Weekly Shonen Jump Issue 16 (2025) Blue Box (Cover and Lead Color Pages; 4th Anniversary)
Ichi the Witch
SAKAMOTO DAYS Me & Roboco (Color Page)
Kagurabachi
Akane-banashi
WITCH WATCH
Shinobi Undercover SWIMEST (Color Page; 47p; One-shot by Yuki Ichi) Hima-ten! EMBERS The Elusive Samurai
Star of Beethoven Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi (Color Page)
Kill Blue
Astro Royale
Nue's Exorcist
Super Psychic Policeman Chojo
Syd Craft: Love is a Mystery Absent: ONE PIECE
Weekly Shonen Jump Issue 17 (Preview)
Cover & LCP: ONE PIECE
CP: The Elusive Samurai; Nue's Exorcist; One-shot
Absent: Kagurabachi
Idk, I’m just not enough of a hater to pit the two series against each other. I can respect being a professional hater against a series for the meme agenda, but it’s not something I’m very good at myself. I feel pretty similar about both Kill Blue and Shinobi, one’s just had less time to grow on me so there’s a minor internal bias towards the older one. I don’t see too much value in comparing them like a direct side-to-side.
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Anyways, might as well post my Issue 12 comments now since I have them already:
Witch Watch: This was kind of a subtle yet huge chapter, because we’ve gone from Moi always taking care of Nico to Nico having to take care of him and the others. It both shows how much she’s grown and also shows her a new angle of Moi in the same way he’s had to deal with her. That on top of Nico starting to feel things again at the end of the chapter shows that, even if it’s a ways away, she’s slowly coming back to meeting Moi at an even level again. (I do feel kind of bad for Chami getting out-aged, but at the same time I fully expected this and it’s really funny.)
Blue Box: This was actually quite nice for such a simple chapter. The dad leaving a spooky impression on Taiki in spite of their positive relationship was funny, and I actually liked the silly badminton tournament; seeing this unusual group of characters together is pretty funny, and I’m always here for more Kyo and Ayame bonding. I’m also wondering, I know Haruto is locked in on Hina but maybe he and Akari could be a thing??? But, I think I’ll enjoy these chapters in spite of how non-critical they are to the plot.
Shinobi Undercover: Interesting to have a sort of number on where Yodaka is valued in the org, implying there may be ninja even wackier than him? The new fugitive guy looks fun too.
Star of Beethoven: A humble and understandable backstory, feels a bit delayed to be getting it here rather than chapter 1, but it was good nonetheless. I do still think that Beethoven is the star (heh) of the show every time he’s on screen, constantly maxxing out his aura with the poses and the extravagant speeches.
Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi: Wow, I did not see that coming, but that’s the perfect way to take these two and give them a power-up and way to fight. Honestly a really sick reveal and good set-up to a fight between brothers (if I’m recalling correctly that this demon lord is Jack Joe’s brother?). Also nice to see the other exorcists showing their stuff for a bit.
Sakamoto Days: A bit of a shorter chapter, but that’s fine. Guess Ando really did have it in him, huh? This was a pretty good chapter, but also a critical point for Shin, since this is (I believe) his first time shooting a guy. This does kind of tie directly into what’s happening out of flashback where he’s on the cusp of killing Tenkyu, so it’ll be interesting to see how recalling this will influence his decision.
Me & Roboco: That’s kind of honestly a great idea for a club? Maybe a bit much pressure to have for just being in 6th grade, but it makes for a good way to filter your hobby, not to mention good gag content.
Ichi the Witch: Yess, I love them. Desscaras making massive moves while also retaining that silliness about her and also being really sincere was super great, we don’t get to see that level of expression on her often so it’s really awesome to see. Ichi being like a bubbly innocent child to the notion on top of that was funny and endearing too. The intro to the new arc also looks great with this new person, who once again looks like another male witch? I’m guessing they’re probably just female though, or a guy who’s trying to be a witch even though he can’t be. Some peak content this chapter.
Embers: Aand with that, we have our first proper psychopath! Hard to tell if this is starting to poke into the realm of supernatural with his skill-sensing abilities, but the artist cooked with the art on those creatures. Will be curious to see if they actually dethrone the random bald guy and both get in, or if only 1 of them (or neither?) makes it to A team.
The Elusive Samurai: While I have not played the games, all I will say is that this calls to mind a certain unforgettable image from the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise… I will at least add that my favorite part of the chapter was Genba suddenly becoming a demonic muscular beast in his attempt to intrude on the conversation. Though, getting technical now; since the intermission years have been following the world events and probably not this specific scene, it begs the question of where exactly in the timeline this scene falls? If so, it’s not unrealistic to think Tokiyuki might have children when we come out of timeskip, and might look a bit older as well? I also quite liked Tadafuyu’s design, personally.
