Jump SQ (2014)

Written by Tsugumi Obha & Illustrated by Takeshi Obata

Summary: Mirai is fed up with life. His graduation from Junior High is an empty husk of an event and he doesn’t wish to return home to his ever-abusive step-family. After attempting suicide he’s saved by the angel Nasse who gives him the opportunity to enter into a contract with her to become the next candidate for God. With Cupid’s Arrows and an angel’s wings bestowed upon Mirai he must now use his powers to become the last candidate standing in a tournament to see who will become the next God.

[[SPOILERS!!]]

Review: Well, I didn’t hate this chapter. So that’s already a step-up.

Honestly I was fully planning on dropping the series this month. And if my interest -which is already pretty minimal – continues to decline who’s to say I just won’t pick up the next few chapters as they come out because of lack of enthusiasm at the next chapter’s release?

But I did say I would give the series one more shot. The chapter was admittedly terrible but remotely a step up from what we’ve come to experience from Ohba’s latest story so far.

Metropoliman is a terrible villain and as he brings this farce of an event to a close as he kicks “phase 2” into gear; which basically boils down to killing the other God candidates on screen that he’s lured out from the stadium. And then claiming their wings and arrows for himself because you can do that I guess.

See, most of the exposition of what a candidate can or cannot do with the wings and arrows doesn’t come from the Angels themselves. No, none of them know a damn thing about what’s actually going on, all the knowledge of the arrows and wings comes from Metropoliman whom at some point off screen figures all this stuff out.

And I know I’m supposed to care as a human being but seeing the little girl candidate get killed on page wasn’t nearly as horrifying because I just don’t care about any of these characters. Everyone else in the chapter is making a big deal about it and I just can’t feel anything.

There is an interesting conversation that Mirai’s angel – Nasse – has with both Metropoliman at one point in the chapter and with the angel whom watches over Mirai’s crush(?) Girlfriend? What are they currently?

First Nasse tells Metropoliman that instead of making Mirai God she’s simply going to make him kill Metropoliman for all that he’s done up until now. Then she’s going to work on making Mirai happy. Which would negate Mirai being a God candidate, because if Mirai stops being a candidate he dies, but in order to be a candidate you can’t want to live. There’s no easy way out of this for anyone and no one is going to come out of all this alive except for the one who becomes God. So what is Nasse thinking?

The second part is when Nasse tells the other angel whom oversees Mirai’s girl friend that she doesn’t think Mirai is “someone who can become happy by killing someone yet” and that struck me as rather odd. I know Nasse is the angel of innocence but perhaps her innocence is beginning to be tainted?

I want to see how Nasse’s subplot turns out and if it’s going to be the exciting but I’ve been waiting for this series to be exciting for 6 chapters now. Sixty-nine pages was the length of this chapter, and all the previous ones have been of similar length. Why am I just now interested in something?

The tail end of the chapter sees Mirai and his lady love deciding they need to form an alliance with the other God candidates not found out or killed by Metropoliman. And just as they decide this – what timing! A God candidates shows up at their window to form a pact.

Ugh. Why am I doing this to myself? This series is officially dropped.

Final Score: 1.5 Killer Angels out of 5

Derrick is a born and raised otaku with a love for comics, anime, manga and movies. The full list is pretty long, but that’s just the basics. Stories set in space are his bread and butter.

You can find more of his writing at IndieComix.net

@KazekunForever