Jump Start--School Judgement
Dec. 13th, 2014 09:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_dailyHi folks!
And now we look at the third Jump Start series for this quarter.
This one has the advantage of the same artist as Death Note and Bakuman, but sadly not the same author. 18 pages of 55.
We open with a quick explanation that due to rising bullying, misuse of corporal punishment and student suicide, the "world" was suffering a collapse of the educational system. Therefore, a radical new system was put in place, the School Judgement System, of the children, by the children, for the children.
Our story opens in Himawari City, at Tenbin Elementary School. Ms. Akimoto, the teacher of Class 6-3, decides to interrupt the kids before class actually begins to introduce two new transfer students.
Pine's name is short for "Pineapple" and is pronounced accordingly. Pretty Cure is a long-running series of series of magical girl anime, most notable for emphasizing hand-to-hand combat. There's also a character named "Cure Pine", but she probably thinks that one would be too on the nose. And for the one person reading this who hasn't run into Japanese honorifics before, she's asking her classmates to address her in an informal, cutesy manner.
Some of you may have already have been familiar with the term "ronpa" from the visual novel/anime Dangan Ronpa in which a group of high school students undergo a series of murder trials. Compare the rabbinical term "pilpul" in its looser sense.
Pine quickly becomes a favorite of the other students, but one student realizes that she and Abaku must be here because of the Suzuki Murder and Dismemberment Incident.
Tonpa, the boy with the dotted hair, is pushed over by one of the girls in a transparent "accident." Abaku approaches him, and reveals that he's Tonpa's court-appointed defense attorney. They adjourn to a nearby candy shop, where Abaku tucks into an "Umai Dog"confection.
Too bad for Pine she's trying to invoke shoujo tropes in a shounen manga. That, and she's the Hamilton Burger of this plotline. I am not keen on a grown man named Lolimatsu who comments on a twelve year old's breasts.
The manga then launches into an explanation of the School Judgement System. When a trial is scheduled, the federal government dispatches two exchange students to the affected class.
Those of you who've played the Ace Attorney games will recognize this system. It's based on the real-life Japanese judicial system, which is technically inquisitorial rather than adversarial (as the U.S. system is) with the judge (or a panel of three judges in particularly important cases) attempts to discern the truth with the assistance of the attorneys. In actual Japanese jurisprudence, trials do not go ahead unless the government is 90% confident of a conviction, and defense attorneys are mostly there to mitigate the punishment by suggesting mitigating circumstances and such.
Onigashima is the island the oni (ogres) come from in the stories of Momotarou. Exile to a distant island was a popular punishment for political prisoners in the Shogunate Period.
And while it has no bearing on the present case, there's been a relatively recent change in Japanese trials--lay people can be called in for particularly serious crimes as "lay judges" who assist the formal judges by asking questions and discussing the case from their own perspectives. Such a trial can be seen in Volume 13 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.
Suzuki was found dismembered in the tank. Naturally, the girls believe that the boys did it in retaliation. As to "shoku-iku", I grew up on a small farm. When we were lucky enough to have meat, it more often than not had previously had a name. I often had to help with the butchering. I know where my food comes from. I might be more callous to this practice than some parents.
Abaku asks Tonpa how he voted. "...Eat...of course... I am a boy, after all."
Abaku looks forward to the ronpaning. They walk off, unaware that someone has been observing.
Four days later, the girls are discussing spooky sightings that suggest Suzuki is haunting the school. Pine is using her cutesy act to get people to like her, while Abaku wastes no opportunity to win an argument, seemingly unconcerned it makes him come off as a complete jerk.
Abaku notes that Tonpa enjoys having lunch with his male friends. Even though they are being called as witnesses against him. There's some business with a ladybug and the concept of "thanatosis", an automatic "play dead" reflex. We also see what looks like a flashback to Abaku's childhood and a mass murder.
Abaku asks Tonpa to contact a witness so they will be able to testify.
Pine reveals to Lolimatsu that there is no record of Abaku ever attending Junior Law School before passing the Children's Bar Exam. But she did find out he used to attend Onigashira Elementary School. There are only three self-taught geniuses who have passed the bar without a formal course of study--is Abaku one of them?
Comes the day of the trial, and we get to see that Abaku has a 56-23 win-loss ratio, while Pine has a 70-14 record.
Apparently the stress of judging cases prematurely ages you so all the judges have the faces of middle-aged people. This one is four years old.
I'm out of pages, so I will summarize the prosecution's case as "seemingly damning."
Then Abaku announces that he's calling a witness, grinning wolfishly, anticipating the true ronpa.
Up to now, this story has been mostly Phoenix Wright, and thus owing a lot to Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason. But now Abaku switches inspirations to Ellery Queen by telling us we have all the information we need to solve the case, and can we do it before looking at the next chapter?
I suspect this will be the Jump Start title that gets picked up purely on the strength of the art.
Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!
(See my annual Shonen Jump update at my blog: http://www.skjam.com/2014/12/09/manga-review-shonen-jump-weekly-usa-2014/
And now we look at the third Jump Start series for this quarter.
This one has the advantage of the same artist as Death Note and Bakuman, but sadly not the same author. 18 pages of 55.
We open with a quick explanation that due to rising bullying, misuse of corporal punishment and student suicide, the "world" was suffering a collapse of the educational system. Therefore, a radical new system was put in place, the School Judgement System, of the children, by the children, for the children.
Our story opens in Himawari City, at Tenbin Elementary School. Ms. Akimoto, the teacher of Class 6-3, decides to interrupt the kids before class actually begins to introduce two new transfer students.
