Sunday, May 17, 2020

REVIEW: Time Paradox Ghostwriter Ch. 1


The hit series, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, published its final chapter this week. However, when one series in Weekly Shonen Jump ends another begins. This week also saw the first chapter of Time Paradox Ghostwriter. Read on to check out my full review of the first chapter.


The future of Shonen Jump manga is here! Literally! In the microwave!

This new series is written by newcomer Kenji Ichima and drawn by Tsunehiro Date of a handful of series I've never heard of but all seem to be romantic and ecchi and targeted to female readers. This series is obviously nothing like that.

Time Paradox Ghostwriter is the story of Teppei Sasaki, a soon to be 25-year-old aspiring mangaka who has struggled to get a one-shot published since winning a contest 4 years prior. With another submission deadline approaching, Sasaki keeps throwing himself into storyboard after storyboard - but he hasn't managed to impress his editor.


Just as he's about to give up, lightning strikes his studio apartment and his microwave spits out a copy of Weekly Shonen Jump - from ten years into the future! Initially thinking the whole experience was jsut a dream, Sasaki decides to adapt the new series from the May 2030 issue into a one-shot - and just like that, he has his hit.

This series is off to a fabulous start. It is highly reminiscent of Bakuman, a series about two aspiring mangaka from the creators of Death Note. However, where Bakuman went with a more realistic approach with a romantic subplot, this series is obviously leaning sci-fi - and I am all here for it.


If you've never read Bakuman, I highly recommend it to any Shonen Jump fan. It's not just about the writing and drawing of manga, but actually goes into the business behind the scenes of the magazine's publication and explains how series start - and end - in Shonen Jump. And even though it was published in Shonen Jump, it doesn't hold any punches when talking about the harsh reality of making manga either.

This first chapter touches on that side of things as well, but hopefully we'll get more time travel shenanigans instead. Bakuman is a touch outdated so a new look behind the scenes at Jump would be appreciated, but Time Paradox Ghostwriter really excels with its main character and the absurdity of  the situation. It'll be better in the long run if it focuses on the magical realism aspects more.


Another side-effect of Bakuman was an injection of sympathy into the life of a manga creator, so I do hope we see the real - and unreal - side of that with this series. There's just so much potential in telling a story like this with a sci-fi slant.

I am too excited for this series to continue and hope it lasts at least a year. There's a lot they can do with and the last two pages open the microwave wide open to countless possabilities. Click here to read Chapter 1 of Time Paradox Ghostwriter from the official source, or check it out in the Shonen Jump app.