Animation Revelation Forum

So what weekly (or bi-weekly, or monthly or whatever) currently running manga are you reading?

you may not know this, but I'm reading Bakuman right now and wondering how a manga that's so close to "Enigma" is considered a good idea to run at the same time as Enigma. Shonen audiences aren't stupid, if it looks the same, they won't bite.

I'm also keeping up with Bakuman, in addition to One Piece.

I'd like to say that I'm keeping up with more series than just that, but unfortunately those are the only 2 shounen series that currently interest me, right now. I do want to start reading Billy Bat, but first I need to finish 20th Century Boys, and I should probably start reading more of Claymore. I might check out Vinland Saga since Desensitized gave it such a high recommendation, but I think that I'll focus on finishing 20th Century Boys before keeping up with any currently running series (aside from the ones which I'm already reading).

Just finished reading the most recent chapter of One Piece. The end of the chapter in which the Fortune-teller saw a vision and predicted that Luffy would bring about the destruction of Fishmen Island left things off at an interesting cliffhanger. I wonder if through some circumstances in this arc he'll have to do end up doing that, or if he will prove her vision wrong by the end of the arc. Oh well, its a One Piece arc, so it'll probably be a long time before we find that out, anyways. :sly:

Anyways, I've enjoyed the down-time in the series for a while in which the crew is just having some fun exploring and all, especially after the seriousness of the last major arc, but I kind of want this arc to get more serious now and shift towards the story of Captain Vander Decken XI and his ship The Flying Dutchman, and I also wouldn't mind seeing the leader of those Fishmen pirates who have it out for Luffy because he defeated Arlong way back around the early parts of the series.

I LOVED this week's chapter of Bakuman. Most of the chapter was actually the story within the story, so we got to see firsthand what the first chapter was like, and it was a really good read. Then at the end Ashirogi gave their commentary on it, including their praises and criticisms for it, and I pretty much agreed with all of what they said. The big reveal at the end of the manga being a work from a fan of their's who used to write to them was a really good twist. It looks like Ashirogi will have even more tough competition down the road.

Yeah, this was a great chapter. I liked the total focus on manga in this chapter with only Mashiro and Takagi appearing in it critiquing the manga.

I do agree with them on the ending, though. Not that there's anything wrong with bad endings where the good guy doesn't win, but like Takagi said, it renders everything the main character did pointless in this case. That type of ending won't sit well with Shonen audiences. It was a great and simple idea, but it did have it's faults so I'm glad the were able to cover both of them.

Still, I wonder what kind of psychological battle manga they will think of for their next work. Since, you know, Death Note already exists in this universe.

I did quite enjoy how the the author of the manga actually used a piece of this chapter to give a tad bit of commentary one what some might critique is previous work, Death Note, for. Of course its never scientifically explained how the Death Note kills people. Its meant to be supernatural, and part of the mysterious and unknown. Even if its dark, its still a fantasy shonen series, so I always found it stupid when I did actually encounter people who criticized that aspect of Death Note before, mostly back on TV.com, though (and I have to admit that it was a site full of stupid members, anyways). It was also kind of nice to see One Piece get referenced in this chapter, even if it was just for the hell of it (since the example was kind of unnecessary given that they had already used Death Note as an example).

Yeah, I also don't like endings in which the main character dies in a way that makes each of his previous efforts pointless. But as Takagi pointed out, the author probably sacrificed a more satisfying ending in order to stand out more, which is fairly understandable in terms of just trying to get the Editors to notice his work for what it is compared to the standard shonen out there, as well as the other authors who try to be original but lack writing talent.

Heh, that new kid is one sly, sneaky little smart-ass. Personally I think that while he probably does have an overly-cheerful attitude, he's clearly a calculation-type mangaka and is only playing dumb, when I think that he pretty much must have planned everything out to get there to be such a big fuss over his work. I don't really think that he truly expected to win a Jump prize, but just wanted to use Jump in some way to get his work noticed. The reason I say that is because there were a lot of hints in this chapter towards him being more like that kind of person, and even a few of the editors seem to think so, as well as Ashirogi.

Man, after being disappointed by the latest anime episode, the manga really has no breaks on right now.

This new kid should be a lot of fun.  ;D

I just discovered Kimi no Iru Machi. It's another slice-of-life romance by the person who did Suzuka, so it's promising.

Nanamine is a great character, I have to say. He played the system in order to get himself closer to serialization and while what he did was technically "wrong"... There really isn't an argument against it.

He even realized that Tanto exists because of Miura's meddling, which is what seems to back up his whole viewpoint.

I do think if he had an editor more like Hattori, that his entire outlook on them would probably change. But I'm not sure how that'll happen with the newbie he currently has.

Seriously, this is the best thing in Jump without a doubt.

You know, I'm really surprised that Shonen Jump is allowing the author to portray a lot of the negative aspects of what "could be" wrong with an editorial staff. To be fair, characters like Hattori and the Editor-in-Chief show readers the positive aspects of editors, whereas characters like Miura show how much they can hold back an author from realizing their true potential and drawing the type of works that they want to draw.

Nanamine is really clever. So far, it seems like they are setting him up as the best example of almost the exact opposite type of character that Nizuma Eiji is. What I mean by that is that Eiji is like the perfect example of a "Genius" mangaka, who has a natural talent for drawing and can create popular works without even thinking about it. Hiramaru is also a really good example of this type of author. On the other hand, Nanamine seems to be the perfect example of the best of the best in the opposite spectrum. He's not a "Genius" like Eiji, but rather is an extremely good "Calculative" type of author, doing what needs to be done to make it to the top in terms of popularity by thinking things through and planning out everything that he does.

I just realized in this chapter that Nanamine feels very much like the type of character that the author would have written for in a series like Death Note, with the way that he thinks and how sharp he is at analyzing what goes on behind the scenes.

Another great chapter of Bakuman. This time we start see a few of the cracks in Nanamine's plan, and I myself was with him up until a certain point.

The creative process is a wonderful thing, and manga is no lesser a form of storytelling than other forms, but it does end up feeling a bit cheap the way he's going about it. Not that asking for opinions on work is wrong (quite the contrary), but to selectively make something manufactured to such a high degree leaves a bit of a blemish on the work itself. As we've seen, the work might be good, but it's missing something as Kosugi pointed out. While the other editors might not have noticed it, I think the Jump audience will which will lead to a turn on Nanamine's predicament.

It also makes me question why Nanamine and his group don't just get a group like Clamp going, or try to get into anime. Lord knows their ideas would be crap tons better than what comes out nowadays over there.

Quote from: Desensitized on February 05, 2011, 10:52:04 PM
Another great chapter of Bakuman. This time we start see a few of the cracks in Nanamine's plan, and I myself was with him up until a certain point.

I think that there is a half-truth to everything Nanamine says to argue in his favor. Its true that sometimes editors can really hold an author back if they don't understand manga (Miura is the perfect example of this), and that sometimes getting the opinions of people who have a passion for reading manga can be very useful. But then there is the other side where Ashirogi is right. In truth, those people have never drawn manga of their own, and they are just amateurs. The thing is, its not that hard to come up with great ideas and execute them fairly well over the span of a few chapters worth of material. The problem is that Shonen Jump is mostly intended for series of considerable running-times, and I'm really predicting here that Nanamine will soon discover that these so called "experts" that he selected among his "commenters" on his blog will prove to be entirely useless in the future after he gets a series kicked off and serialized and then gets a considerable amount into its run only to discover that while these people can come up with good ideas, they are amateurs at truly being able to keep a series running on good ideas and he will eventually not be able to hook in his readers.

I still think that Nanamine is a very interest character, to say the least.

QuoteIt also makes me question why Nanamine and his group don't just get a group like Clamp going, or try to get into anime. Lord knows their ideas would be crap tons better than what comes out nowadays over there.

Please remind me why Clamp is even popular? I mean, I can respect Code Geass to some extent as it does have some genuine effort put behind it (I still think it flat out sucks, personally, due to poor execution, but that's just me I suppose), but I have never been able to enjoy anything else they have done. I mean, even older stuff like Chobits doesn't make sense to me in terms of how it appeals to so many other people. I just don't think I have liked a single thing that they have ever done, personally (once again, though, I'm probably the minority on this one).

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on February 05, 2011, 11:05:50 PM
The thing is, its not that hard to come up with great ideas and execute them fairly well over the span of a few chapters worth of material. The problem is that Shonen Jump is mostly intended for series of considerable running-times, and I'm really predicting here that Nanamine will soon discover that these so called "experts" that he selected among his "commenters" on his blog will prove to be entirely useless in the future after he gets a series kicked off and serialized and then gets a considerable amount into its run only to discover that while these people can come up with good ideas, they are amateurs at truly being able to keep a series running on good ideas and he will eventually not be able to hook in his readers.

That's what I was thinking. Not only that, but with fifty people, at a certain point there are going to be disagreements... and with a weekly schedule... He's going to have serious problems.

There's just too many holes in his plans that he just plain can't see right now... and it's going to bite him hard.

QuoteI still think that Nanamine is a very interest character, to say the least.

Oh yeah, he's a smart and crafty guy. It's just that because he hasn't been published yet, he doesn't really know what he's getting himself into.

QuotePlease remind me why Clamp is even popular? I mean, I can respect Code Geass to some extent as it does have some genuine effort put behind it (I still think it flat out sucks, personally, due to poor execution, but that's just me I suppose), but I have never been able to enjoy anything else they have done. I mean, even older stuff like Chobits doesn't make sense to me in terms of how it appeals to so many other people. I just don't think I have liked a single thing that they have ever done, personally (once again, though, I'm probably the minority on this one).

I can't explain the Clamp phenomenon at all, but I do think a group of people dedicated to producing material like the Classroom Of Truth would be better than having to sit through the latest moe abortion or Umineko idiocy. But I guess he's more convinced that this is his work alone and less of his "colleagues"... which will probably also boomerang on him later.

EDIT: whoops

There is also the possibility that if Nanamine's manga does become successful and popular (at least initially so), those 50 people will find out about that right away and start bringing up a controversy by demanding credit for him using their own ideas. He has great ideas, but unfortunately he wasn't written with the amazing foresight or sensibilities of what you might expect from a Death Note character, after all (which I initially felt was the type of character that he would be). While he brilliantly thought his way into getting onto a great start, he clearly hasn't considered any future consequences for his current actions, which will really take its toll on him, eventually.

CLAMP did the moe thing back when magical girls were still in the shojo category (Magic Knight Rayearth and Cardcaptor Sakura) and long before the dating sim trend ruined it. A lot of their stuff also pokes light fun at the different genres, although something like Tsubasa gets to be rather tedious in anime form. I don't see how anyone who isn't a Cardcaptor Sakura and CLAMP fan would find it more than average since it's very Kingdom Hearts / House of Mouse in mixing characters. As for Code Geass, they only did the character design.

Is anyone else reading Billy Bat? I just started. It's Urasawa's newest manga and it's fucking awesome.

This week's chapter of Bakuman left things off at an interesting set-up. It looks like Ashirogi is going to focus on trying to crush Nanamine's first serialized work with PCP, showing him just who has more experience as a writer and an artist. Also, is it just me, or did Nanamine make a Light/Kira style smile on that one panel when he was talking to his editor, Kosugi? Yup, he definitely feels like a Death Note character in many regards.

Things are definitely heating up in this arc. I'm especially interested to note that only Yoshida and Eiji [and Hattori to an extent], seemed to notice the flaws of Nanamine's work (although Kosugi was the first to spot something felt off)... In truth, it's pretty much what I figured, there's a lot of flash and the illusion of depth, but when you get down to it there's not a lot of meat to it. Not to mention the lack of heart which probably comes from the surplus of cooks in the kitchen.

I think as it goes along these problems will become more and more obvious to everyone, as they frequently do in most similar works in manga, TV, movies, and what have you. Those things rarely tend to have much longevity.

Now this chapter was downright intense and exciting. The phone conversation at the end of the chapter is really a terrific scene in which Ashirogi and Nanamine declare war on each other, with Ashirogi saying that they will take responsibility and get his series canceled within 10 weeks by crushing him in the reader's poles. While I don't really know if they'll be able to take him down that quickly, I'm willing to bet they'll still follow through eventually, though I'm expecting his series to initially take the lead over them until it steadily starts to decline in quality.

I also wanted to point out that this scene in its own way felt very reminiscent of a Death Note-like moment, sort of like when Light and L (and in the 2nd arc Light and Near) declared war on each other (albeit in a much more indirect way, though).

10 weeks seems a bit fast for me, but I find it more likely he'll collapse under the pressure first. He is going to be in over his head soon enough. I agree, this was a great chapter and leaves me anticipating what will happen next.

Other than Enigma, I don't think there is a single manga in jump that touches Bakuman in quality right now.

I'd actually argue that One Piece is higher in quality for those who are invested in the characters and the overall adventure aspect of the series, but to be fair that's on an overall basis more than a current one, since the current arc is moving a bit slow right now (but then again I'm still getting used to the slower but normal series pace after the intense major arc that ended the first part of the story before the time-skip). Still, to be honest, I kind of anticipate the next week's OP chapter each week more than I do for Bakuman (especially with Jinbei finally reappearing at the end of last week's chapter), but I still enjoy both series.

I'd like to be highly anticipating HXH every week, but the bastard Togashi hasn't said a word of when he will end the current hiatus (if ever). I just re-read chapter 310 and it seriously pisses me off at how big of a cliffhanger he left off at. I'd at least be able to stomach his constant hiatuses if the guy would only do them each time he ended an arc, but he's still on the same fucking arc and left off at a completely pivotal point in the story, so it really ticks me off.

OH SHIT AT THE LAST PAGE OF BAKUMAN

I did not see that coming! Great idea!

I can't wait to see what happens next.  :thumbup:

Hmmmm....Could that be Nakai?....Nah, that's ridiculous....Aha! I see through your ploy to try and deceive us Mr. Death Note author. It must be Koogi! :sly:

I'm just wondering what it was that brought him back. He didn't seem interested in manga at all the last time we saw him.

Wow, Nakai really let himself go....I mean even more than before....

Heh, It looks like Nanamine is already in denial about the problems with his series based on his method of doing things. Its also pretty risky of him to lie to his online pals about getting ranked in 1st place when they really only got 2nd.

Poor Nakai really hit rock bottom. He really needs to wake up before he kills himself.But at least he realizes what a bad idea Nanamine's plan is and how it's wrong.

Nanamine to me now feels like someone who paints over the rust on his car. It may look better for a while, but it's still there and it will only get worse.

 :lol:

:thumbup:

Well, I can't say that I didn't see this coming. Honestly though I'm a bit disappointed that Ashirogi isn't really beating him because they are making PCP even better than before. Its because, as everyone already knows, his way of doing things is not the real way to make a manga, and as I predicted earlier this idea has already come crashing down on him. Still....damn, I didn't expect him to decline in quality THIS quickly. Its great to see him get such a slap in the face for his extreme cocky-ness, though. I love when he tried to challenge Ashirogi to do the same type of story and see who was more popular, and Takagi was just responded something like: "....You're on thin straws, aren't you....?"

And it doesn't look like it took Nakai too long to revert back into being a douche-bag. It was nice to see him just cower away from trying to show off to Aoki, though, when he saw her with Hiramaru.

I just love how fast everything came crashing down like that. That's how fragile his plan was, and he didn't bank on Nakai being such a fragile idiot. Here's hoping this leads to a wake up call to both of them, because what's happening is just plain embarrassing.

Yeah, it's kind of a shame Ashirogi wasn't the one to do it, but it did prove that he was no where near their league. Or any other of the Bakuman mangaka for that matter. Even when Nakai was serialized he was doing better than this.

Me thinks somebody be gett'n n' ass whoop'n next chapter. :humhumhum:

I really want to see Ashirogi crush Nanamine with their story. In addition to just being plain bad-ass, it'd also be a great way to show the readers just how far they have come as mangaka.

He's gonna get crushed. He's doing the exact same thing that his readers are currently abandoning him for, and he doesn't even get it.

I can't wait to see how this plays out.

So, yeah....he got raped by PCP....dude's lost it....

Classroom Of Truth was done only with 5 people? He should have stuck with 5 people. Too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the broth... Not to mention when your head chef is too busy trying to steal the krabby patty formula instead of improving his own food, this was always destined for failure.

There's nothing wrong with the team formula, after all Ashirogi is two people, but this is manga. Not a freaking corporation.

Utter defeat. Gotta love Kosugi taking care of business here.  :sly:

Glad to see there was a positive end to all this mess after all and a good end to the arc. I'm wondering what the next one will entail, though.

Heh, I especially love the part where Nanamine threatens to call the cops and sue Kosugi, and Kosugi challenges him to go ahead and try doing it and then punches him again anyways. He really knocked some sense into the fucker.

But, it was nice to see Nanamine still have the desire to surpass Ashirogi, and it was cool that he told them that he would return to challenge them again. I'm sure we'll be seeing him come up with a work that can actually compete with PCP the next time he comes back into the story.

I'm guessing that until something like that happens, we'll probably see Ashirogi once again divert their focus into trying to come up with a new manga series that can get an anime adaptation.

Anybody else here keeping up with Enigma? I kind of really enjoy the way it tries to carve its own path in the shonen genre, but still tries to keep it straightforward and focused on the characters first and foremost. Best of all, I really have no idea where it's going, and that's always nice.

I'd read it, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Aside from Bakuman, the only other Jump manga that I have found worth it to keep up with is One Piece, though lately it has been moving too slow-paced for my liking. To be honest, though, its really the way OP has always been, in that its arcs are full of build-up before the big pay-off portions of the story later on. I do think its cool, though, how Oda is once again addressing important arcs from the really early parts of the series, and delving into the deeper history of something only lightly referred to earlier on in the series. The really interesting thing about it is that if you actually go back and read the earlier parts of the series, you can actually notice the clues there and can see that Oda clearly had these story elements planned for quite a long time, and isn't just pulling shit out of his ass like 90% of other shonen authors do with their series these days.

This week's chapter of One Piece was really good. I usually can't stand the standard flashback scenes in shonen manga/anime, but whenever Oda does them I must admit he handles them masterfully (in a lot of cases even better than the usual current events of the major arcs themselves).

Fisher Tiger's speech at the end was really well-done, and it didn't come off as one of those BS speeches you usually hear. He didn't ever change his mind about hating humans, but he conceded that he knew deep down his view was only relevant to some humans and not all, but his overall experience as a slave really warped his heart. Yet, even then he controlled his rage just enough to not come off as a total monster by going on a revenge quest and killing people, since he knew in the end that would only bring a worse fate upon the Fishmen. Its pretty awesome how Oda managed to craft such an epic and memorable character and tell his story pretty clearly in just a few short chapters.

Meanwhile Naruto has about a dozen flashbacks per arc and accomplishes almost nothing with them for 90% of the characters which it involves (IMO, anyways).

At the risk of admitting I read Bleach (more like skim since a chapter takes like two minutes to look through)... This current arc seems like it's HEAVILY cribbing from Togashi, and by that I mean this arc is more or less Chapter Black.

Only with weaker characters and plotlines, obviously.

Well, its my belief that everyone always keeps up with at least a couple of things that they don't like. For me its Naruto if only for the occasional (but extremely rare) upturn of events that actually turn out good for a few chapters....out of every 100 of them or so, and while I gave up on Bleach a long time ago, I read about people bitching and moaning about it all the time, and I have heard instances of it being heavily compared to YYH, recently. Hey, Desensitized, when that part of the manga gets published over here legally, would you consider doing a specific comparison article between that and YYH's Chapter Black arc to analyze why the concept (whatever part of CB that its paralleling) works in YYH and not so well in Bleach? Just a thought, anyways.

I wouldn't mind doing a comparison article like that myself between 2 shows that tackle similar types of themes with a certain arc or set of episodes (I was thinking of doing something like that for a good superhero cartoon as opposed to a mediocre or bad one, actually).

My issue with Bleach is more that it takes a Lot of inspiration from Yu Yu Hakusho, but instead of living up to its legacy ended up falling way short of it due to the author simply not being a good writer.

Now while I never considered Bleach a rip off as it only really had passing resemblances to YYH other than the premise, this current arc is really showing the limit of Kubo's writing skill. The first two arcs were reasonably fine for shonen manga, but then he sort of lost the plot by including WAY too many characters, being unable to pace his plotting properly, and using a decent twist for his villain and making him a Mary Sue by making him completely dull and OP'd for no real reason.

So far the current arc has focused on repercussions from the spirit world leading certain people to acquire special skills and territories and Ichigo dealing with a new enemy who has his own power that seems to have some kind of ultimate plan of his-OH FUCK IT HE'S SENSUI. The most recent chapter had Ichigo being rescued by a kid with a game based territory that-UUUUGHHH...

Look, Chapter Black can't be improved upon by anyone but Togashi because it's pure Togashi. Oda is Oda, Toriyama is Toriyama etc... This is not Tite Kubo, this is Tite Kubo trying to copy someone else.

In fact there's only two things I had nitpicks about and they're minor stuff. I would have used the boxing kid from the early Spirit Detective arc who would be able to repay Yusuke with his own territory, and I wouldn't have used Raizen controlling Yusuke to finish off Sensui as that felt too jarring to me.

So far this arc is using very similar ideas (I'm waiting for someone to get kidnapped soon, even) and just changing around the plot a little. To be honest, it's aggravating me, but I have to know how much more he's willing to rip off here. It's getting ridiculous.

Wow, You actually got me interested in checking out just this arc only out of curiosity to see if it really does rip-off that much (not that I would doubt you, especially since other people seem to agree on this). What chapter does the Sensui rip-off stuff start on?

The new arc starts at 424. To be honest, he probably should have ended it right before that. It might have been a downer ending and boring as shit, but at least he wasn't rewriting an arc from a genre classic. The guy's mannerisms are even lifted from Sensui, if he used kicking attacks I probably would have learned Japanese just to flame him on twitter.  :D

The guy's a good artist and designer (despite his lack of backgrounds, use assistants dude) but man even Obata was a better writer than him and he uses Ohba for the story side now.

Well, If I'm not mistaken Obata was actually a mentor to Watsuki at one point in time (though, maybe that was only in terms of artwork). I do remember that Obata worked as a head artist on a certain manga from the 90's whereas Watsuki started out as an assistant. And yet another neat little bit of trivia is that when Watsuki was working on Rurouni Kenshin Oda was one of his early assistants before eventually starting to do early one-shot versions of One Piece (which were titled Romance Dawn), and then debuting with the series while RK was still in the middle of its serialization run.

You know, I would want to learn Japanese myself in this case, if only because I'm curious to see if any Japanese readers are actually calling Kubo out on ripping off YYH (but, then again, I'm wouldn't be surprised if they didn't seeing as how Japan seems to have completely forgotten that YYH exists and nobody there seems to give a shit about it, anymore).

I don't know if Japanese manga fans are as savvy as comic fans are here. If someone ripped off Days Of Future Past for instance, they would be caught immediately.

Hell, Bakuman just had an arc about THIS VERY IDEA. Which wouldn't surprise me if it is what has lead to Bleach plummeting in the rankings and might have even inspired some of the parts from Bakuman's previous arc.

I'm not sure if Japan has forgotten about YYH, though. I'm sure that's a big part of the reason Togashi got so many breaks on Hunter X Hunter. Toriyama probably would have gotten the same treatment if he still wanted to make manga.

Well, Yu Yu Hakusho was a pretty big manga for most of its run (it consistently held the #3 spot in overall rankings from around the time of its Dark Tournament arc until the end of its run). However, its not like it was close to topping something like Dragon Ball in popularity, so I still kind of find it funny that Togashi, after only doing one successful long-running shonen manga (which, by shonen standards isn't even that long), gets this kind of treatment with HXH (although, HXH as a manga was popular enough to the point that it could conceivably get this treatment since enough readers want to see it continue, even if they have to wait forever for a new chapter to come out (I believe while it ran before Togashi became a lazy fuck and took his first big hiatus, it was ranked at #2 behind One Piece in terms of popularity).

In fact, here are the 2-parts of the video documenting the top 3 manga in WSJ each 6 months since the late 1960's:

Part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIPIzB4AekA)
Part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBcLKA6oNYg&feature=fvwrel)

The stuff with YYH and past that is in part 2. I also admittedly chuckled when I saw how the rankings went as soon as One Piece started running. With Dragon Ball, it at least took it a little while to get started up and then make it consistently at the #1 spot, but with One Piece....well, its just pretty hilarious how quickly it managed to catch on with readers and how insanely popular it became.

Speaking of rip offs, I know Flame Of Recca used to be called a YYH rip off, in fact it was a lot like YYH in the early chapters before finding its own identity, but even that manga never lifted anything wholesale from Togashi and went of into its own style. What Bleach is doing is very much an attempt to be like Togashi, though I don't really know why. It might be because its a lot harder to notice the similarities unlike if he tried to copy One Piece or Naruto.

I'm still wondering how Fairy Tail is still going considering its just a generic shonen that ripped off One Piece's art completely.

To be honest, until One Piece, Naruto (which is sooner than later), and Bleach end we probably won't see much of value compete in the rankings since they pretty much soak up all the battle votes. Luckily it has lead Jump to put in more original ideas like Bakuman and Enigma slip in since they don't end up stealing votes and instead find their own audiences.

Quote from: Desensitized on April 30, 2011, 10:36:54 PM
Speaking of rip offs, I know Flame Of Recca used to be called a YYH rip off, in fact it was a lot like YYH in the early chapters before finding its own identity, but even that manga never lifted anything wholesale from Togashi and went of into its own style. What Bleach is doing is very much an attempt to be like Togashi, though I don't really know why. It might be because its a lot harder to notice the similarities unlike if he tried to copy One Piece or Naruto.

To be honest, I don't mind an author necessarily "ripping off" a good story idea as long as he does his own thing with it and in his own style, and also adds plenty of substance to it and makes it interesting. There are many cases of famous writers having done such all throughout history (hell, The Aneid is a blatant rip-off of the famous epics of Homer, The Odyssey and The Iliad, as well as Apollonius's Argonautica, to a lesser extent, but its still considered a classic of its time because Vergil was considered a genius as a writer and purposely took those old poems to tell his own, arguably superior version of them). The problem with Bleach, though, is that Tite Kubo is not Vergil....or what I mean, is that he's not considered a genius, and that's because he isn't one. That isn't inherently a problem as long as he can come up with good ideas through planning, but he doesn't do that either. That's why his work comes off so offensively when it rips off YYH or any other shonen series.

QuoteI'm still wondering how Fairy Tail is still going considering its just a generic shonen that ripped off One Piece's art completely.

Eh, with artwork its a bit more complicated than that. It took obvious influence from the quirky nature of One Piece's artwork style, and while I haven't read the Fairy Tail myself, its pretty impossible to actually rip-off One Piece's art-style considering that it has changed drastically over the years (and inevitably the artwork of an author will start showing differences with a series that runs as long as this one does). That is to say, its still as quirky as ever (actually at times its wackier than before), but it also shows clear differences in terms of character designs and backgrounds. To be honest I prefer Oda's earlier character designs a bit, but then again some characters end up looking better while others kind of look uglier from the artwork transition, but overall that's just preference. In terms of backgrounds, though. Oda, or whoever his assistant is that handles backgrounds if that's the case, has clearly improved the artwork on that aspect of the manga tenfold from what it used to be (and it wasn't bad to begin with, so that's saying quite a lot).

Speaking of artwork, I think one of the interesting things about Oda's artwork is that the guy pays a shit-load of attention to detail, the point that its actually rewarding for readers if they pay attention to the details he puts in his art. Certain seemingly minor little things that he puts into a background or even showing on a character or right next to them or something like that can actually be a clue that comes back into play and is referenced back to several hundred chapters later.

QuoteTo be honest, until One Piece, Naruto (which is sooner than later), and Bleach end we probably won't see much of value compete in the rankings since they pretty much soak up all the battle votes. Luckily it has lead Jump to put in more original ideas like Bakuman and Enigma slip in since they don't end up stealing votes and instead find their own audiences.

Actually, if I'm not mistaken, Bleach has been plummeting in rankings lately.

Bleach frequently rates in the middle with similar generic material like Hitman Reborn. In fact, material like Bakuman and Enigma (which frequently ranks dead center) do much better than them since while they are usually around the middle, they frequently shoot to the top of the list due to their unpredictable natures. This was the last official ranking released:

One Piece (Lead Color Page)
Bakuman
Naruto
Gintama
Beelzebub
Toriko (Color Page)
Sket Dance
Kochikame
Hq!! (One-Shot)(Color Page)
Meruhen Ouji Grim a.k.a Prince of Fairy Tale "Grim"
Magico (Color Page)
Sengoku Armors
Bleach
Inumaru Dashi
Enigma
Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn!
Kuroko no Basket
Nurarihyon no Mago
Medaka Box
Dois Sol
Hokenshitsu no Shinigami

Color pages don't usually count in the rankings, but lets be honest... One Piece would still be #1.

To be honest, chapters such as the most recent one that I read earlier today kind of make me feel that it actually deserves its ranking at the top. That said, to be fair, its not like I'm reading every other WSJ manga that's currently running, but aside from maybe Enigma, I doubt that any of them would change my mind (yes, while I love Bakuman, I do agree with it being ranked at #2, overall, which is still really good).

Other than Kuroko (which is actually a pretty good sports manga), Enigma, and Bakuman. Everything else is pretty much generic shonen material. One Piece is number 1 because it manages to be both original and appeal to mainstream audiences.

I guess its a lot like Crow and Detective Trap. Both are great, just one is a bit more accessible despite both being great examples of the genre.

With One Piece its not even that its all that original. Its ideas that we have seen in other stories before. For example, in One Piece's current arc its basic theme is racism and the characters can obviously be seen as representations of historical figures (in this case the most popular comparison are that Otohime is like Martin Luther King Jr. and Fisher Tiger is like Malcolm X.), and in this regard other stories have done stuff like this before. Its just that presenting themes like this and doing it in One Piece's particular style of story-telling is not something that you typically would see a shonen series do. I do like the idea of each of the more recent One Piece arcs having clear themes to them. I much prefer it to having each arc just feel like the author is randomly pulling another fight or plot-twist out of their asses (like....Bleach....except in this case Kubo switched things up and pulled plot points and characters out of Togashi's ass instead, that dirty little whore of a man :sly: ).

I meant it's more original in its execution. Its pretty much standard shonen when you analyze it enough, but the way its done is what makes it so popular.  :thumbup:

Though most good authors/writers/artists plan their material out in order to give justice to the world they're presenting. Bad authors tend to throw things at the wall in order to try to scramble for votes. It's actually quite remarkable in Bakuman when Hattori tells Ashirogi off for turning in generic trash (the few times they did) when it seemed pretty on par with most of Jump's junk anyway.  >_<

To me, the most appealing thing about Bakuman is that the author (obviously), and the characters he writes for seem so self-aware of how tiring generic shonen really are, while also understanding that its alright to have shonen with a ton of cliches as long as they are executed well (like with Nijima and Crow), but that its also not a bad idea to actually strive for something different rather than just trying to be like everyone else (which is what Detective Trap and PCP are all about, among other things).

It's all about execution and heart in the end. You can make the most original thing in the world, but if its made like crap, no one is going to care.

My problem is when something is so clearly lifted from something else, you can just tell from the way the creator does it that its forced to fit in a universe where it shouldn't. Either way, I hope Kubo gets a lot of shit for this arc, because he deserves to.

You know, the announcement for the new RK anime has kind of got me thinking that it would be so awesome if Watsuki were to step up with a new series that could match the quality he put out back when he did RK. I don't care what anyone else says, but to me the fact that he did RK at all shows that he has talent. Looking at his other works, they aren't inherently bad, and each showed at least some potential, but it just didn't feel like he put his heart and passion into any of them like he did with RK. I'd REALLY love to see him actually come out with something that has as much of a soul as RK has as a series, if that makes any sense. I know deep down that he could probably do it if he really put his mind and focus into something like he did with that manga. I just feel that WSJ desperately needs that kind of talent in terms of its mainstream shonen series. Oda is a great mangaka, but one series isn't enough to keep WSJ's overall mainstream line-up from being shit, as a whole.

Watsuki knew EVERYTHING he was doing when he made RK. The problem is everything he's done since has failed to achieve that balance RK did. BR was incredibly undercooked and boring, almost like he was rushing it out to just get it out, and his newest one seems over-thought to the point of being too muddled. They both feel like his type of story, but they don't achieve the balance of RK or reach the heights of it either.

I hold out hope he can make another manga as good as RK, because I honestly don't believe in one hit wonders in creativity. I call it untapped potential.

By the way, I cringed in that one thread on TZ when a few posters said BR was his best manga.

RK is a masterpiece of the genre and is still remembered and talked about to this day, hell its getting a new anime. BR is just another shonen that falls in line with the rest of the dreck.

Eh, I agree that BR itself is ultimately generic shonen drek, but it still initially showed some signs of potential, for me. I think the problem is, as I said earlier, his heart clearly wasn't in his work at that point, and that's sort of what makes a shonen generic drek, and that's when you can tell that the author doesn't care that much about what they are writing and are just putting in ideas that they believe will make a series popular. We KNOW that Watsuki is a far better author than that, though. Know half-assed writer could come out with a series as brilliant as Rurouni Kenshin with such consistently good quality and call it beginner's luck. The thing is, Watsuki needs to really start giving a shit about his work, because as it stands, GW, BR, and Frankenstein all had fine enough set-ups and each initially showed some potential, but Watsuki was clearly content with just half-assing them.

In this regard, I have to give just a tad bit more credit to Togashi. I know that you don't like HXH, Desensitized, and I myself am royally pissed at Togashi for being a lazy jerk, but that doesn't go hand-in-hand with not putting his passion into his work when he actually bothers to sit down and write it, and even you can't deny that Hunter X Hunter clearly has some heart put into it. I think the best characters were really well thought out by Togashi, and while HXH does have its share of bland characters, its only when Togashi is purposely only introducing them as minor characters to service the plot and move it forward, which while not something that's preferable (but, come on, he's a great writer but he's no Urasawa), is still acceptable enough for me since all of the main characters are really interesting and I actually find myself caring about them.

Also, this is kind of off-topic, but more anime adaptations of shonen manga need to actually stop being TOO faithful (yes, I didn't mistype that, I mean what I said). As someone who reads manga and watches their adaptations (at least I used to do that a lot), I want to see it done in a way that still interests me even if I know what's going to happen. I don't like seeing the same exact story copy and pasted panel for panel and word for word (except for Monster, but there is literally no way you could have made that any better as it was as close to perfect as you can get as it was, in the manga), as that gets pretty boring to watch. I'll even give props to Death Note, even though they over-dramatized so many scenes, if only because I was still actually interested to watch the anime just to see how certain scenes were executed, and in that regard it still always managed to remain entertaining for me if nothing else. The anime adaptations for both Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter X Hunter (yeah, both are Togashi's manga, go figure :P ) are EXCELLENT examples of anime that are faithful enough to their source material while changing around and adding in plenty of scenes to make already great works even better. In this regard, I especially have to give some props to the director of Hunter X Hunter for really going all-out with its production, from its intense action scenes that make you feel like they were intensely choreographed before remembering that its just an animated series, to the extremely well-put together filler content akin to how YYH had it done, yet it never felt like real filler in the least. We need more anime adaptations like that, IMO.

I thought Bakuman's additions to the manga source were pretty good and had the anime not been transformed to be boring in every way they could think of, I would have considered it a contender for topping the manga.

As it stands to me, unless you're going to add on to the story in ways that improve the original manga, just don't try. Filler arcs and episodes are one thing, but shit like what Naruto and Bleach did added NOTHING to the series since everything that happens in said filler adds nothing to the long run of the show. If you're going to adapt, either do it or stick to the source, don't half ass it.

Or steal from other authors.  :humhumhum:

In One Piece's case, a large series of its length actually call for a rotation between directors, so how good One Piece is as an adaptation is never consistent, and can really only be analyzed by segments of the series (and lately only by individual episodes), since some directors just half-ass it and are content with dragging out a single chapter's worth of material for an entire episodes WITHOUT adding any real substance to it with the opportunity for good filler that they have, whereas others take already great moments in the manga and make them infinitely better by placing in the perfect background music to fit the scene and constructing the set-up to really catch the viewer's attention.

Oh look, Sensui (that's what I'm calling him) is interested in Ichigo's "fullbring" and wishes to use it in his plan somehow.

I swear if we learn Sensui here is a previous Shinigami like Ichigo, then someone needs to fucking raise a stink.

I've been checking out random bits and pieces of the arc. To me it seems more like Tite Kubo is ripping off or copying (or whatever anyone wants to call it) a bunch of ideas used in the Chapter Black arc rather than actually following its plot (or, at least presenting various elements of its plot in a very different order under different circumstances, I suppose). Still, I can't help but see the various similarities, maybe because I already had them in mind, so I end up comparing it to the Chapter Black arc anyways and it just seems to be far inferior. To be fair, I haven't followed the series for over a hundred chapters before this point, and I only read random chapters and skipped others so maybe that's why it seems so disorderly to me, but knowing Bleach the way I do, I just get the feeling that its really disorderly on the whole since that's the way Bleach was when I stopped reading it.

That one guy who has hair that looks exactly like Sensui's is sort of using Ichigo right now and at least pretending to be a good guy if he really isn't one, so that's an interesting spin on the Chapter Black formula, I'll admit, but overall nothing I read was really all that engaging, and whether its ripping off Chapter Black or not, I can't even bring myself to care that much if the story is putting me to sleep. I'd actually prefer if he just shamelessly went by its overall plot and pacing, since at least that would make it more interesting to read (if only because that formula works so damn well that I can't possibly see even Kubo screwing it up if he followed it in order).

Oh yeah, I just read this week's chapter of One Piece and....yeah, I think its obvious that we'll be getting yet another big death scene in next week's chapter. It was also really interesting to see Arlong in this flashback. My favorite scene from this arc is where he told Jinbe that he was going off on his own, and challenged him to kill him if he wanted to stop him, but after beating him to a pulp Jinbe couldn't bring himself to kill Arlong despite knowing that he would completely wreck havoc wherever he went until someone else took him out (which would of course be Luffy, years later). Its a nice scene because it really put things regarding Arlong in a different perspective of sorts.

This week's chapter of Bakuman had 2 interesting developments. One was the obvious one that I could kind of see coming, which was that the controversy would affect Takagi's writing for the worse, but it'll be interesting to see his next chapter since now he plans to conciously give a big "fuck-you" to the media by writing about a crime that's apparently almost too extreme for anyone to want to attempt, or at least that's the way that I interpeted it from this chapter.

The other interesting development is that Eiji has finally set his sights on 1st place. Well, he always had that goal, but for the first time ever he seems to want to actually think out his manuscripts like a normal writer and really make them better than just literally pulling the story out of his ass like he's been doing for his whole entire career up until this point (even though he's been extremely successful in doing it). In a way, though, I think this might initially lead to worse results for him, since I think his talents lie primarily in only being able to execute the most basic and simple story really well and very effectively, rather than thinking out something more complex and in-depth that can nab even more readers' attention and make him more popular that whatever the current best/most popular manga in Bakuman's version of WSJ is.

Here's one reason Bakuman is so good. Takagi's hesitation was limited to the focus of one chapter showing exactly everything we needed to see, and not dragging the pacing down by making it a small arc of its own.

The best part was how he no longer seems to care what the media thinks of his work and is back to business as usual. The media reaction could be quite sweet.

The Eiji plot is nice as we haven't seen him in a while. I'm hoping we will finally see him at his wits end trying to think of a way to get the number one spot, as we have yet to see him really act any differently since the manga started, despite how much the rest of team Fukuda developed.

Quote from: Desensitized on May 15, 2011, 12:30:01 AMThe best part was how he no longer seems to care what the media thinks of his work and is back to business as usual. The media reaction could be quite sweet.

I wouldn't say that he doesn't care. It seems more to me that he wants to specially send the media a message that no matter what they do it won't stop him from writing PCP the way that he wants to write it. Hence why I think the next PCP chapter that gets published in Bakuman's WSJ ill be a big F-U to the media.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on May 15, 2011, 12:41:03 AM

Quote from: Desensitized on May 15, 2011, 12:30:01 AMThe best part was how he no longer seems to care what the media thinks of his work and is back to business as usual. The media reaction could be quite sweet.

I wouldn't say that he doesn't care. It seems more to me that he wants to specially send the media a message that no matter what they do it won't stop him from writing PCP the way that he wants to write it. Hence why I think the next PCP chapter that gets published in Bakuman's WSJ ill be a big F-U to the media.

lol, I can just imagine. Knowing Takagi, this might be a surprisingly big FU. When he gets confident, he gets confident.  :thumbup:

Just read the most recent chapter of One Piece. Eh, While its still good, I can't help but get a little tired of how 1-dimensionally evil Oda has designed the Celestial Dragons to be. As soon as they came into the plot in this flash-back, it became obvious to me how things would end. I mean, he tried to throw a curve-ball in this chapter by having Queen Otohime return alive with a documented letter allowing Fishmen to come to the surface world, but its obvious that it'll turn out to be just a ruse or something by the Celestial Dragons to lure a bunch of them out to capture as slaves again. The story itself is still good, but I just grow tired of how Oda has to make the characters he wants you to hate completely 1-dimensional with just the sole purpose of pissing people off. I actually much prefer the more rare One Piece characters like Akainu (I hesitate to call him a "villain" since, while being a Marine certainly doesn't make him or anyone a good guy by default, his overall intentions aren't that clear as to whether he fights for some greater good that he believes in or is just a total ass), since while he isn't necessarily all that complex, he strikes you as having multiple layers to his character and possibly actually having reasons for acting the way that he does, despite the fact that its made obvious that you're meant to hate him as a character.

At any rate, I think I'm kind of growing tired of the flashback in general, possibly since I already know where its going and it hasn't done anything to surprise me yet (though I did like it in execution up until Fisher Tiger's death a couple of chapters back). I really just want Oda to get back to the main plot as quick as possible, though, by this point.

I'm kind of getting tired of the current flash-back in OP. Even Oda can succumb to the trap of making stuff like this last too long when it could be shorter, but at least it seems to be almost over. As predicted we got out next big death-scene in this chapter, but unlike the last one this one honestly didn't have as big of an impact on me, IMO. Anyways, I can't wait to see how these past events affect the story in the present (and hopefully Oda gets back to the present really soon).

I'm reading Billy Bat and Lee Harvey himself just showed up.

This is some weird shit going on right now.

Enigma is really building up to something interesting. I'm really liking that shonen like this are still made, and still do well in the magazine.

Quote from: Desensitized on June 17, 2011, 03:40:36 PM
Enigma is really building up to something interesting. I'm really liking that shonen like this are still made, and still do well in the magazine.

And it looks like the first arc is coming to a close only 38 chapters in. It looks like the next chapter could be very interesting for revelations.

OK, Here's one of my problems with One Piece: while its understandable that Oda needs to keep the Straw Hat pirates off the scene for a time to set-up some despicable villains who you want to see get their asses inevitably handed to them, sometimes he goes overboard. We get it! Hodi Jones is evil. And he was already shown to be such scum that it came as no surprise that he had been Queen Otohime's true assassin in the past because we could already tell how much he hated her. Lets finally get Luffy and the others back in the picture so that we can see how they handle the situation from hear on out.

I will say that this chapter had one good moment, though, and that's when Madam Shirley pointed out to Hodi that in her prophecy Luffy would bring about the destruction of Fishman Island, so that ends up keeping Hodi and the other fishmen on edge that their own plans will get crushed by Luffy and the Straw Hat pirates while simultaneously creating a dilemma in that Luffy is destined to do what "seems" to be an evil deed by bringing about the destruction of an entire island. However, knowing Oda this is most likely just a loophole in that Luffy will destroy it in a "sense" in that he'll end up breaking down the barrier between Fishmen and Humans so it'll create the opportunity for both species to co-exist with one another instead of fear and hate each other. That's just my prediction, anyways.

Also, the twist that Madam Shirley was revealed to be Arlong's sister just felt like it kind of came out of nowhere. Unlike some of Oda's more clever twists, I don't really recall there ever having been any hints to this during earlier arcs (especially not in the Arlong arc), and overall it just seems like its an unnecessary twist that won't even have any bearing on the plot, anyways (though, I could be proven wrong since that's happened to me with this series before).

So since Arlong was beaten before Luffy got an "upgrade" (I really wish they never went this route in One Piece), does this make him a low tier villain compared to everyone he's fighting now? Has he basically been reduced to joke cameos and the like?

This is why I dislike the idea of rankings in Japanese stuff, it degrades the importance of earlier characters and villains tremendously.

I should probably start reading again, but it would take me ages to catch up.

Quote from: Desensitized on July 12, 2011, 10:20:14 PM
So since Arlong was beaten before Luffy got an "upgrade" (I really wish they never went this route in One Piece), does this make him a low tier villain compared to everyone he's fighting now? Has he basically been reduced to joke cameos and the like?

If you're talking about the fact that he got stronger, its not handled as cliched as you might be thinking. Its handled in a very sensible way. For a long time Luffy and his crew fought opponents who were basically on comparable levels. But yes the whole idea is that inevitably as they got deeper into the grand line they would meet higher tier characters (not just villains but other characters in general). That only makes sense because Luffy was only 17 years old when he started his journey and it'd be ridiculous to have him be on par with the older and more experienced Pirates and Marines around the world. And for all intensive purposes he still isn't. There is hardly any class system in One Piece at all and no real rankings but there are instances when some older and more experienced adventurers and soldiers are more powerful than less experienced people in the world of One Piece. The bottom line though is that its not handled the way you might be thinking it is. If you see the reasoning behind why Luffy was forced to get stronger then it makes more sense (for the longest time he got by villains that were clearly tougher than him with strategy and a bit of luck, but at one point he had to get stronger if he wanted to compete with the best Pirates in the world).

QuoteThis is why I dislike the idea of rankings in Japanese stuff, it degrades the importance of earlier characters and villains tremendously.

If that's your concern, have no worries. Arlong may be significantly weaker than Luffy and other characters are now, but his importance has not been degraded one bit. In fact he has gotten A TON of back-story in this current arc showing readers stuff we never even knew about him in the past (he's now actually a fully 3-dimensional character, and despite how despicable he is you can actually understand his actions after seeing his part of this arc's major flash-back scene).

That's the thing: characters from the past in One Piece are not often forgotten, and their importance has absolutely nothing to do with strength, but their impact on members of the main cast and the world around them. Arlong has actually been made more significant if anything, and other characters that Luffy is probably stronger than, including villains, still get plenty of weight in the world of One Piece if they are important as characters. Hell, even Buggy hasn't been forgotten (though admittedly whenever he does appear as a recurring character he is played for laughs as he is no longer even remotely threatening to Luffy, but he does also have a huge bearing on the plot at one point in the series).

QuoteI should probably start reading again, but it would take me ages to catch up.

It doesn't take quite as long as you think, actually, especially if you read the manga. If you marathon through it (not saying that you should, but its highly possible since some arcs of this series get downright addicting), you could probably catch up to the current story in a few weeks. Its still a shonen series so there is a lot of action and chapters that aren't super-heavy on dialogue, so over-all its not as much content as say, 500 chapters of something by Naoki Urasawa or Tsugumi Ohba.

Thanks for that. I heard Arlong came back, but didn't want to derail discussion in actual One Piece threads for why.

I'll think about it when I'm done rereading HxH.

On another note one of my friends bursted through Hxh (surprising me) and wanted to know if Greed Island was the spot where Togashi stopped caring and got bored. I then told him the Chimera Ant arc (that he stopped at the beginning of) was the one where he's been stalling for years and that upset him. He wanted more Kurapika and Leorio. Can't say that I blame him.

Quote from: Desensitized on July 12, 2011, 10:48:31 PM
Thanks for that. I heard Arlong came back, but didn't want to derail discussion in actual One Piece threads for why.

Well, he hasn't come back in the series since Luffy defeated him, but his presence as a character has been important at various points throughout the series. He's actually still considered one of OP's most serious villains since he was responsible for killing Nami's mother, so he's certainly not a character who would be taken lightly in the series. What's surprising is that he actually seems less like scum than he once did now, even if he did horrible things during his reign of terror.

QuoteOn another note one of my friends bursted through Hxh (surprising me) and wanted to know if Greed Island was the spot where Togashi stopped caring and got bored. I then told him the Chimera Ant arc (that he stopped at the beginning of) was the one where he's been stalling for years and that upset him. He wanted more Kurapika and Leorio. Can't say that I blame him.

I wouldn't say GI is where he "stopped" caring, myself. For the matter he didn't stop caring with the Chimera arc, either, until half-way into it. But I understand your friend's frustration with the absence of Leorio and Kurapika. Its not just him, but a bunch of fans have been begging Togashi to bring them back for YEARS. Seriously, I almost feel as if Togashi is going out of his way to troll his own fans by stalling this arc out as long as possible. Its so irritating that a genius like Togashi who created YYH (my favorite shonen ever), wastes such talent by being a lazy bum. He could really make something truly spectacular if he actually cared to put some effort into keeping his series running on a consistent basis and not giving up on them three-quarters of the way in.

Sorry for digging up an old thread. I figured that since this was already a thing I'd just talk about the manga I currently keep up with here instead of the "What are you currently reading" thread.


There are 10 manga I'm keeping up with, though I only actually enjoy 6 of them, with the other four I'm just reading for completion's sake. Anyways, here are my thoughts on the newest chapters from this week.

All You Need Is Kill chapter 4 - I'm surprised no one here has talked about Takeshi Obata's newest manga yet. Especially since Viz was so excited about it that they're simul-releasing it in Shonen Jump Alpha. Though I was a bit disappointed that this series isn't another collaboration with Ohba, but instead an adaption of a popular japanese novel. Hollywood is turning that novel into a movie that'll be released this summer, under the title "Edge of Tomorrow" (All You Need Is Kill is a cooler name, imo, but wharves), so my guess is that the manga will run at least until the film's release.

Anyways, the plot is about earth being attacked by these creatures called "mimics." A new recruit  in the japanese defense force, Keiji Kiriya, finds himself trapped in a Groundhog Day-esque loop, relieving the events of his death on his first battle over again. However, he realizes things don't necessarily happen the same way in each cycle, and that he can change and affect what happens. He decides that the only way to beat the loop is to stay alive, so he exploits the loop by using each experience in the battle against the mimics as a means of training, since battle experience is the only way to become a better soldier and increase the odds of his survival. In chapter 3 he came to the point where he was strong enough to actually kill a Mimic, but his weapon still isn't useful in destroying large quantities of them. In the latest chapter he visits the engineer of the Defense forces' top solider in order to get her to make him a battle axe...and that's basically all that happened this week.

I'm finding the story quite interesting so far despite it's familiarity, and a lot of that is because of Obata's always excellent artwork. I particularly love Keiji's facial expressions whenever he realizes something. It is SO much like Light's whenever he concocted a scheme or was pleased with the progression of his plans. So that amuses me on a certain level. It's too early in the story to really see where it'll go, though I suspect there'll be a twist where Rita (the top soldier I mentioned) is also revealed to be trapped in the loop, but in any case I'm certainly enjoying it and it's nice to have another manga from a great artist like Obata to keep up with.

One Piece chapter 737 - I thought this was a pretty well-paced chapter. In the past few weeks they've seemed too rushed, but I think there was just enough balance of things going on in this one. I think the best bits of the chapter for me was "Lucy" talking on Burgess and the gnomes' plan to stop Sugar's ability. The latter had me laugh out loud at how ridiculous it was, but this IS One Piece so I can totally see it working (though it probably won't). I am surprised that Cavendish has been turned into a toy, especially since he was built up and had a fair amount of screen time before, which led me to believe he'd have a lot more to do in the arc. Well, he probably will, alongside the other contestants who became toys, but I haven't been able to predict a thing in this arc, so I've got no clue what else he'll do in this arc. Overall, another solid chapter, though one thing still bugs me. What happened to Kinemon? He isn't with Luffy, Zoro, and Violet anymore. Where'd he go? I like the guy and he's still got a lot left to do so his absence has me curious. Hopefully next week we'll see what happened to him.

Toriko chapters 264 and 265 - At long last, the Gourmet World arc has started! And it seems we aren't wasting any time either, despite having a 1.5 year timeskip since the end of "part 1." I admit, I was startled at the fact Komatsu was already back with Toriko. For those of you who don't know, at the end of last arc Komatsu was kidnapped by the Bishokukai alongside all the other chefs who participated in the Cooking Festival. The Bishokukai's king, Midora, gave the condition that any chef who could make him say the word "delicious" would get to go home. Komatsu was able to, but he refused Midora's offer, because he believed that Toriko would come for him. The end of part 1 of the series was Toriko getting over his defeat at the hands of Starjun and letting Komatsu be kidnapped and deciding to venture into the Gourmet World to get him back.

I'm sure everyone expected that there would be this whole arc where Toriko had to survive the harshness of the Gourmet World while taking on the Bishokukai's top brass in order to get Komatsu back; the standard rescue my friend shonen plot. Nope, no time wasted on that. Apparently Toriko got Komatsu back after only six months in the Gourment World, and then they just decided to stay there for an additional year in order to train. While this was a jarring direction to take, I think it's for the best. Midora already decided to let Komatsu leave, so it's not like he'd have any problems with Toriko coming to get him. He doesn't have anything against Toriko, and while Toriko does have much against the Bishokukai, he's not stupid enough to challenge the entire organization by himself. Deciding to just get stronger and then come back to the human world to devise as strategy with the IGO and the other heavenly Bishokuya is a much smarter and sensible idea. I do expect that we'll see a flashback at some point showing Toriko reuniting with Komatsu and maybe encountering Midora face to face, and I'll be interested in seeing that.

Chapter 265 was depressing, though. Midora's Meteor Spice totally fucked up the human world; there is no naturally growing food anymore except for Almond Cabbage. Whatever other food there are is scarce and high cost, and people have to live on food pills. And everyone looks destitute, poor, and hungry. It's fucked up. It might not seem like a big deal compared to other series, but this is Toriko we're talking about. In this manga food is the most precious thing there is. Economies, cultures, media, societies, ALL of them are founded on the abundance and appreciation of a wealth of good food. Midora's Meteor Spice destroyed EVERYTHING. Now everyone is surviving only on food pills? In the world of Toriko? That's really depressing. I didn't think Toriko of all mangas could make me feel depressed, but Shimabukuro gets the point across clear. But only just enough so that we get the idea, as the end of the chapter features Toriko's return, with him showering the Human World with the "souvenirs" he's brought back from the Gourmet World. I like how the chapter went from depressing to uplifting like that, and how fast this return is going. The next chapter should feature Toriko talking with the IGO about what he's learned about the Gourmet World. He's brought back a lot of food, but even if they can reproduce some of it, they probably won't have enough to support the whole Human World for long. I'm sure part of Toriko's problem is going to focus on remedying that, so that'll be interesting to see.

Toriko's just as great as ever, and part 2 is off to a great start. I hope the new arc will continue the trend of excellence the series has had for a good while now.

Magi chapter 213 - The tension in this chapter is so delicious. Both Sinbad and Kouen's households are totally at each other's throats, and have schemed ways of checking the others power or intimidating them. I loved Muu and Sinbad's "pleasant" conversation especially. I really feel bad for Alibaba here; he's way in over his head, and it's clear even to him that Kouen is just using him to bring Balbadd in line and get Aladdin on their side, but it's the only way he has at helping Balbadd at all. Anyway, the summit is finally starting now, with the three magi, Aladdin, Yunan, and Titus (wasn't expecting the latter to show up, but it makes sense) arriving and Aladdin finally going to tell everyone the secrets about their world. I'm guessing a flashback arc will be in order? That would be interesting to see, since we know only a bit of King Solomon's story so far. And any excuse to have Gyokuen be in the story more is a-okay in my book.   :D

Detective Conan chapter 885 - The newest mystery is kinda ridiculous. I think the manga's already done the whole boyfriend cheats on his girlfriend something bad happens to her plot about two dozen times by now, but it's the fact how the two suspects so clearly have animosity against the victim yet he's still hanging around them that makes it kinda dumb to me. Anyways, the chapter was still incredibly entertaining because it features Haibara trolling Conan and that never stops being hilarious. I loved it when Conan got that evil look on his face when he was talking about getting Amy to bug Haibara with the phone. While the newest mystery doesn't look to be that interesting, it also doesn't look like it'll last long. I really want to get back to Sera's plot soon, though. I'm dying to see what's up with that.

Attack on Titan chapter 54 - I don't know what's more stupid. The fact that they thought they could dress up Armin as Historia and fool people or the fact it actually worked or the fact that one guy fell for it so hard he actually started to molest Armin. Seriously, are these guys retarded? I guess I did get a laugh when that guy later said "I thought you were a girl...I used to be normal, but you've made me like this! You're going to take responsibility right?..." It's so stupid it turns around and becomes hilarious. That's great in a less serious series, but not really a good thing in a manga that wants you to take it seriously.

Moving on, the actual core of this chapter was pretty good. That asshole president guy who was delaying everyone's escape from the Trost arc is back and Levi's convinced him into a mutually benefitting alliance. The guy's became likable pretty quick, since he actually seems kinda smart (I mean, he actually pointed out to his grunts how stupid it was for them not to check if the Eren and Historia they kidnapped were actually them or impostors) and sympathetic since he does want to keep his company afloat and if he resists the government everyone in his company will be killed.  So that was nice. Eren and Historia's conversation didn't do much for me, but her flashback to her childhood showing a teen Ymir and a way younger Historia raises some questions about her and possibly the other psudeo-titans. I'd really like the manga to get back to addressing that stuff soon, but it looks like now it's going to focus on Levi's coup against the government, which is something that could be interesting but feels more like a distraction for some reason. Overall, it was an ok chapter a couple moments of stupid aside.

Naruto chapter 663 - Ugh, I appreciate the attempts at making Sakura seem useful, but still this whole damn situation seems like total filler. And I could care less about Karen using her Uzumaki powers or whatever bullshit. Really nothing good happening here except maybe Orochimaru being more active in the battle, but otherwise another boring ass chapter dragging this battle out longer than it needs to.

Bleach chapter 567 - I suppose it's nice to see Rukia wining a battle for once, since the last time that happened was 300 fucking chapters ago agains Aaronero. Still doesn't make it any less stupid. All the bullshit fear talk was more of Kubo's pretentious attempts to be deep again, and it doesn't even make sense because Rukia has already shown at least surprise in the damn previous chapter alone. On a certain level, though, the idea of Sode no Shirayuki's true power and Rukia becoming technically dead for a while is kinda cool, and her defeating the guy was kind of badass, but it's still not not good writing whatsoever. Sigh...I already miss the Mask de Masculine battle. At least he was entertaining with how over the top he was...

So, to cap off, here's how I'd rank this week:

1. Toriko - 9/10
2. Magi - 9/10
3. One Piece - 8.5/10
4. All You Need Is Kill - 8/10
5. Detective Conan - 7.5/10
6. Attack on Titan - 7/10
7. Bleach - 5/10
8. Naruto - 1/10

Pretty average week of manga for me.

So what are you guys keeping up with? Thoughts on your series' latest chapters?

I'm not following much (Manga interest is dwindling. Done with anime).

Bleach and Naruto are the only series I follow.

Worst chapter I've read in a while for Bleach, although I'm anticipating the next. For Naruto, I have no words for it other than why do I continue to put up with it.

This week was really lackluster. The fact that neither One Piece or Magi had new chapters AND the Conan translators are late with the newest chapter didn't help.

All You Need Is Kill chapter 5 - A setup chapter. It doesn't establish much aside from the fact that Kiriya is now an extremely skilled combatant thanks to going through 80 cycles of battles, though the monotony of it has bored him terribly. Basically the point of it was to establish a reason for Rita to notice Kiriya's skills and take an interest in him, which will likely mean she'll have a more active role in the story now. Was by no means a bad chapter, but wasn't very interesting either.

Bleach chapter 568 - Ugh. I thought Kubo was finally going to allow Rukia to be useful again, which is why I gave the last chapter a bit of slack, but NOPE. Rukia's whole attack was inefective and the whole chapter is her being overwhelmed by creepy Quincy. And of course Byakuya shows up to bail her out and avenge his prior defeat. Yeah, I am so excited for that no I am not fuck you Kubo. I know what the outcome will be. And I don't give a damn.

Naruto chapter 664 - God, most of this chapter was more time-wasting nonsense. Well, I guess at least that some significant things did happen. Madara disposing of the Six Path Sage's tools, them appearing before Guy's group, the fact that the half of the Nine-Tales in Minato has probably been captured now,  and then lastly Madara showing up before them. I don't care about this, because I know the end result is going to be the same, and I'm sick of the battle being dragged out so much. It's lasted nearly 100 chapters by now, with loads of distractions and other things yes, but still, and with Kishimoto's pacing I fear it going on for another 50. Like most chapters, this was a wash where I can't care about anything that happens because I'm bored and I know what ultimately WILL happen. So, yeah, another bad chapter of Naruto, like that's any surprise.

One-Punch Man chapter 34 -  A lot happened here, with the aliens being overwhelmed by the S-class heroes, some destructive beam going to be fired on them, and Saitama reaching their leader, and the telekinetic alien Gelunganshp attacking him. The maze sequence was good, but not one of the best animatic-esque scenes the manga has done so far. But while the chapter certainly moved the story forward, I can't say I felt very invested in it either. Hopefully the next chapter will be more interesting, though of course whenever Saitama fights it usually is.  :D

Toriko chapter 266 - Weeks like this make me so happy that Toriko exists. Even if this was just a setup chapter, it was still full of entertaining moments beginning to end, while moving the story along at a good pace. I don't think they've found Acacia's main dish so easily, though. It's probably hidden somewhere back in the gourmet world, instead of that treasure box. The mysterious figure in the tree will probably explain all. Other than that, I was surprised Toriko so readily agreed to marry Rin. Reminded me of Goku agreeing to marry Chi-Chi in a way, except Toriko legitimately has good reasons to want to marry Rin since she's supported him through tough times and was responsible for helping him regain his confidence after losing to Starjun and Komatsu's kidnapping, so he clearly knows she cares about him and of course he has mutual feelings. Though, of course he was quite unromantic to just agree to marry her like that, but Toriko has never been one to beat around the bush either so it makes perfectly in-character way for him to respond. Anyway, I'm glad to see the series isn't wasting time in resuming the story, and I hope the next chapter brings to light what the focus of part two's first arc will be.

Rankings:

1. Toriko - 8/10
2. All You Need Is Kill - 7/10
3. One-Punch Man - 7/10
4. Bleach - 1/10
5. Naruto - 1/10

Pretty bad week to be honest. Only the new Toriko was an enjoyable read for me. Hopefully Magi, One Piece, and Detective Conan come back next week and All You Need Is Kill is more interesting.

Dammit, the translators are late with those new Detective Conan chapters! On the flipside, though, they are early with the new All You Need Is Kill, so I've got two chapters to talk about this week!

All You Need Is Kill chapter 6 and 7 - Kiriya really has become emotionally nulled after all these loops, if he could turn down casual sex with some like Rachel like that. The main point of chapter 6 was Kiriya becoming emotionally unable after suffering through 90+ consecutive loops. On the flipside, he's managed to become a hella stronger solider, even though the progress is gradual, the migraines are killer, and the pain of dying is as unbearable as ever. Still, 156 loops later, he seems to be on top of things now. He must survive this one. That's where chapter 7 comes in. Kiriya takes out a hella lot of the mimics and shows similar mercy to a fallen comrade that Rita did for him the first time he died. The end of the chapter is the most integral thing though. As I suspected, Rita knows about the loops. I'm betting the reason she's so powerful is because, like Kiriya, she's also going through them. No doubt she'll take a more active role in the story now. Looking forward to seeing how these developments play out two weeks from now.

Bleach chapter 569 - This...was actually...alright? Byakuya was legitimately badass without being obnoxiously so, and Rukia will be the one to finish As Nodt after all. Huh. Well played Kubo. First chapter I've "liked" in a hella long time. Honestly looking forward to seeing Rukia's bankai. She's been long overdue for a moment of awesome.

Magi chapter 214 - Very informative chapter. The old world was a lot different than I expected, what with all those different races and whatnot. I wonder how King Solomon managed to get humanity, "the weakest race," to prosper? And what happened to all those creatures? Lots of questions, but undoubtedly they'll be answers. Looking forward to more of the backstory. One problem I do have, though, is that there seems to be a new translator, who obnoxiously puts text bars with frivolous spammy comments that pop up on the pages after 30 or so seconds, covering up the actual text. Very obnoxious and annoying. I hope this won't be an issue next time.

Naruto chapter 665 - This..was...also alright? WHAT IS HAPPENING? I actually liked Obito asking what he meant to Madara, and defying him, choosing to be his won person than a mere extension of his will. There was still some overdrama, but otherwise, this was a very likable chapter, a rarity for this series.

One Piece chapter 738 - Hey, a chapter focused only on one plot point! Haven't seen one of those in a while. But a very good chapter too, with the battle against Sugar finally starting. I expect Ussop'll have to take her on directly next week, since the gnomes'll probably be taken out/occupied by those of them who were turned into toys. I'm also hoping for Robin to fight Trebol. That probably won't happen, but it'd be nice to see Robin get a significant fight for a change. Overall, good chapter, and hopefully next week we'll get more of the fight with Sugar.

Toriko chapter 267 - Wasn't expecting Ichiryu's full course to be completed that quickly, but man, was it awesome. The whole point of the course was to create a sustainable food supply, the ingredients used to help hatch and raise the Billion Bird and get it to re-populate quickly. With that many offspring, the Human World should no longer suffer from hunger or terrible food pills! Though they'll still need to find more food, since people can't just get sustenance from the Billion Bird alone. They'll undoubtedly have to go back to the Gourmet World for that. Otherwise, I enjoyed seeing Livebearer again, and the humor in this chapter was perfection. Two things interest me, though. The first is the old Nitro-looking creature that was watching Toriko and company form inside that tree. It'll likely play an important role in future events, and shed some light on Ichiryu's past and maybe more on the Nitros too. The second interesting thing is that we finally know what happened when Toriko found Komatsu again. The Bishokukai had already left somewhere, except for one...Midora. I REALLY want to know how that meeting went down. Obviously they didn't fight, but I can only wonder what Midora must have said to Toriko. Hopefully Shimabukuro reveals more about the Bishokukai's intentions and goal in the  Gourmet World soon. Otherwise, another great chapter, as always. I gotta say, Toriko really is the most fun manga in Jump right now.

Rankings:

1. Toriko - 10/10
2. All You Need Is Kill - 9/10
3. One Piece - 9/10
4. Magi - 9/10
5. Naruto - 8/10
6. Bleach - 7/10


So yeah...a pretty good week. A tremendous step up from last time. Not a single one of these chapters failed to entertain on some level, and Naruto and Bleach of all things managed to be competent for once, a rarity! Hoping the translators FINALLY put up new Conans next week, and otherwise, just hoping for more goodness all around.

It seems that Magi is about at the halfway point in it's story. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2014-02-27/magi-manga-creator-teases-death-of-characters) With all that went down in Magnostadt, and King Solomon's backstory finally being revealed, I expected as much. It'll still be running for about 5 more years, at any rate, and since the manga has only gotten better and better as it's gone on I eagerly await what Ohtaka has in store.

One interesting thing to note is that she plans to kill off some characters as the story goes forward. This makes sense considering a war of some sort is inevitable at this point, though it's a toss-up as to who will have to go (though I have my bets...).

