Weekly Shounen Sunday #21


Sakaki here, and I've completely run out of ways to open up the blog entries, so I guess that means I should just shut up and do this thing, huh? Apologies for the lack of a preview this week...there just wasn't that much information so I figured I'd just keep everything together in an ordinary blogpost. It means I have more to do today though...but I'll power through it as usual! Let's go!


Starting things off is the cover that commemorates the opening of the newest Conan movie! Are you going to go see it ---I ask knowing most people reading this can't. It's okay, I'm pretty used to being disliked. You're here for the Sunday news after all. It's just a shame that with my Japanese knowledge I can't see things like this because knowing Japanese doesn't making going there any cheaper or easier on a full time working schedule.


First up is the TOC! I didn't get to do it before since there was no preview, so i'll hit it up here.

Daiku no Hatou by Michiteru Kusaba
Detective Conan by Gosho Aoyama
Komi-san wa Komyushou desu by Tomohito Oda
Major 2nd by Takuya Mitsuda
Maiko-san chi no Makanai-san by Aiko Koyama (Color page)
Hoankan Evans no Uso ~Dead or Love~ by Mitsuki Kuriyama
Tenshou no Quadrable by Takahiro Arai
Hatsukoi Zombie by Ryou Minenami
Maou-jou de Oyasumi by Kagiji Kumanomata
Magi by Shinobu Ohtaka (Color page)
Souboutei Kowashubeshi by Kazuhiro Fujita
Be Blues by Motoyuki Tanaka
Dagashikashi by KOTOYAMA
Amano Megumi wa Suki Darake by Nekoguchi 
Hiiragi-sama wa Jibun o Sagashite iru by Hiroyuki Nishimori
Kyoukai no Rinne by Rumiko Takahashi
Aozakura- Bouei Daigakkou Monogatari by Hikaru Nikaido
Tokiwa Kitareri by Shun Matsuena
Tenshi to Akuto by Aya Hirakawa
Saike Matashitemo by Tsubasa Fukuchi
Joujuu Senjin!! Mushibugyo by Hiroshi Fukuda
Keijo!!!!!!! by Daichi Sorayomi
DameTerasu-sama by Shun Fujiki
Sunday Higaku Kenkyjou by Yuuji Yokoyama

And not in this issue are,

RYOKO by Kaito Mitsuhashi
Zettai Karen Children by Takashi Shiina

So nothing all that surprising from previous weeks really. RYOKO is still out, and as I said in the last writeup, ZKC is out of the magazine until summer, so this is as full as the magazine gets for the most part. DameTerasu being dead last pretty much seals it's fate, but unlike Jump, things can survive there for a while, and it sells okay-ish, so. 


The 21st Conan movie is out and so we get a brief summary of the plot along with the list of people who could be the culprit! Not surprisingly they aren't going to tell us much of anything, but we at least get more information about the series than in past issues. Also there's a Conan Plaza going on until May 16th...all the things we can't see or do huh...






Next up is the brand new series "Daiku no Hatou"! The author of this series, Kusaba-sensei is probably better known for his soccer manga which ran in the magazine for a while named "Fantasista" and "Fantasista stella" which ran in the magazine in 1999 and 2012 respectively. Interesting to see him go from soccer to what is basically Silver Spoon but with fishes, but we'll see how he does. 


So the series follows Minato Ebihara who's mom is a big name fashion magazine editor. Minato himself is a pretty big deal on twitter, and often models things for his mom --and it's apparent they're both pretty well off, but then mom gets a call from her cohorts that a article that shouldn't have leaked did leak, and Mom's gotta run to take care of this. 





While Mom's away, she asks her son to head out somewhere for her --all the way out to Nagasaki --Kyuushuu to be exact. Minato's fine with that, but mom says it isn't to help her with an article...but for Jyuunana Kaiki. (Which doesn't sound like a name, but Minato asks who it is so I guess it is?) 



Mom answers it's his Dad who he doesn't even remember. She then suggests asking a friend to go, but Minato doesn't have one of those, and ditto on a girlfriend. So he heads out on his own --and man this series has great art --and decides to see the locales on his own. 



He ends up wandering around for a while until he finds a place to eat near his destination, and runs into a brother sister pair. Bro's looking pretty terrifying here, wow. Anyway they offer to prepare him some food, but only the rice is ready. The sister --Nagiko says she's about to go fish up the meat portion of the bowl. 