Akane-banashi: That’s actually a really clever way to get people engaged in her story, haha. I’m guessing her going to travel abroad has given her more life experiences that have allowed her to draw from that to more realistically convey life in her rakugo, like with the river here.
Hima-Ten!: Honoka really maximizing her day with Tenichi to get extra time with him later, even she’s taking a tactical approach of sorts to this like Kanna was. At this rate I’m almost expecting Himari to pull something of a similar caliber, all while trying to convince herself it’s not for weird reasons.
Kagurabachi: That schmuck on the ground sounds like he’s voicing the fandom’s complaints with how Sengoku, the master of his sword style, got bodied by Hiruhiko the inexperienced instantly, so that was honestly pretty funny to me. I do again get the sense that Iori’s wish is not going to be granted, even if they get the key and get to the rooftop. The elevator fight panel was pretty sick. If I have any complaints about recent chapters it’s that we’ve only been seeing the short guy of the Masumi all the time and barely any of the other two. This is still a pretty solid arc so far though.
Syd Craft: I applaud Elio for being able to get away with being with him for a whole chapter without getting caught, though the perpetual brainrot of these characters does continue to persist.
Nue’s Exorcist: Oh, yeah, Shiroha’s cooked. I’m doubling down on her turning into a vessel for a Hyo and then potentially needing to fight Gakuro, but probably will still be saved in the end? Also, we did know about the brutal Fujino training, but just seeing all the dead kids like this is cathartic, I’m a bit surprised Gakuro didn’t have a more visibly horrified reaction.
Astro Royale: Some of the panels seem scratchy, but I think it’s done intentionally for the effect. It’s a neat little fight so far, but I’m not sold on Taira as a compelling character yet, and I feel like the hostage gig at the end of the chapter will just be handled by someone besides Hibaru.
Super Psychic Policeman Chojo: I don’t feel like this would necessarily be a major ship, but it is a predictable thing for people to do, so I’m not surprised the idea is being explored for gag potential.
Kill Blue: Dang! Just laid it out all like that. And I suppose it does kind of make sense for Noren to have caught on to some of the stuff, otherwise she wouldn’t’ve been compelled to go check the school to see if Ogami was okay. And Ogami, bro… you GOT to choose your words better when saying that to a 12-year old. Not to mention, did she actually catch the part where Oka said he was middle-aged? Cuz if so that would be another paradigm shift. Either way, it feels impossible to tell if this series has a whole big arc or 2 after this or if it’s ending in 5 chapters, so I’ve given up trying to predict how alive it is.
Ruridragon: Woah, this one kinda felt… heavy? Like, opening with the adults talking like her development could be world-altering depending on the outcome, and then the girl just coming out with some villain-esque reveal like “yeah I only hang out cuz you’re a dragon”, I can see how Ruri’s emotions might cause an incident like that at the end of the chapter. Something about the shading from the trees also made this chapter feel more serious in a way, and I can’t help but feel that the series might be trying to very slowly drift towards more serious tones.
Kill Blue being such a catch-all series really puts it in some direct (perceived) competition with other series, but I wonder if that lack of specialization also kind of held people back from appreciating it more the way something that focuses on a direct niche (like hitman action in sakadays) made it more appealing to readers?
About to leave Japan here, gonna have my last 7/11 chicken soon (bless Konbinis). I could only find issue 11 slightly early in an hotel family mart and 12 was nowhere to be found until Monday morning (well past digital chapter release)
The people who've been caught leaking the issues before I think have typically been friends of deliverymen and things like that. Not really something you can just go and happen to find in a random shop.
Because they're very similar set-ups. An elite but out of touch with regular society Ninja/Assassin has to go to a regular school for the first time to protect a girl from a bunch of other Ninjas/Assassins, trying to become her boyfriend in the process, all the while preventing her from ever realising a thing. It even has the same dynamic with the operator explanations and tsukkomi. The parallels are in pretty much every aspect of the series as Kill Blue is now.
And even then, Ogami's whole old man backstory thing while distinct at first these days mostly just seems to be an obstacle prevent it from being able to make any real relationship progress.
Kill Blue's early stuff was pretty different since it was more sports and school life focused but after the surfing arc it's been mostly fights, some romantic teasing (that inherently can never lead anywhere) with just a bit of brief school life between arcs, and Kill Blue is just plain weaker at all of those.
