Everyone else is out eating but I'm the one being fed with excellent manga this week in the tome that is Shougakukan's Weekly Shounen Sunday! What's on this week's plate you may ask? Sit down at the table and take a gander!
This week on the cover is Major 2nd, and it really echoes the volume covers in a way that's pretty endearing. I've said often that I really like Mitsuda's character designs and it really shines through here! We've got Cawaii, switch, and Megumi on tap as they too are getting color pages, but Major is surely the center focus with a lead color page.
With every week comes a new question to answer. This week comes from Koichi and asks "Are there any unforgettable words that you adhere to?"
Amano Megumi Suki Darake! (Nekoguchi): "It's not a bra, but a pectoral muscle supporter!!"
Major 2nd (Takuya Mitsuda): Mini ni Tako (TN- This seems to be a catchphrase from the comedian/celebrity Masashi Tashiro related to a voyeurism incident. For more info check here
Tonikaku Cawaii (Kenjiro Hata): I'm going to become your (long so redacted) editor! (Current editor of Spirits.) (TN- Spirits refers to "Big Comic Spirits" which is a seinen manga magazine put out by Shogakukan.)
Hatsukoi Zombie (Ryou Minenami): When a longtime acquaintance that I had separated from passed me in a hallway and told me to "die".
Tantei Xeno to Nanatsu Satsujin Misshitsu (Teppei Sugiyama): There are plenty, but one that stuck with me and changed my life is "It's okay to be more vague".
Memesis (Takuya Yagyu): Fuujin and Raijin drawing folding screen date. Go drive! (TN- This is a song sung by Ryo Inoue that you can listen to here
Hoankan Evans no Uso ~Dead or Love~ (Mizuki Kuriyama): When a friend of mine ate some nasty curry they yelled "Man even sh*t would taste better than this!"
Chrono Magia: Infinity Gear (Takeshi Azuma): It's fine if you just wanna buy time, but I don't particularly care if you defeat them?
Maiko-san chi no makanai-san (Aiko Koyama): Don't say "well" or "but".
Aozakura Bouei Daigakkou mongatari (Hikaru Nikaido): C'mon Baby America.
switch (Atsushi Namikiri): It's gotta be now, yeah?
Saike matashitemo (Tsubasa Fukuchi): Rather than words, it's Fredrick's songs that are earworms I can't forget.
Komi-san ha Komyusho desu (Tomohito Oda): "I can't read these tiny letters!!!"
Be Blues (Motoyuki Tanaka): When I was little I overheard my parents fighting while I pretended to be asleep.....though I couldn't hear them really.
Souboutei Kowasubeshi (Kazuhiro Fujita): What era of novels do you like? It's Katama isn't it? From my annoying editor.
Maoujo de Oyasumi (Kagiji Kumanomata): Because of my pen-name there are a lot of people who think I'm a bear-like person.
Sokyuu no Ariadne (Norihiro Yagi): I thought about this for half a day and I couldn't come up with anything.
Daiku no Hatou (Michiteru Kusaba): Manuscript fee thief.
Birdmen (Yellow Tanabe): Dodesukaden. I haven't seen the movie though.
Kimi wa 008 (Syun Matsuena); I forget everything.
Gopun go no Sekai (Hiroshi Fukuda) Pulse!
Marry Grave (Hidenori Yamaji): My Assistant's weird voice.
Youkai Giga (Satsuki Sato). Pomade, Pomade, Pomade!
Tokaichi Hitoribocchi Nouen (Yuuji Yokoyama): "I can't trust in your human nature".
There were a few that were troublesome to make out, but I feel like we had this question or something like it before? Granted artists's answers changed so it might have been worth it to see this --if only for Sugiyama's answer, hah.
More Karakuri VAs are dropping, and now that I've caught up with the anime I can say it is moving really fast. Not sure yet if this is a good or bad thing but it's become increasingly obvious at least. Anyway for Latima we have Ayane Sakura providing her voice, for George Raroj, Kenji Hamada, and Steve Rockenfield is voiced by Hiromichi Kogami. Looking forward to seeing them in the anime!
Apparently Major 2nd had been on break for a little while before this without me noticing?? I can't claim that I know everything that happens with Sunday it's more power than one human possesses really. But man to think that totally skipped my notice...but anyway the series is back and with a color page that's easy on the eyes. I haven't read the original major at all, so this may be per the course for Mitsuda's baseball epic, but I'm surprised they're still doing the mixed gender team this far into the series. Not that I'm upset by it --no way! Just thought by it's third year that the series would have slowly transitioned over to being more of a straight take on sports in a shounen magazine. I mean from what I do know of the original, it progressed through Goro's whole life, right? Granted this one doesn't have to do that, though, hm. Actually it'd be interesting if this really did just keep itself contained to the middle school years of the characters but that's unlikely. Anyway as much as this should be a Major (see what I did there?) source of good news, I regretfully have to inform you...
