Mario: Prelude and one-shot: Kishimoto has mentioned Mario again and again while Naruto has risen to be arguably the most successful – and then most decried – shounen of the last decade. He was always keen to bring out the sketch of his Italian-Japanese hitman, which always to me came over as being eager to show his versatility. Yes, he drew his hyperactive ninja boy, but he also drew this gritty young mafia killer surrounded by skyscrapers. Mario never made it as a series – or at least, hasn’t yet – but this week it was a one-shot in Jump.

It was also just about everything I expected. Kishimoto tries too hard to be gritty and hard-hitting as Mario tricks and executes friends, shows his vulnerability in front of his mother’s grave, meets a female hitman and hears the oh-so-grown-up story of her getting sexually abused until she lashes out, then gets her mixed up in some nasty business, framed and eventually rescued. It’s all so cliché and obvious – and the characters aren’t likeable at all. The first chapters of Naruto are mawkish and sentimental, but at least they are likeable. This…well, I think there are reasons it never got serialised.