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 check in with “Samurai 8” and “Spy x Family.” If you have thoughts on these or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
Spy x Family — Mission 1
Written and Illustrated by Tatsuya Endo
Reviewed by Kerry Erlanger
I can be hard to please when it comes to new manga, though that statement isn’t some form of humblebrag. This doesn’t come out of any sort of commitment to higher standards than the average reader. Simply put, my days are busy, and as the years go on I find my attention span waning. I put a lot of effort into remaining engaged in the things I want to be engaged with. Sometimes, it’s tough work.
I’m prefacing this review with that information, because I want to try and convey just what a feat it is that “Spy x Family” not only managed to keep me completely engaged throughout the entire first chapter, but also because that first chapter was 71 pages.
First things first, the artwork: I love it. It manages to be cutesy, but sort of cool at the same time, which can be a difficult balance to strike. The character designs feel modern, but comfortingly familiar in the way I, as an older manga reader, am constantly searching for. Nothing feels out of place; Tatsuya Endo seamlessly merges his character’s polished attractiveness with the story, which is, inevitably, about the ways life can subvert our expectations (also spies).
“Twilight” is a spy. He’s the country of Westalis’ best, in fact. He’s given up the chance at a normal life to be fully committed to his career of choice, with no regrets to speak of. So of course, his next mission forces him to don the persona of doting family man in order to infiltrate the boarding school of the son of his notoriously reclusive target. Twilight isn’t particularly thrilled with this, but it doesn’t take a genius to see where this new mission will inevitably take him — the emotionless spy with a tragic past and a secret heart of gold, who soon discovers there’s more to life than the job? Shocking!
Still, the first chapter manages to endear you to this inevitable trope without being too heavy handed about it. A lot of the credit for that goes to Anya, the (secretly telepathic) six year old girl that Twilight adopts from the world’s worst orphanage to be his daughter. Her hijinks are part of what makes this first chapter so successful. She’s cute and childish, but smart in a way that gives Twilight a run for his money. In a different world, it wouldn’t be so unbelievable to imagine that she is actually his child, which will definitely pose problems for him in the future.
Still, Twilight needs to find himself a wife, and judging by the two-page spread at the beginning of the chapter (Which is beautiful, by the way. I love Endo’s choice of colors.), she’s going to be just as dangerous as Twilight himself — maybe even more so. I know it’s cliche, but I am kind of looking forward to Twilight being surprised by meeting his match. Will they fall in love? Probably. Is this manga going to end with all of them being a family forever? Most definitely. Do I care that it’s completely predictable? Not in the least.
Final Verdict: 7.8 — A well done, and well drawn, manga that somehow manages to make old cliches feel fresh again.
Samurai 8 Chapter 19
Written by Masashi Kishimoto
Illustrated by Akira Okubo
Reviewed by Rowan Grover
One thing I appreciate about “Samurai 8” compared to other Shonen manga, it’s predecessor “Naruto” in particular, is that the story moves at the same rocket-speed pacing that the action does, which is super refreshing. Only nineteen chapters in, and we’ve already learned a substantial amount about our characters, the world, and are approaching what’s roughly our third major arc.
This arc itself serves to be something of a tournament-based one, and we’re already getting a training sequence that starts to play nicely with some of the rules of samurai warfare. We already saw in previous chapters that Ryu was able to bend his katana with the use of additional souls, but now Kishimoto clearly demonstrates his superiority to Hachi through his managing to hit Hachi up to 31 times without fail. What we get on top of this is Hachi demonstrating a development in his own fighting style that takes advantage of the weird sci-fi influence on this manga. To score a hit on Ryu, Hachi slices off his own arm and propels it forwards for reach, and slices off his head to avoid taking a hit too. It’s a comeback that’s well developed through the issue as Ryu seems to dominate and the way that Hachi achieves it is unique and genuinely unexpected.
There’s also some solid universe building as Kishimoto establishes the threat in the tournament in the first two pages of the book. It’s a small moment, but it packs a lot of punch in its narrative restraint, choosing to let Okubo’s terrifying depiction of the massive silhouette inspire readers with awe and fear without overloading with information. Similarly, the way Ryu and Kotsuga take about the tournament with a level of awe and discuss the mystery of Ryu’s past gives readers a sense of a bigger world full of future story potential.
A lot of Okubo’s art here is dedicated to breezy action sequences, but we do get a few other fun visual techniques. I love the sense of scale and dread we get in the opening pages of the tournament scene. The opening with the scarred planet does a lot of storytelling on its own, coming off the reveal last chapter that a samurai was powerful enough to do this. The zoom in gives us a great sense of power levels and scale, since move in from the scar down to what could be the samurai that cut it into the planet. When we see the samurai, Okinawa uses silhouette really nicely to give us just a hint of the samurai’s details to tease readers, yet hides enough to keep their identity a mystery whilst giving the whole image a good sense of gravitas.
Then we move into the training sequence with Ryu. There’s a great sense of momentum that’s steadily developed from the start of this fight, as Okubo opens the scene with fairly empty backgrounds and little movement between the characters. Then, as Ryu makes the first move, the panels begin to zoom in and few busier, being packed with more action details and speed lines to hype up readers. The transitions between Ryu’s attacks are also instantaneous, so not only do we get a sense of his skill and speed, but we also feel for Hachi’s self-frustration as he can’t begin to sense where these attacks begin. The final segment of the fight, where Hachi changes up his fighting style, is also a lot of fun because Okubo gives the scene more room to breath and look interesting. Hachi cutting off his arm is shot at a dynamic angel and takes up a quarter of a two page spread, feeling appropriately dramatic and wild.
“Samurai 8” continues at high-speed into it’s latest arc with some fun training and downtime, fleshing out newer characters and inventive exciting ideas for older ones. This series continues to be one to check out, especially for the delightful Akira Okubo art.
Final Score: 8.5 – A solid chapter of character development that kicks off an exciting tournament arc for our characters.
