New to Sunday: Toomi Ota's Shuusekiban go 0 ban

Here we go at last with the first of the two new serials currently running in Weekly Shonen Sunday! Both artists have been hanging around Shoggy for a while in the form of different oneshots so its like seeing kids graduate from school and make their first unsteady steps into the world. New serials are always exciting but ones by artists who have been priming themselves before our eyes are among the best!

The Artist

Toomi Ota

Formerly known as Toomi Tsukiashi, Toomi Ota's been drawing oneshots for Sunday Webry going back as far as 2020. Pictured above are oneshots Hachisai, Moto Yakyuubu to Terrorist, and JK to Gouhouteki ni H na koto wo suru houhou. (I found links to the other two, but not the third.) With titles like "Former Baseball club and a terrorist" and "How to legally get it on with a High School Girl" (which is actually far more innocuous than the title would have you believe)  it's hard to pin down just what Ota's all about. 

(From Hachisai) 

(From Moto Yakyuubu to Terroist)

Both one-shots are fairly short, coming in at around 20 pages, and couldn't be any further apart from each other in tone and execution. Hachisai is about a tournament between combatants who have been granted powers from God and battle for prestige and in our protagonist's case, food. Meanwhile Moto Yakkyubu to Terrorist is well --high school kids using their baseball skills to prevent a grenade wielding terrorist from blowing up their school. The one thing these all have in common is very clean artwork. Though hey, having a wide breadth of stories to tell isn't a bad thing at all. However it's this next oneshot that informs the story that eventually got serialized.

Serialized in issue #28 of 2022 is Omuta Jinsei no aru hibi or "The days of Omuta Jinsei." We have in fact covered this oneshot on our twitter here but to sum it up, Omuta is tasked with taking out an alien threat that's hiding out in his school as part of his final exam. Except said alien ends up being his best friend and schoolmate Chihaya. 

Ota utilizes the one-shot format to tell rapid-fire stories that don't spend time holding the audience's hand. Which makes sense since one has few pages to grab the audience's attention, tell a story, and leave them wanting more. Ultimately it means making a choice between telling a coherant story or putting your name out there. That being said Ota does refine their storytelling through each one-shot as Omuta does come to a sad, but satisfying conclusion. Omuta slays his classmate despite his hesitance, and while he plays it off as "I'm saving the world because I have a girlfriend now" one can tell it wasn't an easy choice for him.

Another commonality in these oneshots (aside from Moto Yakyuubu to Terrorist) is they end on bittersweet notes. 

In Hachisai the protagonist puts up a good fight in the oneshot but still doesn't quite win, though his opponent relishes the fight and this sparks (heh) a light under him to train harder and not relax on his abilities, and Omuta as mentioned saves the world and has his girlfriend, but has to slay a close friend in the process. The latter especially with its self-sacrificing lead is a tone that Ota goes with for their serial.

The Serial

Shuusekiban go 0 ban. 

Starting in Shonen Sunday's #45th issue in 2023 is Toomi Ota's first long term serial Shuusekiban go 0 ban. The introductory blurb states that an occult loving girl meets a mysterious boy. As love begins the world ends. Interesting since in the first chapter itself it doesn't feel like there's a lot of love. Granted there are two things to keep in mind here: 1) The blurbs on the websites and chapters themselves aren't written by the author but the editorial staff to hype people up, and 2) Assuming Ota did have a hand in this description it could be a teaser for future events, maybe?  

The Premise.

In a class setting there's that one student who doesn't stand out. They aren't a particularly good or bad person, they just sorta exist. Only to be remembered on the first day of class, graduation and maybe over drinks during class reunions. In some cases the individual just prefers their privacy, and in others they just don't stand out despite their best efforts. Such is life. Though, what if because of supernatural circumstances it's not that they aren't seen, but can't be? 

Stepping back a bit, first here's the heroine of this tale, Io Sawatari. Odd name aside the promo art --at least to me gave off the impression of a quiet, shy girl who would be paired alongside the shonen protagonist. To my pleasant surprise she's quite animated and endearing. Although as of now she doesn't have any particular abilities to speak of, I think she's the "soul" of this first chapter. Oh, and don't get me wrong, while she doesn't have any supernatural abilities (yet) she's got a quirk --she's obsessed with the occult. To the point that in the screenshot above she's out to recruit members for the occult society at the school and she's not picky. Like the occult maniacs in Pokemon games, if her eyes meet yours she's not going to let you go.

Her victim this time around is a boy who according to the others in the class has zero friends and is known as the titular "Shuusekiban go 0 ban" or "Student Number 0." The other students barely interact with him, but Io finds this mysterious classmate interesting, even if she can't put her finger on why. 

Io may not have ever interacted with him, but she makes sure she at least knows who she's in class with, but yet...she can't remember his name. Though this isn't a faux pas caused by her inattention, he literally has no name. He is Student 0, who has no name, no identity. Io realizes very quickly that she has no idea who he is at all --yet he's always been here? How's that possible? She quickly asks other students about him and they just say "He's just another one of our classmates" and leave it at that. 

