Jump Review [2025: Issue 40] and the Story of the Sake I Drank During the Obon Festival

My food expenses for this weekend averaged about 3,000 yen, which is tough, but I don't regret it. I especially think it was worth paying 5,000 yen for the Moroccan cuisine course. I recommend the Moroccan food in Shibuya. Also, I drank a mysterious drink called Moruwellam. It was from an Indian restaurant, and it was made by mixing yogurt with ginger, curry herbs, cilantro, and chili peppers. I'm a Japanese stereotype who thinks yogurt should be sweetened, so it was a taste that destroyed that. To be honest, I didn't like it, but it was interesting. Recently, I've been eating strange things like this every day. I'll write my review.

Contents: Ichi, One Piece, Bachi, Sakamoto, Witch, Ao no Hako, Futsuu no Keionbu (The Ordinary Light Music Club), Harukaze, Hima-ten, Nige Waka (Run Away Young), Kill Blue, Nue's Account, Akane Banashi, Ping Pong, Power Ningen (Power Human), Ekiden, Othello, Postscript

Ichi

I get excited when an anti-world appears (even if it's just in a prophecy). I love Jishiro-ne because she's cute, so I don't want her to die.

One Piece

I'm curious about the cover art, but does that mean Gekko Moria was Moonlight Moria!? He certainly had a connection with Kaido. The depiction of the rip-off bar makes me feel like those were the best days for the legendary men. Shakky is great for creating interaction with the rule that prohibits fighting. When I see it like this, I wonder how she can quietly run a bar in Sabaody. I like Rayleigh now, so I want to know what happened that made Shakky like Rayleigh, but love is always a hurricane in this world, so I don't think they'll explain it much. I want to know why they're together now. I thought they might not do God Valley, but as expected, they're heavily involved. It's an event where people who seem to know the core of the world gather, so I'm looking forward to it.

Bachi

I was numb from the start with the daring sword fight that blew off an arm. Everyone has a chance to show their skills, and there are preferences, and the tension of the balanced offense and defense where everyone except Natsuki is injured is irresistible. I've reread it three or four times at this point, but it still has flavor. Even in that, Urushiha was cool this time. While acknowledging that he and others are getting soft, Urushiha has the biggest achievement of taking an arm out of the four, and even after losing one hand, he saved Natsuki from danger at the end. Especially the flow of the scene where he drew his sword with his mouth makes me feel like the "war talent" he regained in the battle is bigger than the minus of losing a hand, which is cool. I feel like Urushiha would be the main character if there was a war arc, so I have high expectations for Urushiha. It's going to be a little tough if next week is a side story.

Sakamoto

I thought he was just drinking roux, but I laughed when he was properly called out for it. As expected, can't keep up...

Witch

I don't think Mori-hito will win. The student council election arc has begun. There's no justice on the protagonist's side. I like these kinds of stories, so I'm looking forward to it.

Ao no Hako (Blue Box)

I'm a person who hates ceremonies like graduation ceremonies, so I laughed because I hate reading the valedictory speech scene even in manga. Maybe it was the same with Sket Dance. Ceremonies have a set format, so there's not much emotion that goes beyond imagination. After all, the important thing here is that the main battleground of the lives of the seniors and Taiki will be separated. Do you understand, Hina?

Futsuu no Keionbu (The Ordinary Light Music Club)

Showing the differences in the reactions of the four main characters to "New students are coming to observe club activities next week" to show off their characters felt like I was being shown a common technique in its undiluted form (for better or worse). I've read all of it on Jump Plus and I like it a lot, but because it's not a manga to read just for the live performance, I read it with the feeling that it doesn't bring out the good points. But Momo-chan is cute, so it's fine.

Harukaze

The protagonist's rising slider and the falling slider are set up to be as contrasting as possible, which is good. I still don't know the main characters, so it feels natural that it will be about the teammates for a while.

Hima-ten

Kanna, I didn't really like her at first, but she might be getting cuter with each passing chapter. I feel like she's putting her negative emotions out there more overtly. Maybe that's what's good about her. I feel like this week's "Kapaa!" has become addicted to the taste of "Poji-" and just puts the character's name at the beginning of the onomatopoeia. The character's name isn't in "Poji-", and I don't even know the meaning of "Posinon". Also, if Kanna's mother appears, she'll definitely be drawn as "Okan-na".

Nige Waka (Run Away Young)

This might be the first shonen manga with such frequent and blatant depictions of "The protagonist and heroine had sex at this time!". Are you watching, Rito? You should do this when you become the Deviluke King too. But this time, I don't think they're just appealing that they had sex for nothing. By depicting the relationship between his wife and friends, I can feel that Tokiyuki's life was happy. By the way, spoiler alert, but it seems that the Battle of Kotesashigahara is the last battle that Tokiyuki is said to have been involved in as a historical fact, and he seems to lose. If anything, he'll be executed the following year. I've been wondering since the series started, how are they going to make a historical loser the main character? I'm looking forward to seeing the answer soon.

