We Never Learn: Bokuben series creator Taishi Tsutsui has returned to Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine with a brand new manga, and it’s totally different from the high school romantic comedy seen before. We Never Learn: Bokuben wrapped up its run with the magazine back in 2020, and had quite the unique path towards its grand finale. Unlike other romantic comedies in the magazine, the series ended up showing off multiple endings revealing what it would look like if the protagonist, Nariyuki Yuiga, dated each of his potential romantic interests. That way no character or fan would be disappointed by the final outcome.
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That makes Tsutsui’s newest series all the more intriguing as now the creator’s unique take on romantic comedy has been turned towards thrillers and mysteries with the debut of a brand new series in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, Syd Craft: Love is a Mystery (which you can find here). It’s got some romantic comedy elements built into its core, of course, but this is already seeming like it’s going to be a much different kind of series than seen from Tsutsui before with a new setting, time period, and funny dynamics for each of its central characters.
What Is Syd Craft?
Syd Craft: Love is a Mystery introduces fans to the titular Syd Craft, a great detective who has been raised from birth by his detective parents to follow in their footsteps. But the real hook is that unfortunately for Syd, he’s actually not interested in being a detective at all. He’d rather spend his time fulfilling his romantic dreams and finding a partner, so he has to pretend that he’s the stoic detective in front of others in order to hide the fact that he’s secretly a big fan of romance books.
It’s just that while he has no real interest in being a detective, cases just sort of fall into his lap. Murders or serious crimes happen around him, and his observational skills end up helping to solve these cases despite his not wanting to be a part of them. Like how in this first chapter, a woman he’s interested in turns out to be a murderer and he’s forced to solve her case despite the fact that he’d rather go on a date instead. All the while, he has two women around him who are closer than he thinks but it’s a comedy of errors that will likely keep them a part from one another for a long time.
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Is This Going to Be Shonen Jump’s Next Big Hit?
It’s hard to gauge whether or not this romantic comedy will be as big of a hit for Shonen Jump just off this first chapter alone, but it’s an interesting turn in a new direction. There has been an increase in romance series in the last few years following the breakout successes of Blue Box and Witch Watch, and fans might have seen them pop up to some of their own early buzz with the likes of Genki Ono’s Hima-Ten!. There’s likely a shift happening within the magazine to open up for more romantic comedy, and Syd Craft: Love is a Mystery fits right into that demand.
There’s a chance that this series could have a significant run if Tsutsui can continue to deliver on the wacky romance seen in We Never Learn: Bokuben with Syd Craft, and the first chapter already lays out a fun premise to explore with its future chapters. It just needs to get the chance to make that happen before its axed prematurely by Shueisha in a couple of months.
