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, Kerry and Rowan check in with “Dragon Ball Super” and “RWBY” If you have thoughts on these or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
RWBY Chapter 14
Written and Illustrated by Bunta Kinami
Reviewed by Rowan Grover
The latest chapter of “RWBY” is a good one because it introduces the best character to the manga: Ruby’s corgi named Zwei. I could end the review there, but alas, I will continue. The chapter starts where we left off, with Ruby leaving the ball to stumble upon one of Roman Torchwick’s infiltrators. The narrative holds off from too much dialogue or exposition here, which gives readers a good sense of being swept up into sudden battle like Ruby herself. What little dialogue we do get, however, is used cleverly to develop the infiltrator as a despicable antagonist as she taunts Ruby in regards to her pursuit of potential romance and her raw combat skill. I do love that on Ruby’s side, we get something a little more pedestrian and genuine in her commenting on how hard it is to fight in high heels, to the point where she has to take them off. A subtle, but a fun critique on costume design for female characters in action comics.
Kinami also uses great narrative justification in sending RWBY on a ‘school trip’ that is essentially a mission to inquire intel on the White Fang. The school’s headmaster Oz delivers an impassioned speech, that Kinami stretches out over panels and pages to show how important and grand listening to it feels. It’s also clever in its wording that it feels like a challenge to the team, daring them to act as real Huntsmen rather than students because that’s how they will be treated in the field. It seems like an extreme act, particularly sending the team to a location infested and taken over by Grimm, but Kinami cleverly has Oz justify it in a moment of fallacy. He speaks to his cohorts, admitting that RWBY was better at gathering intel than any of the people qualified to do so in the past, and so with limited time, this is the best option they have.
The art in this series has always drawn me way more than the cel-shaded original animated series, and this is quite clear in the opening pages of this chapter. Kinami provides a fight that accentuates the silky-smooth action this series does so well, giving us a fight between Ruby and the infiltrator that feels like a well-choreographed ballet. The way that Kinami uses big splash panels to show how much heft and weight there is in every swing of Ruby’s scythe and the infiltrator’s sword arms is breathtaking. Yet the art still is minimalist enough that the movements come off as effortless and dreamy.
There’s also some super fun character acting throughout the rest of the chapter. When Ruby and the gang are being reprimanded for getting in trouble again, they look smug in the way that they cleverly name drop the location of importance, the Southeast Vale Mountain Glenn. Kinami draws Ruby here as genuine and unassuming, yet when she returns to her friends, this is flipped over in a silly, stylized tone to show how embarrassed she is with her plan. When it’s later revealed that team RWBY will be going to that region for their mission, Kinami shows Ruby as smug once again to contrast Weiss’s dissatisfaction at her being right. It’s corny, but it’s a fun way to show the developed relationships between characters.
“RWBY” still proves to be excelling in its manga format, with well-paced storytelling and exciting action sequences. There are some cheesy anime-influenced moments, but they do a good job of conveying character traits in quick succession.
Continued belowFinal Score: 8.8 – “RWBY” is still one of the best female-led action series in the Shonen lineup despite it’s slower release schedule.
Dragon Ball Super – Ch. 56
Written by Akira Toriyama
Illustrated by Toyotarou
Reviewed by Kerry Erlanger
It’s game time for the cast of Dragon Ball Super! Earth’s greatest fighters are assembled to fight Moro… Except for Vegeta and Goku, of course, who are still M.I.A, ironically for training.
Now, you might be saying to yourself, where have I heard this before, and the answer would be basically in every iteration of Dragon Ball that ever existed. One of the downsides to the Dragon Ball universe is that it’s never that novel, but also, arguably one of the upsides is that it’s never that novel. The bad guys change, but the situations stay more or less the same. Is this a bad thing? Evidently not, given the series’ persistent popularity over the decades. You usually know what you’re getting into, which means even if you’ve been away from the series for a while, it’s not difficult to jump right back in and quickly figure out what’s going down.
One of the things going down in this chapter is that the bad guys have taken advantage of our heroes being in one place, dashing off to every unprotected corner of the Earth and attacking there instead. The result of this is that as quickly as they’ve come together, the good guys have to break ranks to spread out and defeat Moro’s advance teams. It’s a great play on the bad guys’ part; any good tactician knows that if you want to win a war, attack your enemy on multiple fronts.
Piccolo and Gohan are left to handle Seven-Three, who is definitely the scariest and most interesting bad guy of this arc. His ability to copy his opponents moves is dangerous. Still, the two are ready for him this time around. Piccolo is able to land a hefty blow, though Seven-Three regenerates his arm pretty quickly, begging the question: how is this going to end if his stamina supposedly never does? The answer lies both in Androids 18 and 17’s lack of chi (which will be explored more in chapter 57) and in combo attacks, which he’s apparently ill-equipped to handle. This means we get some cool moments of Gohan and Piccolo working together — Toyotarou’s strength always lies in illustrating fight scenes where he’s able to convey movement very effectively. Even if the story isn’t compelling (not that this isn’t), his art is always so darn pretty to look at.
There are a few humorous moments in this chapter, like when Roshi abandons poor Kuririn to go “wrangle those nasty babes” with a spring in his step (the fate of the world may be at stake, but who can resist the pull of a few pretty girls?). Or when Android 18 calls Seven-Three “Seven-Eleven.” But by far the funniest moment is the last panel of the chapter where we see Goku asking some squid alien for directions to Earth, because despite being the most fearsome fighter in the universe, he’ll always be a doofus.
Final Verdict: 7.0 — Dragon Ball Super is rarely not a fun, easy read, and this chapter is no exception.