Mostly uploaded for the bottom panel where Nagiko looks a lot like Tsyu from Boku no Hero Academia. Though you can tell Minato is a city slicker from how he reacts to seeing fish get prepared.




Mostly linked again for artwork. Kusaba is good at this drawing thing. Actually the chapter itself is pretty text light for a first chapter, so there's not too much for me to translate. Lucky!~







Minato's catching feelings, and I don't blame him. Nagiko's a cutie and this art is really spellbinding. It's interesting to see the first chapter unfold in such a deliberate manner when compared with Evans, and Quadrable which did first chapters at different speeds which had different effects on how the characters were portrayed. I can sort of tell where this is going, but I want to see it.


So what was a chance encounter is implied to be more as Minato seems to be developing feelings for the rural girl. The blurb for the series implies that he's going to follow her to school, so while we know what's going to happen, it'll be interesting to see how it develops. This feels the most Sunday ish of all the new series --slow slice of life, so I can see it sticking around. 



Mr. Shounen Sunday is up next with merely 7 chapters before 1,000. Unfortunately he's going to be away for a bit, as starting with the next issue, Aoyama's perennially on hiatus series that started in the 80's (well before Conan!) will be returning for a few issues! Conan will be back to sleuth his way into our hearts in issue #27. 


Next up is Major2nd! Daigo is doing his best to recruit new blood into the baseball club, but is finding that easier said than done.


The kouhais (underclassmen) wanna do things their way, while he wants them to work together. Unfortunately this sentiment isn't shared despite his efforts to be gregarious, so there's only one way to settle this..


With a fist fight! No, no. That's not it at all guys. At least use bats. What, I'm still wrong?


Ah no, I meant use bats to hit baseballs. Which is what's going to happen next week as the underclassmen, Daigo and Mutsuko split the teams into 5 and decide to compete to see who's really the king of the mound. 


Up next with a color page to commemorate it's first volume is Maiko-sanchi no Makanai-san! The volume is out this week I believe, so if you're interested (and can read Japanese) I'd say give it a buy. It's a cute little series with some nice art as you'll see below. 

Kiyo is in the kitchen pondering the question that plagues us all..."What should I make for dinner?"


Meanwhile Su her friend finds herself hungry for some Karaage (Japanese fried chicken.) So much so that it gets in the way of her performances...


Sadly there's a rule about going to convinence stores dressed up as a Maiko, and she's not going to have another chance to get that fried goodness. Luckily she has a friend like Kiyo to make her some! Ahh, I admit back when I was in Japan karaage was one of my favorite dishes as well. 

We head to the wild, wild west for chapter two of Evans. 




Evans is still doing his thing of keeping the peace and looking for ladies, and as his partial luck would have it, one runs into him wanting a big scoop---meet Melissa who looks strangely like Futaba from Persona 5.


I really like how these "talks" with Evan's Dad are becoming a regular thing. I wonder where Daddy is nowadays. Anyway Dad says it's fine for men to keep to themselves, but a lady's blushing face is bad news for that facade. Also check out Evans in the bottom panel of the right page. He acts like he doesn't care if Melissa follows him around for news items, but he's clearly down for this.


Unfortunately Evans realizes is that once Melissa gets her scoop she's likely to leave, and he just can't have a cutie like her run off, so he decides if there's no immediate news, he's just going to have make it, even if it means being a general nuisance. All's fair in love and...love. 


Melissa says she's really looking forward to seeing Evans in action, and our bashful cowboy has to try really hard to avoid showing her his overjoyed side. He decides to do a little bit of patrolling and runs into...


A crime in progress. 


An impressive double page spread. If Melissa finds Evans doing his job then she'll have her article and most likely leave him, so Evans ends things quickly and threatens the dude. "You could have robbed this place on any other day..."


So then the day after that, and so on, Evans continues fighting crime, but makes it sound like he's only going out for a walk so that Melissa doesn't get wise, get her scoop and leave. However later Melissa asks his assistant about his love life, since he's never around cause of his "errands". Ted doesn't know much but recalls Evans looking at a picture of a woman and commenting "If you're in town you should have called me." So he comes to the conclusion that his boss must have something to do with the actress Miranda Kelly. 