Pine's name is short for "Pineapple" and is pronounced accordingly. Pretty Cure is a long-running series of series of magical girl anime, most notable for emphasizing hand-to-hand combat. There's also a character named "Cure Pine", but she probably thinks that one would be too on the nose. And for the one person reading this who hasn't run into Japanese honorifics before, she's asking her classmates to address her in an informal, cutesy manner.
Some of you may have already have been familiar with the term "ronpa" from the visual novel/anime Dangan Ronpa in which a group of high school students undergo a series of murder trials. Compare the rabbinical term "pilpul" in its looser sense.
Pine quickly becomes a favorite of the other students, but one student realizes that she and Abaku must be here because of the Suzuki Murder and Dismemberment Incident.
Tonpa, the boy with the dotted hair, is pushed over by one of the girls in a transparent "accident." Abaku approaches him, and reveals that he's Tonpa's court-appointed defense attorney. They adjourn to a nearby candy shop, where Abaku tucks into an "Umai Dog"confection.
Too bad for Pine she's trying to invoke shoujo tropes in a shounen manga. That, and she's the Hamilton Burger of this plotline. I am not keen on a grown man named Lolimatsu who comments on a twelve year old's breasts.
The manga then launches into an explanation of the School Judgement System. When a trial is scheduled, the federal government dispatches two exchange students to the affected class.
Those of you who've played the Ace Attorney games will recognize this system. It's based on the real-life Japanese judicial system, which is technically inquisitorial rather than adversarial (as the U.S. system is) with the judge (or a panel of three judges in particularly important cases) attempts to discern the truth with the assistance of the attorneys. In actual Japanese jurisprudence, trials do not go ahead unless the government is 90% confident of a conviction, and defense attorneys are mostly there to mitigate the punishment by suggesting mitigating circumstances and such.
Onigashima is the island the oni (ogres) come from in the stories of Momotarou. Exile to a distant island was a popular punishment for political prisoners in the Shogunate Period.
And while it has no bearing on the present case, there's been a relatively recent change in Japanese trials--lay people can be called in for particularly serious crimes as "lay judges" who assist the formal judges by asking questions and discussing the case from their own perspectives. Such a trial can be seen in Volume 13 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.
Suzuki was found dismembered in the tank. Naturally, the girls believe that the boys did it in retaliation. As to "shoku-iku", I grew up on a small farm. When we were lucky enough to have meat, it more often than not had previously had a name. I often had to help with the butchering. I know where my food comes from. I might be more callous to this practice than some parents.
Abaku asks Tonpa how he voted. "...Eat...of course... I am a boy, after all."
Abaku looks forward to the ronpaning. They walk off, unaware that someone has been observing.
Four days later, the girls are discussing spooky sightings that suggest Suzuki is haunting the school. Pine is using her cutesy act to get people to like her, while Abaku wastes no opportunity to win an argument, seemingly unconcerned it makes him come off as a complete jerk.
Abaku notes that Tonpa enjoys having lunch with his male friends. Even though they are being called as witnesses against him. There's some business with a ladybug and the concept of "thanatosis", an automatic "play dead" reflex. We also see what looks like a flashback to Abaku's childhood and a mass murder.
Abaku asks Tonpa to contact a witness so they will be able to testify.
Pine reveals to Lolimatsu that there is no record of Abaku ever attending Junior Law School before passing the Children's Bar Exam. But she did find out he used to attend Onigashira Elementary School. There are only three self-taught geniuses who have passed the bar without a formal course of study--is Abaku one of them?
Comes the day of the trial, and we get to see that Abaku has a 56-23 win-loss ratio, while Pine has a 70-14 record.
Apparently the stress of judging cases prematurely ages you so all the judges have the faces of middle-aged people. This one is four years old.
I'm out of pages, so I will summarize the prosecution's case as "seemingly damning."
Then Abaku announces that he's calling a witness, grinning wolfishly, anticipating the true ronpa.
Up to now, this story has been mostly Phoenix Wright, and thus owing a lot to Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason. But now Abaku switches inspirations to Ellery Queen by telling us we have all the information we need to solve the case, and can we do it before looking at the next chapter?
I suspect this will be the Jump Start title that gets picked up purely on the strength of the art.
Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!
(See my annual Shonen Jump update at my blog: http://www.skjam.com/2014/12/09/manga-review-shonen-jump-weekly-usa-2014/
no subject
Date: 2014-12-14 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-14 05:38 am (UTC)So far this looks leagues better than the other new series', partly I guess because of having such an experienced artist on board to bring the drama-pudding to the fore. And it's doing pretty nicely in the "taking recognizable things and putting bizarre spins on them" dealy.
Thanks for posting this.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-14 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-14 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-14 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-15 08:03 am (UTC)Why the fuck is she giving in to what amounts to a goddamn tantrum? She should tell him to sit down and confiscate his handheld. You know why we don't want you having a video game while in class? Because it's disrespectful to us for you to be playing it while we're trying to teach.
And saying, "Oh, it's YOUR fault, you need to keep the curriculum engaging!" FUCK YOU, KID. I have to write a lesson plan for over a hundred students, it's IMPOSSIBLE to create something that will be engaging FOR ALL OF THEM. Just like how you're never going to have a book that EVERYONE likes, the same goes for teaching.
I find myself aggravated by the fact that the kid is blatantly acting like a brat and the story is bending over backwards to appease his whims.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-17 12:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-17 11:45 pm (UTC)There were a couple of storylines like this in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga before it turned into nothing but card games.
But yes, Abaku is a horrible, selfish little brat whose only saving grace is that he's on the side of wrongly accused people. Being forced to defend someone who's actually guilty might make it too evident.