Okay so...the pacing recently has been like...really bonkers, and I’m starting to feel a distinct disconnect from the narrative since everything’s happening at a breakneck speed and yet...not much is happening. No more arc villains, no more significant conflict, and the conflict that does come up is very quickly resolved, like the issue of whether a return rocket would be built. I’m still enjoying some moments, but overall I feel kinda meh.
That brings us to today’s chapter, where we finally get the astronaut team revealed. And it’s...Ryusui, Senku, and Kohaku. Okay.
First off, I don’t hate this team. Kohaku’s great and she’ll kick ass, but I really feel like she didn’t have a solid build up where there were multiple moments showing she’d be the best candidate for the mission. She gets one panel where she jumps further than Tsukasa, and finally a single conversation of “you have surpassed me” like really? Okay? What? If you’re going to subvert expectations at least give the audience something more to work with than that, right?
And then with Senku...oh boy. I genuinely felt like the story was deliberately setting up Chrome to be the mission scientist what with all the “Senku is about as physically capable as a pool noodle” comments. Chrome is not only physically stronger than Senku, he’s very clever and in multiple instances has come up with ingenious plans all on his own simply from knowledge he already has. Plus, that moment in the America arc where Senku gets shot and tells Chrome to take the lead felt symbolic of Chrome’s growth through the series and I really thought that his character arc would logically end with Chrome being chosen for the space mission (especially after all that math he did with Sai and Suika for the round trip). But Chrome wasn’t even in the running in this chapter!
Like you’re gonna tell me that Chrome, who ran for two days straight so he could ride in a hot air balloon, would willingly stand by like “yeah I don’t want to go to the moon”???? THE MOON????
So yeah, for the story to suddenly be like “no yeah Senku’s going” is really weird to me. One could argue that I set myself up for this, but like...okay then why doesn’t Senku get an arc where he’s shown to actually get physically stronger? He got that one page where he remembers Byakuya (which by the way, aww), and it suddenly motivates him to swim harder.
Some people in the discord suggested that it’s because Inagaki needs to wrap up the story fast, but it still feels...really weird. Like I genuinely don’t think there’s a narrative motivation for Senku to be on the mission besides “he’s the main character,” and one could just as easily write Chrome into that role.
