Kara Dennison
August 5, 2023 
Living in the future is great. It means we can get the freshest manga right as it comes out. And one of those fresh titles is Shoujo Null, a brand new Shonen Jump release now available through the app. The introductory chapter is more than 80 pages long, and throws us headlong into the series’s gritty, gory sci-fi world.
Should you give it a try? Read on and find out of this series is right for you.
A Strange Future
Shoujo Null takes place in a future where humanoid robots called Gijin handle everything humans would rather not do. They’re perfect for handling customer service jobs and wordlessly taking the abuse of unreasonable patrons. As our story opens, one Gijin has gone rogue and escaped from a shipment… and she’s currently with our protagonist, Riaha.
To avoid trouble, Riaha should hand over the robot (which he has named Marie). If he gets caught with it, he could be in a big mess. But something stays his hand—a secret that the rest of the world doesn’t know.
Electric Dreams
Before the events of Shoujo Null unfold, Riaha’s father made a discover about the Gijin. One that, if it got out, could turn this new version of society on its head. Riaha’s dad was killed because of this secret information, leaving the young survivor with this weighty, deadly knowledge.
This knowledge is what’s made him so protective of Marie, and of Gijin in general. So when a group of extreme YouTubers finds the pair out walking at night, things get hairy. They’re gonna do their thing to feed the algorithm… but this time, technology bites back. And it’s not pretty. (Or it is pretty, depending on your mindset.)
More to Come
The first extra-long chapter of Shoujo Null lays out an intriguing tale. There are shades of Blade Runner, blended with more gruesome recent titles like Hell’s Paradise and Tokyo Ghoul. Underneath it all is one goal: to make the world fit for Gijin to live in happily. Riaha and Marie each have extremely different ways of going about this. Which one will win out… or will one convince the other to see things their way? We’ll have to read on and see.
If this new manga sounds like your kind of thing, why not start reading? Chapter 1 is free to read right now, and will continue to run in the Shonen Jump app.