He explains that he exists in the interval between 0 and 1. If Io exists in the world of positive integers, then he straddles the line between the positive world and the negative one. Which is to say there is a world below the positive one where ghosts, monsters and strange beings occur. His existence is 0. Hence he is Student Number 0. What that means isn't totally clear and this isn't necessarily a new concept in storytelling, but the idea that something --someone can exist in the middle of positive and negative without ever being noticed is pretty creepy ---and kind of cool? Like he isn't hiding, he just can't be perceived. Which begs the question, how come Io seems to be an exception to this rule, and why now? 

Io's nothing if not opportunistic. This is exactly the kind of thing an occult obsessed girl would freak over. A student in her class that doesn't exist to anyone but her? That's Grade A material! So she immediately puts him through different tests. She tries listening to see if he has a heart beat --he doesn't (which I feel like should lead to more questions than she asks, but that's just me) to dressing him in a ridiculous sign and glasses to see what reactions he gets. (And it's none, by the way.) So far the only explanation given as to why she can interact with him normally where no one else can is just "she's weird", and yeah that fits into Ota's storytelling of "it just works" and while it does just work for one shots can it here? 

Zero-kun (let's just call him that for now) and Io have a fun time at school (more the latter than the former) but all good times have to come to an end. Io doesn't want it to, and wonders if she goes home and comes back the next day will she remember him? Zero isn't sure, and doesn't seem bothered by it. As not only does he not have a heartbeat, but he seemingly doesn't have emotions either. Io comments it has to be lonely to be unseen and not heard. Zero's nonplussed until she reveals she'd  be the lonely one. Truly up until now the other students look upon Io with either derision, or amusement. Her forceful efforts to get someone to join the club are to cover her own sense of isolation. Compared to Zero who's settled into his lot in life, Io almost has it worse --she's alone among others. Though it's here where things get weird.

The world sorta...shifts, and suddenly Io and Zero find themselves on the wrong side of the integer world --in that of the negatives, where they come face to non face with a being that lives there. Io's dull shock to it smacking a water bottle away from her just to be followed up with a smash cut of her running for her life with Zero in tow tickles my very specific sense of humor. Zero admits he's not entirely sure of what's going on here either, but he doesn't resist Io who despite just meeting him is concerned enough about his welfare to grab him and run as fast as she can without a second thought. 

Which is perhaps what leads Zero with all of his lacking emotions to trade a favor for a favor and well seemingly die. The mysterious being attacks and takes his head clean off. Io is aghast leading to my favorite part of the chapter. Ota's artwork has been great, but the gentle lines above showing Io's shaking hand, be it out of fear, sadness or both is the second time she's shown vulnerability. Zero's truly the first friend she's ever had and now he's dead....right?

Not quite. See, as Zero straddles the lines between positives and negatives and thus is neither human or otherworldly, his body has "enhancements" that others don't. As in --he's not truly alive so how can he be "killed"? It's because of that he's able to make short work of the otherworldly being --it may not be human but it "lives" in the world of the negatives and as such can be killed. Io grabs onto zero in tears and he muses to himself wondering if he'll ever have emotions like hers.

With that they return to class as if nothing happened. Zero's ready to head back to his stateless status quo, but Io surprises him with a name. He is no longer just "Zero" but "Asuka" with the kanji characters for "tomorrow." Io admits it's a dorky name with an even dorkier meaning behind it: "So that we'll be able to meet tomorrow too." Though by giving a name to that which didn't exist, doesn't it now change it's state of being?

That it does. By the very nature of having a name, Asuka is now more than "zero" he's now "somebody" and the class reacts accordingly with confusion. Who is this guy who suddenly appeared out of nowhere? Where did he come from? What is his name?

To that, Io asks if it's okay to call him "Asuka" and dumbfounded he replies in the affirmative. It's this last panel that begins the "love story" advertised in the color page --as Asuka realizes he's feeling his very first emotion, and it's love. Meanwhile around them, something stirrs and assumedly the world moves towards it's demise...

/

Due to me running behind schedule there are already 3 chapters out by this writing so I have some idea of where things head after this premiere. Asuka is hit with everything everywhere all at once --people notice him, his heart is beating out of his chest, and he still has his otherworldy abilities. Not only that but his very existence is the harbringer of the world's destruction, and not surpringly there are those who would rather see him dead than happy. By the time chapter 3 ends he's up against one of those opponents and they seem much more versed in this supernatural struggle for the earth's fate than he is.

The Verdict

If you've seen my thoughts on X (formerly twitter) then my worries that this will canabalize Tatari (reviewed here!) in being a supernatural battle manga. After reviewing this properly I still have that concern, but I think what Ota is going for with Shuusekiban go 0 ban is more unique than similar to the yokai battle action series that Watari has cooked up. In the Tatari review I said the series harkens back to an older time where ultra violent shonen manga roamed the earth. Shuusekiban go 0 ban instead feeles much more contemporary in it's character driven focus. Asuka and Io are the center of this story that's more about self discovery than it is fighting for revenge or to become the strongest, and that is what will make this serialization stand out from it's battle manga peers both in Weekly Shounen Sunday and beyond. Asuka is a blank slate for now, and it's watching him grow into a fully actualized person (literally!) that is the draw of Shuusekiban go 0 ban. As long as Ota continues with their strong character writing and straightforward but emotive artwork I think this has a much higher chance than zero to succeed.