Noah's Notes
a review by NaruMembrane
a review by NaruMembrane
Weekly Shonen Jump is a magazine I’m pretty sure most of you have heard about.
Even if you haven’t heard of this magazine you’ll probably have heard of their works.
Stuff like Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, and Kagurabachi.
But did you know stuff like Death Note, Dr. Stone, Haikyu!!, Slam Dunk, Nisekoi, Promised Neverland, Blue Box and To Love-Ru also ran in that same magazine?
Shonen Jump has a diverse catalogue of manga while the action manga are their most popular genre in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump is a magazine that’s filled with different genres even within the actions ones.
While Jump is now known for their hit mangas such as the series that were stated there’s also manga that were complete failures, with most of these manga only lasting 2-3 volumes. You’ll probably see them at the end of the magazine usually.
If you have no idea how Shonen Jump works you’ll question why Shonen Jump (or even any manga magazine) does this.
It’s simple if your manga isn’t meeting Jump’s expectations your manga will be canceled, this is mainly because of poor volume sales or they weren’t popular at all which is why you’ll probably see some of these manga at the back of the table of contents for Jump issues.
If you’re manga lasts less than 19 chapters you’ll be a proud member of the U19 club
Named after a manga which had 17 chapters (Ironic)
Why is all of this important you may ask? Because I’m reviewing a Jump manga which lasted 22 chapters that being Noah’s Notes.
Noah’s Notes was a manga that ran from March to August 2018 and had 3 volumes total.
It was in the same batch as Jujutsu Kaisen and another manga named Ziga (I as of the time I made this review have never read that manga). I’m not going to explain what JJK is because I think most of you know already so I’ll put it short, JJK became a hit while Noah’s Notes and Ziga didn’t.
(Side fun fact: the writer of Ziga was the same person who wrote Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai and the artist wrote the Kaiju No. 8 spin-off “Kaiju No.8: B-Side” and was the artist for Super Smartphone)
Jump was hyped for this batch as this batch was labeled as “Jump Rising” probably because that year was the year of Shonen Jump’s 50th anniversary and Jump was doing numerous things to celebrate it such as having a fighting game (Jump Force Peanuts AAUGH)
Apparently the series mangaka Haruto Ikezawa had a history of being an asshole with other mangaka like bad mouthing Medaka Box and saying if he was Eiji from Bakuman he would cancel Hitman Reborn! On his former twitter account (which is now deleted). What I found out was that this was before his first series Kurogane was even serialized , and he has deleted his twitter account , so this doesn’t really have any correlations with this series other than he became controversial for that. His first series lasted 8 volumes, while his next series Mononofu lasted 5, and Noah’s Notes lasted 3.
But let’s get on with the review.
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History
I went into details about my history in Jump as a whole in my MHA review but I generally got into Jump around this time.
Noah’s Notes was probably the first manga I read that got axed (2nd if you’re willing to include Act-Age but that was for other reasons and I never read Robot x Laserbeam)
I subscribed to free Jump issues around the time and the Jump issue that had Noah’s Notes first chapter was the final issue i got before I had to pay for them (I was 13 at the time and I never received a bank account until I was 16)
I was really investigated with this manga and expected that this series would be a hit.
I became up to date with the manga translations which were chapter 7 at the time pretty quickly.
But sadly it didn’t do good in both sales and in Jump’s table of contents rankings and so it got axed.
I was upset when this happened and felt like I would rather have Jujutsu Kaisen gone rather than this manga.
For the longest time chapter 8 onwards was never translated at all. We’ll get a couple of chapters translated for a year and then get nothing afterwards. It wasn’t until a few days ago (during the making of this review) in which we’ll finally see the entire manga has been completely translated in english.
So that got me to read the entire manga from the beginning.
As someone that has read nearly every ongoing series in the magazine since 2020 including the ones that get axed I will say majority of the axed manga I’ve read deserved to be axed.
