The jumping-off point has arrived.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Boichi
Translation: David Evelyn
Lettering: Michelle Pang
What They Say
Nobody on the continent hasn’t heard of the evil deeds of the great outlaw M. Godspeed. But one day, a young man claiming to be the criminal’s son suddenly appears trekking through the harsh desert. This Jim Godspeed says he’s killed his father and has the corpse to prove it! A steampunk western from the mind of the master, Boichi!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Boichi has a number of popular works to their name, but they’re mostly known for their work on Dr. Stone and Sun-Ken Rock. There’s also a lot of love for their One Piece Episode A project that stands out for a lot of reasons. For no real reason, I never ended up reading any of their work, and I found myself not watching Dr. Stone at all, so I’m pretty unfamiliar with their stuff directly. With Dr. Stone wrapping up in 2022, they’ve played around with a few things but are now back with a new ongoing series with The Marshal King. And it’s certainly an interesting project taking place in a futuristic steampunk-like American Southwest that goes for a lot of shirtless manly material – at first. Those hoping for what would essentially be a series like Ace from One Piece in the Old West will be mildly disappointed.
The challenges that Jim are facing here are ones that he’s managed to overcome well so far, and that’s certainly panicking people. Agera’s attempt at doing this to show him that he needs people by his side for what he wants to accomplish in the world is at risk because he is just that good as a solo shooter. So seeing them trying to re-challenge him in a way with even more people as the principal showcases abilities through there, it just reinforces that they’re not playing fair in the slightest. And even claiming that not playing fair is the point they’re trying to get across to him as ar eason to stay and learn. But that point rings hollow because of what we’ve already seen him accomplish and his time spent as an outlaw for a few years as well.
While the principal wins the second round on a kind of technicality after he won it initially, the plan now is to move to the third and final tiebreaking challenge. And it’s one where it’s going to be a mixed kind of thing with an up-close quickdraw that involves Mira. But even here it’s going to be shaken up a bit as it’s not going for a single shot but rather 60,000 shots and… I just rolled my eyes as I lost even more interest. I get what they’re going with in regard to this but it’s just power scaling in a way that is completely uninteresting. Yes, we get a few cool moments with how Mira looks and some time seeing how Agera is trying to reorient the challenges for the goals of the Academy, and through that for Jim, but it’s just too much nothingness.
In Summary:
While I continue to enjoy the artwork a lot, and especially the character designs, the execution of the story is non-existent. I’m not surprised that we’re basically in quasi-tournament mode here so quickly, but everything has escalated so quickly and in a way that’s not engaging that you find yourself speedrunning through the chapter to see if there’s any meat to it. While the point here is to get Jim to stay at the Academy so they can help mold him properly, their attempt at doing it through this kind of challenge is just another nail in the coffin. There are precious few that could be a real threat to him based on what he’s acquired and is capable of, so it’s just setting him up for even bigger threats that are already feeling boring before they’re even introduced. I really wanted to like this more than I did because it has a lot going for it, but the execution is just bogglingly bad with how it can turn away so many readers and leave you not caring a lick for any character.
Content Grade: C
Art Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Manga Plus
Release Date: May 22nd, 2025