Dad chimes in again and says that if there's a woman he can't quite close the distance with that he should propose to her and let things fall as they may. After all, there's no woman who doesn't like surprises. (His words not mine.) Unfortunately all this serves to do is confuse Melissa who's not picking up on any of the hints. 


Evans finally pops the question, but Melissa completely misunderstands him avoiding her questioning about his love life for him being upset with her and calls herself a failure of a reporter when it was in fact Evans who's trying to woo her. 



Thanks to Ted's mistaken explanation and Melissa's guilt, she thinks the ring is for Miranda Kelly, and wishes them a happy life together. Evans can't even chase after her to clear up the misunderstanding as a fight breaks out in a nearby bar. Meanwhile Melissa's expose comes out and...something tells me this is going to lead to some misunderstanding later. (Love the shoutout to WSS with the name of the paper.) This chapter was a little better than one, and I think I understand the tempo of the series now --perhaps it can stick around longer than I initially thought? 


The last compulsory chapter of Quadrable, and the boys are in Macao. Let's join them, shall we?


There have been incidents in the temple in Macao, and so before the group can make their way to Europe, they're asked to take care of this first. 


Nice group shot of the kids. It seems their leader has already resolved that fighting is really the only way they can solve this problem, but one of them seems less than convinced. 


A bit of a flashback to their training days in a Shinobi village. Where Migel was peerless in most respects. 


Even at six years old he was quite the badass, as was the scenery around him in these pages. I really like how Arai packs every panel full of some kind of background, be it people or scenery.


Apparently there was a woman one of the boys was quite fond of in his youth, and she disappeared at one point so he went to look for her, and it turns out she and another were raising kids to sell, and those who got sick were disposed of. It would seem that Migel saved him from being tossed away when he was at death's door.


Before they can get any further in reminiscing they're attacked, and the fight in Macau begins. The series seems to have slowed down a bit now which is good because I'd wonder what Arai was up to if he kept up the high speed. I'll probably cover the series here and there after this, but it won't be weekly like this. Still, the series is pretty well drawn so far and pretty interesting so I'll be keeping my eye on it!




A beautiful dual page spread for Hatsukoi this week. It's really amazing what some artists can do even without color. 


After a long absence from the blog, Magi is back with the first of two color pages to commemorate the final arc. I don't have much to say since the series is available both officially and unofficially, but my rule is series with color pages get covered no matter what. Anyway I assume the arc must really be heating up if they're giving color pages to Magi that usually doesn't get them. 


That being said, I did kind of miss covering the series, because damn Ohtaka's art is incredible to behold. It makes me wonder how she pulls this off on a weekly basis. 


And then the layout of this page with the focal point, sense of distance, and elemental effects. This could have been a dual page spread, but she actually makes it work with a single one. Maybe I'll pay more attention to the series...



Next up is Souboutei and speaking of dual page spreads, we get a super creepy and very good one here as the dregs of the house march toward the basement for unknown reasons. 


We learn here that Frol (I am so sorry if I'm butchering her name) can use telepathy to make up for the fact that she doesn't speak Japanese, but poor Takoha the normie can't pick up what her mind mic is droppin'. 


But yeah, it looks as if the house goes down quite some ways, and Takoha suggests Frol use her ability for telepathy to contact the outside world for help, but Dr. Auguste says that's impossible without a person with the ability to pick up the mind waves readily there to hear in. 


When the soldiers get to the bottom of the house they start digging for some reason.


It's anyone's guess as to what they're digging up, but Takoha starts to remember something he read before when he tries to consider what could possibly be buried in the house. 



Takoha starts to put two and two together and his expression says what his words do not. Unfortunately we won't find out exactly what he's figured out until next issue. Could the truth of the house finally be upon us?




Be blues with some short coverage this week. It still looks pretty incredible, and apparently there's an app (game) for that! 


Next up is Dagashikashi with an alluring Saya on the cover. 


The gang is still saying over at Hotaru's place and help her clean it up a bit before heading back to their places, when Koko gets the feeling that he forgot something major due to the events of winter vacation that had swept him up.


He ends up going to a store where Hotaru's brother works. (Seems he just can't get away from snacks) and its' there he reminds Koko that it's Christmas eve. (Also love that worm eye lens.) He heads out immediately and runs into Saya who appears to have something to say to him...next issue!




