Welcome to This Week in Shonen Jump, our weekly check in on Viz’s various Shonen Jump series. Viz has recently changed their release format, but our format will mostly remain the same. We will still review the newest chapters of one title a week, now with even more options at our disposal. The big change for our readers is that, even without a Shonen Jump subscription, you can read these most recent chapters for free at Viz.com or using their app.
This week, Vince checks in with “Choujin X.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
Choujin X – Chapter 6: First Apostasy
Written & Illustrated by Sui Ishida
Review by Vince J Ostrowski
Six chapters into “Choujin X” and we’re still very much in what I like to call the “exploration mode” of guy-gets-superpowers storytelling. If you’re familiar, think of the unique individualistic powers of the “Choujin” like the mutant gene from “X-Men” (or hell, like the quirks from “My Hero Academia”, which is probably a better frame of reference). The nature of choujin powers: their origin and the mechanics or rules under which they operate are still very much up in the air. So too are our main character’s (Tokio) experiences with them. After injecting with a mysterious serum, Tokio finds himself a sort of half-vulture, half-man, the full extent of his abilities unknown and perhaps unavailable to him. As chapter 6 begins, he’s smack dab in the middle of a fight with a vicious snake-choujin lady, and commences to figure out his powers out of immediate necessity. It’s every superhero origin story ever, but it’s a beautiful and energetic version of that.
You can quibble over how unique the details are: he acquires a younger ally, a little girl choujin named Ely who shows a greater command of her powers than he, despite only having had them for a handful of days. As a consequence, her powers seem to affect her mental faculties – she loses some amount of control of her mind. The hero learns more about his own powers, seemingly, by observing her and his enemy. But all of these elements are things that plenty of other hero origin stories have explored before. There’s no shame in saying that. This is a solid version of well-worn territory!
The villainess is compelling enough: scantily-clad, yet fierce and decidedly unseductive. It doesn’t seem as though Ishida is attempting to titillate the reader. The sidekick is charming and fun (the underused phrase “higgledy piggledy” she uses to describe how her head feels after using her powers was worth a chuckle). And although the main character remains a bit of a cypher, the slow unfurling of what we know about the choujin powers and how he will (or won’t) better command them is enough to hook the reader.
At the end of the day, the star of the show is the art. For every reheated mutant trope “Choujin X” attempts, there’s a bit of visual symbolism or a choice artistic flourish that gives the reader something to remember. One particularly memorable sequence begins with Ely unleashing a flurry of fire and brimstone against the villain in an amorphous full-page explosion, only for the villain to turn around and up the ante with something called “Full Beastification.” It’s the sort of silly amplification that shonen manga can uniquely pull off, provided they have as alluring and detailed art as Ishida’s. Another set of surprise details that really tie the chapter together are a couple of full color splash pages that happen at choice intervals within the story. Shonen Jump typically reserves full color pages for the openings of chapters, so dropping a few of them midway through the installment helped pull off the intended dramatic effect. “Choujin X” doesn’t break even a centimeter of new ground, but at least it truly looks great doing it.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – Come for the energetic and surprising art first. Stay for a just-good-enough superpowered trope-fest that ties the bones of a story together with charming, albeit unfleshed characters.
