Sunday Morning Manga: Afternoon Reactions #5 (Dec 3 2023)

The problems of arranging plot events in Show-ha Shoten, Jujutsu Kaisen, and My Hero Academia

Show-ha Shoten! Chapter 24

Look at that, the rare occasion where I get to cover other Shonen Jump stuff that up to now wasn’t usually published on Sundays! 

That should be excellent news to get me excited for this afternoon’s discussion. 

Too bad this chapter feels like a miss. I’m not sure the chapter’s structure will help building anticipation for readers to get to the next chapter. 

Show-ha Shoten! was never going to have the best option for how to address so many plotlines and characters. I don’t quite touch on this with Jujutsu Kaisen below (although I’ll get to it whenever I can write about the anime adaptation), but it is a similar struggle for how to advance a story between installments. 

Whereas other Jump titles are typically weekly, Show-ha Shoten! is monthly, so it has to accomplish three feats: propel each character’s story, have one or two major stand-out moments, and end with a hook to get people to come back next time to read the next chapter. And all of that is more difficult when there is a month between installments: characters are forgotten, moments may not stay in memory for an entire month, and the hook may not bring readers back next month. 

What does this chapter have to propel each character’s story, to have one or two major stand-out moments, and to end on a hook? 

We do propel Taiyo’s story–I guess? It doesn’t seem to cover new ground. And if I may skip around in those criteria I just listed above, the hook: Taiyo’s last statement to Shijima doesn’t work for me. 

It’s not as if the details of this chapter about Taiyo’s self-doubts were not already there in this series–but it feels like they come out of nowhere again. That is realistic: Taiyo is about to go into a major competition, of course he would suffer from fight-or-flight. But it’s not believable: I don’t believe this arc will end with Taiyo leaving this competition. 

Taiyo’s self-doubt has been at the core of his identity throughout this series, so returning to it yet again should work. But now, right before a major competition, he’s going to end this chapter backing out? That is really how we’re ending this chapter? 

I guess that means the hook works: it gets me to ask the question, is he really now feeling self-doubt? It is a question that will bring me back next month to see whether we the readers are mis-anticipating, that he was never going to back out, he was going to tell Shijima something else, like, “Sorry, Azemichi, I can’t do it–not without a hug first!” or “Not with this routine, let’s do a different one!” or “I can’t do it–but I will do it anyway!” None of these are really compelling to show some cleverness at Taiyo, and they all undermine whatever Shijima can offer to convince Taiyo otherwise that they need to proceed and not give up. 

What about other memorable character beats? Some are good, some are lacking. 

I love the reactions Broken Glass Slipper has to their win, especially for Iwashimizu, as either she lets the mask fall off and expresses relief at this win, or she is such a good comedian that she knows how to imitate over-the-top relief to keep the audience entertained. 

I enjoy the gag about how Tetta, in his own aggressive way, is still trying to build up Shijima’s confidence–and how it gets him punished by his comedy partner Jun for helping the competition. 

I’m more ambivalent as to the arrival of Kamikaze Yellowtail. (Or their return to the story? This is my fault, I have lost track of this large cast of characters.) They offer just a comedy routine, I guess as a moment of relief in between the tension of the Broken Glass Slipper back story and Taiyo’s ongoing internal struggles. At least there are still lessons to mine from their routine as to what works and doesn’t work in live performance. 

And the back story for Iwashi Tsuyoshi isn’t bad at all, as the story itself avoids engaging in fat-shaming itself so much as pointing it out to decry it. It’s emphasizing that fat-shaming persists in comedy and in everyday life and it’s not cool. I am ambivalent about the designs for the Iwashi Tsuyoshi duo, although I don’t think they quite lean into punching-down on their appearance so much as this is a grotesque series where just about every single character has some visual detail that is exaggerated to make them stand out…except Taiyo, which kind of undermines the point I’m now making, as Taiyo gets to be the neutral or “normal”-looking character against which everyone else gets to look “wrong,” and that is bothersome, whether by intention or by interpolating readers for falling into their habits of disparaging characters for their physical appearance. 

