A Saunter Through Weekly Shonen Jump (August 25, 2019)

A lot of new chapters out in WSJ! There’s chapter one of a brand new series:

Mission: Yozakura Family

Hitsuji Gondaira is the author of this new somewhat violent rom-com about a boy (Taiyo Asano) and his female friend (Mitsumi Yozakura). They’re literally friends at this point, with no hint of any romance to come. There’s not a lot of surprises here, and the standard tropes play out mostly as you would expect. There was one moment that touched me more than usual, though.

Taiyo discovers that Mitsumi belongs to a family of spies. Her oldest brother Hirukawa is a particularly excellent agent; he’s also a manically over-protective sibling. He decides to force Taiyo out of Mitsumi’s life (by forcing the life out of Taiyo), while Mitsumi and her other spy siblings rally to Taiyo’s defense. But Hirukawa is too strong for them.

Naturally, there’s only one thing to do: have Taiyo marry into the family! Despite the expected demurring, it’s no surprise that Taiyo and Mitsumi end up exchanging rings. And here comes the moment that elevated the scene beyond my expectations.

As the two friends toss the rings to each other, Hirukawa snags the one intended for Taiyo with some deadly razor-sharp wires. It hangs an inch from Taiyo’s fingers. And in the midst of Hirukawa’s gloating, Taiyo grabs the ring, wires and all.

That’s gotta hurt. Props to Taiyo who has some serious guts, man!

Anyway, that’s the newest series! I was intending to talk about some of the currently-running series, but got sidetracked watching Stargate: Atlantis. Now it’s late and I have work in the morning.

Bon nuit!