• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Comment Policy
    • Disclosures & Disclaimers
  • Resources
    • Links, Essays & Articles
    • Fandomology!
    • CLAMP Directory
    • BlogRoll
  • Features & Columns
    • 3 Things Thursday
    • Adventures in the Key of Shoujo
    • Bit & Blips (game reviews)
    • BL BOOKRACK
    • Bookshelf Briefs
    • Bringing the Drama
    • Comic Conversion
    • Fanservice Friday
    • Going Digital
    • It Came From the Sinosphere
    • License This!
    • Magazine no Mori
    • My Week in Manga
    • OFF THE SHELF
    • Not By Manga Alone
    • PICK OF THE WEEK
    • Subtitles & Sensibility
    • Weekly Shonen Jump Recaps
  • Manga Moveable Feast
    • MMF Full Archive
    • Yun Kouga
    • CLAMP
    • Shojo Beat
    • Osamu Tezuka
    • Sailor Moon
    • Fruits Basket
    • Takehiko Inoue
    • Wild Adapter
    • One Piece
    • After School Nightmare
    • Karakuri Odette
    • Paradise Kiss
    • The Color Trilogy
    • To Terra…
    • Sexy Voice & Robo
  • Browse by Author
    • Sean Gaffney
    • Anna Neatrour
    • Michelle Smith
    • Katherine Dacey
    • MJ
    • Brigid Alverson
    • Travis Anderson
    • Phillip Anthony
    • Derek Bown
    • Jaci Dahlvang
    • Angela Eastman
    • Erica Friedman
    • Sara K.
    • Megan Purdy
    • Emily Snodgrass
    • Nancy Thistlethwaite
    • Eva Volin
    • David Welsh
  • MB Blogs
    • A Case Suitable For Treatment
    • Experiments in Manga
    • MangaBlog
    • The Manga Critic
    • Manga Report
    • Soliloquy in Blue
    • Manga Curmudgeon (archive)

Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

January 16, 2013 by Derek Bown 1 Comment

Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha Recap: January 14, 2013

alphaWe’re just one week away from being up to date with Japan. And all I can say, as I sit here pondering these most recent chapters, is that I’m glad I don’t have to sit here with no new chapters, unlike those reading scanlations. My self control at not reading ahead has paid off.

The big news this week is that One Punch Man will be added to Weekly Shonen Jump (the Alpha has been dropped from the title). I haven’t read this series myself, but we did do an episode on it. I have to admit, this was not one of the series I was expecting to make it into our Jump. Still, I hear it’s a good series, and look forward to reading it. Now someone at Viz please get Beelzebub into Weekly Shounen Jump? And Sket Dance too, please.

What? Me? Demanding? Perish the thought.

Naruto Ch. 615
It’s times like these that make me glad I grew out of my shipping phase a long time ago—though not so long ago that I can’t still feel the sting of a sunken ship. That being said, I actually ran into spoilers about this chapter two weeks ago, because there is nothing in this world more vindictive than a “victorious” shipper. And they want to make sure everyone on the internet knows about it, even those of us who have been sticking to the legal release.

What? Am I sounding bitter? Huh, I wonder why that could be.

I could go into details why I don’t think this chapter is that big a deal, but that would only incite comments against me. Though, too be fair, I’m almost thinking that even those comments are better than no comments.

From a non-shipping standpoint, I feel that this chapter dragged a bit. The entire run was used to build Naruto’s confidence back up, and apparently build up the moment between him and Hinata. Frankly I would probably enjoy this more romance if Naruto weren’t so schizophrenically written. The biggest problem I find with this series is that I’m never sure exactly what Kishimoto intends to do. He rarely gives romance a focus, and when he does it seems to come out of nowhere because it’s involving characters who haven’t done anything in forever. And he seems to relish sending mixed signals, making it hard for the casual reader to really catch on to what exactly his end goal is.

The entire purpose of this chapter is giving Naruto and Hinata a moment, and since I’m not really invested in that relationship (personally, I’ve always thought Hinata was too underdeveloped to be really interesting), I can’t say this chapter did much for me.

naruto

One Piece Ch. 694
All this talk about shipping makes me appreciate Oda’s no-romance stance all the more. It’s refreshing to know that I can read this series and when I go to participate in the fandom not all of the discussion is about romantic drama.

The main thing I feel worth noting is that Baby 5’s devil fruit ability raises some interesting questions. Is she a logia or a paramecia? If she’s a paramecia then she’s an overpowered paramecia since she can reconstitute herself. If she’s a logia then does this mean that those types of fruits aren’t limited to elemental forms? None of these questions are answered, but I hope that eventually we will get an answer.

The ending, well, I won’t give it away, but I have to say I did not expect the story to go the way it’s going. Monet’s supposed fate comes as a bit of a surprise, though I doubt this is the end of her, since hints in previous chapters have suggested that there’s more to her than we’ve gotten this arc.

With the exception of a bit of deus ex machina I have to say this was a solid chapter, and I look forward to more. As always.

Cross Manage Ch. 016
Oh hey, look, they’re playing a match. A sports match in a sports manga? What a novel idea. Though, to be fair, for this series the focus on the characters rather than the sport was established early on. It’s not about learning the sport as much as it is the sport acting as a vehicle for the characters’ personal growth. While seeing them grow as a team is interesting, I personally would have preferred some more development for the team members before moving to this stage. I can’t help but feel that this fast pace is the death throe of a manga about to be cancelled. But, if it does survive I wouldn’t mind reading some more.

