Shonen Jump Heisei 20, Issue 21
April 29th, 2008
I pick up a few Japanese manga magazines whenever I have the chance. I like to try to figure out the story using just the images and see what the future might bring to North America. So let’s take a spin around the April 21st Weekly Shonen Jump (with much help from the Weekly Jump Readers’ Journal)
Mx0 (Alt Title: M x Zero | Author: Yasuhiro Kano)
Romantic comedy series about a boy who attends a school that teaches magic. I picked this one because I had heard it was being cancelled. Nice looking characters, but depends a little heavily on screen tones. I’m amazed that it managed to squeeze three upskirt gags in the span of 16 pages and without a trace of panties.
Psyren (Author: Toshiaki Iwashiro)
Supernatural school girl action with lots of gross guts and stuff. Appears to be a modern setting although I swore I saw a sandworm at one point. The heroine’s glasses are strange. Do glasses like that really exist? Most likely it’s so the eyes aren’t obscured.
Boku no Watashi no Yusha Gaku (Roughly: “Our Hero Studies” | Author: Shuichi Aso)
A young man teaches “Hero Studies” at an exclusive school (must be a theme). I guess this is like a fantasy GTO? The art is strange, like maybe there were a lot of asisstants. I just like this nerdy looking guy. He seems like the type who gets pushed too far and becomes Henry Rollins. And the tops of his glasses are missing! The last one seemed like part of the design, in this one the line is just missing.
Samurai Usagi (Author: Teppei Fukushima)
Genre-bending period drama depicting a low-level Samurai during the Edo period. The protagonists are a married fifteen year-old couple. The art shifts back and forth to a chibi style throughout. It seems like the type of gimmick that could get old quickly, but it’s used effectively. Very polished looking.