Like I’ve read absolute garbage like Our Blood Oath, Protect Me, Shugomaru!, Earthchild, Ichigoki’s Under Control, Build King, Candy Flurry, Zipman, the list goes on. But every once in a while we’ll get a manga that gets axed that was surprisingly good such as Green Green Greens, High School Family, Doron Dororon, and PPPPPP. I don’t really consider Magu chan to be axed because the ending felt like it ended on it’s own terms but I liked that too.
I was expecting Noah’s Notes to be a manga that wasn’t as good as I remembered but when I read the entirety of it I managed to enjoy it a lot.
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Story 7.5/10
The series takes place in “2018” in which high schooler Mirai Kotobuki finds something stuck in a rock and posts it on social media. Archaeologist Noah Noah Minami Umberbach discover’s Mirai’s picture and arrives at Mirai’s school because what she found was one of humanity's greatest discoveries.
After Mirai says that she has no interest in history, Noah makes Mirai her student and the story begins.
It turns out what was under the rock that Mirai found was a key to an underground city, and Mirai discovers that it’s not 2018 but the year 100,000 because 100,000 years ago in 2022 humanity was wiped out and the present day was a second loop.
Noah’s job is to go around the world collecting notes and discover what led to humanity’s destruction that day, and stop humanity from being destroyed in the next 2022 so that another loop won’t happen.
The earlier chapters set up more of a mystery of why the world became what it was then it turns into another action manga which wasn’t a completely bad thing as I managed to enjoy the fights between Noah and The Knights Templar but i think it happen a little too early which was one of the reasons why the manga got axed in the first place.
Depending on your series if you do a genre shift you can be able to grow in popularity such as with Yozakura Family or it goes downhill for you such as with Chojo’s mangaka’s previous series Samon the Summoner.
But despite that I still like the series as it never abandoned the main premise just to be another action manga.
We also get to meet Noah’s peers Lu Long who can talk to animals, Lu even used to be Noah’s assistant when they were in college.
The next arc involves a dog named Hunt’s who lived for 100,000 years and is trying to find his owner, the ending of this arc really made me want to cry as —
Characters 8.5/10
While the characters weren’t explored that much as a result of getting axed this is one of the few axed manga where I enjoyed the cast alongside PPPPPP, Green Green Greens, and High School Family.’
Mirai is kind of similar to Lucy from Fairy Tail as they’re both the narrator protagonist but not exactly the hero of the story like Noah and Natsu, if the series wasn’t axed I think she’ll have development similar to both Lucy and Fuuko from Undead Unluck, as she was supposed to be this audience surrogate character who was a high school student finding out the world wasn’t what we know it as.
Noah is just awesome. He’s IDGAF attitude makes me really love him as well as his love for exploring what happened to the world in the original 2022. I also liked his relationship with both Lu and his professor.
Lu was another character I like, and I really enjoyed his ability to talk to animals. I mean it’s not uncommon in fiction but it makes his character unique especially when he communicates to Hunt.
The Knights Templar were an interesting bunch of characters, they’re goal is to make sure the next loop happens.
I loved their designs and I thought Monet and Artemisia were pretty cool.
I also enjoyed Noah’s other colleagues such as Nina, Ali, Kai, and Gilboard. I wished their characters were more explored had the series not been axed.
Professor Rainman was Noah and his peers’ professor there’s not much I can say about him because he only actually appears in the last 3 chapters in which
I also loved the dog Hunt and really liked his desperation to find his owner for 100,000 years
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Art 9.5/10
The art is amazing. In each chapter the artwork gets better over time.
Especially one when it comes to the spreads.
You’ll notice this towards the end of the manga
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Enjoyment 9/10
This is probably one of my favorite axed manga from Jump ever made. While it’s potential was wasted for what it gave us I managed to enjoy all of it.
