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, Robbie checks in with “Jiangshi X.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
Jiangshi X chapter 3: Tomb of a Thousand Kings
Written and illustrated by Norihiko Kurazono
Reviewed by Robbie Pleasant
We’ve had the introductory chapter, where we meet the main case and see them pass their first test. We’ve seen the main characters take on their first mission. So chapter 3 of “Jiangshi X,” the latest manga in Shonen Jump, is where the plot starts kicking off. So, how does it handle it?
Chapter 3 gives us a little worldbuilding, as it explains more about what happens to captured jiangshi, the world’s history, and the duties of the daoshi. Some of it is delivered through the time-tested style of “I’m sure you already know this, but…” dialogue, while the rest comes up in conversation as our central protagonists – all new daoshi in their own rights – talk with each other as they set about their task. For an early chapter where we’re learning about this world, it works well enough.
Although the chapter also broadcasts the “totally unexpected turn of events that puts our heroes in danger” pretty blatantly. When we’re shown a tomb containing about 800 powerful jiangshi sealed away, and a character mentions how bad it would be if they were unleashed, it’s a red flag. When another character explains that only someone truly powerful could break the seals, that flag starts waving pretty violently. And when someone says “there’s no change the jiangshi will reawaken,” it’s now a 100% certainty that at least one of them will reawaken, and the rest likely will as well.
So it’s not exactly surprising when they suddenly get attacked by a previously-sealed jiangshi.
What does work, however, is the way it’s built up. After the characters discover an open coffin, the tension builds as the characters start piecing together what happened, the lights go out, and the jiangshi appears from the darkness. It’s paced nicely, and the jiangshi looks sufficiently threatening.
This also gives us a brief bit of action, showing off a few daoshi abilities and the strength of the jiangshi. There’s a lot of action lines used in these scenes, but they do their job of adding to the speed and impact well. Combining that with the darkness of the setting makes the scene we get look pretty nice, and it puts lighting and shadows to good use.
Norihiko Kurazono’s artwork is pretty good, too. It’s very clean, and the character designs are all distinct and filled with personality (even when the characters are wearing identical uniforms). The scenery, too, is brimming with detail, and some great-looking architectural designs, and the panels are sized nicely to illustrate the enormity of the rooms and the size of the village and buildings. With that said, the jiangshi, while nicely monstrous, do seem to fall into more stereotypical jiangshi designs, which I assume is intentional until we get to the more powerful ones.
Overall, there’s a little bit about “Jiangshi X” that reminds me of the early days of “Naruto.” Just swap out ninja for jiangshi, and you have elements like the “teams of three with a slightly detached mentor,” and even the art style and action scenes seem to show a little bit of inspiration from what was once one of Jump’s Big Three. But whether or not “Jiangshi X” can follow in the same footsteps has yet to be seen.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – “Jiangshi X” is off to a decent start, and manages its pacing and worldbuilding well, even if it does tend to be pretty predictable at times.
