With many apologies to Dennis Kininger, the writer of this installment of Manga Views, for delaying two months before posting his article, here is an extensive review of the first issue of the newly-imported manga series Shonen Jump.
This article also marks the final column to appear on BorderWalker for the foreseeable future. All of our writers have done a fantastic job of filling out our site with first-rate written content. Due to scheduling across the board, however, as well as the desire on
my part, as editor-in-chief, to focus time and attention on our comics themselves, the columns will be taking a leave of absence from the BorderWalker lineup. Thanks for supporting our writers, and if resources and interest return in the future, maybe the columns will as well!
--Chris Watkins, Editor-in-Chief
Hi everyone,
With the craziness of the 2002 holiday season behind
us and 2003 now underway, I thought it was time to
start the year off right with yet a few more manga
reviews (big surprise there, huh?) However, instead of
my usual reviews of older material, I'm doing things a
bit differently with a review of a brand new title for
a change:
SHONEN JUMP volume 1, issue #1 (January 2003)
Published by Viz Communications, Inc.
Reviewed by Dennis Kininger.
This is my first attempt at a review of an actual
manga anthology magazine. For the benefit of others,
SHONEN JUMP is the American version of an extremely
popular Japanese manga anthology called WEEKLY SHONEN
JUMP, which has been published for decades in Japan
and has long served as an example of the best in manga
and the writer/artists who create it.
The word "shonen" is Japanese for "boy" but can also
refer, in some meanings, to courage, adventure,
fantasy, love and romance...all popular elements of
manga and anime. Shonen manga is one of the most
popular demographics with fans of all ages and both
genders. SHONEN JUMP is meant to provide such manga to
a receptive American audience and I think it succeeds
nicely in this first issue.
The American SHONEN JUMP is a slick, very handsome
looking magazine with the ambitious goal of presenting
a host of popular manga series to a receptive American audience. This opening issue features a snazzy front cover of Son Goku, from DRAGONBALL Z, leaping out at the reader and a neat pose of Yugi from YU-GI-OH! on the back. In addition to some interviews and articles on games, cards and toys, this new magazine also features five chapters of popular mangas presented in the proper right-to-left format of the original Japanese manga. This means the artwork seen is presented as the artist/writer originally intended and it's not reversed which happens when manga is translated into English, which is read left-to-right. SHONEN JUMP also adds American sound effects instead of keeping the previous Japanese ones...this is a minor quibble but doesn't take away from the overall enjoyment of this magazine.
With the exception of the DRAGON BALL Z and YU YU
HAKUSHO mangas, I knew little about the other titles
offered in this issue.
From my point of view, the first serial, Kazuki
Takahashi's YU-GI-OH! was simply an odd card game
which is apparently one of the latest "rages" with
young kids, though I've yet to see a single kid play
it, as well as a popular kiddie cartoon series I've
never seen.
The opening chapter of the manga turned out to be
surprisingly charming, sometimes dark and I rather
enjoyed it. YU-GI-OH! is the tale of a young boy in
Junior High (a common setting for much shonen manga)
named Yugi. He's small, short and picked upon by
bullies. He has one real friend, a girl named Anzu. He
lives with his eccentric grandfather, a game store
owner and Yugi loves puzzles. For eight years, he's
been trying to solve a mysterious Egyptian puzzle
called the "Millennium Puzzle". Whoever solves it will
be able to control the "Shadow Games", bestowing him
or her with some sort of mystic powers over gaming and
games.
Needless to say, Yugi solves the puzzle, which grants
him magical powers that he doesn't quite remember
using. A school bully is cleverly dispatched and Yugi
gains a couple new friends.
As I said, I knew absolutely nothing about the card
game or the anime series but I enjoyed this opening
chapter of the YU-GI-OH! manga.
The second serial is the wildly popular DRAGONBALL Z
by Akira Toriyama. Once again, I approached this manga
knowing very little about it. I've never played the
video games and I've tried to watch the anime but the
endless fighting and apparent lack of a storyline just
baffles me to no end.
SHONEN JUMP #1 provides a nice interview with Toriyama
and lots of character descriptions to help the
DRAGONBALL novice, such as myself, try to follow
what's going on.
Unfortunately, the DRAGONBALL serial in this issue was
probably the weakest manga of the bunch. The SHONEN
JUMP serial begins roughly halfway through the entire
vast DRAGONBALL storyline and I don't like having to
chew through mountains of backstory in order to enjoy
a comic. It was fun to actually read and somewhat
comprehend DRAGONBALL Z for the first time and
Toriyama's artwork is enjoyable but I suppose this
series has to grow on me some more before I can
appreciate it better.
The third serial, SANDLAND, is a newer manga, also by
Akira Toriyama. I knew absolutely nothing about this
series, which thankfully starts at a very helpful
Chapter One and proved to be quite entertaining as
well.
