Welcome back Sunday fans! Here's week two of five of the new Sunday serials! I trust you know what we're doing here, so we'll do away with the preamble from last week. Let's make like string and, uh, super.
The Artist
BOICHI
That alone would gain him notoriety, but it'd be remiss to not mention Dr. Stone, the series he illustrated with Riichiro Inagaki that had a successful run in Weekly Shonen Jump from March 6, 2017 to March 7 2022.
An artist based in South Korea, Boichi started his career in the 90's and transitioned to drawing Japanese manga in 2004 with his first series Ultimate Space Emperor Casear which ran in Monthly Comic Gum. He'd continue with Sun-ken rock in Young King magazine, H.E the hunt for energy in Jump X, and finally in 2017, Dr. Stone. He's hopped around to different publishers, but this is his first jaunt with Shougakukan.
The Writer
Youn In-Wan
The writer for this series, Youin In-Wan however, is not a stranger to Sunday. He wrote the above pictured Defense Devil which was illustrated by Yang Kyung-il. This series ran in WSS for 10 volumes from April 2009 to June 2011. Besides that, he debutted with Shougakukan with his series The Fools that ran in the now defunct seinen magazine Young Sunday, as well as Shin Angyō Onshi (Blade of the Phantom Master) in Sunday GX which was also illustrated by Yang. (Shing Angyo Onshi is pictured below.) This series got an anime film animated by OLM in 2004.
The Background
YLab
So before diving into the world of Super String: Isekai Kenbunroku, it's necessary to provide a little background on how it came to be in the first place. Super String itself is the brainchild of YLab. From what I've seen on their website, YLab created in 2006 is a "story production" system based in Korea that uses business connections with several publishers (including several Japanese ones that count Shougakukan in their membership) to assist artists and storytellers with getting their ideas to a wider audience. In one way it comes off as a school for creating, producing and marketing webtoons, and video (animated and otherwise) adaptation of said webtoons. They even have a prerogative for Webtoon education for upcoming artists. As such YLab has several different series under their umbrella which leads into Super String.
Super String is a multi IP crossover much in the same vein as the MCU or Super Smash Bros where several of the characters owned by YLab get together and fight a great evil. You can check it out here where YLab themselves claim:
‘Super String’ is YLAB’s own blockbuster IP, where characters from various YLAB works come
together in one universe, the story expanding into genres of films, dramas and games.
The name "Super String" itself might be related to the Super String Theory that is an attempt to explain tall of the particles and fundamental forces of nature in one theory by modeling them as vibrations of tiny supersymmetric strings. I'm not going to pretend that I can wrap my head around all of that, but it does make sense to name a super (heh) crossover after this theory.
Like the MCU there are several Webtoons in the Super String universe that can be read without knowledge of the grander scheme of things, but overall the universe does play off each other. From my understanding the crossover ranges from having entire webtoons crossing over, to characters, to organizations with these characters to locations within the locations crossing over and....yeah. It's a ton. I know what you're probably wondering --where do I start? Sadly all I can offer is a shrug, as I'm not familiar with this massive undertaking, and even if I were, several of the series are not licensed in English, potentially locking out audiences from getting the whole picture. However, for the undaunted there's a wiki for that which you can check out here.
So where does that leave us with this particular entry? Again, I don't know enough to be able to discern whether one needs to be overly familiar with the rest of the Super String Universe to enjoy Super String: Isekai Kenbunroku, but from the first chapter it appears to be a standalone product that only shares the name with the wider franchise.
The Premise
Something I haven't noted up until now is that the subtitle of the series is "Marco Polo's Travel to Multiverse." So that may mean we might see other Super String denizens in this? Though I think it may have more to do with the work itself. (That and as I'd imagine Japanese audiences would also be confused by allusions to other series they can't actually read so perhaps this is an attempt to create a new verse?)
In any case, here's the plucky protagonist himself, Marco Polo. He's on a certain boat in a certain location in the Asian Sea off to find adventure. The start of the chapter is his successful setting off from Italy to the African content, but then he runs into a slight problem...
Monsters, monsters everywhere. He quickly realizes he's ended up far off course after a monster sinks his ship and is in Asia, a place where he was told that he absolutely cannot go to. Oops. Also, I mentioned in the thread, but BOICHI's artwork hasn't dulled in the least. Without a doubt Super String is going to be one of the best looking manga in Sunday as long as it's serialized.
Marco figures the first thing he should do is to try to find out where his crewmates are since he washed up on shore alone, and wanders through the Asian city until he meets up with a cook for the imperial palace. The cook recommends that he try asking the local lord for leads on his buddies. With nothing else to lose, Marco heads over but they're having a bit of an issue too with a monster they had under wraps. The guards attempt to feed it, and instead become feed to this thing.
I wonder how they were able to feed this friendly little guy before now. In any case Marco's talking to the lord who expresses interest in his foreign ways before something starts to click and he realizes the lord is the reason why he's here. Flying beasts attacked from above trashing his ship, and yet the lord's palace and the surrounding city are untouched.
