‘Toriko’ by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro, ch. 1

‘Toriko’ is only just starting out in Weekly Jump, with just this one chapter out yet.

Little chance I’ll continue reading this series… ‘Toriko’ takes us to the wonderful world and tough life of gourmet hunters – no, wait, that’s what they were called in ‘Hunter X Hunter’, years ago when the idea was still original. What are they called in ‘Toriko’? I forgot. But they are awesome~, and bad-ass~, and ~manly~ – and half this chapter is spent demonstrating in many ways how ~awesome~ and ~bad-ass~ and ~manly~ the main character, Toriko, is: He’s huge! He has a lot of muscles! He smokes tobacco TREES! His shit weights several kilograms! He drinks a lot of alcohol! He eats a lot! He catches huge animals by using huge animals as bait! And in case the reader is dumb and doesn’t pick up on it yet that this makes Toriko ~manly~ and ~bad-ass~ and ~awesome~, there is a tiny wimpy rookie character whose sole purpose is to comment on everything Toriko does, and tell the reader what he’s supposed to think: “He drinks a lot of alcohol! He’s awesome! He catches huge beasts! What a guy!” etc.

I’ve been considering the possibility that this is supposed to be funny. Over-the-top = funny, you know. ‘Yakiktate!! Japan’ has proven that it can work. But in ‘Toriko’, it’s just annoying, because this sort of gag grows old pretty damn fast, and thirty pages of it is certainly too much. And you’d think the first chapter would have some kind of climax, maybe a little turning point, but there’s not even that. Unless you count this instance of “Toriko is so bad-ass, he only has to look at the huge wildcat, and it escapes from HIM!” which is so. freaking. old. it’s about as surprising or exciting or funny (I don’t know what it is that ‘Toriko’ wants to be) like finding an old man in a retirement home…

So, if you want the manga version of “Chuck Norris Facts”, read ‘Toriko’. That’s all there is to it.

… maybe I’m being overly mean and maybe future chapters will improve, but this first chapter doesn’t really give me a reason why I would want to bother.

‘Embalming – The Another Tale of Frankenstein’ by Nobuhiro Watsuki; chapters 1-5

This manga is running in Jump SQ, and is based on two oneshots that were published in Jump the Revolution in 2005 and 2006. Nobuhiro Watsuki’s previous works are ‘Rurouni Kenshin’, ‘Gun Blaze West’ and ‘Busou Renkin’… so he is a Jump veteran, but a relatively unpredictable one.

I have to be honest at this point: I’m a huge fan of Watsuki’s, and I have been following Embalming since the release of the first oneshot in 2005. I’ve been holding back with a review here because I wanted to be fair and objective… if that’s even possible for reviews. But now is the perfect moment for a first assessment, because the first story-arch is over, and the story shifts to a set of different characters – apparantly, ‘Embalming’ is trying a different kind of structure, with no definite “good guy” main character. That’s exciting, isn’t it?

Brief updates: Muddy 12; Psyren 14-17; Shiki 3-4

Before diving into the other series, I’d like to mention briefly that Muddy’s ending was decent. It ended on a cheerful note, which makes it easier to accept its premature ending. I really hope Shou Aimoto will get another chance eventually, and be more lucky.

Now for ‘Psyren’ and ‘Shiki’, possibly with spoilers.

‘Double Arts’ by Naoshi Komi; chapters 1-3

And now for something positive: ‘Double Arts’ is one of the three new series in Weekly Jump, and it’s great. I should be careful with statements like this after only three chapters, but I haven’t had such a positive impression of a Weekly Jump manga in ages. Naoshi Komi has published a few oneshots before, but ‘Double Arts’ is his first series.

‘Jamais Vu’ by Yasuki Tanaka (oneshot)

‘Jamais Vu’ is a oneshot published in Akamaru Jump in 2008. Yasuki Tanaka had a short-lived series in Weekly Jump in 2007: ‘Hitomi no Catoblepas’. I only read the first chapter back then, which evidently didn’t catch my interest, else I would have kept reading.