Still no new Conan scans. Plus, since they were early last week with the new All You Need Is Kill, I don't have a new chapter to talk about this week. In spite of that, it was far from a bad week.

Bleach chapter 570 - As Nodt was taken out too quickly. I would've liked more of a battle. I didn't care for his backstory since it was yet another one of Kubo's failed attempts to be deep and make his villains sympathetic which always rings false to me. I do like Rukia's bankai form. She looks a lot like Sode no Shirayuki did in the Zanpaktou Rebellion arc in the anime, which is neat. I guess the most interesting thing about the chapter was Yachiru actually doing something for once and punching that one quincy. Maybe we'll finally see her fight? Nah, this set up is clearly for Kenpachi to come to her rescue. It's pretty obvious. I can't say I hated this chapter this week either. Wonder how long that'll last.

Magi chapter 215 - The secret of Alma Thorran was a lot different than I expected, what with all those other races and having it's own god and everything. The most disturbing scene in the chapter was those giant trolls using honey covered sticks to scrape up live humans and put them in jar containers, like some kind of ants. That's easily more fucked up than anything in Attack on Titan so far. I would've liked to see HOW King Solomon united all the races under his rule, instead of just jumping forward to that. I still want to know how the Djinns became Djinns too, but that should come in time. I seriously wonder what Gyokuen did to destroy Alman Thorran and just who she was talking too in this chapter. I also still want to know what Ithnan's deal is, and why he was one of the few residents of Alma Thorran that was transferred to the new world. Suffice to say, it was a very interesting chapter that answered questions and then raised more. I expect even more surprises next week.

Naruto chapter 666 - Um, this wasn't a bad chapter, but it also wasn't an interesting one. I can't buy Obito's hell face turn like this. It's too sudden and while it makes sense it leaves no impression or impact to me, though a lot of that's because he was a shitty ass villain in the first place. I didn't really care about anything that happened in this chapter as a result even though Kishimoto clearly tries to make it seem meaningful. At least this whole Naruto is dying thing should end soon now. And with Guy on the scene, presumably with the Sage of Six Paths' tools, hopefully this means the end is near for this battle. I can only hope....

One Piece chapter 739 - I was hoping for Ussop to fight Sugar and Robin to fight Trebol, but instead the dwarves got captured. Hopefully they'll get to fight next week, though. Lots of information was told in this chapter. I'm not sure what I think about Solider-san being the gladiator who won 3,000 matches, since I don't remember any set-up for that before. I do hope Rebecca won't go down this easily, but since this match'll probably turn into a three against one fight against Diamante hopefully she can get out as the last one standing in the end. Overall, good chapter, lots of stuff going down and revealed, and honestly, this is probably the best chapter since Luffy vs. Don Chiouji (or whatever his name was).

One-Punch Man chapter 35 - Wow, finally an opponent Saitama can't defeat with one punch. This fight should be interesting. Gelguganship died easily, as expected, but it was still fun to see. Not sure I find what happening with Genos and Blizzard's group to be that interesting by comparison, but it still is good stuff. A solid chapter overall.

Toriko chapter 268 - And so Toriko finally has the drink in his full course menu! Not much to say about this one. A slow chapter, but one crammed with good sentiment and humor. Those eyelashes...  :lol:

Rankings:

1. One Piece - 10/10
2. Magi - 9.5/10
3. Toriko - 9/10
4. One-Punch Man - 8.5/10
5. Bleach - 6/10
6. Naruto - 5/10

Not as good as last week, but for the most part still enjoyable. Hopefully they finally upload the new Conan chapters next week. It's been like a month already...

Ooh, looks like Viz is licensing Assassination Classroom. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-03-04/viz-adds-assassination-classroom-resident-evil-manga)

No surprise, since it was pretty much the number two series in Jump for the nearly the entirety of last year, and the seventh highest grossing manga in volume sales for the first half of 2013. It's easily Jump's biggest new hit and since it's young and in it's prime it should grow in popularity yet. Nice to see a comedy manga become a hit instead of another battle-shonen, at the every least. It'll be interesting to see if the series catches on in the U.S. as well.

It's still odd that Viz hasn't licensed Kuroko yet, though. Maybe Slam Dunk didn't do well for them...

Sports anime/manga do horribly here. Even classics like Slam Dunk.

Hmm, that's true. Probably why we'll never see the Hajime no Ippo (among other) manga licensed here. A shame really. I would love for Vertical or somebody to take a chance at important, classic titles in the genre like Ashita no Joe, but of course, that'll never happen (especially since Vertical's recent survey says they are only interested in getting series published after 2002 right now anyway...).

Yeah, two things that do badly here are sports manga/anime and classic manga/anime which is why Case Closed and Lupin fell off so hard so fast.

As much as I would like to see more classics out here I'd say anything from pre-2000 not named Akira has little to no chance since otaku here simply won't buy it. Not even Tezuka stuff.

It's just a sad truth, unfortunately. Unless they came out with a new anime adaptation for Ashita no Joe or other classic series from that era, and it actually did REALLY well on CR or something of that nature (which is highly unlikely as it is), the chances of any of those series getting licensed is literally zero. I can't exactly blame the publishers, but I wish there was a way to get more western fans for some of these series.

I'm just grateful for the excellent fan translations we've been getting for both the AnJ manga and both anime series. They really are a labor of love, and although the manga releases are slow and infrequent, they are of such good quality that you could almost swear that they were translated by official employees of Viz, themselves.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 04, 2014, 11:17:00 PM
Yeah, two things that do badly here are sports manga/anime and classic manga/anime which is why Case Closed and Lupin fell off so hard so fast.

As much as I would like to see more classics out here I'd say anything from pre-2000 not named Akira has little to no chance since otaku here simply won't buy it. Not even Tezuka stuff.

Well, Viz is still putting out Case Closed, so it's clearly selling well enough for them. Take it from this ever sad Bobobo and Oishinbo fan; if a series ain't selling it's worth for Viz, they ain't going to bother with putting it all out, especially if it's a long runner.

But I think you are being a bit pessimistic about classic manga, or, at least, Tezuka manga. Digital Manga Publishing has been on an absolute roll with kick starters to help release previously untranslated Tezuka manga like Barbara, Unico, and Swallowing the Earth, and they plan to release even more of his overlooked stuff in the future, while Vertical has re-released Princess Knight and Twin Knights recently and holds the license to some of his other works like Black Jack and Buddha. Not to mention Viz is releasing digital volumes of Phoenix now too. There is clearly some market for classic manga, though it's admittedly not that big and so far limited to Tezuka stuff. Still, I would love to see DMP and Vertical branch out from just releasing classic Tezuka and take on other notable classics, though it seems unless it's relatively short they are hesitant to do so.

Quote from: Cartoon X on March 04, 2014, 11:13:46 PM
Hmm, that's true. Probably why we'll never see the Hajime no Ippo (among other) manga licensed here. A shame really. I would love for Vertical or somebody to take a chance at important, classic titles in the genre like Ashita no Joe, but of course, that'll never happen (especially since Vertical's recent survey says they are only interested in getting series published after 2002 right now anyway...).

Well, with HnI at least we were fortunate enough to get the anime about a decade ago (and with a surprisingly decent dub, IMO). The first anime is the best part of the entire series, anyways, and IMO it is superior to the manga. The manga itself really fluctuates in quality past the Championship Road arc, with some really high points and low ones as well, but never quite reaching the heights of anything up to Ippo's 2nd title shot.

The manga is also ridiculously long, being currently at over 1,000 chapters and still going; although it at least looks like it has a clear ending in site, even if that ending could still take a few hundred more chapters to get to at the current pace this series moves at.

Quote from: Cartoon X on March 04, 2014, 11:37:12 PM

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 04, 2014, 11:17:00 PM
Yeah, two things that do badly here are sports manga/anime and classic manga/anime which is why Case Closed and Lupin fell off so hard so fast.

As much as I would like to see more classics out here I'd say anything from pre-2000 not named Akira has little to no chance since otaku here simply won't buy it. Not even Tezuka stuff.

Well, Viz is still putting out Case Closed, so it's clearly selling well enough for them. Take it from this ever sad Bobobo and Oishinbo fan; if a series ain't selling it's worth for Viz, they ain't going to bother with putting it all out, especially if it's a long runner.

But I think you are being a bit pessimistic about classic manga, or, at least, Tezuka manga. Digital Manga Publishing has been on an absolute roll with kick starters to help release previously untranslated Tezuka manga like Barbara, Unico, and Swallowing the Earth, and they plan to release even more of his overlooked stuff in the future, while Vertical has re-released Princess Knight and Twin Knights recently and holds the license to some of his other works like Black Jack and Buddha. Not to mention Viz is releasing digital volumes of Phoenix now too. There is clearly some market for classic manga, though it's admittedly not that big and so far limited to Tezuka stuff. Still, I would love to see DMP and Vertical branch out from just releasing classic Tezuka and take on other notable classics, though it seems unless it's relatively short they are hesitant to do so.

It's not that companies won't do it, but the return on such series has never been all too strong. It's why Lupin and Case Closed lasted almost no time at all on TV. Anime/manga audiences usually aren't enough to pull series to completion unless they're mega-sellers or short, at least historically.

If Ashita no Joe or Area 88 was licensed tomorrow I and many other people would preorder it without thinking about it, but would people like us be enough?

Digital is nice and all that, but it really isn't for me. If they can't put out printed copies then that just proves my point that the audience is too small to cater to not to mention there are other people out there who won't buy a series until it is complete because (quite justly) they'd be worried about throwing away their money on an incomplete product.

I want there to be an audience for classic material that extends into general market presence, but even back when it started taking off stuff older than Dragon Ball was having problems selling. Now that goalpost has moved even further forward. It just doesn't bode well for classics in my opinion.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 04, 2014, 11:17:00 PM
Yeah, two things that do badly here are sports manga/anime and classic manga/anime which is why Case Closed and Lupin fell off so hard so fast.

Well, as far as Sports manga go, I do recall that Eyeshield 21, Hikaru no Go, and Prince of Tennis all did pretty decently for Viz (at least good enough for them to finish releasing each of those series).

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on March 04, 2014, 11:48:54 PM

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 04, 2014, 11:17:00 PM
Yeah, two things that do badly here are sports manga/anime and classic manga/anime which is why Case Closed and Lupin fell off so hard so fast.

Well, as far as Sports manga go, I do recall that Eyeshield 21, Hikaru no Go, and Prince of Tennis all did pretty decently for Viz (at least good enough for them to finish releasing each of those series).

Mostly I'm just going on comments representatives of companies have made in the past that they have the hardest time with older series and sports series.

I'm basically going on the assumption that the market has only narrowed with time and not expanded since otaku related material becomes more and more insular every year.

Yeah I suppose. I think there was a surge of people getting into anime and manga about a decade ago, which is when we got the biggest variety of releases from all of the publishers (especially Viz), since they could afford to experiment with different kinds of series. That said, these days the market has narrowed after a good portion of casual fans lost interest and got burned out on anime, so now that the market is niche once again, then any series that can't prove to be an instant hit is pretty much doomed to obscurity over here.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 04, 2014, 11:47:35 PM


Digital is nice and all that, but it really isn't for me. If they can't put out printed copies then that just proves my point that the audience is too small to cater to not to mention there are other people out there who won't buy a series until it is complete because (quite justly) they'd be worried about throwing away their money on an incomplete product.

Um, Digital Manga Publishing HAS been releasing their Tezuka stuff in print.  If I wasn't several states away I would hop on over to my school library right now, snap a picture, and show you the proof. ;)

But yes, it is a shame there isn't a big enough market for older manga series. Anime/manga is just not popular enough anymore among casual folk for there to be a sustainable market for anything but mainstream and modern stuff. I will gladly take all the Tezuka DMP and Vertical throw at me, but I'd too love to have a better variety of older stuff in print, which is unlikely to happen.

Oh, that's cool. I assumed digital meant digital comics. We don't tend to get that stuff up here at all.

I do wish more classics could be released in full. I don't buy too much manga, but I would change that for certain series without question.

I just read the most recent chapter of Attack On Titan. Half of it was a moderately graphic scene of the protagonists torturing someone. How is this acceptable for children?

Well, manga for "children" (aka little kids under 10 years of age) would be kodomo series. Attack on Titan is shonen, and technically shonen series are intended for pre-teen and teenage boys, and no matter the country, boys that age positively welcome explicit violence in their entertainment.   :sly:

...I've just skimmed the chapter. Eh, I think I've read worse in Black Butler and far more offensive in Fairy Tail.  :P

It's actually a common misconception that shounen series are aimed at or meant for children. While some can appeal to younger readers, the vast majority are aimed at the demographic between 12-18 years of age. Going by that logic, it's no wonder that AOT is so popular. Adolescents just eat that hyper-violent shit up, and are much easier to fool into thinking that something is mature, deep, and well written when it really isn't. I would know, as I was just like that during that particular phase of my life. Needless to say, I just cringe at the thought of it these days.

As for AOT, though, just like CX, I've seen far worse from shounen series. If you don't believe me, just check out the first third of the Chimera Ant arc from HXH. It's absolutely appalling how needlessly cruel it can be.

Quote from: Foggle on March 07, 2014, 02:08:26 PM
I just read the most recent chapter of Attack On Titan. Half of it was a moderately graphic scene of the protagonists torturing someone. How is this acceptable for children?

Have you been reading Vinland Saga? Go read that instead.

I thought Foggle's complaint about that AOT scene was referring to how it's more on the grounds of plausible torture violence.  The stuff that happens in the early Chimera Ant arc, while often cruel, is still more along the lines of fantasy violence, which is nothing out of the ordinary in shonen manga.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 07, 2014, 03:57:33 PM
Have you been reading Vinland Saga? Go read that instead.

Read All You Need Is Kill and One-Punch Man too. I want to have some discussion about the mangas I'm keeping up with, and those series are seinin so I should expect less reservations.  :P

On the shonen manga side, I've been finding new chapters of Toriko and Magi better than One Piece's, nowadays. I've felt that way about Toriko for about a year and a half now, actually.

Quote from: Cartoon X on March 07, 2014, 04:09:05 PM
I thought Foggle's complaint about that AOT scene was referring to how it's more on the grounds of plausible torture violence.  The stuff that happens in the early Chimera Ant arc, while often cruel, is still more along the lines of fantasy violence, which is nothing out of the ordinary in shonen manga.

Let's see:
-Disecting someone's brain and then butchering them alive
-Mutating humans into deformed Chimera Ants that pull an Alien with their "kill me..." pleas to the Phantom Troupe
-Killing a little girl's parents in front of her and and then killing the girl herself and eating her brain

Yes, you're right CX. That's COMPLETELY ordinary for a shounen manga! Why, remember when they did that just the other day for One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, and every other currently running WSJ manga? :humhumhum:

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on March 07, 2014, 06:05:34 PM

Quote from: Cartoon X on March 07, 2014, 04:09:05 PM
I thought Foggle's complaint about that AOT scene was referring to how it's more on the grounds of plausible torture violence.  The stuff that happens in the early Chimera Ant arc, while often cruel, is still more along the lines of fantasy violence, which is nothing out of the ordinary in shonen manga.

Let's see:
-Disecting someone's brain and then butchering them alive
-Mutating humans into deformed Chimera Ants that pull an Alien with their "kill me..." pleas to the Phantom Troupe
-Killing a little girl's parents in front of her and and then killing the girl herself and eating her brain

Yes, you're right CX. That's COMPLETELY ordinary for a shounen manga! Why, remember when they did that just the other day for One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, and every other currently running WSJ manga? :humhumhum:

Sigh, Togashi...

How much have you read/watched of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure?  :D

Quote from: Cartoon X on March 07, 2014, 06:12:28 PM
How much have you read/watched of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure?  :D

Not much, but I've read enough of most other shounen manga to know that the shit that goes on in the Chimera Ant arc is most certainly not an ordinary thing in most fantasy shounen series. Furthermore, JoJo is now a seinen manga because of its content, and if the earlier parts of the manga were made today, they also most likely would've been considered seinen due to modern standards being different (and apparently not making any sense).

Nice try attempting to save face and make us forget about what you said, though. :>

I haven't gotten to Chimera Ant yet and usually JoJo's is insane and over the top enough to not be disturbing. Also, the torture in AoT is actually being performed by the heroes, who you're still expected to like after it's over. Then again, given the writer's stance on Nanking and WW2 in general, that isn't much of a shock.

Well, I remember seeing stuff just as bad as that in other shonen before, but since I can't find/remember anything on that level,  I will admit defeat, though I don't find the scene where the chimera-ant turned humans begging for death that disturbing and the scene with the little girl being killed came off more as an attempt at dark comedy to me (what with Pitou clapping his hands in the side of the panel and all).  If he ever finishes Hunter X Hunter (yeah, right), maybe Togashi should make a horror comedy manga.  :D

But regardless, the torture scene in the newest Attack on Titan chapter is violence that can be potentially imitated (and isn't that unbelievable from real torture methods) and is performed by the protagonists, whereas most of the disturbing stuff in early Chimera Ant is stuff done by villains and not something you'd expect to happen in real life. That's why it's more on the grounds of plausible violence and more questionable material to have in a shonen series, even though the Chimera Ant stuff is more gruesome. My original point, before I undermined it with a pointless attempt at humor by referencing Jojo, was that difference, which I see as a clear separation of plausible and fantasy violence, and that the latter, no matter how gruesome, isn't as dangerous or uncomfortable for young audiences to read than the former, especially considering these examples since in Titan it's the protagonists performing the violence whereas in Hunter X Hunter it's the villains.

The trouble Ashirogi Muto got into for PCP seems so small in comparison.

Almost forgot to comment on last week's manga. Since I caught up with Assassination Classroom, I'll start talking about new chapters of that series too.

Assassination Classroom chapter 80 - It's nice to see Kaede get some focus. She usually gets relegated to gag bits, so seeing her be active in an assassination was nice. Her plan to trick Korosensei with bomb-laced pudding was actually pretty brilliant, considering he always lets his guard down when it comes to sweets. Lots of good humorous bits in this chapter, and it's nice to see Kaede's strengths as an assassin be explored. I like these kinds of chapters. I don't know if they'll be another more breather chapter this week, but I certainly wouldn't mind.

Attack on Titan chapter 55 - Okay...I barely remember this chapter. Aside from seeing our heroes torture a guy, it was kind of a slog to read, honestly. It takes too long to get to the points that "the government is corrupt and only wants to protect the privileges of the elite," "the government is covering shit up," "the government wants to exploit Eren's titan powers," "the government is EVIL DO YOU GET IT YET HURR FURR DURR," "we want a bloodless revolution even though we don't have a good plan to execute one," "we are bad people now cause we have to torture some guys boo hoo," blah blah. All this could have been told more effectively in a third of the time it took. I guess it's interesting that the Reiss family is the true royal line and they want to get Historia to succeed the throne, but overall it was a boring as hell chapter. 

Bleach chapter 571 - Yachiru kicks ass in this chapter. I absolutely cannot hate that. It is just too hilarious and awesome and long overdue. So, another chapter that I liked it.
I don't know how this is happening, but it is. I'm almost disturbed.

Detective Conan chapter 888 - First new translated chapter in a month...and they completely skipped the last mystery. Hmm. Well, this one is way more fun, because Bourbon is back! And man, Conan is really screwing up around him. I think it's only a matter of time before Bourbon deduces his true identity, and that's when shit is gonna hit the fan. This new case is going to be interesting, since Bourbon will be watching Conan very closely this time. Should be interesting to see how it develops.

Magi chapter 216-217 - I've already read the newest chapter, so I'll just combine my thoughts on that one too. King Solomon is who I expected him to be, a no-nonsense but good person who wants all the races to live in equality and is fighting against the magi tools used by human magicians to subjugate the other races. Sheba seems important. I like that she ends up realizing her view on the other species is wrong when she plays with that child manticore. She seems like she'll develop an interesting relationship with Solomon and Ugo. One thing that really has me curious, though, is Ithnan being so loyal to Solomon. I really, really wonder how he ends up on Gyokuen's side later on. That'll be interesting to see.

Naruto chapter 667 - So Kabuto broke free of the Izanami...by accepting who he is? And he's made a complete hell face turn? And is healing Sauske to redeem himself? No. Fuck that convenient ass shit. And then the rest of the chapter...why is Guy here? Why does he need to fight against Madara? Why do we need to see him try and sacrifice himself next time? This is just padding. The only purpose of Guy being here is basically to bring the Sage of Six Paths' tools WHICH MADARA JUST LEFT BEHIND FOR NO GOOD REASON to help use in his defeat. That's what I assume the point of that scene was. So just get Naruto and I guess Sasuke healed and do that already, Kishimoto. We do not need to see Guy try and fight against Madara with no set-up or reason. Do I even need to point out that this completely takes away the focus from Obito's redemption, and his and Kakashi's teamup, completely weakening the effectiveness of that. Ugh, terribly written chapter full of nonsensical bullshit. Why won't this battle end already... :gonk:

One Piece chapter 740 - Okay, no, NO. What the fuck, Oda? Ussop should NOT be running away from his opponents at this point. He is NOT that cowardly anymore. The last time he ran away from a fight was in the battle with Mrs. Merry Christmas and Mr. 4 over 550 chapters ago. He might still get scared, but he's long past running away from a fight and will especially try and pull through if his friends are in danger. This is a horrible regression of his characters and near ruins his character arc, which is by far the best and most consistent of any character in the manga, for me. I cna only hope this is remedied somehow this weak, but I have never, NEVER been so mad at something in One Piece as I am at this. Oda should know better of his characters than this! This just proves to me that he doesn't know how to write any of the Strawhats besides Luffy well anymore. This saddens me greatly.

The rest of the chapter was good though. Zoro vs. Pica. Baby 5 trying (and failing) to torture and question Law. Seeing Kinemon impersonate Doflamingo in order to find Kanjorou. Luffy and Violet meeting up with Soldier and now lying in wait for Sugar's defeat so they can strike. Robin being turned into a toy by accident, and the rest of the tontatta being captured...really good stuff here. Which is why that last page so goddamn infuriates me. Oda better have Ussop get his shit together next chapter. If not, there's gonna be hell to pay, I tell you what.

Toriko chapter 269 - Lots of fun stuff here! Toriko reunited with Terri, how he was discovered by Ichiryu revealed, Setsuno and Jiro waiting for Toriko and company in the Gourmet World, Komatsu accepting a meal from Nono...a perfect set-up and breather chapter in one. The Bishokuya should all be heading to the Gourmet World in the next chapter or so, and I'm excited for that. Another solid chapter.

Rankings:

1. Toriko - 10/10
2. Assassination Classroom - 9.5/10
3. Magi - 9/10
4. Detective Conan - 8/10
5. One Piece - 7/10
6. Bleach - 7/10
7. Attack on Titan - 2/10
8. Naruto - 1/10

Never thought I'd be ranking OP that low and Bleach that high, but them's the breaks I suppose. It was, for the most part, a pretty good week of manga. Hopefully OP will make up for last week this week, and just want more solidness from Toriko, AC, Magi, and DC. And I have to wonder how long Bleach being "fun" to read is going to last...

This week wasn't as good as last week, but the good was very good, at least.

Assassination Classroom chapter 81 - I love it when Karasuma and Korosensei work together to help train the students. Now, I think the ability they are honing is a little too unrealistic, but then again this is a manga where a yellow octupus alien who can fly at mach 20 and destroyed the moon is a ridiculously nice middle school teacher. Anyway, this chapter was full of great bits. My favorite part was when Bitch-sensei thought about pushing Karasuma into the water when she found him and get "hot and heavy" with him, and Karasuma just pushes her head into the water in the middle of her talking to herself. And that final line, "The strongest human and strongest creature...they're coming to attack us and give us more homework!"  :lol: Hilarious chapter all around.

Bleach chapter 572 - So creepy guy is thought out of existence by bishie guy, and Yachiru is made useless again, and Kenpachi returns right at the end as I expected (so I guess Unohana really is dead...unless she isn't. This is Bleach after all.) Yeah, boring and lame ass chapter. Guess Bleach is back to being bleh again. All is "right" with the world.

Naruto chapter 668 - Why do we have to care about this? Why do we need Might Guy's backstory right now? Really, why? Why is Guy important again all of a sudden? The focus should be on Obito and Kakashi shouldn't it? This focus shift and unneeded backstory stuff is just incomprehensible to me. Ugh.

One Piece chapter 741 - Ugh, we've seen all this before Oda, and again, Ussop should be past this. This schtick of him returning to help people believing in him despite his cowardice is something that should not be at this point because his character development up until recently showed he was no longer afraid of jumping into battle when the need arose. This is just pointless character regression, and it hurts me especially because Ussop is by far my favorite character in the series. And aside from that we get Soldier/Kyros' backstory, which honestly doesn't tell us anything we needed to know about him and just feels like filler to me. A pretty bad chapter this week, sadly.

One-Punch Man chapter 44 - Blizzard is a total badass. I love how she so easily stopped the bullet meteor things by herself when no one else could. It seems Silver Fang is really hurt, though. I wonder if it'll be serious. The most important thing, though, is Engine Knight tell Genos that Metal Knight is actually an enemy and can't be trusted. I wonder what his deal is, or if Engine Knight can even be trusted himself. Hmm.

Toriko chapter 270 - I suspected Toriko and co. would return to the site of Ichiryuu's final ingredient and go into that tree-house to talk with the inhabitant. I expected it to be a Nitro, but I didn't expect it to be a talking Nitro with a cranky attitude and an old sense of humor. Interesting. Since he clearly knows Ichiryu, I wonder what he can tell Toriko and the others about GOD and the Gourment World. Next week should be revelatory.

Rankings:

1. Assassination Classroom - 10/10
2. One-Punch Man -  9/10
3. Toriko - 9/10
4. One Piece - 4/10
5. Naruto - 1/10
6. Bleach - 1/10

Compared to last week, this week was pretty bad, but that Assassination Classroom was so good, it more than makes up for it. I have already re-read it quite a few times, even. I'm glad I'm keeping up with the series now. 

The to say it, but it's what I've been saying for a while, now. Oda really just doesn't develop these characters past their initial arcs. It's true. When you stop to think about it. We see them act out their little quirks for comedic effect with each new arc, but what do we see change about them? We still go through the routine of the weak trio of characters getting scared easily but then standing up for someone else when the time comes. We've seen other characters have to deal with tough situations and make tough decisions, but everything always comes out OK in the end, which doesn't force any of them to change. The biggest disappointment came after the time-skip. Luffy should at least be somewhat different after Ace's death, but he's just the same character except stronger. Even Son Goku wasn't really the same kind of character he was as a kid when DB had its time-skip into his adult years (though he still acts as immature as a kid :P).

Oda, you've done a good job making the same formula actually interesting for way longer than it should've been, but ever since the Fishman Island arc, it has really been running thin for me.

Eh, I think Ussop and Nami at least had very good character development up until the timeskip. I will elaborate on that later when I have the time. I will agree about everyone else though, especially about being disappointed on how little Luffy had changed after the timeskip. I mean, even fucking Naruto became a different character than he was at the beginning of the series after that series' timeskip (not that he's a good character, mind you, but I'll give him credit for having actual character development).

Somebody else really needs to start reading One-Punch Man, All You Need Is Kill, Toriko, Magi, and/or Assassination Classroom or I need to finish catching up on Kuroko. It'd be nice to have a discussion on a currently running manga in their prime for once instead of just the occasional "One Piece isn't as good anymore" talk.   :sweat:

Well I was on season 2 of Magi, but I still need to get back to it on CR (as well as Space Brothers, for that matter). After I finish season 2, I'll catch up to the manga. As for Toriko, I'll probably start the manga for that in May, after I finish my final rotation, assuming that I've at least managed to line-up a job by then.

Toriko and One Piece were absent, Conan is late again, and the rest haven't updated either. On the plus side, it was a quality week, for the most part.

All You Need Is Kill chapters 8 and 9 - I apparently missed the AYNIK last week, so I have two chapters to talk about this week. Both feature Rita's backstory, which I quite like. She was a normal, regular old person, and in just one night her life was completely turned upside down, spurring her into the single-minded goal of revenge against the Mimics. I find it interesting that her real name isn't even Rita, and it's a stolen identity she used so that she could join the defense force despite being underaged. I think the most interesting thing out of these chapters is the hints as to what's causing the loops. Rita's loop started when she killed an odd Mimic with an antenna, and in each progressive loop that Mimic is increasingly guarded and aware of her moves, so it has to have been it that caused her loop to being with. That's interesting, especially since it's the complete opposite of Kirya's experience, since he loops after a Mimic kills him, whereas Rita loops when she kills that Mimic. It'll be interesting to see how those seemingly contradicting events are related. Excellent chapters.

Assassination Classroom chapter 82 - Korosensei is such a great character. I love how he's always trying to make the students grow and improve, like in this chapter, giving them advice on how to  better their evasion techniques and hinting at how they could outwit him and Karasuma. The funniest parts, of course, were him being so easily bribed and fooled by the students and letting them escape from the jail zone. It's clear he doesn't care about winning the game, so long as the students get experience out of it. Seeing them fool Karasuma was surprising, since they obviously couldn't best his speed or technique, they needed to find a way to exploit his and Korosensei's limitations to win. I wonder if next week will start a longer story arc, or if they'll have more short, but funny stories for a while. Hard to tell, but this series is so in the zone that whatever happens is bound to be enjoyable.

Bleach chapter 573 - Isane's comment is just harsh and out of character. She should be more emotional about Unohana being dead, seriously. Worse than usual dialogue in this chapter. One some level I do like how Kenpachi can cut down a guy who's very power is that everything happens how he imagines it too, which should be unbeatable and stuff, but it's still stupid and it doesn't help that the villain is yet another one of Kubo's lame over the top evil bishie baddies. Meh.

Magi chapter 218 - I'm liking Sheba more now. Seeing her befriend the Momo and then being guilty of what she had done to them in the past, but not having the courage to tell them about it, and hating herself for it, was some good moments. But I loved the fact that, to rub salt in the wound, a magician appears and turns them into mindless beasts again, and Solomon knew this was going to happen, and let it. Solomon is a pretty cruel dude in some ways. I find it especially interesting that the whole mess was actually Solomon's and co's fault in the first place, since they were the ones who initially gave the magic power to those towers, though I doubt they thought it was going to be abused like that by the magicians. I'm not sure what is meant by them being "the avatars of the divine states," though I'm sure that'll be explained next chapter, which also promises an epic magic battle, which of course it's sure to deliver.

Naruto chapter 669 - I still don't get why Guy is so important again. I mean, it's sort of sad that he's sacrificing himself to buy time against Madara and sort of cool that he's actually damaging him, but it's still feels unnecessary to me. It also makes no sense how even with the 8th gate unlocked he's hurting Madara, since the 5 kages together were untterly curbstomped by the guy. Well, I can't say I hated this chapter, like I usually do, but there's still a lot of bothersome things. I guess Naruto's awake now, which hopefully means they can end this damn thing soon...maybe.

Rankings:

1. All You Need Is Kill - 10/10
2. Magi - 10/10
3. Assassination Classroom - 10/10
4. Naruto - 5/10
5. Bleach - 4/10

The good was really good and the bad was just kinda "eh." The good stuff outweighs the bad, though, and it's rare that I am willing to think so highly as to give three series 10/10's for their latest chapters, so that says something about how solid AYNIK, Magi, and AC were for me this week. Hopefully I have more good stuff to read this week.

Not a bad week. 

Assassination Classroom chapter 83 - It's hard to describe why the chapter was so funny, but it's mainly because it has to do with Korosensei's character. We've seen him act perverted in many moments in the past, so for him to be accused as a lingerie thief is hilarious because on one hand it's something that you wouldn't expect him to do because of his pride as a teacher, but on the other hand, he is eccentrically pervy enough to justify the accusation. And the reactions of both him and the students are just priceless. But I'd say the interesting thing was that this impostor Korosensei as actually a set-up by Shiro and Itona. I was wondering when they'd show up again, since they were shown on the move a few chapters ago. It'll be interesting to see where this situation leads next week.

Black Butler chapter 91 -  This is probably the first time I've mentioned a BB chapter, huh. I tend to forget about it since it doesn't update regularly (and only monthly, anyway). On the subject, seeing Sebastian actually do butler-y things in this one is sort of amusing, I guess. For once I am actually interested in Ciel, since he's lost his memory and suffering from past traumas and whatnot. Hey, maybe he'll become a likable character for once! I don't read BB expecting it to be good (I read it because it can be so flamboyant and twisted that it turns around and becomes amusing), but this was a pretty competent chapter on a story-level,  and I do find myself interested in Ciel's situation, so this was an okay one.

Bleach chapter 574 - I chuckled at Kenpachi calling the Sternritter Captain Obvious, but this is still a stupid chapter. I mean, first off, this guy has the power of imagination, so he should just imagine Kenpachi dead already. Hell, he should imagine all the Soul Reapers dead and Juha Bach the victor. Why doesn't he? It makes no sense. He's just another bland and pretentious villain that thinks he's smarter than he is. Why does Kubo seem to have such an affinity for those? They got old years ago. Anyway, Yachiru's bones are no longer cookies because apparently this guy can't think about multiple things at once and Kenpachi is commanding his attention. Cool? Gah, boring and stupid chapter as usual. I like Kenpachi's retorts, since he at least has a personality unlike everyone else in the manga nowadays, but that only goes so far when there is so much of this stupidity going on.

Magi chapter 219 - We were promised a high-octane magic battle, and we got a curbstomp. Pretty cool, regardless. Interesting that Solomon is the son of the leader of the Council of Elders. There's really not much to say about the chapter other than it was a cool fight, and that next week should further some answers or details on the current situation.

Naruto chapter 670 - I have mixed feelings on this one, which I suppose is a step up from hating it. I was bored out of my mind at the useless generation gap dialogue jokes at the beginning, but I did like learning the origin of the Sage of Six Paths,  the use of chakra, and why/how the ten tails was sealed. That said, I have to groan at Naruto being the reincarnation of the Sage's younger son. I mean, come one, isn't Naruto already special enough, Kishimoto? Ugh. I expect copious character shilling next week. I get it, Naruto is special and amazing and a savior and whatever, shut up already. Otherwise, I guess it was a decentish chapter, as it at least made sense to do unlike having Guy be randomly important again these last few weeks.

One Piece chapter 742 - Man, I was disappointed with the last few chapters, but this one was great. In a succinct manner Oda shows Kyros progress from a criminal gladiator in the Colosseum, to a respected general, the development of the relationship between him and Scarlet, sweet moments of his family life, how he got turned into the Toy Soldier, and that scene where he sees Scarlet being shot, but she no longer remembers him because he's now a toy, and dies in his arms...fucking tragic. It's amazing how much backstory Oda was able to get into this chapter, and have it still be incredibly effective. And what's more, there's so much else happening here. Rebecca has lost her will to fight after learning Diamante was the one who killed her mother, Franky has been defeated and likely will be taken captive, and everyone's last hope, Ussop, has been rendered unconscious after a vicious beating by Sugar and Trebol. But, then, Sugar force feeds Ussop the Tabasico grape, and his reaction...and her reaction to his reaction...oh my god, I laughed so hard. That was a clever way for them to beat Sugar, Oda.  Instead of a typical battle where she looses thanks to last minute effort or what not like in a normal series, she just gets freaked out and passes out because Ussop's freaky reaction to the Tabasico. That is amazing. I loved this chapter, something I haven't been able to say about a chapter of OP in a good while. Hopefully next weeks will keep the pace.

One-Punch Man chapter 45 - Ah, man. I was worried about Silver Fang after he got knocked around like that last chapter, but he kicked some ass and was a total badass here. With that regenerating alien dead, all that's left is Saitama's fight with Boros to conclude. It was excitingly drawn, as always, but of course, the best part is seeing Saitama, after all the damage Boros is doing and his confident taunting, passively just asks him "are you done yet?" Yeah, this arc should end next chapter, but the payoff should be satisfying as always.

Toriko chapter 271 - Chichi is a riot. An old, crotchety guy that is strangely perverted and has a penchant for lying for the sake of lying...and he's a fucking Nitro...that's just brilliant. I wish we actually learned more about how he and Ichiryu met, but I guess that story needs to be saved for now. Acacia's full course must really be something if the mere scent of one of it's ingredients on an apple is enough to make the group go wild. It'll be interesting to see what sorts of things the "night" of the Gourmet World has to offer.

Rankings:

1. One Piece - 10/10
2. Assassination Classroom - 9/10
3. Toriko - 9/10
4. One-Punch Man - 8.5/10
5. Magi - 8/10
6. Black Butler - 6/10
7. Naruto - 5.5/10
8. Bleach - 2/10

Last week might've been better if only because 3 of the series had 10/10 worthy chapters, but this one had a lot of good in it too. Some interesting developments should be going down next week in all of the good major series I'm reading, and I'm looking forward to reading them.

No Assassination Classroom this week, and Conan is still not updated. But, even without them, this was a good week of manga.

All You Need Is Kill chapters 10-11 - These chapters show how Rita learned to make use of the loop, showing how Rita fights in battle, how she got the axe blade, and why she engages in seemingly random conversations with dying soldiers on the battlefield. The main point of chapter 11 was Rita learning Kiriya also loops, but that last scene was very well-done scene. After so long, she finally is no longer alone in experiencing the loop, and has found a comrade who understands what she's been through. It was a simple and effectively emotional moment. Looking forward to how the plot develops now that both of them will start to collaborate with each other.

Bleach chapter 575 - SIGH. If the guy has the power of imagination, he should just wish Kenpachi dead already. Instead he does really unimaginative things with his power, when he should just be able to win in a second. This is just a really dumb situation, and a boring as fuck chapter.

Magi chapter 220 - Solomon rallies the Manticore, Gorgon, and Hermit tribes to his cause by telling them that, even though some species have advantages in some ways over others, they all have one common thing that bonds them together and makes them deserving of equality and life - the ability to love and care for other creatures besides oneself. Solomon continues to be an very interesting and likable character, and while this chapter is devoted to this inspirational speech, it is very moving and thoughtful. I'm also liking Sheba, and wondering how her role in the story will develop from her. Yet another fine chapter in this flashback, and I'm eager to see how it develops from here.

Naruto chapter 671 - You know...I don't really hate anything about this chapter, for once. Yeah, it's stupid as fuck that Naruto and Sasuke and the reincarnations of the Sage's sons and whatever, but the chapter explained some aspects of the plot previously unexplored and I thought the ending was very nicely done. I still think the whole situation is dumb, but it was a "good" chapter by my standards, a rarity for this series. 

One Piece chapter 743 - It was very satisfying to see the toys turn back into humans, and I laughed so hard at a lot of the reversions, like the pirates one and the gorilla one. I must say that seeing Kyros return to form, and Violet, Rebecca, and Riku remembering him struck some good emotional chords, and him cutting Doflamnigo's head right off was a real moment of badass. Though, I doubt Doflamingo is going down that easy, so we'll see how he manages to survive that next week I guess. Overall, there was lots of great stuff in this chapter, and I'm pleased to see the series start to return to form a bit.


Stealth Symphony chapters 1-7 - This is a new WSJ series written by the creator of Baccano! and Durarara, Ryohgo Narita. I wasn't planning on checking out the series until I was sure it would be worth my time, but I ultimately ended up reading through these chapters, and it's enjoyable enough at this stage for me to keep reading it. The first few chapters are rather slow and sorta standard of battle shonen, but the recent ones have made the main character, Sieg, more likable than he was initially, and the invisible dragon Toroma is a good one too. This first arc is kinda interesting in that Sieg has found employment with a group who is out to stop a human trafficking operation...which is being guarded by Toroma and others of the Virtue & Vice company, who not only saved Sieg's life but also who he heavily admires. So it's an interesting situation, where the main character has to fight against his friends, and both are just doing their jobs without concern for what's "good" or "evil." It's a unique story arc to have early on and has definitely piqued my interest in the series a bit. Reading a manga when it's just starting up is a relatively new experience for me, with AYNIK being my only precedent, and that series is based on a ten year old novel while this is a new story, so I think it'll be fun for me to keep up with it and see where it goes.

Toriko chapter 272 - The monster that was sprouting from the ground in the last chapter turned out to be a Melon Octupus, which the gang will use as tent and transportation in the early parts of the Gourmet World. This was a nice send-off chapter for the group, with all of their compatriots returning, and the pets coming along with them. It's a simple chapter, but it succeeds in feeling triumphant and exciting. After a bit over two months of waiting, it's finally time to see the group go off into the Gourmet World, and I'm excited to see what the series has in store.

Rankings:

1. One Piece - 10/10
2. Toriko - 10/10
3. All You Need Is Kill - 10/10
4. Magi - 9.5/10
5. Stealth Symphony - 7.5/10
6. Naruto - 7/10
7. Bleach - 1/10

So, I was very pleased with my favorites this week, Naruto was better than usual, and Bleach....well, it sucked hard, but the pros definitely outweighed the cons this week.

Quote from: Cartoon X on April 05, 2014, 02:40:56 PM
Bleach chapter 575 - SIGH. If the guy has the power of imagination, he should just wish Kenpachi dead already. Instead he does really unimaginative things with his power, when he should just be able to win in a second. This is just a really dumb situation, and a boring as fuck chapter.

You're setting yourself up for failure every time you think there's gonna be some form of logic in Bleach (You're better off giving up on the series now instead of torturing yourself). If only people can remember that logic/plot and Bleach don't go together, people would probably think differently of the series, but then again I've become rather simple minded when it comes to manga (otherwise I wouldn't be reading Bleach or Naruto for that matter). I've come to accept Bleach as an action series alone with decent characters. That being said, the last 3 chapters were still awful to me.

I'm sorry, but even in "action" stories that emphasize fighting over the story there does need to be a form of logic in what characters do and how the plot develops. Toriko has bizarre shit happen all the time, but it makes sense why the characters act the way they do and why things happen plot-wise. Saying that Bleach and logic/plot don't go together and that's okay is a lame way to justify it's entertainment value, since Kubo is writing a series he wants people to take seriously, not an absurd parody or bout of random action and craziness. The problem with this fight is that Kubo has set up the villain to have the power of imagination. He should be able to do anything he wants, and with a power like that he could easily kill Kenpachi, or heck, why doesn't he try turning his bones into cookies or something like he did with Yachiru? You're telling me to just ignore that this character, who Kubo has established as capable of imagining his opponents to death, is not doing that to Kenpachi for no explained reason because apparently I'm not supposed to care about the plot in Bleach? No. This is bad writing. Nothing changes that.

As for why I still read Bleach and Naruto, it is because I have been invested in them for a long time and with the promise of their conclusions nearing I figure I might as well finish what I've started. Bleach chapters take two minutes to read because Kubo wastes space so much so it doesn't waste that much of my time. And luckily, as you can see from all my thoughts on the series I'm keeping up with these last few weeks, I am reading several well-written and entertaining series like Magi and Toriko that I genuinely enjoy. I don't need to become "simple minded" to enjoy manga, and I fairly and easily find outrage in the poor plotting of Naruto and Bleach when I compare them to the good manga I read. There is more manga out there beyond the so-called the most popular WSJ stuff, and if you are tired of shonen I'd suggest you try out series like All You Need Is Kill and One-Punch Man, both of which are simple but excellent seinin manga with epic battle scenes and well-done stories and characters. There's plenty of good manga out there, and it isn't really that hard to find. You just need to be wiling to try them.

Maybe I'm wording it the wrong way. I'm not trying to say its okay to excuse it. Hell, this is exactly why I ignore Kubo's writing. I've been ignoring Kubo's writing since Toshiro battled Halibel. The logic during that war was quite something right? Yet, here we are still reading and it's been how many years? Bitching about it now? What's that gonna get you? Granted I'll give you that it does feel good to complain after all these years though, right?

QuoteI don't need to become "simple minded" to enjoy manga, and I fairly and easily find outrage in the poor plotting of Naruto and Bleach when I compare them to the good manga I read. There is more manga out there beyond the so-called the most popular WSJ stuff, and if you are tired of shonen I'd suggest you try out series like All You Need Is Kill and One-Punch Man, both of which are simple but excellent seinin manga with epic battle scenes and well-done stories and characters. There's plenty of good manga out there, and it isn't really that hard to find. You just need to be wiling to try them.

I'm not telling you to become simple minded. That's just how I am. The only reason I'm reading mangas now, good action, artwork and characters. Simple minded stuff. But telling you this stuff means nothing, so whatever. Forget about it.

 I've always complained when anything in any series is poorly written and does not make sense. That is nothing new, and it is not something I only do with Bleach, and I'll have you know I've been complaining about Bleach's story for a couple of years now, but I didn't bother putting my thoughts on every individual chapter until recently when I decided I needed a way to help me keep track of what I'm keeping up with.  Perhaps I should've dropped Bleach for good long ago, and to be honest, I did drop it for a long while after the Fullbringer arc, but after hearing that this was to be the final arc of the series, I figured I might as well finish the series. It doesn't make me feel good to complain about Bleach. I'm honestly pretty emotionally uninvested in it at this point, so I'm just giving my honest opinions on what I thought of a chapter. It doesn't "get" me anything, I'm just posting what I think of a chapter and how the story is progressing. And I read manga for story/characters, so I'm not just going to ignore the series' deficiencies in both of those.

Quote from: Grave on April 05, 2014, 05:14:16 PM

I'm not telling you to become simple minded. That's just how I am. The only reason I'm reading mangas now, good action, artwork and characters. Simple minded stuff. But telling you this stuff means nothing, so whatever. Forget about it.

Alright. You read manga for your reasons, I read them for mine, and we can leave it at that.

Double the amount of manga to read this week compared to the norm...and the majority of it was really good!

All You Need Is Kill chapter 12 - So, because Kiriya killed the main server of the Mimics in the first chapter, he was forced into the loop by the back-ups, and that's why he keeps experiencing it over and over again. So, after Rita takes out all the backups in this chapter, Kiriya should've been able to kill the main server Mimic once and for all, and end his loop. But, for some reason, this didn't work. I can only guess the same that others have also speculated: either Kiriya or Rita has also become a "server" of the Mimics, responsible for resetting the loop, and whoever it is, that person needs to die before the loop can be broken permanently. I don't think the series will run much longer, since the story seems near it's end. The Edge of Tomorrow will be released on June 6th, and I'm assuming the manga will be over just before then, so I'd say at most there'll be 8 more chapters. Still, I'm going to enjoy speculating and seeing the story unfold as the next few weeks unfurl all the same.

Assassination Classroom chapter 84 - Shiro and Itona wanted to put Korosensei into a state of mental unease from having the students lose trust in him, and then limit his movement by enclosing him in a tight space. Of course, since the students already used a strategy like that on him before, he's adapted a counter strategy to it, as well as a new technique (which basically seems like some sort of energy ball) to get rid of opponents in tight spaces. That's cool. It's only natural Korosensei would improve his own skills after seeing how close he was to being killed back in the summer vacation arc, after all. The big thing about this chapter was Shiro abandoning Itona for his failure. I think Shiro has some sort of grudge against Korosensei, maybe a history with him, which is why he desires his death so badly. He also mentioned something about a "new model," which means there might be a new government-made monster being created to kill Korosensei. I have to wonder how Itona will exactly fit in with the rest of class E, since he doesn't really have much of a personality aside from being angry. Well, that'll probably be addressed next chapter, and then I guess we'll just see how it goes from there. 

Attack on Titan chapter 56 - Wow, I really liked this chapter, which is something I haven't been able to say for a long time. From Hange's conversation with Sanes and her frustration at the role she has to play, to Levi telling Historia to shut up and do what she has to do, and why he's willing to be flexible to do whatever it takes if it means saving the entire human race (a good explanation for his behavior last few chapters), and to the ending of the chapter, where the Survery Corps has already seen through Levi and Reebs' scheme, slaughters Reebs and his men (with only Reebs' son left alive, managing to stay out of sight, somehow), and has taken Historia and Eren captive. It seems the plan has fallen apart, but I knowing Levi, he probably has some sort of backup to help fix the situation. I can say though, that in terms of plot and character interactions, nothing at all annoyed me here, making for the best chapter of this series I've read since the end of the Female Titan arc. I could hope this won't be a fluke and the series can be enjoyable in future chapters, but I guess I'll need to wait until next month to find out.

Bleach chapter 576 - I can't say this made me as bored or irritated as the last few chapters, but this whole battle...just, Gremmy should just imagine Kenpachi dead or mutilated already, c'mon. Well, Kenny'll be taking on an entire fucking meteorite next week, and that might be fun, I guess.

Detective Conan chapter 889-890 - Hey, guess what's back! Overall, I really enjoyed the Tea Cup mystery, though I do think, in retrospect, that the culprit was pretty obvious. The brilliant thing about this mystery was actually how obvious it was, but could be so easily missed if you don't stop and think about it or apply a basic understanding of acids and bases. I love it when Aoyama tells these more realistic sort of cases than the "strings" plots which tend to get overused from time to time. The next case looks to be featuring more of Bourbon (or should I say Zero?) and explore his past a little more, which should be really interesting. Hopefully the translators don't delay it for over a month this time.

Magi chapter 221 - This chapter was mostly about Sheba obsessing over Solomon, which was kinda funny but also a bit irritating after a while. I do appreciate Solomon's desire to be treated like a normal person by people close to him, so that he won't grow arrogant or an ego that would lead him to getting a superiority complex. The quality of the magoi being corrupted is most likely a sign that black rukh is starting to develop, so perhaps we'll see corruption among those in Solomon's rank soon (we know Ithnan will eventually betray him, after all). I'm curious about the Origin Dragon and what it possibly might say, but otherwise, I feel that the flashback arc is moving too slowly. Hopefully it shows signs of wrapping up soon.

Naruto chapter 672 - Another chapter that I've liked, but it's hard not to get a smile seeing Guy unleash a final, all of strike against Madara, after seeing a flashback of his childhood, showing him flunking the entrance exam to Konoha academy and Kakashi mocking him. He came a long way, and even Madara could say he's the strongest practitioner of taijutsu he's ever seen. I think I might have been too hard on Guy's fight with Madara and his backstory in the last few weeks, since it ended up finishing rather nicely here. It ended up appealing a lot to me, and after weeks of tedium and stupidity, the end of the chapter actually made me a bit excited to see what is (hopefully) the last fight between Naruto and Sasuke against Madara. That feeling probably won't last, but hey, good chapter here anyways.

One Piece chapter 744 - Oh man, this chapter was just so awesome. Sabo gettng Ace's fruit, getting his powers, and his reveal was just expected but so epic in execution. While the schtick with Ussop being considered a savior to a large group of people was done before with Buggy, it was still freakin' hilarious since we actually know the characters of a lot of these guys like Cavendish whereas the Impel Down prisoners were nameless goons, and that extra bit of characterization helps make it be a little less of a retread and just as funny. And like everyone expected, Doflamingo ain't dead and is now using a technique called "Bird Cage," which freaks out Law. This arc has finally gotten to a point where the mad chaos has balanced out into something consistently enjoyable, I can say that I am absolutely excited for the next chapter, something I have not been for a good while.

Peephole chapter 19 - I figure I better start talking about this too or I'll keep forgetting to read it for weeks at a time. Anyway, this series is basically about a total loser of a guy called Kurosou getting into a faux relationship with his next door neighbor, Miyachi, who is basically a female version of Dexter, after accidentally watching her kill a guy through the peephole he has in his room, and the frightening life-threatening shit he gets into as a result of his association with her. It's over the top and disturbing in an amusing way and makes for a legitimately entertaining guilty-pleasure sort of series. In this chapter Kurosou is sent to a Match party by Miyachi in order to lure out a serial killer she wants to kill, and lo, it works. The unfortunate thing about this series is that the chapters are so short, and this week I can't say there's much I can talk about, but next week should be fun, especially since both the police and Miyachi are out after this serial killer, so it'll be a sort of competition between them, and lord knows the danger Kurosou is gonna be put in as a result.

Stealth Symphony chapter 8 - I like Jig's initiative and desire to do what he thinks is right even if it means fighting against his own friends. That said, the action in this chapter was kind of a blur to me, and mostly it seems like a set up for Jig deciding to use his wings to help people instead of just lamenting it as a nuisance. The next chapter should prove more eventful now that he's taking action.

Toriko chapter 273 - Toriko's group braved a sea of thorns and giant manta rays and are now on Yutou Island, the location of the "salad" of Acacia's full course. The Riddle Chapter is basically a pokedex sort of device for the several million discovered animals/plants known in the Human and Gourmet World, but like Zebra says, it will probably become useless the further they go into the Gourmet World and into it's unexplored regions, so I'm not sure what the point of it is, but maybe that'll be something expanded upon in time.  I am much more interested in knowing just who the hell is that frog that was so carelessly drinking tea while reading the torn waves and is controlling the skeletons of the dead sailors at the Harbor of Evil Spirits, but that's something that'll surely be revealed as the arc progresses. This was basically a transition chapter, just trying to get the group to the Island and set up the arc proper, but it did it well, and I can't wait to see how the first proper arc of part 2 of Toriko'll go down.

Rankings:

1. One Piece - 10/10
2. Attack on Titan - 10/10
3. Naruto - 9/10
4. Magi - 9/10
5. Toriko - 8.5/10
6. Detective Conan - 8/10
7. Assassination Classroom - 8/10
8. All You Need Is Kill - 8/10
9. Stealth Symphony - 8/10
10. Peephole - 7.5/10
11. Bleach - 5/10

11 manga, and most everything was good this weak, with the Bleach chapter being the only one I didn't like, but even that was just meh rather than awful. I feel weird ranking AOT and Naruto so high since I do not at all like those series normally, but they had good chapters this week, and I can't deny I enjoyed them and found them stronger than the others I ranked them above.  A fluke, perhaps, but all the same.

I'm gonna be hella busy next few days, so I'll just share my thoughts on this week's manga today. I guess I'll have to talk about the new Stealth Symphony some other time during the week, since those come out tomorrow.

Assassination Classroom chapter 85 - Shiro is such a bastard. This is something that's been established before, in how he used Class E as pawns in his gambles to capture Korosensei without any regard for their lives, but abandoning Itona, leaving him to die, and then using him as bait to lure Korosensei into a trap? Geez, I should've nominated him for the villains tournament. Aside from seeing Shiro be a total asshole, this chapter also reveals that Itona is actually a human, with tentacle implants. He needs treatment every three days to keep control of them, and if he doesn't, he'll go mad and eventually die. This actually explains why he acted so psychotic in previous installments. Well, partially. We still need to know more about him; how he met Shiro, what his connection to Korosensei is, and why he wants to kill him so badly. Korosensei's determination to help Itona despite the bad blood between them in the past is characteristic but, as always, admirable and there is a sweet moment between them here that did make me smile (until Shiro ambushed both of them). I think at the end of this arc Itona will join Class E permanently, so hopefully we learn more about him in the ext few chapters. Which will be fun to read, since the whole of Class E is pissed off at Shiro for using them as pawns again, so there will no doubt be some delicious payback coming up soon enough.

Bleach chapter 577 - This chapter was just time-wasting and boring, because it's essentially devoted to reaction shots of various characters as the meteor is falling down, and Gremmy's lame gloating about how he'll be the only one left standing and whatever. It is nice that we finally learn the name of Kenpachi's shikai, even though the design is unwieldy and honestly kind lame considering the build up. Meh. This whole Gremmy nonsense is just boring, especially because, with his power, he should be doing way more inventive and exciting things than just make one duplicate of himself and create a big rock in the sky. It should end next week, at least.

Detective Conan chapter 891 - Takagi, you idiot! Why the hell would you tell a random stranger, you just met, about the identities of two FBI agents? Even if he's a detective, that information should be kept secret. Sigh, well, sometimes Aoyama has characters like Aoyama make blunders like this, but in his defense, Takagi is the sort of person who would blunder like this, so I can forgive it. Especially since know that Bourbon knows about Jodie and Camel, he's sure to be even more suspicious of Conan, and finally put the pieces together. Plus, "Oh? FBI, you say?" I love Bourbon. I really, really do. The case itself is pretty interesting this time too, especially since the victim has a history with Jodie, which might be related to the case in some way. I haven't been this excited for a new case since "The Raven Train Murder," and I can't wait to see where this one will go.

Magi chapter 222 - I admit...this flashback arc has had it's dull moments. A lot of that is because, besides Ugo and Ithnan, these characters are completely new, so it's hard to care about them. However, I've found myself really growing fond of Sheba and Solomon as it's gone on, and that's really what's making these chapters work for me. Here, for instance, a lot of fun humor comes from Sheba's insistence to accompanying Solomon and reactions to things, and she and Solomon share a sweet character moment where she reassures him that, despite his past, his followers firmly believe in him. I enjoyed learning how Solomon slowly changed his mind about the other species thanks to getting to know the Mother Dragon, since it adds some depth to his character and why he's fighting for the equality of all. The best part of this chapter, though, was the expansion of the mythology, and the characters trying to figure out what is happening to the world, throwing out several theories, and coming to the conclusion that, because someone is becoming more powerful than the "god' of their world, the magoi is being increasingly depleted, and once there is no energy left, the world will die out. Their are a lot of stakes on the line here, and the enemy is none other than Solomon's own father. While I do wish we could get to the meat of why we need to know all this, I'm enjoying the mythology building, and Solomon and Sheba have become interesting enough characters for me to want to see where this flashback arc is going. Quite frankly, this chapter had everything I love about Magi at it's finest and shows a lot of why it stands out as the most ambitious and articulate of the currently-running shonen series I'm aware of and keeping up with. An excellent chapter, and I'm looking forward to the next.

Naruto chapter 673 - There isn't anything bad here. It's all quite good action and it gets right to the point on everything it needs to, setting up Naruto and Sauske confronting Madara together for what Kishimoto promises to be the final battle. It's a good chapter that doesn't really have any of the annoying faults that plague the series week to week, and while I can't say I'm excited to see the ultimate showdown since I'm not invested in the characters/story at this point (I'm more relieved that it seems to be finally ending), but the chapter does it's job and works for me. Now let's just see if this final fight was worth the tedium of the past three years.

One-Punch Man chapter 46 - Too short. TOO. SHORT. This is one problem of keeping up with OPM on a bi-weekly basis; sometimes Murata makes the chapters just too damn short. Like, I was so fucking excited with all the epic action going on in Lord Boros' and Saitama's fight and all the beautiful destruction and chaos...and bam! Over. Just 9 pages, and done. Not even really a proper conclusion-y kinda thing to the chapter. It just stops. And this irritates me. Because I wanted more. Well, at least I'm hella pumped up to read the next chapter asap.  :D

Peephole chapter 20 - Miyachi is actually pretty clever, figuring out who the insurance money killer was by carefully studying trends in a couple seemingly unrelated blog posts. And it actually makes sense why Kurosou was chosen to bait her out, since he fits the kind of guy the killer likes to go after. This was a really well-done chapter. Honestly, this series might be better than I'm willing to give it credit for. Maybe that's too early to say, but this is pretty interesting stuff here, and I'm curious to see what the next step in Miyachi's plan is.

Toriko chapter 274 - Oh man, poor Quin. Whole chunks of his neck were bitten off by those piranhas. I don't think that's going to heal easily. Lot's of great action this chapter, and it looks like we'll be learning more about the mysterious frog guy from the last chapter already. I'm curious as to what the "Real Mist" is as well.

Rankings:

1. Toriko - 10/10
2. Magi - 9/10
3. Detective Conan - 9/10
4. Assassination Classroom - 8.5/10
5. One-Punch Man - 8.5/10
6. Peephole - 8/10
7. Naruto - 7/10
8. Bleach - 1/10

I'll edit in Stealth Symphony later, or just add it next week. Overall, though, a solid week of manga just like the last. I'm very pleased.

Did Grave self-delete?

 Vix has licensed World Trigger for a print release (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-04-18/viz-media-announces-print-edition-for-world-trigger-manga). I've heard good things about it, and they've been running it in Alpha since it's beginning, so it's no surprise that they are finally doing this. I really do need to get on reading the series, sometime. Now, if only they made print volumes of One-Punch Man...

Quote from: Cartoon X on April 19, 2014, 11:18:34 AM
Now, if only they made print volumes of One-Punch Man...

I remember Viz mentioning a while back that they are working on getting the series a print-release, so hopefully it happens soon. 

It'd be great if it does. OPM is just too brilliant to be relegated to only the digital format.

You know, I've been trying my damnedest to appreciate One Piece lately, but I'm sorry to say that it's still just mediocre at best for me. Oda's formula has gotten stale. There's only so many 'times that I can see some plot about the Straw Hats overcoming some corrupt or downright evil organization or regime, liberating a whole kingdom, and then moving into the next island to do the same again. I mean, this could still work if executed well, but the problem is that Oda hasn't really been doing it that well lately. Previously arcs knew just how to pace themselves and gave you just enough story and action in the right balance to keep you engaged. Oda is trying to cram too much story into each chapter in many cases, and even now that he's evened out the pace in this arc, I don't find myself caring as much because I never really got a chance to bond with the supporting characters. Going back to the pacing, while I don't like a ridiculously slow story, OP has the opposite problem right now. It just doesn't give you any breathing room anymore. Every single action scene has to be some 2-page spread or happen on some really large scale to look impressive, but to me it just looks unceative, and I miss the visceral feel of earlier fights in the manga. Whatever happened to just a gold old fashioned punch a guy in the face panels that were drawn effectively by not going into explicit detail of how it's wrecking the surrounding environment a la DBZ.

There are still enough interesting elements to this series to keep me reading, but my patience is really wearing thin. Oda need to change things up now. I'm no longer satisfied with the usual 1-dimensional villains. And for crying out loud, at least come up with some new character gags. I'm tired of seeing the "Usopp is a coward" shtick for one thing. Shouldn't we have already moved past that? I suppose Oda forgets the little bit of character development that he gave Usopp in a much earlier arc. I'm also just tired of seeing no real change in any of the main characters since their introduction arcs.

This series really needs an adrenaline shot in the arm, right now. It's supposed to be fun, but I'm just not having any fun right now, and I haven't had any real fun since before the major time-skip.

This might be surprising to hear, from me, but I honestly don't think I'm that into One Piece anymore

Well, at least not as much as I used to be. Part of that is because I've been reading a lot more manga than I used to, and re-evaluting the stuff I enjoy and why I enjoy them as a result, but I think the biggest reason is because of how Oda has handled things after the timeskip. I've said this before, but I do not feel the crew has been organically returned to the story. Yes, they are there and present, but their interactions now feel forced and it seems like Oda is struggling to give them something to do so far. In the pre-timeskip arcs, every member of the crew had something to do in the arc and the focus was evenly divided among them. Now, the majority of the focus is on Luffy, and the rest of the crew feels like an afterthought. I find Oda's overuse of the crew's character quirks and gags to be evidence of how he's forgotten how to write these characters. Much like the cast of The Simpsons, everyone has been flanderized, emphasizing the superficial aspects of their characters without touching the bit of depth to them that made them lovable and enjoyable protagonists in the first place. The degeneration of Ussop's character arc a few chapters ago to play on the old, overused gag of his cowardice pretty much confirmed this to me. So not only has no single member of the crew besides Luffy done much of interest or had much focus thus far post-timeskip, they have also become more shallow and one-dimensional than they used to be. This is likely why I find myself more concerned and interested in what's happening to the other characters like Kine'mon, Law, and Kyros than, say, Franky or Robin, who I frankly sometimes forget are still in the story.

While I love the effort Oda puts into his artwork every chapter, I'll agree that, quite frankly, it's become too much. It's one of the reasons why I don't enjoy american superhero comics: too much going on in a panel is distracting and off-putting, serving to take me out of the experience when I should be immersed in what's going on. Sometimes it's so cluttered I can't make out all the action, and this weakens the impact of the fight scenes to me. Simpler is better, and would leave more of an impact. I honestly feel Oda is trying too hard with his artwork. I would much prefer he cut back on cramming as much as he can into every panel, and focus on getting a grasp of his characters better.

Story-wise, this arc has been hit and miss. There's lots of interesting stuff going on, but Oda hasn't balanced everything properly, so a lot of it, the tournament especially, seems like Oda meant it to go somewhere, but then changed his mind or got bored with it, so he hastily came up with a way to move on from it quickly. There have been lots of good moments, but also a lot of meh ones. I seriously didn't care for anything involving the Tontatta and I have to wonder why they even needed to be in this arc in the first place.

I have really enjoyed the last three chapters because there were a lot of cool things happening and going on and stuff, but for the most part this arc has been incredibly inconsistent and that's kinda a shame. I'm certainly not bored with it, but I've fallen a bit out of love with the series as well. As far as currently-running shonen manga go, Toriko, Magi, Assassination Classroom, and Silver Spoon are more enjoyable to me on a regular basis (though I need to catch up on SS, which I will, because SS is by far the best shonen manga currently running). And with the exception of SS, I really wouldn't say I like those series more than OP as a whole nor do I love them as much as I did OP in it's prime. But Dressrosa has kinda shown me that despite Oda's efforts in trying to make the series better and more exciting, he's actually lost what made the series so great. The characters are now just pale imitations and exaggerations of who they once were. The story has become too convoluted, taking the simple formula of the past ad cramming a lot of stuff into it but not really adding anything new, and because there is so much going on it's hard to become invested in a single plot element and care about it. There are still chapters that I really, really enjoy, and I do still look forward to new ones every week, but I do think the series is in a rut, and don't find myself particularly as invested and as much a fan of it as I once was. And unless Oda manages to write the crew in the organic, natural way he used to, and focus his story, I'm not sure I will.

I posted this in the Hunter X Hunter thread, but I might as well do it here as well.

(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn03.animenewsnetwork.com%2Fimages%2Fcms%2Fnews%2F73689%2Fmain-11.jpg&hash=86e7ed0a68c50b4778f6fde4f461ba44208cd7d9)

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-04-22/hunter-x-hunter-manga-to-resume-in-june (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-04-22/hunter-x-hunter-manga-to-resume-in-june)

Looks like I'll be keeping up with a 15th currently running manga sooner than I thought. After all this time, the series better be as good as it can. Don't disappoint me, Togashi.

YES!! YESS!! THERE IS A GOD!! YES!! YES!!!!  :worship: :'( *joy tears*

I'll go with ten chapters this time before the delays. How about you, Ensatsu-ken?

It'd actually be hilarious if he came back with just one or two chapters before going on hiatus again. Part of me wants that to happen for the lulz of it.  :D

Ten? Me thinks you are giving Togashi too much credit. Watch it be 5 new chapters and a 3-year hiatus to follow. Calling it.

An average week, I'd say.

All You Need Is Kill chapter 13 - This was such a sweet chapter. Kiriya and Rita letting go of all their worries for a day, and bonding over the simplest of things like having an eating contest, looking at the ocean, and telling each other stories. It really put a smile on my face seeing two characters, suffering so much and alone this whole time, find happiness in a companionship with someone in the same situation. A very moving chapter, and it really makes me want to see these characters finally break the loop, saving these experiences.

Assassination Classroom chapters 86-87 - Two chapters this week! Nice, since they conclude this current story with Itona. Terakasawa is honestly one of the series' best characters, because behind his rough, delinquent exterior, he's got a great heart and is world-wise when he wants to be. Seeing him try and help Itona, by just having him hang out his him and his crew and do simple, fun things, was great. Itona's backstory also shed light onto why he was so obsessed with victory. It also seems he doesn't really have a connection with Korosensei after all; it was just a set-up by Shrio to get Korosensei off guard. That makes sense. I'm glad Terakasawa helped him realize he does not need to put himself down so hard for failure, and that he should keep trying, and live happily day by day. Without his tentacles now, though, he's more of a normal student, but he should have some great chemistry with Terakasawa in particular so I'm looking forward to that in future chapters. Overall, some more great chapters from AC, and it's nice to see Itona join the main cast to boot.

