Ever since the manga of The Promised Neverland ended, I’ve been looking for something to replace it. The twists and turns, the reveals and worldbuilding, the horror and the visuals: all added up to something spectacular, the likes of which I’ve not seen since. I’ve tried a lot of manga since then: The Ichinose Family’s Deadly Sins, Wild Strawberry, and now Shojo Null, to name just a few. None of them quite measure up, especially in terms of the unique aesthetic that Posuka Demizu brought to TPN, but many of them have their own merits. Today we’ll look at one of these: Shojo Null, the new series from Shonen Jump with only two chapters out so far!
Spoilers for the first couple of chapters of Shojo Null!
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Imagine a world where synthetic humanoids exist side-by-side with humans, slaving away to please their masters. But as the story progresses, we discover that the humanoids are truly people too, in the sense that they have true awareness and the capacity for self-direction, or true hearts and the capacity for love, or whatever criteria you like.
Shojo Null takes this classic premise, which has potential to be equal parts heartwarming and horrifying, and ups the ante: the robots have been conscious quasi-humans all along, and a handful of people even know this already, but they’ve implanted robo-bugs in their brains to shut off their free will. I have a mouth and I still can’t scream. When one of them survives a chainsaw slash to the head, her bug gets destroyed, freeing her mind. Did I mention she’s a special military-grade version? Now the only thing in the way of her going on a rampage is her relationship with the one human who treated her well before (a teenage boy, natch)—and he decides, “You know what? F*** it, go have your fun!”
Review: So far, Shojo Null is a story about revenge—not on a specific person, though elements of this are present as well, but on an unjust society that has decided a class of people aren’t people. If the biblical Moses declared to Pharaoh, “Let my people go, or I’ll smite your land with plagues,” Shojo Null gives us a protagonist who just is the plague. Bloody Moses, literally.
Admittedly, it’s a bit refreshing to have a “conscience” character who’s not trying to protect the humans without cause. Conscience characters are supposed to provide complex perspectives, but all too often come off as whiny “No, don’t do it!” voices that hold back the action without good reason. When Shojo Null‘s Robogirl breaks free and is about to unleash hell on her torturers, she briefly pauses and says to her human friend, “What do you think? If you say this is wrong, I’ll listen.” After a moment’s thought, he responds that as the robots have been horribly treated by the humans, it wouldn’t be just to stand her way; and he gives her the green light.
This is pure justice (from one perspective) untempered by any grace or mercy.
Naturally, this raises all kinds of ethical questions (similar to the biblical Exodus, but that’s a story for another time). To what extent is the individual who exists in and benefits from an exploitative society guilty of the exploitation? If you enjoy exploring these kinds of issues—and the boy’s “Do unto others as they’ve done unto you and your kind” perspective is understandable, if not unproblematic—this might be a story for you. Or if you’re just up for a bloody robot story, here you go! The story has the potential to evolve into something better, but for the time being this is what it has to offer. I’ll be following along for a while.
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Thanks for the heads-up, think I’ll give it a shot!
My work here is done! 😁