We're back on the field with another Weekly Shonen Sunday serialization! This time around, it's a sports manga with a very specific bent—soccer goalkeeping. Just like the game it depicts, we've got a team effort in this one with Karakara Kemuri on the art and Youki Hajime keeping score as the writer/original story. Let's jump in as we usually do with a look behind the duo, hungry for a goal.
The Writer
Youki Hajime
Youki Hajime has, as far as I can tell, penned only two one-shots. (Both on Webry, but one of them definitely appeared in Weekly Shonen Sunday back in 2024.) Beyond that, a look at their Twitter suggests they have friends they're a fan of from Shogakukan, but don't have an extensive catalog of their own. That's a marvel since their artwork is very polished for someone who hasn't put out one long serial aside from the one that's the subject of their review.
From Hajime's one-shot Switch Sprint
Pictured above is their first oneshot Switch Sprint. This one was uploaded to Webry on February 26, 2024. I don't recall if it ran in Shonen Sunday or the associated magazines before being uploaded to Webry, or if it was just a Webry manga, however. The story itself employs the "body switch" trope, where a track-and-field athlete switches bodies with an overweight classmate after an accident, and with no other choice, the two end up living each other's lives.
This one is...unique. I think it's nature as a one-shot was both an advantage and a disadvantage, as it kept the story from dragging on too long, but in exchange, the vibe comes off like this was only a third of a larger story. (A far-from-unique issue with one-shots, mind you, but this one suffered from it greatly.) In the story the two boys switch, and while the formerly thicker classmate gets to enjoy the life of a popular track athlete, the athlete....doesn't bend in his will to run on the team and eventually compete in the nationwide tryouts. Yeah, being a little pudgy is a handicap, but nothing he can't handle-- and he handles it to a point where he drops the weight, runs, and wins, as seen in the screencaps above. At the moment he wins the two switch back, and now, as "penance," the track athlete makes him promise to go all the way (much to his chagrin). Again, the speed of this is understandable (and appropriate due to the subject matter), but I can't help but think it could have been a little longer in the vein of a short three-to-five-chapter intensive serial or something. Perhaps I'm just mad I got invested just to be left cold....
The second of Youki Hajime's one-shots is Sameo Attack. It was uploaded to Webry on September 13, 2024. This one did run in Weekly Shonen Sunday and even appeared in the Sunday Rookie Line-up of the first issue of that year. If you're new to our blog, check out our end-of-the-year reviews to see the lineup.
From the first issue of Weekly Shonen Sunday in 2024.
We did a dive into the manga in that issue's corresponding thread so I'll avoid going into a whole recap here for the sake of time, but this is a volleyball one-shot where the protagonist, who's lost their love of the game realizes what they needed was a move from inside to outside.
And it turns out he's a real shark (Same = Shark) on the beach, hence the name of the oneshot. It's not reinventing the wheel or anything, but it's good, terrifying for the opposite team fun. I'd say that Youki also got a slightly better grip on pacing, as this one didn't feel quite as abrupt as Switch Sprint. It also makes clear that Youki's interest is in sports manga, and they have the draftmanship and page composition to pull it off. Which gets me wondering why they needed an illustrator for Paradon! There are many cases where a seemingly capable artist is paired with someone else, so it's not unusual, but even then, I'm curious as to why this happens. I'd love to know, but if I had to hazard a guess, perhaps Youki was confident in the idea for Paradon! But didn't think their art was up to the ability to tell the story they envisioned? Or perhaps Shogakukan editorial thought the story had potential but to boost its chances for success, paired them up with an author who has more visibility? If it's the latter that'd make sense as the artist they got has quite the resume.
The Artist
Karakara Kemuri
Like Shinta Harekawa, Karakara Kemuri is an author with beautiful artwork who cut their teeth on works far removed from Shonen Sunday and heck, shonen manga in general. That's where the similarities end, however, as not to say Harekawa hasn't had successes of their own, but Kemuri is on a completely different level, working as the artist on manga such as Takeru Susanoh ~Mashou no ken yori~ written by Kazuki "Gurren Lagann" "Kill La Kill" Nakashima, a manga adaptation of the stage play-based series MARS RED and of course their own work (that got an anime adaptation too!) Donten ni Warau (Laughing Under the Clouds), which spanned a sequel and a prequel as well. After its completion, Karakara then made the jump to Shogakukan with a webry series entitled Souen no Scavenger, which ran for four volumes.
From Souen no Scavenger.
Kemuri's artwork is whispy and complex in a way that one normally wouldn't see in a weekly shonen magazine, and it's absolutely why I love it when an artist like this makes the demographic jump. I think it would be fun to perhaps do a deep dive into what specifically makes a manga's artwork seem more shonen or seinen without the generalizations that generally come with that conversation one day. Their storywriting is also more complex than what you'd normally see in these magazines, making their choice to come to Sunday interesting. Even those not well-versed with the demographics of manga magazines in Japan unconsciously know that if you're looking to make it big, breaking into the shonen magazines is usually the best way to do that because of their higher visibility. Still, with such a jump comes the limitations of the demographic, so one has to be careful they don't lose too much of themselves when crossing over. I've only read a little of Souen no Scavenger and not much of Donten ni Warau, so it's hard for me to compare the two from a narrative standpoint, but Kemuri's sense of dense character relationships and pacing has maintained itself between the two stories. Though you've probably noticed ---all of the manga Kemuri has illustrated have been action/adventure romps. How do they fare when they've gotta play ball instead? Let's see!