Bleach chapter 578 - Gremmy is dead because Gremmy is stupid. Understatement of the century. Lame chapter, but hey, at least this fight is over with.

Dragon Ball Minus - So, the bonus chapter released in the Jaco volume has been translated, so I decided to read it. I don't care for how Toriyama has retconned the entire Bardock: The Father of Goku special with this chapter, but it isn't bad. I don't know why Bardock and Gine didn't try escaping Planet Vegeta themselves, and I really don't buy "oh, they'd get tracked with the scouter excuse" thing because space is vast and I doubt Freeza would actively hunt them down. The scene where they send off baby Goku is nice, though. But Goku wearing saiyan armor when he left Planet Vegeta is another retcon that I can't really say could be explained well, since he didn't have armor on when he landed on earth. Whatever. I'm more disappointed that we barely saw or learned anything about Gine in the chapter, though she seemed like a fun character from her interactions with Bardock. Of course, the best parts of the chapter weren't about Bardock and Gine. Nah, the Jaco stuff was way funnier, and  Jaco's enthusiasm at being able to allow humanity to be exterminated actually got me to laugh out loud. So it's kind of disappointing that the Jaco parts of the chapter were better than the Dragon Ball parts, but it was a fun little read all the same.

Black Butler chapter 92 - Yeah, so the Green Witch is in league with the were-wolves. BIG SHOCKER. Whatever. Finnian's backstory is kind of over-the-top ridiculous too, but that's par for the course when it comes to this series, so okay. Not sure where this is going at this point, but it wasn't a bad chapter, just kinda "there."

Magi chapter 222.5 - So, we get a short side-story kind of chapter. And it's really, really boring. Just a bunch of paragraphs that, I'm assuming detail Solomon's dads' feelings over the birth of his child. Bah.

Naruto chapter 674 - None of the action was really interesting to me, especially because there was so much talking and Madara going "oh my god these guys are so impressive" and that annoyed me. Kakashi losing an eye to Madara was kind of out of nowhere, but it was a quick and effective scene. And of course, Sakura is useless again and fails to do an easy, simple job right before Madara shows up. Guess Obito is going to die protecting her and redeem himself or whatever. Eh.

One Piece chapter 745 - Yeah, so Robin knew Sabo and Koala already. Called it! Bird Cage is an interesting technique. The set-up is familiar, but the crew being hunted down by the entire island is a concept that could lead to a lot of good action and tension if Oda pulls it off right. I also want to know what the deal with the duplicate is, and just what Kine'mon was carrying in his hands. A pretty good transition chapter.

Peephole chapter 21 - Lol, and Miyachi kills the policeman. This manga is so stupidly fun, and that's because Miyachi is such a clever, insane character who is fun to watch in action. I find myself looking forward to seeing her take down the insurance money killer in a wonderful battle of psychopathic wit.

Stealth Symphony chapter 9 - So the boss is a crazy killer mermaid. That is awesome. What is lame is how this character is so stereotypically evil and is picking a fight she should know she can't win. That's a lame way to get Toroma and company back on Jig's side. The series has been doing shitty in rankings, though, so an epic battle at this point is probably it's only way to try and shoot up, stave off cancelation, or otherwise provide a decent-ish (if no rushed and convenient) ending to it. It's a real shame that it hasn't been doing so hot, since it has a lot of potential. Well, I'll enjoy what I can of it while I can I suppose.

Toriko chapter 275 - This chapter was like "oh shit," then it was like "oh, shit!," and then it was like "oh, SHIT!" and then I was like "Fuck yeah!" Coco is so awesome. Poison Dolls, an ability that creates a living, moving duplicate out of the poison in his body. Such a unbelievable ability, but it's so useful and played out here so cool. I've said it before, but this series is like what you'd get if you took JoJo's and Dragon Ball and mixed 'em into one glorious creation, and this chapter was a perfect illustration of that. Full of great action and suspense, and setting up for Toriko to show his stuff in a battle next week. Yes. Easily the best chapter of the week.


Rankings:

1. Toriko - 10/10
2. All You Need Is Kill - 10/10
3. Assassination Classroom - 9/10
4. Dragon Ball Minus - 8/10
5. One Piece -8/10
6. Peephole - 8/10
7. Stealth Symphony - 7.5/10
8. Black Butler - 6/10
9. Naruto - 5/10
10. Magi - 2/10
11. Bleach - 1/10

So, not really a great week of manga, but the Toriko, AYNIK, and AC chapters were hella great so I'm happy enough. Hopefully a regular, interesting chapter of Magi comes next week and another pointless distraction like this week's doesn't happen again.

Lol, I just realized all the Shonen Jump manga I was reading this week had clones of some sort in them. What a weird coincidence.  :lol:

 :D

I recently checked the most recent Jump rankings, and wow, Bleach has been in the bottom two a lot recently. The only series that tend to rank lower than it are new series that don't have a chance of making it past three months anyway. Yep, it's curtain time. It's unlikely the series will get cancelled, per say, because of this recent performance, but no doubt this'll mean that the editors at Jump are going to try and accelerate the story as quick as possible to reach the ending faster. So yeah, I predict that before the end of the year, Bleach'll be done. It's only a matter of time now.

So, apparently I missed that there were two new translated Detective Conan chapters, so I decided to read them and HOLY FUCKING SHIT IT'S FINALLY HAPPENED BOURBON HAS FIGURED IT ALL OUT OKIYA IS AKAI CONFIRMED CONAN HAD EXPECTED GIN WOULD FORCE KIR TO SHOOT AKAI HE HELPED HIM FAKE HIS DEATH OH MY FUCKING GOD EVERYONE IS SO SCREWED!!!!

Yeah...so, shit is going DOWN! I haven't been THIS excited for the series since the Bell Tree Murder Express arc 70 chapters ago. Finally, finally the plot is moving forward and there's no going back. Akai isn't going to die, since clearly the Okiya Bourbon is confronting right now is not Akai but someone else in disguise (the face mask is a dead giveaway, since Haibara did the same thing before in the Desperate Revival arc), but man, I have no clue how anyone is going to be safe after this, since Bourbon has no doubt pieced together Conan is Shinichi and Kir's cover is blown. The manga has to be going into an endgame now, and even if it's not, I'm excited for what's basically going to be Clash of Red and Black 2.0. Yeah, these next few weeks, DC is going to be amazing. I cannot hold my anticipation of the things to come.

Top 20 most popular manga in Japan based on the number of copies in circulation. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2014-05-01/top-20-most-popular-manga-ranked-by-publication-numbers)

For those who don't want to click the link, they are:

1. One Piece - 300 million
2. Golgo 13 - 200 million
3. Black Jack - 176 million
4. Dragon Ball - 157 million
5. Kochikame - 155.3 million
6. Detective Conan - 140 million
7. Naruto - 140 million
8. Oishinbo - 130 million
9. Slam Dunk - 119 million
10. Doraemon - 100 million
11. Astro Boy - 100 million
12. Touch - 100 million
13. Fist of the North Star - 100 million
14. Kindanchi Case Files - 90 million
15. Sazae-san - 86 million
16. Captain Tsubasa - 80 million
17. Hajime no Ippo - 75.5 million
18. Bleach - 74.6 million
19. Sangokushi - 70 million
20. Rurouni Kenshin - 70 million

There are more listed according to the original link, but since everything is in japanese there are a few I can't recognize and I can't tell the circulation numbers for. But I'll list the ones I do know anyway.

21. Hunter X Hunter
22. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
25. H2
26. Bad Boys
27. Ranma 1/2
29. Rokudenshi Blues
30. Dragon Quest
31. Baki the Grappler
32. Great Teacher Onizuka
33. Yu Yu Hakusho
35. Initial D
36. The Prince of Tennis
37. Nana
38. Shin Chan
40. Vagabond
41. Be-Bop Highschool
42. City Hunter
45. Major
46. InuYasha
47. Yu-Gi-Oh!
49. Gintama
50. Attack on Titan
52. 20th Century Boys
53. Dr. Slump
55. Cobra
57. Urusei Yatsura
58. Bastard!
62. Death Note
65. Shaman King
69. Hitman Reborn
70. Saint Seiya
71. Boys Be
73. Hikaru no Go
74. Fairy Tail
77. Zatch Bell!
78. Kimagure Orange Road
79. Rookies
81. Eyeshield 21
82. Ashita no Joe
85. Gantz

Stray Thoughts:
1. Wow, One Piece pretty much trounces everything else in how many copies of it are in circulation. You can't really use the "it's been running so long and it has lots of volumes excuse" because both Golgo 13 and Oishinbo have run for over 30 years and have double it's volume count, and it still beats them by a landslide. Yeah...this kinda much confirms OP is the most popular manga ever in Japan, and for the most part I do think it earned that honor, though the post time-skip stuff makes me not feel like it totally deserves it.

2. It pleases me to no end that Oishinbo is so popular, and really impresses me that Black Jack is the third highest circulating manga. Seriously, that's awesome, and well-deserved.  ;D

4. The fact that Bleach has sold more copies and is on this list over better popular series like Ashita no Joe,  Urusei Yatsura, and JoJo's annoys me.  :srs:

5. Damn, despite all it's production problems, HXH is still really fucking popular! No wonder Togashi gets away with so many hiatuses.  :sweat:

6. As a fan, I am of course happy to see Ranma 1/2 in the top 30 (though I wish it was UY instead, of course).  ;)

7. Didn't expect AnJ to be so low.  :(

Overall, this list is surprising in some respects but not in a couple other. Some of these I believe truly deserve their popularity, others I think are a bit overrated, but it is what it is since this is based on data and whatnot. I wonder if something will ever come along to knock OP off #1 though...since nothing currently running or in the past comes even close....

They could probably get those RK sales even higher with a new anime. Just saying.

Bleach being so high is disappointing. The rest of the top 20 is fairly expected and deserved.

I didn't know Golgo was so popular. I thought it was just some obscure series. I'm actually surprised to see Fist Of The Northstar that high, for some reason. Or Grappler Baki. Hell, I'm genuinely surprised about Baki, especially seeing what popular series it's above.

I wasn't expecting AnJ to be a top 20 or anything, but I would've figured it'd at least be in the top 50 based on how iconic the series is, but I guess Japanese readers who like shounen manga are apparently more interested in Bleach and stuff.

Hunter X Hunter may eventually crack the top 20 in a few years as it continues to have volumes sold in the millions with each new release, as infrequent as they may be.

Also, you CAN make the argument about series length influencing ranking in some cases, if you go by an average of copies sold per volume. For instance, Rurouni Kenshin sold 70 million copies with only 28 volumes, while Hajime no Ippo only sold about 5 million more with over 100 volumes currently out, which means that RK sold well over 2 million copies per volume on average, while HnI sold well under a million copies per volume on average. Going by that logic, RK is clearly the more popular series, but if you are just going by total volumes sold regardless of how many there are per series, the ranks will come out much differently.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on May 01, 2014, 11:44:01 PM
I wasn't expecting AnJ to be a top 20 or anything, but I would've figured it'd at least be in the top 50 based on how iconic the series is, but I guess Japanese readers who like shounen manga are apparently more interested in Bleach and stuff.

That or AnJ hasn't been reprinted in a while, and hence hasn't had any new copies sold in a long time.

And considering this list is overwhelmingly dominated by them, I'd say most japanese manga readers enjoy shonen series.  :D

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on May 01, 2014, 11:44:01 PM

Also, you CAN make the argument about series length influencing ranking in some cases, if you go by an average of copies sold per volume. For instance, Rurouni Kenshin sold 70 million copies with only 28 volumes, while Hajime no Ippo only sold about 5 million more with over 100 volumes currently out, which means that RK sold well over 2 million copies per volume on average, while HnI sold well under a million copies per volume on average. Going by that logic, RK is clearly the more popular series, but if you are just going by total volumes sold regardless of how many there are per series, the ranks will come out much differently.

That's true. In fact, by average copies per volume, the top 20 would look like:


Black Jack - 10.4 million
Astro Boy - 4.3 million
One Piece - 4.1 million
Touch - 3.8 million
Dragon Ball - 3.7 million
Slam Dunk - 3.7 million
Fist of the North Star - 3.7 million
Rurouni Kenshin - 2.5 million
Doraemon - 2.2 million
Captain Tsubasa - 2.2 million
Naruto - 2.1 million
Sazae-san - 1.9 million
Detective Conan - 1.7 million
Kindanchi Case Files - 1.4 million
Oishinbo - 1.2 million
Bleach - 1.2 million
Sangokushi - 1.2 million
Golgo 13 - 1.2 million
Kochikame - 0.86 million
Hajime no Ippo - 0.71 million

..which as you can see, is quite different. I don't know the numbers for anything past the top 20, but I can imagine quite a few series past there that would be more popular than some of these series in here.

Oh cool, Looked at the list and saw that Kinnikuman was like 23rd best seller. But wow, One Piece really is the most popular series in Japan right now. Kochikame can't even touch it and it's been in print for a long amount of time, like 1976.

Ah sweet, Ultimate Muscle.

No Shonen Jump this week, so I didn't have much to read. I already fangasmed over the awesomeness of the new Conan chapters earlier, and I have nothing to add there, so all that's left is...

Magi chapter 223 - Ah, this chapter more than makes up for last week. In order to help Solomon make the right choices, Arba and Sheba plan to be pillars of support for him, Arba helping him in the times he must be a tough leader, and Sheba being there for him when he's on the verge of losing his way. Lots of nice scenes, emotional and humorous, here, and the chapter also gets me wondering if Arba might actually be Gyuokuen (they do look kinda similar..). I'm curious to see if that's the case in future chapters.

Peephole chapter 22 - I don't get why Miyachi doesn't see cops as people so she thinks it's okay to kill them, but it did make for some funny scenes, so okay. She certainly is pretty devious, having devised a way to pin the murder of the cop on Fuyjiura in a split-second before she killed him. This manga is honestly starting to become legitimately good now, and I'm actually excited to see what crazy shit'll go down next time. Well done, Peephole.

Rankings:

1. Detective Conan - 10/10
2. Magi - 10/10
3. Peephole - 9/10

Quality over quantity this week, I'd say. Still would've loved to read a new Toriko, but alas, I can wait 'till next week.

This week was rather lacking...

Assassination Classroom chapter 88 - Nice to see Itona fitting in with the rest of the class. His role is likely going to be that of a tactician or inventor of sorts for the group considering his expertise in building things and his high intelligence. And so Korosensei's weak spot is his heart, which is in the same spot as his tie is. I'll be interested in seeing how they exploit that information. Shiro, on the other hand, continues to be a creepy bastard (what with eating a live mouse and all that), and his plans to exploit the natural assassin in the classroom, whoever that is, is curious, as is his backup plan. This manga sure knows how to keep interesting, I can say that much.

Bleach chapter 579 - So Gremmy was a brain all along. Okay. Nothing really happened in this chapter except Yachiru is missing and that female group of Quincies have appeared to fight Kenpachi. Eh. How many enemies do we have to see get beaten until Ichigo can fight Uryu and Juha Bach already, seriously?

Naruto chapter 675 - Madara manipulating Rin's death and stuff is just stupid, as is Naruto suddenly being able to heal people's body parts for no good reason. I'm calling it now, but Naruto probably has the ability to bring people back from the dead too, because he's teh messiah super sugoi or whatever. Really, really stupid chapter.

One Piece chapter 746 - I laughed so hard at "God" Ussop having the highest bounty. That alone made this chapter. Other stuff here was just okay, though.

Peephole chapter 23 - And now Kurosou is hiding Fujiura in his house. Not too much happened this time outside from this, though.

Stealth Symphony chapters 10-11 - So the Mermaid boss is defeated by Troma and Jig is assured that he helped out the situation despite not being able to protect people as well as he wanted to. And then a bunch of convoluted stuff about the Assassin's Guild and Police having manipulated the whole scenario to take down the slave traders and pharmaceutical company. Whatever. I'm not sure if this manga is canned or not since 11 seemed like a wrap-up chapter. Kind went out on a lame note if that's the case, but too bad, it had some potential. Well, we'll see next week or not if it's continuing or not, I suppose.

Toriko chapter 276 - Toriko is more of a badass than ever and can take down level 600 beasts without even fighting them now and the Frog approaches the group all chill like on his motorbike. Ah, how fun this manga is.

Rankings:

1. Assassination Classroom - 9/10
2. Toriko - 8.5/10
3. One Piece - 8/10
4. Peephole - 7/10
5. Stealth Symphony - 6.5/10
6. Bleach - 3/10
7. Naruto - 1/10

Not one of the better weeks of late, I must say. There's usually at least one 10/10 worthy chapter of the bunch, but nothing that good this week. Oh well.

Whoa, a modern day Bleach chapter that's better than a Naruto chapter?

Quote from: gunswordfist on May 10, 2014, 04:23:25 PM
Whoa, a modern day Bleach chapter that's better than a Naruto chapter?

That....isn't really saying much....

Hmm, I did hear that Naruto has been getting even worse so I guess you're right.

Quote from: gunswordfist on May 10, 2014, 04:23:25 PM
Whoa, a modern day Bleach chapter that's better than a Naruto chapter?

There's been plenty of weeks where I found the Bleach chapter was better than the Naruto one, but that's relative and as you can see by the scores both still are terrible. That said, I don't always hate the new B and N's; sometimes, though rarely, they can produce a chapter I can legitimately like. That doesn't change the fact that, overall, they are awfully written, but I'm judging these on a week by week basis so there are ups and downs (though B and N are almost always down).

Speaking of manga that we've grown tired of....good god has One Piece become boring. Oda has introduced too many new characters, and the last several chapters have been nothing but him rapid-switching between all of their plot-lines. I'm also getting sick of the lame jokes. So, Peka has a high-pitched voice while being really massive. It's funny....because it contradicts expectations? Maybe, but that's pretty juvenile humor at best. God Usopp isn't funny either because Oda already used that concept with Buggy, and even then it wasn't really that funny.

I don't know. I feel like this manga has completely lost sight of what made it special in the first place.

Eh, I'm not sure I can be quite as pessimistic about recent OP chapters as you are. My enjoyment of the series is more just inconsistent, with some parts I get a kick out of and then others that bore me. But I am annoyed by Oda's stale jokes and the overabundance of characters and plotlines that fail to work in a cohesive way. It's still got an appreciable energy to it most of the time so I can't say I'm bored with it, but certainly, it's nowhere near as exciting to me as it was back in it's prime. I do think Oda has lost touch with how to write most of the characters, though, which is a feeling I've had ever since Fishman Island. As it stands, I still think new OP chapters are entertaining, but it's no longer something I'm excited to read every week, unlike some of the other manga I keep up with.

Since I caught up on Kuroko, I'll start talking about new chapters of it too, especially since the match with Rakuzan has to be drawing to a close. Anyway, this week was a fair bit better than the last...

Attack on Titan chapter 57 - So, Reiss' plan is to have Eren get eaten by another titan, to make someone easier to control with the titan-transformation ability and the cry power. At first I was confused by this, but reading the chapter again and after learning about Ymir's backstory as hinted in an OVA, this is a sound plan and explanation. Though, we still need to know how Berthold's group has the ability to become Titan's in the first place, and how other human beings (like Connie's mom) can be transformed into titans. The beginning of this chapter was good in how it furthered/explained the plot as it stands. I also enjoyed the scenes where Erwin promises to get to the bottom of Reebs' murder and Hange and Flegel talking about what they need to do, as well as the group questioning whether they should continue following Levi despite his violent methods. The concept behind Kenny the Ripper, a killer hired by the government secretly, is not particularly interesting but Levi's connection to him his and hopefully the clash between the two will help develop his character a bit more (though, as it stands, he's probably one of the better ones in this series). Good chapter this time. The series just might be getting a bit better.

Bleach chapter 580 - This chapter was mostly the quartet of female quincies massacring squad 11 with their abilities and beating up an already worn out Kenpachi. I suppose it was sorta of amusing, in the mindless carnage sort of way. I wonder who's arriving from Hueco Mundo to bail Kenny's ass out now? Hopefully Grimmjow, because it's been forever since that cliffhanger and we know he's coming sometime, so why not?

Detective Conan chapters 896-897 - SHUICHI AKAI IS BACK BITCHES! And we finally learn Bourbon's real name! And it looks like he might be a double agent of sorts, trying to take down the Black Organization himself. At least, I don't think Conan would have confronted him unless he knew he wouldn't reveal his identity to higher ups in the organization, which if he was truly a loyal member, he would. Awesome chapters, and I'm excited to learn the secret behind "Zero" next week.

Kuroko no Basket chapter 261 - Sigh, Akashi continues to be an over the top and cliche superiority-complex antagonist, as well as stupidly over powered. I mean, making Hyuuga and Izuki "kneel" and some of his dialogue here was just cringe-worthy to me. I did like the scene where Kagami asks everyone to leave Akashi to him and they do so because they trust him as their ace. HOWEVER, I do not care for the revelation there is a zone that surpasses the zone. I mean, the zone was one thing. People IRL say they are in the zone when they concentrate hard and are efficient at something and the manga just took that idea and played it as a kind of "power-up" that made sense and wasn't too unrealistic. However, saying there is a zone beyond the zone means that basically the zone really is a shonen power-up along the lines of super-saiyan now. The way this is set up, there is no doubt that Kagami is going to enter this second level of the zone. And if he beats Akashi that way, well, it's bullshit because Rakuzan really has no business losing at this point and as much as I hate Akashi doing that would be a out of nowhere powerup that serves just to beat the antagonist, an action no better than in the likes of many a shitty battle shonen. So, I really hate the beginning and ending of this chapter. It really is too bad that this series' biggest match to date continues to be it's worst.

Magi chapter 224 - Sheba standing up for Solomon was a great scene and his recognition of her as a truly powerful magician felt well-deserved. And with that done, this flashback arc can hopefully move on to it's last act and we can see how things fall apart. And boy am I interested in seeing that.

Naruto chapter 676 - This was just kind of boring, but at least the Infinite Tsukiyomi or whatever has finally been activated. I mean, it'll probably be undone in a chapter or two if not quicker, but it means this battle with Madara is getting ever closer to ending so yay for that.

One Piece chapter 747 - I loved the scene with Dolfamingo and his crew, where we learned that he really sees them as a family and there's a strong bond between them. Considering Doflamingo is one of the most cruel, twisted characters in the series I liked this extra bit of depth to him and hope it's expanded upon in the future. The comedy in this chapter really brings it down though, especially the Pica's voice joke which simply doesn't work in a manga as it would in the anime (and even then, it's a really overdone gimmick and not that funny in the first place). And again, too much of seeing the rest of the straw hats run around. But, with Luffy and co. confronted not only by Fujitora but by Pica as well, I'm hoping for an entertaining battle next week.

Peephole chapter 24 - Lol, for a whole month Fujiora was slowly food poisoning Kurosu, confused him about getting her pregnant as he was falling unconscious, and then got them acknowledged as legally married. And once that was done, she dropped her cute moe disguise and revealed her real, curvy, botox-faced identity. Pretty funny stuff.

Toriko chapter 277 - So, the frog's name is Mappy, and he's from the Bewitching Food World, Buranchi's village (which means we'll be seeing Buranchi again soon, yay!), which is one of the 7 ancient civilizations of the gourmet world. Oh man, there was just so much good stuff in this chapter, from the jokes about Mappy's frog-speak, to the frog-car, to the group's reaction to the footprint left behind by the Horse King Heracles, to the golden sea and a giant foot about to descend from the clouds. So much happened here and it was all gloriously informative without ever feeling to exposition-y and hilarious to boot. I love it.

Rankings:

1. Detective Conan - 10/10
2. Magi - 10/10
3. Toriko - 10/10
4. Attack on Titan - 8/10
5. Peephole - 7.5/10
6. One Piece - 7/10
7. Bleach - 4/10
8. Kuroko no Basket - 4/10
9. Naruto - 4/10

So, actually, a lot of really good chapters this week. That's always great to see. I really hope the fan-translators resume All You Need Is Kill by next week, though. There should only be four chapters left, and I'd like to finish reading it before Edge of Tomorrow comes out (assuming that movie will be worth going to see).

I disagree. This week's One Piece chapter was shit, much like it has been for a while. It was sporadic and unfocused, the humor was lame, and I still have yet to give a shit about any of the characters, even the freaking straw-hats. I'd give that a 4/10, myself.

Most of your complaints don't really disagree with my thoughts on how the series has been recently, except that you found no entertainment at all in this chapter whereas I at least liked the scene with Dolfamingo and his crew as well as Fujitora's scenes. Because I enjoyed those parts, I just can't say I thought it was a "shitty" chapter, myself, and I'm perfectly capable of hating a OP chapter as much as a chapter from anything else.

Typical EK bluntness. :D

The first volumes of Assassination Classroom (http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/7mE7Nisa2N0gKG=4pe/browse/item/102672/4/0/0) and World Trigger (http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/7mE7Nisa2N0gKG=4pe/browse/item/102680/4/0/0) are now available to pre-order on Rightstuf.

I will try to keep up with the AC releases, since the series is providing me with consistent entertainment week after week, and I would like to give it my support. As for World Trigger, I really need to get around to reading it, since I've heard many good things about it. Same with Shokugeki no Soma, which Viz is releasing starting this August.

I tried reading AC a few months back. It's not bad by any means, but it's also a very specific brand of humor that I need to be in the right mood for, hence why I didn't keep up with it.

I'll be giving One-Punch Man a shot soon enough, though.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on May 20, 2014, 10:30:07 PM
I tried reading AC a few months back. It's not bad by any means, but it's also a very specific brand of humor that I need to be in the right mood for, hence why I didn't keep up with it.

I'll be giving One-Punch Man a shot soon enough, though.

How about Vinland Saga? I'd like to see your comments on that one.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on May 20, 2014, 10:30:07 PM
I tried reading AC a few months back. It's not bad by any means, but it's also a very specific brand of humor that I need to be in the right mood for, hence why I didn't keep up with it.

Understandable. Personally, the series started to pick up for me around the 40 chapter mark, and I was really impressed with it's first (and to date, only) "serious" arc. I can see why it wouldn't be some people's cup of tea, but it's something I find myself looking forward to and enjoying each week.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on May 20, 2014, 10:30:07 PM
I'll be giving One-Punch Man a shot soon enough, though.

Please do.  :)

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on May 20, 2014, 10:41:05 PM
How about Vinland Saga? I'd like to see your comments on that one.

Speaking of, I caught up on Vinland Saga last saturday morning. I'll post some elaborate thoughts on it once I finish a couple other things I've been reading, but I will say, it's become one of my favorites.

I'd also like to see those!  :)

I'll be starting Vinland Saga as well.

So, this week's chapter of OP, while still sporadic, brought up one interesting concept to me: are a lot of these big names going to become allies of the Straw Hats (or at least Usopp, making them Luffy's allies by extension), or is this just a one-time thing. I thought of this because Whitebeard had a ton of allies to call to his side at Marineford for the war (they weren't all directly his own crew), and it's implied that the other pirate emperors have a bunch of allies as well to support their forces. I'm wondering if Oda is trying to build these sorts of connections for the Straw Hats so that they can really contend with the major powers of the sea later on. It'd certainly be a nice change of pace to go that route, but since the idea sounds so awesome, I kind of doubt that's what the current Oda has in mind, since he hasn't done much to change the status-quo of the world of OP since the time-skip following Marineford.

I do think these characters will appear again as allies for the Straw Hats down the line. The Straw Hats have been gaining allies and support from all sorts of people throughout their adventures, and I've always thought that in whatever the climactic conflict in this series will be, that support network would help them out in some way. I could very well see what happened in this chapter to turn into a new sort of Pirate Alliance centered around the Straw Hats, much like Whitebeard's alliance in the Marineford arc. It all depends on how the rest of this arc goes, I suppose.

Honestly, this chapter was easily the most focused in a long time. It was only about the various pirates meeting up with Luffy and forcing him to let them help him take down Doflamingo, and joining the ongoing fight with Pica. I honestly thought it was easily the funniest chapter in a long time too, mostly for Cavendish's parts which was had me laughing pretty hard.

Not a particularly great week this time.

Assassination Classroom chapter 89 - The naming joke for Masayoshi was too much of a japanese pun to really work for me, though I understood it because I watched Samurai Flamenco so I got a bit of a "oh" moment when they said the alternate reading of the name is "justice." The chapter is basically giving all the characters offensive but appropriate nicknames, some of which like "Not-Takoaka" and "Forever O" were funny, others not really so. The chapter didn't really have much to it besides that and felt short, so it didn't really do a lot for me this time.

Black Butler chapter 93 - Nothing really happened in this chapter. At least, nothing worth 30 pages. It repeated revelations we already knew from last month's and then then added the townspeople demanding the Green Witch evict Ciel and co. from the town, and then some of the humans are actually were-wolves, I guess. This was just really boring to read.

Bleach chapter 581 - Shinji and Momo have rejoined the battle...but they probably will be useless so, whatevs. And Ichigo is back to bail Kenpachi's ass out. Okay. There wasn't anything good or bad about this chapter, it's just 15 pages hyping Ichigo being back. And that's boring.

Magi chapter 225 - Things are not going well for Solomon. Though he tries to keep the species together, there is just no resolving the tensions and mistrust between them, and conflicts continue to periodically break out, and he must continually exert his power and authority to quell them. He may very well be on the dark path to becoming like his father, at this rate. But anyway, Sheba is pregnant! Hmm, I wonder who the child is?... :>

Naruto chapter 677 - Damn. This was a pretty disturbing chapter. Everyone is basically wrapped hypnotized, wrapped in cocoons and connected to the God tree. This Infinite Tsukiyomi thing is a pretty oh-shit kind of deal since the only people not affected are the Edo Tensei's. I'm curious to see how Naruto and co. are going to stop Madara now, since without the protection of Sauske's Susanoo they'd be hypnotized as well. Now, was this worth 210 chapters are 4.5 years of waiting? HAHAHAHHAHAH No. This is kind of a lame payoff. I mean, fucking extending trees? C'mon. But, this chapter, by itself, is alright to me because of it's tone, so I'll throw a bone to Kishimoto here and say it's a decent 'un, but I'm docking it points for not being worth the build up.

One Piece chapter 748 - This was the most focused chapter in a good while, since it only was about one thing - the other Colosseum competitors joining Luffy to take down Doflamingo, and joining the ongoing fight with Pica. It was also easily the funniest chapter in a long time too, and I particularly laughed at Cavendish's parts here. It'll be interesting to see where this alliance will go in future battles, and possibly beyond this arc.

Peephole chapter 25 - Fujiora has one hell of a plastic surgeon. Damn is she crazy. Crazy hilarious! But she's savvy enough to know someone set her up at the hospital. And the ending of this chapter...yeah, I don't think Kurosu is dead, and I wonder if Miyachi has something planned to trick Fujiora. Real funny chapter this time. I'm liking this series more each passing week.

Stealth Symphony chapter 12 - This chapter was too full of stuff, and quite frankly, it's hard to care because none of the characters besides Jig and Troma are really fleshed out yet, so having a new plot thread focused on Alice doesn't seem interesting no matter what kind of past you'll give her. I know this series hasn't been doing well in the rankings and probably will be canceled soon, but I still expected better stuff from the guy who wrote Baccano and Death Note.

Toriko chapter 278 - Komatsu's face when everyone chose him to navigate the Octopus was priceless, as was Mappy's degeneration into a tadpole from the depression of being trapped under the Golden sea. A classic, humorous, and adventurous Toriko chapter here.

Rankings:

1. Toriko - 9/10
2. Magi - 8/10
3. One Piece - 8/10
4. Peephole - 8/10
5. Assassination Classroom - 8/10
6. Naruto - 6/10
7. Bleach - 5/10
8. Stealth Symphony - 5/10
9. Black Butler - 5/10

There weren't that many bad chapters this week, but nothing particularly great either. I'll just have to hope for better stuff next week.

The new chapter of Hunter X Hunter is finally out. A bit too exposition-heavy for my tastes (as if we didn't already get enough of that during the Chimera Ant arc), and it's all only really saying one obvious thing: The Dark Continent = Bad!

So, it's a pretty mediocre chapter in and of itself, but I am certainly interested to see where this series will be going with this concept. It's sort of like how in One Piece the New World was promised to be more bizarre and dangerous than ever, but disappointingly it's just like the fucking Grand Line all over again. With HXH, I have no worries about its so-called "New World" living up to the title of Dark Continent.

Ah, looks like Viz is releasing the complete All You Need Is Kill in a single omnibus in November (https://twitter.com/VIZMedia/status/471392312371978240/photo/1). That's nice to see. AYNIK was a fun manga with some excellent artwork from Obata and I've enjoyed keeping up with it until now, so if I have the scratch, I'll be sure to pick this up.

This was a rather solid week, actually. Helps that it's the first week I can talk about Vinland Saga and HXH has returned!

Bleach chapter 582 - This felt kind of short. It's basically just Ichigo easily beating some of that Quincy gang and that fight starting, plus some bit about Juha Bach planning to do....something. Like, not a lot really happened here, but at the same time, there wasn't anything awful in this one either. It's certainly a step up from the Gremmy bullshit from the previous weeks.

Hunter X Hunter chapter 341 - And so, HXH finally returns! The first half of this chapter was kind of boring, though, since it was basically a bunch of exposition and featured random characters that I kinda doubt will be much important in the grand scheme of things (and basically everything that happened in that scene was basically to say that the Dark Continent was dangerous....which is, y'know, obvious. But I did like the second half of the chapter when it switched back to the Zodiacs and we learned Beyond led the failed expedition 50 years ago, and then the Zodiacs planning to get Ging to lead the voyage among other approaches, and then the ending of the chapter where Beyond appears and asks them to contact V5 and tell them they've captured him. I wonder what his plan here is. All in all, while it was a bit too expositiony in parts, I thought this chapter gave a good first sense of where the arc might be going and I hope to see what Beyond's gambit here is next week. Good to have HXH back, for however long that'll be.

Kuroko no Basket chapters 262-263 - These chapters were pretty good, actually. I mean, Akashi's bits still annoyed me, but Kuroko telling Kagami to give up on trying to take him on alone, and instead work as a team against him, was the right direction considering that teamwork and the Kuroko/Kagami partnership is what this series is based on and the anithesis to Akashi's playing style. Kuroko knowing Kagami so well that he's able to perfectly support and predict Kagami's moves, even more so than Akashi, was well-done payoff to Kuroko's sense of observation and relationship with Kagami all this time,  and is something that has finally outmatched Akashi's own "Emperor Eye" skill, which makes it the first time so far he's been beaten outwitted and outplayed in such a way. Now this is a direction I can get behind instead of that shitty second door idea. But, though this is a step in the right direction, the series could still do that or something more groan-worthy. I'll wait and see how this plays out, but I will say this is the first time in a while I've liked any part of this match, which is a plus.

Magi chapter 226 - All Solomon wanted was to be equal to everyone else. He did not want the position of leader or a position of power thrust upon him. He did not want to see people bow down before him. But, with all the fighting and conflict between the species, there was only one way to unify everyone, and restore order and peace. For the sake of this, Solomon had to become what he did not want. He had to become a King. And thus, the birth of King Solomon. Though his closest followers promise not to treat him less casually than usual, we've seen in the past that they too cannot resist the urge to revere him and hold him of higher status than they as well. Solomon is worried, above all else, that being entrusted with such power and authority he will become corrupted and arrogant, and a dictatorial and oppressing figure like his father. Luckily, he has in Sheba someone who will never be afraid to call him out on bullshit or when he gets out of line, but it's clear he's still troubled. So the look on his face when Ugo tells him that the one thing every being on the planet is equal in is the rukh says a lot. That one idea must have really made an impression on him and uplifted his spirit, and given him hope for creating the equal world that he wants. This was an excellent chapter in how it developed Solomon's character, paying off on many established aspects about him while setting up some more things for down the road. Next week's chapter looks to be the beginning of the final showdown with Elder David, and I'll be interested in seeing how that turns out as well.

Naruto chapter 678 - Some of the dream worlds of the people trapped in the Edo Tensei were kinda sweet and funny. But this chapter's big twist is awfully dumb.  Zetsu, this whole time, was actually working under Kaguya's will, and Madara was a just a pawn in her grand scheme. Kaguya was only introduced, like, 6 chapters ago, so this is kind of sudden. It also feels incredibly cheap because they've been fighting Madara for 100+ chapters now and he was actually set up properly even though his character and motivation is dumb. So, the first half of this chapter is okay, then it's tedious for a while when Madara is spouting his peace crap and we go through the same "YOU GONNA LOSE" "NO I AINT BECAUSE I AM THE MESSIAH AND I GOT FRIENDS" bullcrap, and then out of nowhere plot twist. Surprisingly, this was probably did not make me all that pissed off like a lot of recent chapters have, and mainly that's because I think I'm just getting tired and used to this kind of crap so I'm like, whatever.

One Piece chapter 749 - This chapter was the most boring one in a while. Like there's all of this action going on in the fight against Pica and stuff, but it's so cluttered visually that htere's no momentum and nothing is exciting or interesting here at all. The very end of the chapter, with Law revealing he actually has a personal grudge against Doflamingo as well, that he killed his best friend who also happened to be Doffy's brother, and so I'm guessing this is going to segue way into Law's backstory which I am interested in seeing. Though, one thing that bothered me was Law telling Luffy he recognized his plan was "indirect and inefficient." If he knew this, why the hell he didn't think of a better plan in the first place! I dunno, that line kinda rubbed me the wrong way. No new chapters of OP the next two weeks because Oda got his tonsils taken out, so hopefully chapter 750 will be worth the wait.

One-Punch Man chapter 47 - Oh man Boros is so pissed off. Seeing Saitama utterly own him will be glorious. But the action in this chapter was fucking amazing and brilliantly drawn. Murata is most certainly a master of fight scenes. I don't even care that the chapter was so short, because it was so exciting and awesome I was completely satisfied. Can't wait for certain payoff in the next.

Stealth Symphony chapter 13 - Last chapter had me wondering why the fuck I should care about an arc about Alice. This chapter made me like Alice, and hence be interested in the story. There was just enough charter expansion, humor, backstory, and interactions here to make her an interesting enough character. So good turnaround there. Everyone's pointed out that new villain kind of looks like Crocodile, and that's not a bad design to rip off if you're trying to pick up interest in your series, and he definitely made an impression here what with blowing a guy up by force feeding him gold coins he dripped out like blood from his body and whatnot. This new story arc looks like it'll be fun, though only time will tell whether it'll be the series' last before cancellation or if it'll save it from that fate.

Toriko chapter 279 - Whoa, what a chapter. Joa isn't Frohze after all, rather, she's her "daughter." Not only that, she's working with the Blue Nitro council. Shit, the Blue Nitro have a fucking civilization. That's scary to think about considering how much of a menace the mindless, ravenous Nitro are, though it also explains why the one who was friends with Ichiryu could talk and was very human-like in his mannerisms. And it seems like Joa is finally ready to make her move and collect Acacia's full course for herself. As far as Toriko's group goes, Komatsu's food luck has guided them out of the golden swamp and they are now finally at the Bewitching Food World, and oh how Shimabukuro is teasing us of Buranchi's return. I can't wait for that. A great chapter, as always.

Vinland Saga chapter 104 - Looks like Haalfdan's wife, Asrid, wants him to reconsider marrying off their son to Gudrid. Of course, Haalfdan wants the marriage to happen for the sake of a blood-alliance, though as Asrid points out their marriage was clearly not done under such a pretense. It's clear, anyways, that Gudrid is ultimately not going to marry Haalfdan's son (that's just obvious as far as this kind of set-up goes, even if you don't take into account the historical Gudrid married the historical Thorfinn and whatnot). But anyway, that's not the meat of this chapter, which was Thorfinn and co. asking Haalfdan for a partial loan, ships, and supplies to fund and aid their effort to colonize Vinland. This led to some explanation of that plan, which is to recruit 100 people from Greenland to accompany them, and then Thorfinn and Einar would take the lead in the farming process there. The biggest revelation in this chapter is that Leif's brother had earlier attempted a colonization effort but had come into a violent conflict with the native Skraelings and it fell apart. With Thorfinn's nonviolent stance, though, Leif's confidence that things won't turn out similarly on their attempt is fairly justified, unless he's hiding more details more him and the rest. I'm interested in seeing what Haalfdan wants to talk to Thorfinn about in the next chapter.

Rankings:

1. Magi - 10/10
2. Vinland Saga - 9/10
3. Toriko - 9/10
4. One-Punch Man - 8.5/10
5. Hunter X Hunter - 8/10
6. Kuroko no Basket - 8/10
7. Stealth Symphony - 8/10
8. One Piece - 7/10
9. Bleach - 6/10
10. Naruto - 5/10

Overall, there were a lot of really good chapters this week. Hopefully next week can be as good. And again...WHY THE FUCK HAVEN'T THE FINAL CHAPTERS OF ALL YOU NEED IS KILL BEEN POSTED ALREADY. Goddamit, I'm sick of waiting for those. Detective Conan better get updated next week too or I'll really be steamed.

I already posted my thoughts on HXH.

As for OP, this chapter really contains a lot of my gripes with the current artwork. Oda just has way too much happening on each page. He also has all of these spreads which should make it easier to show big scenes and make it all look clear, but these contain some of his most visually cluttered scenes instead. I feel like he's trying to cram so much into each scene to make them feel more epic, but this is a case where more does not mean better. The artwork in the earlier parts of this series was much better, when it was all simple and easy to follow.

Another exposition-heavy HXH chapter. Togashi just loves those, doesn't he?

This time we at least learned a few more things than in the last chapter. Namely, that the world that we know of in HXH is really only a relatively small body of land in in giant ocean, and now we're seeing that the Dark Continent is all the rage among everyone who's anyone in this series. It's interesting seeing Ging proposing to temporarily team up with Pariston, considering that those guys are polar opposites.

Really, though, I didn't mind the exposition so much, but I'd like the story to get back to Gon before too long. I don't really care for it when manga like this tnd to forget about their main characters almost completely.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on June 04, 2014, 10:37:35 AM

This time we at least learned a few more things than in the last chapter. Namely, that the world that we know of in HXH is really only a relatively small body of land in in giant ocean, and now we're seeing that the Dark Continent is all the rage among everyone who's anyone in this series.

So basically, the Dark Continent is exactly the same as the Gourmet World in Toriko.  :lol:

Ging and Pariston agreeing to temporarily work together is a cool development. I actually don't care when the story gets back to Gon because I'm more interested in Ging, Pariston, Beyond etc. than him as it is, but I do wonder how he's going to fit into the story when the time comes.

Eh, Beyond is interesting as a concept for a character, but boring as an actual character. His only defining characteristics s so far are being smug and seemingly knowing more about the Dark Contient and V5 than the Hunters Association, which he uses to his advantage. Gon just recovered from a highly traumatic experience. I'd say it'd be more interesting to see how his character has grown since that time than it would be to see all of these characters that we just met and mostly don't care about (Ging and Pariston notwithstanding, because they are both awesome). He's also kind of the main freaking character of HXH, so it'd be kind of silly to not eventually go back to his story.

This week was...meh.

All You Need Is Kill chapter 14 - Looks like a new scanlation group picked up AYNIK for the final four chapters. Well, I'm glad I'll finally be able to read them now, but this chapter was full of awkward sentences (and they renamed the Mimics something else for no reason) and stuff, so that's unfortunate. As for the chapter itself, nothing really happened except Rita and Keiji going off into battle. That's it. So...not much content in this one, but I guess it was still good, though the experience was marred a bit by the new group's translation. Mmm.

Bleach chapter 583 - Ichigo continues fighting the Quincy quartet, and he uses a new move at the end. That's all that really happens. I guess there are some "humorous" bits with the Quartet, but their dynamic and the jokes are basically a repeat of Harribel's fraccions back in the Arrancar arc, and it wasn't funny then, and it isn't any more funny now. Eh.

Detective Conan chapters 898-899 - Yukiko made the disguise for Akai so he could become "Subaru Okiya." And it seems that James Black knew all along of this as he felt the glue on Akai's hands before he "died," so Akai told him. It looks like Akai is going to continue masquerading as Okiya for the time being. And it also seems that Bourbon is trying to take down the organization from the inside, but that doesn't mean he's an ally of Conan or the CIA. In fact, he's still very much Akai's enemy, but it seems he won't make a move on him for now, since they have the same goal. But it seems he knows something about Vermouth, who seems to have a closer relationship to the boss than previously thought. Moreover, it seems that someone even higher up in the organization, Rum, is on the move now to get rid of the "rats" in the organization. Very exciting stuff...which of course means we have to immediately go back to a normal case the very next chapter! Yumi's been kidnapped and her shogi-playing boyfriend has to save her before his game time runs out! This looks to be a fun case, but I was really hoping the series'd stick with the main plot stuff for a while longer. But it looks like Sera and her mysterious younger sister are going to play a role in this case so maybe we're in for surprises yet...

Hunter X Hunter chapter 342 - The Dark Continent is basically the Gourmet World, V5 is going to create a subdivision called V6 to direct the exploration mission with backing from Kakin, Beyond convinces the Hunter Association to join him, and Ging and Pariston team up. Interesting stuff, though still too much exposition.

Kuroko no Basket chapter 264 - Akashi finally tastes defeat and shows an emotion (anger)! Seirin finally scores a point again and Akashi, who is also now out of the zone, misses a shot. Looks like Seirin has a chance to win while Akashi's still out of it. Pretty expected but good developments here. With Akashi knocked off his high horse I'm interested to see if his rebound will be well done, but considering how mishandled the character has been the entire series, I don't have much expectations of such.

Magi chapter 228 - Everyone prepares to go to war with Elder David and the capital...that's it. Not that much else of interest happened, though I liked the scene in the middle when Arba and Fallan's kid begs them not to go but Arba tells him they have to in order to protect those they care about. The end is curious in that it looks like Elder David wants Solomon to help him destroy the "God" of Alma Thoran, so it seems Solomon might be walking into a trap. I wonder how so.

Naruto chapter 679 - Madara is dead, just like that. No realization that he, the manipulator, was being manipulated the whole time like Naraku in InuYasha or anything but just bam, absorbed into Kaguya. Wow. Two years spent on fighting this guy and he goes out on a whimper without the satisfaction of the heroes beating him. Maybe this'll be a Kishin-like situation and he'll resurface again but goddamn this is lame. At least Kaguya is no-nonsense and immediately recognizes who Naruto and Sasuke are and tries to kill them, but her grand master plan is to turn everyone into fucking white Zetsus? Seriously? That is the ultimate plan of the master villain of this series, to turn everyone into Zetsus to make a Zetsu army...for what exactly? Wow is this dumb. I dunno even know what to say. I guess, like the WMR guys, I'm just done with feeling anything about this shit. I just hope this Kaguya fight doesn't drag too long so the series can end sooner.

Stealth Symphony chapter 14-15 - Slice is a cool villain with a cool plan of getting his own target to be his bodyguard. The orphanage director has come to finish her job, killing Jig and taking his Dragon legacy item. But Slice has broken Jig up with his assault, and now Jig is becoming a dragon. And it turns out he was crazy all along. Hmm. Pretty decent chapters, I guess. I do like Slice a lot and the concept of his plan. But the series is clearly getting canceled with is why it's wrapping up all these loose ends quickly and with these twists and whatnot. I wonder how many more weeks of it there are.

Toriko chapter 280 - The Bewitching Food World is like a full on supernatural japanese ghost town. Amazing, and so many hilarious moments, and all leading up to an annoyed Buranchi finally making his appearance yelling at the group to come to his place already. I was dying from laughter. A solid arrival-at-new-place-look-around-at-stuff adventure shonen chapter, and I look forward to seeing the story move forward with Buranchi tagging along next week.

Rankings:

1. Detective Conan - 8.5/10
2. Toriko - 8/10
3. Hunter X Hunter - 7/10
4. Stealth Symphony - 7/10
5. Kuroko no Basket - 7/10
6. Magi - 7/10
7. All You Need Is Kill - 7/10
8. Bleach - 6/10
9. Naruto - 3/10

Pretty mediocre week. Only Conan and Toriko were particularly entertaining for me. Not to say HXH, Magi, etc. didn't have good parts to them this week, but overall the chapters didn't leave much of an impression outside of those parts. Hopefully next week will be much better.

Kurapika and Leorio have joined the Zodiacs and are going to the Dark Continent! Awesome, FINALLY Kurapika returns to the main story! And it looks like the owner of his clan's eyes, which is the target he's been seeking all this time is the fourth prince of Kakin who will be going on the voyage as well. Good that there's going to be development on Kurapika's part of the story. It's also great that Leorio is going to be prominently in this arc too, and is coming for reasons that make perfect sense. It'd be nice if Killua also came so we'd have all four of our main characters together again, but I guess we'll have to see about that (we still need to see how Gon's going to be coming along as well, after all).

Looks like Pariston's goal is to change the Hunter Exam in a way that will allow his underlings to move into the ranks of the Association easily, and then eventually Pariston will have effective control over it to do as he pleases. And Ging is now #2 is Beyond's group. Good stuff.

This week's chapter was the first really good one since the series came back. Togashi has essentially given fans what they have wanted for years. He wrote Leorio and Kurapika back into the main story.

I have to admit that for some reason, I thought Leorio was going to recommend Gon to be a Zodiac, but I'm not complaining if it's Kurapika. It'd be awesome if Killua could come back as well, but even though he's my favorite HXH character, I don't mind him getting a break from the series since he's been in every story arc thus far. Gon will of course have to join somehow. And Gina's exchanges with Pariston in this chapter were just class. Even though it's just more set-up, it's the type of set-up that gets me pumped for what's about to come next.

On another note, Killua should totally get his own spin-off series if Togasgi ever manages to wrap-up HXH's main story. I know it'll never actually happen, but you have to admit that the idea could work, since Killua completely has the substance and depth to be a main character (he practically has been as much of a main character as Gon throughout most of the series, and he's just flat-out more interesting than him). Though, another part of me just hopes that Togashi does something completely new after HXH is over.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on June 11, 2014, 10:36:38 AM
On another note, Killua should totally get his own spin-off series if Togasgi ever manages to wrap-up HXH's main story. I know it'll never actually happen, but you have to admit that the idea could work, since Killua completely has the substance and depth to be a main character (he practically has been as much of a main character as Gon throughout most of the series, and he's just flat-out more interesting than him). Though, another part of me just hopes that Togashi does something completely new after HXH is over.

While it's an interesting idea, I think the series is far a ways off from ending,  so I'm not sure how I'd feel about a spin-off about him just yet since we don't know where Killua'll be in terms of his character arc at the end of it. Personally I'd just prefer Togashi make a new manga.

Personally I'd prefer he actually re-did the entire Three Kings arc of YYH and make the current one non-canon to give the series the proper ending that it deserved (because I'm the biggest YYH fan ever, and fuck that ending), but I'd be cool with a new series as well, though I'd like to see Togashi do a story without special powers or anything and just tell a good story with human characters. He's proven that he can do really good human drama if you look beyond the regular shounen tropes that overlay his stories. I'd like to see him really do something along those lines, though.

I think Togashi could write one heck of a political thriller, myself.

Yeah, he seems to always feature some form of shady politics in many of his story arcs, and especially in the Chimera Ant arc.

I think he could make good one shot stories that run for a volume or two before ending.

Sure would work to his strengths, too.

It would probably do him better to just stop doing weekly serialized manga altogether, and instead just release complete graphic novels at his own pace. It would certainly suit his intermittent writing style far better. He's an incredibly popular mangaka in Japan, so I doubt he'd have a hard time finding a publisher. And of course, even if his content output was low, his wife will be raking in big money in royalties thanks to the new Sailor Moon anime, so the guy will have it made either way.

This week more than made up for the disappointing chapters from last time.

All You Need Is Kill chapters 15-17 - The final chapters of AYNIK were great. The fight between Rita and Keiji was expertly drawn as were Rita's final moments, effectively sentimental. Obata did great work with this series throughout it's run. Overall I enjoyed the story. It had some unsatisfactory individual chapters here and there, but as a whole it's a strong story. I think I liked the movie even better, though, since it added more layers of characterization to Rita and Keiji/Will (admittedly the movies' versions are like totally different characters, but still). The ending of AYNIK is much better though, in my opinion. I just think everything made more sense in the way things turned out, and while the movie's ending is convenient for the sake of a "happy" ending, the film's ending is more solemn, as a sacrifice has been made and the war is not yet won.  I thought both were fun experiences, though, and I'm glad I kept up with this manga as it came out to get suitably hyped for the movie.

Assassination Classroom chapter 90 - This chapter spotlights a character I didn't even remember, Isogai, who is apparently a Ikemen, a perfect gentleman. Unfortunately his job in a host cafe has been uncovered by Asano and his lackeys in Class A. If the Principal finds out then he's going to get expelled, but Asano agrees to look the other way if Class E wins the Boutaoshi at the school athletic festival. And not only are they outnumbered, but Asano has called in the FOREIGNER SQUAD, 4 super tall super buff international exchange students looking to get rough and rowdy! I laughed at that reveal. Lots of good humor in this chapter, really. It'll interesting to see how Class E will overcome opponents who bought outnumber and overpower them in the Boutaoshi game.

Attack on Titan chapter 58 - Great action in this chapter with Levi's battle with Kenny the Ripper and his goons. With the plan busted they've got to make a hasty retreat. The ending of the chapter is surprising, since it seems that Reiss is apologetic for what he did to Historia, but this could be some sort of trick to make her and Eren drop their guard. Certainly, it's a twist that I'm interested in seeing developed next chapter.

Bleach chapter 584 - Bazz B shows up and screws over the Sternritter quartet in a needless betrayal just so he can fight Ichigo himself and claim the glory. Then pretty much every Quincy left shows up (including the Sternritter quartet), each one of them aiming to defeat Ichigo themselves. Ichigo obviously will not be fighting an 8 against 1 because there are so many characters Kubo needs to cram into the story like the Fullbringers, Squad Zero, and Grimmjow and whatnot but this setup means that should happen soon so at the very least the series is getting closer and closer to finishing. Meanwhile Juha Bach is doing something that somehow will make Uryu and guy who's name I don't remember one with him, somehow. As far as Bleach chapters go, this is inoffensive. Basically it's just more set-up and some decent humor bits. It's not exactly good, but this is Bleach, and I'll take chapters like this over shit like the Gremmy fight any day.

GTO: Paradise Lost chapters 1-5 - I wasn't planning on keeping up with this after reading the first chapter a few weeks back, but then I said...why not? Keeping up with one more manga isn't gonna hurt me none. I didn't like the first chapter because of shitty translations but...Onizuka in prison. That's an inspired idea with promise. But then the second chapter came out and...it turns out this series is going to be a flashback to show how Onizuka landed in prison, and is otherwise basically the same damn thing as the original GTO manga. Except now Onizuka is teaching Class G, which is a super top secret class for IDOLS that somehow was never mentioned before in the original manga despite it being a part of the school and apparently famous teen celebrities attending it. It's an absurd premise that really pushes my suspension of disbelief, but the worst part about it is that it is a frivolous gimmick since the end result is the same exact kind of shenanigans that happened to Onizuka before when he was teaching regular students. The manga so far is just going through the motions, doing exactly the same kind of stuff that was already done before and better in the original manga, and is hence really, really boring to read. Maybe it'll get better as it goes along, but these first 5 chapters did nothing for me.

Hunter X Hunter chapter 343 - Kurapika. Is. Back! I already talked about this chapter in this thread earlier, but I'm glad to have Kurapika back in the story alongside Leorio, and Pariston and Ging's conversation was excellent as well. And since the owner of Kurta clan's eyes is the 4th prince of Kakin who will be journeying on the Dark Continent voyage, Kurapika's personal arc should get resolved in this one, which I'm looking forward to. The next chapter will probably feature Gon and how he'll figure into the arc. I'm looking forward to when the gang finally reunites again.

Kuroko no Basket chapter 265 - Akashi game is off and his teammates can't hope to play against Seirin effectively without him, allowing Kagami to gain momentum and Seirin to close the gap to only two points behind. However, at the end of this chapter it seems that Kagami is tried out while Akashi has calmed himself. At the beginning of the chapter it seemed like his two personalities were conflicting inside his mind, and it seems that now that the old Akashi has resurfaced, and thus he probably can utilize his second skill that has been hidden thus far. A solid chapter and I enjoyed it. I know that Kagami will probably be forced to open the second door of the zone to counter Akashi's second skill to win the match and whatnot, and I'm not particularly looking forward to that, but this chapter actually did a good job making me care about Akashi and this game which is something that I haven't been able to say for most of this match, and I enjoyed it.

Magi chapter 228 - Solomon's forces invade the capital, and find that Arba has already brutally murdered Elder David...which is disturbing and behavior that further reinforces my belief Arba is Gyokuen. But, it turns out Arba hasn't really killed Elder David. Nope, he saw this coming and he and his forces aren't in the capital at all, and are attacking the rebels' home base and all it's innocent inhabitants. Worse, Solomon's group is trapped in the barrier surrounding the capital with no way to escape. So, they're screwed. No doubt they will find a way out, but whether they get back in time to safe many innocent lives is another story.

Naruto chapter 680 - Naruto can fly now, I guess. Outside of that there's some attempts to be sentimental and stuff that completely falls falt and I guess Kaguya is trying to return the chakra flow in the world back to her since all chakra in the world was once hers and everything. This Kaguya stuff is just...I have no clue what to feel about it. Again, I just can't even care about any of this. I can't even get mad anymore. It's all a wash now. I do wonder how long this battle will drag out, and if Madara will screw over Kaguya from within her and come back (a la the Kishin in Soul Eater or Naraku in InuYasha).

One-Punch Man chapter 48 - Awesome action scenes as usual. Saitama bouncing off of the Moon to return to Earth without even being fazed was epic, not to mention his barrage of normal punches pummeling Boros. I guess the series can't be called "One-Punch" Man anymore.  :D If only the chapter was longer, but greatness like this makes the waits worthwhile.

Rin-ne chapter 188 - This chapter is just a means of getting Matsugo acquainted with the rest of the main cast and establishing some character dynamics to play with in his future appearances. And it worked well. Matsugo has good chemistry with Ageha and that lead to some great bits here. I also like his black cat Kuromitsu. I hope she gets more fleshed out along the lines of level 6 Kurosu in future appearances (there needs to be more chapters featuring the black cats in general). Overall I thought this was a fairly amusing chapter and welcome the addition of Matsugo as a recurring character. I also appreciate that Takahashi has written a good gay character, which is frankly rare is shonen manga in general. Hopefully the joke in this chapter that Matsugo wants to get in Rinne's pants isn't abused since the character has a good personality that is not defined by him being gay, and good chemistry with both Ageha and Rinne. I guess I'll have to wait until his next appearance to see.

Toriko chapter 281 - The stuff with Burachi and the Daruma Hermit was absolutely hilarious. And Melk the 1st is back too! I wonder if he'll help out Toriko and the crew capture Air. I guess we'll see if he tags along when he explains how he survived next week. Also great in this chapter was Toriko recounting his meeting with Midora, and noting they are nowhere near his level, and fighting him shouldn't be their priority anyway. I always appreciate how level-headed Toriko is compared to other contemporary shonen protagonists. Overall, another really entertaining chapter with great hilarious parts and further plot advancement. With Toriko, I'd expect no less.

Rankings:

1. All You Need Is Kill - 10/10
2. Hunter X Hunter - 10/10
3. Toriko - 10/10
4. Attack on Titan - 9/10
5. Magi - 9/10
6. One-Punch Man - 9/10
7. Assassination Classroom - 9/10
8. Kuroko no Basket - 8/10
9. Rin-ne - 8/10
10. Bleach - 6/10
11. GTO: Paradise Lost - 6/10
12. Naruto - 4/10

I am extremely satisfied with this week of manga. The majority of these chapters were highly entertaining and pleased me on many levels. If only every week can be as good as this week. Looking forward to several new chapters this week, and hopefully, like these ones, they don't disappoint.

I just caught up with the manga, which wasn't hard considering that it's only about 30 chapters ahead of where season 2 of the anime ended, and these chapters are short. I'm not a fan of long flash-back arcs (Remembrance is like THE main exception), but this one has gone kind of up and down for me. My main issue, though, is that the author decided to include it in the middle of an arc where tension between the 3 major empires of the story is as high as it's ever been. So, it's  hard to get invested in another story when you want to focus on the one that you were already reading. That said, this arc has had its moments.

As for chapter 229, I came to an odd realization: this series has a thing with displaying a lot of dead bodies as burnt corpses. Seriously, what's with that? Also, how was the kid even able to have enough strength to talk in that state before dying (yet everyone else was apparently long dead)? Yeah, I know, shounen logic, I shouldn't think too hard about it. Putting that aside, it was a good chapter, though it was all kind of expected. I'm assuming that Setta is dead as well, which would be yet another heavy blow to Solomon's team. Not to sound like an ass, though, but it was pretty stupid of the to only leave one capable magician behind to defend their home city. Obviously they considered the possibility of an attack, which is why they even left Setta behind in the first place to guard it, but if they thought that much into it, I think it should have been obvious that you'd need more than just one capable guy there if there was an attack to begin with. But, like I said, it's a shounen manga, and at that it's a flash-back arc that's specifically about how Solomon fucked up and how not to do it again, so I can't really fault it too much for that.

Naruto kind of desensitized me to flashbacks interrupting the middle of an arc when they weren't wanted, so I'm not really bothered by how long the Alma Thorran arc is taking, especially since I find it a fairly interesting story in it's own right. I am wondering how long it will last. At the pace it's going, I could see it going to the end of the summer and I'd be ok with that, but I would like to go back to the story as soon as fall begins.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on June 19, 2014, 08:39:16 PMAlso, how was the kid even able to have enough strength to talk in that state before dying (yet everyone else was apparently long dead)?

Yeah, I thought that was too overdone and a rather cliche way to illicit sympathy, but I did find it interesting since in the Sinbad's Adventure manga Falan is a member of Al Tharmen, and losing her kid in this fight might have been what made her turn against Solomon (though I wonder if this incident is also why Ithnan eventually betrays him too, or if there's something else that makes him later).

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on June 19, 2014, 08:39:16 PM
I'm assuming that Setta is dead as well, which would be yet another heavy blow to Solomon's team. Not to sound like an ass, though, but it was pretty stupid of the to only leave one capable magician behind to defend their home city. Obviously they considered the possibility of an attack, which is why they even left Setta behind in the first place to guard it, but if they thought that much into it, I think it should have been obvious that you'd need more than just one capable guy there if there was an attack to begin with.

The way I see it, Solomon didn't think that David and his forces would predict when would they attack or find out where their home base is with a large force of magicians, since they figured that most of his forces would be concentrated in the capital where they would be fighting, which is why they felt that Setta would be enough to handle any attacks on the home base since they didn't think there would be a large force of magicians, much less headed by David himself, attacking it. It was a mistake of underestimating his enemy and overestimating the soundness of their defensive strategy, and it suitably cost them.

I caught up with three more manga in the last week: The Seven Deadly Sins, Shokugeki no Souma, and Magi: Adventure of Sinbad. As such, from now on I will be including them in my weekly recaps as well.

Assassination Classroom chapter 91 - Asano's plan seems to be partly based in revenge, but more based in his desire to ensure the status quo and his own goal. He wants Class E to lose so badly in the Boutaoshi that their short-term academic performance will suffer as well, and with mid-terms the next week, that will ensure that only Class A students take the top 40 slots while class E gets low results. Getting top high-school athletes from around the world to transfer into his class just for this is overboard, but he clearly doesn't want to take any chances, and the more crushing Class E's defeat the better. Interestingly, at the end of the chapter Class E takes the defensive right off the bat and Asano decides to go for it, but Nagisa and Karma, unquestionably the most skilled male assassins of Class E, are noticeably not part of the defense. While Asano is distracted they'll no doubt try and stealthily knock down Class A's pole, but since they aren't nearly as physically strong as Class A's foreign transfer students, I'm curious to see just how they will pull it off.

Black Butler chapter 94 - Looks like Sebastian's had enough of Ciel's whiny amnesia bullshit and is just going to eat his soul now since his refusal to do his duties is a violation of their contract. I'd loved to see the look on some fangirls face when Sebastian starts to pull Ciel's soul out into some black void or whatever. But, of course this series is far from over yet and Ciel will probably become his normal self again before his soul is devoured and whatnot.

Bleach chapter 585 - So Juha Bach's plan was that once Ichigo went to the Soul King's Palace and came back, there would be a 6000 second dimensional gateway portal open for him to invade it? This is basically Aizen's plan in kidnapping Orihime in Hueco Mundo all over again: lure the heroes to one location to distract them while he goes to a different location and traps them there. It was convoluted and lame before, and is no less now.

GTO: Paradise Lost chapter 6 - In GTO, Onizuka's "lessons" were all appropriate trials relevant to what those students were going through or did to him or another student. Now he just throws frogs on girls and spreads rumors about people having an embarrassing skin rash. Onizuka's trying to make them get rid of their high and mighty act, but unlike several examples I can remember from GTO, I fail to see how these methods are going to humble these students. This feels like Onizuka's trademark crazy shenanigans without the method that made them so endearing, and it doesn't help that these students' problems are either retreads of stuff already seen in GTO or cliche highschool tropes. At the end of this chapter a student comments that Onizuka might make life more "interesting," but until this series stops mimicking GTO's surface formula and really understands why it worked and how to make Onizuka's shenanigans mean something instead of just being random wackiness, it'll just be a lame retread.

Hunter X Hunter chapter 344 - It seems Kurapika has collected several more of his clan's eyes since we've saw him last, and the Prince holds the last of them. When he does get the last ones, though, what will he do? He doesn't believe he has a home or people to go back to. Telling was how distant he seemed to Leorio when they were talking on the phone. I feel that Kurapika's experiences have made him alienated from everything outside of his ambitions, including his friends. It will be interesting to see how he interacts with Leorio when they are reuinted in person again. This chapter was mostly about Ging convincing the rest of Beyond's group to accept him as their no. 2 by giving them money and promising not to force them to listen to any of his commands over Pariston's if they so wish. The rest of the chapter is him basically explaining all the dangers in the Dark Continent and more backstory on the original expedition there, including the locations of the 5 Calamities. The most interesting thing is at the end where he brings up that there was a pioneer 300 years ago who went to the Dark Continent and wrote a Journal, the second half of which is missing, and Ging's reasoning as to why is that the writer, Don Freccs, is still alive and still writing it. Interesting. Looks like they'll be searching for this guy when they go to the Dark Continent. Assuming he is still alive, the dude has to have some reason for staying there 300 years. Aside from all this, I have to wonder what's up with Gon. He seems to have lost his "aura," which might mean he's lost his ability to use nen. I hope we'll see what's up with him next chapter.

Kuroko no Basket chapter 266 - This chapter tries to give Akashi a developed backstory to explain his motivations and behavior up to this point, but the thing is, this is all stuff we could plainly see in the Teikou arc, and it didn't need to be spelled out for us again. However, the chapter serves it's purpose at showing Akashi switch his two personalities, and return to the game as the basketball-loving athlete he used to be. We didn't need a whole chapter for this considering how superfluous the content and explanation of Akashi's personalities are at this point, and as payoff this moment falls flat to me, but at this point I can welcome it since it's a sign that this game will be winding down, and hopefully, maybe become a bit more interesting now that Akashi obnoxious and pretentious personality is no more.

