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, Vince checks in with “Ginka & Glüna.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
Ginka & Glüna – Chapter 1: Glüna
Written & Illustrated by Shinpei Watanabe
Review by Vince J Ostrowski
The opening of “Ginka & Glüna” is a full color sequence wherein the titular Glüna hunts for fruit in a snowy landscape where food is scarce. The colors are inviting, despite the harsh conditions, immediately making a strong aesthetic impression and establishing the setting well. This setting in fact, an isolated cabin on a snowy mountaintop, is one of few things the series has going for it that really sets it apart.
The mountain, populated by plain-spoken woodland creatures, is not only a pleasantly visualized one, but at least for the North American audience, is starting at the proper time of year, as autumn begins and eventually gives way into winter. There’s something to be said for a story that has a “seasonal” feel to it, and the aesthetics of this title so far are helping to make it stand out. The character designs, likewise, are charming when they need to be: Glüna in a tunic that resembles something out of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the general design of Ginka, a snowman come to life, are particular standouts. Other times, the visuals can be appropriately bizarre, as they are in a late sequence where Ginka fights a particularly gross-looking wolf beast or another scene that depicts the aftermath of a magical battle that opened a rift in time & space.
I will say that the characters are charming enough, if not overly subtle personality-wise. Whenever Ginka encounters an obstruction, no matter how great or small, he remarks that it’s “a pain” or a “hassle.” That’s a funny little bit of flavor, but it might not be enough to sustain a title. As the pair attempts to leave the isolation of the mountain, I hope the setting at least maintains its majesty and wonder. The little animals that scurry around and comment on the story are a fun wrinkle, but feel like something that could easily fall by the wayside as the setting potentially changes.
Beyond the setting, the premise of “Ginka & Glüna” is overly simple, which may actually be working to its detriment. Glüna has been orphaned, stuck on this mountain. She wants to become a magician, so she can leave this place. Ginka was a magician, and is cursed to live in a snowman’s body. Together, they quest to help one another solve each other’s predicament. At the risk of projecting too much, “Ginka & Glüna” reveals a confidence problem at this point. Ginka agrees to help Glüna, and 5 years of magical training occurs in the space of just a few panels. The “training sequence” in comics can risk going on for too long, as we’ve all seen them before, but “Ginka & Glüna” grossly underplays it instead. The consequence is that the magic seems like an afterthought. As a reader, I don’t need an ornate list of rules or a system of magic described inside and out, but I do need a sense of the role of magic in the world, and how fantastical or rare it is to be a magician. The series treats this as an afterthought, and as such, little is earned emotionally or otherwise. This reads to me as a mangaka wanting to brush past the worldbuilding and get onto the plot, as manga cancellation practices seem to have a quicker trigger finger than ever.
There are enough inventive moments and unique visuals in these pages to keep me reading for a bit, but I worry that the series is already moving on from what makes it unique. The series doesn’t tell us enough about its world, but also doesn’t plant the seeds for future questions about it either. As it is, “Ginka & Glüna” is merely a pleasant manga, when it has the potential to be more.
Final Verdict: 6.0 – “Ginka & Glüna” boasts great aesthetics, but shows a lack of patience in establishing its world.
