By Dustin Cabeal

It’s another week meaning more Jump Start! If this is your first time reading my review for Weekly Shonen Jump keep in mind that I don’t review the overall issue, but rather the individual stories that I read in that particular issue. Let’s get it started!

Hungry Marie - Score: 2/5

Yeah… this one. From what I can tell some Rama shit is going down with this story… maybe? It follows a boy who lives as a Daoist in his grandmother’s home, which is next to a Catholic church. There’s a girl his age next door, and the two are forbidden from seeing each other. They become teens, and he finds her doing some black magic shit in the middle of a grassy knoll. If this next part seems convenient, it is. Remember, it’s a grassy knoll, by a commonly used walkway. The girl, wish I could remember her name but everyone was forgettable, tells the dude that he’s her accomplice now and must help her finish the ritual which is to bring back Marie Antoinette’s daughter Marie Therese Charlotte.

Don’t ask me why I don’t fucking know.

Eventually, the dude gets struck by lightning and boom, out pops Marie… talking like the dude. He’s apparently in her body… or some shit, I don’t know, because the story ended there.

What’s obnoxious about the story is all the meta manga references. The character’s personalities “change” and they call it out to each other, which is incredibly dumb since we have no sense for how these characters actually act yet. Then there’s the narration which only pops in when it wants to try and be cute and fails miserably. The art was generic; it’s a style and designs you’ve seen a hundred times before and I hated the main dude's hair. It looked one-dimensional which was annoying. I’m not looing forward to reading more of this, but it only has two more issues of Jump Start, so I guess I’ll struggle through and try not break something while reading it.

Boruto: Naruto Next Generation – Score: 3/5

I read this now. I get the hype. It’s the perfect dramatic, can he do it formula and even though it’s the second generation it still works. Dude is a master, and I get why people get sucked into this. Doesn’t mean it’s particularly good every chapter or that it’s provoking deep thought in the reader, but he’s got the shonen formula down to a simple math equation.

This chapter has a great moment and then a kind of lame filler moment which is why it ends up scoring in the middle. We see the final part of Boruto’s battle which was technically over the last chapter. That was the chapter that got me into this series by the way. Boruto fights a god, and that God stops time to talk to him and warn him of his future. This part is dope as shit because like any good shit head hero he doesn’t tell anyone and tries to go it alone so that he can learn the lesson of “you need the people in your life” over and over for years to come. Which is fine, it works every damn time so why change it? The rest is just filler getting to the next big arc. There was some moderate character development, but nothing that stuck with me since I was new to the series. It came across very superficial and fan-pleasing rather than actual development or even necessary to the story. The art is killer. I enjoy the style and how clean it is. It’s why this series can be pumped out faster than other series, less shading and extra line work, but still respecting the black and white medium.

U19 – Score: 1/5

Thank god this is the fourth chapter, and this series will bounce the fuck out after this. Yup, it’s fucking X-Men. That’s all this is. You know that long scene on the roof with the helicopter? It’s still fucking going on! The worst part is that afterward there’s no mention or concern for the main dudes gunshot wound! WHAT THE FUCK! He got shot… address that injury!

The main character whines and repeats himself way too much to root for him and the terrible thing is that everyone does the same thing. The adults can’t talk without summing up the adult party and the rating system every time. And “Adult Party” still sucks and makes no logical sense. All political parties are adults, just come up with a better name already. I hope never to read this series again because the other people with powers introduced were equally annoying.

Demon Prince Poro’s Diaries – Score: 2/5

Well, this dissolved into a monster of the week rather quickly. Poro is taking notes on the human world so that he can implement changes in the demon world. This gives the creator a chance to make free jokes about the demon world like stop lights meaning to kill, run over and run over again. Hilarious. This chapter reeked of pandering. Everything was trying to be cutesy, and none of the charm rang through this time around.

What was even worse was the fact that the story stayed with a possessed character for most of the issue, and then Poro resolved the conflict in a matter of moments which was completely anticlimactic. If this is just going to be low-hanging fruit jokes and a monster of the week possessions, then I’m not going to miss it in a week when its no longer being included in Jump.

The Promised Neverland – Score: 4/5

Ray is a dirty dog! He’s also great because he’s remembered his entire life from the womb forward. That’s pretty much all this chapter is about, how Ray has known about the demons that they’re being raised for all along. They come up with a solid plan for Norman, but then they also reveal a bit more about the world which was fascinating and opens up the story for more adventures, new conflicts, challenges, and characters. There’s nothing else to say about this one other than it’s become the story I look forward to the most since I’m reading so many others in trade. Frankly, I’m looking forward to reading this one in trade as well.

That is all folks. Another week of manga, most of it ended up being pretty disappointing, but there’s always next week.