Magi chapter 229 - So Solomon acknowledges Ugo as the most powerful magician in all of Alma Thorran. That was kind of a nice moment. More interesting is the consequences of Solomon's fuck-up, in that everybody back at the home base has been brutally murdered. I thought the scene with Falan's kid was overkill, and a bit cliche, but interesting nonetheless considering that she is a villain in the Adventure of Sinbad manga, which means that, like Ithnan and Gyokuen (who I'm like 99% is Arba), she betrays Solomon at some point, and this event might have been the catalyst for that betrayal as well as a general rift in trust between Solomon and many of his comrades. I'm hoping to see if this idea is correct, and expanded upon, as this arc continues.

Naruto chapter 681 - Black Zetsu flat out says in this chapter that he is responsible for manipulating the entire history of the Naruto universe, even going so far as to change what actually happened in recorded history to suit his long-term agenda, an extremely convoluted plan that basically amounts to him being a whiny little child wanting to resurrect his dead mommy. This is a far worse bullshit than Aizen having manipulated Ichigo's entire life in Bleach, because this means that the entire history behind the Naruto universe resulted from Black Zetsu alone, and that no one else's accomplishments were truly theirs as they were all pawns in a complicated, long-term scheme. And while Naruto screams out in this chapter that Zetsu is not responsible for the history of ninjas or whatever, everything he says in this chapter shows that basically anything significant that happened to anyone important was a direct or indirect result of his manipulation. This is a pointless development that serves only to undermine the entire mythology of the series' universe and further dampens the credibility and tension of this climactic battle (need I remind everyone Kaguya was first mentioned only 8 or so chapters ago?).  I was going to give the series a full read through when it finished, to really evaluate how it stands as a whole, but I no longer see the need to do that. This single chapter ruins the integrity of Naruto's already problematic and misguided storyline, and I just do not see how this series can be salvaged at this point. 

One Piece chapter 750 - The way the last chapter ended I thought we were going to learn Law's backstory in this one...but instead, it's basically more fighting and running, needless "believe in Luffy" speeches that add nothing to the story, and then set-up for Sabo fighting Fujitora. I simply didn't find any of it very interesting, and though I would like to look forward to Sabo v. Fujitora, the series hasn't made me really excited during it's recent fight sequences and I can't muster hope this will be any different. Just a dud chapter, unfortunately.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 81 - So all this time Gilthunder has been manipulated by a demon that has been possessing Margaret, forced to go along with Hendrickson's ambitions in order to protect her. But now that Meliodas has destroyed the demon, Gilthunder is freed from this burden and can fight back with his hero against Hendrickson. Good stuff, and a real turning point in this battle. With his back against the wall Hendrickson is going to need to fulfill his ambitions quickly. Or, perhaps he's more than a match for Gilthunder and the severely worn out Meliodas by himself. He isn't a Great Holy Knight for nothing, after all. I guess we'll just see how all this unfolds in the next chapter.

Shokugeki no Souma chapter 74 - Leave it to this series make a turtle burger look like the most delicious sounding thing ever.  :D Seriously, I almost wanted to eat one myself after reading this chapter. Arata is certainly a skilled to make such a unique burger that not only stimulates someone's sense of tastes, but their sense of touch as well. However, it looks like Hayama's burger will be even better. I expected as much (also, this is a cooking manga, the one who goes shows their dish first loses 80% of the time), but I do wonder how his dish will stimulate the judges' tastes better than Arata's dish. Should be interesting to see the spice master apply his skills to a simple burger.

Stealth Symphony chapter 16 - Jig is crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy. And dangerous. And a dragon. That's basically what this chapter is about, and it wastes no time hammering that in. It's kind of a left-field plot development, and I can only assume the series really is close to cancellation, and this is the direction it's taking to tie up loose ends. I did think the scene where Alice goes into his apartment building and sees he scribbled a bunch of crazy shit on the walls pretty fucked up, and the scene where he briefly recognizes Troma, and becomes remorseful, but then quickly becomes insane again was pretty well done too. Overall, though, I'm just kind of confused at this direction, but like a train wreck, I can't help but wanting to see where it's going.

Rankings:

1. Hunter X Hunter - 8/10
2. The Seven Deadly Sins - 8/10
3. Magi - 8/10
4. Shokugeki no Souma - 8/10
5. Assassination Classroom - 8/10
6. Kuroko no Basket - 7/10
7. Black Butler - 7/10
8. One Piece - 6/10
9. Stealth Symphony - 6/10
10. GTO: Paradise Lost - 6/10
11. Bleach - 5/10
12. Naruto - 1/10

Not very happy with this last week of manga. 7 out of 12 of these chapters were mediocre or worse, and among the good ones, though I certainly enjoyed them, there weren't really any standouts. I hope for more entertaining chapters this week.

That Naruto reveal is the equal of a certain reveal in the Yu Yu Hakusho manga that the staff wisely never brought over to the anime.

I know some writers thing this is clever, but its actually quite terrible writing. You're undermining your story for the sake of shock value that's, at best, paper thin. All in order to "surprise" fans. I've never met a fan who legitimately enjoys such twists, and there's a reason for that. Because it's deceptive of the author and disrespectful to the story and universe.

It's worse in this case because Black Zetsu basically has manipulated not only the entire story of Naruto, but it's entire mythology and history as well. Basically, all the culture and every conflict ever mentioned in this story was fabricated all in order to fulfill Zetsu's objective, which was simply just to revive Kaguya, a character that, again, was only first introduced in the series 8 chapters ago with no hint of whatsoever beforehand, and has now replaced Madara, who, while not a particularly amazing character, had hundreds of chapters of build-up and a genuine charisma, as the main villain of the series....because.

There's no reason for any of this stuff to be happening. It feels like Kishimoto was just bored of Madara after having the battle with him dragged out for over literally 100 chapters, so he thought up of a "shocking" new twist that he felt would liven up the story, but instead, it just completely removes any tension this conflict has since, unlike Madara, Kaguya is a barely established and one-dimensional character, and with this twist, he's now undermined the entire story of Naruto as a whole. It's baffling, really.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on June 23, 2014, 12:22:16 PM
That Naruto reveal is the equal of a certain reveal in the Yu Yu Hakusho manga that the staff wisely never brought over to the anime.

I know some writers thing this is clever, but its actually quite terrible writing. You're undermining your story for the sake of shock value that's, at best, paper thin. All in order to "surprise" fans. I've never met a fan who legitimately enjoys such twists, and there's a reason for that. Because it's deceptive of the author and disrespectful to the story and universe.

That's the same reason why Angel season 4 is trash. I absolutely HATE it when a series makes it so that everything that happened within its entire Universe (or even just a single story arc, for that matter), was under the complete control of the villains. It not only ruins the rest of the story, but even manages to undermine anything that it may have done well earlier in the story. It should also be noted that if you really scrutinize earlier story arcs when twists like these are revealed, that those arcs just don't line up with what the twist is implying, proving that the author just came up with it on the spot.

Seriously, it's beyond me how this manga is still popular. Kishimoto is a hack writer. He always has been.

I've been reading The Adventures of Sinbad. It's a fun spin-off/prequel to Magi, so far, and I prefer it to the early parts of Magi which I found to be kind of boring until it developed a more fleshed out world and characters.

Meanwhile, I'm just hoping that the current Magi arc ends soon. I read chapter 230 and I just couldn't bring myself to care. It's not bad or anything, but I'm really just way more interested in where the current story is headed, and I really can't stand super long flash-back arcs that interrupt these stories. Everything that we have learned from this flash-back so far could have easily been told in less than half of the chapters that we've gotten so far. Either that, or they could have been revealed in bits and pieces as the next arc progressed in the modern timeline.

Yeah, I felt Adventure of Sinbad starts off much stronger than the Magi manga did, and I was able to get into it really quickly. It's a welcome look into Sinbad's past and I think it'll just get better as it goes along.

As for chapter 230, I'm kind of confused at what Elder David exactly wanted. He blows himself up to supposedly be one with god, but before that he entrusts his staff to Solomon, who he flat out stated he never considered his son like a page ago, because he wants to see whether humans will be able to oppose fate under his leadership? There just seems to be a big disconnect between his actions and words, and that's kind of annoying since he was the big bad of this arc thus far. Well, I'd like to think this arc is entering it's final stages now, so we'll finally see how Solomon brings everyone together under, and then how everything falls apart, which is frankly what I actually wanted to see when this arc started anyway. I'd expect this arc will continue until the end of summer, and then the main story will resume in the fall.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-06-23/domain-ansatsu-anime.com-registered/.75846 (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-06-23/domain-ansatsu-anime.com-registered/.75846)

DUN DUN DUN! I knew it was only a matter of time before Assassination Classroom got an anime! The series is super popular, so I wonder how many cours the anime will last? I think the industry practice is leaning towards making seasons rather than have long-running full-year series these days, so my guess is that it'll be a good two cours to cover through chapter 73 (the end of the Island Time arc).

With Sailor Moon Crystal premiering next week, JoJo's going to be running for a year, and Parasyte, The Seven Deadly Sins, and Psycho-Pass 2 coming in the fall with AC probably following in the winter, it looks like I'm going to be keeping up with a lot of anime later this year.

Assassination Classroom anime officially confirmed. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-06-23/assassination-classroom-manga-gets-tv-anime-and-live-action-film/.75871)

It's also getting a live-action film. I don't think AC will translate into live-action that well, but the fact it's being made is a testament to how popular this series is right now, and it's only two years old to boot! I'm hoping Brains Base will be doing the anime, but really, I'd be fine with most anyone except Toei. I'm also happy Tomokazu Seki will be reprising his role as Korosensei in the anime. His performance in J-Stars was spot-on.

So, the prince is a psychopath. It'll make it fun to see if Kurapika kills him for the eyes.

Meanwhile Gon has to deal with the repercussions of what he did at the end of the Chimera Ant arc, mainly in the fact that he can't use Nen. I like that he has to deal with these consequences, but I fully expect Togashi to give him back his powers somehow. Still, it would be nice to see him not go that route and make this consequence permanent, and still have Gon be useful despite his lack of Nen, but I just don't see that happening. At any rate it wS nice seeing Gon reunite with Mito, and admit that he didn't really want to follow Ging, but rather just wanted to find him, and after he reached that goal he realized that he didn't really care to be at Ging's side.

Considering Kurapika mentions in this chapter he was able to "persuade" two people who were vehemently against giving him the eyes without killing them, it's clear he has developed methods to get what he wants from people without needing to take lives.

I'm rather disappointed that the Prince is just some Yoshikage Kira-wannabe. Unless your psychopathic murderer just wants an ordinary life, I ain't interested, especially since quite frankly villains like these are a dime a dozen (I got serious deja-vu reading this part of the chapter). It would have been more interesting if the Prince was, like, a genuinely good person but involved in some dirty business and Kurapika was going to get morally conflicted about killing/torturing him trying to get his eyes back, or something like that. This set-up just makes it seem like Togashi is creating an intentionally despicable character just so that the audience can be satisfied once he's been taken out by Kurapika. Then again, Togashi has made seemingly shallow characters into well-developed complex ones like with Meruem, so I'll see where he goes with this guy too.

The Gon stuff in this chapter was great, though. He really has matured quite a bit since the start of the series, and, though I know it'll be temporary, it's nice to see repercussions from his actions in the Chimera Ant arc and see him adjust to his new circumstances. Ging's portion of the chapter was interesting also. Pariston is really getting screwed over now, and he's finally starting to get a little pissed off.  :D

Next week HXH won't have a new chapter. That was quick. At least it will be back the week after, and with a "special project," whatever that'll be.

This was a really strong week overall.

Bleach chapter 586 - Ichigo is shocked that Uryu is on Juha Bach's side and yells out his name a lot. And Orihime and Chad return from Hueco Mundo. Remember them? Well, they're back to be completely useless again! Yay! But since they're here, I guess Urahara will come to, and he'll probably bring Grimmjow with him, so maybe that'll finally happen next week.

Hunter X Hunter chapter 345 - I already posted my thoughts on this chapter in the post above, so I won't go over that again. Looks like there's going to be a break next week, but the series will be back the week after. I doubt that Togashi would go on another hiatus without making enough chapters for a volume, so I think we won't to worry about that for a bit. In any case, I'm curious as to what the "special project" that will be announced when the series comes back will be.

Magi chapter 230 - I shared my thoughts on this one earlier this week as well. Basically, I find David's previous actions and his ones in this chapter disjointed and I'm not sure why he did what he did in order to achieve his goal, which is simply to become one with the god of Alma Thorran. In any case, I'm at least glad this stuff was finally resolved and we can move on to how Solomon's empire rises and falls apart, which really is what I've wanted to see this whole time.

Naruto chapter 682 - If Kaguya can transport them to other dimensions, why doesn't she just put them into space or something? And why send Sasuke off alone to some desert place when he can go through dimensions, while Naruto cannot. Really, nothing about this battle makes sense because in all respects Kaguya should be leagues above their level and be capable of so many different ways to kill them and end the battle easily. I'm not sure how to feel about Naruto using the Sexy Jutsu to catch Kaguya off guard. On one level, it's funny and sorta nice to see a long-time joke like that actually prove useful. On the other hand, though, it's pretty fucking stupid and this series has taken itself way too seriously lately for this to work. Not to mention the technique had no effect on Kaguya ultimately so it was actually kind of pointless. So, yeah, another shitty chapter.

One Piece chapter 751 - I actually enjoyed the battle between Sabo and Fujitora and the comedy in this chapter was pretty good too. I'm surprised Doflamingo has lured them into a trap and confronted them this early, since I think there'd be a while before they came face to face with him again. With Law still in sea stone handcuffs it looks like they are pretty screwed, unless Robin can get the key to them in time. I'm still confused as to when we are going to learn Law's backstory, because I thought that was being setup two chapters ago. I guess it'll happen eventually.

Peephole chapter 29 - Miyachi just punching Fujiora every time she tried to talk was gloriously hilarious. It looks like she wants Kurosou to do the honors and kill her. Will he cross that line? I wish the chapter wasn't so short so I could find out, but I suppose I can wait until next week to see.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapters 81.5-83 - In chapter 81.5 we learn that Arthur originally had just the ambition of becoming a Holy Knight, but the King of Liones saw his potential early on in a chance encounter, and told him he was destined to become a king and took him under his wing. This is Arthur's motivation for coming to Liones now to help save the King. In chapter 82 we learn that all this time all of Gilthunder's actions were being monitored by a chimera demon under Hendrickson's command, and he was forced to go along with his schemes to protect Margaret's life. Meliodas learned this long ago in their first re-encounter, deciphering a special phrase Gilthunder said that was significant to the bond between them, and this is how Meliodas knew Gilthunder was in trouble and what to do in order to help him out. With the chimera destroyed, Gilthunder let loose all his built up rage against Hendrickson, brutally impaling him, ending the battle. The group, now united, heads to rescue Elizabeth, but the mysterious witch allied with Hendrickson tries to stop them through teleportation magic. However, to everyone's shock, she is out-done by this very spell cast in rapid succession by the mysterious cloaked magician that was accompanying Arthur. And of course, who should it be but the Crimson Pig of the Seven Deadly Sins, Merlin herself. Called it! I mean, it wasn't hard. What is a King Arthur without a Merlin and whatnot. Admittedly there were times I thought the masked magician was going to be Merlin instead, so I'll give Suzuki credit for having me going for a while there. Anyway, the King says he predicted that a crimson pig would rescue him, and it's clear he's really referring to Merlin, so that'll happen. I still doubt Hendrickson's scheme has been foiled yet, or that he's out of the fight. He's been the big bad this whole time so while it was satisfying seeing Gilthunder fuck him up it would be odd for his scheme to fall apart before it's truly begun. Hopefully we'll have a better idea of the direction where this is going next week.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 75 - Hayama's burger was carefully crafted to elicit the strongest sense of aroma and flavor from the meat, and as a result, his burger was a far more pleasurable, and addicting experience than Arata's lovely but comparatively tame turtle burger. As Hayama states, it was only natural for the one aiming to be number one to outdo someone content to be second best. I wonder if this experience will make Arata want to step out from Erina's shadow and evolve her skills to a level rivaling hers. In any case, Hayama's sense of flavor is formidable and no doubt Soma will have difficulty rivaling it in their inevitable rematch. First this round must end, though, and Takumi has to take on the suspicious Mimasaka. I don't know why he's decided to insult Takumi's brother in front of him. Perhaps getting him riled up will cause him to bring out his full potential, and thus ensure a more exciting match? Mimasaka came out of nowhere, and the narrative odds are that he'll likely defeat Takumi and move on. However, this match could go either way and it'll be interesting to see which that is next week.

Silver Spoon chapter 103 - Hachiken and Okawa decide to take the first steps in getting their company running themselves, self-investing in their company with their own money. They'll get their business moving thanks to Okawa's reputation that he left thanks to his part-time work and get some sales moving. Once they've established a strong sales base they'll take their business card, product, and sales record to Hachiken's father, and earn his investment having proved to him he's become a productive, legitimate member of society. Damn, Okawa has some great ideas sometimes! Hachiken isn't going to have it any easier now that he has to raise money himself with part time-jobs, but given how dedicated he is, he'll pull it off. The second half of this chapter was even more wonderful. Komaba's mother has become a staff member of the Dairy Farm Helper Association, and now can start earning money herself again. Komaba, or course, still thinks that he needs to work full-time in order to help them out of debt, but his mother rightly states that he needs to stop being so full of himself and work towards his dream. And Komaba, finally, has decided to do what he really wants to do, and the first step is to finally see "what's over the mountain." And that baseball game, seeing Uryu pull out all the stops, no doubt determined to avenge his mistake from last year that caused Komaba to have to leave the team and school, damn did it leave a feeling of passion and hope for Komaba's future. Will he be able to find a way to achieve his dream and get his own farm? As this series has established, it's a harsh world out there, but I have a feeling he can pull it off.

Stealth Symphony chapter 17 - Dragons come from the moon and are preparing to invade the earth and Jig is still insane. Also, it looks like Troma's dedication to professionalism will cost him when Slice goes to kill Alice and he inevitably re-encounters Jig. The series is playing out all of it's cards so quickly, that I kind of feel it has to be ending. But the Weekly Manga Recap guys said that it's cancellation is not a sure bet at this point, so I have no clue how much can be left or where the story could go from this point. Certainly, though, these rapid plot developments are very interesting, and whatever happens it's sure to be bat-shit insane, so that'll be fun.

Toriko chapter 282 - Toriko and co. team up with the three beast warriors plus Mappy to search for Air. Zebra and Buranchi have to brave a terrain pelted by Meteor Rain, Sunny and Nosh have to deal with Laser Rain, Coco and Dinner seem to have it easiest with Poison Rain, and Toriko, Komatsu, and Mappy have to deal with the most dangerous, terrifying terrain of the lot - the nest of the Horse King Heracles. In order to travel through anywhere in the Gourmet World one must ask the permission of the continent's ruler first. Mappy is prepared to give his life in order to make this happen, but will it be enough? In addition to being kickass this chapter was full of hilarious parts and is through and through classic Toriko insanity. But I expect no less every week. I can't wait until the next.

Rankings:

1. Silver Spoon - 10/10
2. Toriko - 9/10
3. The Seven Deadly Sins - 9/10
4. Hunter X Hunter - 9/10
5. Shokugeki no Soma - 9/10
6. Peephole - 9/10
7. One Piece - 8/10
8. Magi - 7/10
9. Stealth Symphony - 7/10
10. Bleach - 5/10
11. Naruto - 1/10

Some really great chapters this week. Shit is going down in Seven Deadly Sins and Toriko, and great developments have happened in Silver Spoon and HXH. Exciting highly entertaining reading that really made my week, and I hope next week can be just as strong.

I know I'm late to the party, but I forget that we have a manga board separate from the anime board.

I fucking hate what they've done with Naruto. I know most people declared it shit weeeellllll over a year ago, but I was still an avid reader. My suspension of disbelief only goes so far though. I tried to be open minded. I can accept Obito as the main villain, I can accept Kabuto being the co-Big Bad, I can accept Madara using some bullshit gambit to come back to life, because hey, I actually quite like him as a villain. He's an asshole that's fun to watch.

But Kaguya? Ugh. Fuck Kaguya. Constantly going "but wait, here's the real bad guy!" gets real old real quick. There was not enough build-up to her and her stupid white Zetsu army plan for me. At this point, both of the dudes who initiated this big-ass battle are on the good guys' side now. Fucking ridiculous. I am sincerely hoping that Madara fights his way out of that thing, or Orochimaru does some bullshit to take this thing by the reigns, because this was such a terrible, unceremonious killing of a major villain, and an awful trade for a new villain as well. Not to mention all this reincarnation bullshit and Black Zetsu shaping everything. This soured everything for me.

(And I just don't like when arcs are dragged out this long. I get that this is the final battle, but come on, Kishi. Let's end this already.)

Y'know, I was excited for the Assassination Classroom anime...until I found out who was working on it. (http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/06/29/key-visual-for-assassination-classroom-tv-anime-unveiled)

Why can't good WSJ manga get good anime adaptions these days, seriously.  :imnothappy:

This was a really good week!

Assassination Classroom chapter 92 - Class E's tactics have been able to deter off the superior strength of Class A by using their versatility and exploiting the details of the rules of the game to their advantage. Much like the baseball game, they are overcoming a situation where they can't win in a straightforward fashion by using their skill set and the element of surprise to the best of their capabilities, and it's working well for them and entertaining to watch. And it seems that they are winning over their peers in other classes through their perseverance. Perhaps Class E won't be the black sheep for much longer. Of course, this game isn't over yet, and knowing Asano, he probably has other tricks up their sleeve.

Bleach chapter 587 - Comedy relief chapter. Really? C'mon, they really should be taking the fact Uryu has joined the Vanderich more seriously. Mohawk dude is pissed at Renji now I guess and has attacked him with some flame sword thing, and Juha Bach and Uryu have arrived at the Soul King's Palace. I guess that means Squad Zero will actually fight them? Probably, and they'll likely get curbstomped so Ichigo can bail them out or something. I guess we'll see how this goes next week.

Detective Conan chapter 900 - Chapter 900! Only a 100 chapters away from 1000, and this series is sure to reach that point. This chapter wasn't very eventful for a milestone like this, but it was solidly entertaining with good humor and entertaining mystery solving, and that's all I expect from the series. It seems that Conan has uncovered where Yumi is, but it's in a very dangerous place. I'm curious to see exactly where that is.

Kuroko no Basket chapter 267 - Akashi has returned to his old self and plays (gasp) as a actual team player? Who wudda thunk it? And by doing so, he's able to give his fellow Rakuzan players self-confidence again, and return momentum to Rakuzan's side. Ultimately, this has the effect of getting every player on the Rakuzan team into the zone. With only three minutes left and down by a five point lead, it seems like Seirin is totally screwed. This was a pretty decent chapter. I don't feel the tension in this match at all, but this is a solid story development. Of course, the series can fuck this up and make me hate the match again depending on how they have Seirin respond to this, but for now I think I can say I liked this chapter.

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad chapter 28 - 9 pages? C'mon, this was too short. Anyway, Sinbad uses Valefor's power for the first time, the members of the organization Jafar belongs to retreats when Hinahoho's father and the other Imuchuk warriors appear and drive them out, and it seems Drakon isn't willing yet to join Sinbad's group. Understandable, since though his brother tried to kill him and everything, his priority is clearly going to be trying to rescue the princess from him. I wish there was more content in this update, but this was some good stuff and I'll be interested in knowing where the story will be heading from this point.

Naruto chapter 683 - Naruto brought Obito back to life. HE BROUGHT SOMEONE BACK TO LIFE. Goddamit Kishimoto, this messianic crap has gone too far. Anyway, the Hokages are probably going to re-joining the battle soon since they've summoned the Sage of Six Paths from the lower half of Madara's carcass (somehow), and Obito plans to sacrifice his life in order to help take down Kaguya. It's his fucking fault this is even happening Naruto, you dipshit, don't freaking thank him! God, reading this series has become almost a surreal experience just because of how bizarre and unnatural the story developments have turned out. If the end wasn't nigh you can bet I would have quit this series for good like Fairy Tail, which, by the way, I've skimmed the latest chapters, and is stupider than ever, so I made a good call there.

One Piece chapter 752 - So...the whole stuff with Doflamingo in the beginning was kinda pointless. A bunch of other stuff is shown happening but none of it is particularly interesting and then the chapter ends with Dolfamingo reflecting on the first time he met Law. Finally, his backstory! Law's effort to take down Dolfamingo has been one of the more entertaining elements of this arc, so his backstory interests me. Hopefully it won't disappoint.

One-Punch Man chapter 48 - Oh shit, this was awesome. I love it when Murata does entire chapters that are like keys in an animation. And Saitama's "Super Serious Serious Strike" did not disappoint. Boros sure ain't walking that one off! Excellent OPM goodness.

Peephole chapter 30 - Miyachi's crazy rant is glorious as it is creepy. But what did Kurosu want? He must have wanted her to die, he must have thought about killing her, but of course, when he is given the opportunity, he can't do it himself, so was the point of bringing her to Miyachi's apartment done on the subconcious expectation that she'd take care of his problem for him by killing her? Looks like Miyachi's influence is rubbing off on Kurosu more than he would like. Moreover, the policewoman has arrived and has arrested Fujiura. But Miyachi wants to kill Fujiura! Will she just kill the policewoman to get to her prey, or will she let this one go? Whatever happens, one thing's for sure. Kurosu is pretty dang screwed.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 84 - Merlin easily destroying Vivian's barrier with a negation spell as she opened the door to the King's Chamber was hilarious. It's game over for Dreyfus, now that everyone knows he was behind the death of Zaratras,  framed the Sins, and took over the kingdom. Now he's lost everything, except, to his tearful joy, his son, who is still alive (though who knows where). It seems all's well that ends well, but as I suspected, Hendrickson is not down for the count, and now he's got a radical new look out of nowhere! What could this mean? I'm pretty excited to find out. This was a great, well-paced chapter, and I'm looking forward to seeing the next stage of this arc now that Hendrickson's gearing up for a party of hell. 

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 76 - Takumi has challenged Mimasaka to a shokugeki in their match. On the line, the Aldini brothers' precious mezzaluna knife. Mimasaka is a cook only concerned about beating other with his skills. He has won 99 shokugeki's, taking away the most precious utensils from his opponents as his prize while laughing them right in their faces as he's doing so. Now, obviously, genre cliches kind of make it obvious that Mimasaka won't likely win this match, but this tension makes this match more interesting. The theme of their match is a lemon-based desert, and I dunno about Takumi, but his skillset seems to shine mostly in italian cuisine, but Mimasaka has no specialties, and that versatility will likely help him make a great dish out of the ingredients. Of course, Takumi is skilled, and I'm interested in seeing what kind of dish he'll think up.

Shonan Seven chapter 1 - A new manga by Tohru Fujisawa that isn't a lame GTO spinoff? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE. Anyway, this first chapter didn't do anything that notable, but it shows promise and the series' premise question of "what does it mean to be a badass" could make for an interesting story if executed right. At any rate I already like it more than GTO: Paradise Lost, so it's got that going for it.

Silver Spoon chapter 104 - Oh man, that free-range pig farm looks delightful, but I can see how troublesome it would be to maintain, considering you have to change the terrain every so often. That's something Hachiken and Okawa haven't thought about. They don't want to render the Mikage farm's land a heap of dirt, after all. But it seems Hachiken has finally decided what he wants to do with the pork - make pizza. We don't get more details outside of that, but he's got a plan and I'm sure we'll see it soon enough. In the meantime, we see the seasons change as life moves forward and everyone makes a little bit of progress in their goals, and ultimately the chapter ends with Hachiken and Okawa's pig giving birth to a litter of piglets. Also, Hachiken's father reflects on how hard Hachiken must be working in order to self-finance his company and, GASP, smiles. IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD RUN FOR YOUR LIVES WAHHHHHHH...no, but, seriously, it's a pretty big deal that Hachiken's father is finally impressed by something his son is doing. Now, unlike others, I don't fear the manga is ending anytime soon. I think there is way too much story and opportunities to take this story for that to happen in the next year. But certainly, a new chapter in Hachiken's life is about to open, one that I am highly excited to see unfold.

Stealth Symphony chapter 18 - Oh god, Jig has fucked Troma up. Last chapter wasn't kidding when it said he was going to pay the price for his neutrality. And with him in that state Alice is vulnerable to Slice's revenge. And the dragons are coming, so the city is pretty screwed as well. This was a pretty cool chapter overall, and since it's pretty obvious the series will be ending soon enough, I wonder where this will inevitably lead.

Toriko chapter 283 - Mappy has prepared to give up his life in order to become fertilizer for the Air trees. The Horse King Heracles does not need to eat, it only needs to breathe, and can survive on a single breath for an entire year. But one breath for it takes the same amount of air that can be found in the pacific ocean, and when it's about to give birth, it needs much more air than that in order to give birth to a strong, healthy foal. That air can be provided from the fruit of the great air tree, but the Nitro have stolen the capabilities to harvest them, leaving not only Heracles, but other Phantom Beast Heracs unable to get the air they need to grow to their full capabilities. Komatsu seems to have heard the voice of Heracles' air tree, though, and might be able to remedy the problem somehow. However, Heracles seems none too pleased at the sight of Komatsu's knife, which was made from the bone of another great beast. All in all, just another really awesome chapter of Toriko.

Rankings:

1. One-Punch Man - 10/10
2. Silver Spoon - 10/10
3. Toriko - 10/10
4. The Seven Deadly Sins - 9/10
5. Peephole - 9/10
6. Shokugeki no Soma - 8/10
7. Detective Conan - 8/10
8. Assassination Classroom - 8/10
9. Kuroko no Basket - 8/10
10. Magi: Adventure of Sinbad - 8/10
11. Stealth Symphony - 8/10
12. Shonan Seven - 7/10
13. One Piece - 6/10
14. Bleach - 3/10
15. Naruto - 1/10

Lots of chapters to read this week, but nearly all of them were enjoyable, and I'm happy about that. Lots of things to look forward to next week as well, so hopefully that'll be just as good a week as well.

Kodansha is holding a contest for Vinland Saga, the winners of which will win a piece of original artwork signed by Yukimura himself! (http://kodanshacomics.com)

I caught up with a few more currently-running manga this week: A Silent Voice, A Bride's Story, The Heroic Legend of Arslan, and Orange. The first two are excellent, while Arslan and Orange are just decent, but I will talk about new chapters for all of them from now on as well.

A Bride's Story chapter 39 - Love at first sight? Lol, probably not, but Anis really seems smitten with Sirin just a bit too much. It's nice that's she's made a friend, though, especially one that's more down to earth and can probably teach her more about the world around her, which, being as sheltered as she is, would be helpful to her. But it seems her husband is getting a bit worried about her frequent visits to the public baths, and might forbid her to go anymore at some point. I wonder how Smith and Abli will factor into this story. They were mostly in the background during the twins arc, but Smith seems to be developing a friendship with Anis' husband and so he might have a much bigger role in this arc. In any case, it's clear this arc is about loneliness and friendship, two themes that haven't been explored yet in this travelogue. Wherever this arc is going should be more apparent next chapter, but not knowing where one of the bride's stories is going is one of Bride's Story's best qualities, and I look forward to seeing how this one ties into the narrative as a whole.

A Silent Voice chapter 44 - Holy fucking shit. This chapter was...wow. Right off this was incredibly potent and emotional stuff when Mrs. Nishimiya bows down to apologize to Shoya's mom for what happened to him. The look on her face pretty much says it all at just how ashamed and guilty she feels that he got hurt trying to save her daughter from committing suicide. God, this has got to be the most vulnerable she's ever been at this point, and it really shows. Moving on, Yuzuru bumping into Sahara and Nagatsuka, who've come to see Shoya, was a short, but nice scene. Shoya thought that he had lost his friends for good, but it's clear to see that these two still care a lot about him and, while they still are uncomfortable about what happened before, they are still there for him at this critical time. And then we get to Ueno and Shoko....holy shit is Ueno a fucking horrible person. She doesn't give a damn about what Shoko might be feeling right now, or how she's ever felt, being a deaf girl trying to fit in and constantly bullied. She beats her up, pulls her hair, and mocks the heartfelt letter she wrote to her where she explains just why she acts the way she does and that she does it for her sister's sake...right in front of Yuzuru, who must feel incredibly guilty about everything going on right now as well. And Shoko just takes the beatings and insults. Hell, she probably feels she deserves it. It's all so goddamn sad. So when Mrs. Nishimiya slaps Ueno right at the end of the chapter it was incredibly satisfying. Mrs. Nishimiya, to this point, has tried to protect her daughter by letting her fight her own battles and moving her from place to place when things don't work out. For her to lose her cool and slap a teenager is an incredibly aggressive and violent action from her (though it's more than justified...I mean, Ueno was beating Shoko half to death...). This chapter was just excellent on so many emotional levels. I've already re-read this one about 5 times already now because it's really that strong of stuff. I'm glad I finally tried and caught up with this series. I look forward to how this situation develops in the next chapter. I really want to see Shoko come to grips with what's happened especially. If there's one thing Ueno said that was true, it's that the poor girl needs to realize there are people who truly care about her and want her around.

Attack on Titan chapter 59 - Why did they make guns to use with the 3D maneuver gear, when it would be useless on Titans, but effective for killing other survey corps member? Exactly what is the point of making weapons to kill people on your side? That's definitely a mystery that I'm curious to find out. Armin feeling disturbed at having killed another human being was actually pretty well-done. The main focus of this chapter seemed to be on Jean figuring out his own way of doing what he believes is right, while accepting Levi's own strategies as well. It's felt a bit easy that those two Interior Brigade members went to their side, but it's not an implausible development and it was a good moment for Jean in any case. Frankly, I keep forgetting who Jean is most of the time so this chapter actually helped make his character more understandable and memorable to me. It looks like Levi's group is now prepared to rescue Eren and Historia, but of course there was that whole twist with Historia's father apologizing to her a chapter or two ago, so maybe they aren't in need of rescue or there's something bigger going on with this Reiss family conspiracy deal. Next chapter should be interesting, to say the least.

Attack on Titan: Before the Fall chapter 7 - This chapter was mostly Kyukuro and company running away and trying to combat the titans...which is something I've seen plenty enough of in the main series proper and thus was not really interested in reading. And that's really all there is to this chapter, running and fighting. It's a decent read, but this spinoff's strength is more in it's character development rather than it's action. I think next chapter, when Kyukuro probably defeats a titan and gains the trust and respect of the Survey Corp, will be more interesting. As it is, though, this wasn't a bad chapter.

Bleach chapter 588 - I still don't remember any of the Squad Zero members' names, but half this chapter is basically ducktail guy attacking Juha Bach. Yeah...I'm pretty sure that basically all of Squad Zero is going to fight and lose to Juha Bach, Uryu, and Haschwald before Ichigo arrives/intervenes, a la basically what happened to all the Soul Reapers in the Aizen fight. That just seems like a Kubo thing to do. Speaking of Kubo things to do, he pulls a twist out of nowhere by having Zombie Girl turn out to actually be a BOY!....for no reason. Also, how can Yumichika "smell the semen" on him? What does that even mean? But weird non-sensical dialogue is a pretty Kubo thing to do, so I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, earlier in the chapter Juha Bach did berate Haschwald for "showing emotion" after all. Anyway, Bambietta's back and a zombie now, so at least we finally know what the Sternritter quartet did with her. I thought for sure that was going to be a "two hanging corpses in Hueco Mundo" kind of deal. Actually, I kinda guessed it the minute Zombie Girl showed off her ability. It seemed obvious in the same way Uryu siding with the Quincies was earlier in the arc. So I guess Ikkaku and Yumichika are going to be fighting them now...which I of course don't care about but I do sorta of like Ikkaku and Yumichika for shallow reasons so at least this will be more entertaining to me than, say, a Histsugaya or Renji fight. "More entertaining" being a strictly relative term, of course. It still won't be actually entertaining.

GTO: Paradise Lost chapter 7 - Not only has Crunchyroll announced that they will be streaming the GTO anime, but they've picked up Paradise Lost for their manga section and will be simulpublishing new chapters! Ya....oh wait I forgot for a sec Paradise Lost has thus far been incredibly lame. This chapter is a good example of how this series is just going through the motions of the GTO formula, but completely lacking in the heart or comic energy of the original series. I'm going to wait out this first arc at least before I decide to drop it, but right now, this continues to be another thoroughly uninspired GTO spinoff.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan chapter 13 - This series has been hit and miss for me so far. I am genuinely interested in a couple of the characters, like Narsus and Gieve in particular, but much of the story has a whole has had it's dull stretches and catching up to this was a bit more tedious than I hoped. However, this chapter moved pretty quickly and a lot happened, from Pharangese and Gieve joining Arslan's group to Arslan and Daryoon finally confronting Kharlan in what should be a entertaining battle in the next chapter. I'd like to think that with Arslan's band now rounded out and the traitor finally being confronted the series will get more interesting and fun to read in the future, so I hope that'll prove to be true.

Hunter X Hunter chapter 346 - Thanks to Kurapika's efforts Pariston's scheme to get his assassins to infiltrate the Hunter's Association through the Hunter Exam failed. And we learn more about what kinds of Hunters the Zodiacs are and what their roles will be during the expedition. Ging has also won over Beyond's group in a month's time, and even Pariston sticks up for him when his assassins try to get Ging to leave the group. Honestly, this was kind of another expository chapter, and it didn't feel like too much of importance happened. These assassin guys are not really important and while a fight between them and Ging and Pariston might be cool I don't think it's really necessary. To this point quite a bit has actually happened in just six chapters since the series has come back, but I'd like for them to start the voyage to the Dark Continent sometime soon and get the story rolling., at least by the end of the summer, at least.

Kuroko no Basket chapters 268-269 - I finished reading Slam Dunk last week. I had already been spoiled at what the outcome of the match between Shohoku and Sannoh would be and the ending of the series, but that did not in any way lessen the sheer excitement and intensity of that match for me. I was on the edge of my seat for every play during that match and thoroughly invested in everything the characters were going through. I felt the tension, I got worried for Shohoku, forgetting that I knew they would win in the end, and felt elation when they things looked bright for them. From beginning to end it was an enthralling match and culminated in a glorious, satisfying, and emotionally rewarding payoff.

It might be unfair to compare this match in Kuroko to that, but really, this match should be KnB's version of that legendary match in terms of it's raw intensity, as it is the climactic match that has been built up for ages now and what the series has been working toward all this time. But while the last few chapters have been decent reads, as a whole, this match has been tedious, unfocused, and downright obnoxious at several points, and worse still, completely lacking emotionally. There was so much going on in that final match in SD as far as each player's character arc as well as their evolution as a team, and this match should be just as strong, since there were several components set up for this. Yet, for a match where it should feel that Seirin is giving their all and have a lot riding on it, all that has been swept under the rug to focus on unimportant aspects, only occasionally seeping through to wind down without satisfactory payoff. This doesn't feel like a big, climactic showdown. It feels like yet another match of the series, but completely tension less. So I read this chapter, see Seirin is desperate because EVERY PLAYER ON THE RAKUZAN TEAM IS IN THE ZONE (well, they try to mitigate this by saying they are only "half-in the zone"...which is a shitty explanation), and there are only two minutes left, and they are all completely, utterly exhausted...and then I feel I should care...but I can't bring myself too. And then in the next chapter, Kuroko's old childhood friend arrives and cheers him on, and then every other team Seirin has played against start doing the same and the entire stadium is filled with supportive cheers for Seirin and this should be a moment of hope and appeal to my emotional connection to their plight...but I still can't care.

Worse, the solution presented at the end of the chapter is for Kagami to try and active the second level of the zone. This damn thing really is a power-up, and sorry to say, but I feel this series really is basically a superpower sports manga at this point. It might not be a Prince of Tennis' level of absurdity yet, but once this second door thing happens, and no doubt it will happen, there's no turning back from that path. But the real problem here is that I should be feeling what I felt when I was reading the Shohoku vs. Sannoh match. This match should have been satisfying on many levels and I should have felt worried for Seirin when they were at their low points and gleeful at their highs. Chapter 269 should have been a very powerful, emotionally fulfilling event. But, all this time I've just found this tedious and almost every emotion has rung hollow to me. There were some bright spots here and there, but in comparison to just about any match in Slam Dunk and even early in this series it's been a joke. It is, easily, the worst match thus far in the series and not even Akashi dropping his asshole personality in the recent chapters can change my stance on that. And after seeing how great that final match in SD was, and how that series never, ever resorted to the kinds of gimmicks KnB uses in order to raise tension, I've come to dislike this match even more. As chapters, these two weren't by any means bad, but this match as a whole still is, and I can't help but be disappointed by that.

Magi chapter 231 - I don't really have much I feel like talking about in this chapter, but I quite liked it. Probably what's going to happen is that Il Illah will bestow upon Solomon some grand powers, and then Ugo, Sheba, and Arba will become the first three Magi.

Naruto chapter 684 - So Kaguya wasn't fighting with the intent to kill Naruto this whole time? That at least explains why she hasn't been able to crush him and Sasuke easily, since with her power they shouldn't even be a match for her. It's pretty obvious she didn't kill the original Naruto. The shadow clones still being in effect is proof enough of that. It seems the original is not in Kaguya's dimension, so it seems Obito and Sakura are planning to do something while Kaguya and Zetsu are taken aback by the fact the shadow clones are still there. Well, whatever they do it better work, but this is Sakura we're talking about...

Peephole chapter 31 - Well, it looks like Kurosu sure dodged a bullet there. Miyachi's boxing explanation for why Fujiura was so beat up was hilarious. It seems like Miyachi really wanted Kurosu to kill Fujiura, as some sort of weird development for their relationship. They've sure got one heck of a messed up romance. But wow, who the hell brutally murdered Fujiura like that when she should have been in Detective Schneider's custody? Could it have been a rival killer? But if so, how did he/she break into the Police Station and commit such a bloody deed so quickly and without notice. Hmm...

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 85 - It looks like Merlin won't be rejoining the Sins after all, but she and Arthur will surely return later on in the story. They probably shouldn't have left so quickly, though, since Hendrickson is ready for round 2 and has caused a reaction in the demon blood in the new generation Holy Knights, which looks like some fatal news for Geera and Jericho. An interesting development, and one I wonder how the Sins will be able to resolve. Hendrickson just might accomplish his goal and revive the demon clan if these demon-transformed humans aren't stopped/saved in time. You know, perhaps he's been a demon all along. Sure would explain a few things.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 77 - So Mimasaka is a copy-cat chef. He thoroughly researches his opponents and their dishes beforehand and how they make their dishes, and goes one step beyond, improving upon their dishes and out-performing them. Every step and ingredient Takumi's planned to use has been predicted by Mimasaka, leaving Takumi in a tight spot. However, Takumi is pretty ingenuity, and even though time is short, he should be able to tweek his dish in a way Mimasaka couldn't expect, and I'll be interested in seeing exactly how next chapter.

Stealth Symphony chapter 19 - It looks like this series will end next week. It's a shame, since this really did have a lot of potential in it's premise, but it's been ranking in the bottom of Jump ranking every week so it was only a matter of time. There's really not too much I want to say about this chapter myself. Toroma has suffered the consequences of his neutrality with both personal damage and losing a friend's life, that being Jig's, who has been mercilessly killed off in a pretty shocking fashion. There's only one chapter left, and with Jig dead, most of the plot points have been (albeit hastily) resolved. It's a pretty dark resolution, but probably the best Narita could do on short notice, and I get that. Well, I guess he'll be sticking with making light novels and not more manga anytime soon. A shame, really.

Toriko chapter 284 - Komatsu has heard the voice of "Air," and might be able to prepare it! However, the Horse King Heracles will not let anyone anyone touch "Air," and sure is hell won't permit anyone cross his continent without making a sacrifice first. But Komatsu needs Mappy and Kareru in order to get to "Air," and Toriko sure isn't willing to die yet. But his opponent this time is one of the Eight Beast Kings, the strongest creatures in the Gourmet World. Toriko doesn't even think he could last even five minutes, and that's a generous estimate at best. But it's sure to make for one hell of a battle to come next week, and I, for one, can't wait to read it.

Vinland Saga chapter 105 - Thorfinn's peaceful, non-violent approach to things makes him a different man from most other Vikings in that he has a different outlook on things and different values as well. Certainly Haalfdan didn't expect anyone would so easily, and unhesitatingly agree to lick his boots just for supplies. But for Thorfinn such pride is a frivolous thing and he has priorities he's cares far more about; as he says, licking a few boots or eating horse shit is a cheap price to pay if they can get what they need to colonize Vinland. It seems that Haalfdan is testing Thorfinn with the Narwhal horns. It's apparently not easy to hunt Narhwals, but he could make could good money off them, enough to help get the supplies they need. I'm sure Thorfinn is up to the challenge, and I look forward to seeing just how hard the job will be come next chapter.

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 10/10
2. A Bride's Story - 9/10
3. Vinland Saga - 9/10
4. Toriko - 9/10
5. The Seven Deadly Sins - 9/10
6. Attack on Titan - 8/10
7. Shokugeki no Soma - 8/10
8. Peephole - 8/10
9. Hunter X Hunter - 8/10
10. Magi - 8/10
11. Kuroko no Basket - 7/10
12. Stealth Symphony - 7/10
13. The Heroic Legend of Arslan - 7/10
14. Attack on Titan: Before the Fall - 7/10
15. Bleach - 5/10
16. GTO: Paradise Lost - 4/10
17. Naruto - 3/10

Most of the chapters this week were quite good, with the top 5 being really, really good. I was harsh on Kuroko in my overview because of how bad this match as a whole has been, but the recent  chapters themselves were decent for what could be done at this point and I did honestly enjoy them more than a few other new chapters which I wouldn't give below a "7," so by default I had to give it a "7" this week as well. I really am thoroughly disappointed with the series at this point, though. Oh well.

I still haven't caught up with Kuroko (I'm just waiting for the series to finish at this point, or at least the match itself, before I read it), but from what I've seen, your opinion isn't alone. I've seen others compare it to the final match of Slam Dunk, and say that it's laughably bad in comparison. What worked in SD's final match is that you really grew to care about the characters and their own individual story arcs so much by that point in time. Their match with Sannoh was so intense because you really wanted to see them pull through, and when Sannoh had over a 20 point lead on them, you couldn't help but feel hopeless for a bit, yet the way Shouhoku turned it around by the end was both captivating and actually even believable. They earned their cheers from the crowd by the end of it. The characters might be simplistic, but Inoue Takehiko is a mangaka who knows people, and knows how to make his characters endearing people that you care about (something that he brought to a whole new level in REAL). Even when Kuroko no Basket was on its good games, I never really felt that connection to the characters like I did with Slam Dunk, which is why, even if it had stayed consistent in quality, it would never be a favorite of mine.

Also, that last shot was excellent. No dialogue or anything. Just pure intensity and heart. That last scene with Rukawa passing the ball to Sakuragi will forever be remembered as a classic. The 2 guys who couldn't stand each other the most finally acknowledged each other as teammates, and Rukawa finally trusted Sakuragi as a player, not with just any shot, but the most important shot of the match. It's a scene that worked so well because of all of the shaky history established between the two characters over the course of the entire series. Kuroko, IMO, doesn't have anything like that, and thus relies on power-up techniques to make matches and scenes interesting. Were this a manga that didn't take itself completely seriously like Eyeshield 21, that could actually work. But, unlike that much better series, it does take itself as seriously as Slam Dunk, so it just becomes an utter joke of itself without even realizing it.

All this talk reminds me that I really need to pick up Vagabond again. I never got far in it, so I'll just start it from scratch, but it's very possible that Takehiko may just be one of my favorite mangaka ever.

Yeah, I loved that last shot as well for the same reasons. It was the culmination of a rivalry that had lasted the entire series, resolved in a single moment of unwavering trust and respect. It's easy to see why that match is considered "legendary" and one of the most iconic moments in manga period. It easily became one of my top favorite scenes in manga.

And yeah, Kuroko has yet to make me invested in the characters as strongly, much less pull of an emotionally-charged moment nearly as well as SD. Even though I felt Miyagi and Rukawa didn't have enough character development at times, I still cared a lot about them in the games, which is more than I can say for any other characters at this point in KnB. And I actually wouldn't really call SD a "top favorite" of mine, but I really was invested in it's characters and story considerably and the final game was genuinely a page-turning and captivating experience for me.  KnB has yet to impress or endear me as strongly as SD did, and while I really did enjoy up until the rematch with To'oh, I can't say I'd consider myself a "fan" of it anymore, given how the series has been this match, and really, ever since the rematch with To'oh.

Whoever said Kuroko was the best currently running series in Jump is just flat-out wrong, sorry.

Anyway, Takehiko Inoue really is a great mangaka. I need to read and catch up to Vagabond sometime soon.

Desensitized, you just got your ass dissed. :humhumhum:

To be fair, I did like the re-match with Kaijou (where they didn't use any of that "Zone BS at all"), and the flash-back arc was OK, but the bottom line is that, even at its best, I was never in love with the series. I think it's a good manga in its own right (keep in mind that I still haven't read up to date yet), but comes off as just an OK one when compared to the best sports manga out there.

For some reason, though, this is currently more popular than SD with American fans, but that may only be because it's still a currently running series. I think people will kind of forget about it a few years after it finally wraps up.

Yeah, there are quite a few people I've seen who genuinely prefer Kuroko to Slam Dunk. There are also a lot of people who have read Kuroko but not Slam Dunk, because Kuroko is a newer and much-talked about series. I'd say the series will be remembered about as much as Prince of Tennis is when it ends, expect maybe a fair more favorably.

My first Monster Perfect Edition is shipping tomorrow. Can't wait for a re-read of that.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on July 13, 2014, 09:42:41 AM
Desensitized, you just got your ass dissed. :humhumhum:

Wouldn't be the first time, especially from Cartoon X. I haven't read the manga since the last match began so I have no comment on it.

I just found out that A Silent Voice is actually supposed to end soon. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-03-15/a-silent-voice-koe-no-katachi-manga-to-end-in-3-more-volumes) I mean, considering recent developments in the story, I shouldn't be surprised, but since I only just read and caught up to it last week, I'm rather sad to see it will be ending shortly. Of course, the plus side to this is that now I'm sure the series will have told a concise, well-told and quality story beginning to end. I definitely wish I could enjoy it just a bit longer, but the author had a purpose in creating this story and is choosing to end it in the way she thinks is best, despite it's popularity, and I totally respect that. And of course, there's still probably around 15 or so chapters left, so I'll still be able to look forward to new chapters for at least another three months. Hopefully they'll all be great chapters, and this series ends as strong as I'm hoping.

So...DCTP received a cease and desist letter from Viz, and so they will no longer be translating the latest Detective Conan chapters. While I fully respect Viz and their commitment to releasing the series stateside, this news does sadden me, because the english releases of the manga are over 30 volumes behind where the series is at in Japan, and at the rate the series is being released, we're not likely to get caught up anytime soon. I'm bummed that it'll take a long, long time before I'm able to read more of the story, but it can't be helped unless another scanalation group picks up the series. I guess I can still watch the anime though, which, speaking of, I'd really like to watch legally too (make it happen, Crunchyroll!)

Anyway, manga:

A Silent Voice chapter 45 - Oh wow, Ueno actually felt guilt and regret for her actions. Not only that, but Sahara is still her friend after all of this. I feel that Ueno, selfish and despicable as she can be, does truly want to become a better person, but she's quick to anger and hurting others to relieve her own pain. I hope we see her change her ways before the series is over. But damn, the second half of this chapter, Yuzuru and Mrs. Nishimiya taking down the pictures...reflecting on all that's happened, what they did do, what could have been done, and Shoko coming in and the whole family bursting out in tears...that was a really powerful moment. It seems Shoko now has conviction in her eyes. She's done feeling sorry for herself, and thinking she's a burden. She's going to make things right again. I can't wait to see how.

Assassination Classroom chapter 93 - Heh heh, Class E's unconventional tactics and teamwork seem to be finally frustrating Asano. Not only that, but they seem to be doing a good job at riling them up and goading them into doing exactly what they want as well. Leaving only two people to guard the pole is risky, but they wouldn't do it, much less provoke the Class A members trapped under it into resuming their attack, if they didn't have some scheme in mind. It'll be fun to see exactly what that is in the next chapter.

Black Butler chapter 95 - Lately, I've been thinking over this series and it's storyline, and I actually think that I don't give it enough credit. This chapter, which explores Ciel's character in a pretty revelatory, effective way that made me reconsider his character arc thus far. Not only that, it feels like a true turning point for him as well, as perhaps he will drop his cold, harsh personality and adopt a personality truer to himself. What's more, the relationship between him and Sebastian seems to be something much more invested than the two forming a pact out of mutual, selfish aims. There's still a lot about them that I don't care for, but now I feel they are much better, and more interesting characters than I've given them credit for a good while now. As far as the plot goes, it seems that the Queen wants to meet with the Green Witch. Hmm, well she is up to a bunch of shady business what with her zombie army and all, so maybe this has something to do with that. I have to wonder if she's in league with Undertaker at this point, too. I guess I'll see where this goes, but at least Ciel's character development already makes this arc not pointless so I'm satisfied about that.

Bleach chapter 589 - I'm honestly surprised Kubo remembered Yoruichi existed. Her entrance was weird...was she hiding in Orihime's boobs or something? I mean, she stuck her hands from out of there so it kinda looked like it. Urahara recreated the Shiba family cannon which will get Ichigo back to the Soul King's palace. God, what's the point of having the guy go back and forth like this Kubo? And speaking of Shiba's, when the hell are Ganju and the Fullbringers going to show up? Anyway, it looks like Mayuri is going to be fighting Sternritter Z and Zombietta instead of Ikkaku and Yumichika...because Kubo got bored of the set-up, I'm guessing. This was just an annoying chapter, especially the lame-attempts at comedy in the first half of it, and I honestly don't care about Mayuri taking over the fight with Sternritter Z. It's hard for me to think of things to say about Bleach these days, especially with chapters as dull as these, and trying to write about it is making me lose enthusiasm in writing this post, so let's just move on now.

Fairy Tail: Ice Trail and Fairy Tail: Zero chapter 1 - Now, I know what you're thinking: "why is he going over a chapter of a Fairy Tail spinoff when he hates the series?" I couldn't help the curiosity. Mashima is writing and drawing two spinoffs for his series for monthly releases, and I couldn't help but see what their first chapters were like. Of course, both were meh. Ice Trail is apparently going to be about Gray's life after the death of Ur and before he joined Fairy Tail, and basically it looks to be a generic shonen story typical in every way imaginable. Zero is much, much more interesting, in that it's about Mavis and how the Fairy Tail guild was formed, but despite the promising premise the pilot chapter suffers from the same kind of terrible writing that I've come to associate with FT. Yeah...didn't expect much, didn't get much. I might check out a few more chapters of Zero, but yeah, so far these chapters were just more FT badness. Fuck 'em.

GTO: Paradise Lost chapter 8 - Onizuka rescues female teacher from female student bullies blah blah...Onizuka is being targeted by the angry fans of that idol kid he threw frogs on blah blah...geez, how this series manages to take the fun out of GTO is beyond me. Unless it gets better fast I'll likely drop it after this arc.

Hunter X Hunter chapter 347 - Heh, I should've known Pariston was using the Assassins to try and discover what Ging's power was. I love how Ging already knew that and just trolled him by using a power he's already seen before. It's interesting that Ging can use nen powers he's come into contact with. I wonder what other abilities he's got up his sleeve. Certainly, though, he's skilled in getting people on his side since he convinced Muhel to accept him as no. 2 of the group. I've been loving the tension between Ging and Pariston ever since the manga has come back, and can't wait to see how that dynamic will play out once the Dark Continent expedition get underway.

Kuroko's Basketball chapter 270 - So...only half the chapter has been scanned, for some reason, but basically Kagami activates the second door of the zone...which is called Synchro...because the entire team becomes "in sync"...YEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH NO. Goddamit, Kuroko really has become a goddamn superpower sports series now like Prince of Tennis, and I really, really do not care for that, especially since the series has lost it's ability to pull off any weight or impact to anything that goes on anymore. Sigh. At least this match will be over soon...

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad chapter 29 - And thus the birth of the Sindria trading company! Sinbad's economic plan is interesting and it's cool to see the initial foundation,  ideology, and alliance his country would become based upon. I'm looking forward to seeing where the exploits of Sinbad's trading business leads him.

Naruto chapter 685 - Basically Sakura acted as a chakra battery as Obito located Sasuke and brought him back to where they are in Kaguya's dimension. Wow, Sakura sure developed into a capable and useful character, huh? Truly she is the epitome of a well-written and strong female character that all shonen manga should look to an emulate. I see you taking notes Mashima, what with Wendy cutting her hair in a manner similar to what Sakura did early on in the series except in your case it made zero sense to do and means little but THAT'S OKAY! The important thing is that Sakura's character arc evolved from having a crush on Sasuke and being useless to having a crush on Sasuke and being a power-up/healing tool for the boyz to use in battle when needed! Kishimoto truly is a genius character writer.

Seriously, fuck this chapter. I mean, why can't Kaguya just send Sasuke off somewhere again? There is frankly nothing, NOTHING that would stop her from doing that, and what, you'll do this again even though you just exhausted yourselves? This is a stupid ass plan. Honestly, this whole sending Sasuke off somewhere basically filler-y bullshit in a already dragged out and boring battle. I really hope this battle starts to wrap up soon...

One Piece chapter 753 - Lots of neat moments in this chapter, from Bellamy's confrontation with Doflamingo, to the enslaved Tontatta rebelling, to all of Luffy's tournament allies effectively organized against Doflamingo's forces in order to pave a patch for Luffy and co. to break through Doflamingo's castle. Admittedly a bit too much going on, but it was an entertaining chapter all the same.

One-Punch Man chapter 49 - Heh, Boros and his forces have finally all been destroyed. And it turns out Saitama still wasn't being serious in his fight with him. Of course he didn't.  :lol: All in all a satisfying end to this arc.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 86 - Ouch. The Sins got totally screwed over here. Hendricksen is half-demon like Meliodas after all and curbstomped the lot in his new demonic form...and he's also basically turned Helbram's corpse into a zombie puppet...goddamn. Elizabeth is willing to go with Hendricksen in order to save the Sins' life...but it seems Ban has entered the picture now. Is he going to betray Meliodas and try to kill him in order to ressurect Elaine, or will he help his friends take down Hendricksen? It could honestly go either way, and I can't wait to find our.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 78 - Man, I died when Mimasaka's semifredo turned that one judge tsundere!  :lol: It looks like Aldini has used Olive Oil in a last minute attempt to touch up his semifredo, somehow. I gotta wonder how that one ingredient can so dramatically improve his dish? Hmm...

Stealth Symphony chapter 20 - The last chapter! All in all, while the resolution was typical, it was also satisfying and did a good job at leaving the series on a high note. It's a shame this series didn't do well, since it really did have potential, and Toroma and Slice were great characters I would have liked to see more of, but alas it wasn't meant to be. Hopefully Narita has better luck with his next manga. Until then, I guess I'll just go back to waiting for Durarara season 2.

Toriko chapter 285 - HOLY. SHIT. Wow, I mean, I wasn't expecting the fight between Toriko and Heracles to last long or anything...but I didn't expect there not to even be a fight in the first place. Heracles didn't need to do anything. All he did was exhale. Not even a lot, just a whiff. And the sheer force of the air pressure CUT TORIKO IN HALF AND DUG A FUCKING CRATER NEXT TO HIM. Goddamn. Toriko's going to live though this, that's a given, but I really wanna see how, and dangit, Mappy might really need to make that sacrifice at this rate. Excellent chapter, as usual.

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 10/10
2. Toriko - 9/10
3. The Seven Deadly Sins - 9/10
4. One-Punch Man - 9/10
5. Hunter X Hunter - 8.5/10
6. Magi: Adventure of Sinbad - 8.5/10
7. Shokugeki no Soma - 8.5/10
8. Assassination Classroom - 8/10
9. Black Butler - 8/10
10. Stealth Symphony - 8/10
11. One Piece - 8/10
12. Kuroko no Basket - 5/10
13. GTO: Paradise Lost - 5/10
14. Bleach - 5/10
15. Fairy Tail Zero - 5/10
16. Fairy Tail: Ice Trail - 5/10
17. Naruto - 1/10

Overall a pretty good week. I'm really looking forward to next week's Silent Voice, Toriko, Sins, and Soma!

Viz's Shonen Jump to publish a one-shot by Psyren's author in the next issue. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-07-21/viz-shonen-jump-to-publish-1-shot-by-psyren-author/.76900)

The premise of this one-shot doesn't seem anything special, but this is nice to see nonetheless. I wonder if Iwashiro will come out with a new series in Jump sometime soon. Also, I need to finish Psyren sometime. I only ever read, like, a fourth of it.  :P

That's a series that I bet would have done REALLY well internationally if it was made an anime. I just get that impression from it.

The man does have potential, though, so I am certainly interested in what he does next.

Huh, it looks like Magic Kaito is getting an anime adaption.  (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-07-25/magic-kaito-manga-gets-tv-anime-by-a-1-pictures/.77015) I love me some Kaitou Kid, so I'm down for this. It'd be great if it gets licensed for streaming, but considering how related it is to Detective Conan and how FUNi has no interest in putting any more of that out, I'm not that hopeful about that. Then again, this will only be a one or two cours series, so maybe there's hope for it.

Space Brothers is getting a movie, huh? (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-07-26/space-brothers-no.0-film-full-trailer-streamed/.77040) The plot to it seems interesting enough, so I think it'll end up being worthwhile to check out. Some elements do seem like they could be a bit retcon-y, though, but hopefully they'll tie things together with the beginning of the series well.

I still need to finish the series, which I'll do after I catch-up with Vagabond, but I'd be interested in checking out the movie, myself.

Oh man, I'm late on this one this week. Was pretty busy over the weekend, and these weekly manga recaps take a surprising amount of time to write, and I just wasn't feeling it. I'm still not feeling it, actually, so I'm keeping this pretty short. Some good news to come out of last week, though, was that a new group has picked up scanning Detective Conan, so thank god for that. Especially since there was a cool new development at the end of the current case.

A Silent Voice chapter 46 - So Shoko wants to make it up to Shoyo by finishing the movie. Though Ueno has already refused, could she really get back the gang together, and make amends? The interactions between Shoko and Nagatsuka was touching in this chapter. Both of them care about helping Shoyo and clearly have a mutual bond from that, but I think they've become genuine friends themselves, a great development considering they previously were only around each other because of Shoyo. Will they be able to finish the movie? I'd hope so.

Assassination Classroom chapter 94 - Geez, Principal Gakuho is one harsh disciplinarian. And he really hates to lose. Damn. I can see why Asano both looks up to and thinks of him as a monster. I'd like to see him get some character development after this arc, and eventually rebel against his fathers methods and ideals. And it seems like Class E are no longer outcasts, and in fact are starting to be respected. Of course, the Principal isn't going to stand for that, so I wonder what he's scheming to put Class E down again.

Bleach chapter 590 - It's Mayuri, so of course he works over Sternritter Z with some bullshit moves and destroys Bambietta. Speaking of which...was it really necessary to have Bambietta beg for Z's dick (at least that's what it seemed like), Kubo? I mean, goddamn, how low can you sink? And then the ending of the chapter...okay, how the fuck is Yuppi still alive? Grimmjow blew him the fuck up. Mayuri shouldn't even know who he is. WHY THE FUCK IS HE HERE AND STILL ALIVE? As for the Privarion Arrancars...well, they make sense because that's payoff on the bodies Mayuri found in Hueco Mundo, like, 300 chapters ago, so fine, whatever. I don't get why Charlotte is also here, instead of say, the Afro Arrancar who we know is still alive and stuff, but really, who gives a shit about these guys anyway. Writing about Bleach chapters is a soul-sucking experience every week because there's nothing to look forward to or speculate with this series except for when it's ending. This is Bleach's problem, and really the problem with a lot of shonen manga nowadays, is that we have to suffer through these endless, endless battles against mooks who only exist to be fought and defeated and pad out the story. This is nothing new, of course, but reading this series every week I keep asking why this matters, and why does this need to be in the story. And, of course, it doesn't. Kubo doesn't need to have or show all these battles. No one cares about Mayuri and these Arrancar characters from 300+ chapters ago coming in and defeating a minor villain who's only characterization is that he's a sexual deviant (which is supposed to be funny, but it's not). In general, these fucking Quincies are not much of characters outside of how goddamn weird or quirky they are. They are not characters. They are one-note punching bags for the series' gargantuan cast of characters to fight just so they can have "done something" in this arc. But the Quincies should be actual human beings, because, as Kubo established early on in the series, they were regular human beings who happened to fight hollows to help people. Not these psychopathic, horrible weirdos who are waging a war of revenge for god knows why reasons. I am only still reading this series at this point because it is almost over. But goddamn does it want to drag and make it's last stretch some of the most painful, tiring reading experiences I've ever had.

Detective Conan chapters 901-902 - This was a fun case. But I think the most interesting thing about it was the ending, showing the mysterious little girl and Akai smiling on learning the news Shukichi won his match. This got me thinking that Shukichi might be the middle brother of the Akai siblings, and perhaps Sera isn't actually Akai's sister, but the little girl is, and she has been shrunk by the drug like Conan and Haibara are. I'll be curious to see if theory turns out to be correct in the future.

Hunter X Hunter chapter 348 - So Sayu is the traitor. Um, okay. Uh...that's basically the most important thing that happened in the chapter, and I don't care about Sayu so the development doesn't leave much impact to me. This is really a "see where this goes" kind of thing.

Kuroko's Basketball chapters 270.5-271 - So, Zone level 2 is still some corny-ass bullshit, but at least it hasn't turned the game around for Seirin completely as Akashi widens the gap at the last second. Rakuzan's got a 7 point lead and there's only 40 seconds left in the game. I'd like to hope Seirin will just lose the game and come out a stronger team...but I'm just betting they win at the last second do to teamwork/friendship/zone level 3 or some crap like that. Well, at least this game is almost over.

Magi chapter 232 - Huh, so Solomon basically becomes one with Il Illah and becomes god, huh? I'm confused as to whether David got revived or that was just an older Solomon, but I'm leaning towards the former because Solomon's spirit is shown replacing Il Illah as god now. Or it could not be that, I dunno, I haven't read the newest chapter yet. But, I do think that Arba is Gyokuen even more now, what with the way she referred to Il Illah as "our father" and stuff. Good stuff, this chapter.

Naruto chapter 686 - Kaguya transports them into a gravity dimension even she has trouble moving in. Our ultra-powerful final villain, everyone! And Obito is going to sacrifice himself...again. Whatever.

One Piece chapter 754 - So...is the fight with Pica going to be over now? Like that? Really?  Geez, give Zoro a challenging fight already Oda. He hasn't had a decent one on one fight since the timseskip. A decent enough chapter overall, but...eh, don't care for how the fight with Pica is going.

One-Punch Man chapter 50 - The scans say this is the 49th chapter...but this series is so confusing with how the chapters are split up, so I'm paying it no mind. But some cool stuff here, and set-up for future events with the appearance of Handsomely Sweet Mask and Metal Knight's suspicious behavior. I look forward to seeing what the new arc will be about, and how these character will fit into it.