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On another note, I'm also unsure about where Astro's going. Revealing the dad's actual killer here definitely sets up a route for it to end soon, but the main family stuff originally came across to me as a "part 1" with other yakuza groups or something being fought after all the family is united. Tokyo Revengers did typically introduce a new gang every arc after all, so it'd be on brand.
It is generally 3rd last, so looking back at Dororon outliving the significantly higher selling Ayashimon it might still be safe unless they either clear out the whole bottom trio for a large round next or if they favour the longer runners for a change.
Also, astro won't get canned until we have at least two batches, the lack of series will already prevent too much axes for the next batch, so he get saved for now.
No awful chapters this week, but not that many amazing ones, either.
Votes:
1. Sakamoto
2. KGB
3. Shinobi
Sakamoto: That got even uglier and more emotional than I was expecting. Aaand I'm crying now.
KGB: She's going to change her mind, isn't she? I really liked the interactions in this chapter. The characters aren't all likable, but they are well-developed and play off each other nicely.
Shinobi: (lol) What burning love. Kinda weird they don't know each other's rank though. Those were some really nice dynamic poses, especially the page were they jump into action and the one where Yodaka appears on the scene.
Beethoven: Beethoven is the new Andy, confirmed. No groping necessary since the target isn't even fit enough to run away Decent backstory, nice speech, beautiful spread. I hope this "Is he a scammer?" thing will be put to rest soon though, we don't need a repeat of that every chapter.
...... That being said, it would be absolutely hilarious if the guy actually did turn out to be a scammer in the end.
Kill Blue: You know you done fucked up when the child-murdering villain is calling you creepy. Wow, this is so not what I was expecting to happen. But I don't dislike it. Better to shake up the status quo a bit. (Though I'm kinda disappointed the bad guy didn't even try to use the situation against Ogami.) Still can't tell if this is the endgame or not, it could go either way.
Kiyoshi: Yeah, that was to be expected. Medusa too. I thought axe girl would be a little stronger...
Oho! Now THAT was a surprise! I was expecting them to show up, but not like this! Guess their secret training paid off after all.
(Time to update my little list. If all of them show up and get defeated, the series is over. If not, we can expect more arcs and another confrontation later down the line.)
1. ? Asuta Roth
2. ??
3. ??
1. ? Tonjinchi 2. Mukurojima (present)
3. Kurose Sata (present)
4. Gorgon Mede (present, fighting)
5. Bakku Yoraku (present, fighting)
6. Hydrako (present) 7. ? Jack Joe (ally, fighting)
8. ??
9. ??
10. ?? 11. ? Meto (dead, ch1)
12. Sata (dead, ch2)
13. Mouroku (dead, ch31)
Ichi: That's... a bit more extreme than I had in mind. I figured she wanted to give him something (someone) to live for, since that's what he was lacking when he said he couldn't picture a future. Not entirely sure what she's hoping to achieve with this curse, especially if Ichi doesn't even know what it means.
Akane: Nice, but not quite enough yet to say much about it.
Syd: I'm surprised a noble daughter is usually so reckless. And I'm surprised nobody has tried to find out where she goes all day, every day. But it's nice to see some of her good qualities on display here. I guess we'll just have to get used to the Superman disguise.
Astro: Poor Rikiya Goda, eliminated without us ever seeing his face. Sad. Can't say I'm wild about this chapter, Hibaru is taking a little (okay, a lot) too long to grasp the obvious. And if you're going to cheat like that, why hold a tournament at all? I thought Eyelashes just wanted to revel in the chaos, but this makes no sense. Unless Taira was orchestrating this behind his back, in which case Hibaru is the least of his problems. (Calling it.)
WW: Didn't we already learn this part of Moi's history, like, years ago? But I guess Nico forgot. Good on her, I suppose she is responsible enough to go shopping on her own.
BB: So the only sports match we're going to pay attention to is the one where half the players are amateurs? Sure, why not. It's been a long time since we've seen these guys.
Embers: Hey, remember Nine Dragons' Ball Parade? Remember how the MC really wanted to succeed and did everything he could to prepare himself, trying to give himself the best possible odds while remaining realistic about his chances? And how he was always nice and supportive, trying to make the team run smootly and succesfully, because team sports rely on everyone working together?
This MC is the exact opposite of that.
