Shonen Jump 060621 Columns 

This Week in Shonen Jump: Week of 6/6/21

By | June 9th, 2021
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, Rowan checks in with “Mashle: Magic and Muscles.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!

Mashle: Magic and Muscles, Chapter 65
Written and Illustrated by Hajime Komoto
Reviewed by Rowan Grover

At this point in it’s narrative, “Mashle” has become highly adept at balancing worldbuilding and character development with it’s tokenistic dry humour. This chapter highlights the best of both said aspects. The early pages here do a deep dive into the world and lore of some of the most powerful of “Mashle” and does a brief, vague explanation on understanding Innocent Zero and Wahlberg’s powers and origin. I like that Komoto is dipping their toes into the dangerous waters of Shonen Power Levels to attract a certain type of reader, but keeping things mysterious enough so that the entire narrative isn’t reliant on overcomplicated data. Innocent Zero is also a fantastic villain in this chapter, dripping with all the drama and grandeur of a renaissance aristocrat, but with a raw, relatable motivation that stems in greed.

On the flip side, Mashle is shown just how effective he can be as a protagonist in the latter half of this chapter. He works best when he exists as the polar opposite to everyone else in the book: he is Komoto’s straight man, even drier than characters like Saitama in “One-Punch Man” yet just as contextually overpowered. Mashle forgetting who the antagonist he’s facing works great as a representation of a lapsed Manga reader trying to keep up with the swathes of new names and characters that all seem to blend into one, a feeling I’ve definitely had. Yet Mashle somehow works when acting dead serious too, when he moves in an instant claiming he can read all of his opponents moves. It’s great protagonist usage that enhances both the character himself and the rest of the cast in contrast with him.

Komoto’s linework throughout this issue is thick and clean as always, rendering characters with such confident inks that they pop from the page with confidence every time they speak. Innocence Zero is perhaps the best example of this in this issue, especially with how much careful attention is paid to how the villain transforms his face panel by panel, lending a daunting sense of body horror to the tone of the story. When we see Innocent Zero’s face shift into place with his skin moving like rippling skin-like cubes, it’s pretty disconcerting. Yet the linework and inks can be a little heavy and overshadowed, at times. When we see Adam, Wahlberg and Innocent Zero in a flashback/info-dump, I honestly couldn’t tell you which was which since they are so bathed in silhouette with few distinguishing features in their overall shape.

Komoto does some great action work in this chapter, however, both for the purpose of high-octane entertainment and comedic effect. The slow burn of Innocent Zero rising his arms to the sky before unleashing a three-quarter page splash of a forbidden spell is so well teased out and appropriately dramatized. On the flip side, Mashle’s fight is much zanier, with his opponent’s magic presenting as much more inherently silly. Whenever the spikes appear on the page, they overcrowd the panel to the point of ridiculousness, so Mashle responds appropriately by running with a great stylized rough effect over the top of the spikes, before punishing his opponent with a clean, satisfying punch to the face. It’s simple, but again, it’s teased out perfectly.

“Mashle” continues to entertain so far into its publishing life, proving it has the legs for long form storytelling and can still be perfectly silly moment to moment.

Final Score: 7.8 – A well balanced entry in a great long running series.


//TAGS | This Week in Shonen Jump

Rowan Grover

Rowan is from Sydney, Australia! Rowan writes about comics and reads the heck out of them, too. Talk to them on Twitter at @rowan_grover. You might just spur an insightful rant on what they're currently reading, but most likely, you'll just be interrupting a heated and intimate eating session.

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