Peephole chapter 32-33 - It was humorous seeing Kurosu and Miyachi having a normal date at an amusement park, as it was a bit disturbing. Looks like the sister of Kurosu's old friend that Miyachi killed is looking for answers. Okay. I'm not sure where that'll go, but hopefully it'll be fun.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 87 - The fight between Ban and Meliodas is good stuff. I don't think Ban is going to go through with killing him, even with Meliodas' blessing, but I wonder if he's going to be so willing to accept being comrades with him now that he knows Meliodas is from the demon clan. On that note, it looks like Hendricksen has an unexpected thorn in his side....Griamor! I wasn't expecting him to return, but it'd make sense for him to want to avenge Veronica and protect Elizabeth. Of course, I doubt he's going to be a match for Hendricksen, but he might be able to get away with Elizabeth or buy some time for the Sins to catch up to them.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 79 - Takumi did a good job making a lemon coating for his semifredo to make his dish stand out from Mimasaka's, but unfortunately, it seems he miscalculated and underestimated the extent of Mimasaka's research, and ultimately his dish just does not have the same impact as his did. Ouch. Looks like Takumi's out. I wasn't expecting that, but then again, it's interesting that the underdog character no one knows about would win. Thing is, Mimasaka is such a gimmick character and I'm not interested in him going up against any of the other characters (I just know it's going to be Soma), unless he becomes a more 3-dimmensional character and such. But, it's not a bad development. It might be interesting seeing Soma avenge Takumi's loss, and the author could develop this in a good way. I'll see how this goes.

Toriko chapter 286 - I can't remember the last time I haven't enjoyed a Toriko chapter. I wish there would never be a time. But, sadly, this chapter has happened. My problem with everything that happens here is basically a result of one, critical flaw - no foreshadowing. The healing water, the blue demon, Komatsu preparing air, none of this was established properly beforehand and so it all comes off like a huge asspull here. And I really don't care that the Blue Demon landed a punch on Heracles. It's one thing for Toriko to have the potential to rival the power of the Eight Kings, but Toriko, even if it's just the demon inside of him, should not be on his level at all yet. So yeah...I do not care at all for these developments. It's a poorly-executed shonen power-up. If the flashback scenes in this chapter were properly shown when those events should have occurred proper 20 chapters ago, and if this was spread out to shown Komatsu preparing Air and stuff, then I might have been able to swallow this easier. But, this execution just leaves so much to be desired and is not well written, and I've come to expect much better from Toriko. However, there have been times in manga before where I've felt things happened in a poor way, but that was remedied later on, so I'll see how this all develops from here. But yeah, I rarely say this, but Toriko had a bad chapter this week. Too bad, but hopefully it doesn't happen again anytime soon.

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 10/10
2. The Seven Deadly Sins - 9.5/10
3. Detective Conan - 9/10
4. One-Punch Man - 9/10
5. Assassination Classroom - 8/10
6. Magi - 8/10
7. Hunter X Hunter - 8/10
8. Shokugeki no Soma - 8/10
9. Peephole - 7.5/10
10. One Piece - 7/10
11. Toriko - 6/10
12. Kuroko's Basketball - 4/10
13. Bleach - 1/10
14. Naruto - 1/10

Wasn't really feeling last week of manga. Maybe it was the disappointment from the Toriko chapter, since, as you can tell from the scores, I didn't dislike most of these chapters. But...outside of Silent Voice, Sins, Conan, and OPM I can't say any of last week's chapters left much of a significant and positive impact on me. Hopefully this week will be more entertaining as a whole.

QuoteBleach chapter 590 - It's Mayuri, so of course he works over Sternritter Z with some bullshit moves and destroys Bambietta.

Fuck you, Kubo. :srs:

As for the Giselle thing, I'll just believe that Yumchika was bullshitting about her gender.

Looks like The Seven Deadly Sins anime is being done by A-1 Pictures. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-08-01/the-seven-deadly-sins-anime-game-cast-staff-announced/.77198) They did good work on Magi, so I have good hope they do a similarly good job with Sins. Though, this also means that this is probably going to be licensed by Aniplex, but at least that'll add to the backlog of titles Toonami can pick up from them in the future (assuming it turns out good and is dubbed, of course).

Seems like the releases of new chapters of the Silver Spoon are going to slow down because Arakawa is taking care of a sick family member. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-08-02/silver-spoon-arakawa-slows-manga-serialization/.77222) Though I of course hope we still get at least one new chapter a month, I'm fine with this, and she should take all the time she needs until her family member get better.

This was a much better week than last week, easily.

A Silent Voice chapter 47 - It seems like there's going to be a chapter focusing on each member of the group and their reactions to aftermatch of Shoko's attempted suicide/Shoyo's hospitalization. Last week the chapter was focused on Nagatsuka, the week before that it was about Yuzuru. This week's focus is on Sahara, and her doubts as to whether she has really changed as a person. Unlike Shoyo, it never crossed her mind to track down Shoko and make amends or befriend her. She ran away from the situation, her problems, and Shoko, and instead tried to be someone that other people saw her as, and by circumstance, ended up coming to an understanding with Ueno, perhaps out of the desire to let bygones be and start over, or perhaps out of guilt that she saw her as a horrible person, when she herself couldn't do anything, and perhaps because she just wanted approval from those around her. So the question is, did she change as a person through these years, or has she simply been going along with the flow, doing what's convenient and popular to do at the time. But it's pointless for her to think about why she's done what she's done, and instead focus on what she can do right now for the people she cares about. The dress she made for Ueno, to me, symbolizes her desire to be useful to someone, and to be there for someone. Even though Ueno has rejected her, Shoko stops her from throwing the dress away. Shoko tells her they need it. That they need her. She is their friend, she is doing something that's making a difference. She's been helping all this time. Maybe, she would have never talked to Shoko again if it wasn't for Shoyo. Maybe, she wouldn't have been able to run over and risk her life to stop Shoko from jumping to her death. But she can help with this movie, right here, right now, and that will make a difference. 

Assassination Classroom chapter 95 - Class E has become more and more confident in themselves and the series has progressed. In the beginning, they were misfits and outcasts, scorned by everyone, mocked for their lack of skills, left behind to suffer for the sake of the other students of the school. Korosensei has slowly but surely over time rebuilt each and every one of them. He's shown each student their strengths, how to better themselves, and that they can achieve marvelous results just as much as anyone else in the school if they applied themselves seriously and diligently. As a result, Class E is now a force to be reckoned with. Not only because they are all skilled killers, but because they have learned to make the best use of their skill sets to overcome their obstacles, and work together to surmount their shared adversities. They are a close-nit family, and from each others' influence they've bettered themselves as students, assassins, and, more importantly, as people. And people have recognized them for it. Time and time again Class E has been put in situations where people have expected them to fail miserably. They've seen them as useless, incompetent, or otherwise inferior to elite groups like Class A or the professional assassins Takaoka hired. But Class E has proved their mettle to time again, and again, and again, and they've slowly but surely earned the respect of those who once looked down on them. Now, Class E is not the black sheep of their school. They are viewed as capable, if not eccentric, students and athletes and respected for it. This was Korosensei aim all along. He's been teaching them that the only way to earn people's respect and attention is to show that you are capable of things no one else can do, that you can do things just as well or better through your own means, and that you must work hard to achieve this but you can't achieve it alone, and that's why it's important to work together. And after beating Class A in the recent competition, and with mid-terms on the way, it seems his efforts have paid off handsomely.

However, because of Class E's rising success, and because of how well their risks have paid off to them, they feel invincible. They've overcome many obstacles, some of them being life-or-death situations, and they've come up on top in the end each time. But this has led them to think they can get away with anything, impatient to improve themselves more through more audacious methods regardless of the risks involved. Here, unsatisfied, they attempted to kill two birds with one stone by not only going through Korosensei's usual vigorous cram-sessions in school, but also to self-train together outside of school by jumping on top of rooftops to and from school. They didn't think of the risks of this. They didn't think about what could happen, whether they could get hurt, whether they could hurt someone else, whether they could be seen and the secret of Korosensei exposed to the world. They didn't think about the consequences, because after being on a winning streak in life for so long, they've forgotten that there are consequences, dangers, and risks to what they do and don't do. And while they didn't end up killing anybody, they've hospitalized an old man. And they're lucky it was just that.

Korosensei has always taught them to be mindful of both themselves and others. They've forgotten that. And it's caused an accident. And that's unforgivable to him. He's angry not just at them, but at himself to. He's never wanted anyone else to get hurt because of his or Class E's actions (well, until he blows up the earth, that is). And so that slap, to every single student in Class E, is a striking moment. Korosensei, who prided himself in being able to teach any student and get them through any situation, has failed to teach them a very important thing. Humility. And so, as a consequence, Class E will learn this the hard way. They will take care of the old man they hurt for the next two weeks, without any studying or training. They will lose these two valuable weeks of their lives, to understand that there are consequences. That they are not all-powerful, they are not invincible. They can get hurt, and they can hurt others. I'm totally reading too much into this chapter, but seriously, it's a lot of great stuff to think about as you reflect on the series thus far and on these characters. Really cool chapter of AC this week, and I look forward to seeing where this storyline goes.

Bleach chapter 591 - So, I guess the bits where Mayuri was shocking the Arrancar for their incessant babbling were a bit amusing, but it still doesn't make this much of an interesting situation. Though, I did find it amusing that Luppi says they "won't lose to Shinigami." Uh, dude, I know Grimmjow blew you up and stuff, but your friends there all got their asses handed to them by shinigami. Anyway, Charlotte defeats Bambietta (for good, I'm assuming), which is...like, really? Charlotte? So is Charlotte stronger than Komamura in his most powerful form now? No, even if Bambietta has been weakened and shit from being blown up by Mayuri in the last chapter (which, really, she's a zombie, she shouldn't feel pain and shit so she should always be at max strength and whatnot), I really, sincerely have to question why fucking Charlotte of all people is able to single-handedly destroy Bambietta even though Ikkaku and Yumichika couldn't. Whatever. The real, and only, interesting thing in the chapter is the fact that Hitsugaya is a zombie now apparently. Which is...um, well there was no setup to this, but I guess it's plausible since he was pretty beat-up in his last appearance. Of course, Giselle's power only requires other Arrancar to be dead before she can take control of them, so I'm guessing Hitsugaya is still alive and they'll be able to de-zombify him somehow. I mean, it's effin' Hitsugaya. One of the most popular characters among the japanese fanbase. I sincerely doubt he's going to be dying anytime soon.

Detective Conan chapter 903 - Ooh, Conan has just been getting right to it with the plotline it seems. Conan might just meet Sera's mysterious little sister after this case is over. That's exciting. I'm beginning to suspect that Sera might not actually be a girl. I dunno, just the way Aoyama goes out of the way to bring up how flat-chested she is and stuff, plus the hint that last chapter that the little girl might be the one who's really Akai's little sister, makes me feel that's going to be a twist with her character. I feel that schtick was already sorta done with Eisuke, but whatever. Heck, this could just be a red herring. Bourbon was a total red herring, after all. The little girl might be related to Shukichi in some way totally unrelated to Akai. Who knows? Anyway, murder case at a hotel pool! It's a Sonoko + Sera case, so it's guaranteed to be a good time. Looking forward to seeing how it develops.

Magi chapter 233 - Man, I really enjoyed this chapter. Sheba has grown on me a lot since her introduction, and now we see here that she's been the one who fiercely defends Solomon and his teachings in his stead. The Solomon that was left in the mortal world is but an empty shell. His soul and will became one with Il Illah and spread evenly among everyone in the world. But this is suspicious to many. They feel that now Solomon is directing their destinies. They are not free, they are being controlled by him. They are not satisfied with everyone being equal. They want to fight destiny completely. Sheba, alone, fights for Solomon's ideals because he no longer can. And, over time, she slowly manages to forge a peace. However, the person she once promised to help protect Solomon with, Arba, her closest friend, has been working to undo Solomon's actions by utilizing David's technology to create what appears to be the Medium. And I think we all know what happens next. Even so, I look forward to seeing it played out in the remaining chapters of this arc.

Naruto chapter 687 - This chapter was about Obito's redemption. We take a break from the battle to watch as the same points get beaten over and over again and feel "aw" when Obito dies and meets Rin in heaven, I guess. No. Fuck that shit. Obito does not deserve redemption. Not this conveniently, anyway. He goes to fucking heaven? Are you serious? He's "awesome," Naruto? Are you an idiot? Baka, he's fucking directly responsible for the death of your parents and Neji and starting this damn war among a myriad of horrible things. I don't give a fuck if he wanted to be hokage and he believes Naruto will be hokage and all this bullshit. Obito was an angsty, irrational, murderous puppet of a black blob with mommy issues. He was most surely not "awesome." I heard this chapter has made Neo Ulta Mike on Toon Zone go from being indifferent to Naruto to loathing it. While I've long found this series to be irredeemably awfully written, I can certainly see how this can be a clincher for others because this is just insulting writing on Kishimoto's part. Fuck you, Naruto. Fuck you.

One Piece chapter 755 - Was the whole stuff with the Tontatta's princess set up before? I honestly can't remember. I did enjoy seeing more of Franky's fight with Senor Pink and the "We're Heartbreakers" line. But the whole stuff about Princess Mansherry was just confusing to me because I totally forgot that was even a part of this arc. There really is just too much going on right now to keep track of.

One-Punch Man chapters 26.5, 29.5, 34.8, 34.9 - There wasn't a "regular" chapter of OPM this week but a bunch of sub/special chapters were uploaded, and they were all quite enjoyable stuff. I love these kinds of simple chapters just because it shows how great a character Saitama really is. Clueless about the politics that come with his profession, but always an unhesitatingly willing to do the right thing and help people as a hero should. Admirable qualities that compliment his laid back, normal guy personality and it makes these side-chapters lovely reads. And hey, more OPM in any form is always a good thing, so I'd rather read these side-stories than no new chapter at all.  :D

Peephole chapter 34 - I have a feeling this girl's brother wanted Miyachi to kill him. Like, he was way too excited to find out Miyachi was a killer. Maybe he thought getting killed was going to be the ultimate get-off or something. Anyway, looks like Miyachi's going to nip the bud before it spreads and kill the sister off, or so it seems. Will Kurosu stop her? I dunno, we'll see.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 88 - I loved, LOVED this chapter. The exchange between Ban and Meliodas was superb, tying into their characters and relationship with each other perfectly and coming to a satisfying, sensible resolution between the two. And the end of the chapter, with Dreyfus and Griamor, father and son, teaming up to take down the man who betrayed them together is pure brilliance. So excited to see that fight next week.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 80 - Well, I expected Soma and Mimasaka would end up facing each other. I expected a lot of what happened in this chapter, as it's standard plot development in this situation in pretty much any series. But the execution was still superb and I love Soma's calm, cool playing of the situation, riling up Mimasaka by outwitting his expectations and making a audacious gamble. It makes me excited to see Soma take down the oaf and see just how he can possibly outdo him after showing him all his cards. Fun stuff, and goes to show even though something might happen predictably, it doesn't mean it can't be damn fun to watch/read if executed just right.

Space Brothers chapter 231 - From what I can tell, this is the first new Space Brothers chapter in over two months. And...it's kind of a total waste, honestly. Nothing of real significance happened. I was really interested in seeing how Carlo's story was going to go from here and whether he'd be able to get back onto the team or not, but I guess we're taking a break from that to focus on what's going on with Sharon again. Which I wouldn't mind, but most of this chapter was devoted to an unfunny set-up that paid off in a rather corny way at the end of the chapter. Sure, we've been introduced to two more of Sharon's colleges in the same boat as her, but I still feel most of this chapter was unnecessarily fillerish, and the fact this was the first new chapter in over two months and there isn't a new chapter next week doesn't help that. Well, hopefully the next one will get back on track.

Toriko chapter 287 - Thankfully, Toriko has pulled itself around from last week. While I still don't like how the Blue Demon wasn't really set-up that great, he has an interesting dynamic with Toriko and it's clear that even he's no match for Heracles. Moreover, it turns out Komatsu has not yet prepared Air (I guess the Blue Demon just ate an Air fruit and not "Air" itself last week), and that the knife needed to prepare it is insanely large. I wonder how Komatsu will be able to pull this off? This puts the tension back into the conflict because the necessity of timeliness is still in play, since Blue Demon can't hold out against Heracles for more than a few minutes and the continent itself is shattering because of Heracles' power and because he's so fucking pissed off right now. Whew, like I said, Toriko managed to recover from last week the best it can. Now, it still needs to keep doing right from here on out, but I'm hopeful that I won't be disliking a Toriko anytime too soon.

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 10/10
2. The Seven Deadly Sins - 10/10
3. Magi - 10/10
4. One-Punch Man - 10/10
5. Assassination Classroom - 10/10
6. Detective Conan - 9/10
7. Shokugeki no Soma - 9/10
8. Toriko - 8/10
9. Peephole - 7.5/10
10. One Piece - 7/10
11. Space Brothers - 6/10
12. Bleach - 3/10
13. Naruto - 1/10

Very good week this time. It's rare that there' 5 10/10 worthy chapters in a week, but these were all so strong that I don't feel like giving 'em anything lower, and then there were a lot of solid chapters from most of the other series too. As always, I look forward to seeing how the new developments in these chapters play out next week.

A Silent Voice has been confirmed to end on November 12th. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-08-04/a-silent-voice-koe-no-katachi-manga-to-end-on-november-12/.77278) Assuming it won't be taking any breaks, then that means there are about 13 or so more chapters left, which sounds short, but likely work out well. It's great that the series can end naturally, rather than force itself to go on and on like a lot of other popular series. I hope the remaining chapters continue the level of excellence the series has held for it's entire run and then some.

Wow, I'm super late on this one. On the flip side, because of the Oban Festival, there aren't many new chapters out for any of the manga, so I won't have much to talk about for this saturday. That certainly balances out last week, where I read nearly 20 different new manga chapters....

A Silent Voice chapter 48 - I'll be honest, I did not expect a chapter about Miki...but wow. Have you ever met a person who has deluded themselves that they are this innocent, model citizen, but in reality is very much a hypocrite and capable of some horrible things, but he/she doesn't realize it and always manages to put a spin on what's happened to put themselves in a victimized or positive light? I certainly know such people, and it can be almost horrifying to see just how far they will twist the facts to make themselves appear saintly and in the right. Typically, you don't see these kinds of characters often in anime/manga. If you do, they are these psychopathic, crazy people, which is not really what I'm talking about, which is more of a "everyday evil" kind of thing. As far as animation/comics in general goes, I'm drawing a blank on many similar characters like this. The closest I can think of is Eric Cartman from South Park. Specifically, if you remember the episode "Fishsticks," you'll remember how Cartman managed to convince himself that he was responsible for the fish dicks joke, when in reality he was only a catalyst for Jimmy to think of it, and you saw the process of how each time Cartman thought of what happened he kept portraying himself in a more active role and heroic light, while Jimmy was increasingly shown to be ineffectual and less involved. In Cartman's mind, the reality of what happened changed to fit his need to be important, and even though Kyle and Jimmy call him out on it, Cartman convinces himself that it is Jimmy who's the one who is deluding himself. It was simply impossible for Cartman to acknowledge that he was taking credit for something he didn't do, because he genuinely believed that he was responsible, and because of his massive ego, the reality of what happened was soon replaced with a more palatable version to suit his delusions of grandeur.

Miki Kawai is exactly the same. She believes she is this cute, kind, model student. She is her class representative, she gets perfect scores, she does plenty of community service. It's clear that she believes she is paradigm of a human being and tries to behave as one. One could say she has a superiority complex, since although she is genial to other people in public, her insistence to help them comes from not just wanting to help, but to show off how smart and kind she is. The first pages of this chapter show her looking at her mirror and thinking about how cute she is. She makes a point to remind Mashiba about the text she sent him about visiting Ishida, not really because she cares about him, but because she wants an excuse to get closer to him and make him fall for how gosh-darn selfless and caring she is. She isn't just satisfied with him knowing that, but the class as well, telling everyone to fold 1000 paper cranes to show their support for Ishida. Why? She'd probably say it's a symbolic gesture of good will. But it's also a completely frivolous act. It will not help Ishida get better. It will not help Ishida feel better. But Kawai is not thinking about that. She's thinking of a way to, yet again, show what a great person she is for thinking of such a "selfless" gesture. What Kawai cares about is the approval of others, and the attention of others. This is why she is head of the class, makes sure she's exceptional at everything she does, and presents herself as this kind, saintly figure. She wants people to notice her and love her as much as she loves herself. And she is eager to know what people think about her. Obsessed. Why else would she be peeing at someone else's phone, focusing on her text?

How does Kawai take criticism of her and her 1000 paper crane plan? Well, she's just confused. After all, she's "worked harder than anyone else," "for the class," and "they all backed her" as class represented. So why would people be mocking her behind her back? She quickly labels herself a victim. She soon attributes their comments as jealousy of her "relationship" with Mashiba. And then she begins to feel she's being bullied. She thinks "oh, this must be how Nishimiya and Sahara felt;" she puts some small criticism of her and her behavior on the same level of Shoko's horrific and often violent bullying and Sahara's complete isolation from school. Both of which, she is quick to forget, she was a part of, and as guilty as anyone else for. She re-remembers the incident where Ishida told her, as a favor, to not tell Mashiba and co. about how he used to bully Shoko in middle school, which she at the time perceived as him threatening her, and publicly shamed him in front of the entire group, the event that destroyed the movie making group, left Nishimiya alone once again and ridden with guilt for what happened, which caused her to try to commit suicide, which led to Ishida saving her at the cost of himself, leaving him in the condition he is in now. But Kawai doesn't think about it that way. She just thinks that "oh, Ishida has been punished for what he's done to me, maybe I should forgive him...a little." She's already manipulated the facts, to portray her as a helpless victim who has suffered just as much as Nishimiya, whereas in reality she was one of the biggest bullies of both her and Ishida, who she now thinks as someone in need of her forgiveness. In Kawai's mind, everything is about her and everything is like how believes it is. And she is always blameless. And if she can't blame Ishida because he's in the hospital, or Shoko because she's been bullied, who else is left but her own best friend, Nao, who she quickly turns on. And notice how she plays the poor victim act in front of Mashiba, tells her she's being bullied with a little sob, and tells him the name of the girl who wrote the text criticizing her so that he can "do something about it." She casually passes off the task of revenge to another person, to absolve herself of any blame. This way she keeps her reputation intact, humiliates and isolates her perceived enemies, and stays on top and as popular as ever. I doubt she even realizes how manipulative that is. But she's probably incapable of even considering that.

If anything clinches the "Kawai is a self-centered bitch" thing it's that she completely ignores what Shoko wants to do, finish the movie, and belittles her idea while going on what she believes to be a motivational speech but is really a self-pitying rant. Furthermore, now that she believes "Nao is bad," she is quick to antagonize her. She firmly believes that Nao is the bad guy here, but Nao, while a despicable in her won right for how she's treated Shoko all this time, genuinely cares about Ishida's well-being and recognizes that her actions were wrong, and while she won't admit it, she feels guilty about it. Nao doesn't hide behind pretense. She does what she feels. But all Kawai cares about is keeping up her image of being a model student. She has no genuine interest in anyone else but herself, and she is not capable of thinking of herself in a negative light, or contemplate on her own actions. So here we have two very different everyday life villains. One who isn't afraid to admit who she is, the other completely unaware. And now they are face to face with each other, a tense confrontation soon to turn to a shouting match. And it's anyone's guess where it will lead. Once again, A Silent Voice has the best chapter of the week. Easily.

Assassination Classroom chapter 96 - Well, that was resolved a bit quicker than I expected.  :D But it was a great chapter. What Class E needed was a lesson in responsibility. What could teach them that more than taking care of a bunch of rowdy elementary school kids for two whole weeks? Not only does Class E embrace this challenge, they own it, and go above and beyond. As it stands, it would seem they've done more than enough to warrant the old man's forgiveness, but will Korosensei be satisfied with just this, or is there more to be done? I'll have to read the next chapter to find out, but I'd hope so. Otherwise, this seems just a bit too short and convenient, after such a promising development delivered in the last chapter. Still, I can't complain too much. T'was a good chapter, after all.

Attack on Titan chapter 60 - It looks like the truth about the Interior Corps. crimes and the Monarchy's corruption is about to be exposed. Meanwhile, Erwin is before the king and about to be executed. Ho boy, this sure ain't looking good for him. The story keeps rolling along and I enjoyed this chapter quite a bit. Some great scenes here, from Levi trying to get information from the stubborn Interior Corps guy and continuing to ignore his attempts to taunt and guilt trip them, Flegel standing up to his father's murderers and exposing them in front of all of Trost, and Hange convincing the reporters to do the just thing and expose the truth. Very good developments, and it'll be interesting to see how some of them, particularly "Kenny Ackerman," come into play in future chapters.

Attack on Titan: Before the Fall chapter 8 - Lots of strong, powerful dramatic action in this chapter. I honestly don't remember being this enthralled by a fight against a Titan in any point in the main series. That's probably because the art in this series is just so much stronger, providing more serious dramatic menace to the situation, and an even greater sense of desperation. Kyukuro has a plan to beat the titan, which would make him the first one in years to do so according to this series. Will this battle be what inspires him to think of the 3-D maneuver gear? I wonder, and I guess I'll have to wait to find out.

Bleach chapter 592 - Hitsugaya is likely not dead, but he is brain dead, with no awareness of what he is doing. Obviously, he's way too much of a match for the Arrancar, so Mayuri is going to have to deal with him himself. This is probably one of the better chapters of late, at least, mainly because it was focused and mostly action-oriented. I'd rather read a meh Bleach chapter than one that pisses me the fuck off or bores me to death, which is what we usually get, so I'll take it.

GTO: Paradise Lost chapters 9-10 - These are probably the first GTO: PL chapters I can say I've liked. The core story still isn't interesting, but the gags were very strong in this chapter, particularly the scene where Onizuka and Ryuji are cleaning up the grafitti while casually avoiding the attacks of the mad fangirls. I was surprised to see a flash forward to Onizuka in prison again so soon. Apparently the incident that got him into prison is coming up, and after we see that, will we see how Onizuka is adjusting to prison life? Now THAT I want to read about. These chapters showed some promise of improvement. I don't know if it will keep that, but it would be nice if this series elevated itself to just meh or okay rather than being boring and a pale imitation of the original, like it's been so far, so we'll see.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan chapter 14 - Karlan has been killed, his forces pushed back, and now Arslan and co. must rescue the alive king and oust the usurper. They'll probably succeed. I'd say the best thing about this chapter was it's good action, which was to be expected since Arakawa is drawing this series. But the strategy Arslan and co. employed to allow a party of 5 men outwit and push back an entire army was impressive and entertaining to watch, and I do really like this core cast of characters. Overall, it was a good battle chapter with solid plot development.

Hunter X Hunter chapter 349 - We learn more about how the succession to be king of Kakim works and who all the princes are and stuff, and then the fourth prince gets some sort of power from some fairy-thing as part of an initiation sort of deal. Meanwhile, Kurapika decides they should just play it cool and not expose Sayu as a traitor until they arrive on the Dark Continent, and then we learn that six of the princes are hiring bodyguards, and that's the chapter. I'm going to be perfectly honest here: I've kinda found these last few chapters rather boring. They've been way too expository and filled with huge walls of text serving to over-explaining things that could be described faster and more simply. When we are focusing on Ging and Pariston, that stuff is fascinating and awesome because of the tension between the characters and that we know enough to be invested in them. But I can't really care about the 4th prince of Kakim or the majority of the Zodiacs besides Kurapika, Leorio, and Cheadle, which is why the Sayu twist falls completely flat for me and I don't find it interesting. I'm just hoping for some more exciting developments soon, and them finally leaving for the Dark Continent at some point. One thing I am interested, though, is the fact the Princes are hiring bodyguards. I have to wonder if anybody we know will be hired by the 4th prince, in particular. Perhaps the Phantom Troupe? It'd be interesting to see Kurapika have to go up against them again now that they know his tricks and identity. Or, perhaps Kurapika will team up with a rival prince to take down the 4th prince. There's a lot of potential with this new plot point, and I'm curious to see what Togashi does with it.

Kuroko's Basketball chapters 272-273 - One thing I do like about this situation is that even though Kagami entered the second phase of the zone, the match was not turned around easily and Rakuzan is playing as hard as ever. And by a stroke of luck, Hyuga manages to score a three pointer with a foul, allowing for Seirin to tie up this game and go for overtime if they can make the rebound. So overall, these were much better chapters that captured a sense of desperation and intensity that the match had really lacked prior. Obviously, I can't ignore how crappy a lot of this match has been, but I do appreciate when it has a good moment, and this is a good moment. If Serin makes the rebound, they'll have tied the game against the strongest players in the area. Even if they lose after that, they'll have a moral victory there, in the same way how Shohoku beating Shonan but losing the game after was. I'm not sure if the series will go that root, but at least I like this development, which is nice, since I like liking things.

Magi chapter 234 - In her blind desire to fulfill Solomon's will, Sheba ignored the animosity and danger around her, which ultimately proved to be her downfall, as the Alma Thorran faction, fervently anti-Solomon, wages a war against her to destroy his will and restore Il Illah, and in the process, Sheba pays with her life. A tragic end to Solomon's dream. I totally called all of this a long, long time ago, down to Aladdin being Sheba and Solomon's kid, but I still thought this was an awesome chapter. I expect that there will only be two chapters left of this arc, and then we'll finally go back to the present. I await to see how exactly this all ends.

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad chapter 30 - Sinbad's first trading venture ends in failure as a result of inexperience. However, he plans to use the knowledge he's gained from this as a learning experience and is more excited than ever to succeed in the trading venture. Good chapter, showing some of Sinbad's best qualities as a characte as well as providing an interesting start to his trading career.

Naruto chapter 688 - Obito wants to be alone with Rin in heaven, apparently, so he transports himself out of the afterlife (somehow), tells Kakashi he should be the next hokage (even though he is completely useless and Naruto has proven himself to be a far more capable and effective leader), and gives him the Mangekyo Sharingan, so now Kakashi can use the Susanoo and stuff. Eh, whatever. Bullshit power-up to make Kakashi useful. Fine. Just get this damn fight over already.

One Piece chapter 756 - Sugar's woken up, and she is pissed. I wonder if Ussop will have to fight her again. For now, she's sent out some monstrous toy soldiers to fight the Straw Hats and their allies. And at the end of the chapter, Rebecca is face to face with Diamante. She clearly isn't capable of winning this fight by herself, but perhaps Kyros will arrive and the two will team up to take him down. Overall, another meh-ish chapter, but with some good moments and a nice tease of a fight to look forward to.

One-Punch Man chapter 50 - This chapter was rather short, just showing Saitama getting out of the spaceship, Genos insulting Tornado on Saitama's orders and getting his ass kicked (which was hilarious), and then an explanation of how A-City was never rebuilt. A shorty, but a goodie, though I hope for a more substantial chapter next time.

Peephole chapter 35 - Ho ho, looks like Yawagiwa is some sort of Esper and interested in Miyachi, and Miyachi, of course, is interested in her. Interested in killing her, that is. I can tell already this'll be another fun arc.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 81 - Soma's got nothing up his sleeve. It seems he'll just make this up as he goes along and create an earnest dish that Mimasaka can't perfectly replicate. A lot of this chapter is devoted to the introduction of this strange journalist character, who I'm not sure is supposed to be a spy or whatever, but it seems like he's going to be tagging along and observing Soma cook. Hmm. Well, this chapter was a bit of a step down from the last few weeks, mainly because of the focus on this new character, but there was some good humor here, and I am curious to see where this development leads and if it'll influence the dish Soma makes.

Toriko chapter 288 - Of course, Horse King Heracles is on a whole other level. A lesser series would have the Blue Demon completely turn the battle around and beat it. Toriko? The Blue Demon scores one lucky punch, but Heracles doesn't have to lift a hoof to take him down. All it needs to do is breathe. Literally, inhaling the air around the Blue Demon, which ends up suffocating it, forcing it to return to Toriko's already battered and bruised body. There is absolutely no way they can beat it. It is one of the eight kings of the Gourmet World for a reason, after all. Toriko is simply not on it's level. What he's done is buy time for Komatsu to prepare the Air fruit, which, if things go right, should ripen at 120% of it's normal flavor, which would surely satisfy Heracles, possibly enough to spare all their lives. The clock is ticking, though. Toriko has no cards left to play. He's too outmatched. He won't be able to hold Heracles off for much more than a few seconds. Will that buy Komatsu and co. just enough time to succeed? Likely, but I'm no less excited to find out in the next chapter.

Vinland Saga chapter 106 - I liked seeing Gudrid's backstory. I think it's clear she's going to join Thorfinn and co. on their adventure, and she's a very interesting character in her own right with good potential for a strong character arc. On Thorfinn's front, it seems that the gang is going to have to delay their adventure to head off in the opposite direction of their goal in order to sell off the narwhal horns for a good sum, enough to fund the colonization of Vinland. The trading and bartering skills Thorfinn will need to acquire will no doubt prove essential assets in the future, so this will likely turn out to be a good experience. Another great chapter with some great plot development.

^Wow, I wrote a long ass post this week. I can only imagine how long it would have been if I wrote this on Saturday and all those chapters were fresher in my mind.  :D

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 10/10
2. Magi - 10/10
3. Vinland Saga - 10/10
4. Magi: Adventure of Sinbad - 8/10
5. Attack on Titan: Before the Fall - 8/10
6. Toriko - 8/10
7. Attack on Titan - 8/10
8. Assassination Classroom - 8/10
9. One-Punch Man - 8/10
10. Peephole - 8/10
11. Kuroko's Basketball - 7.5/10
12. The Heroic Legend of Arslan - 7.5/10
13. Hunter X Hunter - 7.5/10
14. Shokugeki no Soma - 7.5/10
15. One Piece - 7/10
16. GTO: Paradise Lost - 7/10
17. Bleach - 5/10
18. Naruto - 1/10

Overall it was a pretty decent week with three really excellent chapters, which is always good to see. This week I don't have much to read because of the Obon holiday in Japan, so hopefully I can get a quality over quantity kind of deal with what I do have.

I feel the opposite about HXH and Magi. While I'm not a fan of the overt exposition, I felt that this chapter and the last few in general were more interesting than the first few chapters since the hiatus. The concept of a spy among the Zodiac is interesting, and it's the kind of thing that's right up Kurapika's alley to find out. Again, I don't love these chapters, but if anything was flat, it was the introduction to this arc. Paiute frankly what we got recently was an improvement, even if it's still too dialogue-heavy for its own good.

Magi, on the other hand, has been incredibly tiresome throughout this whole flashback arc. I also felt unsatisfied with the way the author handled the characters transitioning into being members of Al Tharmen. These were characters that had years of history together, so to see them turn on Sheba and kill her without a hint of remorse, guilt, or uncertainty, like it was nothing, just makes them come off as 1-dimensional ass-holes. Putting that aside, the arc just failed to make me care enough about any of the characters, and now that Sheba is dead, I still don't. It's alright from a world-building and mythos-expanding perspective, in suppose, but this was still the most boring arc so far. At least it's almost over, though.

I thought that the concept of a spy among the Zodiacs was interesting too. Then Kurapika found out who the spy is after a chapter. And when it was done, and now that we know and Kurapika's already got a plan on how to arrest him and stuff...I just can't say I really care about any of it. We don't know anything about Sayu and, frankly, most of the other Zodiacs either. I just think this would have had more impact if we had gotten to know these characters, or at least Sayu, a bit better first. As it stands it just feels like another added plot element amongst more interesting ones I'd rather see focused on.

As for Magi, I dunno, I thought this arc had it's moments. I do agree that it would have been nice to see the other characters be more conflicted about killing Sheba, but considering they had likely already fallen into depravity by this point (and we've seen how that corrupts people's senses of judgement) and Arba is basically an irrational fanatic for Il Illah and shown to be a merciless killer in the past when she slaughtered fake-Elder David and his cronies (she didn't know they weren't the real deals) and how she made a point to yell out about how Sheba was being manipulated by Solomon and stuff was probably to convince the others of her actions and further their already passionate hatred for Solomon, I'm not quite as bothered by it.

What more interesting ones? We barely know anything about Beyond, either, and he is quite frankly a boring character. We've hardly had any time to devoted to the other plot-lines sans Going and Pariston. As for not knowing about the Zodiacs, it's setting up that we'll learn more about them as they interact in this arc, and that's also technically not true since we have gotten to know 4 of them really well by now. Also, as far as Kurapika using his abilities and trying to maintain trust with who he's informing for, it's interesting not because of who he found out, but for him instead. For one thing, we know he's not doing it out of good will. He is doing it so that they will give him what he wants, which is the prince, so he can get the rest of the Scarlet eyes of his clan. Furthermore it possibly foreshadows future events to come. For instance, Ursula presented his plan to arrest Sayu. Hasn't this series already shown us that things cam skew way out of control from an intended plan the moment something unpredictable interferes? It happened a lot in the YNC,  CA, and CE arcs, so it may be likely to happen here as well. There is plenty interesting with what's going on right now. Granted, it all could have been presented a little better, but I wouldn't call the last few chapters boring, especially compared to what came directly before it.

As for Magi, I'm not really talking about Arba,  who we know was always a fanatic. It's all of Solomon's other close friends and followers. I didn't expect a lot of depth or nuance, but we should have at least seen some transition into their hatred of Solomon. This could have easily been done in a chapter, montaging through scenes of uncertainty in them when it came to turning on Solomon would have made them feel at least a little more human. Instead, just having them be the closest of allies throughout the entire arc and then kill Sheba without so much as a flinch of uneasiness just makes them seem more 1-dimensional and leaves me with no sympathy to see them get any redemption.

I never said anything about Beyond. Essentially I'm more interested in Ging and Pariston than any of the Zodiac stuff right now. The 4 Zodiacs we've gotten to know are Kurapika, Leorio, Cheadle, and Mizaistrom, and I care about them, but everyone else is a blank slate right now besides some character trait or two, so I'm not interested in them yet. The only reason Kurapika joined and is helping the Zodiacs is to get to the Prince and take back the scarlet eyes, and this traitor stuff does not add anything to that element which wasn't already shown when Kurapika figured out Pariston's cronies were going to infiltrate the organization through the Hunter Exam and ousted all of them from the exam with his lie-detecting skills. I know everything that is happening now is set-up for things happening later in the arc, and I'm sure when the time comes exciting things will happen when the plan goes awry since they always do in this series, but I'm found the last two or so chapters kind of a chore to read just because of how much information is being thrown out and how much of it involves characters we don't know much about yet, so I'm just having a hard time getting excited for much of this. I have no clue how good the payoff will be, but right now, the set-up is just not doing much for me.

As far as Solomon's followers go, we already saw them resent him for what happened to their comrades when David and co. tricked them and burned everyone in their secret base to a crisp, and then when he replaced Il Illah as god and Sheba explained the concept of destiny to everyone they were bothered by the fact that everything that happened in their lives was pre-destined and now Solomon is control of that. They already had their doubts about him, but now he's essentially in charge of their fates, they felt he was taking away their free will, and I don't think it's too surprising that their resent of Solomon turned to distrust and hated after learning that. Arba was the only one who fought and killed Sheba, and then she made a point to loudly yell about how Sheba was a tragic victim of Solomon's control to everyone around to likely convince any doubters around. It's not really about these characters getting redemption which I don't really care about either. Who knows whether they will or not. Though, I suppose we did see Ithnan sort of regretted what happened when Aladdin met him in Alibaba (anime)/Dunya (manga)'s mind and saw his memories and stuff. But I certainly wouldn't say he was redeemed, by any stretch. Anyway, the main thing is that I just feel that how things played out was consistent with the characters' motivations. Individually, characters like Falan and even Ithnan (who didn't do much in this arc, which disappoints me a little) are pretty one-dimensional. It's not the fact of how these characters in particular betrayed Sheba that I personally like, but rather, I found the idea of how the collective group of Solomon's closest friends and followers all betrayed him after he let them down and lost their trust and Sheba wasn't able to rebuild that and ultimately ended up dying because she was so caught up in fulfilling what she felt to be Solomon's wishes that she wasn't aware of just how much those around her actually resented him and didn't forsee this happening was interesting and shown nicely in the last two chapters.

Quote from: Cartoon X on August 14, 2014, 10:48:12 AM
I never said anything about Beyond. Essentially I'm more interested in Ging and Pariston than any of the Zodiac stuff right now.

You referred to more interesting "ones" (pleural). What are the other ones BESIDES Ging and Pariston?

QuoteThe 4 Zodiacs we've gotten to know are Kurapika, Leorio, Cheadle, and Mizaistrom

And Pariston and Ging, if you count former ones (actually, I forget if they still count or not).

Quotebut everyone else is a blank slate right now besides some character trait or two, so I'm not interested in them yet.

Well, there are 12 members in all and you expect them all to be characterized within just a few chapters? Of course Togashi is going to take some time to develop the other characters who are important, and not plague himself with developing every single person at the same time. If this series has shown us anything, it's that the characters that need it will get development over the course of the story.

QuoteThe only reason Kurapika joined and is helping the Zodiacs is to get to the Prince and take back the scarlet eyes, and this traitor stuff does not add anything to that element which wasn't already shown when Kurapika figured out Pariston's cronies were going to infiltrate the organization through the Hunter Exam and ousted all of them from the exam with his lie-detecting skills.

This criticism makes absolutely no sense. Of course it doesn't relate to his goal. The whole point of them enlisting Kurapika's help was because he had an ability that they found useful for weeding out spies, which is their interest. In order to get Kurapika to agree, since he had no interest in it, they offered him something in return, which was the key to attaining more of the missing Scalet Eyes. It's a trade of services. It's a natural way to get these characters to work together for the story, which is the point. Why exactly would they have the same common interest?

QuoteI know everything that is happening now is set-up for things happening later in the arc, and I'm sure when the time comes exciting things will happen when the plan goes awry since they always do in this series, but I'm found the last two or so chapters kind of a chore to read just because of how much information is being thrown out and how much of it involves characters we don't know much about yet, so I'm just having a hard time getting excited for much of this. I have no clue how good the payoff will be, but right now, the set-up is just not doing much for me.

You complain about the last 2 chapters but flat-out ignore the fact that the series has been doing this since the Chimera Ant arc? Togashi's writing style for this series has been about setting up rules and twisting them around for interesting situations. It has been this way for a long time, and that includes having dialogue-heavy chapters. How you could enjoy many of the previous chapters that did the same thing but had less interesting concepts (at least at the beginning of this arc) doesn't make any sense to me. Sorry, but I don't think that we can see eye-to-eye on this one. As far as I'm concerned, the last few chapters were definitely an improvement over the boring initial chapters of this arc.

As for Magi, my point is that the concept of the flash-back arc is great, but the execution was poor. That's really all that I have to say about it, at this point. Perhaps if it didn't interrupt what was shaping up to be a really interesting story arc with the summit, I wouldn't have minded it so much, but that's a moot point because the arc is clearly almost over.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on August 14, 2014, 12:31:51 PM

Quote from: Cartoon X on August 14, 2014, 10:48:12 AM
I never said anything about Beyond. Essentially I'm more interested in Ging and Pariston than any of the Zodiac stuff right now.

You referred to more interesting "ones" (pleural). What are the other ones BESIDES Ging and Pariston?

It is basically just Pariston and Ging, seeing how/if Gon recovers his ability to use nen, seeing how Kurapika deals with the 4th prince of Kakin and gets the scarlet eyes back, and the kakin prince succession thing (as far as the concept of it goes, so far).

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on August 14, 2014, 12:31:51 PM

QuoteThe 4 Zodiacs we've gotten to know are Kurapika, Leorio, Cheadle, and Mizaistrom

And Pariston and Ging, if you count former ones (actually, I forget if they still count or not).

I wasn't counting them, since they aren't a part of the Zodiacs anymore.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on August 14, 2014, 12:31:51 PM
Well, there are 12 members in all and you expect them all to be characterized within just a few chapters? Of course Togashi is going to take some time to develop the other characters who are important, and not plague himself with developing every single person at the same time. If this series has shown us anything, it's that the characters that need it will get development over the course of the story.

I'm sure they will get developed later on. And there wasn't much time before this for the lot of them to be developed as it was. My problem was that the traitor among the Zodiacs thing falls flat to me because I don't know most of these characters and their relationships with each other well enough yet. This is a problem that can be retroactively solved once these characters have gotten development and we see how this situation plays out. But as it stands, the fact that I don't know any of that yet doesn't make the traitor thing much of an engaging plot point for me.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on August 14, 2014, 12:31:51 PM

This criticism makes absolutely no sense. Of course it doesn't relate to his goal. The whole point of them enlisting Kurapika's help was because he had an ability that they found useful for weeding out spies, which is their interest. In order to get Kurapika to agree, since he had no interest in it, they offered him something in return, which was the key to attaining more of the missing Scalet Eyes. It's a trade of services. It's a natural way to get these characters to work together for the story, which is the point. Why exactly would they have the same common interest?

I never said it related to the goal. I was referring to your comment:

QuoteAlso, as far as Kurapika using his abilities and trying to maintain trust with who he's informing for, it's interesting not because of who he found out, but for him instead. For one thing, we know he's not doing it out of good will. He is doing it so that they will give him what he wants, which is the prince, so he can get the rest of the Scarlet eyes of his clan.

I didn't agree with this justification. Kurapika and his motivations in this arc are interesting to me. However, that doesn't mean that the traitor thing is in itself interesting just because he is a part of it and he uncovered it. It also does not make Kurapika's role in this arc anymore interesting than it already was either, especially since he is not concerned with the Zodiacs and their goals in the Dark Continent at all, and is instead just fulfilling a job that is required of him in order to achieve what he actually cares about doing, retrieving the Scarlet Eyes from the 4th prince. That was what I was trying to get across.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on August 14, 2014, 12:31:51 PM
You complain about the last 2 chapters but flat-out ignore the fact that the series has been doing this since the Chimera Ant arc? Togashi's writing style for this series has been about setting up rules and twisting them around for interesting situations. It has been this way for a long time, and that includes having dialogue-heavy chapters. How you could enjoy many of the previous chapters that did the same thing but had less interesting concepts (at least at the beginning of this arc) doesn't make any sense to me. Sorry, but I don't think that we can see eye-to-eye on this one. As far as I'm concerned, the last few chapters were definitely an improvement over the boring initial chapters of this arc.

I'm well aware these kinds of chapters are nothing new for HXH. That doesn't mean they still aren't the most engaging of reading experiences when following this series on a week by week basis. Whether this bothers me when I can reflect on this arc overall remains to be seen. But think of the chapter where Meruem killed that little girl and ate her brain, or the many expository chapters in the Chimera Ant arc. If I was following the series on a weekly basis back then, I probably wouldn't have liked those either. However, I did not have that kind of reading experience with that arc, having been able to read it entirely within three nights, and furthermore, can reflect on things as a whole and consider how things that initially I wasn't all that into ultimately worked out well. Right now, I don't find these individual chapters interesting. I have no clue how things will work out in the future and whether I will ultimately enjoy what this is setting up right now, but I do know I didn't really find these chapters by themselves much fun to read. As far as enjoying the initial chapters more than these ones, I'm not sure where you're getting that from since I never said anything of the sort. I gave the first few chapters since the comeback some slack because the series had been gone for so long and I was satisfied to be reading it at all again. Now that it's been back for over two months, I expect the series to pick up the pace a bit. The chapters I've enjoyed most since the comeback where the initial few involving Kurapika joining the Zodiacs and the ones focusing on Pariston and Ging prominently. These last two or three chapters I haven't enjoyed because I find it hard to care about the traitor plot point and I've become less forgiving of the exposition. But I would say they are improvements over the initial chapters, because there is significantly less exposition and the plot is moving forward much more, and I also do enjoy these chapters more than the initial ones as well. But that enjoyment is relative, and it doesn't mean I found them very fun to read, which is basically what it boils down to for me.

Quote from: Cartoon X on August 14, 2014, 01:23:04 PMIt is basically just Pariston and Ging, seeing how/if Gon recovers his ability to use nen, seeing how Kurapika deals with the 4th prince of Kakin and gets the scarlet eyes back, and the kakin prince succession thing (as far as the concept of it goes, so far).

The story-line involving the prince is part of the same story-line that you say you're not interested in, though.

QuoteI'm sure they will get developed later on. And there wasn't much time before this for the lot of them to be developed as it was. My problem was that the traitor among the Zodiacs thing falls flat to me because I don't know most of these characters and their relationships with each other well enough yet. This is a problem that can be retroactively solved once these characters have gotten development and we see how this situation plays out. But as it stands, the fact that I don't know any of that yet doesn't make the traitor thing much of an engaging plot point for me.

But you're putting too much emphasis on a plot point that hasn't even had time to develop yet. You focus on the fact that the character who is revealed to be a spy is one that we haven't gotten to know yet, but don't consider that this could also just be a herring since this series is known for that kind of thing. And, even if it isn't, we may get to know his character later and his reasons for being a spy, so I can hardly understand calling it flat when the plot point hasn't even had time to play out, yet. You say the fact that you don't know it yet doesn't make it more interesting, but how do you think plot points like this become interesting in the first place? They are given time to develop. You can hardly blame it on literally just 2 chapters for not miraculously developing the plot point forward when it's meant to span several chapters, otherwise you might as well criticize almost every long-running shounen series of that.

Quote

QuoteI never said it related to the goal. I was referring to your comment:

QuoteAlso, as far as Kurapika using his abilities and trying to maintain trust with who he's informing for, it's interesting not because of who he found out, but for him instead. For one thing, we know he's not doing it out of good will. He is doing it so that they will give him what he wants, which is the prince, so he can get the rest of the Scarlet eyes of his clan.

I didn't agree with this justification. Kurapika and his motivations in this arc are interesting to me. However, that doesn't mean that the traitor thing is in itself interesting just because he is a part of it and he uncovered it. It also does not make Kurapika's role in this arc anymore interesting than it already was either, especially since he is not concerned with the Zodiacs and their goals in the Dark Continent at all, and is instead just fulfilling a job that is required of him in order to achieve what he actually cares about doing, retrieving the Scarlet Eyes from the 4th prince. That was what I was trying to get across.

The you completely misunderstood my post. I was saying that Kurapika as a character and his ultimate goal in the plot is one of the things that has really interested me about the past few chapters. I never used that as justification of what's interesting about the plot point involving the spy, which I've already stated is something that can't just be made interesting in the way that you want it to be that quickly. It needs time to develop, and the reason I'm interested is because I know that Togashi has the ability to make it interesting, which he has done several times before. I find it trivial to blame the past couple of chapters on not further developing a plot point any more than they could given their already limited page count.

QuoteI'm well aware these kinds of chapters are nothing new for HXH. That doesn't mean they still aren't the most engaging of reading experiences when following this series on a week by week basis. Whether this bothers me when I can reflect on this arc overall remains to be seen. But think of the chapter where Meruem killed that little girl and ate her brain, or the many expository chapters in the Chimera Ant arc. If I was following the series on a weekly basis back then, I probably wouldn't have liked those either. However, I did not have that kind of reading experience with that arc, having been able to read it entirely within three nights, and furthermore, can reflect on things as a whole and consider how things that initially I wasn't all that into ultimately worked out well. Right now, I don't find these individual chapters interesting. I have no clue how things will work out in the future and whether I will ultimately enjoy what this is setting up right now, but I do know I didn't really find these chapters by themselves much fun to read. As far as enjoying the initial chapters more than these ones, I'm not sure where you're getting that from since I never said anything of the sort. I gave the first few chapters since the comeback some slack because the series had been gone for so long and I was satisfied to be reading it at all again. Now that it's been back for over two months, I expect the series to pick up the pace a bit. The chapters I've enjoyed most since the comeback where the initial few involving Kurapika joining the Zodiacs and the ones focusing on Pariston and Ging prominently. These last two or three chapters I haven't enjoyed because I find it hard to care about the traitor plot point and I've become less forgiving of the exposition. But I would say they are improvements over the initial chapters, because there is significantly less exposition and the plot is moving forward much more, and I also do enjoy these chapters more than the initial ones as well. But that enjoyment is relative, and it doesn't mean I found them very fun to read, which is basically what it boils down to for me.

The part about reading it weekly is a fair enough point. But, that's just a matter of preference. I still can't bring myself to blame the series for having a weekly release schedule like it's supposed to. Perhaps, if you really feel that a weekly reading schedule doesn't do the story much justice, you would be better off waiting for a cluster of chapters to come out at a time. That's what I decided to do for KnB (granted that I haven't heard good things about the arc, but it still beats reading it on a weekly basis).

Those are fair points. It's too early to really judge and I'm being more negative about it than I really should be over what is only a few chapters. I guess it feels longer to me, somehow, maybe because the series took a one-week break between the last two chapters and the latest chapter felt like one of many "decent but not great" chapters from last week which didn't help my opinion of it. One thing I do think that has been a problem with most of the chapters since it's come back is that there is too much expository dialogue, which is probably what's really rubbing me wrong lately, so hopefully that fades away soon.

As much as I love the series, it has never been great on a moment by moment basis. However, in evaluating the themes and character development of each story arc, it stands stronger. That said, I do agree about the exposition, but it has been that way for a while. I think that Togashi is still a good writer, but ever since the CA arc it has felt like the series has been lacking in some of the heart that it used to have, and generally that's why I prefer YYH overall as a series.

Much of the usual stuff I read wasn't updated this week because of the Obon holiday, but I still was able to read some great chapters regardless.

Assassination Classroom chapters 97-98 - Class E has gone above and beyond in demonstrating that they do indeed know how to use the skills they've learned responsibly and are able to help others with them, which wins over the old man they hurt and earns Korosensei's forgiveness. Karasuma is pleased with their work too, and rewards Class E with new combat-ready uniforms to help them in their further assassinations. I love how Erina was the one who suggested that the girls' uniforms look cuter (it's even more hillarious how she wanted them to be nothing but a bra and underwear, at one point), and then everyone points out that the defensive capabilities are much weaker than regular uniforms. The new uniforms definitely look like they are going to be useful, especially since it seems a new serious arc is about to start, as the assassin killer that killed Erina's teacher is now targeting her. Funny, amusing chapters with some good plot development. Plus it's given me a whole new sig! Good work, AC.

Detective Conan chapter 904 - This case doesn't seem too interesting, but it'll probably be resolved next week. But I do wonder how the fish tank and fishing line are a part of this murder and why they were in the pool, since that's kinda wierd. Also, I think it's becoming more obvious that Sera is not really a girl after all. Then again, Aoyama is not usually this blatant with these things, so maybe it's a fake out. I am still positive she's not actually Akai's sister and the little girl is, though.

One-Punch Man chapter 51 - Wow, King is so powerful and intimidating that just his aura is enough to make criminals wet their pants and pass out. That was hilarious. Seems like he's going to be important in this new arc. I'd love to see how he and Saitama get along.

Rin-ne chapter 179 - A lot of the chapters I tent to enjoy most in Rumiko Takahashi's comedies involve her incorporating all the main cast, or at least most of them, in a single event and just letting them play off each other. As such, I got a lot of mileage out of several moments here, and there were some good gags in this one too. However, as most stand-alone Rin-ne chapters tend to be, the concept behind this one was just very mundane and uninteresting, which is nothing new as a problem in this series, but something that I always feel disappointed about, especially when there's a lot of potential in several elements presented here. So kind of a hit and miss chapter, unfortunately.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 89 - Ban is back on track and ready to do his job, wastes no time in getting Diane and Gilthunder healed, and leaps into action. King struggles against fighting Helbram, horrified by what's happening to his friend, but Helbram in a very cringe-inducing scene begs for him to kill him before he becomes nothing but a mindless zombie. Poor King just can't get a break, can he? Meanwhile, Meliodas and Hawk take the lead and rush to rescue Elizabeth from Hendricksen. However, they might be too late, as Dreyfus' attack designed to kill Hendricksen went off course when he, get this, tripped from the ground breaking under him (geez, when has something so mundane ever screwed somebody over in a fight in a manga? I can't think of anything else), and his attack swirls out of control and hits Elizabeth instead. I doubt Elizabeth is going to die, but damn, this was completely unexpected and an interesting turn of events. I really wonder how this is going to play out.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 82 - The reporter character seems to have good intentions after all, earnestly interested in Soma's beef stew. Last week I was confused as to why Soma revealed exactly what he was making to Mimasaka without having any tricks up his sleeve. So I love his reasoning in this chapter. This beef stew is an important dish for him, being the first one that his father allowed on the menu at their restaurant, and something he worked tirelessly to create. Mimasaka might be able to perfectly replicate someone's dishes and go a step beyond, but he has never worked hard or passionately like other chefs to create a entirely new dish from scratch. Soma is challenging Mimasaka to a battle of creativity. They both are on the same level now. Both know what the dish is and what they are making. But the winner of this shokugeki will be the one who is able to perfect the dish beyond the level it already is at, which is no easy task. This is a challenge that will push Soma to think outside the box and utilize his creative thinking skills that we've seen him use before to add new twists to old favorites, while forcing the copycat Mimasaka to truly embrace what it takes to make a great dish instead of his typical research and replication. A really cool conflict that has made this match much more interesting to me than I originally thought it would be. Really, that's the strength of this series, to take a formula that is in many ways standard but add it's own unique twist to it to make it refreshing. Now I'm really looking forward to see what Soma will make while experimenting. It's sure to be something I could never have expected.

Rankings:

1. The Seven Deadly Sins - 10/10
2. Assassination Classroom - 9/10
3. Shokugeki no Soma - 9/10
4. One-Punch Man - 9/10
5. Detective Conan - 7/10
6. Rin-ne - 7/10

A short week, but a quality one. The majority of these chapters were excellent, and the two that weren't were still very entertaining. And I appreciate a small week like this after reading and writing about triple this amount last time. That one took an unexpectedly long time to write.  :sweat:

I have now read all the available chapters of Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic and I have to say that I'm impressed. This easily ranks among the best shonen-manga I've read in quite some time. Of course, the setting helps a lot; I've always had a fascination with 1001 Nights-themed settings, ever since I watched Aladdin as a wee tyke. That said, Shinobu Ohtaka also does a great job creating engaging plot-lines and interesting characters.

My favorite story-arc (so far) is The Magnostadt Arc, by the way.

Yeah, Magi is great stuff and the Magnostadt is easily the best arc, and what really elevated this series to the next level for me.

Though, as far as the best currently-running shonen manga goes, my votes'd go to Silver Spoon and A Silent Voice.

Caught up with some more series this week, so I'll be talking about some of them from now on as well:

A Bride's Story chapter 40 - Anis seems to be very happy to finally find a friend in Shirin, though the reason why she seems drawn to her is a bit odd. I'm not sure exactly what Anis' maid means when she say that she and Shirin have to go through some sort of ceremony to become "sister wives." I mean, the obvious thing would be Anis' husband taking Shirin as a second wife, I guess, but I dunno, maybe it's some different kind of thing they're referring to? I guess we'll see in next months' chapter.

A Silent Voice chapter 49 - I was expecting a shouting match between Ueno and Kawai, but that wasn't the focus of the chapter. Though, we got an amazing scene where Ishida's mom meets Shoko, and can't find anything to say to her, and instead walks away, telling Yuzuru that they can talk once Ishida recovers. But the real meat of the chapter was learning more about Mashiba and seeing him come to terms with himself and the incident this week. And it seems he isn't the confident, upstanding man he appears to be. His motivations, in fact, had been very skewed, dreaming to become a teacher solely to punish the children of those who bullied him, and hanging around Ishida to make himself feel more normal in comparison. However, Ishida's selfless actions have left him thinking about what kind of person he really is and makes him feel guilty and ashamed. Unlike Kawai, who immediately pulls a 180 and agrees to finish the movie only because Mashiba agreed to help, Mashiba genuinely wants to be a better person, and has been encouraged to change his ways following Ishida's example, apologizing to the teacher he beat up in order to help Shoko be able to film at the school. I appreciate this look at Mashiba, and it seems next week, we'll be coming back to Ueno. I wonder if she'll be able to suck up her pride and change her ways too? 

Assassination Classroom chapter 99 - The students try their best to cheer up Bitch-sensei by getting Karasuma to give her flowers for her birthday. However, Karasuma is no romantic and says some things that give away that it was the students' plan and not his own, which pisses her off. Karasuma isn't clueless about how she feels about him, but there is no room for love in their field, and if Erina can't handle that, than she will need to be replaced. And of course, flower shop guy is an assassin and he's gunning for Bitch-sensei. Why am I not surprised? This is shaping up to be a fun storyline. I wonder if flower shop guy is the assassin that's been taking out all those other ones, including Erina's former teacher, Lovos? Should be interesting to see how this plays out.

Berserk chapter 336 - Rickert learns of Griffith's army of apostles, and that's really all that happens in this chapter. I know Rickert wants to hear the truth of what happened to the Band of the Hawk straight from Griffith's lips, but he may be in way over his head. Also, even though Griffith is now a king as he's always wanted to be, I feel that his ambition is far from quenched. I would not be surprised if he tries to expand his empire. Surely, his army of apostles are restless for some bloodshed. Anyway, I wonder what Rickert will do now, and hopefully next month's chapter gives some development on that front.

Black Butler chapter 96 - The Green Witch has completed the ultimate spell, which should calm down all the werewolves now, which is super. But, unfortunately, Ciel and Sebastian have successfully tricked her in coming along with them to visit the queen. Ha ha ha...she is so screwed. Poor girl.

Bleach chapter 593 - Looks like Hitsugaya got caught in a groundhog day-esque loop. And it also looks like he's now dead. Maybe. I dunno, Mayuri is a psycopath, I wouldn't put it past him or anything. But Hitsugaya is like the most popular character of this series in Japan, so I kinda doubt he'd be killed off in such an unceremonious manner.

Fairy Tail: Zero chapter 2 - I wasn't planning on sticking with this series, because I hate FT and all that, but I checked out this chapter and liked it well enough to give it some more of my time. Mavis is a fun and likable character and it was cool seeing her outwit a guy 10 years her senior in a battle of wits. This story of how the Fairy Tail guild came to be might prove more interesting than I thought.

Fuuka chapter 27 - Looks like a lot of people have come out to the school fair, not really to see the band, but to see Koyuki who they expected to attend (an she has), and heckle Yuu for being in such a close relationship with her (hoo-boy, fanboys are so fucking crazy). And it looks like some hot-shot U.S. singer has caught wind of the fact Koyuki will be there and will attend as well. Hmm, wonder where that'll go. In any case, the band is not afraid of the hecklers or mad at Yuu, and they are going to give their performance everything they've got, which should make for one interesting concert, if nothing else. Will they be able to win these people over with their music? Guess we'll see.

Kuroko's Basketball chapter 274 - And so, through the teamwork of Kuroko and Kagami, Seirin scores the rebound and beats Rakuzan just as the time runs out. Yep, it's over. This match is finally over. Seririn has one. They shoudn't have, honestly, but they did, fine. So...is the series going to end soon? The end of the chapter promises at things winding down, so I guess so. In any case, there's really no where to go from here without the series going to POT-esque levels of ridiculousness, so it might as well end. For what it's worth, I liked this chapter and ending to the match just fine, but that doesn't change how the match as a whole was a complete mess with a sever lack of genuine tension and and often times infuriating or just plain boring to read. Very disappointing to be perfectly honest. Too bad.

Magi chapter 235 - I was surprised that Wahid sacrificed himself to summon the Medium. I guess he's not alive in the current timeline, then. I liked finally seeing how the djinns were created (and who the djinns were originally), and I guess Ugo was the one who ended up creating a new world, which is cool to know. Looks like this arc has at most one chapter left, and then we'll get back to the present. I'll be curious to see the reactions of Sinbad and Kouen, among others, to this story.

Murcielago chapters 7-9 - And so the Murder Party ends in a whole bout of bloody, over the top fun. I wonder if the maid is going to be a recurring character now? Probably.

Naruto chapter 689 - I do like how all three of Team 7 has dealt a final(?) blow on Kaguya. It's not particularly well-done considering the mess that is Sasuke's character arc and how useless a character Sakura has been the entire series, but whatever, fine. Hopefully this battle is close to being over. I'm fucking sick of Kaguya and Zetsu and their bland bland blandness. Their still is that whole thing that the sage of six paths was going to do to help that hasn't happened yet, though, so....I dunno.

One Piece chapter 757 - I don't like how Rebecca is suddenly afraid to fight Diamante for some reason, but Kyros coming to her aid and father and daughter reunited was a nice moment. Hopefully both of them work together to take Diamante down. The other action in this chapter was very fun as well, so overall, this was an enjoyable chapter.

Peephole chapter 36 - Woah-oh, Yawagiwa knows something's up with Kurosu and that he knows more about her brother's disappearance than he lets on, and she seems crazy enough to bug 'em about him enough for him to slip up and find the truth. I wonder if this lead to a fun battle of crazy wits between Yawagiwa and Miyachi? That could be fun.

Silver Spoon chapter 105 - Oh man, I was dying of laughter from the three pages where Nishkawa was explaining all the different types of potatoes with anime-girl analogues. Amazing. Hopefully Hachiken and Oikawa can get things in order to see their pizza, and Hachiken gets to show his stuff in a horse race.

Space Brothers chapter 233 - Now this was a much better done sentimental chapter, with Mutta reflecting on how much Sharon's guidance has led him down his current path, and vowing to keep his promise to her. That said, I hope to see some more plot development come next time.

Toriko chapter 289 - Air has been successfully prepared. Awesome. I wonder if they'll have to give it up to satiate Heracles, though?

Rankings:

1. Silver Spoon - 10/10
2. A Silent Voice - 10/10
3. Assassination Classroom - 9/10
4. Murcielago - 9/10
5. A Bride's Story - 9/10
6. Fuuka - 8/10
7. Berserk - 8/10
8. Magi - 8/10
9. Toriko - 8/10
10. Peephole - 8/10
11. One Piece - 8/10
12. Space Brothers - 8/10
13. Kuroko's Basketball - 8/10
14. Black Butler - 8/10
15. Fairy Tail Zero - 8/10
16. Bleach - 4/10
17. Naruto - 3/10

Good week. Only two chapters below an 8/10. That's something I'd sure like to see more often.

That One Piece chapter downright pissed me off. Seriously, Oda? You build up Rebecca as someone who can actually fight, and then when faced with the guy who claims to have murdered her mother, she breaks down and cries for "Soldier-San" to save her. In previous appearances, we at least saw that she was very willing to fight for herself, even if she was outmatched. In this case, despite her opponent being stronger, it would have made more sense to see her get angry and at least try to fight back. Instead she just cowers like a cliche damsel in distress. That's REALLY bad characterization, and it comes from a writer who should know better by now. :srs:

On another note, I hear that the match between Seirin and Rakuzan is finally done, so I'll probably catch up with the manga pretty soon, but I'm honestly not expecting much based on what I've heard about it. It seems like Tadatoshi tried to capture the magic of the Shohoku vs. Sannoh match from Slam Dunk with this one, but failed miserably at it.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on August 23, 2014, 03:20:26 PM
That One Piece chapter downright pissed me off. Seriously, Oda? You build up Rebecca as someone who can actually fight, and then when faced with the guy who claims to have murdered her mother, she breaks down and cries for "Soldier-San" to save her. In previous appearances, we at least saw that she was very willing to fight for herself, even if she was outmatched. In this case, despite her opponent being stronger, it would have made more sense to see her get angry and at least try to fight back. Instead she just cowers like a cliche damsel in distress. That's REALLY bad characterization, and it comes from a writer who should know better by now. :srs:

Ugh, that's almost worst than Naruto.

