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 two titles 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, Zach and Vince check in with “Zipman” and “Mitama Security: Spirit Busters.” If you have thoughts on these or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
Zipman!! Chapter 5
Written and Illustrated by Yusaku Shibata
Translated by Junko Goda
Lettered by Evan Waldinger
Reviewed by Zach Wilkerson
After a few action-packed chapters establishing the series’s premise, this chapter of “Zipman!!” slows things down while Shibata flexes some comedic muscle. This chapter finds Kaname back at school after his brief brushes with becoming an action hero. Shibata plays on classic tropes of the high school superhero, with a few added flourishes that make “Zipman!!” feel unique. Particularly, the choice to have Kaname carry his brother (now a robot suit) as a very large backpack allows for some great comedic beats as well as some much appreciated development between the brothers.
In an effort to “gather information” at school, Koshiro plays the part of Cyrano de Bergerac, coaching Kaname as he attempts to confront a female classmate connected to the enigmatic “phantom cosplayer.” It’s a light and silly story, but one that is satisfyingly fun and wholesome. Kaname and Koshiro are suitable foils for each other, highlighting the strength of the book’s central premise.
Artistically, this chapter shines thanks to Shibata’s exaggerated and expressive pencilling. While previous chapters have highlighted Shibata’s skill in dynamic action sequences, this chapter highlights his strength in panel layout and comedic pacing. The “timing” of his panel sequences, coupled with his highly expressive character illustrations, help his jokes land all the better.
Compared to the more series school hero drama of “My Hero Academia,” “Zipman!!” feels light and refreshing. Hopefully the balance of fun slice-of-life adventures interspersed among heroic mech battles will help set this new series apart as it finds an audience.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Smartly balancing action and comedy, “Zipman!!” is shaping up to be a welcome addition to the Shonen Jump catalogue.
Mitama Security: Spirit Busters – Chapter 19: White-Hot Baseball
Written & Illustrated by Tsurun Hatomune
Review by Vince J Ostrowski
If you haven’t checked in on “Mitama Security” in a while, you may be surprised to find that it’s turned into a baseball manga. Okay, well maybe that’s not entirely truthful, but it sure does a convincing job of playing at being a sports manga for this arc. This far, the “hook” to the series has been the irreverent, playful sense of humor that it applies to the prospect of ghost hunting. That aspect definitely carries over a bit into this arc, seeing as the spirits are actually participating in the baseball game themselves, but they and the concept of the series itself has taken a backseat to the action of the game and the personal drama of the living human participants. It’s relatively successful that those things, emulating a sports manga well enough, but it begins to feel less like “Mitama Security”, as a consequence.
The baseball game was a challenge from an elite special division of SecuREIty known as “The Body” to Mitama (who also works for SecuREIty, mind you) and his cohorts over the spirits that have begun to tag along with Rena and Mitama as if they were friends. It was established in the last chapter that The Body has never seen this phenomenon before and would like to study it themselves but also get Mitama to resign for operating outside of SecuREIty protocols. The baseball game comes off in execution as an odd way to resolve this dispute, given how seriously they take it. That’s not to say it’s without humor. There are a couple of laugh-out-loud lines from a Babe Ruth-inspired spirit character that wants to play in the game. Come to think of it, could that be the deceased sultan of swat, himself? It doesn’t matter either way, because it’s legitimately funny.
The art in “Mitama” continues to be solid, if not pretty ordinary. I will say that the baseball action is legitimately dramatic and captures the feel of the game as well as any sports manga I’ve read, so that was appreciated. The character drama reads a bit like something out of a different book, however, and that’s ultimately a weak point of this installment. Significant storytelling capital is spent on establishing a SecuREIty employee who cannot sense spirits as a former baseball player who had potential but chose to become a desk jockey at the company. It’s fine for what it is, but it drifts too far away from the oddball spirit of the “Mitama” series so far and doesn’t manage to get back before the chapter ends.
Final Verdict: 6.5 – “Mitama Security” has been irreverent from the beginning, but this baseball arc has felt a bit like a bridge too far into being a bizarre diversion, even if it’s still worth a handful of chuckles