Next month’s Jump SQ oneshots!

The month of April is going to give us some potentially interesting manga oneshots, in Jump SQ and in its spin-off special, Jump SQ II (which will go on sale in mid April, sporting a collaboration between Hiroyuki Takei of Shaman King fame, and Stan Lee. The Stan Lee!).

But first the Jump SQ oneshots.

‘Sachie-chan Guu!!’ by Akira Toriyama (story) and Masakazu Katsura (artwork).

Aaand…

Brief opinions: ‘Psyren’ ch. 11-13; ‘Muddy’ ch. 9-11

Typical. I pick two new Jump manga to read and follow, and after a few weeks, the one I like most gets cancelled, and the other has started to go on my nerves.

So ‘Muddy’ is ending next week, after just 12 chapters. I can only imagine that the ending will be open-ended, after all the manga was a little direction-less… but in a relaxed sort of way that I did kind of enjoy. Still, I hope Shou Aimoto will eventually get another shot at a shounen manga, and write a story that’s a little bit more engaging, while still being as fun and carefree as Muddy, and with a similarly promising fantasy setting.

And ‘Psyren’ looks to be there to stay for a while, but the initial chapter’s atmosphere has disappeared in favour of a rather generic shounen manga concept. At least the main characters’ training phase is used to introduce a few new characters, but even they don’t impress me much. A dorky film star bishounen whose design is way too similar to the recently-introduced Matsuri? An old millionaire with a keen interest in Psyren, who offers money to people who can solve the mystery of the “game”…? Why does this make me think of ‘Hunter X Hunter’?

Granted, shounen manga all ressemble each other a little, and I’m willing to look past some similarities. But ‘Psyren’ started out so well. The idea was not exactly fresh, but it was at least convincingly written, so I did not mind that the idea of a deadly ‘game’ is far from new, that Ageha and Amamiya could as well be called Ichigo and Rukia… that just becomes very painfully apparant now – now that the initial survival feeling has gone, now that the characters have been introduced to their awesome psi abilities that will allow them to survive against the monsters in ‘Psyren’ with supernatural power rather than luck and carefulness… hooray. T_T

Please, ‘Psyren’, surprise me, prove me wrong. Give me just one chapter that does not remind me of ‘Hunter X Hunter’ in some way.

‘Luck Stealer’ by Hajime Kazu; chapters 1-2

This time, a manga by an established author. Hajime Kazu has been a mangaka for over ten years and has already published series in Weekly Jump, although I don’t think any of his her manga were ever published in the west.

[Edit: I have been informed that Hajime Kazu is female. Wikipedia agrees. I can't believe she'd blame me for getting confused by the name, though...]

‘Luck Stealer’ currently running in Jump SQ (so it’s a monthly series). A oneshot was published in Jump the Revolution in 2005, and another (?) in the Akamaru Jump (winter edition) that year. I did not read the Akamaru Jump oneshot, but I read the JtR oneshot. Since both the oneshot and the two chapters tell independent episodes, I won’t really talk about their plot here anyway, but only speak of the premise. Which I like.

‘Muddy’ by Shou Aimoto; chapters 1-8

The cynical/resigned part of me wants to wait a few more weeks before writing this review, because ‘Muddy’ looks like it could get cancelled soon. There are numerous series that start running in Weekly Jump,and disappear again after only a few chapters because they just did not catch on. ‘Muddy’ has been extremely low in the rankings, so the Jump readers obviously don’t care much about it. It could be gone anytime.

According to Wikipedia, ‘Muddy’ is based on a oneshot by the same name, which was released in Jump the Revolution in 2006. It is Shou Aimoto’s first manga series. Wikipedia also says that Shou Aimoto is female. Her only other work was a oneshot called ‘Hanasaka Hime’ in Akamaru Jump (summer issue 2006). And she is twenty years old. (I feel old.)

Brief opinions: ‘Psyren’ ch. 10; ‘Shiki’ ch. 2

Definitely spoiler. Read at your own risk.