Yeah, it was weird that Rebecca is so afraid of Diamante when in the Colosseum she didn't back down against him at all. Running away and crying for Kyros to rescue her was completely out of character for her. I didn't enjoy how Oda handled that at all, though, it didn't "piss me off" because...I dunno, I don't care about Rebecca all that much I guess. When Ussop ran away during the fight with Sugar, THAT pissed me the fuck off more than I had ever been at anything in OP because it destroyed years of character development for who was my favorite character in the series, and so this didn't seem quite as bad in comparison to me, since Rebecca is such a minor and not terribly interesting character. Though, hopefully she at least helps out in the fight against Diamante with Kyros. If she just sits back and lets him do all the fighting, then I'll be pretty steamed.

I don't care about Rebecca as a character, either. It pisses me off because it's flat-out terrible writing. Oda just wants to make a touching moment of Kyros coming to rescue his daughter, which would be fine if she was staying in-character, fighting back, and just happened to be losing because Diamante is way above her level, and Kyros came in before he could finish her off. Having her cry for him to save her without even so much as raising her sword in her own defense makes her look like every generic damsel in distress ever, and while I don't care about the character, I'm sick of this stupid-ass archetype, and I'm really disappointed in someone like Oda for using it. Even if the series has been down in quality from its prime for a while, I still consider moments like this to be an extreme low for a writer who was clearly capable of far better material than this.

Even Nami, who was never much of a fighter, never acted as pathetic as this in a fight.

No arguments there. It is bad writing. It just didn't bother me quite as much, compared to some other bad writing bits that have happened in the arc, and really, since post-timeskip. That isn't to defend it, but to just explain why I, personally, did not become "pissed off" by it, though I was very annoyed.

Yeah, Oda has really been in a slump since the time-skip. I just wish that he could somehow get things back up to the level of quality as they were in the CP9 arc as far as Luffy AND his crew go. As much as I loved the Impel Down and Marineford arc, I have to wonder if they may have been detrimental to the quality of the series in the long-run, seeing as how Oda can't seem to properly write for the other Straw Hats anymore. I think that instead of the next arc trying to outdo this one and all previous ones by being bigger in scope, perhaps he should try and throw a curve ball into the formula by going for a smaller-scale but more personal arc, much like Arlong Park or Drum Island. I believe that it may help him reconnect with some of the characters. I think that, right now, he's a bit too focused on making his story more big and epic with each chapter that he may be losing that personal touch and charm that made it so appealing in the first place.

It's unfortunate, but I really do think going two+ years without writing any of the Straw Hats except Luffy has made Oda unable to write the crew well, or give them all something meaningful to do in the arc, which he was able to do quite well in the pre-Whitebeard War arcs. Increasing the scale of the conflict and adding a whole bunch of new characters doesn't help things either, since he's juggling all of them and all these separate plot threads and it has just mostly amounted to an underwhelming mess so far. Like you, I'd prefer a smaller scale arc where he devotes more time to the Straw Hats, and makes the conflicts more personal like he did with the CP9 arc, which would hopefully help him get back in touch with how to write them as well as he used to.

Apparently the next Kuroko chapter will be the final one. That sounds about right. I don't think the series has anywhere left to go after that game with Rakuzan, anyway. Overall, I did enjoy the series, even if I was let down by the final game and a few parts of the story after the rematch with To'oh. It was still a pretty decent and entertaining sports series for most of it's run.

What's this? A new One Piece chapter that I actually liked? Yeah, this is one of the better chapters that I've read in a long time. It had a single focus, and while it didn't move the plot forward too much, it did justice to one of the Straw Hat pirates. Usopp was actually in character this time and totally made himself useful by sniping out Sugar from an insane distance before she could get to Luffy. Additionally, having him claim that he will support Luffy and his crew, even if he doesn't get noticed for it, felt like the slightest bit of character growth for him. Nicely done, Oda. Now, if only you could actually keep this up for more than just a single chapter. One can only wish. Regardless, this chapter felt like classic One Piece to me, which I haven't felt from this series in far too long.

As for Magi, on the other hand, please wrap this shit up already. I was sure that this would be the last chapter of this arc, but it seems like it'll be at least another 2 chapters now to see what other shit will go wrong for Ugo before this is all done. I get that this flash-back is important to the story, but I think it would have been smarter for the author to find a way to reveal this to is in bits and pieces throughout the story, rather than force the whole thing on us at once.

This was a good week of manga, overall, but I've had a tiring week, so forgive me for being brief here:

A Silent Voice chapter 50 - This chapter featured a great exploration into Ueno's character: why she likes Ishida, why she hates Shoko, and why she behaves the way she does. I find it interesting, and realistic, and Ueno doesn't change her mind about Shoko and join the movie project. There's plenty of people who simply can't let grudges go. But it was nice that she does end up helping her anyway, giving her the number for a sound production team, after being won over bu Shoko's determination. I don't know if this is the last we'll see of Ueno, but if it was, it was a good resolution to that conflict and her character arc.

Assassination Classroom chapter 100 - A hundred chapters! Yeah, so Flower Shop Guy is the assassin killer, though it turns out Lovro is still alive, though he's laying low for now. I was thinking that they'd show Irina fight him or something first before being subdued, but looks like we're jumping straight into a rescue mission. I'm curious as to the Reaper's ability to make people feel at ease even though he's threatening them. It sort of reminds me of what made Nagisa an effective assassin, in a way, except more refined. Perhaps this encounter with someone very similar to him will help hone Nagisa's assassination skills even further. 

Bleach chapter 594 - I have no clue if Mayuri is trying to cure Hitsugaya or not. Dude's a fucking sadist. Either way, I'm kind of annoyed that Rangiku, Kensei, and Rose are all zombies now, apparently. Not only that, but it appears that the effin' Privarion Arrancar are going to fight and probably defeat them? C'mon Kubo, Rangiku is one thing, but Kensei and Rose were captains, I can't buy that the Privarion Arrancar are going to be match for them. But the real issue is that Kubo has killed off major character unceremoniously and are now using them tactlessly as more fighting pawns to drag out this battle further. Goddamit, I don't care about these characters, but they were actually developed/characterized and had a significant role in the story thus far. This shouldn't be just an "oh, looks like this happened, too bad" kind of thing. Whatever. At least the other battle is ending fast enough, with the Pepe guy looking like he's wiping the floor with both his enemies and allies with his weird ability to make people fall in love and obey him. Now that may prove a bit more amusing to see played out, especially if Byakuya falls victim.

Fuuka chapter 28 - Looks like the gang is going to win over people with their performance, and attract the interest of the american celebrity. Good stuff.

Girl May Kill chapters 15-16 - So the kid assassin was not Mei's little brother, but was instead a kid that Manome left alive back in his old days as an operative, unable to shoot him. The kid grew up and joined Dragon's Beard to get revenge on Manome, and dang, he succeeded. Manome is...dead. I didn't see that coming. The kid is dead too, which I did sort of see coming, but it's still kind of sad since he had a tragic story behind him. But man, with their leader dead, I wonder what Gohongi, Katsura, and Mei are going to do now. Especially since Mei's brother is a member of Dragon's Beard, and a high-ranking operative, unafraid to let his sister get killed. Dang, the guys are looking pretty screwed. At the very least, it looks like they'll need a new hideout, and Gohongi is going to need to get another job.

Joshi Kausei chapter 19 - The group makes rice balls. Hilarity ensues. There really isn't that much to say about this one. Cute chapter.

Magi chapter 236 - Hmm, I thought this would be the last chapter of this flashback arc, but I guess there's still more. I guess it was nice seeing how Ugo managed to create peace among the races while he bid time to make preparations ready for the creation of a new world. But even I am getting a bit impatient to get back to the main storyline again.

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad chapters 31-32 - Great chapters. It was interesting seeing how Sinbad met and became friends with the King of Balbadd, and used his storytelling skills to finance his firm and earn the King's financial backing. Very cool stuff.

Naruto chapter 690 - Wow. So, Kaguya and Zetsu are dead then. The battle is over. It's finally over. Fin-a-fucking-ly. Of course, Madara is still alive (though unconscious), but I doubt we'll be seeing him fight again. Rather, he'll probably have some bullshit redemption scene, but whatever, I don't care as long as this series ends faster. Crossing my fingers for it being gone by the end of the year.

One Piece chapter 758 - Finally, a legitimately great chapter of OP, the first in a long, long time. Better yet, Ussop was totally in character here, nice to see after Rebecca was so out of character last chapter. Totally felt like a classic chapter of OP. If only Oda could make chapters like this more often, these days.

Orange chapter 13 - Meh...last chapter it seemed like the plot was going to move forward what with everyone receiving the letters and all, but now were back to bland shojo romance antics. Not bad stuff, but just kinda boring.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 90 - Well, it looks like the demon-transformed Knights can be reverted by some means, as Ban and Gouther were able to successfully save Guila and Jericho's lives. But it seems Hendricksen has defeated both Dreyfus and Griamor, and Elizabeth is slowly dying. At this point, I'm wondering if Meliodas will reach in time to stop his plans.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 83 - Soma seems to have missed the point of the contest, somehow. Will Erina really help him out and help him devise a new variant on his dish, one that can defeat Mimasaka's? It'll be interesting to see them work together.

Toriko chapter 290 - And so a new Horse King is born! Seems like Heracles will spare Toriko and co.'s life in exchange for Air, a good result, though I'm wondering if a Nitro or something is going to come now and screw things up for everyone.

Vinland Saga chapter 107 - I feel bad for Gudrid, being forced to marry some guy and give up on her dream of sailing the seas just because she's a woman and stuff. But it looks like she fucked up and stabbed Sig, so know she's in a whole lot of trouble. This'll probably lead her to escaping and joining up with Thorfinn and co., through some way.

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 10/10
2. One Piece - 10/10
3. Girl May Kill - 9/10
4. Fuuka - 9/10
5. The Seven Deadly Sins - 9/10
6. Magi: Adventure of Sinbad - 8.5/10
7. Assassination Classroom - 8.5/10
8. Vinland Saga - 8.5/10
9. Shokugeki no Soma - 8/10
10. Toriko - 8/10
11. Magi - 8/10
12. Joshi Kausei - 7.5/10
13. Orange - 6.5/10
14. Naruto - 1/10
15. Bleach - 1/10

Some good developments this week.

Yeah, One Piece took me by surprise this time. It felt just like a classic, pre-Amazon Lily arc chapter. It also had a character gag that, while not necessarily that funny, felt fresh and worked in Usopp's favor. Too bad we don't get more chapters like this in OP's current run.

So, Kuroko no Basket is finally complete. Overall, I found the last match to be disappointingly underwhelming. I really did think that the series was best when it didn't go too over-the-top, which was mostly up until the re-match with To-oh. The match with Yosen was pretty boring, but then the re-match with Kaijou was actually well-done, and not that over the top. Then we got a flash-back arc, which I usually don't like, but it was decent enough, although a bit dragged out. Finally we wrapped up with this match, and the biggest problem is that (outside of the over the top techniques and whatnot, which I might have been able to overlook) this series really didn't do a good job of building up its characters, at all. It's one of those sports series that cares more about the glory of the actual game than the characters participating in it, and THAT is the true weakness of the final match. I just didn't care if Seirin won or not. Realizing that this was the end, I thought about how this should be the epic climax of each of the main characters' personal arcs, but the characters never really evolved in this series. Less experienced readers would assume that just becoming better players is evolving, but those who have read better manga in the genre know otherwise. Slam Dunk is the perfect example of how to do thus manga the right way. Nobody was especially complex, but each of the main characters had arcs that were followed throughout the entire series, and upon finally getting to the climactic battle with Sannoh, it was an emotional arc as much as it was an exciting one, as each character was reaching the pinnacle of their development, not just in terms of skill, but in terms of their actual "character" as well. Comparatively, Kuroko, just like many other sports manga, just fall flat in the end when we don't really feel that invested in the characters by the end. In that regard, we really wanted to see Shouhoku in a Slam Dunk win because we wanted to see the characters triumph.

Putting that aside, I did still enjoy the manga on the whole. Would I read it again? Perhaps....but certainly not any time within the next few years. Yet, I can't deny that I did enjoy more about this manga than I didn't. It's more that the final match left a sour taste in my mouth, and less that the entire manga is poorly written, which it's not, outside of the weaker matches.

My Overall  Series Rating: 7/10 (flawed, but still above average)

I enjoyed KnB, for the most part. At the start I found the premise interesting; in that Kuroko did not aim to be the best player, since there was no way he really could, but instead use his own skills to be the best teammate there is, and help Kagami become the best player he could be. I thoroughly enjoyed the story up until after the rematch with To-oh. After that, the series started to rely a bit more on the gimmicks, or at least blew them up to much more unbelievable and superpower-y proportions. But the real problem was the series started to lose track of the character arcs, and what is at stake for this team and characters. It became more about making the games more exciting and over the top, whereas the tension shouldn't have come from just the players' skills, but also what they were going through emotionally. And it all completely fell apart in the final match. There was no sense of what was at stake, and no sense of what it represented for the characters. They didn't truly change or reach the pinnacle of their character development, like in Slam Dunk, and things just felt like a wash the whole way through. And Akaishi's character and character arc was super annoying. I don't think I've ever been so annoyed by an antagonist in a manga or anime quite as much as him. He acts so unrealistically and says such groan-worthy things throughout the series that it goes to far for me to retain my suspension of disbelief at many points. I felt his character was the weakest written part of the series, and it certainly didn't help things much in the final match. Overall, I would say I enjoyed more of the series than I didn't, but it's not something I think I'll ever re-read again.

Geez, the new Hunter X Hunter chapter is delayed for yet another week.  ::) I fully expect Togashi will take a long hiatus after it finally comes out.

I guess he's taking too much time to be the editor for other people's manga. :sly:

As for One Piece, while I didn't like it as much as the last chapter (probably because that one took me by surprise since it was the best chapter that I had read in a long time), this is the second chapter in a row that I liked better than average. Interestingly enough, it also had many classic elements of OP in it, such as Luffy confronting the villain and getting pissed at how he's treating his own subordinate, even though Bellamy used to be his enemy. At the same time, though, it had its own twist to it with Doflamingo purposely doing that to make Luffy angry so that he would screw up, which Law pointed out to Luffy after he rashly attacked Doflamingo and accidentally hit Bellamy when Doflamingo used him as a human shield. The strategy that he and Law used to attack Doflamingo was also really clever and made it feel satisfying to finally see Luffy deliver a huge gut-punch to the guy.

Also, the artwork wasn't sporadic at all in this chapter. It was simple and the action was easy to follow. There were no overly-grand-scale spreads or cluttered panels that made it harder to keep up with what was going on, so the chapter had a nice flow to it.

I don't want to jinx it by saying anything prematurely, but is it possible that Oda might just be slowly regaining his momentum after so many years? To be clear, I didn't love this chapter or the last one in the grand scheme of things, but relative to what we've been getting since the time-skip, they are the first 2 way better than average chapters that I have read from this series in a long time, and this is the first time that I'm really, genuinely interested in reading the next chapter since the time-skip. I really do hope that this isn't just a lucky coincidence, and that Oda is indeed getting his act together.

Lots of things "ended" in the manga world this week:

A Silent Voice chapter 51 - This was a fantastic look into Shoko's perspective and how she perceives her surroundings, as well as her regrets for how things turned out and her longing for a normal, happy childhood. Very moving, powerful stuff. I'm a bit confused as to where Shoko is going at the end of the chapter. In the dream she had it seemed Ishida was going to die. Maybe she's going to visit him again. That could lead a very emotional moment, especially if Ishida wakes up soon.

Assassination Classroom chapter 101 - Geez, the God of Death guy is one creepy mofo. I loved how the students are outwitting him and playing a stealth game, but it's going to be interesting to see if they can beat a guy who's killed professional assassins.

Black Butler chapter 96.5 - I guess this filler-y chapter was meant to commemorate the end of the Book of Circus anime. Personally, reading through this chapter I couldn't help but be reminded how all these characters died in horrible, brutal ways and how Ciel burned all those children to death at the end of the arc. It's kind of hard to go back and look at a scene where they are all friendly-like with each other considering how Ciel basically kills them all without remorse later on and stuff. Otherwise, the chapter is just a kinda lame story, so meh.

Bleach chapter 595 - Byakuya can't fall under Pepe's spell because he is incapable of love. Uh huh, sure, okay. And Pepe is already taken down thanks to...zombie Kensei and Rose? Huh? Whatever. At this point, who's left? Just Giselle, then? Well, at least we are ending these battles quickly, though anti-climatically. I bet the editors are pressuring Kubo to pick up the pace and end the series sooner rather than later. Hey, works for me.

Fuuka chapter 29 - And so the concert wins over the haters. Classic music series trope, but a good one. I didn't expect Fuuka to invite Koyuki to sing on stage with them. I wonder what this will lead to. Though, I'm fully expecting Fuuka and Koyuki to become rivals, albeit friendly rivals.

Kuroko no Basket chapter 275 - I already gave my thoughts on the series as a whole earlier in the week, so I won't say any of that stuff again. But as a final chapter, this felt anti-climactic. Basically just the usual congrats-let's play each other again promise, and then some eh comedy bits that try to tell us where the team will go from here, and then leaving the series off on a scene that I do like, but doesn't scream finality. Mmm. I dunno, I would have liked some more emotional moments, resolutions to some characters' arcs like Hyuuga and Kiyoshi, and stuff. Too bad. See ya, KnB. It was a fun, interesting ride.

Magi chapter 237 - Oh, looks like this flashback arc is finally over! Looks like I was right about this lasting until the end of the summer after all. I did enjoy this chapter, how the dungeons and metal vessels were set up, explanations for how all the people in the Magi world came to be, and then a look into the events leading up to the beginning of the series. Good stuff. Now to see everybody's reactions to this story. I'm sure it gave both Sinbad and Kouen a few ideas...

Naruto chapter 691 - And with this, it's over. Finally. After four years. Four long years. The war arc is over. It's over. OVERRRR!!!! Everything has been resolved. Madara even got his half-assed redemption moment like I expected he would! All that's left now is Naruto vs. Sasuke. Who knows how long that will last, but I'm placing my bets that the series will end by the end of the year, so probably not too long. As for this chapter, I want to appreciate what it's trying to do, but because I'm so thoroughly un-invested, it's all just a wash to me.

One Piece chapter 759 - This felt like a classic villain-confrontation chapter. Good scenes, pacing, and focus, and the action in this chapter was straightforward and effective, unlike it has been in recent chapters. Nice stuff. Hopefully the rest of the battle can be like this chapter and be a fun experienc.e

One-Punch Man chapter 52 - Oh, right. I forgot King was a poser who is actually super weak. Dunno why I didn't remember that. Either way, since Saitama and Genos are there, he's probably going to be bailed out again. I wonder how he's going to figure into this new arc?

Peephole chapter 37 - Uh oh, looks like Yawagiwa knows Kurosu knows something about her brother's disappearance and has got the police officer to come and inspect his room. This sure won't turn out well for him. Unless, Miyachi can somehow get away with killing or diverting both of them...

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 91 - Ouch, poor Dreyfus and Griamor. They got curb-stomped at the end there. But now all the Sins have arrived to fight Hendricksen and stop him from reviving the demon clan! Can they beat him? Probably not, unless Meliodas taps into his own demonic powers...

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 84 - Huh, Erina didn't help Soma after all. She's such a jerk. But her words did make Soma think over what he was trying to do, and when Nikumi arrived with various cuts of beef, he's come up for a new variant on his beef curry stew. But what is it? That's what I want to find out. Of course, the way Cooking manga work, the losing dish is always presented first, so it's gonna be a few chapters, but I'm excited to see Soma totally beat Mimaska at his own game.

Space Brothers chapter 234 - I'm glad the series is back on track plot-wise. I don't know what happened to Mosh, but I guess he's out of the mission? Or maybe it's just this photo-shoot. I do want to see Carlos return to the team, but I don't expect he's the "replacement." But I guess we'll find out in the next chapter.

Toriko chapter 291 - Whoa! Toriko has added Air as the salad to his Full Course! Fuck yeah, that's awesome! I can't believe things turned out so well for them, but know both Joy, Midora, and the other Beast Kings know they are in the Gourment world, so things won't go so smoothly for them later on. Still, a great moment, a great moment, and a great end to this arc.

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 10/10
2. Assassination Classroom - 9/10
3. One-Punch Man - 9/10
4. Magi - 9/10
5. One Piece - 8.5/10
6. Shokugeki no Soma - 8.5/10
7. Toriko - 8.5/10
8. Fuuka - 8/10
9. The Seven Deadly Sins - 8/10
10. Space Brothers - 8/10
11. Kuroko no Basket - 7/10
12. Peephole - 7/10
13. Black Butler - 6/10
14. Naruto - 3/10
15. Bleach - 1/10

Overall, a pretty darn good weak. I'm satisfied.

Odd. This week's chapter was cut short of the usual page count. Perhaps Oda fell behind schedule. At any rate, not much happened this week, but it looks like we'll finally be learning more about Doflamingo's past. We already knew that he was a Celestial Dragon, but now we have a clearer idea of his goal to take out the Celestial Dragons. I always find it interesting when one villain wants to take out another bad guy or group of them, albeit for the wrong reasons. In this case it makes Doflamingo a little more interesting, which was really needed since he wasn't catching my interest at all throughout this entire arc.

Anyways, it was a mostly average chapter again. I'm not surprised, though, as I couldn't expect Oda to keep up the quality of the last 2 chapters, but I really was hoping that they were the beginning of a streak of great ones for him. I'm still hoping that we get more chapters like those, but for now, it was just serviceable.

Huh, looks like the Tokyo Ghoul manga is ending. (http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/09/12-1/tokyo-ghoul-manga-concludes) Bet the anime producers wished they hadn't blasted through the material as quickly as they did now. I've been meaning to keep up with this series, so maybe I'll start it around October, since it would be amusing to have a horror manga to read for Halloween-time.

So, Magi finally got back to the present day story-line. It looks like Aladdin is attempting to get the 3 major kingdoms to agree to a truce, even if only temporarily, to unite against the common threat of Al Tharmen. I have a feeling that the Kou Empire will be the one holding out if this doesn't go down, otherwise they will all agree but will still be double-dealing behind each others's backs as none of them will outright trust each other, which will probably surface as a problem later on as a major weakness for Al Tharmen to exploit.

In all honesty, though, I want to go back to Alibaba's side of the story and see what happens in regard to his status with ruling Balbadd. That was interesting, and part of me believes that he would be willing to cut a deal with the Kou Empire since it means a lot to him to be the for his homeland, even if the cost for doing so is not something that he would like on a personal level.

Hmm, I just found out that History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi ended this week. I've never read it, don't really plan to, but I know Spark and E-K have mentioned it before and hate it, so I felt that was worth mentioning.

Claymore is ending next month as well. It's interesting that quite a few long-running shonen titles are starting to end around the same time.

I heard about that a while ago. I used to keep up with that series because when it started out, it was a generic but still amusing shounen series. Then after the D of D arc it just went from kind of decent to absolutely shit, and stayed that way until I finally dropped it. From what I've heard from people who kept with it, the manga just stayed shitty until the very end. Perhaps one day I will write an article about it in terms of how NOT to write a good shounen manga. It's the perfect template for everything wrong with modern long-running shounen manga, in general.

Now I'm reminded that I haven't read Claymore in years.

Tired, so these will all be pretty brief comments. But, I have to say that this was a pretty enjoyable week for me:

A Silent Voice chapter 52 - Oh man, this was a powerful chapter. Completely wordless until the end, as Shoko runs towards the balcony where she almost tried to commit suicide and reflects on everything that's happened, and then runs to the bridge where she and Shoya used to meet, and then breaks down in tears. And then, at the same time she does, Shoya finally rewakens in the hospital. Moving stuff. I can't wait to see their reunion next week.

Attack on Titan chapter 61 - Hoo-wee, looks like Erwin's gambit paid off! The Police Corps are now aware of the government's corruption and selfish nature, and has turned on it in a military coup. This means that Levi and co. are no longer wanted criminals, and they can focus on rescuing Eren and Historia much easier. Speaking of which, it seems that they've been caught up in some kind of weird ritual. Wonder what's up with that.

Attack on Titan: Before the Fall chapter 9 - Aw man, Kyukuro's gambit failed. It was a good effort though. The action scenes in this chapter were phenomenal. It looks like Kyukuro is going to join up with the Survey Corps starting in the next chapter. It'll be interesting to see how his experiences with the Titans from this point on will lead him to create the 3-D maneuver gear.

Bleach chapter 596 - So, Kensei and Rose are actually dead then? I mean, they were dead to begin with, what with them being Soul Reapers and all, but then they died again, so are they the living un-dead dead now, or something? And Mayuri is just going to be controlling them like puppets from now on? Will Hitsugaya be like that now too? Geez, that's kinda sad. I dunno who gave a shit about those guys, but it's kinda callous to just make them brainless puppets for their own team so unceremoniously. And they are immune to Pepe's power because, being Mayuri's zombies, they are incapable of love. That...that's actually kind of amusing. Pepe's reaction did kind of sell that for me there. So, this guy's done now. What's her name Sternritter will probably off him. At least we're plowing through these guys fast now. Way better than when we had to spend three months to see Kenpachi take out fucking Gremmy.

Detective Conan chapters 905-906 - Grrr...I wish Conan could have met Sera's sister in this case so we could keep up the plot development. Oh well, it seems this new case might reveal some info on Rum. I mean, I doubt any of these suspects are actually Rum him/herself, but perhaps one of them or the victim had a connection to him/her or something. On the whole, a solid conclusion chapter for a case and a solid opening chapter for a case. An extra half-point for the Urusei Yatsura reference.

Fairy Tail Zero chapter 3 - I'm liking Mavis as a protagonist. She's smart and witty with a good sense of humor. Also she's not bland like the stereotypical shonen protagonist these days *cough* like Natsu *cough*, which helps things. I love how she outwitted that guy in the truth and lie game. So it looks like she's going to be joining up with the Treasure Hunters to get back the Tenrou Jade. This could prove fun. Then again, this is Fairy Tail, so I'm ready to bail the second it turns to shit, but it has been surprisingly enjoyable so far. I'm willing to see where it goes.

Fuuka chapter 30 - Yeah, this is totally the beginning of a friendly rivalry. Now that Fuuka and Koyuki have attracted the attention of Shelley Hornet, the #1 american singer, they are sure to get a boost of popularity and get pushed further along in the music industry. It'll be interested to see what develops from this encounter.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan chapter 15 - Arslan's got him a crew and Kharlan and his men are dead, but they are still outmatch by Lord Silver Mask's forces by a good 50,000 men to 1 ratio. And it seems the Masked Man is being manipulated by a mysterious sorcerer. Hmm. Wonder what's up with him.

Kyou Kara Yonshimai chapter 6-7 - I recently discovered this series. Just yesterday, in fact. It's a pretty interesting story about a transexual man, Kashiwa, and how his family takes the news of him wanting to become a woman, and her efforts to try and help out her struggling family while trying to get them to come to terms with his decision while trying to save up enough money to get a sex-change operation. These latest chapters were interesting since we are introduced to her girlfriend, and we learn how they met, and how intimate their relationship becomes, even though there are complications since Kashiwa is ashamed of her male body, which makes becoming sexually intimate with each other a difficult subject for them. Very well-done handling of the subject matter, and a genuinely sweet relationship between Kashiwa and her girlfriend that transcends their sexes, and instead is rooted in how much they love each other as people. This series has definitely caught my attention, and I look forward to keeping up with it from now on.

Magi chapter 238 - So Aladdin wants the Empires to form a treaty in order to combat Al Tharmen. Of course, that is easier said than done, since neither of them trust one another, and both Sinbad and Kouen are sure to have their own ambitions they'd rather pursue. I could definitely see them forming one, but going behind each other's backs and forming secret deals to further their own interests.  Like E-K, I want to see what Alibaba is going to do now, and whether he will accept Kouen's offer. I hope to see what he ultimately chooses soon.

Murcielago chapters 10-11 - Hmm, not sure what to make of this new story arc. Is Koumori related to the panty-thief after all, or is she just trolling for kicks? Or maybe there's a deeper case at work here (I mean, there is a new murderer that they want Koumori to track down). Still, Hinako's antics were pretty funny and amusing stuff, so I suppose it really doesn't matter.

Naruto chapter 692 - I was wondering how we'd transition to Naruto vs. Sasuke. Him being a murderous dick works as well as anything else, I guess. I'm sure this battle will end with some redemption bullshit for his character, so the cycle of hatred between the brothers finally ends and yadda yadda yadda. But hey, finally, it's the final battle of the series. Hopefully it doesn't last too long, and after it's done, the series will be over. So I don't care how this fight goes, so long as after it's done, I can finally leave this series behind me. I can taste the end. It's so, so close now....

One Piece chapter 760 - I always like a good ol' believe in Luffy moment, especially when it's on the part of a neutral/enemy character like Fujitora. It's nice to finally know Doflamingo's intentions after all this time, though perhaps this would have been a case where a one-chapter flashback would have worked. Can't really say much about the action in this chapter. It's fun seeing Doflamingo so pissed off, though, I suppose. Kind of a step down from the last two, but still, decent stuff.

One-Punch Man chapter 53 - Yup, so Genos is taking on the metal man in King's stead. Though it looks like it's a bit of a toughie for him to handle. I gotta wonder how King is gonna end up taking the credit for this guy's defeat. He's like the Mr. Satan of One-Punch Man, and I love him just as much. And as usual, amazing fight scenes in this chapter. Murata, you are the man..gaka that draws the best action sequences in the medium, showing off great stuff even in average, ordinary chapters like this. I salute you, sir.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 92 - Haha, wow. Last week I thought the Sins were gonna have a hard time fighting Hendricksen, but NOPE. They were just kicking his ass throughout this chapter. Looks like the oaf's demonic power ain't gonna do him any good against experienced fighters like the Sins after all. I loved the part where Ban was just slapping him, literally slapping him, around silly at the end of this chapter. Ho, boy. It looks like the demon he's been hoarding has been unearthed by Ban, now. Maybe it'll give him a power-up, or join the fight itself. And if Ban finds out it's the demon that killed Elaine, I gotta wonder just how pissed off he's gonna be, and if he'll go berserk or something. Now that I really want to see.

Shokugeki no Soma chapters 85-85.2 - Nice, this is taking a turn I didn't expect. We don't have to wait to see what Soma's got cooking, nope. He's done something pretty simple to help his stew be less tender - cooking beef tail meat. Since it's more gelatinous, he'll be adding viscosity to the stew, which will add depth to it without destroying it's mild flavor. But that snake Mimasaka totally predicted he would do that! Uh, oh, oh no! And what is that meat he's adding to the stew to go one step beyond Soma's dish? Oh man, I wanna find that out fast. My guess as to how this'll go is that Mimasaka will overdo the dish, ruining the balance of it compared to Soma's, which will make him lose. It'll be interesting to see if I'm right about that.

Toriko chapter 292 - This....this page image, man:

Spoiler

(https://33.media.tumblr.com/9c7c3bff5b7ea4f6332544605f3438a9/tumblr_nbv1mulaOh1r6toezo1_500.jpg)

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Man, Teppei is such a...HEART BREAKER!!! XD

God, how I love Toriko. First we go from an interesting insight into how the people of the Bewitched Food World came to be (turns out they're mutants, whudda guessed?), and then we've got NEO coming out of nowhere to ambush the gang, and Teppei literally rips Komatsu's heart right out of Komatsu's body, and CRUSHES IT WITH HIS BARE HANDS. That's just such an awesome moment to me that it doesn't ever matter that NEO's arrival wasn't really set-up nor will Komatsu die from this (he's got Gourmet Cells, he can regenerate anything), but geez, does this series know how to entertain. Once again, thank you, Toriko, thank you.

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 10/10
2. Kyou Kara Yonshimai - 10/10
3. Attack on Titan - 10/10
4. Attack on Titan: Before the Fall - 10/10
5. Toriko - 10/10
6. Shokugeki no Soma - 10/10
7. The Seven Deadly Sins - 9/10
8. Detective Conan - 8.5/10
9. Fairy Tail Zero - 8.5/10
10. Magi - 8.5/10
11. One-Punch Man - 8.5/10
12. One Piece - 8.5/10
13. The Heroic Legend of Arslan - 8/10
14. Fuuka - 8/10
15. Murcielago - 8/10
16. Naruto - 2/10
17. Bleach - 1/10

Damn excellent week. 15 good chapters. 6 really great chapters. Yes. If only these kind of weeks would happen more often. Ah, but whatever. Just reflecting on this stuff has left me in a good mood.

Quote from: Avaitor on September 13, 2014, 04:57:33 PM
Now I'm reminded that I haven't read Claymore in years.

I've been meaning to check it out for a long time, but I've heard mixed things. Most people seem to agree that it had a good start, though. Did you think it was a good series and just fell out of it at some point, or did it turn bad further on into it, which is why you stopped reading it?

Quote from: Cartoon X on September 13, 2014, 05:30:46 PM

Quote from: Avaitor on September 13, 2014, 04:57:33 PM
Now I'm reminded that I haven't read Claymore in years.

I've been meaning to check it out for a long time, but I've heard mixed things. Most people seem to agree that it had a good start, though. Did you think it was a good series and just fell out of it at some point, or did it turn bad further on into it, which is why you stopped reading it?

I think that I fell out due to a combination of the series repeating itself, and I was just losing the time to keep up with manga. I would say that it's worth looking into the series from what the anime covered and a little bit beyond it, though.

But keep in mind that I'm very rusty on Claymore. There's a local bookstore here with the 4th through 7th or 8th volumes for pretty cheap, and I sometimes think about collecting those to refresh myself on it. Those are around the peak of the series too, if memory serves me correctly. Maybe next time I'm in town, I will to see if I still enjoy the series.

Hmm, I see. I'll still check it out one day, though probably not anytime too soon, since I have a ton of other series on my backlog I need to get to first.

I remember liking the large amount of butt-kicking ladies, while Riful ranked among my favorite villains. I just haven't got around to it in a while.

A new trailer for The Seven Deadly Sins anime is out, featuring some animation and voice-acting from the first episode. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpnNiCZO19s)

Eh...gotta say, not a fan of Meliodas' voice. Kind of sounds forced too deep, to me. Dunno what to make of the animation yet. There are a few good dynamic sequences in there, but at this point it's hard to say if this will be Magi-level quality or not. Still, it definitely looks better than Fairy Tail has ever did, so that's good at least.

So, now that Kuroko no Basket is done, I have a free spot for another Jump sports manga, so I figure I'll start following Haikyuu since I don't have that much catching up to do and the first season is ending with the next episode.

As for my backlog series (as in, the ones where I'm way behind on them and have to marathon them whenever I have enough free-time), I'm still sticking with the 3 that I've been following over the past month, which are Berserk, JoJo, and Vagabond. So, it'll be a whole before I can free up a space for Vinland Saga, but most likely I'll catch up to Vagabond before the others.

I finally managed to catch up to Haikyuu!!, which as it turns out isn't really that far ahead of where the first season of the anime is going to end. It's surprising how quickly some series get adaptations these days, although the series is clearly insanely popular in Japan right now.

Overall, the quality of the series is about on par with what Kuroko no Basket was before it got incredibly stupid and over the top with insane techniques. My only major gripe is that it plays it too safe, and I can't help but feel that I can predict what's going to happen right now. Karasuno is going to pull through their current match, and Seijoh is going to beat Datekou, and then they'll square off against Karasuno for a re-match, which Karasuno will most likely win because it's their "revenge" match after losing the last time. After that point, they'll go up against Shiratorizawa in the local representative finals, and to be fair, I can't predict whether they'll win that one or not just her, but the chances are in their favor for plot convenience, since this is the last time that the 3rd years can play before having to leave the team for good, and they have a goal of playing against Nekoma in the nationals.

Of course, that's all just predictions on my part, but I'm virtually certain that's how it's going to play out, and I really hope that it doesn't, because then it really is just another cliche sports manga. Granted that, I do still obviously find it enjoyable enough to keep sticking with it, but I can see myself being burned out in it before long. What would really be interesting is if Datekou won the match against Seijoh and went on to face Karasuno for THEIR "revenge" match. It'd defy expectations and show that just because the main characters have their own goals, it won't always play out how they predict. Datekou is a team that they previously beat, so it only goes without saying that they would want a re-match with Karasuno and much as Karasuno wants a re-match with Seijoh, and considering that every team trained super hard since the last competition, they could conceivably be an entirely different team, and good enough to take on a team that even managed to defeat Karasuno. Still, the most likely outcome is going to be Karasuno vs. Seijoh, which is basically the exact same thing as the Seirin vs. To-oh rematch from KnB, except with volleyball instead of basketball.

I want to get caught up on Haikyuu!!, but I fell out of the anime around the second or third episode and haven't been motivated enough to pick it back up since. Still, I want to be caught up on all the major currently running Shonen Jump series by the end of the year (well, except maybe Gintama...since I doubt that I'm going to be able to finish reading it by the end of the year considering how many chapters there are and how dense it is...), so I will get around to it again before too long. For now, I'm just going to hit up World Trigger since it's shorter, the Weekly Manga Recap guys keep raving about it, and the anime is coming out in October, so I'd like to have an opinion on the series formed before that comes out. After that, I'll get back on Haikyuu!! and finish catching up on Nisekoi, and then I'll only have Gintama left and just take my time with that one.

Not the most exciting of weeks, and there was a lot of mediocre stuff, but there was a lot of good stuff too that I ended up re-reading a few times, so that was nice.

A Silent Voice chapter 53 - I honestly was expecting the reunion of Shoya and Shoko to be a bit more dramatic, but as it is it made for a sweet scene where they realize the other is okay and become elated. I also enjoyed the sequence at the beginning of the chapter where Shoya has a "what-if" dream, mirroring that of Shoko's last week. Both of them regret the way things turned out back then, and no doubt they would have been different if Shoko wasn't deaf and Shoya hadn't been desperate for attention. Of course, those past mistakes have made them close to each other in the present, and luckily, that bond prevented either one of them from doing harm to themselves. Of course Shoya was injured trying to stop Shoko from committing suicide, but he's alright now, and now that they both have in each other somebody willing to go to any lengths to protect/help each other, they can start leaving behind their regrets and self-depreciating thoughts and start moving forward and living happier lives. Since the plan was to make the movie in order to support Shoya's recovery, I wonder how that will change now that he is out of his coma? Certainly, there are still amends and loose ends that need to be tied up, and I'm sure the project will still move forward, with Shoya's involvement now that he's recovered. Since the series is ending onf November 12th, there should still be around 7 or so chapters of the series left at this point, so I'm eager to see how everything will be resolved from this point in that remaining time. 

Black Butler chapter 97 - Um, so, this took a turn I didn't expect. The werewolves aren't actually werewolves. They were just guys in costumes. And the Werewolves lair was just a disguised factory. And the witch isn't really a witch...or maybe she is, I dunno, but she didn't make a potion like she thought she did, but instead unknowingly made a poisonous gas. So, they crippled her just for the sake of an elaborate farce and to keep up the lie until she created the poison? Why did they need to do that? And why the hell did they need a child to make a poisonous gas for them again? I'm very confused at this development. I guess I do feel bad for Sullivan, since she's likable and keeps getting screwed over and stuff. Hopefully she gets vindicated when Ciel and Sebastian brutally murder these assholes (assuming they will, since this is BB after all).

Bleach chapter 597 - Lillioto has eaten Pepe. Alright, hey, that's at least one less annoying Quincy to deal with. Still, it's rather bizarre that all these minor antagonists have been wiped out so relatively quickly compared to before when we spent months on a single fight. Of course, this chapter has introduced yet another new antagonist in the form of Sternritter W, whose addition is pointless considering that not only do we not need to see Squad 0 waste their time dealing with one of Ywach's lackeys, but also because Ywach makes it clear in this chapter that he is on a whole other level in terms of power, and likely, would be able to wipe the floor with every member of Squad 0 a la how Aizen was able to outmatch all the Soul Reaper Captains and Vizards back in the Arrancar arc. Since Ichigo and co. are finally going back to the Soul King's Palace, then at least they'll be a part of the story again, and hopefully the final conflicts will not take an absurd amount of time.

Fuuka chapter 31 - It seems that the band, now dubbed Full Moon thanks to Fuuka accidentally giving the english translation of her own name to Shelly when she asked what the band's name was, will most certainly increase in popularity and notoriety and get a foothold in the industry. Interestingly enough, Koyuki's confession that she will continue to love Yuu even if he doesn't feel the same way has drawn an objection from Fuuka. Perhaps she will admit that she also has feelings for him, or maybe she'll try and argue that both of them should have an open, public relationship, since she knows they both do care about each other, though Yuu may also have feelings for Fuuka as well. Fuuka is a fairly selfless person, but she's also blunt, so I wouldn't be surprised if she issues some sort of a challenge to Koyuki over Yuu, though that's kind would be kind of awkward to do in Yuu's presence. As far as Yuu goes, he most certainly wants to be around Fuuka and stay in the band, but he's definitely not self-aware enough to know yet which of the two girls he would want to start a relationship with. Regardless of the romantic issues, I do think that, like I've been saying for the last few weeks, that Fuuka and Koyuki are going to become rivals in the music industry, and perhaps the next chapter will be their official declaration of such.

Kyou Kara Yonshimai chapters 8-10 - It was nice seeing some chapters devoted to Momiji, and her understanding of what's going on with the rest of her family, and he attempts to develop a better social life. That made for some cute moments with that boy who has a crush on her (whose name I can't remember right now), as well as some good development for her character. The big development that came from these chapters is the revelation that Botan is sleeping around with married men, and the rest of the family finding this out, and deciding to confront her about it while she's still at the love hotel. Considering her line about how she's had enough of her own family, I feel it's clear that Botan is having these relationships has a means of relieving the stress and anxieties she's had from having to raise her younger siblings on her own in her parents' stead and her desire to have somebody she can depend on, a strong male figure in her life, which she's lacking. But it's clear she doesn't want to have a steady relationship with any men, which is why she spurs and laughs off the though of having one with Hatori or the other man, and is instead looking for easy comfort, and an escape from her daily life. Whatever the case, this development will surely cause a rift in the family, and perhaps that of her coworker's as well, and the fallout should be interesting to see.

Magi chapter 239 - It doesn't look like a treaty between Kou and Sindria will happen, but Kouen does seem like he's planning to oust Gyokouen and Al Tharmen from his country. Judar's arrival to the summit interests me, since it seems he wants to ally with Aladdin's cause, which makes sense since he isn't really loyal to Al Tharmen but more so his own ambitions of power. Of course, he's sure to have some conditions or something of the sort that will agitate the others and reject whatever he offers, so what his true aim is feels uncertain, but perhaps he just want to stir the pot and cause greater tensions between the groups to sabotage their chances of working together. And of course, if Judar is here, where is Hakuryu? Perhaps a reunion between him and Aladdin in co. is not too far off.

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad chapter 34-35 - It seems they just skipped chapter 33, for some reason. In any case, this was more of a wrap up of events for the Sindria trading company's establishment in Reim, while the other chapter showed Ja'far activate his metal vessel powers for the first time, and it seems Drakon has returned to Partevia, which will probably be the catalyst for the next arc. Overall not very memorable chapters, but served their role of transitions/set-up into a new arc well enough.

One Piece chapter 761 - Meh, for a chapter that reveled as much as it did, it came off completely boring and underwhelming. It was nice to finally know why Doflamingo still holds power with the World Government, the reason why Doflamingo coveted Law's power, and the beginnings of the flashback showing how Law joined Doflamingo's crew and met Corazon. But, the combination of messy artwork, poor transitions, and wordiness made all of this less interesting than it should be, and the chapter was a tedious read. Though I've been wondering when we would get Law's flashback, I didn't expect the transition to it would have been so sloppy and out of place, especially since they just started the fucking battle with Doflamingo and stuff and I'd rather see that instead at this point. Just a pretty bad chapter, overall.

Peephole chapters 38-39 - Uh oh, looks like the Yakuza have come to kidnap Yawagiwa or something. Is this part of Miyachi's plan? Kind of doesn't feel like it, since she prefers to do killings herself and all. As for Kurosu, just when it seems he's going to do the right thing and confess to Yawagiwa that Miyachi killed her brother, the circumstances have put him peril once again, and he'll no doubt be relying on Miyachi again to get him out of this jam. The guy just sinks deeper and deeper into a whole lot of shit, and I have a feeling, after this arc, he isn't going to be able to wash himself clean of it.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 93 - I don't know why I forgot that Ban had already killed the red demon in his flashback last week. But the moment where he punched the gloating Hendricksen into the ground after informing him that he had already defeated it years ago was priceless. I forgot Hendricksen was keeping that other demon around too, and with this new power-up, he will likely be a lot harder for the Sins to deal with. I'm still thinking that he'll overpower the Sins so much Meliodas will have to use his demonic powers again, but I guess we'll see about that.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 86 - Bacon garnish on a beef stew! Mimasaka, you magnificent, evil bastard! A creepy one, too, since it seems he discovered the trick to Soma's dish by literally hiding under Mitsunari's desk and reading his pre-written report on Soma by hacking his PC beforehand. Yeah, you did fuck up Mitsunari. But Soma didn't reveal all his tricks, because he's brought out a slew of different beef parts and is cooking them simultaneously, promising the judges he will show them a "beef amusement park." I dunno what the hell that is, but I do know finding out will indeed be amusing.

Space Brothers chapter 236 - Last time I said I wanted Carlos to somehow return to the team...but really, what I wanted was Carlos to be of use to the team somehow even though he still wouldn't go into space. He fucked up, after all, and so he should have been left with the consequences but still be able to support his friends through some way and make up for that. But nope, that's not the direction we're going. We're just going to have Mosh break his arm leg in a stupid, contrived accident. Y'know, Mosh never got to be developed as a character, but he should have, and the team should have come around to accepting him as part of the group. Instead, he's just being written out pretty coldly, and clumsily, just so that Carlos can return to the group and things can be how they used to. This was just really poorly done as a whole. I suppose though, since I do like Carlos, I can get past this if the series can pick up the pace and get back on track with some better done material again.

Starbiter Satsuki - I figured I might as well read this. I don't tend to expect much out of one-shot, especially so from one done by Hiro Mashima, but likewise, since it is a Mashima work I knew it had to at least have some decent gags. And I suppose there were a few comedic moments that were humorous enough. The core story of it wasn't anything that innovative; just your typical collect-them-all kind of story. Of course, another reason I read this is because I noticed that the main character was female, which is uncommon in shonen, and I did find her character enjoyable to the extent I would try out a regular serialization of this premise for at least a few chapters. I also appreciated that the fan-service was tame, especially considering Mashima's track record. It wasn't anything special, but I'd say it could have potential as a series since, at the very least, the main lead is far more interesting than Natsu ever has been. So as far as one-shots go, it did do it's job decently enough, but it's a generic shonen beginning chapter that just plays as a wash to me, so I'm pretty meh on it overall.

Toriko chapter 293 - Quick-paced, action-packed, gloriously violent...damn, do I love Toriko. They wasted no time engaging with the NEO members and dealing with helping reawaken the fallen townspeople and start trying to save Komatsu's life. And Toriko is super fucking pissed off. Like, I haven't seen him this pissed off in a long, long, long time. And he massacres the lot of the NEO members, fucking blowing two of them right in half, and even landing a critical punch on Shigematsu, who used to be the #2 in the IGO before he defected. I'm not sure that he's defeated for sure, I mean, he was the second most important person in the IGO after Ichiryu at one point, so he had to be pretty powerful, but there is always the possibility that what's happening now is some sort of illusion manufactured by Teppei or Shigematsu's Beast, and I wouldn't be surprised if that really is the case. In any case, though, Toriko beginning a fight with Teppei and the entire line "AS FOR YOOOOUUU!!! I won't forgive you, Teppei!" was badass as fuck and made me so pumped to see more...until I realized that was the last page of the chapter and got bummed. But, super excited for next week, since Toriko vs. Teppei should should be a damn interesting, intense fight, though perhaps not too long since I don't think it's yet time for Teppei to return to his senses and defect from NEO, nor do I think, even in his rage, Toriko could justify killing someone who used to be a good friend of his, especially since Teppei's been brainwashed and stuff so he's not really in control of his own actions. In any case, this is is exciting stuff, and I can't wait to see more.

Rankings:

1. Kyou Kara Yonshimai - 10/10
2. Toriko - 9.5/10
3. A Silent Voice - 9/10
4. Shokugeki no Soma - 9/10
5. The Seven Deadly Sins - 8.5/10
6. Magi - 8.5/10
7. Peephole - 8.5/10
8. Fuuka - 8/10
9. Magi: Adventure of Sinbad - 8/10
10. Black Butler - 6.5/10
11. Space Brothers - 6.5/10
12. Starbiter Satsuki - 6.5/10
13. One Piece - 6/10
14. Bleach - 3/10

While we're on the subject of good currently running manga, right now, I'd say my Top Ten Favorite Currently Running Manga are:

1. Princess Jellyfish [josei/slice-of-life]
2. Silver Spoon [shonen/slice-of-life]
3. REAL [seinin/sports]
4. A Silent Voice [shonen/slice-of-life]
5. Vinland Saga [seinin/action]
6. Kakukaku Shikajika [josei/slice-of-life]
7. A Bride's Story [seinin/slice-of-life]
8. Space Brothers [seinin/slice-of-life]
9. Yotsuba&! [shonen/slice-of-life]
10. Detective Conan [shonen/mystery]

I feel like I should explain why I like these...but I'm kinda tired and have to deal with other stuff at the moment, so I'll have to beget that for now. But as you can see, most of my favorites seem to fall under the "slice of life" category, which is honestly pretty broad since none of those series are anything alike, except that they focus on more "ordinary people" and their problems and/or experiences as they try to find their way in life (hey, maybe that's why they are so good!).

BTW, I left off Berserk, One Piece, and Hunter X Hunter because it's hard for me to really rank them on a "how good they are now" basis. OP isn't as good as it once was, HXH keeps going on hiatus and the current arc hasn't become all that great yet, and Berserk has both those problems. All three are still good series overall, just not good enough in new chapters to properly stack them against more consistent series. I'm also not caught up with Billy Bat or Gintama so I kinda had to leave those two off too. Admittedly, there's also a few chunks of DC I've still never read (basically around volumes 30-40 & 50-70), but I've been keeping up with the new chapters for three years and I've still read most of it so I'd say my opinion on it is pretty set, though I as an aside I actually like the anime for DC better and it ranks significantly higher as a favorite on my anime list.

REAL is my personal favorite, but honestly I'm not keeping up with that many manga due to time restraints and a huge back-log. I'm still trying to catch up with Vagabond, as it is. I also still need to play catch up with Space Brothers, which I'm still fairly far behind on.

It's late September! That means it's time for Princess Jellyfish chapters to start being updated again. YAAAYYY!!!!!

A Silent Voice chapter 54 - A wonderfully touching reunion between Shoko and Shoya, where Shoya tells her that she helped him find new happiness in his life, and that while he doesn't know what he can do to make her happy, he wants to continue trying, and wants her to continue to help him become a better person. A great scene and dialogue, and a strong emotional conclusion to the development of their relationship throughout the story. It makes me wonder just what could possibly be left to show for the next six or so weeks before the series ends, but I'm sure it will continue to be a solid, rewarding denouement.

Assassination Classroom chapter 102 - Aw man, there were two really funny moments in this chapter: when Kurosensei started a crowd fight with the soccer fans in Brazil and when the God of Death hacked Ritsu and made her act like a delinquent, and I laughed hard at both. But that said, this is a pretty serious chapter overall, since despite their sound strategy and planning,Class E is simply totally out of their league against the God of Death. And Kaede getting punched in the gut like that looked painful. Ouch. It seems that Nagisa is now going to fight him one on one, which surprises me just because it's happening so quickly, and I expected things to have played out a little more first. Some comments I read says that apparently Irina is going to die in the next chapter...which would be really goddamn dark and something I wouldn't expect for this series, but it'll be interesting to see if that's true or not, and how the series would handle the aftermath of that.

Bleach chapter 598 - So, this entire stuff with Sternritter W was pointless because it seems he's already going to be offed. Geez, what was the damn point of introducing a new villain in the last chapter to just kill him off in the next, Kubo? Perhaps he just realized he didn't have a Sternritter for every letter of the alphabet and is just incorporating them all in quickly to drag time a little bit before the final battle against Ywach, which I'd think would be getting close-ish considering Ichigo and co. have blasted off to the Soul King's Palace. I like how Chad and Orihime are tagging along, when you just know they will be totally useless. Also, Ganju joins them....I dunno why, since he's not really all that strong or anything, but okay. Last time we saw him he was with Ginjo, Tsukishima, and eye-patch guy. Where the fuck are they? Did Kubo just forget he built that up? Speaking of which, is Grimmjow EVER going to show up? Seriously, at this point, I feel that he wasn't teasing him but Yoruichi instead, which would be lame if that's the case. One other thing I didn't like about this chapter was the pointless retrospective on past times that was played for humor. Also, it's hard to care that they feel bad that Ishida has betrayed them and Ichigo promises to bring him back and stuff, because the character had been so out of focused, and these relationships had been put out of the way for so long, that you can't feel the weight of the situation. The fact that Ichigo isn't taking it that seriously by promising the same old shonen protagonist bullshit he'll bring him back and crap doesn't help matters either. There's really nothing to be invested in in this series in general, which is probably why it keeps ranking at the bottom of the Jump polls these days, and probably why Jump editors are pressuring Kubo to speed things up and end sooner rather than later at this point.

Fuuka chapter 32 - When the characters were interrupted by those passers-by, I thought that things would be left in a standstill and this love triangle left hanging. But, to my surprise, that did not happen. Yuu let Koyuki down easy, and she's hurt but resigned to that, and he confesses his love to Fuuka. Wow, so rarely does this sort of thing happen so early into a manga like this. I'm impressed and surprised that the author had the balls to develop the relationship into an actual one at this stage, just when the real story has truly to begin. This will be very interesting to see play out and develop, and I can't wait to see how this will affect the growth of the characters from this point on.

GTO: Paradise Lost chapter 11 - What the heck is wrong with the body of that girl? It's seriously out of proportion, and those abs are weirdly drawn. Well, the hot-shot idol prick's plan to get his crazy psycho fan to beat the shit out of Onizuka for him is somewhat interesting, at least. These new students are just simply not as interesting as the old ones, and being asshole idols, they aren't quite as sympathetic, so it is hard for me to quite get into this development. But, this is more interesting material than PL has shown thus far, so I might as well see this arc through at least.

Magi chapter 240 - Most of this chapter was just "omg, Judar is back and he's different somehow oh wow, herp derp" and the only significant thing that happened is that apparently Hakuryu killed Gyokuen. Which is a total lie, obviously, because no way is the main villain of this series going to be killed off off-screen like that. Certainly, this is a ruse to trick everyone at the Summit to head to Kou, perhaps a ploy by Judar and Hakuryu to get rid of all their enemies in a surprise trap or something. Generally, I was just kind of bored by the chapter, and I don't quite care for this direction in the story, but it's not bad and could develop into something interesting in the coming weeks.

Murcielago chapter 12 - I could have done without Koumori trying to make advances on a young girl. This new arc has some potentially interesting elements, though, what with kidnapping that girl to lure out her serial murderer father. I was also amused by how gleefully Hinako told her that Koumori killed her parents and will kill hers as well if they turn out to be bad people. I wonder if we'll ever learn more about that story. This chapter had some amusing moments, but like the above Magi chapter, just not that interesting overall.

Naruto chapter 693 - I can't say there was anything outright bad about what happens in this chapter. If I was still invested, I might be able to care about Sakura's confession and appeal to Sasuke, and the fact Naruto and Sasuke will have their re-match in the exact same place they had their big showdown years ago would be neat. I'm not, though, so eh. Sakura also just continues to be useless and a terrible character through her whole spiel in this chapter, but I did laugh hard when Sauske basically just told her to fuck off. That was a good unintentionally funny moment. So, Sasuke's going to explain what he means when he says he wants to be hokage...which I though would be straightforward but I guess we'll have to see a whole chapter devoted to his personal philosophy or whatever before this final battle starts. Eh.

Orange chapter 14 - Uh, I thought Suwa's letter told him NOT to get in the way of Naho and Kakeru's relationship? What the hell is he doing asking Kakeru if he can date Naho? Geez, did the author forget that plot point? Story-wise this continues to be a fairly standard shojo set-up and it just isn't doing too much for me. However, perhaps Suwa actively pursing Naho will get Kakeru to realize his own feelings for her, which would be a good development to move the plot forward.

One-Punch Man chapter 54 - I have a feeling King and Saitama are going to get along very well. They have similar interests and tastes in things after all, and are both slackers. Perhaps Saitama's influence will encourage King to become a better hero as well. On Genos' side of things, his battle with that metal man continues to be impressive and cool. I doubt King's lies will be outed, but certainly people are going to be suspicious that he fled the scene and left things to Genos, unless he comes back to the scene before the fight ends or something.

Peephole chapter 40 - Miyachi seems to have planned the perfect situation to get rid of Yamagiwa and blame it on the mafia. Kurosu being there and getting beaten up by the mafia only furthers their innocence in the ordeal and gives them an alibi. Damn, can she be crafty. But Kurosu still has a conscience, so maybe he'll try and stop Miyachi from killing Yamagiwa after all. Whether he'll be successful with that, well...

Princess Jellyfish chapters 70-71 - Kai's backstory is brilliant. He became into clothes totally on circumstance, a means to help out his fellow orphans at the orphanage, and from there he started to manage a profitable enterprise, which kept growing and growing each year, and eventually gave him the business experience and knowledge about high-end clothes that allowed him to start his own clothing store brand. But does he actually like clothes? That's a question he has no answer. He got into the business out of a need to survive and make his way in the world, and he's become successful through his hard work. But whether he enjoys what he does, and what he creates, is something he never stopped to think about, until he attained success, and realized there was an emptiness inside him, and he keeps searching for a spark to show him why he is still in this business, and why he got into it in the first place. Tsukimi's dresses could do just that, but that's not what she is going to be making once she becomes a full-fledged employee, since the Jellyfish dresses are not mainstream enough for their clothing line. Like Io, she will be working on things that she won't want to make, but will have to anyway, and like Io, she wont' find any fulfillment in that. Why did Tsukimi like making clothes in the first place? Only because she was making them with all her friends, who all worked themselves to death to make her designs a reality, all for the sake of saving their home. Tsukimi may have a talent for creating designs, but she did not make those clothes alone. She made them with people she cared about and who cared about her, and it was through hard work and against adversity that they accomplished impressive things. Tsukimi realizes she isn't making clothes for herself, she is making them for her friends' sake. She accepted Kai's offer in order to save Amamizukan, her home and the friends who live their. This is all for their sake. That's what will motivate her through this. And though she might be going away for a while, those friends will continue to wait for her and the business that they started. I'm not sure how long Tsukimi will stay with Kai's company, but unlike Io, she has at least found a reason and a purpose for doing what she's doing. And perhaps, her passion will reignite Kai's own. And I'm sure as hell that Kuranosuke and Shuu aren't going to give up on her without a fight, and will continue to try and bring her back or perhaps buy the rights to Amamizukan from Kai himself somehow. Phenomenal chapters, almost like a conclusion and beginning in one, and I can't wait to see where Higashimura takes the story from here.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 94 - Ho boy, Hendricksen is just massacring everyone now. Even Gowther got his entire upper half of his body blown off. And black dust that instantly rots your body to death? Damn. The real bombshell in this chapter is that Veronica is alive. Which...I don't really get how, but okay. And why is "Ellie" special? Why does Hendricksen want her specifically? Now that's a mystery where set-up demands an explanation, and I'm betting we'll be getting one soon enough.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 87 - So Soma is improvising with his dish! And it seems like what he's created is making even Mimasaka sweat in anticipation? Just how did his dish turn out? Boy oh boy, the reaction to Mimasaka's dish was already so over the top, I can't wait to see just how balls crazy the reaction to Soma's will be.

Toriko chapter 294 - I have mixed feelings about the beginning stuff with Shigematsu. On one had, it's fucking hilarious to see him flying like that, get eaten by a giant snake, but then continue flying through the mouth of the snake and out it's throat, only to get ripped to shreds by a hoards of other beasts. At the same time, I think his moment of regret for betraying Ichiryu was rushed and out of place considering he wasn't brainwashed like Teppei but working for NEO willingly, and also because I don't think such a fairly significant antagonist should be killed off in such a rushed manner. Putting the stuff with Shigematsu aside, I should've expected that the fight between Toriko and Teppei would be short, especially since I knew that he wouldn't get out of the mind-control so easily or quickly at this point in the story. But I love the set-up to this new arc. Time is running out for Komatsu, so they are fighting against the clock to get to a new continent, grab Acacia's fruit, and bring it back to replace Komatsu's heart, except they no longer have Komatsu's food luck to help them out, NEO will surely get in their way, they have to deal with the Beast King of that continent as well, and hell, the Bishokuya might show up and further fuck things up for them, who knows? This is shaping up to be a more serious, action-packed arc, and I'm pretty excited to see what happens in it.

Rankings:

1. Princess Jellyfish - 10/10
2. A Silent Voice - 10/10
3. Fuuka - 10/10
4. Assassination Classroom - 9/10
5. The Seven Deadly Sins - 8/10
6. Toriko - 8/10
7. One-Punch Man - 8/10
8. Shokugeki no Soma - 8/10
9. Peephole - 8/10
10. Mucielago - 7.5/10
11. Magi - 7/10
12. Orange - 6.5/10
13. GTO: Paradise Lost - 6.5/10
14. Naruto - 2/10
15. Bleach - 1/10

I loved the PJ, ASV, and Fuuka chapters this week and AC was great as well, but the rest fairly lacking and there were quite a few mediocre chapters too. Still, the PJ chapters alone outweighs the meh for me, so I'd still say it was a good week.

I caught up with One-Punch Man, yesterday.  Saitama's fight with Boros was fucking awesome!!!!! The current story with King is also very entertaining.  King kinda reminds of Mr. Satan from how he has a reputation of being crazy strong even though he's just a normal dude.  It's gonna be a lot of fun keeping up with this.   ;D

Glad to see you're enjoying it! OPM is always such a blast to read, with lots of great humor and incredible action sequences. And I've said it before, but the fight scenes are easily the best I've seen in any comic, and the art is phenomenal all around. Yusuke Murata might very well be the best artist in the industry right now.

So, apparently according to this link, Naruto will be ending in 5 weeks. (http://www.shonenjump.com/j/2014/10/naruto-fin.html)

OH GOD PLEASE LET THIS BE TRUE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEA...

Okay, now I'm 100% confident about it. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-10-06/naruto-manga-to-end-in-5-weeks/.79600) Naruto is ending in 5 weeks.

...

...

.....

......

(https://38.media.tumblr.com/07538eea4f9eb97e906e0de144c88978/tumblr_mqrfowzG3Y1sd49wao1_500.gif)

WHOO-HOO! YEAH! YEAHHHHHHH BABYYYY! YEAH YEAH YEAH YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I've waited so long for this day to come. So, so so so long. Finally, one of the most obnoxious manga series to ever be uber popular is finally going to end! A series that I've ultimately wasted over 9 years following as it went from decent to plain-out shit is over and I no longer will have to keep reading it out of obligation to see it through to the end! Because it's ending! It's ending, it's ending, it's ending! Oh ho ho, this is a joyous day! CELEBRATE PARTY TIME YEAH YEAH YIP...

...Uh, er, ahem, but, um, yeah seriously, I'm glad I'll be able to finally put this series behind me in due time. Now, if only Bleach and Fairy Tail can end soon, so all three of the uber-popular battle-shonen series I truly, legitimately despise can be out of sight and out of mind for good. 

It's funny, because I was forcing myself to stick with this manga for so goddamn long just because it was the among the first manga that I ever read. I quit a little over a year ago when it just got to be too much even for me to deal with. Hearing that this series is finally going to end really does feel like a blessing in an odd way, even I haven't been keeping up with it. Hell, I ALMOST feel compelled to marathon through the rest of it just to say that I finished it, but remembering just how atrocious it is, that's a bit too tall of an order for me. Still, perhaps I'll chime in and just skip to the last couple of chapters to finally see the story close out. That'll certainly be satisfying.

Yeah, don't bother reading from where you dropped off at. I kid you not, it got even worse in this last year than it has possibly ever been. That entire shitty fight with Kaguya in particular was god awful and it completely ruined any redeemable qualities the story possibly had left, which is saying a lot considering how bad this has been the last few years. But yeah, it'll be satisfying to see this series finally go.

It's funny, cause this means that Naruto, which I consider one of my least favorite manga ever, will be ending pretty much the same week as A Silent Voice, which I consider one of my favorite manga ever. So I'll have double satisfaction in that week for two very different reasons, there.

The ending will probably be an epilogue where Naruto is Hokage....and nobody will give a fuck when they remember all the times that this character just annoyed the hell out of them.

Sorry Kishimoto, but you have no talent. At best, Naruto was only ever mediocre to begin with, and the sad thing is that it wasn't really ever at its best past the first few arcs.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 05, 2014, 11:43:28 PM
It's funny, because I was forcing myself to stick with this manga for so goddamn long just because it was the among the first manga that I ever read. I quit a little over a year ago when it just got to be too much even for me to deal with. Hearing that this series is finally going to end really does feel like a blessing in an odd way, even I haven't been keeping up with it. Hell, I ALMOST feel compelled to marathon through the rest of it just to say that I finished it, but remembering just how atrocious it is, that's a bit too tall of an order for me. Still, perhaps I'll chime in and just skip to the last couple of chapters to finally see the story close out. That'll certainly be satisfying.

Eh, I'd say it's worth marathoning if you're in the mood for a good comedy.

I say if he's looking for a good comedy, then he should read something that's funny for the right reasons, not the wrong ones.  :awesome:

So, Law is a "D" after all (I believe some fans had already speculated that, because they are just that obsessive), which I must admit, I didn't put a lot of thought into, but it actually does make sense.

Other than that, the flashback has disappointingly mostly been your standard "feel bad for this character now" shit that Oda's been doing since the beginning. It really bugs me because there is a CLEAR missed opportunity here. He could've changed things up and shown them from Doflamingo's perspective, and this way we would get more insight into a villain for once, possibly making him more fleshed out and 3-dimensional. In fact, I originally thought that he was going to do that, but I suppose I shouldn't expect anything great from an author who refuses to adapt his storytelling formula that he ran into the ground several years and hundreds of chapters ago.

Sigh.... (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-10-09/kuroko-basketball-to-launch-sequel-manga-in-december/.79735)

If this is just a shirt spin-off, than OK, that's that, but if this is an entire new long-running series, I just don't think I'm looking that forward to it. I didn't like the last game of KnB, but at least I had to give it credit for wrapping up the series and ending it, whereas other manga would go on for too long. I just don't know where else the story would go from here. None of the characters were poignant enough to be that interesting to follow in later story arcs, IMO. If somehow Tadatoshi could somehow recapture the spark the series had during the first half of its run, then that'd be something, but if he's just going to stick to the same formula in the first placement then it'll be really boring.

Overall, not excited for it, but I'll still probably check it out for a few chapters to see if it's worthwhile. Of course, I could be overblowing it and it could just be a one-shot or miniseries, in which case it's not that big a deal. :D

To their credit, the fan base is really skeptical about this as well. They are accusing Fujimaki of pulling a "Konomi/Prince of Tennis 2" by just sticking to a series that is already massively popular rather than letting it end and moving onto new projects. On the one hand, I can understand from a business perspective how much safer it is to stick with a hit series than try and risk coming up with a new hit and failing several times in the process. However, at the same time, you're series will eventually grow stale and have to end and some point, at which point you'll be SOOL if you don't have the talent to come up with something new that has popularity potential.

