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

Sho-Ha Shoten! Chapter 27
Written by Akinari Asakura
Illustrated by Takeshi Obata
Lettered by James Gaubatz
Translated by Stephen Paul
Reviewed by Brian Salvatore
The early chapters of “Show-Ha Shoten!” were very much focused on Azemichi and his pathway into comedy. Over the past ten or so chapters, we’ve seen the focus shift to Taiyo’s backstory, which seems to get a little more convoluted each time but, somehow stays somewhat effective. The downside of this is that Azemichi, the audience surrogate character seems to be taking a backseat. This is doubly true as we are in another arc about a competition, so the One Way Ticket to the Top boys are already sidelined by the performing team each month. And so, while the backstories and performances are each interesting on their own, the story has somewhat taken a turn into an unnecessarily expansive one, whereas the heart of the story is so clearly the partnership, both on and off the stage between Azemichi and Taiyo.
That said, both parts of this issue work better than the similar installments we’ve seen before. So many times the comedy routines just fall flat on the page, whether that is due to translation issues, cultural differences, or just the subjective nature of comedy. This issue, however, had maybe the strongest comedy routine of the competition arcs thus far. The premise had a fun twist to it and it was presented in a way that took the reader on the same journey as the audience in the competition, even though we had just read a lot about this team and the journey they went through. It should read more melodramatically than it did, and the restraint was part of the charm.
The reason for the implied melodrama was that the story is centered around the death of a friend of Taiyo, as well as of this team, and the self-blame that is put on one of the performers for their friend’s death. We learn that isn’t really the case, but the story sticks. Again, the sadder elements of “Show-Ha Shoten” haven’t always landed this well, and even though this is certainly full of melodrama, it feels somewhat earned, or at least it doesn’t feel terribly out of place here. Because of this chapter, there is now a team that we, as readers, care about on a deeper level, as well as a connection between Taiyo and his past, and the world for once doesn’t just feel bigger but deeper.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – A strong chapter that gives the book a little – but not too much – gravitas.