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, Rowan checks in with “Green Green Greens.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
Green Green Greens Chapter 6
Written and Illustrated by Kento Terasaka
Translated by Christine Dashiell
Lettered by Brendon Hull
Reviewed by Rowan Grover
I think the highest praise I can give “Green Green Greens” right off the bat is that it feels like I’ve emotionally invested hundreds of chapters into it. At only 6 chapters in, we’ve not only had a high stakes emotional battle for Yaesaki’s job, but we’ve also had Yaesaki step up his golfing ability twice. Terasaka is masterfully drip feeding us simple golfing techniques, but handling them like technical Shonen fighting mechanics. Each move is handled with gravitas, with Yaesaki or onlookers watching and figuring things out step by step, and slowing down swings into showing us the complex angles they create inside and outside the body. I never would have expected myself to be so hyped at watching someone incorporate torque into their golf swing, and yet here we are.
Amidst all this, Terasaka is evoking interesting moments in support characters I never would have expected to see development with. Yaesaki’s competitor, Hagio, starts off earlier chapters as just a fawn for Oga’s affection, but we see him take this passion so far as being unable to perform at maximum capacity in golf. Yet, for his own self esteem’s sake, we see him cast off those shackles here and grow into someone who pride’s his own wellbeing over a hopeless crush. He ultimately doesn’t want to lose his job over treasuring Oga’s golfing glove, so he swings hard enough to wear through it anyway. Even though he still doesn’t win the match, he comes out with a positive outlook because of this moment. Terasaka is elevating this Shonen stereotypes, opening up the hood of their characters and seeing what occurs when you upgrade them a little. It’s fascinating!
The golfing action in Terasaka’s artwork is about as high octane as it gets in this chapter. We seem to start with a bang, as we see Hagio power up and drive to the max for a second. It’s a great play on similar fighting comics as even an onlooker makes a comment that Hagio’s muscles look even bigger than before. The hits themselves, though, are dynamic and powerful, using after images with speed lines to convey incredible movement of the drivers. Having the sound effect lettering be a backdrop to Hagio’s shots is a lot of fun too, and frames his figure so well. And just like in my review of the first chapter of this series, I love that we never see the ball contact: just the effort of the golfer’s action and the ball slamming into its destination afterwards.
To build upon that to even greater lengths is a real testament to Terasaka’s artistic ability. Watching Yaesaki figure out how to involve his height and flexibility to create torque with his shot is an inspiring moment. I love the little moments leading up to it: the zoom in on Yaesaki’s pupils, the shot of his body covered in screentone dots to convey him deep in thought… it’s all tension building. But then to have the movement occur in these massive half page panels before letting loose in a final 1.5 page spread? Wonderful tension and release. The ripples emanating from Yaesaki’s body to show the individual body movements is a great way to convey the technicality of the drive whilst still making it look super cool. And having about 5 different people watch on with awe in the rest of the panel is the real kicker too. They’re watching along just like me!
Final Score: 9.0 – “Green Green Greens” is building momentum fast, already unleashing emotionally potent stories in only its 6th chapter.