I would have loved for this series to have a long run, but certain decisions made me understand why this manga was axed in the first place, such was the shift to becoming an action manga so early.
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Impact, Where is Haruto Ikezawa now, and Connections to Undead Unluck
Linus Van Pelt:
Well, I can understand how you feel. You worked hard, studying for the spelling bee, and I suppose you feel you let everyone down, and you made a fool of yourself and everything. But did you notice something, Charlie Brown?
Charlie Brown:
What's that?
Linus Van Pelt:
The world didn't come to an end.
Linus and Charlie Brown’s conversation from A Boy Named Charlie Brown
As previously mentioned if we’re not including Act-Age Noah’s Notes would be the first axed manga I’ve ever read and will learn the process of how Shonen Jump works.
And as a person that reads every ongoing series in the magazine I have gotten used to seeing series come and go so unless if I’m really attached to them like Green Green Greens or PPPPPP, since most of the axed manga I’ve read were pretty bad I don’t really care if they’re removed from the magazine.
When it comes to mangaka who’ve had an axe series they’ll do one shots or try again in Jump, or a different magazine.
Before Kohei Horikoshi made MHA he made Oumagadoki Zoo and Barrage both were serialized in Jump and got axed.
Before Tite Kubo made Bleach he made Zombiepowder in Jump and it was axed too.
Even recently Jump titles such as Mission: Yozakura Family, Akane-banashi, and Hima-Ten! came from mangaka who’ve had their previous series axed (For Yozakura it was Demon Prince Poro’s Diaries, for Akane it was Ole Golazo, and for Hima-Ten! It was Full Drive)
Heck, you can even find success outside of Jump for example Seven Deadly Sins mangaka Nakaba Suzuki had a manga in Jump called Rising Impact (which recently got an anime) and was canceled twice (Crazy) he would try again with another series called Ultra Red which got axed too, but he would have success when he left Jump.
While never serialized at Jump Hajime Isayama initially pitched Attack on Titan to Jump and it was rejected because it didn’t have Jump’s values (Friendship, effort, and victory) and look at how massive it is now.
And just recently the artist of Jump+’s Marriagetoxin Mizuki Yoda used to be the artist of ne0;lation which was a 3 volume manga which ran in Jump from late 2018 to late April 2019.
So what has Haruto Ikezawa been doing now?
While under the name of “Haruto Ikezawa” he hasn’t been publishing any one shots or series to any other magazines, and he can’t be able to make another series in Jump as a result of Noah’s Notes being his third axed manga.
However, many people including both Japanese and English readers have theorized that he is using a pen name under the name of “Yu Hashimoto” and is the mangaka of 2.5 Dimensional Seduction for Jump+ which has recently gotten an anime with a second season in the works as the time of writing this review.
The reason why is because many people have noticed that both mangaka have a similar art style, 2.5 Dimensional Seduction having a character who’s a mangaka who
Despite Noah’s Notes being axed one particular series took it’s loop concept and have it being the series’ myth arc that being Undead Unluck.
Since Undead Unluck lasted 27 volumes it was able to do what Noah’s Notes wasn’t able to do with the whole humanity is in a loop.
I have no idea whether or not Yoshifumi Tozuka (Undead Unluck’s mangaka) was inspired by Noah’s Notes to have this or if it's a coincidence.
As a fan of both of these series I really appreciate that Undead Unluck for managing to have this plot at all considering that the concept of humanity being in a loop was a pretty unique concept.—--
Overall 8.5/10
Noah’s Notes might’ve become a failure for Jump but I didn’t find it to be a bad manga by any means.
If anything I managed to enjoy the manga for what it was.
Sure it had wasted potential, but for what it gave us I find it to be one of the better axed mangas I’ve read.
And if the mangaka is actually the one who’s the mangaka of 2.5 Dimensional Seduction I’m happy he’s finding success elsewhere.
So overall Noah’s Notes was a pretty fun adventure, I highly recommend it.
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