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, Ken checks in with “PPPPPP.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
PPPPPP Ch. 17
Written & Illustrated by Maporo 3-Gō
Reviewed by Ken Godberson III
Right. There is a balance we as reviewers have to do when examining these works where we want to be honest without being overly cruel. Having said that, we are seventeen chapters into “PPPPPP” and I will be honest with you: I don’t think manga is it. It’s just not good or even interesting. Music manga kinda already has a hard time with me because you’re trying to utilize a visual medium and base it around an auditory one. It’s doable, but you have to have interesting characters and visual design to make it work.
And this manga…just doesn’t…
In just the context of this chapter, called “Analyzing Ellise,” the decompression of the story really does not serve it any favors. Essentially, Lucky and co. are going to a retreat in the woods to learn more in what is going to be the beginning of a training arc, including the introduction of a quirky teacher figure. It’s all well and fair, but it lacks an energy and substance to it. The characters don’t feel like they have a kind of charisma to hook you into this world.
Perhaps if the artwork stood out then the story could lean on it to develop more but we don’t even have that. Now I could talk about how the characters’ designs are very shonen manga ordinary and don’t really stand out from designs you’ve seen in plenty of other works, but I want to talk about the scene where the chapter title comes in. Lucky is walking through the woods and lamenting how the trees remind him of Beethoven’s Für Elise and explains the history of the piece. This leads up to what I think the artist believed was going to be gorgeous trees but they just aren’t.
“PPPPPP” just does not feel like a manga with enough strength in it to be a long term staple in Shonen Jump. It’s premise around music may be a little bit out of the ordinary but even when you include it’s supernatural elements into it both the writing and artwork don’t feel like they have the spark to really drive it. There have been manga that have been worse than this, utter train wrecks, but those ones are at least interesting.
Final Verdict: 4.0- An overly decompressed story not helped by indistinct writing and art
