Weekly Shounen Sunday #16 (2019) Editorial section

This week's question comes from Tokyo and asks "If you could say something to your Elementary school self, what would it be?" 

Fire Rabbit!! (Aya Hirakawa): You're going to become a manga artist, so don't give up on your dreams!!

Komi-san wa komyusho desu (Tomohito Oda): You can definitely ride a bicycle!

Hoankan Evans no Uso ~Dead or Love~ (Mizuki Kuriyama): Anyone who says "What if you became a manga artist?" to you is actually a prophet.

Souboutei Kowasubeshi (Kazuhiro Fujita): Read manga for all of Japan's history, you idiot! (Lol)! Though it's good to read.

Detective Conan: Zero's Tea Time (Takahiro Arai): You don't have to be in a rush to be an adult. After all, age will catch up to you in no time anyway.

Kimi wa 008 (Syun Matsuena): Be prepared for all sorts of things!

Maoujo de Oyasumi (Kagiji Kumanomata): You're such a good kid!! Your best times are going to be when you're small!!

Tantei Xeno to Natasu no Satsujin Misshitsu (Kyouichi Nanatsuki): No matter how old you get, don't change.

Amano Megumi ha Suki darake! (Nekoguchi): You're a man who will become a manga artist. Though ultimately that means only drawing panties every day.

Undine ha kyou mo koi wo suru ka? (Shinya Misu): I'm you from the future~

Tonikaku Cawaii (Kenjiro Hata): Buy stocks in Nintendo, and then when it reaches 70 thousand, sell out before the stock falls.

switch (Atsushi Namikiri): Take care of your Zoids and card games.

Anonatsu 1959 (Ashibi Fukui): Your beloved Kintetsu Buffalos won't be around come 2004!

(TN- A Baseball team that was bought out and had their name changed in 2004.)

Maiko-san chi no Makanai-san. (Aiko Koyama): Being able to draw manga, eat well and live well is the best life!

RYOKO (Kaito Mitsuhashi): "From this point forward don't think that everything will go the way you plan it."

Imouto Rireki (Kei Nishimura): Stop dodging the responsibility of speaking at the school arts festival every year.

Daiku no Hatou (Michiteru Kusaba): Live a honest life.

Okashi Danshi (Yori Katakura): Draw nothing but snacks and guys every day. Nice to meet you, I'm from websunday. 

Sokyuu no Ariadne (Norhiro Yagi): Moderate how much you doodle in your textbooks.

Zettai Karen Children (Takashi Shiina): "Invest in Microsoft and Apple".

Chrono Magia: Infinity Gear (Homura Kawamoto/Hikaru Muno): Defend your Super Nintendo games from mom even if it means death.

Hatsukoi Zombie (Ryou Minenami): Someday you'll meet Rumiko Takahashi-sensei!! Though I'll bet you won't believe me. (lol)

Aozakura Daigakkou Monogatari (Hikaru Nikaido): Don't betray your muscles.

Be Blues (Motoyuki Tanaka): You should be fine as is, no?

Youkai Giga (Satsuki Satou): "The white Mobile suits will win".

Tokaichi Hitoribocchi Nouen (Yuuji Yokoyama): If you don't say something no one will understand (you?). 

Wow, a lineup that was mostly..pretty straightforward and some actually was good advice other than the few who decided to spoil things for their past selves. Mitsuhashi's is a little forboding even if it is true --I wonder if he's referring to his most likely unplanned two year hiatus. Hata and Shiina sound like old men cooking up get rich quicker schemes and that's hilarious, and Nekoguchi's frankness really won me over. I wonder what my past self would think of me learning Japanese on my own and opening a blog dedicated to a single manga magazine? I can't say for sure, since I totally didn't think I'd end up here like this. 

Introducing a character late in the game for a manga, no, for anything is a bold and risky move since it can come off feeling like artificially elongating events just for extra story cred. Fujita's been in the business long enough for me to trust him, however --and as I said in the last entry I don't think Souboutei is rushing to an end even if the author himself has said there's not a whole lot left. That being said this is a new guy we haven't heard much of until now and I wouldn't be surprised if some readers found this new enemy appearing to just be a little too convenient. Though I am being maybe just a little too forward in calling this guy an enemy since he did clear out the soldiers who were threatening the main characters. 

Though hey he is a rather important guy. The sisters try to fight him off with their spells and summons, but he bats them away as if they're playthings. Makes sense when they realize he's the originator of their specific set of spells Oujin Izu in the flesh. To them (and rightfully so) there's no way they can possibly beat the guy who created their movesets. 

Recently I saw Fujita's Manben episode (Manben is a series where Naoki Urusawa --a manga artist, interviews other manga artists.) and it really was enlightening to see how Fujita tackles his work. That and now I can totally understand how a page like the one above came to fruition and how frustrating it must be for Fujita's assistants to deal with a guy who just has to fix things until they meet his high and constantly changing expectations. That and Fujita just goes right into drawing without really setting down a layered sketch. It's not exactly doing everything in "one take" but he just doesn't want to ink something and realize he doesn't like it, haha. It does lend a certain "organic feel" to his artwork, I think. In any case Izu izu not, I'm not sorry going to let his students or any of their friends escape so I guess he really is an enemy. Flipping back to Fujita's artwork, we're getting a color page next week so that and Izu's objectives are what we have to look forward to and I can't wait for either. 

