“The Secret of Forest King School”
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Tomohiro Hasegawa
Translation: Paul Starr
What They Say
Third-grader Shota Aikawa’s pet beetle evolves from a larva to a pupa to a superhot human! The wacky adventures of the Aikawa family and the fabulous beetle who would be king now begins! You’re gonna LARVA this new comedy manga!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Moriking’s movement toward dealing with what we believe to be the final boss has the series in a weird place where we’re either about to finish out the first arc of the series or the series itself. I’m curious to see where Tomohiro Hasegawa is going to go from here because it seems like they plainly are having a very good time with it and I’ve been enjoying the low-key laughs and simplicity of it all in a kind of old-school way. I know the series isn’t getting the highest ratings in comparison to most else running in the magazine but it’s a welcome change from so much of what we do get that I hope it continues on a bit longer or at least finds a natural end for the fans like myself.
With the gang having suited up to go after Oga, we’re seeing a good team effort overall to deal with what’s being thrown at them. I particularly liked that Oka as a praying mantis works with Meo to go after the underlings and watch the group’s back by pretending that she’s going to eat them all up. And with her power level they’re being extra cautious and basically give up, which just adds to the laughs of it all with it playing out since it has such a cute level to it. But it also helps to reduce the number of people attacking the upper levels by two and that keeps it a bit cleaner as Oga, being as powerful as he is, won’t keep a lot of underlings there to fight his battles. Get rid of some of them, sure, but not an all of them kind of approach.
This does also mean that we’re not getting the final fight underway just yet as Moriking and the rest have to deal with the two main bodyguard types there with the top two lieutenants, Gussan and Oniyama. While the setup is there the installment goes silly as we see Moriking revealing a new “form” to himself with the mask and giving Shota some cards that he can “play” to call out moves and attack – without the hangups of actual card games. Oki is completely thrown off by all of this and can’t tell if it’s real or not, like if Moriking has moved up to a whole other level or this is just something he’s done to please his human. But that ties into it as well as Moriking talks about how it’s a bonded thing of trust and that it just helps to elevate him more to the position. While we do get a little bit of fight going on here, I was more just amused that Sakura showed up, saw what Shota got away with, and tried to hand-make cards for Oki along with a new mask that’s just elementary-school hilarity.
In Summary:
Moriking moves forward well here with what it’s doing and it’s definitely fun. I have little interest in the top guards and the like that the big boss Moriking has to face has in his employ but it’s standard fare stuff and Hasegawa is handling it well, mostly by throwing comedy at them which keeps me delighted. It’s moving at a good pace and this installment was pretty busy with a lot going on, so some characters are definitely in the secondary at best mode at times. But it still works, still makes me smile, and still has me looking forward to more.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Shonen Jump
Release Date: October 18th, 2020
