Warning! Spoiler alert for Doron Dororon chapter 1!
The newest Shonen Jump manga called Doron Dororon reimagines a transformation from the manga anthology's most problematic title Ghost Reaper Girl.
Although not rated 18+ like Shonen Jump's Dandadan, the concept of Ghost Reaper Girl is pretty risqué. The protagonist Chloe Love is a regular girl who just wants to be an actress, but her body naturally attracts every kind of spirit, filling them with the desire to make her their vessel. Early on, Chloe befriends two spirits whom she allows to use her body as a vessel, which, in turn, causes her to transform. When the spirit Iod possesses her, Chloe dons attire that's reminiscent of dominatrix clothing and wields a chained scythe where Kai himself manifests in a rather goofy way.
One of Shonen Jump's three new titles, Doron Dororon by mangaka Gen Oosuka follows Dora Sasaki who's also a normal human just like Chloe. In fact, he attempts to pass an exam to become one of his world's so-called samurai that hunt down monsters known as mononoke but fails because he possesses absolutely no spiritual energy, which is the only way to kill a mononoke. Luckily for Dora, he stumbles across an uncharacteristically good mononoke named Kusanagi who wants to make the world happy and kind just like him. To stop a rather terrifying mononoke attempting to devour school children, the two work together by Kusanagi transforming into a massive blade, which Dora wields. Dora is not only able to feel the energy of the mononoke coursing through him, but is physically strong and fast enough to use Kusanagi effectively.
Although Dora doesn't transform nor does Kusanagi actually possess him, Dora brandishes a monster-turned-weapon who can converse with him and whose eyes appear on the actual blade. Meanwhile, Ghost Reaper Girl's Chloe wields a scythe wherein the consciousness of the spirit Kai resides after he possesses her. Additionally, Kai can communicate with Chloe during this time and not only his eyes appear on the scythe itself but his mouth. This doesn't happen, however, when Chloe's other spirit friend Noel Ulthar possesses her. Chloe just adopts some feline attributes like the ability to jump high and physical characteristics like cat ears. And while Kai appears in a scythe, Noel manifests as an actual cat at the end of Chloe's new tail.
It seems obvious that Ghost Reaper Girl is problematic because of what's implied by how spirits try to force their way into Chloe even though they just wish to possess her. It only gets worse when both Kai and Noel express excitement at the prospect of her becoming their vessel in an overly creepy way. Then there's, of course, the sexual harassment that Chloe must endure from Kai's friend Nyarlathotep, a spirit who takes her obsession with Chloe to a whole other level of inappropriateness. All of these problematic behaviors and innuendos have yet tof appear in Shonen Jump's Doron Dororon, which mangaka Gen Oosuka achieves by not requiring Kusanagi to possess Dora in order for Dora to gain any powers. It's just a lighthearted story about a boy who desperately wants to make the world a happy place where nobody cries. And even though this dream is unattainable through conventional means, Dora eventually finds a way by forming an unlikely partnership with one of the very creatures he despises.