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, Brian checks in with “Dogsred.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
Dogsred Chapter 17: Sanno Uphill Dash
Written and illustrated by Satoru Noda
Translated by John Werry
Lettered by Steve Dutro
Reviewed by Brian Salvatore
When reading manga that is set squarely in the ‘real’ world, it can sometimes become clear how different Japanese culture is from the Western culture that most of our readers are familiar with. However, ‘Chapter 17: Sanno Uphill Dash’ features at least three moments that would be familiar to any Western reader who has seen a sports film, played on a team, or just knew how dumb most men/boys truly are. Whether it is Kengo sucking up to his friend’s mom for a permanent dinner invitation, the changing of an exercise’s rules to teach a lesson, or sticking things in your ass for humor, so much of “Dogsred” feels like it would work in almost any setting with just a few tweaks.
Sports manga, in general, are simple and relatable stories that draw on feelings and situations that we’ve all experienced in order to build a story that, hopefully, moves beyond cliché and into something that transcends such terms. While “Dogsred” doesn’t exactly reach nirvana in chapter 17, it does allow the reader to further get in the head of the first-year athletes. While other chapters have worked to make hockey more relatable to the non-mulleted among us, ‘Sanno Uphill Dash’ has no such need, as the cardio exercise is not hockey dependent, other than being another example of the physical endurance needed by the skaters.
Satoru Noda’s artwork continues to be a serviceable, if at times truly great, example of Shonen style. One of the aspects that jumps off the page is the attention to detail in small moments, whether it is the messy bun of a dinner-serving mother, her collection of plastic bags hanging off the kitchen counter, the intricate latticework of dead trees, or the shading and linework of the bunch of leaves in the coach’s ass. While these little details are, obviously, appreciated, Noda isn’t afraid to drop any pretense of photorealism or hyper-detail in order to land an emotional punch. When there is a scramble at the top of the hill, backgrounds suddenly disappear or are replaced with motion lines, emphasizing the action in the foreground and the emotional stakes. This is doubled at that moment by the addition of small boxes featuring the coach’s head with a descending countdown. This adds both a fun element to cut some of the tension and the ticking clock aspect to ramp up the intensity. It’s a clever technique.
Final Verdict: 7.7 – While nothing that truly impacts the overall plot happens in this chapter, the small moments of character development and humor allow “Dogsred” to continue to flex its sports manga muscles, while also building camaraderie between the teammates and the reader.
