Weekly Shounen Sunday #22/23

Back from a vacation overseas (not Japan though, unfortunately) is your boy Sakaki, and I have the goods! As there is another WSS issue due tomorrow, and I do want to stay caught up --I'll probably go with a light skimming of this week's issue. Don't fret though, the writeup for #24 will be back to normal, and at least for the forseeable future, I won't be late on entries again! Though that being said, I might end up shifting our Sundays to Wednesdays as that would be much easier for me to deal with. In any case, you didn't come here to hear about me, but to read about the magazine, so let's go!

This week is Aoyama all the way with the leads of his series all together! Well...technically there are two oneshot/short story characters there, but same diff. What it really says here is just how long Conan is --he's been drawing manga for 20 years and only has one complete series to show for it as Kaito --who's back for a bit is on an irregular schedule, and Conan is still ongoing. So it makes sense that this cover isn't as jam-packed as Takahashi's!

Included in this issue is a rundown of the art and story of the Conan movie (now in theaters!!) As well as the involvement Aoyama had with it. It'd be great if someone (who's preferably not me) could translate these. 

I actually wouldn't have minded having the physical issue for this, but alas getting single issues is hard and expensive unless you live in the right places. The book is a bit longer than this, but my policy is to never post complete chapters/works here ever so you'll just have to pick it up yourself if you can!

I posted this in the preview here but here it is with slightly higher quality. It's fun seeing all the different artists draw their favorite Aoyama works! Fukuchi's Yaiba is so badass...

Speaking of Aoyama's works, here's a brief rundown of Magic Kaito for those who don't know much about the series (I'm sure with all the fans the thief has,  that you don't need a refresher on him!) Also this reveals that the long awaited 5th volume will be released in July! Considering how late this entry is, I'm sure everyone's read the chapter using...means, so I won't bother posting it here. 

And on that note all of the artists in Sunday talk about their experiences with Aoyama's works as well as congratulating him on reaching such a huge milestone. Aoyama thanks them for their art (and comments that it's all way better than his own) and leaves his own wishes that they make Sunday even more exciting from here on in, something I hope they take to heart! 

And now the new series serialization...Youkai Giga by Satsuki Satou! Up until now the "Giga" was written in katakana so it's meaning was unclear, but with this spread we get the kanji "戯画" which means "comic" or "caricature" which is a pretty fitting title as this is basically an omnibus series about Youkai and how they fit into society. --so in short, another short series. Even this first chapter bucks the trend by being only 25 pages. So in this case the art is going to be the main star of the story, and so far Satou doesn't disappoint. 

The first mini story is about Tengu and how despite their looks how they're not all that different from us in their appreciation of the panty flash, lol. It would appear that the series looks at different time periods as well as youkai so the approach is very fresh. 

The second story is about Kuro --a little youkai who wards off danger from it's host --who can't see it. This is actually a cute little story as while the host --the guy in glasses can't see Kuro doing his thing, he always thanks something unseen for getting him through the day unharmed and this is all Kuro really wants even if they'll never actually meet each other. 

The last story is about the "Sleeve pulling kid" who's a small child youkai who can't be seen and pulls pranks by pulling on the sleeves of unsuspecting folk. It targets one girl who finds it's antics annoying, but when it starts crying she can't help but pity it...which leads to the youkai following her around much to her chagrin, lol. But yeah, essentially it's a collection of short stories each week --and while we have plenty of short series in the mag we don't have one like this. I hope the fans have a favorable response to it. 

And now chapter two of Daiku no Hatou, which is still looking as beautifully illustrated as ever. 

It turns out our leading lady has a thing against smartphones after a group of her "so-called friends" ganged up on her for sending texts to a guy that one of them liked.

She ends up destroying her own phone as response to make them happy, but they just accuse her of being a cat burglar after their guys in the end. 

In the present our hero being the city slicker he is tries out fishing for himself and well...*thumbs up*. 

He does manage to hook a big one, but hes immediately told to give up on it by the fishing siblings. Will he be able to prove to them that he's got the guts to be a fishing master? We'll have to find out next week. So far Daiku is taking it's time to unfold it's story --which isn't surprising. We'll really find out it's worth once it gets into it's main story which should be sooner rather than later. 

And now chapter three of Evans which gets a color page! This is technically the final "obligated" coverage chapter for the series, but I'll be damned if it isn't the most interesting serialization out of the new batch so far, and since RYOKO is still awol, I might just keep covering it regularly instead. 

This week introduces us to Phoebe Oakley --a reference to Anne Oakley I'd imagine. (Kuriyama seems to know his stuff, as well as he's one of the few mangaka who's English naming sense isn't really weird or unintentionally hilarious. In any case she's sort of his rival --and for once Evan's Dad time might be on the mark --he states that when a woman goes through such efforts, it's usually because she wants a man to pay attention to her. 

The thing is they both seem to have mutual feelings toward each other but can't seem to say what's on their mind --so the quintessential cornerstone of a love comedy plot.  

The thing is they're actually a power couple who's packing. Of course it wouldn't be much of a series if they just said what's on their mind. At the very least between the two of them the wild west just got a bit safer, maybe.

lol, though I do love how even the the bad guy is like "Dude, I think she has the hots for you". I have to kind of wonder about Kuriyama's decision to introduce a clear ship this early on, --especially a childhood one, but he admitted on the weekly Shounen site that he's not entirely sure what he's doing with this serialization since it sort of happened on a whim. So far he's doing a good job with it especially if it's true that he's basically just feeling around. I think I'll cover Evans a bit longer!

