Worst to Best

When it comes to comics, I have a pretty varied reading list, but thanks to one particular publication, the majority of releases I read come from Shonen Jump on a near enough weekly basis. There’s a fair bit of variety, and even when I come across a “bad” story I feel like there’s lessons I can learn from them too.

I can’t just read them in the order they display on the page. (I sort of have the same habit with a plate of food); I find the series I’m least interested in (or a brand new series debut) and start with that, and then I finish on the series that I’m most invested in. Also, to clarify the use of the word “bad” earlier; I think every story has an audience and a subjective value beyond anything I can give. I have a lot of confidence in my tastes, but I’m too self aware of how subjectivity works to make the mistake of telling anybody what holds what value. Nobody can do that for you.

This week saw 17 series publish that i actively read (That’s not every single one, as there are a few that I’ve never had a chance to start back when Viz made access convenient), and I'd at least say the last 10 are where the publication is at its strongest. So, let’s begin, as of 19/01/2024 (in the uk) when Shonen Jump published it’s weekly chapters, this was the order I read each series in. I’ll be brief, but i will share my reasoning too, to give you an idea of where I’m coming from with my decisions:

NOTE: DanDaDan is not in the weekly line up, it releases the next day, if it had been the case though, it would have been saved until last.

Nue’s Exorcist

I’m usually spot on with what series are destined for cancellation in Jump; but to my surprise, despite not being personally grabbed by the series, it has found an audience. The series feels highly derivative of Jump predecessors such as Bleach, and while I don’t think it’s a bad thing to tell a story about a young adult using spirit powers in high school, the fact that the story is exceptionally messy and aimless is the real killer. It’s not like it hasn’t made the goal clear, it’s that it gets regularly smothered with every main girl having a thing for the main character and he barely has any personality to speak of.

Hakutaku

It’s a comic about game development, and while I think hobbies translate well into comic books (or any medium for that matter) I feel like a lot of hobby stories based around video games do a massive disservice to the subject. I think this series has potential to stick around, but for now, I think my main reason for getting it out of the way early is that I don’t want to invest in a story that is barely covering the struggles of such an intense creative endeavor, and doesn’t really have the most compelling cast of characters right now.

I have a really strong feeling this one is getting the chop. I just can’t find a single thing about this story that invests its readers into wanting to know what happens next. If it does get chopped, I think I’ll do a video rather than a written blog where I deep dive into why in much more detail.

The Elusive Samurai

Despite my love of Japan, Japanese history is a subject where I tend to get a bit lost in the weeds. I actually think this story is great in many respects; and the attention to detail as well as storytelling liberties with the more unknown parts of history is especially praise worthy. If somebody were asking me for recommendations, depending on the kind of person asking, I’d probably place this a lot higher in any given list.

Astro Royale

Like Nue’s exorcist, we have another sort of aimless Shonen that doesn’t give me the impression that it knows what it wants to be. I feel a lack of a coherent goal really harms a lot of the series that end up being early reads. Also, character design in this one is really a massive bugbear for me, the amount of fluffy similar looking hairstyles on its male cast is frustrating, there are minor differences from one design to the next, but it’s especially annoying in a medium that is already limited by being black and white. The eyes do tend to be distinct, but due to generic face shaping, it’s not enough for me, especially when a gust of wind can make the first two look very close to example three.

Syd Craft: Love Is a Mystery

Comedy in comic form is a tough one for me. I think the only series I’ve seen do it well is the hobbyist series Show-Ha Shoten, which is all about manzai performances. I’ll try not to drift too far from the subject, but I still remember buying a simpsons comic in my childhood, and being fascinated at the attempts but not really enticed to laugh as a response.

Syd is a detective that doesn’t actually want to be a detective, he’d rather read romance novels and lead a completely different life altogether. His attention to detail and ability to stumble into the solution and nab the culprit, stomp on any other ambitions he may have though. We’re sort of getting closer to stories that I feel have more of a pull, though they’re a bit rough in places for a few more entries still.

Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi

At 28 chapters it’s early days, but despite being a little more clear in what the overall objective is for the main character, this series still suffers a bit from just bouncing from idea to idea without properly addressing each one with the time required to elaborate and explore it. The series looks great, with some of the best art in the entire magazine, and that sort of helps it out for me. The biggest turn off however, is how it sometimes will take an element from its contemporaries, such as the exam arc in Hunter X Hunter, and completely fail to have any of the same potency and impact on the story.

Shinobi Undercover

This is where the publication starts to turn a corner for the better, Shinobi undercover is a pretty interesting series where the only thing failing to grab me is the fact that Shonen Jump already sort of has a lot of its appeal in other stories already. A skilled yet socially awkward shinobi is tasked with guarding a clumsy yet confident student in danger of assassination, the two form a bond while events take place in the plot. In recent years, a lot of stories where two characters build an oftentimes romantic bond have become more common, and I think that really speaks volumes for the series nearer to the end of the list having a major influence on the future of Jump and teen culture’s evolution.

Hima-Ten

A story with a male protagonist with a wholesome way of life in an ALMOST wholesome harem. Tenichi Iemori works as a house cleaner after school. There’s a new girl at school who runs a makeup company, and due to having a business to run she requires his help (though doesn’t realise it’s her classmate when she employs him). Similar to Nue’s Exorcist, it’s another one of those stories where all the girls seem to fall for the main character, but in this case it at least feels like Iemori earns it, and does a much better job in the personality department… where the ALMOST from earlier comes in though, is that there’s a lot of revealing moments, that while not necessarily nudity, and usually written as accidental, is hard to give praise to when it happens a little too often to be anything more than a way to entertain its teen audience… Plus these characters are all students, and while we’re all aware of the awkward navigation teen life can bring; it happens too often as I stated before.

