of Matthew Perry, Shinpachi is simply trying to get by.  He's an ex-samurai with a failing family dojo who spends most of his days getting pushed around by others.  Then a white-haired samurai named Gin charges into his restaurant, picks a fight, and drags Shinpachi along with him.  Together with an alien girl with a penchant for violence, the three of them are ready to take on anyone and anything, be they permed Yakuza thugs, alien moneylenders, a rampaging octopus monster, or figures from Gin's past.