Bleach Ch. 522
I suggested it in my last column, and it stands confirmed in this chapter. Kubo just wants to draw lots of attractive women, preferably with big breasts as well. Or maybe Nimaiya is Kubo’s current author avatar. But, sexy antics in the first half of the chapter aside, it looks like we’re going to get to see some fighting next chapter. I do like the idea of Ichigo and Renji having to reconcile with their Zanpakuto, and look forward to seeing what Kubo does with that.

Or, if he wants, he can just keep drawing sexy women. At this point I’ll take what I can get.

notsure

Nisekoi Ch. 957
Ah Nisekoi, you and your silly antics. I didn’t think it was possible to make me like ALL the girls in this series. It’s fairly obvious, since this is the way these series work, that Raku will end up with Chitoge. And while I have my own preferences, I have to admit that Komi Naoshi does a great job of making me like all the girls fairly equally.

Which is why this chapter works for me. If I didn’t like Chitoge I wouldn’t like this chapter. Her escalating attempts to get Raku to notice the little changes she’s making to her appearance are hilarious as they get more and more obvious and everyone but Raku seems to be noticing. And again, there are some great expressions this chapter.

notsure2

Toriko Ch. 217
The odd thing about Toriko is that it has a fairly large cast, but characters are constantly being introduced and then forgotten about, only to be brought back like it’s no big deal. Seeing Melk back was a fun bit of the chapter, I like that she actually came to meet Komatsu instead of just watching him from the the stands. Though it was odd that neither she nor Komatsu said anything to each other.

The other thing I have to say about this chapter is something I never thought I’d say. But, well, there’s a first for everything.

I really, really actually wanted to see the tournament play out. I know this is something nobody in his right mind would say. But I really like cooking and one of my favorite parts of Toriko is seeing the cooking. This was like an arc made just for me. And it looks like it will be cut short. Oh well, I’m sure whatever Shimabukuro does next will be interesting too.

Blue Exorcist Ch. 042
While I enjoy Blue Exorcist, it’s currently suffering from me not having the funds to buy all the volumes yet. So most of these chapters I’ve been reading don’t have a larger context for me to put them in. Sure, I enjoy the characters. Sure, the overall story, while unfocused from what I have read, is pretty good. But at the moment it doesn’t really have anything that it’s really building towards. Or at least that’s what it feels like to me. I don’t have a single goal to watch the characters progress towards, or at least they don’t seem to be actively pursuing that goal. Whenever a manga does that it ends up feeling disoriented and suffers as a consequence.

As far as this chapter is concerned, the further development that Yuki is undergoing (that he himself might be a demon as well), is pretty well-executed. The final page is especially creepy. As long as the manga does a better job than the anime did with similar material I think I’ll be satisfied.

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan Final Chapter
I’ve been a fan of manga long enough and seen enough series end to know that not all endings are as satisfying as Fullmetal Alchemist‘s. In fact, most endings are downright disappointing. Not that I was expecting much from Nura. I enjoyed it more or less while I was reading it, but eventually I got to a point where the flaws kept sticking out far too much for me to enjoy. It was a fairly decent shounen action series, but it suffered from lack of focus and severely crowded paneling. Were I to recommend something to the author were he to try the series again, I’d say the cast needs to at least be cut in half, and the distinction between Rikuo’s human and yokai self should get some more explanation.

As for this chapter, It was an ending to the series without feeling excessively rushed. The series never really got fleshed out further after the move from Shounen Jump, but for what it’s worth I’ve seen worse endings in the series that don’t make it past twenty chapters in Jump. For those, it’s mostly “there are more adventures but we can’t show them.” With Nura, at least it’s a conclusion. Sure there’s a fair bit that needed wrapping up that never did get wrapped up, but I’ve come to believe that sometimes it’s better to have something left open-ended rather than risk having it end in a way you don’t like.

I’m not sure how I would feel about this chapter if I were more invested in the series, but as it is I can look at it from an academic standpoint. The ending wraps up the main conflict, but it does it in a way that leaves absolutely no impression. The characters—of which there are too many to really care about—end in a place that is no better or worse than where they started. I probably would have liked to see some more development, but I can’t say I was really expecting it.


And that’s it for this week, if you want to hear my expanded opinion on last week’s chapters, go over and check out my podcast, Manga^3 Episode 030 – January 7, 2013 – Character Death and Fairy Tail Vol. 3.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: FEATURES, WSJA Recaps

About Derek Bown

Derek Bown is a creative writing and editing student at Brigham Young University. He started watching anime back when Pokemon was first popular, moved on to Ranma 1/2 and One Piece, and eventually found his way to manga. He runs his own anime and manga review blog at Burning Lizard Studios, which he started back in 2009. He is a massive fantasy fan, and loves comedy and action manga the most. His knowledge of anything other than shounen manga is woefully inadequate, but he knows his way around pretty much any action fighter series worth reading. He also happens to be a closet romantic, but will deny any knowledge of shipping fandom if asked. His favorite manga are One Piece, One Piece, and One Piece.

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. MangaBlog — Shonen Jump takes a giant leap says:
    January 22, 2013 at 8:56 am

    […] The Manga Bookshelf team discusses their Pick of the Week as well as this week’s new releases in print and on JManga. Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss The Heart of Thomas in their latest BL Bookrack column, and Melinda discusses what she has been reading lately in her most recent My Week in Manga video. And in the magazine department, Erica Friedman takes a look a look at Big Comic Superior and Derek Bown recaps the latest issue of Shonen Jump Alpha. […]

    Reply


Before leaving a comment at Manga Bookshelf, please read our Comment Policy.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 | Log in
Copyright © 2010 Manga Bookshelf | Powered by WordPress & the Genesis Framework
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.