It's set in an apocalyptic desert world where demons
and humans co-exist and water is in short supply. A
ruthless king controls the sole water supply, until a
second supply seems to have been found.
A human comes to the city seeking out aid from a
demon. The human has evidence of a second water source
and Prince Beelzebub of the demons listens to the
human's plan to unite their forces to go find it. Unfortunately, all doesn't go according to plan.
I enjoyed my first taste of SANDLAND. Toriyama's art
is an improvement over his earlier DRAGONBALL series.
His story is fast paced, funny and there's lots of
action mixed in with the humor. A good start to this
serial and I look forward to further chapters.
The fourth serial, YU YU HAKUSHO by Yoshihiro Togashi,
is a favorite of mine. I've grown addicted to the
dubbed anime shown on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim
block of anime programming so it was a treat to
finally see this series in its manga form for the
first time.
YU YU HAKUSHO showcases the mystical adventures of a
fourteen year old boy named Yusuke Urameshi. At the
start of the manga, Yusuke isn't a nice kid. He has a
young mother who seldom disciplines him, no father
figure and he gets in trouble at school. He's regarded
as a juvenile delinquent by pretty much everyone
except for a girl named Keiko, who believes he has
better qualities inside.
Then he surprises everyone by saving the life of a
small child who had wandered into traffic. Yusuke
loses his life but his adventures are just beginning.
As Yusuke drifts about in a ghostly form, he's
approached by an attractive young kimono-wearing woman
called "Botan", who's also an incarnation of Death.
Since Yusuke died before his time, Botan offers him a
chance to return to life...except it wouldn't be easy.
As I mentioned earlier, this is a favorite anime of
mine and the opening chapter of the manga basically
follows the first episode of the anime quite
faithfully. My favorite character is Yusuke's rival,
Kuwabara, who starts out as a dim-witted thug who only
wants to beat Yusuke in a fight and becomes something
much more later in the series. After many challenges,
Yusuke regains his life and becomes a "Spirit
Detective" for the afterlife. In order to find out
what a Spirit Detective is, I recommend further
chapters of this manga or watching the anime.
Togashi's artwork is expressive and lively. The series
is a skillful blend of humor, romance and action. I
recommend the anime and my first exposure to the manga
version was a most enjoyable one.
The fifth and final manga in SHONEN JUMP #1 is another
series I'm unfamiliar with, ONE PIECE by Eiichiro Oda.
This is a nicely drawn, fast and fun tale of a young
boy named Monkey D. Luffy who dreams of becoming the
King of all the Pirates.
The series starts with a captured pirate "King" called
Gold Roger who, before he's killed, reveals that his
treasure, which is referred to as "One Piece", resides somewhere in the entire world and sets off a new era of Piracy as others try to locate it. Luffy is first seen as a young boy longing to leave his seaside village. A group of pirates, led by Captain "Red Haired" Shanks have been living in his village. Luffy longs to join them but he can't swim and the Pirates think he's too small and inexperienced to join them.
One day he mistakingly eats a gum-gum fruit stolen by
the pirates. The fruit gives Luffy the ability to
stretch his body but takes away any chance he'd have
of learning how to swim. The Pirates fight with some
Mountain Bandits, Shanks loses an arm to a sea monster
while saving Luffy, who can't swim and the pirates
leave town for good as Luffy vows to become King of
the Pirates.
Ten years pass and a teenaged Luffy sets out in a
rowboat to assemble his pirate crew, his adventures
just beginning.
All in all, the new American version of SHONEN JUMP is
off to a good start. Since I'm not a toy collector or
game player, I wasn't too interested in the sections
covering these topics but I enjoyed the interviews
with manga creators and the helpful tips on the
Japanese names and cultural aspects that I wasn't
quite familiar with. I also enjoyed the five segments
of manga to various degrees. In my opinion, the manga
presented is suitable for a young teen audience or
anyone older who enjoys this material. The art is
clean and the stories are fast and lively. Some facets
of the stories may be lost on a younger reader though.
After my first trip to Baltimore's OTAKON last summer,
I became aware of just how big the American audience
for manga and anime really is. A growing collection of translated manga trade paperbacks continue to appear in bookstores. There are a few other fine manga anthologies on the stands, SUPER MANGA BLAST, ANIMERICA and the new RAIJIN COMICS, which shares some similarities with SHONEN JUMP except it presents some manga of a more mature nature, keeps the original Japanese sound effects and comes out more frequently than SHONEN JUMP. I hope to review RAIJIN COMICS before too long as it is probably the closest thing America is going to have to an authentic Japanese style manga anthology.
So, if you're a manga fan looking for new stuff to
read, give SHONEN JUMP a try. At $4.95 an issue and
each issue is roughly 300 pages, it's a considerable
value in these days of already too high comic book
prices.
Check it out, then explore more of the growing
American manga market. There's lots of great material
out there just waiting to be found.
--Dennis
1/20/03
