Shonen Jump 103121 Columns 

This Week in Shonen Jump: Week of 10/31/21

By | November 3rd, 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, Ken checks in with “Sakamoto Days.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!

Sakamoto Days Ch. 45
Written & Illustrated by Yuto Suzuki
Reviewed by Ken Godberson III

“Sakamoto Days” sometimes feels like it goes under the radar for how good it is. It’s a charming series with some pretty good action. Although this chapter felt like a bit of a transitional one, with separate fights at the shop and with Sakamoto, it’s still a decent one that will no doubt lead to bigger and better ones. The serial nature just means sometimes you get chapters like these.

Before getting into the chapter proper, I did want to take note of the double-page color spread that contained the main characters in a police lineup. The coloring, in particular the shadowing, is incredibly well done working in tandem with style designs that are very different from one another, in particular Nagumo, Shin and Heisuke. I see a lot of colored spreads in manga chapters that, if I’m being honest, don’t really catch my eye, so I wanted to give a note to one that I think was really cool.

Keeping on with the artwork in this book, Suzuki has really great talent. He creates a visual ominousness with the characters of Minimalist and Apart here before any large amount of dialogue comes from them. He can then further juxtapose the tone with a bit of humor such as when Minimalist crushes the cash register in a terrifying manner which results in “Lu” asking about the cash. This goes into even darker tension with you thinking that Lu is in danger before the double page action reveal.

The other battle happening involving the new villain called Apart I was not as big a fan. The artwork is still really good and in the medium that has had some batshit weapons, I feel the razor wire is one that seems to be underutilized. However I find the character of Apart to be a bit on the nose. Like, he’s a character who wants connections with people, like coming into this chapter asking a stranger what he’s thinking right now. He even straight-up says he uses this razor thread because, to paraphrase: it often symbolizes connections between people. Oh yes, very cute Suzuki, I did see what you did there.

“Sakamoto Days” flies a bit under the radar and this wasn’t the most exciting chapter of the work, but it’s still a really good series. It’s very strong art was doing more of the lifting than perhaps any plot developments in this chapter, but it still serves as a decent transition to what will no doubt be more exciting fare.

Final Verdict: 6.6- A decent enough chapter with the art doing more of the lifting.


//TAGS | This Week in Shonen Jump

Ken Godberson III

When he's not at his day job, Ken Godberson III is a guy that will not apologize for being born Post-Crisis. More of his word stuffs can be found on Twitter or Tumblr. Warning: He'll talk your ear off about why Impulse is the greatest superhero ever.

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