That Obscure “Object” of Desire

This was a show that went in a different direction than I had imagined, in that what (or who) should have been the ‘star’ was relegated into being a support player. But I digress. Welcome to the world of “Heavy Object “(“Hevī Obujekuto”).

We are in an alternate future (and can a future be ‘alternate’? It’s the future; who knows what it may hold? Except no hover boards), and war as we know it is obsolete. Well, not completely, as war is war, but instead of sending in hordes and hordes of soldiers to shoot and stab and bomb and blow up, we send in the “Heavy Object”, a massive orb on tank tracks. And I mean heavy. Aside from being 50 meters in diameter, it is also 200,000 tons of hugeness. And those are the ‘small’ ones! Part of the issue is that where it can go is somewhat limited. You had best have something special when you go to the desert (and, yes, there are floating versions of this weapon as well).

Continue reading

“Jump Start” Manga Update – Three Series Have Joined Magazine’s Regular Lineup

Magazine covers for the second batch of “Jump Start” debuts in 2017

I wrote a post in February about the first three manga series in Weekly Shonen Jump‘s 2017 “Jump Start” program, which were We Never Learn, U19, and Demon Prince Poro’s Diaries. Since then, three more series have had their own three-chapter trial runs – Hungry Marie, Dr. Stone and Robot x Laserbeam. After Viz weighed the reader survey results for all six series, they added Dr. Stone, Robot x Laserbeam, and We Never Learn to the magazine’s regular lineup. The first three chapters from all the Jump Start series are available as free chapters on Viz’s website.

In this post, I discuss the following chapters: Hungry Marie chapters 1-3, Dr. Stone chapters 1-9, Robot x Laserbeam chapters 1-7, U19 chapter 3, Demon Prince Poro’s Diaries chapters 2 & 3, and We Never Learn chapters 4-9. I have enjoyed reading all six of those series up to now, some more than others, and would like to see them get digital volume releases in the future.

Continue reading