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 “Death Note” and “Guardian of the Witch.” If you have thoughts on these or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
Death Note: Special One-Shot
Written by Tsugumi Ohba
Illustrated by Takeshi Obata
Reviewed by Zach Wilkerson
Call me naive but by Ryuk, I never counted on Ohba and Obata returning to “Death Note.” Yet, here we are with an official continuation of the acclaimed series that I “famously” mainlined for Multiversity Manga Club and subsequently did not like for *reasons.* However, I’m happy to report that this special chapter captures all of the best parts of “Death Note” while managing to say something interesting about both the book’s fictional world and our own real one.
Picking up a decade after the events of the original series, “Death Note” finds Ryuk in serious need of apples, so he sets off to pass on the Death Note to another unsuspecting mortal. His target, Minoru Tanaka, aside from his natural aptitude and intelligence, is about as far from Light Yagami as one could be. As such, his use of the Death Note is unique but filled with just as many twists and logical athleticisms. Ohba’s take on the “micro-Death Note” manages to create the same sense of intrigue and suspense that made the original so addictive, and his writing is just as snappy and witty as ever. Unsurprisingly, Obata’s art has, if anything, improved since he last brought this world into existence.
The big news here, of course, is the appearance of old President Drumpf. I won’t get into how he factors into the story. Don’t worry, it’s a doozy, and miles better than his recent inclusion in “Dark Knight: Golden Child.” His appearance steers the story dangerously close to fan-fictionesque caricature. However, Ohba and Obata turn what could have been a punchline into an interesting evolution of the Death Note mythology, a biting critique of our world leaders, and a cautionary tale against evil with good intention.
A mix of old favorites and new ideas, “Death Note: Special One-Shot” is one of the best returns to a property that I’ve seen in recent memory. Its brevity, smart commentary of current events, and subdued use of fan-service are all to be applauded. The creators demonstrate the potential for more stories in this world, something I would, again, not have guessed possible. I suppose “Tales of the Death Note” has a pretty nice ring to it?
Final Verdict: 9.1 – A surprisingly bold and well crafted return for Ohba, Obata, and “Death Note.”
Guardian of the Witch: Chapter 1
Written and Illustrated by Asahi Sakano
Review by Vince J Ostrowski
As brand new series’ go, “Guardian of the Witch” is a tricky proposition and I hesitate to get too attached to something that could easily let me down. On it’s face, this is your average sword and sorcery fantasy fare, a generic setup with one big twist near the middle that provides just enough intrigue to get you to read it for a few more weeks before it reveals the type of series it will actually be. There have been tons of series like this, and you could name a dozen manga that this one pulls elements from (“Claymore” and “Attack on Titan” being most obvious, though it’s not as if those series themselves aren’t pulling material from their forebears either). I wouldn’t classify it as ripping anything off, because there really is nothing new under the sun in the year 2020, but it doesn’t do nearly enough to distinguish itself at this point. Even the title of the series sounds incredibly generic, like something that would have been a C-tier JRPG released in the PS2 era. None of this is to say that this is a bad manga, or that it is doomed for failure, just that there’s more work to be done and that this opening installment doesn’t knock it out of the park.
Continued belowThe setting of “Guardian of the Witch” exists within a city behind walls, while brutal hoards of enemies called “evils” (again, it’s difficult to image a more generic choice here) outside attack in waves. These hoards are prevented entry into the city by “witches” and every witch has a “guardian” that protects her and even tends to things like cleaning up after her. The symbiotic relationship between them plays out more or less as you would think: the witch is bored and captive, combative with the guardian, and looking for more, while the guardian feels he is better than to be tending to the witch, feeling slighted and worthless. Upon first glance, this relationship and their views of one another seem wildly regressive. I guess the one clever thing about the series is that it ends up turning those regressive views on their heads. The guardian wants to do away with the witches, proving that all you need are the guardians to protect the city. The witch, at least early on, says she just wants a strong man to protect her. Once the twist hits (which I won’t fully reveal, but has to do with the true role of the “guardian” in the lifespan of a witch), and the guardian realizes what’s going on, you see how the his perspective and attitude changes and you also learn exactly what the witch secretly gets out of her partnership with him. Actually, I have to admit, it ends up being fairly touching and sweet, and opens the door to more exciting, less regressive installments in future chapters. The twist, which also involves a reveal into how witches are created, is so implausible (not from a fantasy standpoint, but from a purely logical standpoint) that it’s difficult to look past it. If this is truly how witches are created, there’s no way the entire town wouldn’t know, and there’s no way there wouldn’t be mass outrage. Even if I don’t keep up with this one, it will be worth checking back to see whether they even bother to attempt to explain this.
If nothing else, the series is terrific to look at. The characters are aesthetically charming, and the fight scenes are very fluid and well done, even if all the enemies are also super generic, pretty much across the board. The fantasy setting is detailed, but confined. It really feels like Asahi Sakano put a lot more care into the details of the setting than the average manga-ka would. One example of this is when the guardian carries a basket of food through the city to bring back home to the witch. The food in the basket is detailed and pleasing to the eye, when the artist easily could have taken shortcuts. This is just one small example that may not seem like much, but it leaves a lasting impression and is indicative of how detailed the rest of the chapter looks. I found myself lingering on the art a little longer than I usually do in a manga chapter, even if it was mostly because the mechanics of the world-building itself wasn’t grabbing me.
Final Verdict: 6.0 – There’s a small kernel of something that could lift “Guardian of the Witch” up from being one of the more generic manga I’ve read recently, but its opening chapter only hints around it.
