Warning! Contains spoilers for Chapter 26 of Ginka & Glüna!
One Shonen dance The series is using flashbacks to geniusly defeat its ultimate villain. That series, Ginka & Glüna by Shinpei Watanabe, gave a renewed twist to many of Shonen’s classics in a short span of serialization. Most recently, it introduced Magaraka, the ultimate Shonen Jump villain, who is too strong to defeat by conventional means.
In chapter 26, translated by Casey Loe, Glüna finally embraces battle on her own. Since many typical spells don’t affect Magaraka, she decides to use a dangerous forbidden spell to do the job. This spell allows her to use her happy memories to attack at the cost of forgetting them afterwards. This worked, forcing Magaraka to flee, but it also left Glüna with an empty shell, having forgotten all the happiness Ginka had brought into her life. It’s a tragic fate, the darkest thing the manga has done to date.
Glüna turns an ordinary Shonen Trope into a powerful weapon
In the previous chapters, Ginka & Glüna is much more upbeat, capturing the feel of the early One Piece. Of course, there are always hints of darkness throughout, just like in One Piece, but for the most part, Glüna’s unshakable optimism makes the manga incredibly enjoyable to read. In the previous chapter, it was revealed that this optimism was based on a spell similar to the one she was using to defeat Magaraka, which evoked sad memories. tragic about her attempt to revive her mother. This is a shocking and refreshing subversion of the typical Shonen protagonists present in many other Shonen Jump series and a great example of what makes manga so great.
Many of Shonen’s main characters will use sad memories as motivation and not focus on happy memories, but Ginka & Glüna are changing this scenario dramatically to devastating effect. This isn’t the only recent Shonen Jump series to make a revolutionary twist on traditional flashbacks, with PPPPPP’s take on the trope before it was immediately canceled. But instead of changing the way flashbacks are told like PPPPPP, Ginka & Glüna is changing the way they are used, turning this popular and often cliché Shonen joke into a literal weapon, which is purely natural. talent.
Ginka & Glüna’s Twist on Flashbacks shows how creative it is
Unfortunately, the sudden introduction of these weaponized flashbacks could be a sign that the series is coming to an end. The manga has been excellent so far and there are still new directions for its characters and story, but Shonen Jump has been particularly merciless with its recent cancellations and the series may not be exempt. despite its quality. However, the revolutionary nature of Ginka & GlunaHis new weapon proves that series creator Shinpei Watanabe is a worthy mangaka, and hopefully when Shonen dance give him the chance to start a new series, it will be equally creative.
Ginka & Gluna Chapter 26 available from Viz Media.