Category Archives: Written Word

All written posts

U19

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U19

A manga about youths under the age of 19 who awaken in special “libido” powers that they use to fight against the Grown-Up Party that ruthlessly oppresses youths in Japan.

This manga has some good qualities, such as the main character Eiji Kudo who goes against male gender stereotypes with his hobby of sewing. Unfortunately the pacing at the beginning really killed this series. They spend the entire 1st chapter building the oppressive environment and Eiji doesn’t even activate his powers until the end of chapter 2. When you’re fighting for popularity in Weekly Shonen Jump against the likes of One Piece and Black Clover, waiting to reveal flashy special powers in your manga seems ill advised.

U19 could have survived a little longer than it’s 17 chapter life span with some revised pacing. The truly sad part is that Yuji Kimura seems to have quit being a manga artist as they haven’t done anything since this ended.

~dakazu

Demon Prince Poro’s Diaries

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Demon Prince Poro’s Diaries

A manga about the powerful Demon Prince Poro Kurokami who wants to live a quiet life in the human world.

This series was quickly canceled in Weekly Shonen Jump. Hitsuji Gondaira‘s art is pretty good but the story about a demon who ends up using their monstrous powers while hiding their identify just doesn’t really go anywhere interesting. Luckily Gondaira’s current series Mission: Yozakura Family has picked up in popularity after the vacuum left after The Promised Neverland and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba ended.

~dakazu

Hungry Marie

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Hungry Marie

A manga about High Schooler Taiga Bijogi who ends up becoming a vessel for Marie-Thérèse Charlotte after participating in a resurrection ceremony for the girl next door he’s in love with.

We’ve discussed this in a previous episode.

Here’s another example of a manga artist struggling with their past success. Ryuhei Tamura previous work, Beelzebub, was fairly popular and even had an anime adaptation. In comparison Hungry Marie suffers from some awkward body swap clichés that are pretty outdated by modern standards. It was canceled after 32 chapters.

Currently Tamura is drawing a new series for Weekly Shonen Jump called Hardboiled Cop and Dolphin and it’s not really doing well. I feel bad for him but I won’t be surprised if that one also gets canceled.

~dakazu

ROBOT×LASERBEAM

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ROBOT×LASERBEAM

A manga about an high schooler named Robo who has extreme precision and control in swinging golf clubs.

This sports series was Tadatoshi Fujimaki‘s follow up to the popular Kuroko’s Basketball. Manga artists who have to launch a new series after finishing a successful series have added pressure to create a new work that will be judged against their previous work. Unfortunately Fujimaki was unable to find that continued success with ROBOT×LASERBEAM and it was eventually canceled after 1 year. Personally I liked this series on golf but I’ll say it again, “Sports don’t do well in Weekly Shonen Jump.”

Available in English from VIZ.

~dakazu

Shudan!

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Shudan!

A manga about the players at Hamanishi Football Club including their newest female teammate.

Takuma Yokota had a semi-successful run in Weekly Shonen Jump with Sesuji wo Pin! to before he returned with Shodan!. Unfortunately this manga fell victim to the curse that sports manga don’t do well in Jump. The large cast here didn’t really help anyone stand out despite the emphasis on a female player joining the boys team. It ended quickly. Luckily Takuma has found success with other work outside of Shueisha.

~dakazu

Tomatoypoo no Lycopene

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Tomatoypoo no Lycopene

A comedy manga about Lycopene, an adorable Toy Poodle born from a tomato stalk.

I have to be honest. I completely forgot this manga ever existed in Weekly Shonen Jump. I personally had no interest in this series while it was serialized. Now that I’ve gone back and read it, I can see how the juxtaposition of cute characters with 4th wall breaking jokes makes for some decent comedy bits.

This series was transferred over to Jump+ when Kouji Ohishi suffered from health issues and is still on-going right now. I’m glad Ohishi is still continuing this series compared to the fate of all the other canceled series in Jump.

~dakazu

Full Drive

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Full Drive

A manga about a young ping pong player who returns from Germany to make his debut in Japan.

Here is yet another example of how sports manga typically do not do well in Weekly Shonen Jump. Works like Full Drive are well drawn and Genki Ono should have found success and popularity but it didn’t and it was canceled. I truly feel like Haikyu!! and Kuroko’s Basketball are oddities for gaining popularity in Jump.

~dakazu

BOZEBEATS

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BOZEBEATS

A manga about a wolf raised human who is recruited to join religious monks who incorporate modern weaponry to battle demons threats.

We’ve discussed this on an older episode.

I feel bad for BOZEBEATS because Ryoji Hirano is such an incredible artist. His action scenes are flashy and exciting and the weapons the boze use are highly detailed. Unfortunately this series suffers with it’s overly complex main character. Making him a wolf child is just going too far. The one shot version of this manga focused on the adult monk who recruits the wolf boy and honestly they should have just kept him as the protagonist. I wonder if Hirano and his editor changed the main character to appeal to Weekly Shonen Jump readers but ultimately that back fired and this was yet another series that got canceled quickly.

~dakazu