It seemingly went under the radar.
Summary:
- The author of Mob Psycho 100 and One Punch Man released a new manga series.
- The story feels fresh and exciting at first.
- However, it has some pacing and continuity issues that leave fans puzzled.
The release of the new manga series by ONE, the author of One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100, called Versus, was announced at the perfect time frame: right when the third and final season of Mob Psycho 100 was airing. ONE's name was everywhere because the anime was incredibly popular (and rightfully so), so his new work initially got a lot of attention.
But now, almost a year later, it dwindled. Why?
ONE serves as a writer for this manga, the art is done by Azuma Kyoutarou, who previously did Tenkaichi: Nihon Saikyou Bugeisha Ketteisen and The King of Fighters: A New Beginning (and even put Tenkaichi on hiatus to work full-time on Versus). The story is set in a fantasy world and follows 47 fighters who plan to oppose the current rulers — Great Demon King and his 47 Demon Kings. The story, however, takes a dark turn as heroes end up being outmatched with the majority of them killed, defeated, or just mutilated. The main character, Hallow, belongs to the latter category, he's hurt and broken. Yet his brother rekindles his hope with his plan to summon allies from another world — and the multiverse part of the story is what makes it interesting.
Harsher doesn't mean better
It's a monthly release with long chapters in Shounen Sirius, and from the plot point of view the story seems exciting: it's much darker and brutal than ONE's previous works and focuses first on world-building and not on characters. ONE is a great storyteller, capable of including organic twists to the plot that add layers and depth to it, and he's great at casually establishing some character traits without blatantly pointing them out.
And that's its main downside. Despite the intriguing lore, the characters themselves feel boring. Those on the heroes' side lose a lot, and sometimes it pulls a Game of Thrones sort of thing: when you just start to like a character they die with no hope of further development. The pacing feels odd: the current events are dispersed with sudden flashbacks or just speedruns that break the flow and make the story a bit confusing.
Sure, the manga is in its early stage, with only ten chapters released, but with the initial hype from the ONE's fanbase it seemed like it would be much more popular. The concept of humans from different worlds trying to pit their natural enemies against each other instead of fighting them themselves and losing once again seems fresh, but the execution with ONE's attempt to go almost unnecessarily dark leaves the readers confused, even those who were at first very excited to follow it.
Then again, it's being published in Shounen Sirius, a magazine that is not as harsh in terms of canceling its manga as Shounen Jump, so we hope that in a few months Versus will become more coherent and will live up to the expectations.