Major's on a Major hiatus. So it turns out the three week break that Mitsuda had taken earlier wasn't to highten a sense of anticipation for more Major but because the artist was suffering from an unnamed sickness. Mitsuda (above) apologizes explaining that he thought he'd be better after the break and was even really into drawing the color page but then things apparently got worse and not only is the series going on hiatus, but this week's chapter was about five or six pages short. This is..alarming to say the least, and I hope Mitsuda will take his time recovering before returning. He promises he will be back, which I have no doubt he will but man...Sunday's kind of in a tight spot with two of their bigger manga being on hiatus constantly, and nothing other than a few series selling a little better than "okay". I'll admit despite the magazine doing better in other respects that I am really worried for it. I don't think Sunday's gonna die out or anything but man...I hate seeing it like this. It's even worse since all the adverts seem to advertise it's glorious return just for this to happen so it really does seem like the editorial staff was caught completely off guard. Still the important thing here is Mitsuda's health and full recovery.
I just realized earlier today that November 22nd is couples day, but Tonikaku reveals that it is also good (married) couples day, and Nasa wants to commemorate it by having his soon to be wife say "I love you" as seen above. (I like the call and response at the end where it's like 'Okay now, everyone do it together!') Though yes, if Major is stepping down for a moment, at least we have Tonikaku doing well in it's place. I'm kind of facinated with this series that not only doesn't take itself too seriously but also doesn't seem all that interested in advancing itself plotwise. It really is just "cute", with a dash of Hata's sense of humor.
Though I do feel like that's what makes the landscape of Sunday uniquely...unique. This chapter is really about Tsukasa asking her husband to be what his favorite food is and kind of riffing off of that. Nothing too complex, but layered in a way that you really get to know these characters and understand them. In another magazine this might feel like it's moving too slowly, but among other series of the same ilk in WSS it's right at home. Shame that Nasa doesn't get that kiss he was hoping for by leading Tsukasa out to buy things for his favorite meal, but there's time m'boy. There's time.
Megumi's gonna Megumi. Though to be fair to the series it has been doing a little more substantive romantic developments in it's recent chapters, but one thing Nekoguchi has made clear through his interviews and the narrative of the series the focus is on T&A. Granted the strength of this series in particular is that the T&A at least never really feels forced or uncomfortable. It's straightforwardness in what it's aiming for actually is an advantage rather than lacking -- I can describe the chapter in a sentence --Megumi and Ma-kun head to the pool to teach kids to swim and wardrobe malfunctions happen. That's really it, but I do think Nekoguchi does it in a way that's titlating without being wholly...dirty for lack of a better word. At the very least it makes the chapter easy to talk about, and manga is a storytelling form that relies on it's art which Nekoguchi excels at.
Switch has flipped on it's first two volumes of which this color page notes. How did they do you may be wondering? Er, well, not badly for an author's debut, but nothing to write home about either. As this chapter gathers our main characters together for their first official (practice) game, I can assume that we won't see a switch off for a while --and for Shougakukan's part they really are trying to market the series as much as they can with collaborations and campaigns a plenty. It's actually mildly shocking to see this much effort to push what's basically untested talent. I certainly think Namikiri is good for it, as even though I don't really care for sports as a genre, switch's artwork and story beats so far have been pretty pleasing. I remember Namikiri saying he hasn't really "planned" a whole lot and while I haven't seen too much of that so far, I think it helps the series feel like it's building up to something weirdly enough. That sense of anticipation should help switch a bit as the stakes go up --but I do like that we're getting a bit of slow build up rather than being thrust in the mix of things.
It's a very short chapter of Komi this week as the Rei arc seemingly comes to a very cute ending. This time around it's the brother Komi who gets the spotlight as he fixes the toy she broke a few chapters ago and even keeps her safe. It clocks in at eight pages, but I think that works as a kind of bookend to the arc itself, and since Shousuke doesn't say much there really isn't much for me to say either. However at the very end when Rei grows attached to him and follows him around I admit my heart grew two sizes bigger. Especially when big sis Komi shows up and is revealed to have been trailing the two.
It's not really Weekly Sunday but I thought I should talk about the new serialization in Sunday Super of "Kyou Kara Ore wa!" by Hiroyuki Nishi. I mean technically it's not a new serialization since the series ran in Weekly Sunday in the 90's, but it's new to Super I guess? The manga currently has a drama running on TV so it wouldn't surprise me if it's in relation to that, though I could also appreciate it being a thank you to the fans who have continued to support it all these years later. The second new serial is "Neko gurashi no Gamer-san" by Wataru Nadatani which is about a 29 year old gamer girl and her cat. The series is advertised by Shougakukan as being a "everyday life comedy" and the premise sounds cute enough. If you're interested in these, the issue will be out November 24th!
And that's it for the admittedly short features section his week! Next wee sees the return of Mr. Shounen Sunday, Yuugami's monthly visit, and a color page for Chrono Magia: Infinity Gear's fifth chapter. I'd like to say I'm thankful for all of you my dear friends and enjoy your Thanksgiving --or barring that, time with your family/friends. Until the next Sunday!
Comments
Post a Comment