Weekly Shounen Sunday #18 (2019) Editorial section


What's something you've always wanted for your personal use? <---Is this week's question straight from Tokyo! I'm taking that arrow for my personal use, haha.

Tonikaku Cawaii (Kenjiro Hata): A Jet with an international air route.
Maoujo de Oyasumi (Kagiji Kumanomata): I'd like a revolving sushi table, and a fourth dimension where I'm connected to a sushi chief.
Detective Conan: Zero's Tea Time (Takahiro Arai): A Mobile armor.
Aozakura Bouei Daigakkou Monogatari (Hikaru Nikaido): Underfloor Heating and a personal air force one unit.
Amano Megumi wa Suki Darake! (Nekoguchi): I'd like a desk to be built to my specific physique. 
Souboutei Kowasubeshi (Kazuhiro Fujita): I want a hot secretary who'll clean up my crappy schedule.
Fire Rabbit!! (Aya Hirakawa) A room for my private use!
switch (Atsushi Namikiri): A self service bar.
Komi-san ha Komyusho Desu (Tomohito Oda): An underground spa! A Sauna! A Den!
Hoankan Evans no Uso ~Dead or Love~ (Mizuki Kuriyama): There's a certain cafe with an electric powered chair, specifically in the Yuuraku Cho...
Anonatsu 1959 (Ashibi Fukui): I want a chair that'd allow me to work for long hours without problems.
Undine ha Kyou mo Koi wo suru ka (Shinya Misu): A stylish cafe.
Maiko-san chi no makanai-san (Aiko Koyama): A desk.
Be Blues! (Motoyuki Tanaka): The shaft of a pen I was interested in went out of print and I'd really like one..
Bukimi no Kuni no Alice (Ippei Aoki): The battle is only starting from here.
Joker -Detarame na kirifuda- (Yomogi Mogi): Pleased to meet you! Please read while believing you'll be fooled!
Tantei Xeno to Nanatsu no Satsujin Misshitsu (Kyouichi Nanatsuki) A personal hotsprings would be nice...
Chrono Magia: Infinity Gear (Homura Kawamoto/ Hikaru Muno): A train.
Gofun go no Sekai (Hiroshi Fukuda): Gotta go with my own house, (lol).
Imouto Rireki (Kei Nishimura): A 7-11.
Sokyuu No Ariadne (Nobuhiro Yagi): A Cat.
Kimi wa 008 (Syun Matsuena): Earth.
RYOKO (Kaito Mitsuhashi): Leveled shoes that are kind to your foot soles, I suppose?
Daiku no Hatou (Michiteru Kusaba): A red mobile suit.
Youkai Giga (Satsuki Satou): A Bike that isn't too peaky.
Tokaichi hitoribocchi nouen (Yuuji Yokoyama): My own personal gym equipment and pool!

Most of these are fairly in character, weirdly enough. Though I most identify with Fukuda, Hirakawa, and maybe Hata who for once wasn't really difficult to translate. (See? Is it that hard to be straightforward, haha.) Though again not much to speak of here in general --the question was pretty out there to begin with so the answers being equally so seemed just right. Though the Gundam being strong with two of these authors feels like a Sunday hallmark at this point. 


Only Fujita could pull off the "I'm actually part of your family" reveal twice in one arc and it's actually more exciting the second time than the first. Though I do feel bad for the sisters, since running into their ostensible Dad in a situation like this can't be good for them. Though, surprisingly enough Izu just comments on his competition (And how y'know, he could probably kill all of them in his sleep if he felt like it), and leaves. Though yeah as seen on the page on the right, they don't take the news of their parentage all that well, and they once again repeat now with emphasis --if they have to fight him, and he's their father then they don't stand a chance. Though ladies, you're in a shounen manga --and a Fujita one at that. The wrong sorta place to be in if you thought one show of overwhelming power would be enough to get the others to reconsider. 


