Shounen Jump
I've been reading a lot of random Shounen Jump series since February thanks to the Shounen Jump app (subscription has been a good deal so far), though several new series have already been axed. I hope view count on this app will count towards popularity too... Though I can see why several of these series got axed. Some thoughts on those series:
Double Taisei: Started out promising, with a pretty intriguing setup featuring shougi and split personalities. But the series plays its hand pretty quickly with very little development. I don't know if the series just wasn't given time to develop or what, but after that point, it felt like new characters were thrown into the mix haphazardly, each with a strange quirk of their own. Tai and Sei's split personalities really wasn't much compared to all of their strangeness! But I still followed the series weekly anyway, even with the rising absurdity each chapter brought. All seriousness was thrown out the window, opting for scenes with shock value instead, and a strange brand of humor. I did enjoy several of the characters, like Izumi and Haga, and my favorite chapter was the restaurant one where all these characters were thrown together with misunderstandings left and right. I also liked the art and paneling a lot, though the later instances of fanservice felt pretty out of place. All in all, I thought this was a promising series with an interesting premise and good art, but the execution and development needed a lot more work. The series didn't quite seem to know what it wanted to be. Despite all that, the final chapter managed to wrap things up decently.
Tokyo Shinobi Squad I was never really sold on this series, but unlike Double Taisei, I thought it had a pretty good handle on what it wanted to be. Art was good, people had history with each other, fights were flashy, and all that jazz. I wasn't sure if En or Jin was the main character (perhaps both?) but En wasn't very compelling while Jin was too strong right off the bat. Even so, the series was pretty and flashy and went places, so I thought it'd be more popular. Maybe it needed more of a focus, like a big bad instead of random missions sprinkled through. I loved the loyalty the Narumi-kai had for each other, and Taiga's totally my favorite character with his aesthetic and gap in personality. The final chapter ended with a time skip that made En so much cooler, and it brought things full circle with En coming across a newbie and welcoming him much the same way Jin welcomed him in chapter one. That was pretty cool. Kind of made me wish the series would continue after the time skip!
Yui Kamio Lets Loose First off, the Japanese title of this is a great pun: Kamio Yui wa Kami wo Yui, which is unfortunately lost in the English translation. This was first and foremost a school love comedy, which I enjoyed. Kind of reminded me of Kaguya-sama but with fighting involved. Kiito is supposedly this super cool guy, but he's pulled in every direction because of all the trouble that follows Yui (and that Yui creates), and it turns out that he's not that cool after all but is always trying to build himself up. I quite enjoyed that part. I felt the troubles because of Yui in Black and Yui in White with Kiito thrown in the mix was pretty compelling, but I guess it wasn't enough. The series changed genres halfway through, opting for battle and horror instead with none of the characters batting an eye about the abrupt change. It was a pretty fascinating change but still wasn't enough, unlike what Reborn's change in genre did for that series. However, there was clearly enough development for the series to continue or to end, which I felt was pretty indicative of the mangaka's skill. It's really too bad this series wasn't given more time, considering Shiibashi Hiroshi already has Nura under his belt. I feel this series could have gone places.
Haha, this turned out longer than I thought. Guess I'll save my thoughts on ongoing series and new series I'm following in Shounen Jump for later.
This entry was originally posted at https://lucathia.dreamwidth.org/366966.html. You can comment here or there.
Double Taisei: Started out promising, with a pretty intriguing setup featuring shougi and split personalities. But the series plays its hand pretty quickly with very little development. I don't know if the series just wasn't given time to develop or what, but after that point, it felt like new characters were thrown into the mix haphazardly, each with a strange quirk of their own. Tai and Sei's split personalities really wasn't much compared to all of their strangeness! But I still followed the series weekly anyway, even with the rising absurdity each chapter brought. All seriousness was thrown out the window, opting for scenes with shock value instead, and a strange brand of humor. I did enjoy several of the characters, like Izumi and Haga, and my favorite chapter was the restaurant one where all these characters were thrown together with misunderstandings left and right. I also liked the art and paneling a lot, though the later instances of fanservice felt pretty out of place. All in all, I thought this was a promising series with an interesting premise and good art, but the execution and development needed a lot more work. The series didn't quite seem to know what it wanted to be. Despite all that, the final chapter managed to wrap things up decently.
Tokyo Shinobi Squad I was never really sold on this series, but unlike Double Taisei, I thought it had a pretty good handle on what it wanted to be. Art was good, people had history with each other, fights were flashy, and all that jazz. I wasn't sure if En or Jin was the main character (perhaps both?) but En wasn't very compelling while Jin was too strong right off the bat. Even so, the series was pretty and flashy and went places, so I thought it'd be more popular. Maybe it needed more of a focus, like a big bad instead of random missions sprinkled through. I loved the loyalty the Narumi-kai had for each other, and Taiga's totally my favorite character with his aesthetic and gap in personality. The final chapter ended with a time skip that made En so much cooler, and it brought things full circle with En coming across a newbie and welcoming him much the same way Jin welcomed him in chapter one. That was pretty cool. Kind of made me wish the series would continue after the time skip!
Yui Kamio Lets Loose First off, the Japanese title of this is a great pun: Kamio Yui wa Kami wo Yui, which is unfortunately lost in the English translation. This was first and foremost a school love comedy, which I enjoyed. Kind of reminded me of Kaguya-sama but with fighting involved. Kiito is supposedly this super cool guy, but he's pulled in every direction because of all the trouble that follows Yui (and that Yui creates), and it turns out that he's not that cool after all but is always trying to build himself up. I quite enjoyed that part. I felt the troubles because of Yui in Black and Yui in White with Kiito thrown in the mix was pretty compelling, but I guess it wasn't enough. The series changed genres halfway through, opting for battle and horror instead with none of the characters batting an eye about the abrupt change. It was a pretty fascinating change but still wasn't enough, unlike what Reborn's change in genre did for that series. However, there was clearly enough development for the series to continue or to end, which I felt was pretty indicative of the mangaka's skill. It's really too bad this series wasn't given more time, considering Shiibashi Hiroshi already has Nura under his belt. I feel this series could have gone places.
Haha, this turned out longer than I thought. Guess I'll save my thoughts on ongoing series and new series I'm following in Shounen Jump for later.
This entry was originally posted at https://lucathia.dreamwidth.org/366966.html. You can comment here or there.