Megumi is up next with a color page to commemorate it's 6th volume being up for sale. 


Megumi is at Ma-kun's house to get fitted for a Kimono, and while he just wants to get some studying done, his mind just can't help but wander around a bit and imagine just what's going on. You're not going to get into college thinking of boobs, Ma-kun.


Though the result is well worth the wait, I'd say. Megumi looks really cute, and she asks Ma-kun if he wants to head out for their first temple visit of the year. (Weird that both Dagashi and this are in Christmas and new years.) 


The two head out to the temple and have a good time, and it looks like it might end with something nice at the end, but...

Turns out Megumi just ate too much, and is finding it hard to move. By the way they draw lots and get one saying to be cautious about love (Megumi) and one for their studies. (Ma-kun) 


Rinne's up next, and I've been watching the anime so I think I understand the series a little bit better, though the anime is quite far from where the manga currently is.

The chapter begins with one Sakaki Ayame looking for her phone filled with pictures of her beloved Juumonji Tsubasa, just to find the amount of pictures she had have risen and they're of private moments. --Not to mention her spirit seems to be in all of them somehow. Meanwhile Tsubasa is dealing with a bunch of food his parents sent to him. 



Meanwhile Rinne and Rokumon get a visit from a spirit that's paying a hefty sum to have it's chain cut. Rinne being as poor as he is is more than happy to do the job, but before he can Tsubasa and Sakura show up and apparently the barrier around Tsubasa scares the spirit away leaving Rinne broke once again. 


Unfortunately the spirit --who is clearly Ayame has started to go wild with unrequited feelings for Tsubasa, and the gang finds out that this is part of a legend where a female spirit who was pursuing a man after death and became a snake monster and the means of ejecting said spirit. 


The problem is that the spirit has left her body and is calling the shots, right down to dialing Tsubasa on his cell phone while no one knows where the real deal is. Looks like this'll continue next week.







I mostly linked this because I really like how it's dealing with Kondo's fear of jellyfish after what happened to him a few weeks back. The totally black page of him frozen in fear, and being held back in the races because of it was super well done. Looks like his C.O. (pictured at the end of the chapter) isn't going to let him wimp out though. 


And Saike time. Our hero has had it tough for the last several weeks, and this week really isn't any better. 


The police question him as to Hirayasu's whereabouts and for more info regarding "M", but Saike is much more interested in using his ability to turn back the day so the can save Hirayasu before this whole matter begins. Earlier I was weirded out by Saike being so candid about his power, but I guess if he used it they wouldn't remember it anyway, so why not? Though the issue with this is now the police won't let him go to use it. 


Not only that but any movements of his at all are treated as threats. This is waaaay different than Fukuchi fare --there's an actual sense of danger in Saike, and as he sits helpless, the words of Johann echo in his mind --that those with power will face adversity and discrimination. Before it wasn't just that Saike disagreed with him, but he didn't believe him at all. Now  however...


Saike has no choice but to believe it as it's happening right before his eyes. The students called him a monster, Johann said humans wouldn't understand them, and even the police are no longer treating him as a human, but a monster they have to interrogate ---an enemy. There's no avoiding reality now.


After a long time of being away Hizu appears to save his friend, and Saike can only ask him --"What should I do? What can I do?" 


Again Fukuchi hits with these unreadable expressions. What is he thinking here? It's way more than the text indicates (It reads "Lets go set the world right.") in any case Saike has decided he has no choice but to be a hero in secret. He'll reverse things and save Hirayasu in a second loop, but it doesn't change that once people know about him and his friends with abilities that they'll still treat them the same way. --So is there any meaning to this? 



Next up is Keijo which really does seem like it's in the midst of it's final battle --though again I could be way off. Gotta love some of these attack names, "Thunder ass Takemikaduzchi". 


And "Wind djinn ass double lighting spear." 


I think this one is a pun for "Finisher" but with the word "ass" in it. I'm not even sure how I'd make that work in English, lol. Still it's clearly the finishing move here as everyone watches on.



There's a huge cheer from the stadium as Nozomi is victorious! What's next for the series? The end or more coming asstractions?


Last but not least is DameTerasu, where Kouhei fights at 100%!!


Gotta admit this page looks super cool. It's got the "Tales of" series "Hissatsu and everything. (Yes I know that word is not exclusively used on that series. 