And having Iwashi Tsuyoshi’s back story tie into that jerk Okanda from Sandbag, after we already dealt with them and how they bullied Shijima and mocked Mizuha, engaging in cheap fat-shaming jokes…I don’t know, it seems too easy to make Okanda such a fixture across all comedy that he has managed to piss off Iwashi Tsuyoshi, Broken Glass Slipper, and now Shijima. I guess it’s better than going back to the well of making Nazutani a hate-sink again. 

If there is anything good to say about the chapter, Obata’s artwork remains incredible, how well they can bounce between comedic to horrific, such as Taiyo imagining Nazutani emerging from the mirror. But I also appreciate other small choices, such as paralleling Taiyo’s facial expression with that of the announcer, shocked at Broken Glass Slipper’s score, as a transition to cut from location to location–that is such an excellent transition. 

Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 244

I will talk about the problems in adapting Jujutsu Kaisen for anime another time. 

(If you’re interested, go read James Beckett’s review at Anime News Network–and then read through the dumpster fire of the worst parts of the Internet not getting Beckett’s point and just talking out of their asses instead of offering the valid criticisms they could make against Beckett’s points. But let’s just talk about this newest chapter.)

If Jujutsu Kaisen was just genre parodies, I would enjoy this series so much more. Stand-up comedy arc? Go for it. Ace Attorney fight? Brilliant. 

And we get a chapter that really digs into the ins-and-outs of the Judgeman ability, toying with which exceptions there are to let Sukuna avoid being harmed. This is the equivalent of a heist story, where the characters explain how the plan should work if nothing goes wrong–before we see the heist inevitably go wrong. Higuruma’s numerous qualifications help justify whatever will happen next that allows Sukuna to fight another day. But I also wonder whether this will turn into a Ranpo from Bungo Stray Dogs situation, in which Higuruma failed to consider just one variable, and that allows Sukuna to succeed, thereby making all of these qualifications pointless because none of them are why Sukuna wins. But such is a problem inherent to this kind of courtroom genre that Jujutsu Kaisen is parodying. 

But genre parodies still wouldn’t overcome problems inherent to the structure of Jujutsu Kaisen or even the comics medium itself. Akutami still wrote themselves into a corner with Gojo and the oddly under-whelming progression of Itadori, Fushiguro, and Yuta. There are still problems with writing Nobara and Nanami–more about them in the anime another time. And as a legal drama taking place in this chapter, with Higuruma and Kusakabe debating the severity of Sukuna’s crimes, this is a dialogue-heavy chapter depending on quick sight-gags of Kashimo (RIP), Choso, and Miwa to interrupt the monotonous talking. Some of those sight-gags work well enough; other ones, such as the four horizontal panels of Itadori getting increasingly bothered by Higuruma’s contradictions lack variety–either make Itadori get more and more obviously angry, or alternate between smiles and grimaces as Higuruma bounces between good news and bad news. 

(And I’m holding back on ranting about how Higuruma’s quibbling demonstrates so many problems my own country, the United States, has holding a certain fascist accountable and barring him from running for the same office he repeatedly tried to steal.) 

My Hero Academia Chapter 408

I do not like the order in which Horikoshi is telling this story. 

I am still sitting on two posts I want to share–one is about the order of killing Nanami and Nobara in Jujutsu Kaisen, and the other is about My Hero Academia. For the latter, the short version is, Shoto should not have been the last one to arrive to stop Dabi, it should have been his siblings and mother, this is a story told out of order and undermines just how vital his family is and makes their willingness to get themselves killed look hopeless rather than a smart plan. But I don’t want to get into all of that yet, so let’s just talk about this chapter. 

What was the point of dragging out any mystery about All For One’s past? I’m not saying I have an earlier place in mind where you could put that story, or an organic way to transition to it. But finally getting to All For One’s origins this late in the game does little to make the rest of this story more engaging, whereas having it occur earlier would have made All For One a more engaging character. 

This isn’t the best comparison, seeing as this origin story also came late in that series, but think of Ozai’s background in Avatar: The Last Airbender. The difference is, we learned a lot about Ozai through Zuko and Azula, we learned how he ascended to his position as Fire Lord in, what, Book 2, I think? The only details left for him were handled pretty well in the final season: we finally see his face, we finally hear him speak as more than just a figure in shadows, we finally learn his connection to Avatar Roku. 