Though there is an option! The sisters have a third sister with which they share their eyes with --(it's weird but go along with it.) And when all of these eyes come together they can see all sorts of things including the weaknesses of people! Which means perhaps if they can find this third sister they may be able to peer into Izu and get a clue on how to take him down. They're able to locate her with telepathy and she's at a rather unlikely place --the main house of the Souboutei where she's having a grand old time giving Takoha and the others a run for their money. Ah, so this is how Fujita is going to connect two storylines into one again, huh? It was bound to happen so I'm not really surprised --rather I'm intrigued to see how this'll all come down. Kurenai is still with the major villian of the arc, and while I'd like to see her be the one to confront Sakamaki, I somehow doubt it'll go down that easily. Still, considering how little stakes the super powered characters of this series have in regard to him, as well as Takoha and Rokurou who do have a bone to pick but aren't super powered at all it does leave the question of what will actually happen floating in the air. 


Though for now at least the goal is to hook up with the other group as soon as possible. It's been a while since the main cast has been all in one place, and I can't help but think this is another symptom of the plot wrapping up. Even if this is the case I'm confident in Fujita being able to close the door on this killer house in a way we might expect, but still won't see coming. 



More than the wisdom or kindness of man, it's the pettiness that we can all relate to, right? Evans can't have his old mentor hogging the spotlight so he decides to become a news maker and cut a dashing figure as he does so. You'd think he'd at least avoid a reporter who made him look awful before, but beggars can't be choosers can they? So with Miss Roberts in tow, Evans goes looking for trouble she can write about. By now we know just how Evans works and with it nearing it's two year mark, I suppose we shouldn't expect surprises. Not that this is a bad thing, since a series that's confident in it's characters and setting comes off as stronger than one that's constantly changing to appease the audience. Kind of like Evans himself who changes his image at any given moment to get more chicks, hah. Though really the harder Evans tries to be mysterious and cool thanks to his Dad's lessons the more unappealing he comes off. Roberts is pretty annoyed by his blase attitude too, lol. Just when it looks like this interview is a dud a perp shows up and Evans gets a chance to be cool --until he's asked why he became a sheriff in the first place. Whoops. 


Max showing up too is proof that bad timing doesn't hit just once. Though Evans does manage to bag his man, but only after Max sorta blurts out his true reason for becoming a Sheriff --to be popular. Granted thanks to Evans timing (guess that's the motif this week, huh.) His words come off as a joke though Evans himself figures "Hey why bother having a reason for being a sheriff"? Just doing it is good enough right? Feels like Ted sees through him in the end, but Pheebs who's in earshot might just be into the mysterious new gunman. 


Speaking of mysteries, we move right along to Xeno who's...well doing more than just moving right along, in fact it feels like the story has gone into warp drive this week! Though I have to say this much --whether it's Sugiyama or Nanatsuki behind the pacing is something I'm not sure of, but even at it's increased speed the buildup still feels organic. Though let's get into the chapter itself and unpack the a lot that happened this week. 


The story of the play eerily reflects Xeno's actual life where the children all die around the teacher who can do nothing to save them. It's all but clear now the man who detained Xeno before as a child is the target of the murder, and the culprit is Kandagawa Sumire who was one of the teachers back in his youth. Her motivation doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination --she wants revenge against the man who killed her students. The entire stage is merely an execution platform for this henious man --and for the first time in the series a murder has been prevented, but I love the irony that it's actually someone who deserves to die who has been saved. It's been done before in other series plenty of times, but there's something much more poignant about how it's done here, perhaps due to it being much more personal to the protagonist. 



