By Dustin Cabeal

This is review is going to be a little different. You see, I just got a subscription to Weekly Shonen Jump when it was on sale for ten bucks, before that I hand never read an issue. When I started reading, I discovered that several of the series inside were titles that I was reading in trade. This put me in an awkward spot because I don’t want to read ahead nor do I want to be stuck waiting for chapters over and over.

What I decided to do is read what I wanted to read. After all, ten bucks for an entire year… I think I can pick and choose. Because of that, I won’t be giving the overall issue a review, but instead, the different story that I read will be scored. Hopefully, that makes sense; if not then bear with me and you’ll see what the hell I’m talking about in a second.

We Never Learn – Score: 3/5

We Never Learn, is one of this year’s Jump Starts, which is to say the new manga series that Viz is trying out. Honestly, I would read Weekly Shonen Jump just to see what new titles there are since I’m far more interested in that than something like One Piece.

The premise of this series is easy, to sum up. A very smart boy is given a full ride to college, but only if he tutors and helps the school’s two resident geniuses. Why? Because they’re only good in one subject each. There is a catch though because that would be too simple. Both girls want to go to school for the opposite thing they’re good at, for instance, one girl is great at math but wants to go to a Liberal Arts school. Everyone has given up on them because they really and truly suck at the thing they want to go to college for, instead of going for what they’re a genius at already.

It’s not a terrible premise, but it’s just not very believable. I can easily see it morphing into something else or just being a situational rom-com. The art is quite nice, very clean and not to over the top with the comedic elements. The big problem with the art is that you can tell the personality types of the two main female characters instantly. I’m curious about this one, but we’ll see if it has enough of a premise to make it.

The Promised Neverland – Score: 4/5

I jumped into this story with the chapter before and was instantly intrigued, but also a little disturbed. The premise of this story is that an orphanage of kids is being raised as food. They didn’t know it until another kid told them and now they’re trying to bust out. Currently, in this chapter and the previous one, the gig is up. The caretaker “Mom” knows what they’re up to and is now handling them differently.

I was surprised by how much psychology was packed into this story. There’s a battle of wits, and really the kids are outclassed. Especially after seeing what Mom does in response to their tactic in this chapter, I don’t know if these kids have the mental fortitude to win. Which is why I’ll keep reading. There seems to be a lot of unknowns, like who is eating the kids? Why kids? Why does mom raise them under the guise of helping them? I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this story. The kids are more mature than they would realistically be, but at least they’re not adult minds in kid’s bodies like a lot of children in comics are portrayed. Overall, I like this story and can’t wait to read more.

RWBY – Score: 1/5

I want to root for RWBY so much, but I can’t stand it. The art is the first thing that bugs me because the illustrator isn’t drawing for it to be colored like an American comic book. There’s so much white on the page and nothing to contrast it, that it’s an eyesore. Especially when just read a story that did utilize the medium of black and white properly.

As for the story, I’m still completely lost. I didn’t get a very good grasp of the events in the last chapter and that sadly continued here, which is strange since I’ve read the same amount of chapters to the story I just talked about, and it all clicked. I’ll be skipping this one in the future, but if you’re enjoying it… good for you?

Blue Exorcist – Score: 3/5

Ugh, this fucking series. I haven’t enjoyed any of it, but I figured since I don’t care about it that I would just dive in and read it. It was average. It was competent. Everything I read made sense, but Kazue Kato continues to draw out the story. Everything I read felt like filler. That and the annoying demon dude that never gives a straight answer sucks as a character. He’s frustrating to see on the page because I now know that his appearance is just a cop out on giving real answers to questions that need to be answered in the series.

The art is the best thing about this story, but since nothing happens in this chapter, it doesn’t have much to do. Wish I had more to say about this story, but I just don’t enjoy it. I don’t see the appeal and hate how the basic Christian Mythology is cherry picked for ideas because then it doesn’t make any sense. It’s like taking a sport, removing the scoring and structure and pretending that still makes sense. It doesn’t, and the characters are too annoying to enjoy.

That’s about it people. There are too many other titles that I’m reading in trade, but I’ll keep up with this and the new titles which might be the only thing I bother reviewing in the future because why keep up on series I don’t like reading… like Seraph of the End which I completely skipped.