Marco looks cool as he accuses the local lord of kidnapping his friends, but perhaps accusing him outright wasn't the smartest thing to do. As one'd expect, the corrupt leader doesn't take this well and tosses Marco into a dungeon leaving him to die. Though, Marco is nothing if determined to get back home to his family.
He makes a pretty good run at it, but is stabbed by the creatures that live in the underground dungeon and is fatally injured. To make it clear, Marco's seemed suwave and hardy but he's mostly a cowardly lion who slowly realizes he's over his head. Thus, he's resigned to being screwed and dying without seeing his family again. Marco's past is one filled with tragedy as is the shonen condition. He lived a happy life with his fam until he unwittingly saw one prince kill another. Said prince blamed the murder of his brother on strange creatures that came from the Asian continent. Marco told everyone that this isn't the truth and that the 2nd Prince Raody was the one to kill the first, Rey. Unfortunately such baseless accusations came with a price, and his parents were executed leaving him and his younger siblings behind.
Did I mention they have a little P-Chan like piglet as a pet? Because they do. Also, that one kid with the black hair is crying in a very Oda (Yes that one) way. Early Oda (Yes, that one) In any case, with his sad-life-flashing-before-his-eyes done, Marco's ready to join his parents in heaven until he hears footsteps behind him. Figuring that it's the lord here to finish him off, Marco accepts his fate --except..
What heads toward him is not a beast. At least not completely. I'll get into this more later but the series is being advertised as being a "webtoon and manga." which would explain this page being sideways like this in WSS. Webtoons are generally read vertically to take advantage of being meant for smartphones. That being said, I have seen spreads like this used in manga meant to be read in print as well, but there is the intent for this series to consider, but yes I'll talk about this a little more later. In any case, in his hour of need, a strange girl shows up and, noticing he has a strange emblem with him, asks what it is.
Marco has his whole inner monolog about his past, which this girl isn't privy to but manages to croak out in the end that he's had that emblem since he was a child. The girl is shocked by this for some reason, but that's all she needs to hear. The monsters encroach upon them both to eat them and what follows is..
Unadulterated carnage. Whomever this girl is, she's got monster slaying down to an art. Turns out she was the little piglet that Marco saved who somehow gained human form and sentience. Due to his destitute condition, he couldn't take care of her himself, but set her on a ship where she was able to find a new life elsewhere. She then vowed to herself to become stronger so that if the two of them should ever meet again someday she can return what he gave her and protect him.
Not surprisingly, Marco has no idea who she is, but it's a very moving reunion regardless. But then something weird happens. Marco's emblem glows and emits light.
I'd ask how BOICHI intends to keep this up on a weekly schedule, but this is the guy who famously took no more than one or two breaks on Dr. Stone all while keeping up it's amazing artwork. We'll be fine here! The light engulfs the two and can be seen from space in this incredibly impressive display. Marco awakens no longer on the verge of death but an entirely unfamiliar place.
The series has "Isekai" in the title, so it was bound to happen, but it is in fact a reverse isekai. Anyone who's watched an anime based in Japan for a few minutes knows what that tower is. (And if you don't, it's the Tokyo Sky Tree.) As an aside, perhaps my favorite element in BOICHI's artwork is how expressive it is despite being so polished. I feel like often times when it comes to manga art, what is gained in polish is lost in expressiveness, but BOICHI defies this time and time again. The panel of Marco's eyes bulging out when taking in his new surroundings is my favorite one hands down. Even with all of the cool stuff that came before it.
A car is about to hit Marco and isekai him again (or back? Back to the past?) but he instincitively reaches out with his arm to brace for impact and instead wrecks it with his new appendage that looks very familiar...it's only now that it's clear the girl who had saved him in the past has disappeared and seemingly merged with him? So now not only is he in a new country, but in a new time period and with a new arm.
I couldn't not leave off with another amazing "Marco freaking out" panel. Chapter one leaves off with Marco still somewhat in mid peril as more cars surround him. So in a sense we're super string'd along into reading chaper two to find out what happens to him next. If you've read along this far, thank you! Also, worth noting is this chapter in and of iteself doesnt allude to anything else so at least so far one doesn't need to be familiar with the super string universe or theory to enjoy this, and hopefully it stays that way since wrapping my head around the greater cinematic universe was a lot, even just to write this up. Another thing is slightly before the serialization began in WSS, it was announced that the series would run on LINE manga in June, and sometime later in several other languages, English being among them. So unlike many WSS new serializations, this one will see official release! Which with BOICHI's name attached it's not surprised this wouldn't stay Japanese (or Korean) exclusive for long. We tweeted a little bit about this here so give that a read for more info.
The Verdict
If Tatari by Watari felt like Sunday returning to it's roots, Super String: Isekai Kenbunroku signifies a step into the future of the magazine and manga/Webtoons. It's something comfortable yet new, fresh, yet well trodded. Boichi's spectacular artwork aside, Youn In-Wan's writing excudes a youthful energy that is as welcoming as it is addicting. The first chapter zipped by like a kite in the wind without strings (I'll stop this, I promise.) but I think that's a strength. I look forward to seeing what trouble Marco will undoubtably get into and out of as the series continues.
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