I just marathoned this entire manga in a single night...it's only about two years in at 100 chapters but I'm calling it now, this manga is going to be the next "big" thing among more discerning shonen readers. The anime is starting in October, and to be honest I'm not sure how it'll turn out, but I'd say get on the manga NOW.
The weird thing is this manga kind of fails the first three chapters test. It's got a pretty misleading beginning that seems like it's going to be nothing special. And it's yet another manga about fighting evil spirits and exorcism, which is like the big thing for Shonen Jump. And there's a special school for training the exorcists.
The main character is your super strong normal human who fights cursed spirits, and he decides to borrow the power of the biggest baddest spirit to become a hero. He's got the spirit inside of him and they seem to have a silly love/hate relationship, so, oh, he and the bad spirits are gonna find common ground.
You got the more experienced guy who is a bit of a loner, and you go, oh he's the rival character. And rounding that out you're introduced to the female lead, who doesn't seem all that interesting. Of course there's a quirky mentor leading them...he's even got his face obscured.
The first like arc is pretty bare bones. There's a neat little twist at first, but it's kind of abrubt and actually I think works in the series detriment. It's a lot like Hunter x Hunter in that sometimes the twists are cool, but sometimes they just seem too abrubt and mess with the pace.
But then this one arc hits that's basically Shonen Jump Presents a Very Special Episode: School Shooting, and, wow, the series really hits its stride. Cool characters start popping up, the battles get interesting, the main character via somewhat sidelined for the time being to flesh out everyone else, and overall it's like, okay, this manga goes hard.
The fighting at first seemed pretty generic, though I liked how the main character was drawn fighting, but then it goes full on Nen with a large array of varied and interesting powers bound together by lots of complex and interesting, though sometimes a bit too complex, rules. You have stuff like summoning "domains" that ensure your attacks always hit, or explaining/setting your limits improves your abilities.
The art is also pretty interesting. The human characters are kind of basic looking for the most part, they all have sort of a rough draft feel to them, but then you have some stomach-churning monster designs and some pretty brutal scenes that make you remember being a kid watching subbed anime and going "whoa Japanese kids get all the violent scenes".
That aside, the morality also seems more sophisticated than the usual Shonen fare. Characters aren't spared from their actions, people die en masse, etc. There's a sense of grey and grey morality being built up throughout, and I imagine the series is going to get darker from here on out.
And oh, the humor is alright! It doesn't insert too many gag moments in serious scenes, there's really no perverted gag character whatsoever introduced yet (at most you get characters declaring they like tall, big butt girls like Jennifer Lawrence), and the female characters are pretty much on the same level as the males. There's actually like no romance angle whatsoever, and the Blechdel test has been passed.
It's only two years in and basically on the first big arc, but if it keeps up this trajectory and if the anime adaptation is solid, I can see it being big among fans. Probably won't be that marketable though due to its darker tone, but a cult classic for sure.
Expect everyone to be talking about SATORU GOJO in a few months.
The weird thing is this manga kind of fails the first three chapters test. It's got a pretty misleading beginning that seems like it's going to be nothing special. And it's yet another manga about fighting evil spirits and exorcism, which is like the big thing for Shonen Jump. And there's a special school for training the exorcists.
The main character is your super strong normal human who fights cursed spirits, and he decides to borrow the power of the biggest baddest spirit to become a hero. He's got the spirit inside of him and they seem to have a silly love/hate relationship, so, oh, he and the bad spirits are gonna find common ground.
You got the more experienced guy who is a bit of a loner, and you go, oh he's the rival character. And rounding that out you're introduced to the female lead, who doesn't seem all that interesting. Of course there's a quirky mentor leading them...he's even got his face obscured.
The first like arc is pretty bare bones. There's a neat little twist at first, but it's kind of abrubt and actually I think works in the series detriment. It's a lot like Hunter x Hunter in that sometimes the twists are cool, but sometimes they just seem too abrubt and mess with the pace.
But then this one arc hits that's basically Shonen Jump Presents a Very Special Episode: School Shooting, and, wow, the series really hits its stride. Cool characters start popping up, the battles get interesting, the main character via somewhat sidelined for the time being to flesh out everyone else, and overall it's like, okay, this manga goes hard.
The fighting at first seemed pretty generic, though I liked how the main character was drawn fighting, but then it goes full on Nen with a large array of varied and interesting powers bound together by lots of complex and interesting, though sometimes a bit too complex, rules. You have stuff like summoning "domains" that ensure your attacks always hit, or explaining/setting your limits improves your abilities.
The art is also pretty interesting. The human characters are kind of basic looking for the most part, they all have sort of a rough draft feel to them, but then you have some stomach-churning monster designs and some pretty brutal scenes that make you remember being a kid watching subbed anime and going "whoa Japanese kids get all the violent scenes".
That aside, the morality also seems more sophisticated than the usual Shonen fare. Characters aren't spared from their actions, people die en masse, etc. There's a sense of grey and grey morality being built up throughout, and I imagine the series is going to get darker from here on out.
And oh, the humor is alright! It doesn't insert too many gag moments in serious scenes, there's really no perverted gag character whatsoever introduced yet (at most you get characters declaring they like tall, big butt girls like Jennifer Lawrence), and the female characters are pretty much on the same level as the males. There's actually like no romance angle whatsoever, and the Blechdel test has been passed.
It's only two years in and basically on the first big arc, but if it keeps up this trajectory and if the anime adaptation is solid, I can see it being big among fans. Probably won't be that marketable though due to its darker tone, but a cult classic for sure.
Expect everyone to be talking about SATORU GOJO in a few months.