Super Psychic Policeman Chojo

Comedy in comic form as I said before doesn’t often land with me, but I at least feel like SPP Chojo manages to entertain with each chapter. Hijinx of the week type stuff where the characters mildly develop a little bit each time too. Earlier I complained about early examples being aimless, but in the case of this series, the whimsical nature of it all is why it works as well as it does. Plus it’s a great palette cleanser to get ready for what I feel is an ever increasing return in quality with the remaining entries.

Kill Blue

A series all about a hitman (Juzo Ogami) that has been turned into a child by some mystery drug, and consequently forced into becoming a student, with the mission of body guarding the daughter of a pharmaceutical company that may be able to change him back to normal. The bit that really hurts this series is that it on occasion threatens to make the two characters a couple, despite the fact the main character is essentially a grown man.

What saves it, is that Juzo absolutely detests the idea of her falling for him and vice versa, as he knows full well that it’s wrong. I just hope it stays that way (I have a fair bit of confidence that it will, just based on how it conducts itself in general). The story itself has interesting predicaments, and is pretty inventive with its battle manga scenarios and encounters.

Witch Watch

Witch Watch is really tough to summarise, but was one of the pioneer series in the current trend of having a romantic through line parallel to the core narrative (if not the core narrative itself). Nico Wakatsuki is a witch with familiars that are also fellow students and co-habitants of a shared house. A lot of the story focuses on the monkey's paw ramifications of any given spell she can cast. The familiars are really vehicles to add to the potential of any given events direction, but also serve as her guardians against a looming threat that sometimes finds a way into the story at pretty infrequent intervals. I used to have this one closer to the end of any given reading session, but now it sort of sits in the middle. If I get a chance, I’m at least tempted to check out the author’s prior work Sket Dance.

Ichi the Witch

In a world where magic is almost entirely a practice only women can partake in, Ichi the hunter manages to join their ranks as the first male witch. The entire plot revolves around the capture of various spells that manifest as creatures, and I dig the fairly fresh feeling of the entire narrative. It feels like a very long time since a series about encountering various monsters on a massive journey was published anywhere. I get pokemon/ digimon/ monster rancher/ and of course, Card Captor vibes from it, while also appreciating how it stands apart from them at the same time. I just hope it’s finding its audience and can survive cancellation.

Kagurabachi

Last time I wrote about this series, I was hoping it would survive cancellation. 64 chapters in now, and I think we can safely say that it did just that. A very clear goal, in a world that’s morally grey, Kagurabachi has established itself as being fully qualified as an action series, whilst also prompting the reader to fully consider the weight of the situation lest it get lost in all the chaos. Chihiro is now starting to develop his skills in ways that challenge what has been already established for him, and I’m here for the journey.

Sakamoto Days

A good mix of absurd and serious, Sakamoto days is a fascinating read with some insanely inventive set pieces. I thought I’d have more to say than that, but that just about sums the whole series up. Don’t let this short paragraph fool you though, sometimes great series don’t leave me with much to say other than “you should give it a go”.

One Piece

It’s no big secret these days, that despite One piece being the flag ship for the entire publication, and an absolute monolith of a series in general, it’s steadily being pushed down my list of favourite series as we see writing evolve and change constantly with the ever changing world around us. Don’t get me wrong, I love the series even with its many flaws, and I’ll still be sad when it all ends, but there are better series out there that I’m much more excited for each week.

Blue Box

Of all the stories with a heavy focus on romance in the publication, none have even come close to the maturity and wholesome vibes that Blue Box brings to the table. At a believable pace, the story takes its first 100 chapters or so to define the main characters, their ambitions in the world of high school sports, and then slowly pair them together in a way that feels like a story to show the current generation how deep love actually is, how uplifting it can be, and how to even deal with heartbreak and rejection too when it comes to an exceptional supporting cast also finding their way in love, life, and sport.

Akane Banashi

Being the greatest (Insert aspiration here) at face value is a shonen jump staple. So it's stories like this one, where everything else needs to be compelling and robust to stop readers from feeling like they've been here a million times before. Rakugo is a performance art where a single individual tells the audience a story, while doing their best to make the audience feel like they're able to see all the various characters within any given story’s world. The narrative journey sees Akane learning the trade in a way that both educates her and us the reader, in a way that provides easy to understand challenges and a strong cast of rivals. I’m especially excited that the latest chapter has brought a completely unexpected, yet very compelling new arc forward for 2025’s chapters to come.

CONCLUSION

It was a lot of fun to actually log these down and see where they all place and why. If i’d have known what was in some of them, i’d have gotten them out the way sooner, for instance I think Hima-Ten fell even further during this reading session. It’s always either Blue Box or Akane Banashi that end the session for me, and some weeks that’s out of preference, and in other weeks it’s just whichever one I click on first. I do the same thing with my food, I eat the worst tasting thing, and end on the most satisfying, to leave a good taste in my mouth by the end.

I don’t think the bad should be avoided though, especially if you’re an aspiring writer, and doubly so if you’re an aspiring comic book writer that actively follows a cut throat publisher that will have you gone by your third or fourth volume if the performance is no good. There’s a bit of fun that comes from challenging yourself to identify what does and doesn’t work, though I want to push back on that a bit seeing as Blue Box surfaced at a time where there was no trend for such a story working.

It won’t tell you what to do, but you will still get a good sense of what to avoid. Thanks for coming along for the ride, if you’re engaging with this on one of my social media platforms, please let me know what you thought of it all!