Hey, friends! Just a heads-up that I’ll be taking another business trip this week, so the blogging will again be sparse—but after that, I should be more or less consistent until the fall. 🙂 And without further ado, ladies, gentlemen, and sentient non-humans, we present Weekly Shonen Jump!

Jump Starts (Unedited, Real-Time Reactions)

Kimi wo Shinryakuseyo (Invade You)

Just one JS this week! Um… I just noticed that the phrase “invade you” in the context of a romance comedy has some pretty heavy Freudian overtones. I can’t believe it took me two weeks to notice that. But wait! Our main c. is a boy and an alien. You’d expect the alien to be the one invading Earth, and the boy to be the one, um, ‘invading’ the girl. However, it’s the Earthling girl who’s invading his life! Woah, a gendered binary deconstruction—and just in time for Pride Month!

Anyway, it turns out that the girl has been investigating him (and interrogating his classmates). Because she’s always asking about him, and often is seen hanging out with him, the other students have begun to assume that she’s his girlfriend. Cliche. -1 points.

Another girl, the student body president, then asks the boy who the main girl is. Do I sense a love triangle? It’s cheesy, but I’m a sucker for cheese. +1 point, +1 slice of Provolone.

The president takes the boy off by themselves, and we learn that she is a childhood friend of his. At school she is known as the “Iron Queen”, and seems to have an awful lot of power. Again, cheesy—but any girl who acquired the title “Iron Queen” in high school has my respect. +1 point, +1 slice of Monterey Jack.

The prez asks if the boy and girl are going out. He says no. She looks relieved: She obviously likes him, and he’s obviously clueless. It’s once again, a cliche, but saved when she declares, “If you two were in an indecent relationship, I would have used my authority to have you two expelled.” Abuse of power at its finest! +1

Upon learning the girl thinks he’s an alien, the prez offers to do him a favor and prove to her that he’s a normal human. You see, for some reason the prez carries around a photo album of the two of them when they were kids. She says she’ll show the girl the album, thus proving he had a normal childhood. When the boy objects, she concludes that he’s ashamed to have the girl know they’re friends, and coolly announces, “Then I shall go throw myself in a fire with these memories.” :’-D +1 point, +1 Cheddar.

The boy talks her off the fence and insists he does value her and their memories of each other. The prez is about to confess to him, and can you guess what happens next? The door slides open and the girl comes running in and clings to the boy begging him to save her. Predictable, though inevitable. -1

An alien bursts into the room! Actually, it’s obviously one of their classmates wearing a disguise (the girl begs to boy to attack it with his “eye beams”), and the boy sees through it immediately. As did I. -1

The prez declares that the boy couldn’t save her from an alien, because he’s just too kind. “He’s the most important human in my life,” she announces. Awww… +1 point, +1… cheese with sugar on it. Because sugar is sweet too.

Prez tries to confess again, again to be interrupted by girl and classmate pretending to be alien-chasing-girl again. The Iron Queen loses her composure and chases them out of the classroom. Cue the credits.

Final score:

2 points, 4 slices of cheese

 

In Which We Quickly Summarize The Others

Blue Exorcist 100: We finally get the story of how the two boys’ mother met the devil (their father).

Food Wars 265: With the battle for the food school out of the way, our hero does—what else? Goes to a town for a vacation and ends up investigating the murders of some hot springs owners. Putting the “wars” into “food wars”, I suppose.

We Never Learn 65: Pretty much the continuation of last week, with the school fair continuing, Nariyuki trying to sell 1,000 bowls of udon, the girls plot to get him to kiss one of them in the school play, and the teacher winds up in a hilarious costume-switch snafoo!

My Hero Academia 185: The top ten heroes get to give inspiring speeches. One young guy tries to upstage Endeavor. Bad move, kid.

Black Clover 159: The invading elves get confused as to why Asta has Licht’s magic, Yuno still has his memories, and more! Take that, stupid elves!

The Promised Neverland 89: Somehow, despite their losses, the kids manage to pull off a perfect assault on Leuvis, smashing his facemask and everything—and he still gets the better of them! Is this the end?

Dr. Stone 60: Ok, this one actually rose above its usual level of good fun and added some emotion and suspense. Senku’s dad left behind an audio recording, which Senku figures out how to retrieve. It’s got a message from his father to him, and then a song by one of the best singers of the old civilization. Everyone is truly moved. Then the mentalist (who, like Senku, is from our time originally) gets an idea that he privately tells to Senku, confiding that if it works, they can overcome their enemy without difficulty or danger—but that the two of them will burn in Hell as the price. Man, what a way to raise expectations, and what a nasty way to end the chapter, Mr. Author-san!

Robo x Laserbeam 59: On the second-to–last hole, Robo ties it back up! Golf was never this exciting!

Boruto 24: In which we meet another young man who has the same mark on his hand as Boruto, a mark known as “Karma”. Then fighting breaks out. It’s all cool.

One Piece: Didn’t read it, as usual.

Thank you for reading! As always, I invite your feedback and comments, and wish you happy manga-ing!