The Serial
Paradon!
Beginning in issue #13 of Weekly Shonen Sunday is Youki Hajime's first serial as a writer, and Karakara Kemuri's second shonen serialization (but first sports one) Paradon! The initial blurb of the series referred to it as a "new age soccer manga," while follow-up blurbs revealed that it's a goal keeper manga that takes place at a certain high school.
The Premise
Yuusei Harumi is a second-year high school student who kind of likes soccer, y'know, a normal amount. Though he's slowly losing his interest in it due to being the goalie of his soccer club. It sounds easy enough, just standing there, ensuring the other team doesn't score, except he's...not that great at it. Most of his teammates are understanding, but it's clear for them to advance, they have to win, and with his current skills, winning is a faraway dream. He's mostly fine with living a literal goal-free, hassle-free life, but then his little brother Arashi, who treats soccer as a very serious thing, suddenly quits his more professional team and joins the school team, and whether Yuusei likes it or not, his life and how he interacts with the game is about to change.
Now people who have been following us for a while know I'm not the biggest sports manga fan. I enjoy them well enough, but it's not a genre I go out of my way to read. Paradon! (Which is apparently a Spanish term used in sports to describe a great save by a goalkeeper.) isn't making me run to the field, but what I immediately enjoy is just how emotive Yuusei is from both an artwork and writing standpoint. The guy wants to just play a little soccer with his friends, maybe look cool occasionally, and go home to not think about it. His brother is the total opposite in that he both looks like and to a much less extreme (thank goodness for Yuusei) acts like a Blue Lock character. So just knowing today is the day his brother is coming to join the team has him wondering if the world could do him a favor and just, end.
There's just something about Yuusei knowing exactly what's about to happen and dreading it that adds a layer of relatability to him. Many shonen sports series are filled with hot-blooded zeal for the sport, or the opposite, where the protagonist can't stand it but comes to like it over time. So there's something Sunday-esque about a protagonist who just likes the depicted sport a normal amount, but anytime his kid brother gets involved, his love of the game takes a hit. Oh, and that's no exaggeration, by the way, as in the very first chapter, Arashi not only declares himself the reason why they'll go to the nationals, but his play on the field ends with another team member wanting a match against the siblings. One that if they lose, Yuusei is off the team, leaving him no choice but to lock in.
So Paradon! is in a place where it's not a hot blooded soccer manga (yet) and takes it's place in Shonen Sunday to instead move along at a steady hum. That's fine and all, but how does the manga look? Sports manga especially need to have that extra oomph to them as without music or motion to do the heavy lifting, artwork becomes not just important but essential. How does Kemuri's artwork stack up?
Quite well, actually. Each page has a level of intensity that feels as if the characters are moving. Not only that but character designs are memorable, and as I mentioned before, the character expressions are well done, be it Yuusei's increasing dismay at his brother or just locking in and taking the game seriously-Kemuri does them all wonderfully. If there's one thing that's a little lacking in the first few chapters is a sense of character "weight". This is a leftover from Youki's writing where the sport is prioritized over characters, and while that's understandable in a one-shot, it does leave me wondering if they've improved enough to maintain interesting characters over what is a longer serial. That being said there are plenty of sports manga that survive on hype moments over character development so that may not affect this series too much, but I also think there's an interesting dynamic between the brothers that would be fun to explore and a shame to discard.
The Japanese Connection.
It's refreshing to come to a comment section where the fans are positive on a series. The last few have been either kind of "meh" on the series or outright hostile, so Paradon! Commentary, while very light, comes from people who are interested in seeing where the series will go next is a welcome change. A lot of fans enjoy Yuusei and Arashi's dynamic, though more than one person has said that Arashi's personality is a lot to the point that it makes him unlikable. That's balanced out by other readers who respect his abilities on the field and even think that he's harsh on his brother because he knows he's talented and wonders why he fritters away his time on treating soccer like some sorta game. The gall of the guy, am I right? Jokes aside, the Japanese readers have also noticed how well the emotions are drawn and that even without a ton of text, their thoughts and emotions are conveyed convincingly. Though the key point for many is the brothers and how they interact with each other. Some feel like Yuusei and Arashi's arguments and overall vibe throw off the goodwill the manga has, while others like it. I personally think it adds flavor to the manga, but I can see it becoming tedious if Youki and Kemuri focus on it too long.
The Verdict
Paradon is still really early in its run. I did hesitate on writing about it so soon, but I thought it showed enough of its hand (or leg) that it was worth writing about. In short, there's a lot of potential here, which means conversely there's a lot of potential to squander too. Youki Hajime not having a serial before this, and Karakara Kemuri never drawing a sports manga before now, leaves us in a tantalizing if not scary place. Where will this series go from here? Its closest contemporary is Kodansha's Blue Lock, but using its trajectory to predict where Paradon! will go is at best premature and at worst unfair. Paradon! isn't seeking a world stage yet, but also isn't kids playing soccer in their backyard. It isn't rushing to show its hand, but it isn't idly playing with the ball either. What it is, and what it isn't, will be determined as the serial proceeds, so what do we have right now? To me, it's a sibling story of polar opposites, a tale of a goal too far and too short. I hesitate to call it a sports series that's "about the characters" as that feels too premature at this point, but I do think Arashi and Yuusei's bond is what will distinguish this from similar works, and right now that goal is in sight, and the writing and artwork are making good progress in their beeline toward it. As long as it can keep that goal in mind and not lose itself on the way, then Paradon! will score.
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