The shonen genre of manga and anime has taken the world by storm. Recently, Netflix dropped a live action show for One Piece which debuted at #1 in 84 countries. Every year in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade there is a Goku from Dragonball balloon. There’s definitive evidence that shonen anime/manga has infected many parts of our entertainment industry to the point that even those not versed in the medium at least have common knowledge of some of its most popular titles and characters. Shonen’s global appeal has influenced many creators outside of its native home of Japan to create their own shonen stories. In 2013, Frederick L. Jones created Saturday AM, a digital shonen anthology that takes inspiration from Shonen Jump (the origin of the term shonen in reference to anime/manga).
Over the last decade, Jones has been able to bring together a diverse cast of creators to bolster Saturday AM with interesting, engaging, and distinct stories. They’ve grown from just shonen to adding josei and seinen to their roster. You can even now find many of their most popular shonen titles in print widely available in Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Target, etc. We’ve been lucky enough to be able to acquire most of their stories in print and digitally. Over the next few weeks, we will be giving reviews on some of their most popular titles from APPLE BLACK by Whyte Manga (Odunze Oguguo) to OBLIVION ROUGE by Pap Souleye Fall. If you’re ever interested enough by the review to take a look at the manga, links will be available throughout the article and at the bottom.
Dead parents? Check. Mysterious power that is sought after by people across the world? Check. Charismatic main character that makes friends wherever he goes? Check. Apple Black Vol. 1 by Odunze Oguguo (known as Whyte Manga on his social media and YouTube page) is definitely the set up for what you’d expect from a shonen story. However, as I read through volume 1, his specific style and story quickly separated itself from the usual shonen fare. We are introduced to a world of magic that is governed by a mysterious fruit called “Black” that turned humans into sorcerers. Our young hero, Sano, is armed (literally) with a prophetic wand called the Arodhis arm. In this volume he joins the Black Bottom Island Guild where he makes new friends and enemies as we learn that his Arodhis arm is much more than just a normal wand.
Sano is a very charismatic protagonist who makes you want to root for him at every turn of the page. Whyte Manga crafts a very endearing story of a young man who’s been handed an immense responsibility along with having lost his parents and having to grow up in secrecy with little to no friends. His excitement to finally be at the famed Black Bottom Island Guild and meeting new people his age is palpable. This contrasts well with how he handles the weight of his responsibilities when he is put in tense situations. We see how quickly his playfulness can turn after he fights an intruder who is a part of the group that killed his father who infiltrates the Guild on his first day. Once he defeats the intruder, his new teacher, Mikael, asks him how he would handle the culprits responsible for his father’s death; “I’m gonna forgive, to set us all free.”
The supporting cast of this manga are present and unforgettable. Upon entering the Guild campus, Sano stumbles upon the hotheaded Ryuzaki and the cryptic Symon. Both grow into friends that will seem to challenge Sano in becoming a better sorcerer. On Day 2, Sano meets Opal Wantmore a seemingly intelligent and talented sorcerer who helps guide Sano through school. Lastly, we meet Sano’s roommate, Osamu, who from what were given looks to have a storied past that I can’t wait to learn more about. This leaves out Angelo and Madam Naomi (Head Mistress of the Black Bottom Island Guild and holds the title of The Heart Dark Lord) who raised Sano and continue to take care of him during his daily life at the Guild.
The world that we are introduced to in Apple Black Vol.1 is filled with magic and wonder. I really enjoy Oguguo’s storytelling and how he slowly builds the world up around Sano. His ignorance is the same as the reader’s allowing us to experience this new world at the same pace as Sano. There are mysterious galore as the prophecy surrounding Sano is slowly unveiled revealing more characters and groups interested in the forthcoming “Infinite Night”. This mystery is what introduces our first proposed villains of the series in the Banburi Rebels. Although we don’t learn a lot about these villains in this first volume we get an inkling of how they will fit into the greater story of Apple Black that Oguguo is crafting.
Oguguo’s talent with his pen shines thoroughly in the art of the series. From exciting page spanning fights to emotional conversations, his art is polished and expressive. My favorite fight within the first volume arrives when Sano is fighting Fattimunga of the Banburi rebels. This fight happens fairly early in the volume but had me begging for more fight scenes. His way of conveying movement throughout the fight and ending it with a full color page had me engrossed from beginning to end. Moreover, his way of showing emotions kept most of the conversations engaging. Through his art, each character felt alive and vibrant.
Admittedly, I’ve never been the biggest fan of the shonen action genre. Naruto doesn’t rank in my top three and at the time of this article being written I have not caught up to the most recent season of Jujutsu Kaisen. The tropes and characterizations that turned me away from this genre in the past are still present in this manga (although, there isn’t any “perv” character which is a relief). Even with Oguguo creating his own interpretation of them it does not change their presence in the story. Furthermore, I found some of the exposition and dialogue in this volume to be lengthy and tedious. There are a few times where the walls of text explaining different mechanics of the world or discussions between two or more characters seem to create barriers that take you out of the story.
Yet, Apple Black did grab me from chapter 1. Oguguo has created a very interesting take on the genre that has me craving more of the world and characters he’s created. I already have volume 2 in my possession, and I can’t wait to dive into the next adventure with Sano and his friends. You can find Apple Black Vol. 1 at Barnes & Noble, Target, Books-a-Million, Walmart, and more. You can also read Apple Black Vol. 1 digitally right on Saturday AM’s own website.