He's crude, childish, has no team spirit whatsoever, never put in any effort to learn, and still expects to be hailed like the second coming of Christ. On top of that he's constantly picking fights with everyone again, because apparently the lessons he learned in the first chapter were forgotten as soon as that teacher disappeared (can we have him back, please? He was the most interesting thing about this manga). And the other characters aren't much better.
And yes, I know Hinata and Kageyama were also squabbling like little kids in the beginning. So I tried to figure out why they felt sympathetic to me while these ***** only get on my nerves. I came up with four possible reasons:
1) By the time Hinata and Kageyama meet (again) in high school, we have already seen quite a bit of their backstory and personal issues. So we can understand where they are coming from when they act out like that.
2) For all their bluster, both of them are clearly insecure, and Hinata is actually pretty humble. That makes us want to root for them.
3) They are challenging each other at volleyball, not flat-out assaulting one another.
4) They are suffering the consequences of their poor behaviour, and growing as people because of it.
I can't see any of that here. Sure, we know these aren't bad kids, but that's not enough to make them likable. If you want to get away with your characters acting like asshats without the audience hating them, you need to put in the work first. And this manga didn't do that.
In other words, the writer is copying Haikyuu without understanding what made that story work in the first place. That's not good. Of course, you can still have an interesting manga without likable characters, but then the plot and/or setting need to be really engaging... and we spent most of the last chapter standing still in some random schoolyard, explaining various sets of rules to our clueless MC/the readers. Gripping.
If this thing lives beyond 30 chapters, I will be very surprised.
To end on a positive note, discount Isoka's power is pretty neat.
Himaten: All the girls look the same except for the hair, confirmed. But seriously, what was she expecting to happen? She didn't leave anything for him to do inside, she wasn't intending for him to work outside, I doubt she wanted him to turn around and leave empty-handed, I can't imagine she was trying to make her mom pay him for showing up and leaving immediately, and she probably wasn't counting on having him in her room either since she seemed genuinely surprised by the suggestion. For someone who's supposedly smart and considerate, it's weird she didn't put any effort into thinking how her actions might affect those around her... unless of course she did want him in her room from the start and she's just a good actress.
Elusive: "History says nothing, so let's give him three wives!" Sure, I guess. As long as it's consensual.
Is this the first polygamous Jump protagonist?
Chojo: Awfully fickle, isn't she? Lily's description of their personalities was kinda spot-on though.
Funny, I hadn't noticed it in the previous chapters, but now I can't unsee it.
By the way, Haitani's actually gotta be pretty smart, right? Considering how strict education is in Japan, for anyone to get into a university-affiliated school, they've gotta have some good grades. It's damn clear Haitani's too green to get in via his sports accomplishments so the only plausibility is that he was accepted there because of his grades. Interesting thing to infer, huh?
Oh, the chapter? A usual, the writing on this stuff can get pretty visceral. I'm still unsure what about that competition caused Ichiro to quit piano, I guess they're saving that detail for later.
It's because the judges said "He utterly dominated the piano", while his master had told him "Never think you can dominate it." So he felt like he betrayed his master and his teachings, because he ended up doing the opposite of what he'd been taught (in his head, anyway. In reality the judges were probably just praising his mastery of the instrument, since he got second place).
Hell, there's not much said about how this ninja system even works. Isn't it kinda odd that they train child soldiers to run dangerous missions where they could get shot at? And that if you try to run away from it all, they kill you?
They said in the first chapter that they don't have many teenage ninja, and Yodaka apparently skipped a bunch of grades to get where he is, so child soldiers are the exception, not the rule.
Isn't it kinda obvious that going on a dangerous mission could get you shot at? That's why they are sending in some of their top fighters, right? And what do you mean, "if you try to run away from it all, they kill you"? When did that ever happen? Are you talking about the guy with the ogre mask at the end of the chapter? You know that's an enemy of the ninja organisation, right? He told us so himself.
I wonder if it's ever going to be touched on whether this organization is any good... I feel like there's plenty of setup from all these implications for a Soul Society-esque arc. Especially with the focus being put on Yodaka's crush on Aoi, and her parents deaths at the hands of ninjas. Was it ever stated it was a rogue ninja clan? It could easily have been the ninja organization, no?
Aoi's parents were killed by ninja? When and where did they say that? I only remember hearing the ninja organisation was protecting her because she's got no family left.
Also, the official name of the ninja organisation is the Ninja Public Safety Force and they are a (secret) branch of government. I know that doesn't guarantee anything, but I think we can give them a little more credit than a simple crime syndicate.
