Jul 12, 2019
Momiji no Kisetsu will be the first of many Shonen Jump series I plan on reviewing, many of these won't be a full review of the series due to their translation being limited this time being no exception but I will try my best to write a review from the little I have read.
Story: 5/10
As far as I have read there was a clear goal in our lead character Momiji trying to reach the title of "Dragon King" a very high position in the world of Shogi. As a shounen a large goal like this is generally a good thing and there is enough emphasis
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on this coupled with Momiji's Brother who also seeked the title that the story is propelled forward at a good pace. The training and growth Momiji undergoes early is good, it's not focused on too much but enough that there is a believable amount of growth. All in all it feels like Shogi in Shounen manga form which is a great thing, the downside's being that Shogi isn't the most engaging thing in the world, if it had more time to flourish I think the story may have improved significantly.
Art: 8/10
I really like the art, the characters have designs that are unique but not too crazy which suits what it's trying to cover, facial expressions are really good and help convey a wide array of emotions, my gripes with the characters are that sometimes their eyes and hands don't look quite right.
For a manga about Shogi it's surprisingly easy to read likely due to the panel layout being really good. I had a lot of fun reading it which leads into how it presents Shogi, the way pieces are thrust onto the board feels like an actual battle, it really digs into the Shounen aspects of presenting manga and it greatly benefits for it, some of the more action oriented panels look amazing! One final thing i'd like to talk about on it's art is the few times I saw pages with no text whatsoever but you can still tell what the characters may be thinking or feeling, these made me really happy to see as I think it's a really cool way to mix up how a manga is read but props to the author for presenting such a complex game in a very simple manner.
Character: 7/10
For three chapters I felt pretty invested in our two main characters, both have their quirks and are interesting enough from the very beginning, but I was very surprised with how quickly we got to see the reasons behind there motivations which are told in a clear and relatable way, and as much as Momiji's brother is used to further the story and the characters progression he himself is characterized quite a bit without him even being present, this along with the fact that the author hasn't spread himself thin on too many characters gives a sense that the small amount of characters that we do have are well fleshed out and likable before anymore are added.
Conlusion:
I was skeptical before I started as I had never heard a thing about this series other than it was axed which is a shame since I underestimated it only to find that I really like it, it nailed what a shounen series should be in my opinion, good motivations, characters and subject matter, with no access to translated chapters I can't say why it failed but either way it's a shame it had to end with only 16 chapters, compared to the currently publishing "Double Taisei" in Weekly Shonen Jump this series is much better, and it might just be that Shogi doesn't do well in WSJ.
FINAL SCORE: 7/10 - Good
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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