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 “Doron Dororon.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
Doron Dororon Ch. 19
Written & Illustrated Gen Oosuka
Reviewed by Ken Godberson III
After reading this chapter of “Doron Dororon,” I’m going to be honest with you readers: I do not think this series is long for this world. A magazine such as this can be very cutthroat with cancellations and we are now nearly twenty chapters in and it’s kind of shocking how little of an impression this leaves on you after you read it. A dime-a-dozen series that, while having some interesting art quirks, just has little substantial beyond that.
I have talked before in This Week in Shonen Jump about how there is such a glut of supernatural/demon/monster hunter series in this publisher and it really does feel like the well is truly dry without anything else being brought to the table. That continues here with this arc aftermath/arc setup issue with the (very quick) defeat of Hidehisa and aftermath at the headquarters. The scenes of Kusanagi getting so much praise with Dora getting snubbed by pretty much everyone until Kusanagi has to put their…errr…”foot” down are well and good, but they go by too briefly. Everything else just feels like it is “been there and done that.”
As I mentioned, the artwork has some merits to it. While I find the hot-headed arguments between Dora and Touma to be very stock and boring, Oosuka fills those scenes with a vibrant energy that elevates it some. Kusanagi’s unique depiction could make it difficult to convey proper emotion from all the adulation they’re receiving, but Oosuka manages to do so without having to exaggerate. There is the makings of a very good art style here, just let down by the a narrative in incredibly well-trodden territory
I get that the whole demon and supernatural action series is a staple of Shonen Jump but it sometimes feels like every other book that is introduced is this genre. They feel so much like they are trying to capture lightning in a bottle that has been hit by so many strikes without adding anything new or playing with the genre. “Doron Dororon” feels like another one of those that just is going to be cast into the void of “we tried” without ever trying to try.
Final Verdict- 5.0: The middle score because once you finish it, you will forget about it within a day.