What new information did we learn here that was so vital that it had to be told now, distracting from Bakugo’s fight, and Izuku’s fight, and pretty much the rest of this entire arc? If it exists because All For One is going to die now, it’s a last-minute reveal that feels obligatory rather than compelling on its own. We get random trivia–the name of the third holder of One For All, how Yoichi died, All For One’s utter disinterest in any other person’s agency and life beyond as someone he can possess, the order of events with regard to when Garaki met All For One and how he resurrected All For One. But that is stuff for a wiki; what does it add to this story? 

I can appreciate how this story structure builds up Bakugo as the true foil to All For One. I’ve seen enough remarks how Bakugo pretty much was the same kind of bad as All For One in terms of desiring all the attention, although obviously different degrees of awfulness. And here we emphasize that Kudo resembles Bakugo not only physically but in those eyes…and I’m just not feeling this. I need more to emphasize how the eyes are so similar between Kudo and Bakugo, because there are enough substantial differences in shape between their eyes that it fails to really emphasize that similarity. This feels like a revelation that is too late in the story, to over-sell Bakugo as the true foil  when he hasn’t earned that. That should be a smart choice, that of course Bakugo hasn’t earned it, that’s why All For One is so angry that he’s going to be taken out by–oh, the irony–an extra. 

As for the artwork, my most minor nitpick regards the direction in which All For One is aiming his last attack. It makes sense, when reading right to left, that we have All For One aiming to go left to direct his attack at Bakugo, Izuku, and Shigaraki. But that Akira mess of body horror is so unfocused that it doesn’t look like it’s going to the left, or really in any direction: it’s just a blob. 

I appreciate other readers who are impressed how detailed Horikoshi has been drawing these more horrific elements lately in the story. And I recognize how the manga industry is wrecking his body to keep up a work pace that is not realistic and, beyond the harm that does to the story, has done unnecessary harm to Horikoshi himself. 

But this art still is lacking in some way. I can’t quite point out why the mess of Quirks and faces he is about to launch just isn’t compelling. Or, I’m spoiled because Dandadan can make a far simpler idea–school turns into a golem hunting down a rock band performing on a human-drawn float–look amazing because it is easy to trace the motion of the golem’s hand reaching for that float. 

Here? There isn’t action, just build up–and not even great build up. We get what look like moment-to-moment panels, first of building breaking apart and their debris floating up, then faces and limbs merging with that debris. It’s to tell us that something is emerging, and the surprise when we turn the page to the two-page spread of All For One transformed should be impressive–and I’m just not impressed. 

All For One charging up into a blob that doesn’t look very good in a static image, and to look how incredible it needs to, would need to either move like that golem, or have more panels rather than a two-page spread to demonstrate how it grows, charges up, and undulates in such a horrific fashion. 

Horikoshi doesn’t need a non-illustrator like me telling him how to do his job, but I can say why the paneling is not getting the point across as clearly as I want. So, maybe that isn’t Horikoshi’s point: the moment-to-moment sequential panels are not used for All For One growing into a larger blob, it’s used to show Bakugo’s sweat about to blow up. 

Wrapping Up

That’s all for this weekend–thanks for reading to the end. 

I was pretty harsh on the structure of plot beats in this week’s chapters–but maybe I’m missing something. Did Show-ha Shoten! get you excited for the next chapter with that hook? And was it the right choice to keep All For One’s origin story until right now when he’s about to be defeated? And did the long explanation about Sukuna’s crimes keep you engaged or was it too much dialogue? Let me know in the comments section or email me, derek.s.mcgrath@gmail.com. 

Please look forward to more writing from me next week, if not also livestreaming and podcasting about new manga chapters. 

As I say at the end of livestreams (after some new additions): until next Sunday, stay safe out there, people–mask up, get vaccinated, install adblockers, register to vote, campaign against fascism and war and genocide and terrorism, and learn and practice anti-bigotry. I’ve been Derek S. McGrath. You have a good afternoon. Bye.