I was waiting for this. I know that I am not the target demographic for Weekly Shonen Jump, but I still manage to enjoy almost all the series. As mean as it is to say, I’m glad this one is going so that a better series can take it’s place. Honestly, almost anything would probably be better than Shugomaru…
Protect Me, Shugomaru!
(Daiki Ihara)
November 2021 to June 2022
26 Chapters
What I Liked
- Sanagi. I like her design (in particular her hairstyle). And she is a solid tsukkomi.
- Kofuku. Also cute. Being the trivia master was great, and the (rushed) backstory gave a reasonable explanation for why she knew so much information. She was obviously kinda suss, and I liked how they played with those suspicions in the middle of the story, only to confirm her as the one pulling the strings in the end.
- Dumb names (5 Call, SKAL). Suitably stupid while being ever so slightly witty.
- Tekko Siblings. I’m a sucker for families with lots of kids (Killua and his siblings, Sanji and his siblings, and a more recent example – Lucky and his siblings). Too bad they didn’t get a chance to all be properly introduced.
Where I Think Things Went Wrong
- Inconsistent Art. Sanagi, Kofuku and Aoi (the girls in general I guess) were all pretty cute but the rest of the characters were either ugly or kinda awkward looking.
- Over-reliance on Yu-Gi-Oh/Nintendo references. Name-dropping isn’t particularly funny or interesting. And the Yu-Gi-Oh ones were too detailed, as a non-Yu-Gi-Oh reader/watcher/player I did not follow at all. It was just a bunch of words.
- Too many brats. Maybe they were grasping at straws, but Shugomaru was enough on his own, why add 3 more? And then every time they had to cycle through all four brats with their obvious reactions. To add insult to injury these brats got more page-time than the other Tekko Siblings.
- Sometimes kinda creepy…. I’m referring to the chapter where Shugomaru physically ages up but mentally stays juvenile…and then Sanagi finding him attractive 🤮. Or the time Sanagi had to tell the womaniser character to not hit on the child 🙄
- Author’s comments. This wouldn’t have had any bearing on the fortunes of the series but was a personal gripe of mine. Like the series itself, the ‘Things I Want Said To Me’ list wasn’t really all that entertaining…sorry Ihara-sensei… I know that authors are allowed to write whatever they want but it started to feel kind of…obnoxious?
Conclusion
I think that the premise of this series could have worked. It’s kind of like the beginning of Reborn – little annoying person enters main character’s life and makes things complicated in an over-the-top/hilarious way – except that in Shugomaru it was sans the hilarity. Shugomaru himself, not sure if this means he’s actually really well written, but he was REALLY ANNOYING. Overall there just wasn’t enough depth – characters were one-note and jokes were reused too often or were just references to actually successful/popular franchises. Maybe the problem was the author was aiming at the younger side of the Jump readership. Unfortunately I don’t think that’s good enough to become a mainstay in the magazine. Better luck next time Ihara-sensei.
Categories: Simulpub Review
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