Shonen Jump 022022 Columns 

This Week in Shonen Jump: Week of 2/20/22

By | February 23rd, 2022
Posted in Columns | % Comments

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 “Earthchild.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!

Earthchild Ch. 1
Written & Illustrated by Hideo Shinkai
Reviewed by Ken Godberson III

When I’m in the This Week in Shonen Jump rotation, I tend to go for books that are in their infancy, to try and gauge a temperature for books and see if the magazine has a potential future mega property. Suffice it to say, most of the time, that’s not the case and books either take too long to get to a point or feel so indistinct. However, “Earthchild” Chapter 1 is different. While I don’t necessarily think it will reach the tippy-top heights, it managed to pleasantly surprise me in its debut.

From its tagline, “An unlikely romance has planet-sized consequences,” you’d think this series is a kind of sci-fi romance story. And it is, but there’s more to it than that. I won’t go into spoilers but by the end of the chapter, the story of Reisuke Sawada and the woman who saved his life, Kareri Hoshifuri, goes off in a direction that you don’t expect at first but upon a few re-reads, you realize it. Creator Hideo Shinkai does a very admirable job of introducing the two, along with the concept of an Earthchild, beings with powers in short, while telling the story. Both of them are very charming without coming off as obnoxious and you do like them to a degree. It’s what makes the end hit your gut, despite the inevitably.

What helps the book’s charm is that the artwork is wonderful! Seriously, not since “Act-Age” (oh god, please don’t follow that book’s trajectory please) have I been wowed by art in a new series. The characters drawn are alive without being overdetailed. Shinkai has a great range to convey from great humor to tenderness and it feels genuine. It all conveys to a double page spread near the end of the chapter that serves as the climax that just hits you in the gut and it being beautifully drawn helps sell it so much.

Here’s where I become a slight hypocrite. I spoke earlier about how I felt that a lot of these new series take too long to get to its hook. I think I feel a little different here. The surprise and hook for this series gets you quick, but maybe it felt like more could’ve been done. Like, maybe the story in this chapter could’ve been extended to be the story of a first collected volume. I probably will disagree with this when I continue to think about the story in the coming weeks, but I can fully understand where someone is coming from if they think so.

“Earthchild” has had one of the best beginnings to a series in Shonen Jump in quite a while. In about fifty pages, Shinkai was able to get me to care about these characters just enough before the story could really begin. I’m still not sure if the story will be in the highest echelons of the magazine, but if it improves upon what is already laid out, it’s got a very high potential. Get this one read and keep an eye out.

Final Verdict: 7.7- Artistically beautiful with a story that I did not expect at all, “Earthchild” has started very well and has a load of potential.


//TAGS | This Week in Shonen Jump

Ken Godberson III

When he's not at his day job, Ken Godberson III is a guy that will not apologize for being born Post-Crisis. More of his word stuffs can be found on Twitter or Tumblr. Warning: He'll talk your ear off about why Impulse is the greatest superhero ever.

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