Magi gets the rare color page to commemorate it's final arc heating up as well as an advertisement showing the covers of the manga out so far. It's hard to believe it's up to 33 volumes and that soon we'll be saying good bye to it....

Part two of the soul wandering arc of Rinne is here and now that I'm really fond of the series I just had to cover it. The newest volume will be out on May 18th, so if you're collecting them, you'd best get your preorder on! Actually it does seem like Takahashi might be aiming for a length similar to Inuyasha cause I believe Rinne has now topped Ranma in length? 

As a brief recap to the events thus far, Ayame's soul has separated from her body --with the body itself being nowhere to be found. Rinne uses one of his handy dandy items to reveal the chain connecting the spirit to it's body....

But when Tsubasa tries to yank on it, he's literally dragged away by wild dogs. 

...which leads to the real deal appearing! Apparently this was part of her plan?

She decided to chain up a bunch of spirit dogs to practice eventually finding and chaining down her wayward spirit, to return it to the "doghouse" of her body, but it has no interest in doing that willingly. She then notices Rinne has solidified the chain holding her body back and asks him to..cut it...for a price of course!

Rinne's not one to turn down a paying customer and does as she asks, despite not understanding why.

Turns out it's so that she can reduce the length of the chain and keep her spirit from soaring...or so she thought, as the chain just lengthens again as soon as she lets it go slack. 

However when Tsubasa returns after his dog day afternoon, the prospect of having alone time with him is enough to bring her soul back home for good, ending this little spirit adventure. 

Dagashikashi had some really great panel work this week. check out the bottom one on the left page! Love that view of the bridge's underside, and of course the title page's sense of symmetry. 

No confession --it's a shounen series, you all had to know we wouldn't get one that easily, but at the very least Saya's able to give Kokonotsu a nice scarf for Christmas. Kotoyama really did a great job with the bridge scenes in this chapter and I love him for it. 

Next up is Souboutei, fresh off it's first year of serialization! When we left everyone they had dared to ask the question --what the heck does a house that can eat people and screw with their brains actually want in life? 

The people it has enslaved seem to busy themselves with digging a hole for unknown reasons, and it seems the oldest of the three sisters Takoha saved a few weeks back has figured out just what it's up to, though she's being deliciously (and frustratingly) vague about it for plot reasons. 

Takoha not being one to pick up on being subtle pretty much shouts it for all of us reading at home --it's the water dummy! The house is searching for a water way underground! 

And if it can find what it wants then not only will it be free of it's foundation, but it'll have control of the waterways of the entire planet to do...something with. We're still not clear on that part, but it's needless to say that an evil house isn't looking to be environmentally friendly. 

I linked this page because it's just so awesome, really. The sister seems to imply that the house has found what it's looking for, and the text on the bottom reinforces this --"Despair once again bares it's fangs..!!" 

And Saike once again. (Sorry, that pun will never get old to me.) Last time we saw our time reversing hero, he had managed to break out of prison thanks to his friends and hopes by going back to the beginning of that day he can stop the tragedy that occurred at his school. 

Saike retraces Hirayasu's daily life and realizes the poor guy is essentially just like he was at the outset of the story. (Interested? I did recap the entirety of the first volume, which you can read here,) --his daily life is the pits and the power he was blessed with is a way out. 

After gathering the info he needs, Saike starts the day over for a third time, knowing what he needs to do. 

He gathers Ana and Hizu and then leads him to the gym to show him their secret. 

That they are "M"....the people with abilities that have been all the rage in the news lately. (Gotta love how bold Ana is.) 

Saike hopes by having this intervention he'll be able to help the boy understand, but in order for that to work, they have to activate Hirayasu's ability --which won't be pleasant for him. Saike started out this chapter saying that he's a hero, but the cold look in his eyes indicates he knows that heroism like most things in life comes with a price, and I like that Fukuchi is making that distinction with this arc that continues to hit all the right notes for me. 

I wish I had more time to talk about Birdmen, but all I can give you all this time is the title page for chapter 47. The characters are gathering those with abilities (as stated here). I'm not entirely sure what these mean though, but scanslators are working hard on catching up. 

And now the ..."end" (they make this joke in the original Japanese, so it's not just me) of Keijo. 

The final chapter is pretty much the characters getting together and stating their intention to get stronger and face each other in combat again someday. The author --Sorayomi Daichi made a rare public statement about the series's end that seems to indicate that Shogakukan was less than helpful in keeping the series afloat. You can check that out here.

And the series gets a red flag for being too "erotic" lol. It's a tounge in cheek sort of ending and while I wasn't the biggest fan of the series while it was around, I gotta say Sorayomi has some balls ending it this way. What's interesting is there's no blurb at the end of this chapter that states something along the lines of "Look forward to this author's next work!" or something which is pretty standard in these situations...which seems to imply that maybe if Sorayomi is interested in doing more manga, he may not with Shogakukan, and if the link I just provided above is any indication, this may be right. Though I can't say for sure who's fault it is that Keijo failed to make a splash, it is sad when an author feels slighted as he seems to indicate. Hopefully he finds success wherever he manages to end up after this. 

And that's it for issues 22/23! If I weren't late with this I'd have a week off, but sadly I am, so I have to get right back to work tomorrow with issue 24 which might be short ish just to keep me from overworking myself. We have another new series by Wakaki Tamaki which I have to admit I'm not all that enthusiastic about, but I'll give it a chance at the very least. I hope you'll be here for the next (and maybe last??) Sunday on Tuesday tomorrow!