About Astro Royale, yeah, i really don't see it ending, at least plot wise, we got the big plot twist about the father death but it's not like Hibaru father's death was any big mystery or a end plot point of the series, is just a big surprise development, right now the series is just in a fighting tournament, let's see if something changes in the next chapters
But that fighting tournament could very well be the 'Astro Royale' the title is referring to, so I can understand why people think this might be the (untimely) finale of the series.
I'm not really in the biz to argue details or scrutinize anyone else's opinions, but I'll at least do it just once. Please understand that I don't exactly enjoy doing this.
They said in the first chapter that they don't have many teenage ninja, and Yodaka apparently skipped a bunch of grades to get where he is, so child soldiers are the exception, not the rule.
And yet we have at least 7 named teenage ninja, and who knows how many more now that we know the ninja squads number in the double digits. I think it's at least fairly certain there's some kinda kid ninja development facility. And pretty much all the ones we've seen in action were brats. It's roughly stated you're either with Public Security or you're rogue, so they all gotta come from somewhere. And think about it, if it was such a great place to be at, why're all the enemies so far rogue defectors? There hasn't been stated that there's a separate evil ninja cell at the moment which most stories would use for nemy factions. There's no reasons stated at the moment, but it really makes ya think.
Isn't it kinda obvious that going on a dangerous mission could get you shot at? That's why they are sending in some of their top fighters, right? And what do you mean, "if you try to run away from it all, they kill you"? When did that ever happen? Are you talking about the guy with the ogre mask at the end of the chapter? You know that's an enemy of the ninja organisation, right? He told us so himself.
I'm talking about the previous enemies with the kid and the string guy. Both of them stated you have to be "the best of the best" in order to become a rogue ninja. Although, reading back, they never did say they'll get killed for it. Just that it's a dog eat dog world and that it's the ultimate taboo for a ninja. I've taken the implication from those words to mean desertation means death, but the string guy's still alive, although he may have been kept alive for intel. My bad.
Aoi's parents were killed by ninja? When and where did they say that? I only remember hearing the ninja organisation was protecting her because she's got no family left.
Also, the official name of the ninja organisation is the Ninja Public Safety Force and they are a (secret) branch of government. I know that doesn't guarantee anything, but I think we can give them a little more credit than a simple crime syndicate.
Yes, and governments tend to get up to some shady things. I'm not saying they're the de facto bad guys, but I doubt their hands are squeaky clean. There isn't much shown or explained about their organization besides anything that Op says so far, but at least the fact that there are deserters actively being threats and that there are teenage ninja cells implies some level of shadiness on their part. It's all smoke for now, but where there's smoke, there's fire.
Hokazono has finally taken the huge next step and unlocked secondary colors! We've come so far from when he started with only black & white and his one primary, red, and while seeing him level up to unlocking his second primary, blue, in volume 4, volume 5 seemed to return to the norm. But now we truly have a new color back in play with green! This gives me hope that Hokazono will continue to grow in his color palette, I suspect the next color will be purple, even if it takes 2 more volumes to do. Maybe if we're lucky we'll even get to see orange some day!
Jokes aside, good cover, about what I expected but with some nice extra flair. I'm pretty convinced at this point Chihiro's gonna be on every single cover even if the tiniest possible portion of it.
Hokazono has finally taken the huge next step and unlocked secondary colors! We've come so far from when he started with only black & white and his one primary, red, and while seeing him level up to unlocking his second primary, blue, in volume 4, volume 5 seemed to return to the norm. But now we truly have a new color back in play with green! This gives me hope that Hokazono will continue to grow in his color palette, I suspect the next color will be purple, even if it takes 2 more volumes to do. Maybe if we're lucky we'll even get to see orange some day!
Jokes aside, good cover, about what I expected but with some nice extra flair. I'm pretty convinced at this point Chihiro's gonna be on every single cover even if the tiniest possible portion of it.
Part of me feels like it's always been his intention to slowly add more color to his palette as time went on to showcase the series' evolution. His red/black antics are pretty well thought out and it always struck me as weird people thought he just didn't couldn't use other colors when he was probably holding off on adding them slowly as more of the world got built up. This is definitely my 2nd favorite cover* so far though, but it's probably his most well thought one so far from the parallels between the 4 and matching/complementary color usage.
*Favorite so far being vol4 for its immaculate use of white and negative space and clever placements of Hakuri and the blade.
You know that comment by NeeNeen is very accurate to describe the issues that plague Embers. I do think there is potential and I did get a few chuckles, but what hurts it is that I don’t know these characters on a personal level. But at least I will give credit that it is going to the sport than delaying it.
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Guess their secret training paid off after all.