Xeno takes his act on the road for the 5th murder room. It's interesting just how inventive these rooms get to the point that they're essentially not rooms anymore, haha. I'm sure there are plenty of mystery series out there that focus on a unique aspect of whodunits, but i'm amazed at how much milage Xeno has gotten out of basically being about closed room mysteries, even as the series might ostensibly be coming to an end soon. This week is about a play that the elite are attending, you'd think they'd try not to all be in the same room considering that's a huge death, er murder flag. That Xeno has interest in due to the stadium being built by Kai himself. The lead actress --Sumire Kandagawa is also familiar to him as she was a part of the last case though he didn't have a reason to suspect her of anything back then, even if she did seem really suspicious just sort of...watching everything happen. Though according to Ayla who keeps it from Xeno --she wasn't just staring out into space, but at him directly...hmm.  

The play continues but Ayla (and I really like that she's much more active here than in the last case) notices something again in the lines of the play --and the actress herself. See the play is similar to but not the same as something she heard on TV where a goddess of death married a man and bore a child. The couple were involved in a war and were seemingly lost while the child grew up to be a teacher who went on to teach children in the far recesses of a mountain unknown. A tale Xeno seems to know...

Well enough to move him to tears?! Could it be...could it be? Though yes he does straight out say that these are memories he had lost. The actress may very well be the teacher he had as a child and thus an important key to his memories. Though the crime has yet to happen, and I'm not feeling optimistic for Xeno's chances of learning anything here...Still this is compelling stuff --Xeno's search for his memories have always been vague and fuzzy, but this time things seem a lot more certain, even if the more certain something is the more it hurts to lose it.

A mind is a terrible thing to trick, as Pheebs finds out this week in Evans. It's a bit odd to me now that I think about it, and I can see some folks having an issue with how Pheebs' character is evolving even if it does make this chapter hilarious. Like --at least lately her obsession with Evans is played up a lot more than her competency without needing him. Kuriyama is still operating with enough of a soft touch that it's not overdone but it is teetering dangerously. Especially when Evans himself is depicted as less than loyal to her. In fairness since these idiots won't just outright confess he doesn't know that she likes him and won't spit out his feelings either so it's not as if he's being disloyal. That being said, without playing up more of his positive attributes it might come off as Evans being too much of a dog to deserve Pheebs and Pheebs being too desperate to realize he's got more faults than good qualities. It's a fine line to walk, and maybe it's just this arc that has been waxing and waning on for maybe just a smidgen too long that's showing these faults, but it's more a thing I've noticed lately than an outright problem with the series itself, and maybe once this story ends and the cowpokes have moved to other pastures things can get back on track. 

That aside this chapter is still really funny. The two have totally forgotten that the love potion is part of a larger swindle and are out to buy the stock in Pheebs' case. Thing is it really doesn't do anything to or for Evans, while for Pheebs it seems to have triggered a sort of somatic response where she sees Evans as her type of guy --vaguely effeminate and very, very, very pretty. Thing is it only works on her so no one gets why she's acting weird, haha. In fact Evans thinks that maybe he didn't have enough and offers to buy more so it becomes a huge mess. Pheebs is convinced everything Evans does is vaguely romantic, and the swindler is out for their heads now that he knows they're law folk.  They're able to wrangle him at last and Pheebs wonders if the potion really worked since she didn't find the con-man hot at all (ah how this triggers the old "yell-at-the-screen" response.) In the end Evans confiscates the evidence while secretly wondering how much he needs to get a response. I think the end of chapter text probably sums it up best --"The potion was fake, but the heart racing was real". 

Not much to say about RYOKO this week, but that's a good thing as it feels more like Mitsuhashi is taking his time to set up the stakes. The dragon that has been the bane of Ryoko and Rere's existences is actually a huge broccoli foodstuff, and the reason why the bewiching woods got it's name is when this critter moves around the entire landscape changes. Meanwhile Zen finally gets to show off his cool side briefly, but I like this character development of the otherwise laid back guy. He's not able to strike out at Kogarashi and Ubume, but he isn't giving up either --he will get back at the bad guys no matter how long it takes. Of course the main attraction --main course is Ryoko making her stand and despite the odds saying she will serve up some broccoli, and advance toward her brother and friend. Take all the time you need Mitsuhashi --I'm enjoying the ride. 

Kuro's got it's hands full with it's new "student" who views every little thing it does as some sort of training. Her--or it's earnestness really is the best part of the chapter, it's trying too hard and comes off as clumsy and genuine, very genuine. All it wants to do is protect her master Osamu even though the kid can't see Youkai. Who would have thought Minoru would be the least of Kuro's problems, haha. Though it speaks to a bigger issue of feeling needed or necessary by someone and I can definitely understand that feeling. Whether one is youkai or human the desire to be relied upon and to rely on others is pretty universal, I think. The fox(?) youkai is only so over active because it wants to serve some kind of purpose. Especially after it's last master abandoned her upon adulthood because he thought of her as useless even after she helped him become a fine adult who joined the military --very similarly to Kuro...worse yet when that master returned from war....in a box. This chapter went from charming to heavy really quick, geez. You gotta know that Kuro's thoughts drift back to his own master who's away at war and the future.....for now it holds onto the present and the fox yokai who just wants to have a purpose after losing it once.

And that's it for #16's editorial! You should give the associated twitter a follow here as the preview for issue 18 is already up. (And it's a little more active than the blog...for now.) I know I say it a lot, but I do really hope to turn this blog into something more not that the news is handled on the twitter, as well as get the blog more into the mainstream manga focus (while still focusing on Shounen Sunday of course!) It's a lot of work but I'm hoping to balance everything the best I can. Until the next week (which I hope will be on time...) enjoy your whole week....both Sundays included!