And after the battle is over, Kouhei and Terasu are called to Takamagahara because --apparently they're --more like, Terasu is supposed to give birth to a child that Kouhei will father according to the ancient records. Needless to say they're not all that pleased with this Twin Star exorcists development. Gotta say it's kind of out of left field for me too, but lets see what Fujiki does with it.


Meanwhile the secret talk with Aoyama in the laboratory continues with Jojo/anime poses galore, and a possible worst kept secret about the anime and Haibara? Apparently the anime wasn't supposed to last as long as it has, and the story written about Haibara's sister --where y'know she didn't die immediately like she did in the manga was written because the original version was too sad for the director, and they figured they wouldn't be on air for very long anyway. That as well as Haibara was supposed to be introduced in volume 10 which also diverted things a bit. I guess everyone got screwed over when the anime continued, huh? 


Speaking of Aoyama, Takahashi got an issue a few weeks ago, and this time around it's his turn to celebrate the 200 million milestone with all kinds of festivities! As mentioned before, Conan will take a back seat to Magic Kaito starting next issue, as well as a team up of sorts with Adachi Mitsuru, a poster of all the Aoyama series and more! Beyond that, Evans gets a color page next issue as does Magi, and last but not least, we get yet another new series in Satsuki Satou's "Youkai Giga" which is the series I was looking forward to most in this new batch. It's gonna be a huge issue! Though sadly I won't be able to report on it as the blog will be on break next week and the week after as I go on a much needed vacation. I'll figure out how I'll cover the issue I missed and report it in another post though, so don't fret! Until then, take care! 

Comments

  1. Damn, Magi looks superb in this issue. I should get back to reading that. I know I developed an interest in the series long ago and started reading it but I don't know why I stopped.

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    1. Same for me, really. At least now that I have Crunchyroll I can watch the anime in full again and then pick up the manga afterward which is what I plan to do...eventually.

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  2. The new fishing manga didn't really catch my interest despite the pretty art. "Kaiki" is the anniversary of someone's death.

    Evans was not really remarkable, but still entertaining. The "talks with dad" are great.

    Out of the three new series Soaring Quadrable is probably the one I like the best. The historical setting was really well chosen, I think. It also makes looking up the characters' names much easier. There are few things worse than having a bunch of katakana that don't have any relation or resemblance to real names thrown at your face.

    Next week I'll finally get my new Youkai manga.

    While reading Komi-san I had lots of fun guessing the song names. Of course they had to sing that one smap song.

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    1. Ahhh, see this is why I shouldn't type these things up when I'm tired, lol. I wanted to cover Komi this week, but there wasn't a whole lot to talk about so I didn't. Glad you enjoyed it though! I'm reserving judgment for the new series until all of them are out, but I think I might like Evans most so far. I'm super looking forward to Youkai Giga though! A shame I'll be out of town when it drops so coverage will be a bit late...

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  3. I'm impressed with Daiku no Hatou, mostly because I feel like it have so much potential genre-wise. It can be gourmet manga, actual sport manga, high school manga talking about this profession similarly to Aozakura and of course romance is involved in this too. Kusaba can make so much out of it, still even though I'm impressed I like the other two new series more. I love Evans, great concept, actually funny comedy (that's pretty important isn't it?) and what's best in it is great MC. Comedy series with such a likeable protagonists are always a blast for me. Waiting for Youkai Giga, I was a big fan of the author oneshot (Saigo no Youkai) and believe this will be great.

    It should be ideal time for Keijo to end but it's not ending?? Good Komi-san, Aozakura and Mushi chapters.

    Saya-chan confession time?!?! AAARRRGGHH

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    1. Hatou does have the chops to be the Silver Spoon -but underwater that we need. I really loved the art.

      Evans is my favorite so far, because it can really do anything --sort of like how you feel about Hatou. Plus Evans himself is just hilarious to watch. It's like a high school comedy based in the wild west which gives it a fresh take on the subject matter.

      I can't wait to see how Youkai Giga will spin out. The preview was very vague so I have no idea what to expect, honestly, but I've been into Youkai manga lately so this scratches my itch for those.

      lol Keijo *is* ending, so nice guess there.

      Will she confess?? It's looking that way, but I have a feeling KOTOYAMA won't let things fly that easily...

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