Even if I didn't like the last third of KnB, I'd still have a ton of respect for a Fujimaki if he just let it stay finished and came up with a new series, which I definitely would've checked out. As it stands, I can't respect someone who plays it safe and didn't hold my interest with the last portion of his series to begin with.

Alright, so I failed to notice that it's running in Jump NEXT, which is bi-monthly, so at least it's not a full-time project, meaning that Fujimaki might do some other stuff.

...This is just going to end up being another New Prince of Tennis in terms of pointlessness. I doubt it'll be much good, and considering I found the second half of KnB mediocre at best and the last game awful, I'm not interested in following it.

And I was really looking forward to Fujimaki making a golfing manga too. Shame.

Not that most live-action adaptions of anime/manga series ever turn out all that well, but after seeing the trailer for the Princess Jellyfish (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-10-09/live-action-princess-jellyfish-film-2nd-trailer-previews-theme-song/.79736) movie, I'm hella confused as to how they are going to make Kuranosuke's character work, since the point is that his voice sounds effeminate enough that when he's cross-dressing you can mistake him for a woman, while the actor who's portraying him in this film's voice sounds much too deep for that to be believable. Everyone else looks fine though. I am a big fan of the series, so I guess I could check it out if and see for myself it ever gets subbed. I'm also reminded that there was a film for Silver Spoon made earlier this year, and since I could easily see that working in live-action, I should get around to checking that out too.

So, you know how I do a weekly recap of all the manga I've read each week, and how I haven't done last week's yet? Yeah...I kinda got too busy, and at this point I've already read the new chapters of most of those series and it's almost the end of this week anyway....so yeah, that'll just have to be a miss. I will do this week's recap tomorrow, though, for sure.

But, for what it's worth, this is how I'd rank last week's chapters:

1. Princess Jellyfish - 9.5/10
2. A Silent Voice - 9/10
3. Vinland Saga - 9/10
4. Shokugeki no Soma - 9/10
5. Fuuka - 9/10
6. Detective Conan - 9/10
7. The Seven Deadly Sins - 8/10
8. One-Punch Man - 8/10
9. Magi - 8/10
10. One Piece - 8/10
11. Toriko - 8/10
12. Peephole - 8/10
13. Space Brothers - 8/10
14. Joshi Kausei - 8/10
15. GTO: Paradise Lost - 7/10
16. Naruto - 3/10
17. Bleach - 1/10

Looks like that was a pretty decent week for you. Only the expectedly bad series were shit. :sly:

Yeah, it was a really good week. Of course, even if all the other series had been mediocre, it was a week with Princess Jellyfish, Vinland Saga, AND A Silent Voice, which are always fucking amazing, so I probably would have still said it was a good week either way.  :D

So, as I predicted, Karasuno is up against Seijoh again for their rematch. The problem I have with this is that the outcome is WAY too predictable. They lost their first game against them by just a little bit during a tiebreaker, so they are naturally going to win this time. How can I say this with such certainty? Because this is the last time that any of the 3rd years can play, thus if they lose this game, the make-up of both their's and Seijoh's team would change, thus crippling their rivalry since the make-up of the teams would be very different after that point. Since Karasuno is the team of our main characters, normal shounen sports logic deems that they will win. I feel bad, because on the one hand, this manga is really good at making such a seemingly simple sport seem entertaining WITHOUT relying on over the top power-ups like Prince of Tennis or Kuroko no Basket. On the other hand, no matter how good the actual content of the game is, it's really hard to make me give a shit if I already know the outcome (and before anyone says anything, manga like Ashita no Joe and Slam Dunk are among the exceptions). I'd give major props to the mangaka if he had the balls to go against expectations,mbut I just don't see it happening, since the whole set-up of this match flat-out wouldn't make any sense from a story-telling point of view unless Karasuno was destined to win it.

Honestly, though, the anime is definitely better than the manga in adapting these predictable situations. It's all about good execution and good direction which makes an alright shounen sports series seem greater than it really is, so I'll definitely be checking out season 2 of the anime, even though I already know hoe it will all go down.

So, I actually tried picking up Naruto where I left off....Oh god, why!? :gonk:

I swear to god, this is the hardest time I've ever had just trying to force myself to keep reading a work of fiction. I have literally read some textbooks that are more interesting than what I'm reading here. It's so convoluted and incredibly stupid to the point of being a chore to follow. That's why I stopped reading in the first place. Reading this manga actively feels like I'm forcing myself to undergo mental displeasure. I know people often say this stuff as an exaggerating way to say something is bad, but I'm being dead serious here.

To put things in perspective, take a bad movie like X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It's unquestionably bad, but if I was locked in a room for a couple of hours and had nothing to do but either watch that DVD or silently keep to my own thoughts for 2-hours, I'd pop in the movie and kill some time. If you put me in the same situation but had my choice be that or to specifically read 2-hours worth of Naruto chapters from any point in this Shinobi War arc, I'd literally find it easier to just do nothing. That's how bad this is.

How can anyone like this stuff, legitimately? How can people defend this? Why is this manga still so undeservedly popular even when it's this unreadably bad? Did Jacob T. Paschal seriously praise this very material that I'm specifically reading right now, yet insult Mereum's character development from Hunter X Hunter? How the fuck....? What? What!? How the fuck can anyone find this shit to even be tolerable!?

Remember how much I've been harping on Oda for One Piece over the past few years? Well I take it back. Naruto has literally managed to sink so low, that it manages to make Oda's weaker story-telling look relatively well put-together. That's how low the bar has been set with this. I am utterly appalled. No wonder I stopped reading this shit.

And in case you're wondering, I'm specifically at the part where Black Zetsu takes over Obito's body after he was weakened, and Madara claims "Haha! I was planning to do that the whole time! You guys just played right into my master plan!" And this is of course several times after he had the exact same reaction when someone seemingly foiled his plans. BULL! FUCKING! SHIT! Kishimoto just pulled that out of his ass and he knows it. In fact he pulls each new chapter out of his ass. Every single chapter is either some "OMG! I didn't see that coming! What a twist!" revelatory chapter that of course was made up on the spot, or it's about how everyone now loves Naruto and practically want to suck his dick because he's the "hero" that they all used to be such ass-holes to because they are Kishimoto characters, and thus completely unlikable. That's literally all this is. It's back and forth between plot twists and metaphorical oral sex with Naruto. Well, fuck this shit! Kishimoto can go suck his own dick!

And thus ends my rant, for now, complete with explicit content and all. But I'm really not exaggerating. I find this manga to be "disgustingly" bad, not in an offensive way, but literally in an "it's written SO BADLY" way.

You... you didn't even reach the worst part if Madara's still standing. Read deeper, my friend. Deeper into the gaping maw of madness. It somehow reaches even further levels of "That is absolute bullshit! How is that even a thing?!"

The only thing Kishimoto is relatively good at is tying back certain themes, but the stuff he pulled in this final arc was balls to the walls horse dick. Pick a villain. Use that villain. Don't have a bunch of random people keep one-upping each other with "but I'm the REAL bad guy!", don't bring back a bunch of people who already died just so they can use their bullshit powers to win the fight, and don't suddenly usher in a bunch of prophecy/reincarnation crap that suddenly deifies Naruto.

I've said it before in this thread and I'll say it again: I think it's absolutely amazing (in the worst possible way) that the two motherfuckers who initiated this big war are somehow considered good guys, or redeemable by the end of the fight. They're replaced by new big bads twice, and by the end of the war they started, are on the good guys' side. Ridiculous. They should have been the big bads of the whole thing.

Well, E-K, didn't I warn you this series had gotten even shitter since when you dropped it? Think of how you could have spent that time finally starting Vinland Saga or something? To contrast, whereas you have now wasted precious hours of your life today by reading a terrible manga like Naruto, I spent mine catching up to an amazing manga, Billy Bat. I think we both know which one of us better spent their time.  :awesome: You would have been better off heeding my warning, if not just going back to earlier in this thread and simply reading through all my thoughts I wrote for each chapter that came out this year and see the ever spiraling decline of the series into total bullshit in a less time-wasting way. But since you've come this far, I suppose you may as well venture deeper and see the absolute worst the series has to offer... :humhumhum:

In all seriousness, though, fuck Naruto. How anyone can still give it any respect whatsoever after all the bullshit of the last three years, in particular the shit that happened in the last six months especially, is absolutely mind-boggling to me. The saddest part of it is that because it's been so big a series and so entrenched in popular culture, it will likely be remembered. But I sure as hell hope in a decade from now it's not considered as some sort of a "classic," because boy howdy, this shit isn't even just mediocre, it's just bad. Maybe not the worst there is or anything, but still bad. I will be so, so happy when this series finally ends.

Yes, Cartoon X. You were right. You were so, so right. And yet....I can't stop. Now that I know it gets even worse....I just kind of have to see it to believe it. :whuh:

Quote from: Nel_Annette on October 12, 2014, 12:51:45 AMYou... you didn't even reach the worst part if Madara's still standing. Read deeper, my friend. Deeper into the gaping maw of madness. It somehow reaches even further levels of "That is absolute bullshit! How is that even a thing?!"

:wth:

It's funny, because had this arc ended years ago like it should have, I'd probably just think of Naruto as a mediocre shounen, on the whole. It's amazing how one single terrible story-line can be so bad that it retroactively destroys any and all positive qualities and sense of integrity that a series ever had.

Yep, it's awful. I'm glad I stopped when I did. Same with Bleach.

Now lets get some good shonen out there to replace this with posthaste.

I doubt that we'll see any good battle-shonen become nearly as popular internationally as Naruto did for a considerable amount of time, if ever again. Attack on Titan, of course, defied all odds and became an unrivaled massive commercial hit everywhere, but a hit like that is lightning in a bottle. Shame it isn't really "good," though.

But imo, fuck battle-shonen. Let some non-action series get uber popular for a change. :bleh:

This reminds me I really should get around to reading Battle Angel Alita, sometime. (http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/10/13/final-chapter-of-gunnmbattle-angel-alita-manga-to-start-on-october-28)

I remember a friend loaned me the first few volumes of BAA back in high school. At the time, I was really snobby and couldn't get into the more creatively cartoony art style, but I'd probably appreciate more if I tried reading it today.

So, I read some more Naruto today. Honestly, I've always had a problem with this manga's use of flashbacks. No wonder so many people have made fun of it. Some fans have defended it by saying that it adds depth to the characters. First off, lots of manga have flash backs, but there's a difference between the ones that use them effectively and the ones that just use them as padding. For instance, did we really need a flash back for Gai, who by all accounts has been a relatively minor character in the grand scheme of the series, so late into the final arc? And furthermore, it's the same goddamn backstory as EVERY FUCKING CHARACTER in this manga. I swear to god, whether it's a hero or a villain, it ALWAYS follows this specific formula:

-Character is either looked down on and mistreated by others, or feels emotionally distant from people just because, or starts our super happy and then quickly experiences a tragic incident which puts them in one of the other two circumstances

-Character initially hates the world but has that one person who "understands" them and looks out for them, and acts as their mentor, until that character either tragically dies, leaves them for some reason, or turns on them

-Character then goes through a period of anger and resentment towards whatever fucked them over and then meets someone else who either guides them into being a better person or a complete villain

A lot of these back-stories also rely heavily on every other character being completely 1-dimensional dicks who's only purpose is to make the life of the POV character of that flashback to be as miserable as possible. Seriously, how many flashbacks in this manga can you find that completely (or even just mostly) manage to defy that formula? At best I can only think of very few that only follow parts of it, but literally every flashback in the entire series has a majority of those elements. So in essence, it's the same story over and over again. Maybe that's the point that Kishimoto is trying to make, that regardless of their status, nobody has an easy past and everyone has motivations for what they do (though I seriously doubt that he's that clever). While that'd be great in and of itself, he does a terrible job of truly differentiating these characters enough to make them individually interesting. They just seem to be reacting to the plot that's unfolding, rather than unfolding the plot themselves through their own actions and character development.

And of course, even without reading further ahead yet, I can already tell you that Gai isn't going to save the day, or even stop the main villain. Partly because I know that who I'm looking at isn't even the REAL main villain yet, but even stopping the "fake" main villain will probably go to a more important character. Kishimoto has cursed himself with his own story-telling tropes because there is absolutely no sense of tension or unpredictability in any of these encounters. The only things that are unpredictable are the completely idiotic twists that he pulls out of his ass. At least the earlier arcs of Naruto had a mostly consistent flow to them, but this arc is a fucking mess. It's literally just a combination of pointless fights, pointless flashbacks, and pointless false climaxes because every time you think it's done, a new big evil threat is revealed.

The worse part is that I still have over 25 chapters left to go....:gonk:

I'm tempted to make a blog after the series is over where I go over it from the beginning and pick apart everything that went wrong and is wrong with it. Of course, that would require me to actually re-read the series, which is something I'd really rather not do, so...I'll see how I feel about that idea when the series is actually over and done.

Or course Gai isn't going to win. He would have to be a main character to do that. He's not should-be-overpowered-but-for-some-reason-isn't Naruto or should-not-be-this-strong-but-is-because Sasuke or even I-don't-know-why he-wasn't-killed-in-the-first-hit Kakashi.

Kishimoto really has no idea who is what anymore.

I was actually thinking of blogging about the final arc of the manga (which, mind you, is in and of itself around 200 chapters long, counting the entire Shinobi war as one mega story line) and how godawful it is once the manga wraps up. If you want to tag team with me on that one, CX, it'd be great. God knows I'll need the help to go over just how horrendous it truly is. There's just way too much to cover, that I don't even know where to start.

And don't get me wrong, Naruto was bad long before that arc, but this is where the series truly sunk to an unbelievable low that it just has to be talked about.

Spoiler alert: Gai doesn't win. He in fact almost dies. Naruto brings him back to life. Because...he can do that now, apparently. Basically everything with Gai ended up being filler in the grand scheme of things, because nothing about his fight with Madara ends up impacting the story in any way. It's so fucking stupid.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 14, 2014, 09:25:42 PM
I was actually thinking of blogging about the final arc of the manga (which, mind you, is in and of itself around 200 chapters long, counting the entire Shinobi war as one mega story line) and how godawful it is once the manga wraps up. If you want to tag team with me on that one, CX, it'd be great. God knows I'll need the help to go over just how horrendous it truly is. There's just way too much to cover, that I don't even know where to start.

And don't get me wrong, Naruto was bad long before that arc, but this is where the series truly sunk to an unbelievable low that it just has to be talked about.

Yeah, I'd be down for doing that. It's a looooong arc, after all, and there's a lot to pick apart about it.

Quote from: Cartoon X on October 14, 2014, 08:53:19 PM
I'm tempted to make a blog after the series is over where I go over it from the beginning and pick apart everything that went wrong and is wrong with it. Of course, that would require me to actually re-read the series, which is something I'd really rather not do, so...I'll see how I feel about that idea when the series is actually over and done.

Heh, did my tweet give you the idea to do so? It sounds like it'd be a lot of fun to read, even though Naruto itself clearly became unbearable after a certain point.

I think Naruto would have been a far better series if it stuck to arcs like the Zabusa/Haku one and not "ninja politics meets Bleach" which it devolved to by the end of part one.

I do think the series started with promise, but it shed off as it went on.

And promptly fell into the toilet with this war arc.

Quote from: Avaitor on October 14, 2014, 10:01:45 PM

Quote from: Cartoon X on October 14, 2014, 08:53:19 PM
I'm tempted to make a blog after the series is over where I go over it from the beginning and pick apart everything that went wrong and is wrong with it. Of course, that would require me to actually re-read the series, which is something I'd really rather not do, so...I'll see how I feel about that idea when the series is actually over and done.

Heh, did my tweet give you the idea to do so? It sounds like it'd be a lot of fun to read, even though Naruto itself clearly became unbearable after a certain point.

I've been thinking about the idea for a while, actually, but seeing your tweet did make me start considering whether I should actually do it more seriously, especially since while I'm already aware of a blog that highlights all the shitty stuff in Bleach, I don't think anyone has made one for Naruto. In general, I've been meaning to start a blog for a while now, and going over Naruto's downfall is one of the things I've been considering that seems like a good topic to focus on and write about, provided I can stomach going through the series all over again.  :D

You don't have to go through the entire series all over again. You can just skim through the more significantly bad parts. It's easy enough to read plot summaries covering the entire series in detail to refresh your memory, and then just go back to the specific worst parts that you remember, after all, that's what I would do, as opposed to re-reading a 700-chapter long manga in full, which is just insane.

Also, in regard to Desensitized's post, I consider the Zabuza/Hakusho arc to be the closest that this series has ever come to being legitimately good. In truth it's an average arc by battle shounen standards, but at least it had some heart to it. The earlier stuff just felt dull and by the numbers, while the Chuunin Exams arc was just a poor man's version of the Hunter Exams arc from HXH, IMO. Everything after that point was just a fluctuation of mediocre story-telling to flat-out boring, drawn out arcs, and then the time skip happened....

....Let's just say that I've never seen such a steep and constant downhill slope in which the descent in the quality of the series literally just kept getting worse and worse. When it got to the point where you thought that it had hit rock bottom and couldn't possibly get any worse than it already was, it would never fail to surprise you and prove you wrong. It's really amazing just how horrible it could get, and the funny thing is that I'm still experiencing that right now as I'm attempting to catch up with it before it ends. It's really something else.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 14, 2014, 10:51:02 PM
You don't have to go through the entire series all over again. You can just skim through the more significantly bad parts. It's easy enough to read plot summaries covering the entire series in detail to refresh your memory, and then just go back to the specific worst parts that you remember, after all, that's what I would do, as opposed to re-reading a 700-chapter long manga in full, which is just insane.

Well, what I was thinking was that I'd go through it an arc or a volume or few at a time, at my own pace, and then write about the development of the story, what worked, what didn't, etc, and from time to time make a point to highlight specific problems that pervaded the entire series. Something akin to series retrospective/episode review blogs, except with volumes/arcs of Naruto, and frequent editorial articles addressing specific problems/characters. It's certainly not something I was going try and marathon read all at once or anything like that.

Basically, it would be sorta a combination of this (http://theappliedlogic.blogspot.com/) and something like JO's Digimon retrospectives.

Ah, I see. As for me, it's need to be something that I'm passionate about in order to do a retrospective on the entire thing. JO's Digimon series worked because she was actually very, very into it, and you could tell that she did truly enjoy the series. It's the same with Linkara's History of Power Rangers.

To review a series that you hate, though, really makes the tons of work that goes into it all the more painful, hence why when I do blog about it, I'll just do an entry that covers how pathetically had the final arc was.

For various reasons, I never ended up posting up my weekly manga recap for the week before last, which is kind of a shame, since it was a really good week overall. As a consequence, though, I put off reading a lot of the new chapters from last week. So, for a bit of fun, I'm going to do something a bit different this time - a "live" reaction to the chapters. What I mean by that is that I'm just going to read through the chapters one by one, and as I'm going through them, bullet pont spontaneous thoughts that come to my mind. Sort of a stream-of-consciousness sort of thing, you know? I think that might make for a good change of pace, so let's try it out, shall we? Oh, also, I have exactly 20 series to read this time, so this is going to be a loooong one...

A Silent Voice chapter 56

- Per usual, first up is A Silent Voice! After the wonderful reconciliation between Shoya and Shoko's mothers last week, I expect this week will continue showing more resolutions between the characters.

- Oh man, so Shoya has decided to go back to school. How are people going to treat him, after knowing what he's been through? I remember some were doubting that he really saved Shoko, and postulated that he actually tried to push her off the balcony himself, and others still felt indifferent to his plight. Though he's made tremendous strides in becoming a better person and has been through so much to make amends, this previous reputation as an awkward, mean-spirited bully still lingers. He still has a long way to go before he's able to wipe his slate clean. I'm sure, though, that with the help of the people who truly know the kind of person he is, the people who proudly call themselves his friends, will help him accomplish that.

- Yeah, he is really, really nervous. I feel for him. He really wants to change people's perceptions of him, apologize for what he's done in the past. One thing that hits home for me here is him practicing trying to talk to people, because that's something I, personally, still have trouble with. I can really sympathize with him trying to learn how to be more sociable, and make a better impression on people.

- I also love his resolve to not only talk to more people, but to listen to them as well, no matter what they have to say. He's come a long way from the beginning of the series.

- It looks like their going to see Nagatsuka's movie. I was thinking there'd be a few more chapters until that, but that's interesting. Shoya's reaction to it is bound to be very emotional.

- X faces! Wow, we haven't seen those in a while. I guess most of his classmates still feel distant and alien from him.

- Oh Shoya...I feel ya man. But you can't just avoid the problem any longer. You got to keep your head up.

- D'aw...Shoko pulling Shoya around is as adorable as it is hilariously awkward.  :D

- Oh geez, Nagatsuka's movie is fucking dark. And really, really relevant to what Shoko and Shoya have been through. Damn.

- What, Kawai wrote this? I'm as surprised as Shoya. I guess that proves the point that you can never know what they can be truly capable of or the mark of their character unless you really try and get to know them better. Though, in Kawai's case, I don't think her rotten behavior can be forgiven, especially since she's oblivious about it. It'll be interesting to see how Shoya deals with her when they meet again.

- Way to get everyone's attention, Shoya. Oh god, the look on his face. Painful. You can tell he's overwhelmed and uncomfortable with everyone's else being on him. Not only that, but notably, none of them have their faces crossed out. Shoya sees their faces. They see his. He has to deal with other people again; it's now or never. What will he do? What can he say? What will they do? What will they say? God dammit, A Silent Voice, why must you tug at my heartstrings so!

- Wow, I wrote that much on just A Silent Voice? Looks like this is going to be a multi-post write-up at this rate.

Assassination Classroom chapter 103

- Chapter 104 just came out today, but I'll put off reading it for now, since it came out this week, and this write-up is for all the chapters that came last week.

- I like how Nagisa knows how to keep his cool in this situation. Most shonen protagonists would just get mad and blindly attack in a fit of rage, but Nagisa knows better to stick to the plan and not show his anger, though he is infuriated at what's happened to Kayano.

- The Nekodamanshi strategy he used against Takaoka, eh? I like that's not his endgame, though, since there's always the possibility that the God of Death already knows he's capable of it and has a counter-measure. But, in a moment of distraction, his attack will allow the others to get an opening in which to try and take him out. It's a smart plan, though risky, and Nagisa could easily lose his life if he makes one small misstep.

- Oh, so Kayano's ribs aren't broken, then? Well, she is wearing that thick protective gear, so it makes sense. Still, it clearly hurt like hell. God knows what could have happened had she not been wearing it.

- Yeah, Nagisa is still mad about it all right, but he's using that anger to hide his bloodlust. Good plan, let's see if it wo...

- OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK

- Ack, they sure miscalculated there. This guy is crazy skilled to be able to get the timing right in order to stun Nagisa WITH A CLAP and then use the surprise to quickly go and knock everyone else in the room out before they have time to react. This means that both Nagisa AND Karma are out now. Yep, Class E is screwed.

- Holy crap, the way Nagisa is twitching on the floor. Yowch.

- Well, the other teams haven't given up just yet, but I don't see what they can do outside of recapturing Bitch-sensei and retreating. Maybe Itona still has some of his old powers that can help him hold his own in a fight for a little while, and he and Terasaka could potentially make a good team, but I just don't see them turning the tables on this guy unless Korosensei and Karasuma come and bail them out.

- Okay, good, they've rescued Bitch-sensei. Now if they can just find a way to esca...

- WHAT WHAT WHAT BITCH-SENSEI HAS BETRAYED THEM WHAT WHAT WHAT

- Did not see that coming! Like, I remember there were a bunch of spoilers saying that she was gonna die or something, but I guess that was all bullshit, and nobody mentioned anything about this. It makes sense, though. Around Class E she lost sight of her old ways as an assassin and became rusty, and that's what's led her to be on thin ice with the government and Karasuma, and has gotten her nearly fired. Around them, she probably feels like she can't accomplish the assassination mission. But if she works together with the God of Death, she does have a much higher chance.

- But this is pretty ice cold of her to betray her students like that. "God of Death Skill - Instigation?" Hmm, maybe this she under some sort of mind-control or influence? I have to wonder. Of course, there's always the possibility this is a ruse to trick the God of Death and rescue the students from him. If she takes them out, then he can't, and she can prevent any of them from getting killed or seriously injured if she's careful enough. I'm looking forward to seeing which it is as the arc progresses.

Attack on Titan chapter 62

- Blah blah explaining what happened last chapter blah blah.

- Really, Erwin? You would have really been okay with sending your friends to their deaths and handing over Eren to the monarchy for their use? Yes, the monarchy had kept humanity alive until now...but they were also corrupt and much more interested in their own self-preservation than that of humanity. I get that you think it might have been better because even if half of humanity was sacrificed it still wouldn't be extinct, but sooner or later I'd expect their actions combined with dwindling resources would slowly lead humanity to extinction anyway. But I get what this is. Just self-doubts about whether what he did was the right thing. It's still a stupid thought though. There's no going back and no time for a pity parade, and It's kind of out of character for Erwin to be talking like this, since he's never been indecisive or questioned himself before. But not a bad idea to address, at any rate.

- Ho boy, for the life of me I still don't know the names and can't recognize half the characters in this series. I don't remember who this old guy is at all.

- He makes a good point, though. Erwin chose this course of action because he favored the life of himself and his friends over humanity. So he's got to take responsibility for this, and ensure that what he did was the right thing to do after all.

- All this stuff with Levi's group reads dull and basically just amounts to "we're going to rescue Eren now." Could have easily gotten all of this across in way less pages.

- Okay, so not buying that Historia's father is some sort of good guy. He's got Eren chained up and gagged for heaven's sake! It is painfully obvious he has sinister intentions.

- Oh, so Eren ate his father when he transformed into a Titan his first time, and blocked the traumatic experience from his mind until now. Okay. I'm not sure I get how he has his fathers memories....I guess because he ate him? Oh, oh, wait, actually I think I get it now! His father was a human who could transform into a Titan, and he gave Eren a drug that would turn him into a Titan. So now we know that Titan's were once human beings who were just transformed into being Titans by drugs, which explains what happened to Connie's mother all those chapters back. Anyway, then he intentionally had him eat him so that Eren would gain his ability to be a human who could become a Titan at will. Okay, yep, this is all clicking together, explains a lot. Looks like we'll finally be learning more about where the Titans came from and why soon enough.

Bleach chapter 600

- 600 chapters. That is a soul-crushing milestone. To think shit like this has lasted so long makes me fucking depressed.

- This is Bleach, so even though this is a milestone chapter and whatever, I don't think I'll have much to say about it. Or, maybe I will, if enough things piss me off.

- This chapter starts off with a bang! In that a gun is fired. And blows the top half of what's-her-name Squad Zero member's head right off. So much for being one of the most powerful warriors in all of Soul Society.

- I'm reminded now that all the black guys in Bleach just happen to be villains. Except for Yoruichi, but she doesn't ever get to do anything. In general, if you have dark skin in this manga, you are either a bad guy or you are completely ineffective.

- Lots of blood must have been in her head for that much of it to be spilling out like that.

-  This guy has yet another dumb design. All of Kubo's villains seem meant to look cool, but just come off as goofy and weird. Like, this armor-wearing guy that sort of looks like Hawkman. He looks stupid too. How can I take these guys seriously when they look like rejects from Bobobo? Actually, they aren't even worthy to be gag manga villains, since I can take Bobobo villains way more seriously than these guys. I can take a stick of yogurt gum way more seriously as a villain than these guys. A stick of yogurt gum was actually a villain in Bobobo, by the way. It didn't talk. It didn't have any powers. It was not even sentient. It was literally just a stick of yogurt gum. And yet, Jelly Jiggler's "battle" with it proved to be far more entertaining and interesting than anything that happens in Bleach these days. What was my point again? Oh yeah, Kubo's villains are inferior to sticks of yogurt gum. And I hate both yogurt and gum. Putting them together...ick. Bleach is worse than ick. Bleach makes me want to puke. What am I talking about again? Oh, right, this chapter. I have to read the rest of this. (throws up)

- What, you're seriously pissed off he killed her in front of Ywach's path? Why do you give a shit? I'm sure he's capable of walking around a dead body and a pool of blood.

- So I guess this cloak guy has psychic powers, and he uses them to roll the corpse across the floor to...somewhere else on the floor, I guess. Okay.

- I agree with this guy that these Squad Zero guys are fucking disappointing. I do not agree that there is no one who wouldn't keel over and faint at the likes of them, because if I met these guys in real life, I think I would just laugh myself to death because of how dumb they look.

- Wasted panel space! Close ups of eyes! Bleach is soooo stylish, everybody!

- Yeah, so she's not dead. So the entire first half of this chapter was classic Bleach fake-out bullshit. Wheee. And basically this whole thing was just Fake Karakura Town all over again, pretty much. And now you go and tell your enemy where the real Soul King's palace is. Smaaaarrrttt.

- A cage made out of trees, huh? That's so cool and interesting, especially because they look exactly like regular old trees and must be so easy to draw. Good work, fat chick who's name I can't remember.

- Oh god Onetsu's back. Please no.

- Onestu's schtick is not funny Kubo. He is not cool either. No one cares about him. No one cares about Squad Zero. No one cares about these grunt villains you introduced a damn chapter ago. AND NO ONE GIVES A SHIT OF SEEING THESE GUYS FIGHT WHATSOEVER. GAHHHH!!!

- And so the true battle of Squad Zero is about to start. Except that this this chapter is over now. Woo.

- Vlord was right, Bleach celebrated it's 600th chapter in a very special brand of stupid. I love how nobody important in the story got featured in this chapter all to set up a fight that no one wants to see. But I'm too tired to rant more about this crap now, so let's just move on to something better. Congrats on 600 chapters of mediocrity, Bleach. I hope to god you don't make it to 700.

Fuuka chapter 34

- I hope Fuuka is just what I need to get the horrible taste of Bleach out of my mouth.

- Hmm, looks like this will be a stand-alone chapter. Could be funny.

- When is the right time to kiss a girl? That's a tricky question. I think that Yuu should just wait until the moment feels right, and not worry about any specifics or anything.

- One thing's for sure, he should not be taking advice about this from an unromantic jock and a playboy gay man. These two are like the worst people he could ask for advice on this subject.

- See, they are giving him advice based off of stuff they've read in manga and from one-night stands. They can't help you out here, man.

-  "Check it out! This is awesome!" "What, is that a porn video?"  :D

- When your real friends can't give you good advice for shit, ask your twitter friends!...who you know in real life.

- Sara is yet another bad person for him to talk to about this, since she's infatuated with him and doesn't know he and Fuuka are an item yet.

- Yep, see, misunderstanding! She thinks this is a roundabout way of asking her out/giving her a love confession. This is going to be awk~waaaarrdd!!!

- "It's..TH-THE WALL SLAM!"  :lol:

- Oh god, Sara's dialogue in this chapter is fucking hysterical. I can't stop laughing. This is some good romantic comedy right here.

-  Well, in an unintentional way, looks like Sara has given Yuu the idea to do basically what I said he should do; go with the moment.

- I love how confused Sara is at what just happened. Poor girl.

- Yeah, y'know, that's right. He and Fuuka are going out. It's not weird for them to just kiss when they feel like it, and there's no reason to be worried/nervous about it, he should just do it. Go for it, Yuu-kun!

- Aw...way to wimp out, Yuu.

- D'aw...way to be awesome, Fuuka!

- I always love how Fuuka doesn't worry too much about shit and just does what her heart tells her to in the moment. She's so free-spirited, but in a good way, and that's a breath of fresh air in this climate of archetypical and cliche anime/manga romantic heroines.

- Uh oh, looks like the cat's out of the bag! Looks like everyone's going to know their dating know. Well, they couldn't keep it a secret forever, anyways. They shouldn't need to hide it either. Everyone in this manga actually acts like real people, so I doubt anyone is going to get pissy about it or anything, or really care all that much anyways.

- I like how we get to see Yuu and Fuuka deal with actual relationship issues and problems. In fact, I like the fact that they are in an official relationship, so early on into this series. So, so many other anime and manga spent their entire series teasing the characters will become a couple, and go in and out of repetitive pre-relationship non-issues and the love/hate phase way, way too much. The characters getting together is the end. We tend to never see anything after that. It's so rare to see an anime manga couple in a serious, non-comedic relationship, and deal with issues in that relationship, and see it develop past just the beginning. So I really appreciate this, and chapters like these, especially when they are well-done with a dose of reality and really darn funny to boot. Now the plot will start moving again with this week's chapter, I'm sure, but I'm just as excited to see Fuuka and Yuu's relationship develop as much as I am their music careers. This series is such an underrated gem, and I'm loving it.

- So yeah, this week's Fuuka has washed the Bleach stains out of my brain and then some. Thank you, Fuuka, thank you. So...what's next?

GTO: Paradise Lost chapter 13

- ....:imnothappy:....

- To be fair, the last chapter wasn't that bad, just kinda meh. Maybe this chapter won't be shit either? I hope so...

- Eikichi Onizuka, school-girl loving teacher vs. Sadako the Giant, yaoi-loving fan-girl. Forks vs. Knife. The match of the century.

- I did not need to know how big Onizuka's junk is. Then again...what kind of turtle are we talking about, here?

- Onizuka is still a badass, at least. Too bad this fight is lame as fuck.

- The supposedly ugly girl actually being cute is such a cliche.

- "...Sheesh. They say love is blind...but this one's deaf and mute too!"

- So, Onizuka let himself get stabbed. Yeah, I can see where this is all going. I am curious as to who this "friend" is that Onizuka is going to call. Would be nice to see one of the old students or his other pals from Shonan Junai Gumi besides Ryuuji again.

- All in all, I guess it wasn't an awful chapter. It just doesn't do much for me because this is the same kind of stuff that always happens in GTO except not as good because the other characters aren't interesting/sympathetic/likable at all. At least with chapters like this, though, I'm not bored to death, so I guess that's a step up.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan chapter 16

- I feel bad for these slaves. They just got screwed over again. Should've known that they can't trust these fucking people, though.

- HOW DARE THEY ASK FOR CIVIL RIGHTS! BURRRRNNN THEM!

- HOW DARE SHE REFUSE TO MARRY OUR KING! BURRRRNNNN HER!

- HOW DARE HE QUESTION THE LOGIC OF BURNING VALUABLE MEDICAL TEXTS! BURRRRNNNNN HIM!

-  Cliche crazy religious fanatic is cliche.

- Dull chapter, but at least Narsus and Daryun are going to kick some ass next time, hopefully.

Hinomaru Zumo chapters 1-3

- This is a Jump series that only just started recently, but has already became an overnight success, apparently. New chapters have ranked consistently in the top 5 of the magazine since it's debut. That caught my attention, so I wanted to check it out. As it happened, the first three chapters have been translated, the third one having just been released last week. So, let's dive in and see if this series is any good, shall we?

- The only series about sumo I've experienced is Matsutaro. I only watched the first episode of that one, though, and the less said about it the better. Admittedly, there wasn't any sumo in that episode, though. In any case, I can't believe a sumo manga is actually popular with Jump readers these days, though. Let's see how they make this concept work.

- Okay, so I guess the goal of the manga is to become a "Yokozuna," the highest rank in the sumo world.

- Obviously, a fat main character who looks like most sumo wrestlers would wouldn't be popular with young readers, so let's make him a muscle-buff but thin dude! At least he isn't bishonen, I guess, but still, this kind of annoys me a little. Why make a sumo manga unless you go all the way? Then again, I'm sure there are thin sumo wrestlers, so maybe I'm just nitpicking based on provincial perceptions and whatnot.

- The group shot makes me wonder if we'll see any female sumo wrestlers. I looked it up, and it IS a thing, so who knows? Probably not, though.

- This guy seems like your typical good natured comical shonen protagonist so far. Seems likable enough, though.

- I'm always amused at how pushy club activities teams are in shonen manga.

- "FOOTBALL IS FRIENDSHIP!"

- "Club Welcoming Road?" I wonder if this is meant to be some sort of absurd satire.

- Sigh...why does every sports team in shonen manga these days have to start out as "failing?" these days. I'm getting rather tired of this cliche.

- Come to think of it, haven't all the main characters in recent Jump sports manga been short and unassuming? Kuroko, Hinata, and now Hinomaru. I guess Jump readers relate better to nonathletic looking main characters who still accomplish big results, because it makes them feel they can do it too... if they work hard! I can be down with giving positive inspiration to young'uns, but at the same time I'm getting annoyed that this is becoming a whole new cliche in itself.

- ...And just like Hinata, though this guy loves Sumo, he wasn't able to play much with other people in Middle School or participate in official matches. Ehmmm.

- So it looks like a bunch of bullies turned the Sumo Dojo into a fighting ring. I think we all know where this is going...

- This Oozeki guy is pretty spineless. I think this is the most desperate a club leader I've seen in a manga.

- This Yuuma guy was in the opening spread, so I'm guessing when Hinomaru beats the shit out of him, he'll make a heel face turn and join the Sumo club.

- This is all cliche stuff so far, but pretty likable nonetheless.

- I wish that the mangaka had Oozeki fight Yuuma before Hinomaru. It's good that he does have guts, but I'd have liked too see him try and give his all to protect the club and his teammate by himself before Hinomaru came and helped out.

- But I like how Hinomaru's won by not fighting. He just stood there in one place and took his blows for fifteen minutes straight, never budging in inch or showing any pain. Considering sumo wrestlers do need to have that kind of resilience, that's kind of a cool thing to show.

- Damn! That was one serious headbutt!

- Looks like this Yuuma guy does have a sense of honor after all. A loss is a loss. Well, like I said, I'm pretty sure he's going to join the sumo club, so he needs to have some redeemable qualities.

- Alright! Chapter two...start!

- I like the dichotomy between Oozeki's description of the school and it's actual appearance.

- Lol, delinquents.

- The delinquents are scared of the sumo club, huh? Hmm...

- Now these are what I think of when I think of sumo wrestlers! Big, bald fat and muscle-buff guys!

- Oh, so they went to the wrong school. That makes sense. I couldn't imagine Oozeki training with these guys.

- And they just happen to be the second strongest team in Kanto! Oh ho, of course they are.

- I guess that stomping thing is way, way more difficult than it looks.

- So Hinomaru was famous back in elementary school, huh? Maru the Demon.

- Oh, looks like we'll see an actual sumo match now! It's the classic "if I lose I will quit" schtick, so obviously Hinomaru will win, but this should be interesting to see regardless.

- Chapter 3, welp, I'm pretty sure this match ain't going to be only one chapter long, but let's see how much happens.

- I like that the main character acknowledges his weaknesses compared to other sumo wrestlers, namely his height and mass, and that's why he actually wasn't able to do much in middle school. But he used those three years to train himself and erase that handicap with experience.

- Though, as I said, this concept has been done before, I do find this execution very palatable and enjoyable.

- Also, I guess I was wrong about this match going to last more than this chapter after all. Hooray for good pacing!

- Wait, ah man, does this mean I'm done already? But...I want to read more...

- So, overall, while a typical set-up for a shonen sports manga so far, with the expected situations and cliches, Hinomaru Zumo still managed to entertain me with it's simple but likable characters and excellent artwork and action sequences. In fact, if I were to compare these three chapters to the first three chapters of both Kuroko and Haikyuu!, I would actually say I enjoyed them more, and that this series has started off much stronger for me than they did. Part of it is because it's focus is only on a few main characters so far, unlike the other two, which introduced the other cast quickly early on. Another thing, though, is a simple combination of good artwork, pacing, and the execution of it's story telling elements, which made for a much better page-turning experience. Haikyuu! is better as an anime, from what I've seen, and the manga starts off super slow for me and the combination of it's messy art, cluttered panels, and somewhat overuse of tired shonen gags makes it very difficult for me to marathon read it, which is why when I do try to I usually only get through a chapter before stopping for the day. Kuroko had a much more addictive quality at the start thanks to good pacing and an interesting concept, but it also took a while for me to grow to actually care about Kuroko and Kagami. Perhaps it's because these are character archetypes that I can get more into, but I already do want to see more of Hinomaru, and see what kind of character arcs Oozeki and Yuuma go through. Perhaps this is also why Jump readers have latched on to this series much faster than they did Kuroko and Haikyuu! as well. At any rate, while it's too soon to tell whether this series will be good or not in the long run, or whether it will evolve beyond the basic shonen series cliches and tropes it's presented so far , I can say that it has got my attention and makes me want to read more of it, and I look forward to keeping up with this series and see where it goes from now.

Magi chapter 242

- Like Judar, I too wonder what's happening in the capital now that Hakuryu has taken it over. After all, people aren't just going to accept him taking the throne this easily.

- Ah, martial law. Hakuryu is already off to a fine start as a tyrant.

- Hmm, Hakuryu got the two generals that once served by the previous emperor on his side, huh? How'd he manage that?

- So Hakuryu got two new metal vessels, and used them to mind-control Al Thamen magicians to side with him. Judar seems oddly annoyed by the fact he doesn't have any allies who legitimately sided with him by their free will, though Hakuryu doesn't seem to really care about it.

- ...Don't we already know everything about Hakuryu's backstory? Do we really need to see it again?

- Okay, who says things like that? Hakuryu must have been quite the precocious brat.

- ...Not digging how Hakuryu is just narrating his backstory like this. It's lame enough that it's nothing that we already didn't know, but couldn't Ohtaka at least just shown instead of having everything be told like this? That would have been a much more interesting way to read all this.

- Well, I guess we know for sure that Gyokuen is actually still alive.

- Some people have been comparing him to Sasuke, but I don't see it outside of the basic gist of both of them wanting revenge and getting it by killing a former loved on. Imo, Hakuryu is a revenge-driven character done right, with objectives beyond just revenge, and a much more interesting personality and self-awareness.

- I really wish this chapter was less narration heavy, though, because it was kind of boring to read overall. Eh, maybe next time things will pick up again.

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad chapters 36-37

- Now on to the prequel series.

- Dragul is back in Partevia, and it's seen better days.

- Looks like Serendine is about to be wed off to Barbarossa. Dragul will probably be able to intercept her before then, though.

- Yep, reunion.

- I'm assuming their escape attempt wont end well, as this set-up seems to demand failure so that Dragul can find reason to ally with Sinbad once again.

- Serendine is very pragmatic, it seems.

- Whoa...Drakon's brother is Seto Kaiba!

- I know this guy has an actual name, but fuck it, he looks like Kaiba, I'm calling him Kaiba.

- "Big brother, isn't copyright infringement against the rules?" "Screw the rules, I have a fair use policy!"

- I think trying to kill your brother in cold blood is much more rude, dude. Give Moku...er, Drakon a break!

- Four Heavenly Generals? At least they aren't based on or named after the 4 Holy Beasts for the umpteenth time in a shonen series.

- The fuck kind of name is Zayzafoon?

- Why is there a little kid a general in this army? And what kind of horrible parents would give their kid the name Rotter?

- Remember kids, if someone is giving a creepy grin in a manga/anime series, 99% of the time they will turn out to be sadists. That, or they're insane. Or both.

- This guy fights using rats? He must be rotten, then.

- So the rats crawl all over him and transform him into a giant rat-thing? That's probably the weirdest power I've seen in this series yet.

- Looks like Drakon is about to activate his Household Vessel powers.

- Ho, Serendine's handmaids can kick ass!

- Oh. Well, that didn't last long.

- Drakon has his dragon arms now! It'll probably take a while, but I can't wait to see how his entire body ends up like we see it in the main series.

- So Rotter was once a street rat, and now he's an actual giant rat. The irony.

- Uh oh, looks like Kaiba's pissed. But he's Kaiba, so he's like emo-pissed. 

- Oh no, Kaiba has an Egyptian God car-er, I mean a Metal Vessel!

- For a second there I was expecting his Djinn Equip to make him look like Obelisk the Tormentor. How hilarious would that have been? He sorta looks like he's wearing the Wing Dragon of Ra's armor, though.

- That's right Drakon, it's time to DO DO DUEL, DO DO DUEL, DUUUUUUUEEEEELLLLLLL!!!!

- Except not right now, because the chapter is over.

Magic Kaito chapters 31-32

- I can't believe it's been over two years since the last Magic Kaito chapters were released. Good to have you back Kaito!...for three chapters, at least.

- Kaito remembering the poker face speech from the first chapter? Geez, this surely can't be an obvious attempt to tie in with the first episode of the new anime, is it now?

- Kaito Kid is always fabulous.

- Hah! Hakuba and Nakamori sure got Kaito fooled.

- "I only told Aoko I had a cold, so how does Kid know?" I love how clueless Nakamori is.

- Double disguise? That's all it took to fool them. Maybe they were expecting something more flashy from Kid. Still, I guess nobody would really think Kid would use such a strategy, and the fact he knocked out the guy he was impersonating led credibility to the ruse.

- I guess this "old guy" will be the antagonist for this new mini-arc.

- Oh Hakuba, if only you knew what you've just done?  :il_hahaha:

- The Hedgehog is not a very intimidating name for a villain.

- That's one heck of an "anti-freezing system" you've got there, Kaito.  :D

- Kaito Corbeau? Kid has a dark counterpart now?

- Ah man, I just love how Kid's encounter with Corbeau mirrors the first time Conan encountered Kid. Awesome nod.

- Whoa, looks like this guy was one of Kaito's father's peers.

- And he's just as skilled as Kaito, if not moreso. This should be an interesting face-off.

- Oh, look who's home!

- I have a feeling Kaito's mother is actually Corbeau. I mean, she's been in Las Vegas this whole time, and Corbeau apparently got his start there, so...

- Well, looks like Kaito's figured out Corbeau's trick! Can't wait to see him go toe to toe with the guy in the next chapter. It's really too bad we don't get new Magic Kaito chapters that often. It's such a fun series.

Naruto chapter 695

- Naruto, on the other hand, is the antithesis of a fun series.

- Welp, so we're finally at the long-awaited rematch between Naruto and Sasuke. This shit has been built up for ten fucking years, over 450 chapters. Let's see if it's worth it...(though I already know it won't be)...

- Their arm bones should already be broken from that impact, but okay, manga-logic and whatnot.

- Move forward, step back! The classic strategy!

- The fuck is with the cover spread? Realistic looking Naruto and Sasuke look horrifying. And horrible. I can fucking see the brush and ink strokes, and it looks ugly as fuck. Bleck.

- ...It strikes me that I can't find anything to say about the action in this chapter. It's just kinda dull and there. I guess the Susanoo and Naruto's Jinchuriki form clashing fists is kind of a neat page, but it seems a bit quick that things escalated to this point already.

- Oh god, flashbacks. FLASHBACKS. WHY NOW THE FIGHT WAS NOT EVEN TEN PAGES LONG GOD DAMMIT.

- They seriously just wasted five pages on flashbacks.

- Blah blah I don't want to kill you blah blah you are mah friend blah blah.

- Just turn your back on him Naruto. Sasuke deserves no second chances. He is an asshole.

- EXPLOSIONS!!! WOOO!!!!

- ...The fuck? Are they in some sort of spirit form now? And the fight is over now? Are you telling me, that people have waited TEN fucking years and 450 fucking chapters for a one chapter fight where one fourth of it was completely wasted on flashbacks and repetitive dialogue?

- ....

- ....

- ...

-...Fuck you, Naruto.

-...Fuck you, Kishimoto.

- ...Fuck you, Weekly Shonen Jump.

- ...FUCK THIS SERIES AND EVERYBODY WHO ASSOCIATES WITH IT. YOU SHOULD ALL BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES. IN THE IMMORTAL WORDS OF DON PATCH:

(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F25.media.tumblr.com%2Fad675b6ea4d4b721f6ed9004096642a5%2Ftumblr_mnbunms60h1r6toezo1_500.jpg&hash=61ff79cbf020cadd4449784235345564beeba32a)

- Nah, but, seriously, that was some super lame shit. And now we have to endure more lame Talk no Jutsu for the remaining chapters, I bet. Ugh...

Oishii Kamishama chapters 1-2

- Geez, Tohru Fujisawa is really spreading himself thin, isn't he? This makes, what, 4 currently running manga he's drawing? And yet none of them are good. Well, no, 2 of them aren't good. I still can't judge much of Shonan Seven because only the first chapter has been translated. As for this series, well, let's find out right now. I'm not keeping my fingers crossed, but hey, at least it's not another delinquent manga/GTO spinoff from him, so at least it will be different...

- A story about a god that resides in trout sushi? This is my kind of concept. Please let this be good.

- Uh, I'm confused. Who is talking in this scene?

- ...Could've done without a fanservice scene, especially this early on. Mmm...not a good omen.

- Wait, the fuck, that was an entire chapter? That was only, like, 8 pages! And nothing happened! What, was that fanservice scene supposed to be the entire joke of the chapter? Because if it was, well, it sure was not funny I'll tell you that much.

- ...Maybe the second chapter will be better.

- Okay...so there's a different god in this chapter. The god of the Loach pot.

- ...Nothing happened in this one either. Just the God explaining the history of the Loach pot. And another stupid fanservice scene.

- ...I guess the only point of this manga is to promote local cuisine. It's basically a glorified advertisement for obscure japanese dishes. It's humorless and there's certainly not going to be any plot to speak of, as far as I can tell. Yeah...another dud by Fujisawa, it seems. Won't keep up with this.

One Piece chapter 763

- So it seems that after Doflamingo's family became former Tennryubito, they were ostracized and tortured by those they used to abuse. Very karmic.

- Dang, this is some messed up stuff. Doflamingo got a fucking arrow shot into his chest. No wonder he's so fucked up.

- Yeah, he was clearly traumatized by this stuff. It's interesting to see Doflamingo be so vulnerable like this, haunted by the memories of his past. Having once had everything, he was cast into a life of misery when he was still a young child, who didn't really know that the life he was living was at the expense of others until he suffered the same treatment he once gave them. Instead of humbling him, though, that just made him desire returning to the top and reclaiming his status again above all else, and this explains his overall ambition to become so powerful that his way of life couldn't be put at risk again, explaining his vast network of connections and various enterprises, which serve to protect him and maintain his wealth and influence.

- Yeah...Doflamingo wrought his own misfortune all right. Because of his upbringing, his way of the world was so radically different as a Tenrubito that he didn't understand that all of it came at the expense of people who were just as human as he was. And because of his behavior, he ended up costing his family an innocuous life, and for the first time in his life he felt things like hunger. Though his father was the one who gave up their status as nobles, it was his naivety and warped view of the world that actually forced him into a horrible childhood, led his mother to her death, cost his brother his voice, and of course, led him to kill his own father. Essentially, he destroyed his entire life and family, all by just telling people that he was once a tenryubtio, and trying to force them to bow down. That's some harsh shit.

- Like I expected, Corazon didn't tell on Law. I wonder what his reason not to was.

- I enjoy seeing how the Doflamingo family used to operate. Especially since a lot in this montage shows that they really considered themselves a genuine family. My favorite scene in this sequence is when Law and Baby 5 are fighting that big pirate and nearly get killed, but Doflamingo comes along and rescues them, and though he doesn't comfort them directly, there's this look on his face that shows that he wasn't going to let anyone hurt one of his own, and just lets a  crying Baby 5 continue clinging to his leg. I also love these scenes where the family is teaching Law things, some of them showing him tough love, but it really does seem they care about him. There are quite a few villain groups in OP that we've seen be close to each other, but never quite as intimately as we're seeing here.

- Yeah, so Law is a D. Shocker. I'm curious as to the significance of his surname,  Water, since he makes a point of mentioning that it's taboo for him to acknowledge it for some reason.

- Wait, Corazon can speak? Huh, I wonder why he would hide this from people, especially his own brother?

- Why is it dangerous for a D like Law to be near Doflamingo. I guess this secret is what ends up causing the fallout of events from here, which leads Law to be indebted to Corazon and Corazon to lose his life.

- This was a pretty great chapter, actually. I liked the layers to Doflamingo and the Doflamingo family, and seeing how Law integrated as a genuine member of the family. I'm very interested in seeing how this develops.

One-Punch Man chapter 56

- Ha, Genos exploded a fire-extinguisher on the metal man!.

- Uh, I don't the city is going to be pleased that you've flooded it, Genos.

- Ooh, a makeshift steam cover! Clever!

- I find it hard to say anything else about this chapter, since it's short and most of it was focused on the fight between Genos and the metal man. It was excellent action as ever, though, and a treat to read, but I find myself more interested in seeing how Saitama will convince King to truly live up to his status as a hero, so I hope we focus more on them in the next chapter.

Peephole chapter 42

- Looks like there's a new character, and this guy seems to be a crazy back-alley surgeon.

- He's apart of the yakuza group that Miyachi took out last time, eh? I guess we've found our new antagonist for this arc.

- This guy is connected to Fujiura somehow? Uh oh.

- Whoa, this guy is fucked up. It seems he's a killer out for Miyachi's heart. Both figuratively and literally.

- He just hung a guy to death. This Sakaki guy is merciless.

- "My...Hole..." What the hell kind of line is that? Weird.

- Haruko is out of the story for a while, I guess. I'm sure she'll be back in due time to try and out Miyachi and Kurosu's murders at some point, though.

- TWINS WHO LOOK JUST LIKE FUJIURA? OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT

- Kurosu is so screwed. I guess Fujiura's entire family was a family of psycopaths, and now they're all after him. I'm guessing Sakaki is also a relative of hers too. Ho boy, I can tell this will be one crazy, messed-up arc, all right.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 97

- You are very sad, Elizabeth. Girl, you should be pissed the fuck off! Hendricksen fucking killed Hawk goddamit!

- It makes much more sense why Hendricksen needed her as a sacrifice now that we know she's a disciple of the goddess.

- ENERGY FIELD BATTLE!

- This scene reminds me of when Gohan unlocked his hidden power and became a Super Saiyan 2, for some reason.

- Looks like Elizabeth released some sort of energy that is healing everyone's wounds and rejuvenating plant life.

- I guess her power is able to bring people back to life too? Hey, in that case maybe Hawk will come back to li-

- (https://31.media.tumblr.com/9f52c2ea970e373a193f032c6cd16ada/tumblr_ndgvhrQWIx1r6toezo1_500.jpg)

- ...Oh.

- I guess she can't bring people back to life, then. That's good. Limits to her power, and whatnot.

- DROP KICK!

- Geez, that sure left a mark!

- THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS ARE HERE! Except there's only five of them...and one of them isn't in the panel for some reason...so four...yeah...

- Some people have criticized the development of Elizabeth's healing powers as a cliche. Yeah, it is, and definitely convenient in turning the tide of the battle back in the favor of the heroes. However, this twist has been set up since the earliest chapters of this series and been foreshadowed at several points. Moreover, it explains details as to why Hendricksen needed her, specifically, as a sacrifice, and why he was cautious about her, which clears up that plot detail. Moreover, in the context of the moment, her powers did not resolve the crises that awakened them - Hawk's death. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Hawk will be brought back to life, somehow, but it's clear that 1. Elizabeth can't bring people back to life and 2. She doesn't know how to control her powers in the first place. Instead, this plays as a favorable accident, and this development should allow Elizabeth, who is the least developed member of the main cast, to finally have an avenue in which to get better character development. Her role as a "healer" is definitely a cliche archetype, but one that I could see interesting things being done with if handled correctly.

- This chapters reminds me that Sins, despite how much I do like it, is a very straightforward battle-shonen in every respect, arguably even "generic." In fact, watching the early material in the anime reminds me of how boring it was in the beginning because of that. I really didn't like this series at first, but somehow, though it hasn't done anything I haven't seen in other series before, the combination of all it's elements, and general good writing, make it something I not only enjoy reading on a week to week basis, but something I'm excited to do so. I've said this before, but Sins is a typical shonen, but a well-done one nonetheless. It's written competently and follows through on it's set-ups and character arcs, and knows to prioritize good story and characters over epic action or coolness or whatever. It might be generic, but not in any bad ways, and hence manages to be very enjoyable to read. While I'm not crazy about this chapter and the development in it's self, because it was executed correctly and soundly story-wise, and as such, there's not much I can fault it for. In fact, I'm looking forward to the next chapter, and seeing the Sins and friends take out Hendricksen once and for all. While Sins is a basic battle-shonen in most respects, it also is one that genuinely entertains, and really, that's all I care about anyway.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 89

- Rip that contract! Yeah!

- I like how Mimasaka just suddenly starts referring to himself in the third person.

- Oh god, Soma is having Mimasaka taste his dish.

- Yep. YEP. Here it comes!

- FLASHBACK!...not what I was expecting. I thought we'd just see the usual ecstasy moment, but I guess that'll come later. 

- Young Mimasaka has some huge lips, geez.

- I guess big lips run in the family.

- Of course Mimasaka has daddy issues.  ::)

- Huh, you mean THAT's how Mimasaka adopted his copycat strategy? His father was just a dick to him after he improved his dish and sent him away to Tootsuki, and he came to the conclusion that meant his father was worried that he would outshine him? I was expecting something...actually, I wasn't expecting a backstory for Mimasaka at all. How Mimasaka got to his way of thinking just kind of feels a bit contrived.

- Yay, everyone is getting their cooking tools back! The part where a total stranger thanks Soma for helping her get back a memento from her mother that Mimasaka confiscated is a nice scene.

-  Mimasaka: "I'm going to stop cooking now" Soma's response: smack him on the head with a karate chop.

- Woo, Takumi is prideful, and he wants a rematch with Mimasaka! It looks like he and Mimasaka might become rivals.

- Oh now here we go, ecstasy scene~

- OH GOD YES YES YES YES I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING YES!

- God is this series awesome.

- Oh Erina, you tsundere, you.

- Aw yeah, now it's time for Akira vs. Kurokiba! This should be one hell of a badass cooking match. Yeah, I know Akira is probably going to win so that Soma can have his rematch with him...but who the fuck cares, like the Mimasaka match the execution is going to make this fucking awesome. I can't wait!  ;D

Shuriken to Pleats chapter 1

- This is a new series from the creator of Vampire Knight. I have not seen much of VK, and I did not like what I have seen, but since it's one of the most popular modern shojo, I figured I should at least try and check out the author's newest work, since it'll probably become a hit too. Who knows, maybe it will actually be good?

- Okay, so this series takes place during the Meiji Restoration. Thank god this isn't another shojo set in a High School.

- Oh...scratch that, this series takes place in the time period...but the setting is in London, not Japan. I'm pretty sure schools existed in England back then...so...not out of the woods yet.

- Maids. Another bad sign.

- Ninja Maids. Less of a bad sign.

- This girl's overprotective attitude towards her master has raises more red flags.

- Wow, that was some clunky exposition. Who the hell would say something like that in that situation?

- So she's a ninja for hire? This is an interesting concept.

- So she met the guy when she was a little girl...uh oh. Another red flag.

- This guy sure likes to mention the fact his wife and daughter are dead a whole lot, doesn't he?

- This guy's wife was japanese. What a small world.

- Ugh...I do not appreciate this cliche shojoshit dialogue.

- This is not stuff real people say.

- OH OF COURSE SHE'S JUST LIKE HIS DECEASED WIFE  :srs:

- UGH UGHHH UGHHHHHH

- This is not a good foundation for a romance.

- Well...at least he doesn't have romantic feelings for her...at least for now. Then again, it wouldn't be the first time in a shojo that the father-figure ends up being the romantic love interest...

- Aw, of course, she's going to go to fucking school. In Japan no less. Because a series about ninjas working in the shadows of mid-19th century London is soooo less interesting.  :whuh:

- Well...he's dead. Okay.

- That's convenient.

- ...That looks absolutely nothing like Meiji era Japan.

- I guess there's still going to be ninja action...supposedly

- Yeah...this is a generic as fuck shojoshit in all the worst ways. Not interested.

Toriko chapter 296

- All right, last series, Toriko! Finally...

- I still can't believe there's a fucking shark who's body is a train in this series. Now that's just silly.  :D

- And the end of it's body there's a large caboose that conveniently can house everyone's giant animal pets? Come on.  :lol:

- "GIANT SEA URCHINS ARE RAINING DOWN ON US!"

- What, that's flower pollen? Must be from one giant-ass flower, then.

- Hoo...looks like they don't call it the gigantic continent for nothing!

- It's as big as the entire size of our earth? Daaaammnnn....

- UH OH KILLER MONKEYS

- Shoot first, ask questions later!

- Zebra don't follow your shitty rules, ass-face! Zebra MAKES the rules. No, he IS the rule! He don't conform to you, you adapt to him!

- That monkey sure had one death heck of a death wish. No one who fucks with Zebra lives to tell about it.

- That said, he called out for help before he died, so the gang is in some hot water now. I can't wait to see to see how things escalate from here.

.....

And, I'm done. That took for-fucking-ever. I've basically been writing this on and off throughout the whole day. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice change from what I usually do, and I had fun with it. But yeah...I don't think I'll be doing this kind of thing very often.

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 10/10
2. Assassination Classroom - 9.5/10
3. One Piece - 9/10
4. Shokugeki no Soma - 9/10
5. Fuuka - 9/10
6. Magic Kaito - 8.5/10
7. Hinomaru Zumo - 8/10
8. Toriko - 8/10
9. Magi: Adventure of Sinbad - 8/10
10. Peephole - 8/10
11. One-Punch Man - 8/10
12. The Seven Deadly Sins - 7/10
13. Attack on Titan - 7/10
14. Magi - 7/10
15. The Heroic Legend of Arslan - 6/10
16. GTO: Paradise Lost - 5/10
17. Shuriken to Pleats 1/10
18. Naruto - 1/10
19. Oishii Kamishama - 1/10
20. Bleach - 1/10

This was actually a pretty bad week. Not irredeemable, obviously, but exceptionally and surprisingly below average. Almost half of these series were mediocre or shit this week, and half of the rest were only just good, but not great. I would the series in my top 5 for this week were highly enjoyable and legitimately great enough to make up for that, in terms of how much I enjoyed them outweighing how much I didn't the worst stuff here, but this was definitely one of the weakest weeks I've experienced in a long, long time. Of the three new series I tried out this week, the only one I'll be keeping tabs on is Hinomaru Zumo, since that made a good first impression on me. The other two were terrible, though. Rather I didn't even try them. But, trial and error is the only way to discover good new stuff, after all. And there's still a heck of a lot I have on my list to look into in the future.

Nice impressions.

The silliest part about Naruto is after everything he has gained, there is no chance Sasuke should be anywhere near his league, but Kishimoto has never been consistent in regards to anything regarding strength or techniques. At least this series will be over soon. Hopefully Bleach won't be too far after it.

Quote
- ...The fuck? Are they in some sort of spirit form now? And the fight is over now? Are you telling me, that people have waited TEN fucking years and 450 fucking chapters for a one chapter fight where one fourth of it was completely wasted on flashbacks and repetitive dialogue?

You know, as much crap as we all (deservedly) give Naruto, at least there was a chance, however small, where we could all say that "well, at least that final battle was awesome!" and lo and behold, Kishimoto couldn't even get that right.

Actually, that fight being unbelievably (and mercifully) short sounds like a good thing to me. I say this because Kishimoto has NEVER been good with drawing fights. His art style for action scenes is way too all over the place and hard to follow, and his concept of "strategy" is just to give each a guy a new super powerful ninjutsu that you never heard of until just now because he made it up on the spot. And hell, the ninjutsu aren't even creative anymore. It's just some more powerful use of a Chakra that is more "explodey" than the previous attacks, and the battle just comes down to whoever is the more important character is going to win. I hate how long some of these battles have lasted since they are actually more boring to endure than even the main story, which in and of itself can at least be amusing to rip to shreds for how badly written it is. So, yeah, I'm glad that this fight is short. It was never going to be good, anyways. Hell, the first fight between those 2 was pretty lame, IMO. It just came down to them trading a few blows and then using their special attacks on each other, but Sasuke won....just because Kishimoto has a hard-on for him or something.

Also, this goes without saying, but Sasuke is one of the most horrendously written characters in all of fiction. The fact that he even still has a fan base (Korra even had one to begin with) almost makes me lose my faith in manga and anime fans entirely. That said, if you've ever wanted to see a version of his character archetype done right, that can easily be summed up in just one name: Kurapika.

Seriously, I could do an entire blog or even a series just picking apart everything done so badly about Sasuke's character that Kurapika from HXH just nails down perfectly. The thing is that, Kishimoto definitely intended for you to sympathize with Sasuke, but he's such a despicable character that you just end up loathing him. Kurapika is a legitimately likable character despite being the dark and brooding type, and unlike Sasuke, his character development actually makes fucking sense.

So now Naruto and Sasuke are the reincarnations of 2 legendary Shinobi, who were the sons of that 6-paths hermit or whatever, that we conveniently never heard about until now. What even is the point of this twist when there was no established importance on this backstory that Kishimoto just made up? How much more is he going to pull out of his ass before this is all done?

Seriously, shit like this really makes you appreciate mangaka like Fujimaki Tadatoshi. Yeah I went there. Compared to this shit, even the shitty parts of KnB somehow seem legitimately decent. At least Tadatoshi didn't pull out some crazy plot twist that there was some mastermind in the GOM that was never mentioned before and somehow forced the rest of the members to become complete assholes, and that he's the true final challenge and Akashi was just his puppet. I swear to god, if Kishimoto was writings KnB, that'd totally be a thing.

Well, actually the Sage of Six Paths had been brought up a few times throughout the series, since all the way back in the Hunt for Itachi arc. But the whole thing about his sons serves only to portray Naruto and Sasuke as fated rivals and the inheritors of a long-standing grudge that has existed all the way back since the beginning of the ninja world. Essentially, to show them as "messiah figures" who are now going to write all the wrongs of the past, a bullshit development serving to just to once again continue to beat the dead horse of how awesome Naruto and Sasuke are again and again.

Also, the flashback establishes Kaguya, so that Kishimoto could replace Madara with her to be the main villain of the series, because he realized Madara was so OP that he couldn't think of a way for the group to defeat him, whereas while Kaguya might technically be stronger, she could be defeated in an easier way. So...basically he wrote himself into a corner, and then tried to dig his way out in the stupidest manner possible. The entire twist also destroys the entire mythology of the series because it turns out the entire history of the Naruto universe was the result of an elaborate and needlessly complicated plan shaped by Black Zetsu for the sole reason of bringing his dead mommy Kaguya back to life. How anyone could possibly respect any part of the series after that development, I have absolutely no clue.

Quote from: Cartoon X on October 15, 2014, 11:37:46 PM
Well, actually the Sage of Six Paths had been brought up a few times throughout the series,

Somehow I knew you'd bring this up, CX, but read my post again very carefully. I was referring to his sons who had never been brought up before, not the sage himself.

Alright, so now Naruto is the child of prophecy? That's brilliant. Yet another thing that was never mentioned or hinted at anywhere in the series before. I suppose that Kishimoto just thinks that the word "prophecy" is enough to fool some 7-year olds who happen to read this manga that this was all somehow planned and is super amazing storytelling. God I hate this manga.

Did you get to Kaguya yet? I don't think you really care about spoilers anymore, so I'll just ask bluntly.  :humhumhum:

Prophecies and reincarnation are dickbutt, but everything from the point of Kaguya entering as the main villain (and Black Zetsu's motivations) and just fucking gravy. Crusty, expired gravy.