In another case, after Xeno does his deduction that'd be the end of it, but this time around things are different. The culprit --Kandagawa makes a run for it, and Xeno makes the unprecedented move to follow her for a confrontation --though he's more interested in why Taniguchi had to die in the last case --Kandagawa says it's because he defiled Kai's murder doors and had to be punished. It's from here things get juicy --she pleads for him to understand her actions and the things that Shiwabuki the man she tried to kill has done --even implying that he might have had something to do with his memories being taken, but before she can name any names she's gunned down by a mystery assailant, who in turn is killed by Ayla as seen above. Now the idea that Ayla the assassin may or may not have killed someone before this has been toyed around with --after all she is pretty nimble, but now whether she has or hasn't is irrelevant. Even if she attacked to protect her friend and employer, she has killed someone and right before Xeno's eyes. I'm sure he's probably grateful, but Ayla is beside herself in guilt --she gave up being an Assassin after all, but the fate she bitterly tried to fight against has gripped her regardless, and she runs off in shame leaving Xeno alone with the man who ruined his life and ironically thanks him for saving his. Not only that but Kinoo is revealed to be this man --Shiwabuki's son. The die has been cast and while it's likely Xeno's ending is coming up faster than say, Souboutei's I can say with confidence there's much to look forward to.



RYOKO's low in the TOC again this week which is to say my anxiety is actually quite high. The series isn't breaking any new ground as of late, but it's still been entertaining to follow, and with it's sales not being the best, and it's hiatus still being a huge cross to bear I'm still worried about it's future...as I say almost every week, hah. For the chapter itself, I'm a big fan of Ryoko and Rere stepping up to do what men usually do in series of the shounen demographic, but Zen stealing the spotlight this week was a pleasant surprise too. If only because up until now he's been depicted as the laid back foil to Ryoko's steely resolve. Though really they're both more similar than I would have given them credit for. Zen takes charge, gets Ryousuke out of danger's way and takes on Ubume himself. I am a bit surprised that Ubume who I thought --or well, still think is the lost mother of Ryoko and Ryousuke didn't seem to recognize her boy, but maybe Mitsuhashi is playing his cards close to the chest as of now. 


I dunno what Zen is going to do, though it looks painful! I just shudder looking at that gash on his chest. Though, as I've asked before it's not clear yet what exactly the enemies want with a destructive element like Zen in the first place. Ryoko herself doesn't have a huge part to play in this chapter, though the fight with Parsley is definitely brewing for later down the line. Instead, we get a much more surprising match-up by the end of the chapter...


Kogarashi vs Rere isn't something I thought we'd see, but Mitsuhashi is feeling generous so here we are. Both fighters are injured from their last confrontation --giving Rere a fair chance against Kogarashi though is she really going to steal the headliner from the protagonist? It suggests both that Parsley is a serious threat, and that Kogarashi as strong as he is represents only a part of the struggle that lies before the main characters. Yes, of course the Rice seems to be the the major antagonist but in their absence a lot is happening. Now it's a question of who will be first up in the struggles that will undoubtedly take us through the next few chapters? 




Kuro's sliding into it's teaching role pretty gracefully even if the same can't be said about it's student! We at least find out her name this week --Osaki. The kanji of which reads "Honored proceeding fox". Which in full is "Osaki Kitsune". Though on closer inspection that might be more of a title than a name, which is to say maybe this Osaki inherited it from someone before her? I'd be interested in knowing how that works, but for this week Osaki is trying her best to be a good student and protector for her master. Though in doing so, she seems to be determined to create as much distance between them as she can. The chapter itself takes place from Kuro's POV as it notes that Osaki is pretty...terrible when it comes to exercising and stamina, but has a "never-die" attitude like no one else --an attitude Kuro can't help but admire even if watching Osaki run into things gets a bit difficult, haha. Still, the lesson that if you really want to do something, you have to keep at it is loud and clear. Good luck Osaki!

And that's it for the editorial for this week! I actually haven't gotten around to the features thread on twitter for issue 18 because I was translating the interview and gathering things for this month's entries that hopefully won't be all editorials like they have been for the last three months. (Gotta do more with this blog than that!) But I'll try to have it up soon. Until then, enjoy your week --both Sundays included! 




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