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 two titles 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 and Kerry are catching up with “Mashle: Magic and Muscles” and “Moriking.” 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 19
Written and Illustrated by Hajime Komoto
Reviewed by Rowan Grover
“Mashle” continues to be a hilariously dry commentary on overused fighting manga tropes in its latest chapter, whilst still giving us an entertaining fight scene to boot. As it does best, the chapter starts off with mundane activities which ground the series and make the heroes more personable. Having a bunch of Owls dislike Mash is a fun note, and Komoto pays off well in having the Owls appear so early in the book, as they become a much bigger player later. The way that the antagonists from Lang are introduced is super efficient storytelling too. Komoto keeps it in tone with the humor of the book, but regardless, having the bad guys introduce themselves with “We’ve come for your coin” is a refreshing way to instigate a fight in modern manga.
In regards to the fight itself, it’s a brilliant criticism on how overly drawn out and complicated some manga can be with plot twists. There’s a great moment at the start of Lance’s fight with the other two-stripe mage, when the bad guy stages a dramatic reveal that ends up being a very vanilla statement of the obvious, and it made me cackle whilst reading it. That’s not all that Komoto has up his sleeve, however. He’s super expedient in his hilarious critique of the mainstream manga industry, firing off a gag each page like Lance being distracted by weird irrelevant things like his sister telling him not to pick on Owls. It’s paced so fast that it never interrupts the natural flow of the fight, yet the jokes are so deliberate and well-constructed that you can’t help but giggle.
Regardless of how much “Mashle” is poking fun at action manga tropes, Komoto manages to draw a killer fight scene. The shot of Mash getting sucked into a magic whirlpool at the start of the chapter is split into several panels for almost each second, and it’s punchy and staccato like a techno bass beat. The whole fight between Lance and his enemy is also paced like a good electronic song. Komoto starts off with the bare essentials, like each mage getting to use a weak signature spell, before building up and adding more bombastic designs for magic and bigger panels for action. To top it off, the chapter ends with a magnificent climax, or a bass drop to continue the metaphor, with a great three-quarter splash of Lance using his Graviole spell. It keeps energy and anticipation for the next chapter super high, which is great for something on a weekly release that can pay off sooner than monthly comics.
I also want to note how simple and fun Komoto’s designs for these new antagonists are. I still love the clean effectiveness of using facial stripe tattoos to indicate power levels in “Mashle”, and it still looks great on Lance’s opponent. His use of giant shuriken as part of his magic is also visually arresting, demanding your attention whenever it appears on page. It also works on another intertextual level if you consider it a homage to classic fight manga like “Naruto”, which “Mashle” definitely seems to be riffing on with how it handles the aforementioned dramatic reveals.
Final Score: 9.0 – It may not be as complex or filled with intertwining plot threads as other popular manga, but “Mashle” proves it doesn’t need to be to provide a highly entertaining time.
Continued below
Moriking, Chapter 8
Written and Illustrated by Tomohiro Hasegawa
Reviewed by Kerry Erlanger
“Moriking” continues to be as digestible and fun to read as ever. I appreciate how easy this manga is on your brain. Take, for example, the little character reminders Tomohiro Hasegawa started adding to the bottom of pages a few chapters ago. You literally don’t even need to remember who characters are and what they’re called to read this series! Amazing.
After Oka Makiri, the praying-mantis-turned-human-girl, appeared a few chapters ago, I was wondering when we’d get to meet our next bug. Turns out the answer is this week. We’re introduced to Ko Kurotsuchi, an adorable little boy around Oka’s age who is also a roach, much to Shoko’s shock and displeasure. The interesting development here is that we learn that not just candidates for king can transform into humans. Ko is a “soldado,” which is a powerful insect who serves under a candidate for king and can go into battle with him or her. Alas, Ko’s king cast him out for being too weak (and gross? Not that I’m a fan of roaches, but it makes me sad that they’re even viewed so poorly in their own kingdom!), which is ultimately how we come to meet him. He recognizes Oka as a candidate for king and decides to attack her to try and prove to his king that he’s worthy. It doesn’t go well, though, and we all get to laugh as Shoko rounds a corner to find Oka, a human girl, gnawing on the body of Ko, a human boy. Will I ever get tired of seeing people behaving like bugs? Not in this lifetime.
This is a smart plot development for “Moriking,” because it gives the story a little more flexibility to introduce myriad bug/human hybrids. Having the only bugs be candidates for king like Moriking would have eventually gotten stale. It’d be too formulaic: Moriking meets bug, bug challenges Moriking, Moriking defeats bug and somehow wins him or her over to his side, rinse and repeat, end of story. With this we get some more options for the story to grow and surprise us. After all, it hadn’t really occurred to me before that potentially all bugs can transform into humans. Does this mean we should be wary of all people wearing hats? It remains to be seen…
Art-wise, the big pleasers for me in this chapter were all of the faces Shoko made as she tried for the thousandth time to understand what on earth her life is. Just when it seemed like she was starting to accept this bizarro existence, in waltzes the most adorable little boy who’s actually a roach. What a twist! It’s fun that Hasegawa doesn’t really match character designs to bug forms too closely, Moriking being the obvious exception there.
Speaking of which, the definition shading on Moriking’s abs on page 11 was truly… something. No wonder all these bugs keep pledging their loyalty to him. Good lord.
Final Verdict: 8.0 — A quick, delightful read that is still delivering on its weird premise.
