By Dustin Cabeal
Last week I decided to skip Weekly Shonen Jump since it only had two stories that I review gracing its pages. Which was a shame because both stories were quite good, but I just didn’t have the time or motivation. It did mark the first new ongoing story from the last bunch of Jump Start titles, but more interesting is that this issue sees the addition of two more series. If you recall my ranking article (read: Comic Bastards’ Winter 2017 Jump Start Series Rankings) I placed all three in my top three. I did mention that I had a feeling that due to the art alone that Dr. Stone would likely be the one series to make it and that was true last week when it was revealed as the first series. No idea if that means it was the most popular, but it was the first to be published either way. Now, on to this volume of Weekly Shonen Jump.
Dr. Stone – Score: 4/5
Last week’s chapter was extra-long, like the first chapter of its Jump Start debut. This was great because it established the villain of the series, which is the third guy that they woke up during their lion fight. He was a badass and killed a lion with his bare hands, took its skin and made some clothes. He was calm and quick when they woke him as well, which was interesting. Senku was on to him almost instantly, and it turned out that Tsukasa’s is they type of person that believes in the survival of the fittest and that no adults should be brought back to life and such.
In this chapter, they wake up Yuzuriha finally, and Senku tells her and Taiju that they need to decide if they’re going to run or stay. It’s great because his math on the timing is always interesting and adds to his character. From there Taiju and Tsukasa have an altercation, but it’s not quite what you’d think. I’m extremely curious to see how this story will go and if there will eventually be two warring factions at each other. It’s like the game Civilizations¸ but with way better artwork. Speaking of which, fucking hell the artwork is so damn good. Dr. Stone will likely be picked up for an anime at some point due to the art. There’s an American flair to it with the beefcake muscles, but it looks so damn gorgeous, especially when it's colored. Expect Dr. Stone to make the covers quite often.
The Promised Neverland – Score: 5/5
Just make a bunch of yummy sounds, and that’s my entire review for this chapter. Last week’s chapter explained what the plan was for the escape, but then at the end, Phil was seen tugging at Mother’s leg, and it was like, “Oh shit, they’re fucked, they’ve gotta go back.” Except they didn’t, as the second part of the plan is revealed in this chapter. The group isn’t out of the clear at all yet, but you should read it to see what I’m referring to. I will entice you with the following sentence though: flashback of mom as a kid. My goodness the story possibilities here are pretty vast, I can’t wait to read more of the cat and mouse game between them and to see if the story is going to break from their setting and explore the world more.
We Never Learn – Score: 4/5
Listen, We Never Learn, is a harem comedy. The dude does very little, but it’s just enough to attract the three women he’s responsible for, to pursue his future goals. Wait, did I say three women? I did, that’s right another genius is added to their ranks, but this one makes very little sense to the story.
The new character is Urukatake, and she’s a genius swimmer on the Olympic level, but for some reason, she needs to be tutored to get into the school, she wants to attend because they’ll make her pass an English test. Seems like to me that if she’s an Olympic level swimmer, they’ll probably not give a shit, but maybe that’s just every other country in the world. We find out that she has a pass with Nariyuki and a strange reason for having a crush on him. She’s essentially the childhood friend character until that character shows up in the story.
Much like when Dr. Stone made its regular series debut, We Never Learn is given bonus pages. After the Urukatake introduction, we see Nariyuki help Fumino with a situation involving a guy hitting on her. Nariyuki’s actions strangely wins her over, even though he didn’t do anything other than beg and look creepy after bleeding from the head… which would have sent him to the doctor for stitches, but hey it’s manga.
Robot x Laserbeam – Score: 3/5
Hey, I said my top three made it in, and that means we have a new sports manga to follow. Unlike We Never Learn, Robot x Laserbeam is not given extra pages, but it doesn’t really need them. Yozan explains his backstory with golf pretty quickly, surprise, surprise, it involves Kendo. Then they start a three-hole game, and we see what they’re each made of on the course. It’s interesting, but everyone’s character development is frozen in place until after the match. It’s a best of three and whether Robo wins or loses will tell us what type of sports manga this will be. If he wins, that means he’s pretty much always going to win, but if he loses it’ll be a rollercoaster ride figuring out when he’ll win. I’m hoping for the latter. The artwork was still really good, but the action shots of the two boys swinging their clubs felt confined. Hopefully, we’ll see some more open shots that showcase the artwork.
There you have it! More next week and thanks for checking out the reviews!
Not reviewed: Food Wars!, Black Clover, My Hero Academia and One Piece (I’ll never review One Piece again by the way).