MONONOFU To start this is my first review here so feel free to correct me if theres any mistake. Now many of you might ask why did I decide to review this random manga? Well this manga marks the first step in my long journey to becoming one of the few people who have read all the mangas from Shonen Jump. So why this one exactly? I noticed that its ranked among the top 150 worstselling Shonen Jump mangas. But dont worryI plan to read all Shonen Jump mangas in any random order and review them. Ill even read them in other languages if needed which applies here and Ill get to that later. But now after saying all that its time to actually start the review. 220https://ramenparados.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/07/ShonenJump201542Mononofu.jpg Oh Mononofu oh Mononofu you could have been my next Hikaru no Go but your potential got stuck in a collection of great ideas with little execution and originality. Mononofu was written and illustrated by Haruto Ikezawa an author who is somewhat recognized in the magazine as a former One Piece assistant and with a previous Shonen Jump series called Kurogane. It was expected that the author would get a second chance to shine in the magazine but unfortunately this wasnt enough and shortly after his second attempt was canceled. Mononofu lasted 43 chapters collected in 5 volumes. Mononofu starts with a great premise as it follows the main protagonist Takahara Shinobu a socially awkward boy who was rejected at his previous school. As a result he ends up moving into a shared house. What he doesnt know is that in this house everyone is aspiring to become a professional shogi player. Thanks to this he slowly starts discovering shogi and his passion begins to grow. 220https://i.ur.com/YREj5ys.png STORY 6/10 If I had to define the story of Mononofu I would say it has potentiallike what I believe could have been the successor to Hikaru no Go. The story had a lot of potential to interest readers through this Japanese chess. However it fails when it comes to helping the reader understand the game. Perhaps its clear for experienced players but for a beginner like me it was difficult to follow the matches or games in Mononofu. The story while it had a good pace for a shonen and sports series didnt manage to delve into all the characters making it hard to connect with most of them with a few exceptions. The plot quickly probably due to the rush of cancellation became hurried and started escalating so fast that even though there were more than 10 chapters left it felt as if we were already in the middle of the series. Leaving the negatives aside the story also offers the typical entertainment found in sports mangas showcasing the authors experience during tense moments in the games. Still I feel like it lacked somethingsomething I cant quite describethat would have made it truly captivating. Perhaps it was simply the challenge of making readers truly invested in the game of shogi. ART: 8/10 The art is undoubtedly the best part of the manga. Harutosensei does an excellent job capturing the expressions of many characters and their designs are incredible. Whether in black and white or color the character designs are stunning to admire and I never felt there was a drop in quality except toward the end of the series where perhaps the author had lost some motivation to draw. But other than that the author always delivered correctly and the artwork was consistently good except for the protagonist who while his design was part of his personality felt very flat. 220https://i.ur.com/cdkqdzL.png Characters: 4/10 This part is going to hurt honestly. The author made a very strange decision here. Originally the main cast was presented as the members of the shared house who appear in both the first and last volumes. However throughout the story these characters were barely developed. I imagine it was due to the limited time before the cancellation but this might have actually influenced the series cancellation. They introduced really interesting characters only to leave them undeveloped in 43 chapters. One of them I cant remember his name but hes the oldestif this shows how little importance was given to these characters got some development toward the end of the manga but other than that they barely appeared and there were five of them. That said the characters the protagonist meets as the story progresseshis rivalsare decently developed but even then the author didnt give them enough time for further development though the YouTuber thing was a bit much. As for our protagonist his development is slow but at least it feels somewhat progressive. However as a character he ends up feeling flat and boring. 220https://cdn.surugaya.com/database/picswebp/game/501036583.jpg.webp Enjoyment: 7/10 Honestly I enjoyed it but I didnt love it. It was more of a I didnt understand how shogi works but I was excited when the characters I cared about won maybe its my lack of intelligence. But at the end of the day its a manga that can be enjoyed especially if you liked Hikaru no Go. It feels like a worthy successor to read but never enough to surpass it. With that said I would give it a 7 maybe an 8 but it doesnt quite reach that for two reasons. 1. Its not translated from chapters 32 to 43 so I had to read them in CHINESE without knowing Chinese using a translator. 2. Honestly the chapters after the translated ones werent worth it. In my opinion if you stick to the Englishtranslated chapters you get a decent ending with an open conclusionyeah but just enough for you to imagine what could happen in the future. But following what actually happened I get why it declined in sales it sold fewer copies than nothing considering there were only 5 volumes and it barely reached 9000 copies. Verdict 220https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/manga/2/171383.jpg Mononofu is a series with potential that ended in a mediocre way but with some good points to highlight resembling the glory of Hikaru no Go. Unfortunately it wasnt enough for the series to survive the powerful axe of Shonen Jump and honestly that was probably for the best. Still if youre a fan of spokon Shonen Jump Hikaru no Go or even if you just like trying new things I recommend it as a series to pass the time. You could even imagine it as a 31chapter oneshot. That said Mononofu resembles more a missed opportunitysomething that could have been great but just didnt quite make it.