Here I will give you brief rundown on some of this week’s Jump chapters, and my thoughts on the how each series is doing. I’m still figuring out how to write about as many chapters as I can in a timely fashion. So there will be more content to come.
There will be spoilers throughout so proceed with caution.
My Hero Academia No. 242 – Have a Merry Christmas!
By Kohei Horikoshi
Translation: Caleb Cook
Lettering: John Hunt
So. Many. Santas.
Despite the lack of variety in costumes at this Christmas party, this chapter has some cool moments. Revealing that the real reason for the dorm system was to root out any student traitors is a cool twist. Even though there’s no way there’s not a traitor. The way they just offhandedly ruled it out makes it way too obvious.
I thought the moment with Bakugo and Best Jeanist was awesome, and is a good reminder of why I like Bakugo so much. He is the master at saying a ton of things he doesn’t really mean, while actually saying exactly how he feels.
Take these panels for example. It’s clear that he’s taking Best Jeanist’s words to heart, despite constantly blowing him off. And in the lower left he seems to imply that he’s better than everyone, when really he respects Best Jeanist so much that he doesn’t want to be under anyone else’s tutelage… until Todoroki comes along and proposes a SICK new direction for the manga great opportunity to study under the No. 1 hero, and newly reformed Dad, Endeaver.
All in all I’m pretty excited to see those two and Midoriya share some screen time. I’ve got a feeling the next arc is going to be legendary (I’m a big fan of training arcs).
Black Clover, Page 219: As Pitch Black as It Gets
By YĆ«ki Tabata
Translation: Taylor Engel
Lettering: Annaliese Christman
Black Clover has done a great job of hyping up almost all of their characters, especially the Magic Knight captains. Every time one of them shows up it’s sick. Now that Nozel has shaped up he’s right up there with Fuegoleon, and together they make for some exciting panels, even if they didn’t really do anything.
But even with all of that, nobody compares to the Black Bulls’ members. Being a collection of rejects, and forming an irreversible bond, they are basically like a pirate crew that took a wrong turn and sailed into the wrong manga. They play by their own rules and I love them for it.
While giving Nero a cape may seam a little unceremonious, she’s been with the group just as long as Asta has and I’m glad she’s sticking around. I’m a big fan of her design, and her magic is so cool.
While this mini-review may have been all over the place, the point is I can’t wait to see what new adventures the Black Bulls, and our boy that “Rips Right through ‘Meaningless,'” go on.
Mission: Yozakura Family Mission 3: Feelings
By Hitsuji Gondaira
Translation and Lettering: Pinkie-Chan
So far so good on this new series. With the setting it seems like this was going to be a monster-of-the-week type manga but we haven’t really seen any monsters of weeks. It would be interesting to see what this type of setting would turn out like with a heavy serial-type plot. I like the protag, deep down he’s got that shonen toughness but he’s got heavy anxiety and anti-social tendencies which makes him interesting at first blush, but he still has a lot of room to develop.
Mitama Security: Spirit Busters code 2 / slam!
By Tsurun Hatomune
Translation: Amanda Haley
Lettering: Rina Mapa
There’s good and bad to this series so far. I love the heroine, Rena Haze. She’s delightfully melancholy that seeps right through the page. Her design reminds me a little bit of the heroine from Rave, but more nuanced. She talks in a way that makes her seem disconnected from reality in a way, and it feels like that’s exactly what the author intended.
She pairs well with our friendly neighborhood secureity agent, who is all over the place. They are both extreme examples of their straight-man and funny-man roles, and they surprisingly sort of cancel each other out. Take one or the other on their own and it would be too much (or too little, in Rena’s case).
Where it starts to get a little shaky is when Mitama gets serious. I’ve never been the biggest fan of characters who all of a sudden get a huge power up for basically no reason. It always feels like an ass-pull instead of someone overcoming the odds and coming out on top. But that can always be fixed with proper backstory, or just forgotten about after a few chapters.