Kill Blue

Completed! It was completed with a color page and an anime adaptation was decided, but the impression I get from the comments at the end of the volume is that it probably didn't end in a way that they were satisfied with. To be honest, if I was asked if it was interesting, I had mixed feelings throughout. The reason why it was mixed is that the manga techniques of Yusei Matsui on this week's monthly award application page seem to be the answer. Kill Blue was the opposite of the structure of children confronting adults. They look like children, but they're adults inside, and the enemies are genuine children. Also, Sakamoto has Shin, and Gintama has Shinpachi, who are characters close to the readers, but Kill Blue didn't have that. The enemies were adults, and Conan is a high school student, and the people around him, and of course the criminals, are all adults. Well, it's like I'm looking back on the cancellation, but the anime has been decided, so it might take off with this. Noren was cute though.

Nue's Account

As expected, Gakuro is cool. Also, Ish is really talented. Nue's Account periodically changes the appearance of the characters, but it's always good. It's really good, but at times like this, I'm always wondering whether to open a Choco Egg every week. The stupid comments at the end of the volume come to mind.

Akane Banashi

Cool. Also, this production that emphasizes this one word is comfortable. Well, what will happen to the evaluation from here on? To be honest, I think Akane will win, but I want her to be as high a wall as possible.

Ping Pong

This is the real zero bounce. I laughed quite a bit, but I laughed including the tempo at the fact that our side of the court is full of craters. The beginning was ordinary, but I'm glad that the way to deal with zero bounce is properly crazy.

Power Ningen (Power Human)

Naba! You were alive! I'm happy because I like this author. For some reason, the girls are getting cuter and cuter from the first work. On the other hand, the image of a cool man hasn't changed much. I didn't really like the gags, but it was worth reading, and it was good with my believer correction. Every time I turned the page, there was a proper introduction to show off the panels that were about half a page wide.

Ekiden

Did this diagram confuse me more than necessary, or is it just me?

I couldn't figure out what kind of logic made the interpretation unique, so I was thinking about how to read it for a while. However, the match becomes more interesting than usual when it starts. It's fun that the characters who are active keep changing.

Othello

The rules of the battle feel clearly different from before, so I'm enjoying reading it. It's not just about smashing them, but the feeling that you have to clear the gimmick once is really good as a change of pace when it's inserted occasionally. Doa-Doa is also talented for saying casually that he has achieved his true purpose.

Postscript

I'll forget if I don't write about the Obon festival properly... I don't even remember what I wrote anymore, so I'll try to spit it out as much as possible before I forget. Shall I talk about food again following last week? It's more about drinks than food though. August 10th was a sake scum DAY of visiting a whiskey factory for a tour & tasting → craft beer bar. The whiskey is Suntory's factory. I've been there once, but this is the first time I've been there since I started drinking whiskey properly. I'm almost there for the tasting. I drank Yamazaki's tasting set, and also the sake before it was aged in barrels. I can drink whiskey straight, but the sake before aging was so harsh that I couldn't help but frown. It's not about the alcohol content, it's just harsh. I understood why they bother to age sake. Yamazaki's tasting set included ordinary Yamazaki, Mizunara cask before blending, and Spanish oak. I drank them.

The one in the middle with the dark color is Spanish oak. It had a very sweet and strong aroma and was very unique. On the other hand, the lightest Mizunara had a gentle taste, and my friend who came with me said that if he was going to drink it regularly, he would prefer this one to Spanish oak, which was a very high evaluation. I'm also a Mizunara fan. And the one on the far left is ordinary Yamazaki, which is a blend of Spanish oak, Mizunara, and other things. I felt on the spot that the result of blending was the best! and it would have been easy to write my review, but it didn't turn out that way due to personal preference (although it was of course delicious). By the way, after that, I also drank Yamazaki with a smoky aroma with peat that is limited to the Yamazaki distillery, and this was my favorite. I like incense and smoked food, so I might just like the smell of smoke in the first place, even though I don't smoke.

And after this, I went to a beer bar. I've been enthusiastic about Belgian beer since I went to the Expo, so I drank three Belgian beers. The store was called Akutagawa Base, and there were a lot of different types of craft beer, but thanks to the descriptions of the flavors on all the menus, even amateurs could enjoy choosing. I'll look back on them in order.

1st glass: Blanche de Namur. I chose a similar type because the one I drank at the Expo was a Belgian white ale. The combination of coriander and orange peel is a classic, so there were a lot of the same type, and this one was also delicious as expected, but a little more fruity than expected.

2nd glass: Guillotine. I chose it because the name was strong. It was made in Belgium for some reason to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. It was very bitter and not to my liking, but I enjoyed drinking it. The foot of the glass being red with the image of a pool of blood is too cool.

3rd glass: Buffalo. I came back to the same type as the 1st glass, but I chose it because the description said "spicy". It was my favorite today, so it was recommended. So that was the story of the sake. I said I don't like bitter things, but I relatively like IPA. That's how today ends. See you next week!