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. (more…)
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.
Definitely spoiler. Read at your own risk.
Sometimes, it takes ridiculously little to gain my favour: In Psyren’s case, it is the title. A pun! A PUN! I love puns! Because in Psyren, a siren plays a role. Hah! I love it. Add to this a shocking(read: hilarious) Planet of the Apes homage, and a refreshingly slow-paced first nine chapters and nice-looking artwork, and I’m going to ignore for now that neither the characters nor the premise are actually all that unique.
Psyren is currently running in Weekly Jump. It only just started, so forming a definite opinion is still impossible. Actually, I am a little afraid that the next chapter might disappoint me by letting the series fall back on familiar shonen tropes and storylines… but that might still be acceptable, as long as Psyren sticks to its slow pace, and develops its main characters beyond their relatively generic current selves.
