When I heard that Shueisha’s Jump would start a josei magazine, I was skeptical. Jump may have a following that spans a large age range and influences both sexes but I never felt they had the “josei” touch. Jump rode on a formula and given that their josei magazine bears Shueisha’s most famous franchise, I doubted if they had what it takes to catch up with the new wave of poignant josei stories with their magazine Jump X (pronounced as Kai and not X).
Ninomiya Tomoko was Jump X‘s darling poster child, the banner girl that they will be doing things “right” with Jump X. At that time Ninomiya just finished the first run of Nodame Cantabile. Other authors were sound among Josei fans (I believe Est Em joined them later on) but none were particularly worthy of public attention apart from Ninomiya.
So when they finally announced the title, 87clockers, I was hoping for something spectacular. Instead, and not disappointingly, I met the same Ninomiya that has the same quirkiness, intelligence, obsession and humor as I did in Nodame. Which was all right… I think.
