Welcome to This Week in Shonen Jump, in which a rotating duo of Multiversity staffers take a look at two stories contained in each installment of Viz Media’s Weekly Shonen Jump. For the uninitiated, Weekly Shonen Jump is an anthology that delivers more than 200 pages of manga of all varieties. We hope that you’ll join us in exploring the world of Weekly Shonen Jump each week. If you are unfamiliar, you can read sample chapters and subscribe at Viz.com.
This week, Alice and Rowan check in with “Boruto” and “Robot X Laserbeam” If you have any thoughts on these titles, or “My Hero Academia,” “Food Wars, “Dr. Stone”,” “We Never Learn,” “Lycopene The Tomatoy Poodle,” or “The Promised Neverland,” or let us know in the comments!
Boruto Chapter 17
Written by Ukyo Kodachi
Illustrated by Mikio Ikemoto
Reviewed by Rowan Grover
“Boruto” continues with a huge 40-page chapter right at the opening of this week’s Shonen. This chapter starts off in a strange way, with Konohamaru conducting a stealth mission that requires the use of… a ninja flash drive. It’s so weird that the spectacularly mundane has now become a plot device for the once fantastical realm of “Boruto” and “Naruto”, but in any case Ukyo Kodachi plots this section with great suspense. The story opens up a little more from here, giving us more insight into the origin of Boruto’s mark, and more about the extraterrestrial Ninja clan, the Ohtsutsuki. I love this usage of mythical elements, and Kodachi ramps them up big time. But I also find interesting Kodachi’s use of the scientific in conjuction with Ninja skill, flash drives aside. The idea of having functioning prosthetics and other futuristic sciences make sense with Jutsu and other techniques in the “Boruto” universe, and Kodachi takes it to it’s logical conclusion.
Character work is developing nicely, too. Where I once passed off Boruto himself as being a more restrained version of Naruto, I’m seeing more subtle developments in his personality. When Boruto begrugingly accepts the C-rank mission, he says ‘I ain’t gonna whine and just reject a mission. That’s a loser move’, we get that a lot of Boruto’s teacher Sasuke has infused with his personality. It makes him a character that’s a hybrid of the typical Shonen hyper-protagonist and the Shonen loner type, something quite unique and original. I also find it interesting how the almost-antagonist of this chapter, Lord Ao, is essentially a dangerous war veteran who has become dependant on scientific advancements. It makes the chapter function on a metaphorical level of Science vs. Tradition, and makes for some interesting reading.
Ikemoto does a great job throughout the chapter as per usual. I find that his work has a western influence because of the dynamic and almost 3D camera angles he uses frequently. When we see Boruto’s friends trying to convince him to accept the mission at the bar, we get an slight fish-eye effect on a tilted, high angled camera shot that feels unique for the thoroughly traditional manga styles that take place in Shonen manga. There’s a lot of these instances throughout the story – instances of the camera being just titled enough to give a 3D effect, that give the story this original style.
There’s a lot of clean line work throughout the chapter, giving way to some great character facial work. It’s juxtaposed against typical manga style, and even the original “Naruto” sketchy art style, but works well in this chapter. When Boruto sits brooding at the bar, it feels childish and silly, but never exaggerated or comedically out of character. Similarly, I love what Ikemoto can accomplish with Lord Ao – a character who has damaged most of his face during ‘the last great war’. In particular, I love how Ikemoto can have him shift from sympathetic (when the doctor has to adjust his prosthetic arm, and Ikemoto draws him as quite frail), to Ao grabbing the screwdriver and holding it to Boruto in an incredibly sinister fashion. It’s the subtle facial lines and narrowed eyes in this scene that really do it for me. Ikemoto masters the subtleties of clean line drawing in this issue, and it brings a lot of depth to the story.
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“Boruto” is tough to follow at times because of it’s erratic publishing schedule, but it still remains to be a worthy follow up to it’s juggernaut predecessor. This chapter focuses on character development, as well as new plot threads in interesting ways. Jump on board now while it’s hot.
Final Score: 8.2 – Science and Ninja Magic clashes in a great arc opener for “Boruto”.
Robot X Laserbeam: Chapter 29
Written & Illustrated by Tadatoshi Fujimaki
Reviewed by Alice W. Castle
The world of sports manga has always eluded me. Maybe because I’m not super into sports in a real world context anyway, but I also wonder if it has to do with the style. Near every sports manga or evenanime I’ve seen snippets of has had the same over-the-top shonen style that’s far too bombastic for what it’s actually portraying and ends feeling something like… well, this.
What really impressed me with “Robot X Laserbeam” was how reserved it felt. This entire chapter zeroes in on Yozan Miura taking one swing, one incredibly difficult swing that he seems to only be attempting to impress his rival, Robo, in the crowd. Now, from the other sports anime I’ve seen, I would expect that kind of a chapter to be in sufferable as it slowed down time, explored everyone’s mindset and even through in a tragic flashback to propel the character into making that one impossible move. Instead, Fujimaki frames Yozan’s swing with a vignette of a small boy being dragged along to his first golf tournament.
This is where Fujimaki sold me on the story as the kid gets overzealous in his support of Yozan and does the worst thing you can do at a golf tournament: yell out loud. But instead of getting yelled at, Yozan thanks the kid for his support but tells him to support him in his heart and not out loud. It’s a sweet moment and incredibly low key which felt incredibly sincere. That, mixed with the reserved, realistic linework from Fujimaki and the use of screentones to build warm atmosphere, this might be the story that sells me on sports manga.