You know, I've been thinking about it, and I think the last arc I legitimately enjoyed was Hidan and Kakuzu. In fact, I think the initial Akatsuki fights are the arcs I like most. Badass cloaks, each with a special power, they split up and throw down against whoever that arc is focusing on. Naruto being the one to beat him with such a shit move was when I started losing faith in the series personally. It was like a sign of all the shittiness afterward. Konan was the only female member, with that awesome paper power, but only got like one fight that she died in. Nagato's arc would have been cooler if it weren't for bringing everyone who died back at the end of the fucking thing. Deidara was my favorite one, and he wound up randomly deciding to fight Sasuke and fucking died killing himself, with Mr. Perfect getting out with barely a scratch. Fish guy... Kisame? Fish guy struck out on his own in some  "we're training on a turtle" arc and wound up beaten and killing himself... with sharks... ugh.

Maybe I'm just prone to liking groups like Akatsuki and Organization XIII in media, even when the writing's shitty. Badass uniforms and each member having a power that basically makes them a one-man army is always a concept I've liked, I just barely see it executed well.

Somehow....I am not the least bit surprised by that spoiler. It's like I've grown accustomed to Kishimoto's bullshit. In order to possibly surprise me anymore in no by significant ways, he's have to pull something so tremendously stupid that it defies any sense of anything whatsoever, like if it was revealed at the end that Sakura was really the big villain all along. He's literally sunk so low that he's have to pull that to possibly even go any lower.

If Sakura ended up being the main villain then at least she would serve a purpose in the story, even if it was ridiculous. This series has so many characters who might as well not even be there because they don't do anything at all.

In general, too many characters is a bad idea for any series. If you have an over saturation of underdeveloped and underutilized characters, your story falls flat. The only 2 people who I have ever been known to be masterful at balancing out huge casts are Naoki Urasawa and George R. R. Martin, and even their stories can still suffer from too much going on sometimes.

Of course, we all know who the REALLY, REALLY, REAL main villain of Naruto is....

Spoiler

(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg1.wikia.nocookie.net%2F__cb20091102195229%2Fnaruto%2Fimages%2Fb%2Fb4%2FMasashi_Kishimoto.JPG&hash=9e6998d84505a0e4f1b10c2427e5d8fd4b09a0fd)

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Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 16, 2014, 01:00:59 AM
In general, too many characters is a bad idea for any series. If you have an over saturation of underdeveloped and underutilized characters, your story falls flat. The only 2 people who I have ever been known to be masterful at balancing out huge casts are Naoki Urasawa and George R. R. Martin, and even their stories can still suffer from too much going on sometimes.

I think having a large cast of characterscan work if done right. Which Kubo and Kishimoto don't do well at all. Kishi had the right idea at first by splitting off characters into groups, but fell apart because everything has to be about the main character instead of having each character having their own story.

Hence why I said that Uraswa and Martin do it right, not that it can't be done right. It's just really hard to do. With Urasawa, he knows how to transition between character perspectives seemlessly, whereas Martin writes his characters by structuring his stories through their eyes and giving them each POV chapters. In many cases, though, especially with battle shounenshit, you just get a cluster of characters introduced at once,must we hardly learn anything about most of them, so they just seem like a waste if space.

Well, looks like the fight isn't over yet after all. Even so, the fact that I can't figure out what's going on in it (and I spent time looking at each panel carefully,) just makes it a boring affair, especially with how obvious the end result will be and how cliche and repetitive the dialogue is. Sasuke's motivation is also just so misguided that it's just stupid, and that whole conversation just beat the same points over and over again. It's at the point where nothing pisses me off, but just makes me sigh whatever. At least there are only three chapters left after this.

I have no fucking idea what even happened this week. So... he absorbed all the tailed beasts chakra to power up a giant laser death arrow while prattling on?
And more flashback panels?

Aaaaaauuughh. Just end already. This battle blows, they're just using giant energy beings to fight.

I just finished catching up with The Seven Deadly Sins.  The first few volumes were pretty "meh", imo, but it really started to pick up around King's appearance.  Overall, it's a really fun battle-shonen series, and I'll definitely be looking forward to reading it every week.

The newest ad for the Assassination Classroom anime previews the voices for all the students in Class E. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaNwhO7Dn_g) I like Korosensei's and Karma's, but Nagisa sounds way too feminine for my tastes. I think they should have just kept the voice actor they had for him in the OVA, since she did a much better job at making him sound gender neutral/ambiguous. The other major characters sound fine enough, though.

So, you know Fuuka? That light-hearted slice-of-life/romantic comedy manga about aspiring young musicians that I've really been enjoying? Well, this just happened in it:

Spoiler

(https://33.media.tumblr.com/0813221736ab9245c1d1879620a21e77/tumblr_ndu02xPYXQ1r6toezo1_500.jpg)
(https://33.media.tumblr.com/2674e26ef73460fe75a9de904e74286d/tumblr_ndu02xPYXQ1r6toezo2_500.jpg)

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...... :frown:

FTR, that's the main character, Fuuka, herself. I'm both intrigued and frightened by this development...

...And just when the new Fuuka chapter had depressed me as hell, the new A Silent Voice chapter has uplifted me as hell.

My heart just can't take all these ups and downs, man.

Not manga, but related to a manga I keep up with: Sentai is finally releasing Space Brothers on dvd. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-10-22/sentai-filmworks-schedules-1st-space-brothers-blu-ray-dvd/.80212) They licensed the damn thing two years ago, so it's about time. Personally, I don't have much interest in the release, because every episode of the anime I've watched is the exact same thing as the manga except more dragged out, but this is definitely a good thing for it's fans. I personally hope that someone licenses the manga for print release sometime, since I would definitely buy that.

In this week of manga, Judar stabbed Aladdin through the chest!...kind of, and Griffith got slapped!...though not by who you'd expect. Read on for the nitty gritty details of these and much much more (Except not cause I got tired writing this after the first few series so I half-assed the whole second half  :P ):

A Silent Voice chapter 57 - I was wondering how things would resolve themselves, how Shoya would be able to face and apologize to these people he wants to consider friends. At the beginning of the series Shoya did not recognize people, much less get to know them, but as he started mending his ways through Shoko, he started to gain a circle of friends around him. Yet, even then, he never tried to get close to them or know them better, and was just content to be around them after all this time, having been friend-less for so many years. But as time went on, he did begin to notice things about these people, and what makes them who they are. But, after seeing the movie, he realized that there is still so, so much he still has yet to know about them as well. And he wants to get to know them better. I think the one character that surprised me here was Kawaii. She's still oblivious, and I felt she shouldn't have been forgiven quite as easily, but it also seems she genuinely felt bad that she didn't get enough people to make paper cranes to celebrate Shoya's release from the hospital. It seems there are still sides to her personality that we hadn't seen, but should get to know. The same for everyone else, and Shoya knows this now. I loved each personal reconciliation Shoya had with each of the characters, as one by one there faces became clear, and Shoya was able to see them for the people they were again. And, I loved, LOVED the ending of the chapter, where Shoya has finally decided to open up to people, embrace the good and bad things about them and whatever they might think of him, with all the "X's" falling off their faces one by one as he hears all their voices. Brilliant, emotional stuff all the way through. This honestly felt like it should have been the second to last chapter, in the way. It makes me wonder what the next four chapters will be about. Knowing this series, though, they are bound to be great ones.

Assassination Classroom chapter 104 - Whoa, Bitch-sensei has skills. She took out all of Class E in a flash. It really shows just how much the students really still have to go in order to be on a professional level. Moreover, I was surprised Itona and Terasaka's group gave up without fighting, and especially that Itona was the one who suggested they should. He's come a long way from the kill-happy, violent and unstable person he used to be. But I like how he is thinking of what he is actually capable of doing, and accepting there are limitation to what he, and the others, can do. As well as how he can place his trust in people that he knows will be able to do what he can't - in this case, Korosensei and Karasuma, who have arrived to rescue the students from God of Death's clutches. I can't wait for the teachers to show their stuff, and take out God of Death once and for all.

Berserk chapter 334 - Ever since he became Femto, I don't believe anyone, be it Guts or another demon like Ganishka, has been able to touch or hurt Griffith in any way. That makes the slap Rickert gives him in this chapter all the more surprising, and enjoyable: finally, tough Griffith might not think much of this, something has been able to surprise and hurt him. The meat of this chapter is, of course, Rickert finally realizing what his feelings are towards Griffith and this situation, and I love his answer. The Griffith he used to follow is dead and the Band of the Hawk he was once a part of is gone. He doesn't follow the Hawk of Light. And so, despite the dangers, he will not side with Griffith. He won't go against him either, he'll maintain neutrality, and just continue to live the life he's living. Honestly, this has got to be the best chapter of this series in five years, and a damn great chapter fro Rickert's character development. I'm not sure where the focus will shift for next time (Rickert's stuff seems pretty wrapped up at this point), but hopefully it continues to keep this series back on track and moving towards even better things.

Black Butler chapter 98 - Ho boy, I'm conflicted on this chapter. On one hand this plot twist is really stupid. On the other hand this really interests me on a character level and shows Ciel becoming a more caring human being, though admittedly his life or death choice to the Green Witch is in line with what he would do, but this time I feel it's from a place of genuinely wanting to help a person, rather than using them as means to an end, as he's always done up until now. I like this change in direction with the character, and the possibility of the Green Witch joining Ciel's group, so overall, this is a rare chapter of BB where I'm more positive towards it than I am ambivalent or negative. Let's see where they take this.

Bleach chapter 601 - Yeah, so, all those new villains introduced two chapters ago? All one-shotted in this chapter. Yep. Except for that one guy at the end, but c'mon, he's probably going to get beat down pretty easily too after the standard overpowers good guy another good guy bails him out shit. A worthless and pointless chapter overall.

Boku no Hero Academia chapters 1-3 - Hmm, a manga about traditional superheroes, running in Jump no less? Unusual. This series doesn't do anything I haven't seen before with these first three chapters, but it does make me interested in the premise, the world, and the main character. Depending on how things are executed, this could end up being a very good battle-shonen series and refreshing from the norm of spirt-hunters and traveling adventurers. Considering this series has become another overnight success for Jump alongside Hinomaru Zumo, this could very well become the next big thing. Whether it has the potential to rival the popularity reached by something like Naruto or even achieve a Titan level of success seems unlikely to me as of now, but the series is still young. I'll be interested in seeing how it grows and whether or not it meets it's potential.

Days of the Dam chapter 1 - I like the premise of the people who do hard work everyday to build and create things that help out other people and never get recognized for their achievements are true heroes. This series looks to be a good look at hard-working honest folks like that as they spend ten years building an important dam. It's a refreshing kind of series and looks to be an enjoyable read. The art is kinda crappy, though, but that shouldn't hurt this kind of series overall.

Fuuka chapter 35 - ...I...I just can't talk about this chapter. The newest one's ending is just too stuck in my mind right now. I mean, damn, we went from a chapter like this one, where the future looked bright and things just seemed like they would be going up for everyone...and then this week's chapter happened. I can see why so many people are pissed off about this. I'm not. I'm just kind of worried, as that kind of twist that could either lead to great things or ruin the series, and I really don't want the latter to happen because it's been so enjoyable so far. But I'll save more thoughts on that for the recap for this week. As for this chapter, it was just a quaint, cute one, and a very lovely little read that made me smile. That's why I like this series. I hope that it can stay that way...or at the very least, it takes a page from Cross Game in how to take things from here.

Hinomaru Zumo chapter 4 - This chapter did a lot less for me than the first three, mainly because it was a lot of wordy exposition and the predictable turn of Yuuma joining the Sumo club. It was standard stuff done alright, but a bit of a chore to read, so I was pretty meh about it. Hopefully the next chapter is a bit more interesting.

Joshi Kausei chapter 22 - It's really hard to talk about this series because there's no plot or character development: it's straightforward slice-of-life shenanigans. So I can't really say more about this other than I enjoyed their little bowling escapade, and thought this was a fun chapter. Though I will say that I liked the zigzag trategy and how that totally backfired when they went to an actually bowling lane.

Magi chapter 243 - This chapter continued the streak of the last few of me finding them kind of tedious to read, but I enjoyed seeing Jadar and Hakuryu's emotional weaknesses and doubts, and there was good stuff here on a character level. I'm interested in seeing why both of them have this urge to defy what their hearts tell them, and what consequences that will have down the line.

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad chapter 38 - Drakon transformed into his dragon form a lot quicker than I thought he would. I was expecting that was something that was going to gradually happen over the course of the series. This is certainly not the end of his character arc, since Barbarossa is still at large and I'm sure he and Serendine will be targeted once again at some point. On a side note: BABY JUDAR! Adorable. So he was raised by Falan, then? Hmm, no wonder he's so messed up.

Naruto chapter 696 - The fight isn't over yet, but I can barely tell what's going on, so whatever. Also, more flashbacks and beating the same points over and over again. Lame. Well, at least there are only three weeks left.

One Piece chapter 764 - Hmm, so Corazon is actually a spy for the World Government trying to keep Doflamingo in check? Didn't see that coming. I like how passionate he was in trying to help cure Law's illness. I can see why Law slowly grew attached to him over time, and changed his opinion on him. I bet that Vergo joining G-5 allowed him to out Corazon's secret and spill it to Doflamingo. And considering that call at the end of the chapter, I have a feeling there'll be hell to pay soon enough for that.

Peephole chapter 43 - Oh shit, a whole cult worshiping Miyachi? This series just took a weird turn. I really find it interesting how I can always feel bad for Kurosu for getting into these fucked up situations when he's really kind of a horrible person himself, but this series just always makes me go "oh fuck" whenever stuff like this happens. Now, how will Kurosu get out of this mess?

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 98 - This was one of those kinds of chapters that really only exist to get us to the ending. In this case, set-up for Meliodas' plan to defeat Hendricksen. It's interesting that Elizabeth's power can only heal wounds but it can't restore their stamina and strength, so while they might be saved from being at near death they still don't have the energy to really manage a long-term fight. It's good to see limitations on these kind of things. In any case, next chapter should be the final part of this battle, and hopefully it will be a cool conclusion.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 90 - Akira and Kurokiba are so hardcore, I love them. I have to wonder if Kurokiba might actually turn this match around on Akira and create a dish even better than his. Usually the character that goes first is the one that loses, after all. But, again, it seems like things are building towards a rematch between him and Soma, so I doubt it. Still, I'll be interested in seeing what kind of dish he's going to create.

Shonan Seven chapter 1.5 - I believe the first chapter of this series made a good first impression, but this one...it utterly bored me. The concept is still nice, but the character, art, and dialogue are making it an uninteresting and tedious read. The translations is also really sloppy and bad too. I'll still try and stick with it until the end of it's first arc, whatever that'll be, but I have a feeling Fujisawa has just produced another dud yet again.

Silver Spoon chapter 106 - There might not have been much story development in this chapter, but boy was this one fucking funny as hell. Reading this was one of the highlights of last week for me, though, as this is Silver Spoon, that's to be expected.

Space Brothers chapter 237 - Mutta sees the sky Hibito once saw. And next chapter, he should finally see the space that Hibtio saw as well. Now that will be an event of a chapter for this series, and I can't wait to see it.

Toriko chapter 297 - Dang, these monkeys have one hell of a hierarchy. I honestly don't see Toriko's group beating even an instructor unless they get some powerup or something. But it looks like they've now discovered a lost civilization...of Nitro? Oh yeah, now this is a cool ass development! I've been wanting to learn more about the Nitro and their community for a long time, so hopefully this finally sheds some answers on that front, as well as explain the motives and origins of the Blue Nitro.

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 9.5/10
2. Berserk - 9/10
3. Silver Spoon - 9/10
4. Shokugeki no Soma - 9/10
5. Fuuka - 8/10
6. Assassination Classroom - 8/10
7. Boku no Hero Academia - 8/10
8. One Piece - 8/10
9. Joshi Kausei - 8/10
10. Magi: Adventure of Sinbad - 8/10
11. Magi - 8/10
12. Space Brothers - 8/10
13. Peephole - 8/10
14. Days of the Dam - 8/10
15. Toriko - 8/10
16. The Seven Deadly Sins - 8/10
17. Black Butler - 8/10
18. Hinomaru Zumo - 7/10
19. Shonan Seven - 6/10
20. Naruto - 1/10
21. Bleach - 1/10

Overall, a really solid week of good chapters. Not to mention alongside ASV being amazing as always, Berserk put out it's best chapter in years and Silver Spoon came out with a new chapter in two months, so I couldn't not be happy with the week as a whole. Hopefully next week will be just as strong.

Welp, I caught up to the available scans of World Trigger. I find it enjoyable. I appreciate that it's different from most battle-shonen currently running in that it's not a fantasy adventure series or another goddamn ghost/monster-fighting series (have I mentioned how much I hate those nowadays?). Well, I suppose the Neighbors are "monsters," but a lot of what the series has been focused on so far was more interesting strategy/internal politics within the Border organization, which I found pretty interesting. The art is also very good and the way I like: clean, clear, and effective, and the action scenes look pretty cool at times. I appreciate the dialogue as well for not following the same "tone" most dialogue in shonen series tends to be (lots of yelling and what have you), and the mangaka does some interesting things with it and his character interactions to give them some good depth in some cases. I think the writing and art are pretty good overall, a step up from the norm these days for battle-shonen's, at the very least.

As far as the characters go, there are many I find interesting in terms of where they might develop as characters, but am not interested in them as they are quite enough yet, with the exception of Jin, who is basically the Ban of this manga in terms of being the most nuanced AND awesome character, and very much a scene-stealer. The parts of the series I've enjoyed most so far have directly involved him. I do appreciate the leads, Yuma and Osamu, for who they are, but their personalities aren't really on the level of, say, Korosensei or Soma to get me invested in them before the nuances to their characters started to show up, and on that front, while I can see them having interesting character arcs as the manga goes on, what they've gone through so far is too little and typical for me to truly "care" about them and their problems, unlike, say, Fuuka from her titular manga. As far as other characters go, the series suffers from my long held grievance of having to many characters and expecting the audience to care about all of them even if their development and focus is all over the place. I can't really remember the names of much of the supporting cast, beyond a select few like Kitora, Miwa, etc., who I do like, but are just not "there" in terms of being characters I feel invested in, yet. This can make some chapters that do not focus or feature on Yuma, Osamu, and Jin feel a bit dull since I don't remember who these people are and thus don't care about the situation they are in. A series that I feel handles a large cast much better is Assassination Classroom, because that series introduced it's characters gradually and one at a time, and made it clear which characters were the most important, and focuses on them specifically, and as such, there are many characters in that series I legitimately care about. WT is still a young series, and could do some interesting things with it's characters, since a good foundation is there, but as of now it has yet to find a balance that would help it get to that level.

Overall, I do think it's a good series, and I'd enjoy keeping up with it once new scans start popping up again, or once I finally get a subscription to Shonen Jump Alpha, whichever comes first. Is it the best 10-gen Jump series? Not for me, personally, as I am far more invested in Assassination Classroom and Shokegeki no Soma, both of which won me to them much earlier into their runs than WT has yet to do for me so far. The WMR guys really love this series, and I can see why, since it's a very good and unique series, and definitely has had a stronger year than most of the other battle-shonen currently running. I just don't feel as strongly towards it right now for the reasons I've mentioned, and because there is such a diverse and large amount of series I already keep up with, and WT doesn't give me anything that I don't get from some of those at this point in time. I do think there's a lot of potential here, though, and I'd love to see the series reach it. Whether it will or not is another question, but at the very least, I think it will remain a good series for the foreseeable future, and a good title for those sick of the typical kind of battle-shonen out these days and want something different and well-written to read. 

I'd keep up with it, but the unofficial scans stop at chapter 55, and I can't afford to really buy a subscription from Viz (well, I could, but there are other things that I find to be more worth my money, right now), so I'll have to take a hiatus from the series for a while.

Based on my impressions, though, it's decent, but I still don't buy into all of the hype around it. Focusing on the inter politics if Border is probably it's biggest strength, but even so, I don't find the characters to be anything truly memorable, though certainly above average by Jump's regular standards.

Anyways, as far as currently running manga goes, I'm not really following anything new, but here are some of my thoughts on what I've read from this week:

Haikyuu!!- It's not that there's anything wrong with the game, but this reminds me of why I didn't read KnB on a weekly basis, and instead waited for the final match to finish. To be quite frank, I don't think that sports manga are well-suited to being read in a weekly format. They are made to build up intensity during matches, and you just don't get that from reading such short chapters between relatively long intervals. As disappointing as the final match in KnB was, I can only imagine how much worse it would've been in a weekly for at, and I feel like having to do the same when I read Slam Dunk would've really killed the momentum of a lot of the great matches in that series. That said, the game's already pretty far in, so I might as well stick with it the rest of the way through, at this point, but I've definitely learned my lesson, and I'm going to wait it out by the time that the next game starts.

One Piece- You know, for what it's worth, this is one of the few flash-backs that I've actually been enjoying. Unlike the flashbacks with Rebecca and Mr. Soldier, I find Law to be a much more compelling character, and his relationship with Doflamingo's brother is also more interesting given how they each have intel on each other that they could have used to screw each other over, but instead it turned into them forming a mutual trust between one another. I also like how Corazon was smart enough to see that his brother had found him out or was at least close to it, and instead was much smarter than falling into his trap and risked getting the Devil Fruit for himself by steeling it, which in this case still probably won't work out for him given how this chapter ended, but at least he'll somehow be able to save Law with it at the cost of his own life. The bottom line, though, is that you care more about a character, even in a flash-back, when they aren't complete idiots, and make genuinely good efforts to keep themselves and those around them alive.

This isn't a Nico Robin or Three Brothers quality flashback, but it still has a touch of classic One Piece to it, which is much more than I can say for most of the extraneous character flashbacks that we've been getting for other characters ever since the Fishman Island arc.

Magi- I'm really glad that they managed to conquer this dungeon in just 2-chapters, because I really didn't want to spend more time, here. To be brutally honest, the dungeons were always the least interesting part of this series to me. I've always found the politics and social disorder to be its biggest story-telling strengths. Now let's just see Hakuryu actually try to get one of his objectives done and maybe kill a character or two off (which, remember, the author pretty much promised that people would be dying off pretty soon). I just hope that when people do start dying off  it's not just a cop out and only really minor characters get the axe. At least give us one death that would dramatically raise the stakes of the conflict at hand. As things stand, I feel that this alliance against Al Thamen thing should be much bigger than it is right now, but with the slow pacing of this series, it feels like it'll take forever before anyone actually even makes a move. I'm not saying that it's good to rush into things, but in this case I feel like we've really waited more than long enough to see shit go down. Stop stalling, Ohtaka.

Well, while we're on the subject, I might as well do this on time for a change...

A Silent Voice chapter 58 - The group worked so hard on the movie...only for it to be bashed as "pretentious," the judges not understanding the genuine nature and motives behind the project, and every single aspect about their movie was mercilessly picked apart. It was painful to read. They put into a lot of effort into the movie, thought what they made was great, but even so other people hated it. Yet, as Shoya tries to say, that shouldn't let them get them down. They don't need to care about what those assholes said about it. It was a rushed project, there were some rough edges, but they accomplished something together, and they had fun doing it, and it meant a lot to the person they were making it for. They'll just do it even better next time, and show people what they can really do. It was a great moment. And the icing on the cake was the whole group going to have dinner together, laughing and joking around as friends. It's all so emotionally rewarding considering the trials these characters have gone through, and how they've now found good friends they can be comfortable being themselves with. Seeing Shoko laugh and smile, for the first time in a long, long while, almost brought a tear to my eye, just how it does Yuzuru's. Another beautiful, wonderful chapter.

Assassination Classroom chapter 105 - The "God of Death's" strategy to defeat Korosensei actually worked! Wow, this is the first time Korosensei has really been this helpless, and shows that even he isn't invincible and infallible. The best part of the chapter, though, was Karasuma's decision. In the earlier chapters he might have sacrificed the lives of the students to ensure Korosensei's death, but here he is using his own discretion, and doing what is right, and now shows his stuff against "God of Death," preparing to risk his life against the sake of the mission, but for the sake of the innocent lives of the students. And I love his line to Erina: "Being Pro Isn't Something So Carefree." Erina has forsaken any shred of honor, riding on the coattails of "God of Death's" skills, and using dirty tricks to achieve her ends,  and she thinks that is the mark of a good assassin. But Karasuma is telling her that she can't just take the easy way here, and that won't get her anything. If she wants the respect she desires, she should be using her own skills and strategies, and not abandon the responsibility she had towards the students to work with them together to defeat Korosensei. It shows the difference in the maturity of the two characters, and how for all her posturing, Erina is still lacking in valuable experience and self-awareness, and has a ways to grow as a person as well as an assassin just as much as her former students. I'm excited to see if she'll realize this, and the implications for her characters from here on out. Moreover, though, I'm excited to see Karasuma take on the "God of Death," and how he'll be able to outpower and outwit an opponent that has defeated countless skilled assassins as well as Korosensei before.

Bleach chapter 602 - So what's-his-name is defeated and...why the hell did we just waste three chapters on this shit? I mean, holy shit, this was like complete filler. Nothing of consequence happened in this fight. These grunts came out of nowhere, and they were defeated just as easily. I guess we didn't see cloak guy defeated so that might do something, but, like, there was no reason for any of this. I just think Kubo realized he didn't have a few villains named after letters of the alphabet yet so he made some up and just stuck them in there to get them out there. It was pointless. Completely pointless. That's the problem with Bleach. It doesn't need these many villains. It doesn't need these many fights. They add nothing to the story. It all amounts to basically filler. The Arrancar arc would have been a third the length if you narrowed it down to it's essential plot elements. This arc would be a fourth of the length, if not less. All Bleach amounts to is fighting random weird villains in random weird battles again and again and again. There is no logic or story to anything that happens. There is no development to any characters. It's just fighting. And that's boring. And stupid. Bleach in a nutshell. Sigh. Now these Squad Zero bastards are going to fight Ywach and...oh why should I give a fuck? I know they are going to lose. I know Ichigo is going to come and fight him instead. I just...sigh. Let's just move on from this crappy long-running Jump series that wasted all it's potential to a new upstart with promise.

Boku no Hero Academia chapter 4 - Though this was a sort of chapter that you would expect for this situation, the execution here made it genuinely moving, and happy to see that Midoriya has gotten accepted to Yuuei after all. This manga is playing all the right cards, so far, and it makes me intrigued at what it might be able to do with this premise. Though superheroes at school is a fairly well-worn concept, it's been rarely done in manga, and if this series can be done just right, it can make itself into a really engaging battle manga. Considering this series is an overnight success, if the rankings are any indication, I'm definitely excited to find out if that will be the case.

Fairy Tail Zero chapter 4 - FTZ continues to be surprisingly enjoyable, especially because Mavis is a incredibly likable protagonist. It was awesome to see her not only outwit the members of the dark guild but also bluff them into submission with her illusion magic. The ending of this chapter provides a neat hook in the revelation of what looks to be Zeref seen walking past Mavis and co. What role could he have in this story? I'm actually interested in finding out.

Fuuka chapter 36 - I mean, fuck, what can I even say about this chapter? It was so well-crafted beginning to end, providing an ending that feels like a big, painful punch in the gut. I don't know if Fuuka is going to actually die or not, but I have a feeling the author won't be pulling his punches on this development. And as such, I have to say, this is one of those rare occasions where I genuinely feel sad, almost mortified, by a manga character's death. To put it in perspective, the most cited "moving" death in a modern shonen manga is Ace's from One Piece, because it was the first time a character died outside of a flashback in that series and changed the status quo (except only superficially but whatever). The thing about that is, while it was a well-done scene, the fact was I never actually cared about Ace as a character so much as his relationship with other characters, so while I felt bad for Luffy and Whitebeard when he died, I didn't care about him. That is not the case here with Fuuka, as I genuinely was invested in and cared about the character, so her death hits me hard, so much so I felt almost depressed after reading the chapter and thinking about it now. Now, again, Fuuka might not die, the mangaka might just make be in a coma or something like that, but if this is actually happening then this is going down as one of the very few anime/manga character death scenes that genuinely had an emotional impact on me, a rare feat indeed.

My main concern about this, if Fuuka is actually dead, is where the author will take this series from this point. My hope is that the situation will be handled as smartly and with as much depth and class as in Cross Game, and be a moment that affects the characters and drives the story just as much as it did in that series. Considering the quality of the writing so far, I have reasonable hopes that this will happen, but from what I've heard about the mangaka's previous works, I do have some concerns the series might misstep as well. The only other manga I've been keeping up with that has made me this speculative about it has been A Silent Voice, and with it ending in three weeks, this might turn out to be the series I'll be most excited to read every week from now on. And as of right now, I haven't been this anxious to read the next chapter of a series in a good time. This is a development that could either make or break Fuuka, and I'm praying for the former.

Girl May Kill chapters 17-18 - Ho man, these chapters provided an excellent development in Gohongi's character in how he's delving himself deeper into the underworld in order to help Mei, for misguided reasons that he wants to help and protect her, and otherwise just going with the flow of things, when he's the one who's truly in danger in this situation, and that may cost him his life. Worse, he's confronted with the guilt of what he's let happen, namely Tsukasa's death, and what's happened to Ritsu as a result. And in a moment of emotional confusion and weakness, he's taken advantage of Ritsu's emotional instability and has sex with her, an action that will likely increase her dependency on him, further his guilt over letting his friend be killed, and has likely set the similarly unstable Mei, who holds misguided feelings for him and discovers them in the act to their unawareness, against him. This is some heavy, fucked up shit and it's not going to end pretty I can already tell, my god. I wish it was updated more often, because it just keeps getting better and better.

Hinomaru Zumo chapter 5 - The first three chapters genuinely piqued my interest in this series, and that interest remains, but the typicalness of the shonen sports formula tropes it follows in this chapter made for a rather boring read. I also am just not a fan of reporter characters, as they generally tend to be superfluous commentators in sports series, and the ones introduced here don't seem particularly interesting. That said, when we get into the actual tournament, the elements this series excels in should come to play and I should start enjoying it again, but this one was a miss for repeating things I've seen before, and am tired of, unfortunately.

Joshi Kausei chapter 23 - Legs. Just...legs. She spreads her legs. Other characters try to make her close them for...obvious reasons. She doesn't. Wackiness. Misunderstandings. The usual. I dunno. Wasn't funny. Not much to say. Let's move on.

Magi chapter 244 - On one level I do appreciate the reasoning behind why Judar and Hakuryu are behaving the way they are when they know deep down it's not the right thing to do, and that's their anger and hatred against the world aka they've cured their fates. And as such, they've fallen into depravity. I get this and it might be interesting to see how Ohtaka handles these characters and their relationships with their former allies when they come into conflict with them. But the way Hakuryu falls into depravity here...while there is some very nice imagery to convey his newfound madness, a lot of the dialogue in this chapter was cringe-worthy and serves to portray him in an almost two-dimmensional light. Now, we've seen that falling into depravity can radically change people's personalities and make them turn on people they used to care about before, but...c'mon: "You are nothing more than garbage just like you Master Alibaba, because you follow his hypocrisy blindly. HAHAHA..."? That's a fucking stupid line. Like, I can get behind insane characters. I can get behind a chapter where a character becomes insane. Crona was my favorite character in Soul Eater and that chapter where it finally snapped and went batshit crazy and killed Medusa in Soul Eater is legitimately one of my favorite manga chapters of all time. But that was actually handled very carefully, playing upon multiple chapters of buildup, and a sense of growing tension that made the moment powerful and as well-done as it was. But the execution here felt much more sloppy and sudden, and the 180 Hakuryu makes here just doesn't work for me.

There are definitely things here that I did like, and I have no complaint's about Judar's side of things, but I'm wary about the direction Hakuryu as a character seems to be going. Now, as far as him killing a character goes, depends on how that'll be handled. Hakuryu just killing off a character because he's evil now would be stupid. If it's something like how Midora killed Ichiryu in the aftermath of their fight in Toriko, where it was about two characters who have gone different paths but deep down still care about and love each other, and thus while they fight brutally with the intent to kill each other it's really a very tragic affair and both feel sorrowful about it's climax, then, you know, that would be good. If Hakuryu just kills off a major character, one that he has a history with, because he thinks they are all scum now like it suggests he does in this chapter, then that wouldn't be well-done at all no matter how much "the stakes are raised." I'm taking a wait and see approach on this. Ohtaka has shown she can make an effective three-dimensional villain in Mogamett, and to an extent Cassim, but the way things play out here, I'm a little worried Hakuryu might devolve into being a Sasuke-like character in execution, and that would be a real shame.

Magic Kaito chapter 33 - Yeah...I'm totally calling that Kaito's dad is still alive, somehow, and now masquerades as Kaito Corbeau. Either that or it's his mother...but I'm betting it's his dad. This is a pretty major development. It's a bummer that it won't be explored for like two years when Aoyama finally resumes drawing this series again, but whatever. As it was the chapter was pretty awesome in the way Kaito exposed Corbeau's tricks and their confrontation with the Organization. Really fun, cool stuff. But man, that ending. Way to tease your readers like that, Aoyama.  :sweat:

Naruto chapter 697 - You know, I can get behind the concept of this chapter. Having exhausted all of their chakra, Naruto and Sasuke rely on their old skills, like the Uzumaki Barrage and the Chidori, and then finally, they run out of energy to even do those, and devolve into a fist fight. And you know what? This chapter ends up being the most interesting and effective action in the series in years because of that. No bullshit eye powers or giant energy monsters, but a good old-fashioned brawl between two people at their most desperate point, each one almost at the point of exhaustion, desperate for the other to run out of steam and fall. It was all really effective storytelling, and if I was invested in this series, I think I would have really enjoyed it. Obviously, though, I'm not, so I can't say I liked it, but I'll give it credit for doing what it does well, which is something Naruto hasn't been able to do in a long ass time. I fully expect some bullshit in the next chapter so that the fight can resolve easily and Sasuke won't have to die and whatever, but this week I'll throw it a bone.

One Piece chapter 765 - I like Corazon's savvy and how he's willing to risk making enemies of both Doflamingo and the Marines in order to cure Law's illness. Obviously he's in some serious trouble now, but I expect that this won't be what does him in, so it'll be interesting to see how he gets out of this jam, get the fruit to Law, and how he meets his end.

One-Punch Man chapters 57-58 - I totally forgot about Genos' backstory and motives in this story, so I appreciated the reminder. I feel that this new arc will result in some good development for his character. As far as King goes, I'm interested in seeing if he lives up to his promise and does become stronger. At the very least, stop being cowardly, and embrace qualities that make for a true hero. And why do I get the feeling Metal Knight is somehow involved not only with the cyborg Genos just fought but also the one that killed his parents? Hmm....

Orange chapter 15 - I like that something actually happened, in that they got Kakeru to finally tell them the truth about his mother, and get him to understand that they are there for him and ready to help him and talk about his problems. There was also lots of boring typical shojo stuff here and there that knocks the chapters down for me, but I am glad in this direction the series is taking, and hopefully it becomes more interesting to read again in future chapters.

Peephole chapter 44 - You know what my reaction was reading this chapter? OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT...you get the picture. I mean, jesus, this is some fucked up shit and I continue to feel super bad for Kurosu for being in this situation. The ending of the chapter made my draw drop. Christ. Tt should be rewarding to see Miyachi go up against and take this guy out, at the very least.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 99 - Hendricksen is defeated, and I got to tell ya, that page where Meliodas delivers the final blow is really awesome. The build-up to it was as I expected, but enjoyable and well-executed nonetheless. I'm interested in the denouement of this arc, whether they dive right into a series situation with the demon clan being revived after all, or if that crises will be avoided for now.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 91 - I was dying at the comparison of Hayama's dish to a monster card game like Yu-Gi-Oh and the accompanying pages of imagery. Gloriously hilarious. But though Hayama has made one hell of an impact, Kurokiba hasn't given up just yet. What card does he have his sleeve? Usually the guy who goes second is the one who wins. Will Kurokiba pull an upset? I have to wonder, and even if not, he's sure to have made one hell of a dish, and I can't wait to see how it turned out.

Shonan Seven chapter 2 - How does Fujisawa manage to take an interesting concept and make it boring as all hell? I dunno, but I would have thought a series where delinquents fight each other for the title of being one of the biggest badass' in the town would be cool, but it's not because the characters and art are really boring and it's just hard to get through. I mean, there's potential here, but right now I'm just finding it as tedious to read as any of his other modern works.

Toriko chapter 298 - Now this was a really cool chapter. I loved learning more about Nitro society and about this secret haven for those enslaved by the Blue Nitro, be them Red Nitro, humans, and monkeys. And I'm really interested in seeing how this information will be expanded upon as the arc goes on, and as they aim for Pair. This is shaping up to be a promising adventure arc for the series, and I'm hoping it delivers.

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 10/10
2. Fuuka - 9.5/10
3. Girl May Kill - 9.5/10
4. Assassination Classroom - 9.5/10
5. Shokugeki no Soma - 9/10
6. Boku no Hero Academia - 9/10
7. Peephole - 9/10
8. Magic Kaito - 9/10
9. One-Punch Man - 9/10
10. Toriko - 8/10
11. One Piece - 8/10
12. The Seven Deadly Sins - 8/10
13. Magi - 7.5/10
14. Fairy Tail Zero - 7/10
15. Orange - 6/10
16. Hinomaru Zumo - 6/10
17. Naruto - 5/10
18. Joshi Kausei - 5/10
19. Shonan Seven - 5/10
20. Bleach - 1/10

Some really damn great chapters this week. There were some chapters I'm wasn't so high on, as well, but overall I'd say the good far outweighed the meh and the bad. I'm really anxious about the next Fuuka chapter and where that series is going, and Silent Voice continues to have an immensely satisfying denouement. And of course, there are plenty of other series like AC and Soma where I'm excited for their next chapters as well. The spectrum of good this week reminded me why I enjoy keeping up with manga and reading these series, and they really helped me get through a pretty shitty week. The meh stuff...I wish could have been avoided, but beyond Bleach, I wouldn't call any of them that bad beyond a few missteps or being boring at parts, so that doesn't bring things down for me too much. So, I felt really good about this week, overall, and have some very good expectations for several series next week as well. And hopefully, those expectations will be met.

QuoteBleach chapter 602 - So what's-his-name is defeated and...why the hell did we just waste three chapters on this shit? I mean, holy shit, this was like complete filler. Nothing of consequence happened in this fight. These grunts came out of nowhere, and they were defeated just as easily. I guess we didn't see cloak guy defeated so that might do something, but, like, there was no reason for any of this. I just think Kubo realized he didn't have a few villains named after letters of the alphabet yet so he made some up and just stuck them in there to get them out there. It was pointless. Completely pointless. That's the problem with Bleach. It doesn't need these many villains. It doesn't need these many fights. They add nothing to the story. It all amounts to basically filler. The Arrancar arc would have been a third the length if you narrowed it down to it's essential plot elements. This arc would be a fourth of the length, if not less. All Bleach amounts to is fighting random weird villains in random weird battles again and again and again. There is no logic or story to anything that happens. There is no development to any characters. It's just fighting. And that's boring. And stupid. Bleach in a nutshell. Sigh. Now these Squad Zero bastards are going to fight Ywach and...oh why should I give a fuck? I know they are going to lose. I know Ichigo is going to come and fight him instead. I just...sigh. Let's just move on from this crappy long-running Jump series that wasted all it's potential to a new upstart with promise.

At least when the Captains and Vizards fought and lost against Aizen, the readers were already invested in them, we barely know these Squad Zero losers other than they look stupid and are one of the most disappointing things in this manga yet (and THAT is saying something).

QuoteNaruto chapter 697 - You know, I can get behind the concept of this chapter. Having exhausted all of their chakra, Naruto and Sasuke rely on their old skills, like the Uzumaki Barrage and the Chidori, and then finally, they run out of energy to even do those, and devolve into a fist fight. And you know what? This chapter ends up being the most interesting and effective action in the series in years because of that. No bullshit eye powers or giant energy monsters, but a good old-fashioned brawl between two people at their most desperate point, each one almost at the point of exhaustion, desperate for the other to run out of steam and fall. It was all really effective storytelling, and if I was invested in this series, I think I would have really enjoyed it. Obviously, though, I'm not, so I can't say I liked it, but I'll give it credit for doing what it does well, which is something Naruto hasn't been able to do in a long ass time. I fully expect some bullshit in the next chapter so that the fight can resolve easily and Sasuke won't have to die and whatever, but this week I'll throw it a bone.

Sounds good, but S-CRY-Ed did it better. :>

S-cry-ed is always the first series I think of whenever battles come down to the whole "we're both so worn down that we can only pathetically punch and kick each other" thing. And yeah, I actually kind of liked Naruto this week. That's how I'd write their final battle's last moments. I just don't like how we got there. They hit this point incredibly quick, and the only reason we got here so fast is because they blew their loads with giant energy monsters. Had Kaguya not even happened, we could have gotten a few cool fight scenes of swingin' around trees and throwing knives at each other or some shit.

Viz's Shonen Jump is adding Shokugeki no Soma to it's lineup, eh? (http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/10/27-1/english-weekly-shonen-jump-to-run-food-wars-manga) That's pretty awesome. I'm not surprised, with Naruto ending in two weeks, and considering the volumes have been selling very well for them. It's definitely a good thing the series will be getting even more exposure now. A subscription to Jump is looking even more enticing now that there's another series I like to support through it.

As for Hi-fi Cluster being the chosen Jump Start series they've picked....meh. Like the WMR guys, I would have rather had Sporting Salt, but I can understand why Viz chose HFC over the others considering it's the one that seems the most "mainstream." Who knows, it might get better later on. I'll keep an ear out for it.

I'm also looking forward to the prequel chapters to Princess Jellyfish (http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/10/26-1/princess-jellyfish-manga-receiving-two-additional-prequel-chapters). It'll be interesting to see the pasts of the Amars, especially since, outside of Tsukimi's, they've been rarely touched upon. Also, more PJ is always a good thing, anyways.

Could a Soma anime be on the way? (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-10-28/food-wars-shokugeki-no-soma-tv-anime-briefly-listed-by-bookstore/.80152) I wouldn't be surprised if it is, but if so, I'd expect an official announcement before the end of the year.

If it does, then the only real popular currently running Jump manga without a tv anime left will be Saiki. I think it's one of the funniest pure gag manga currently running right now, so I hope that gets one sometime too.

Eeyup, a Shokugeki no Soma anime is indeed coming out next year! (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-10-28/shueisha-confirms-food-wars-shokugeki-no-soma-tv-anime-for-2015/.80442) Sweet! Looks like I have another anime to look forward to now. I really do hope a good studio and team will be doing it, though, and it doesn't get screwed over like how Nisekoi did with Shaft's "style," World Trigger has with Toei's cheapness, and Assassination Classroom might be because of it's infamous director. Jump anime adaptions need to start catching a break, c'mon.

(reads The Seven Deadly Sins)

Huh, so Hawk is alive after all....

(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1270.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fjj620%2FAYET_PB%2FFrankySuperPose_400width.jpg&hash=4e1544cddcf8835043fa20d384a3c1d8be8061ac)

(reads Fuuka)

Huh, so Fuuka is dead after all....

(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_m2qemiUgLz1qa8xpg.gif&hash=5f444b6d9483fcca984c674fd28cb940210edde6)

Naruto will reach 700 chapters after all. The final two chapters will be published simultaneously next week. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-10-29/naruto-manga-finale-is-2-chapters-long-including-a-full-color-chapter/.80447)

It's almost surreal that this is actually happening. I've been following this damn thing for over nine years, as long as I've been an anime fan. I thought this shit would never end, but...now it finally will. I won't say the series had no good, especially since I found myself liking the newest chapter, but there was definitely way, way, WAY more bad in it overall. It's not something I'm ever going to miss, but it is going to be a bit weird that something that I've been following for essentially half of my life so far will be gone.

Now, as for A Silent Voice, which will be ending in two weeks, that I will miss.  :'(

I do agree about it being surreal. Granted that I wasn't following it over the last year and on,y now have been playing catch up, but it's something that iwas first exposed to back in 2005, and it had been something that I'd read weekly for nearly a decade. Even as much as I now hate the series, it's definitely going to feel weird that it's gone, but mostly weird in a good way where I know that I'll never have to torture myself with shitty story-telling on a regular basis.

For the record, I think that up through the Chuunin Exam arc, you could probably call this a decent shonen for what it was, but to me the series just starts going downhill after that, and then takes not one, but a series of nosedives after the time skip, sinking lower and lower than ever before.

Really, I've rarely seen long time skips done well in manga, myself. I'm starting to think that Dragon Ball and JoJo's are the only 2 series which I've read that can pull it off well.

Well, 20th Century Boys and Billy Bat have great timeskips. But if we are just talking about shonen series, then yeah, outside of DB and JJBA, I can't think of any others that have done it effectively.

True, I forgot about 20CB, but even that is still just one of the few exceptions.

Naruto isn't completely done. There's still the final timeskip movie coming out where he realizes he wants to bone Hinata. I think that's the plot anyway.

YOU AREN'T DONE UNTIL YOU'VE WATCHED IT. ALL OF IT.

:gonk:

9 years...

I remember when it came out. People went wild for it. How could you not? Ninjas, crazy powers, intriguing set up...

Then it kept going.

I would be surprised if any of the people I remember raving about it when it came out either still read it or watch it. The series slid into irrelevance long ago and never crawled out of that pit. I'd personally be surprised if anyone ever trusts Kishimoto ever again with all the blunders and bad storytelling devices he used here.

Well, I feel to call it "irrelevant" is a stretch. It's still one of the most popular and highest-selling anime/manga franchises of all time and one of the most widely recognizable among anime/manga titles worldwide. It has many detractors, but it also has far more fans, even after all the bullshit in recent years. And the series was so big commercially, that I'm positive it will still be remembered in the future, especially if they keep it always conscious in the public mind like how Jump and Toei have done with Dragon Ball for two decades straight. I don't think it will be remembered as a great series, god forbid a classic, but I doubt this franchise is going to fade into obscurity, by any means.

You know what else Naruto is really bad with? Exposition. I mean, I thought that Togashi could get really anal with exposition in HXH, but this series takes it to a whole new level of bad.

For one thing, you have almost entire chapters devoted to just explaining what's going on, which in and of itself wouldn't be so bad, but then all of that explaining to set things up will quickly get ret-conned just 10 or 20 chapters later with even more exposition.

Case in point: Madara is explaining his plan about he and Obito will use the moon for Infinite Tsukuyomi, and he sets up all of this logic for how it works, but then when the characters are trying to find a way to stop him, in the middle of actual fighting, he's ret-conning things that he said before and calmly explaining to them how he accounted for their plans and what's "REALLY" happening, and then he betrays Obito and says that he planned that all along, and then Obito tries to get Sakura to kill him but then Madara says that he already planned for that and secretly gave him a seal that would prevent him from killing himself and protect him from death since he needed him alive in order for his convoluted plan to work.

However, what's even worse is that, putting the exposition aside, doesn't it really force you to stop taking it seriously when the villain, who's in the process of trying to kill the main characters and for a dream reality on the rest of the world is bothering to explain so much to their enemies, when by all means it shouldn't even matter since they won't remember anything if their goal is achieved?

The worst, and most hilarious offender is in the chapter that I just read. Kaguya is somehow using Black Zetsu to hold Naruto and Sasuke in place and drain their chakra, and maybe it's just bad translations, but this is an actual line of dialogue that comes up when he (Black Zetsu) is trying to spout out more exposition: "It's uncommon to see Indra and Ashura Transmigrants cooperate so much. Since you don't seem to know anything, I'll tell you that story while absorbing your chakra."

That just flat-out made me laugh. He's basically openly saying "I'm going to explain things to you guys while I'm actively in the process of killing you." Does that sound like a super serious threatening villain to you? He might as well have said this: "Since Kishimoto lacks the talent to inform his readers through natural story transitions and indirect implications, I'm going to blatantly explain to all of you some more backstory that he just pulled out of his ass to make more sense of things, even though every other time that he's done that he just made the story even more convoluted than before. Enjoy."

Credit where it's due, Kishi. That final shot of the latest chapter. I did not expect that at all.

Spoiler

They lost their fucking hands. My eyes widened when I realized what I was looking at. Though because this is magical ninja land they can probably grow them back with tree dna or something.

[close]

I personally felt that shot was a bit unnecessary, especially since they'll probably be able to replace those easily enough, but it works because of the mood and subtext of the scene. What I particularly appreciated about the chapter, though, was the talk between Naruto and Sasuke, and Sasuke reflecting on his relationship with Naruto, and his actions to this point. I felt those were actually very well done and effective emotional moments, and a strong way to close off the rivalry between them. In the end, I'd say the fight ended the best way it possibly could, and as such was much better than I expected to be. It can't make me forget all the bullshit I had to endure to get to this point, so it doesn't really work for me as much as I'm sure it does fans of this series and these characters, but as a stand alone chapter and an unbiased standpoint, I would give it credit, and call it "good."

I'm still playing catch up, myself, but I'll also give Kishimoto some credit for that one scene that I just read where Naruto through Kaguya off-guard by using the Reverse Harem Jutsu. It reminds me of that scene in Guardians where Star Lord starts randomly dancing to throw off Ronan. It just made me chuckle, and it's one of the few times that humor in this series has worked, because it's so unexpected for what is essentially "the final boss" (or at least I assume that she is) of the series.

Let me be clear, this is still a terrible manga, but in trying to be more positive, I'll highlight 3 minor but noticeable things that I like about these chapters that are close to the end (I'm still 10 chapters behind), as that would be much easier than listing all of the things that I hate, which would go on forever:

-The "final boss" fight is focused on Team 7, and I generally like when long stories pay homage to the very beginning. It's more sentimental in value than actual good story-telling, but I like that notion of having something in the end be full circle of where it began. Of course other series have done it better than this one, for sure, like how the last episode of Buffy has such a great reference and tribute to an iconic scene from the first episode, for example, but all the same, even in this horribly written story, I still get a sense of that sentiment, which kind of gives me something positive to look at amidst all of the crap.

-While it goes to show how much I'm struggling just to find good things to say about this, since this point pretty much ties in with my previous point, I do like in particular how, since it is focusing on Team 7, it's mostly a team fight, even if Sakura is pretty useless, as usual. The bottom line, though, is that, unless it drastically changes in the last few chapters, it's not Naruto defeating all of the big bad guys by himself, but using the help of Sasuke and Kakashi as well.

-Some of the emotional bits almost sort of work. The thing is, those moments themselves are actually decently written. The problem is that, at the end of series like this, it only really fully comes to fruition if it feels like a good payoff to everything that the series has been building up to. Since a majority of the series was utter crap up to this point, even the best writer in the world couldn't effectively make you really give a shit about any of these characters anymore. A good example of a story that really does effectively make you feel the emotion in its final arc through constant good writing is Slam Dunk. But, even though Naruto doesn't have that, I'll give Kishimoto credit for clearly trying here, and his effort in this regard actually isn't bad. It's just that it's his own fault for fucking up his own story so badly that the emotional payoff just doesn't feel worth it in the end. Had the rest of the story been good, then these scenes would actually be really effective, though.

And that's about as far as I can push it. This manga is still garbage, though, but I'd say that in a sense, it can at least be entertainingly bad at parts.

I finally caught up with Naruto. I don't know, that last page kind of made me chuckle for some reason. Anyways, it'll be great to finally put this series behind me in about a week. Then again there is that movie that's supposed to be the true ending, but it probably won't be subbed in high quality until the DVD comes out, so either way, I won't even have to think about Naruto for a long while.

From what I can tell, the movie is just some epilogue kind of thing. At most the most significant thing that will happen in it is that Naruto and Hinata will get together or something. I doubt it will be all that necessary to watch.

So, I've been looking around online, and geez, I'm seeing a hell of a lot of negative criticism over Fuuka's death. Some people are ragequitting the series and staying off of the mangaka's other works for good. Apparently the japanese reaction is just as severe, to the point that the mangaka went on twitter trying to convince fans that the reason why this had to happen will be made clear as the series goes on.

You know why I think so many shonen series play it so safe? Because that's what the majority of readers want to see. Try and do something a little different, and you either get canceled early or you get backlashed. And as a consequence, few mangaka are willing to take risks and try and tell more interesting stories different from the norm. Most of the people complaining about what happened in Fuuka are pissed off because they liked the character so much and they wanted the leads to have a happy ending. And that's fine, I can understand why people are sad, or a little mad, but so many are so vitriolic about this and I feel they are overreacting. I have a feeling that the mangaka had a plan for this. It's not like this development came out of nowhere; there was a fair amount of foreshadowing, in retrospect, especially in the weeks building up to this. I have no clue what direction the series will go, but I think it's better to just wait it out and see, because who knows, it might become an even better series after this.

My concern is that the negative comments might make Kodansha force the mangaka to pull his punches or he succumbs to the pressure and tries to do undo this somehow, but I really hope he just continues forward with the story he wanted to write. Unfortunately, considering this business, I'm not too confident about that. One thing I do know, though, of all the series I'm currently reading, Fuuka is the one where I'm most anxious to see what happens next, and most worried about the direction of it's story. For all the negative comments, it's had to have sparked some extra curiosity in the series among manga fans in Japan. There will be lots of readers who might ragequit it, but I bet many will be curious to see what will happen now, and others who hadn't checked it out might start to and see what's up. So I have a feeling the mangaka is going to really need to win over people in the next few chapters in order to continue this story. He took a big gamble, and now he's got to play his cards just right. I just want a good manga out of this, so I hope he succeeds in that.

While I haven't read this manga that you speak of, I have respect for any mangaka willing to take risks, as long as it's not in the realm of completely terrible writing.

That said, one thing that I've learned ages ago are that 90% of anime and manga fans are absolutely horrible when it comes to series of this nature. They just want to see the same thing dealt to them in predictable fashion. They have no concept of actual quality writing and the sense of creating a story with consequences, because they just want escapism and anything negative that's not completely calculated reminds them too much of real life. Either that, or it's "Season of the Witch" syndrome, where they just don't want to see anything different, period.

Good thing Death Note came out when it did instead of in today's even worse society of rabid fans. I wonder how ape-shit people would've been over L's death now, as opposed to 10 years ago. Seriously, someone needs to force these people to read or watch something other than generic shonen manga. Show them some Tezuka or Urasawa or Urobuchi to mix it up a little.

You know, if the series was a battle-shonen, where people die all the time, then I doubt the reaction would have been nearly as negative. But Fuuka is a romance/slice-of-life series grounded in everyday life. Most people going into these kind of mangas these days only seem to care about seeing the two leads fall in love and get together and nothing else, and obviously, that's what happens in 95% of these series. They don't care if they are formulaic and keep things is stasis for too long or follow every cliche in the book. Rarely do the leads not get a feel-good happy ending. Much less they do get together only 30 chapters into the series, and then the female lead, and the titular character of the series mind you, dies less than a year into the manga's serialization.

That kind of thing will never happen in by-the-numbers series like Nisekoi. Which is, of course, why they seem to be the most popular.

I would understand the negativity if it had been poorly written or came out of nowhere...but it wasn't. Reading through the chapters near the beginning of the series and the ones building up to it, and there was plenty of foreshadowing in the narration and in characters' behaviors. And the execution was really well-done, and very emotionally potent. Which, of course, is why I'm sure so many people are upset about this, because if you were invested in the character (and I was), you would feel crushed and shocked at her death and the aftermath of it. I haven't read the author's previous works, but apparently he has pulled some dark developments in his previous manga before...which is all the more reason why this shouldn't have surprised people. As for the quality of those series, I've heard mostly positive things on his first one, mixed opinions on his second, but having not read them myself, I can't speak for how they turned out overall. But, what I do know is that so far I've found Fuuka very enjoyable, and I think it can continue to be in the future. I just hope the author sticks to his guns and doesn't succumb to fan or editorial pressure.

On another note, am I the only one who finds the title "The Last Naruto the Movie" to be a fucking stupid name for a movie, even by Japanese misuse of English standards? That has to be the worst one that I've heard since "Embalming: The Another Tale of Frankenstein." I mean, seriously, do some of the people behind these properties even realize how ridiculous these names sound in English? Because I think that they do know that it's not correct, but just don't give a shit, either. Well, if nothing else, I suppose that it's just harmlessly amusing.

This whole thing reminds me of how the Lyrical Nanoha went apeshit over the developments in Force, where a bunch of fan favorites got their asses handed to them by the arc villains. They all lost their shit and declared the villains of that manga to be "overpowered" and other bullshit like that (because god forbid villains are actually shown to be competent), even though it's extremely common in action manga for the heroes to lose against the villains in the first act of the story.

Well, what happened in Fuuka is more atypical and consequential than that seems to be from your description, but yeah, I think most modern anime/manga fans just take things way too personally and overreact to things that don't go the way they expect/want way too hard.

I find I have less to say than usual about the stuff this week, partly because I'm just not feeling in the mood, but also partly because there is not much to say about many of them:

A Silent Voice chapter 59 - And so now the characters are preparing the move into a new transition in their lives. Shoya is afraid to lose the friends he's made, particularly Nishimiya, and refuses to accept her decision to move to Tokyo. But he has to realize that it's time for everyone to move on, including himself. Will he follow Nishimiya to Tokyo? Perhaps. No matter where he goes, though, he should be fine. He's no longer afraid to get to know other people.

Bleach chapter 603 - I sort of liked that Sternritter's despair at realizing they were just disposable sources of energy for him and uses their lives to revive his elite Sternritters. But...what's the point, even? They got killed so fast before, so what's going to be different now? I guess we really have to see Squad Zero struggle to fight these guys? Bleh.

Boku no Hero Academia chapter 5 - So Midoriya is now going to need to prove his worth to a hardass instructor who is infamous for giving out high failing rates. I'm curious to see how he'll succeed, considering he can only use his powers to limited effect. Outside of this, I really liked the scene where he stood up to that bully who used to pick on him, telling him he was just as worthy as him to be accepted into Yuuhei. It'll be interesting to see how the dynamic between those two characters changes over time.

Fuuka chapter 37 - This chapter packed one heck of an emotional gut-punch. Very depressing and painful to see Fuuka's friends all slowly come to terms with her death and breakdown, and Yuu is so in denial that he spent an entire day waiting for her in a park, and didn't go to her funeral, and couldn't even shed a tear. Fuck damn. The end of the chapter promises "that was the beginning of the legend," and I'm definitely curious to see if this series has what it takes to become something truly fantastic.

GTO: Paradise Lost chapter 14 - So idol boy is the way he is because he had to perform oral on a cougar in order to get where he is and his career is still on the rocks? I don't know, but I found that incredibly fucking stupid. And of course Onizuka didn't actually get stabbed because he had a tomato juice can under his shirt and all that bullshit and he gets Sadako to reform her ways after just one talk because he's Onizuka and she's pretty so she doesn't have any real problems and whatever. God this was shit. I'll wait out the resolution, but I think I'll drop this series after this arc after all.

Hinomaru Zumo chapter 6 - A good chapter focusing on Ushio's doubts and Himomaru encouraging him by telling him that he respects him and he shouldn't give up. I wonder what his plan is to get Ushio and Yuuma to have a fighting chance in the rest of this tournament.

Kyoukai no Rinne chapter 190 - There isn't much I can find to say about this chapter, because it's a pretty standard episodic chapter for this series. Rin-ne getting gyped out of his half was hilarious, though.

Naruto chapter 698 - I actually could appreciate the dialogue between Naruto and Sasuke in this chapter and Sasuke reflecting on his history with Naruto and the actions he's taken until this point. Actually a good moment between them and strong resolution to the rivalry. It's unfortunate it's not as effective as it could have been, considering all the crap that has come before, but I can still throw it a bone for being well-done by itself.

Peephole chapter 45 - Every chapter of this series for the past few weeks has made me shot "oh fuck" out loud. This one was no exception. Holy shit is Kurosu screwed. I kind of think Miyachi won't arrive in time to bail him out. He might have to get his hands dirty for a change...and commit a murder himself. But can he do it?

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 100 - Chapter 100! Woo! Hawk is alive! How?! I dunno, he just is. Anyway, nice little resolution chapter for this arc, and basically the series-long conflict that's existed since the very first chapter. Now, the question is, where do things go from here? Hopefully the direction will be made clear in next week's double chapters.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 92 - Oh wow, both Hayama and Kurokiba tied? And so both of them will be proceeding to the finals!? I did not see that coming, but dang, this makes things even more interesting now. Soma and Hayama have their rivarly to settle, but Kurokiba is a dark horse with dangerous skills himself, so it could be anyone's win now. This series sure can get me excited. I can't wait to see how things will play out! 

Shonan Seven chapter 3 - Huh, this chapter was actually really entertaining. In some aspects, it reminded me of a kind of chapter I might see in SJG or OG GTO. I got a better grasp and investment in the characters than I had in the previous ones too. My interest in this series has definitely picked up a considerable bit.

Space Brothers chapter 238 - A nice, slow chapter focusing on the team relaxing the night before the big lift off, and then heading out in the middle of the night to get a look at the shuttle for themselves. Dang, I can't believe Mutta is FINALLY going into space. Next chapter should be incredibly emotionally rewarding.

Toriko chapter 299 - Aw, this chapter had one of those nice shonen moments where the protagonist comforts someone who, misguided, tries to kill him, and then offers him kindness in turn. And then the end of the chapter teases an epic showdown Toriko and the Instructor of the group of monkeys that attacked Toriko and co. and then were forced to commit suicide, Goritaurus. Toriko promises he's going to take down the cruel system of this continent, and I'm sure he'll succeed, but it ain't going to be easy I can already tell that much. Great chapter.

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 10/10
2. Fuuka - 10/10
3. Shokugeki no Soma - 8/10
4. Toriko - 8/10
5. Boku no Hero Academia - 8/10
6. Hinomaru Zumo - 8/10
7. Peephole - 8/10
8. Space Brothers - 8/10
9. Shonan Seven - 8/10
10. Kyoukai no Rinne - 7/10
11. The Seven Deadly Sins - 7/10
12. Naruto - 6/10
13. GTO: Paradise Lost - 4/10
14. Bleach - 1/10

Hmm, a relatively shorter week than the last few have been, though I can't complain about that. Overall, these chapters were pretty solid, though only ASV and Fuuka were particularly stood out to me as great. Still, a lot of these chapters promised some good things to happen in the next ones, so I'm confident next week will be even better.

Promo video for the Shokugeki no Soma anime. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES9sGIfRCMs)

No animation or word of who'll be doing it, yet, but it's a cool trailer nonetheless.

Takeshi Obata's got a new manga coming out in Jump. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-11-05/death-note-obata-to-relaunch-gakkyu-hotei-grade-school-legal-manga/.80694) Unfortunately, it seems it won't be another collaboration with Ohba. But the premise sounds interesting, so I'll give it a shot.

The other two new series set to come out in Jump look promising to me as well. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-11-05/2-shonen-jump-one-shot-manga-get-full-series/.80698) Moreso than the last batch of series two months back, at least. I'll keep an ear out and see if they turn out any good.

With A Silent Voice ending next week I'll be down a Weekly Shonen Magazine/Crunchyroll manga, so I might as well finally check out Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches. Hopefully it's as good as it's popularity suggests it is.

...Did they seriously just announce a Part 3 to Naruto focusing on his and Hinata's kids? Dear god, it never ends. This series never ends!

Yeah....well, I'm not reading it anyways, so however this part of the manga ends, I'll just consider it to be the overall conclusion to the series.

It's only a mini-series. I couldn't care less.

Besides, did you really think this franchise would just stop? It's way too big for that. Even with the manga over, we'll still be seeing plenty of Naruto spinoffs, media, etc. for years to come.

And I'll be happily ignoring all of it! :sly:

I feel obligated to ride this shit-fueled train right to the bitter end, right off a cliff and into the ocean.

There's no indication that Kishimoto is even writing the mini-series. Even so, there is no "end" to this thing, because it's a franchise. Think about stuff like Star Wars. That was over, right? But then they made a bunch of expanded universe stuff, and spinoffs, and prequels, and so on and on. This too. They will keep making new spinoffs and media for Naruto for years to come. The manga that this franchise has sprouted from is going to end. For me, that's the end. Unless Kishimoto makes a direct sequel to it, that's just going to be it, and anything else is irrelevant to me.

On another note, though I'm still far, far, far, FAR from being even close to caught up with it (I'm STILL only half-way into the first anime...), I've been checking out recent chapters of Hajime no Ippo for the last few months time and again casually, like I do with other series I've an established interest in but not caught up on like Gintama and Nisekoi, and while the fight with Gonzalez was very good from what I saw of it, the aftermath is what's really got my attention and has had me read the new chapters every week for the last few weeks. Not only has Ippo lost a match for the first time in 15 years (apparently) in what is his second loss ever, it was for the world title, so it was pretty devastating for both him and a lot of people around him, and Ippo's also in pretty damn bad shape now, to the point where his girlfriend (I think?) asked him to stop boxing, and Ippo's decided that the next time he loses a match, he's going to call it quits and retire. And then in the most recent chapter he went to go help his mangaka friend but he kept having trouble holding the pen right, and couldn't even draw a straight line. All this makes me wonder if he's got punch-drunk syndrome like Joe got in AnJ, and if so, if he's going to be going down just as self-destructive a path he did. Even though I'm not caught up, this development kind of makes me want to keep reading to see what happens next, so I'm pretty on the fence here.

I'm feeling the same way with Gintama too, actually, because the last few chapters have been really great and game-changing as well, and I've found myself reading the new chapters for it every week as well. This tells me I need to finally catch up with these series ASAP so that I can enjoy them properly. With Gintama I might wait and see if it ends after this arc because I heard that might happen and honestly Takasugi and Kamui are the fucking main villains of this series and they're basically succeeding in their goals right now and the final showdowns between them and Gintoki and Kagura respectively have been a long time coming...but Katsura hasn't shown up yet and I don't get how this can be the final arc and have Takasugi in it but not include him, so it might not actually be the final one. Either way, even though it's half as long, a chapter of Gintama takes legitimately three times longer to read than a chapter of HnI, so I guess I'll just try and catch up on the latter first. I'm going to have to wait until Winter Break in order to be able to marathon it, though, since I'm not going to have much time to waste the remainder of the semester and have other stuff I have to polish off in what I do have too.

In any case, you're caught up with HnI, right E-K? What do you think of the recent chapters and how the story might develop from this point on?

Actually I left off on chapter 960, so I'm a little over a hundred chapters behind, but I do know about the recent development, and let me say that I am SO glad that Ippo finally lost again. You have no idea how tedious it gets when a character wins far too much. It took him 15 years or so, but Morikawa finally decided to throw a curve ball into the mix. I honestly love the first anime for cutting so much fat out of the manga and adapting the best parts of it, for the most part, but the series begins to lag past the first 400 chapters, with a few bright spots in that drought.

As for keeping up with the manga, I say go for it. That said, I don't recommend reading everything up to that point. I mean, I pretty much almost have, so I might as well read everything chronologically the rest of the way, but for the average person, it's just not worth it. If you really want, I can give you a "best of" recommendation, so that you only have to view the parts that were pretty good, and can skip all of the boring stuff. Or you can just keep up with the manga as is. As you can see, this is the sort of series where you don't have to have seen everything in continuity, and it's very accessible to pick up any time and keep up with.

Yeah, thinking about it, I suppose I'll just keep reading it from this point on. It seems like it'll be a Detective Conan situation for me. I started keeping up with that 700+ chapters in after only watching the first 200 episodes of the anime and reading the first 30 volumes, but I picked up what was going on pretty fast. I do want to actually read all of HnI in it's entirety, though, so I will continue to read/watch through it from the beginning as I have been, but it's so long that I probably won't have the patience to marathon through it, especially if it drags as much as you say, so I'll just read what I can every now and then until eventually I've read it all.

Really, just finishing the anime and watching the first sequel, New Challenger, covers most of the good parts (roughly the first 400 chapters), IMO. There are some other good fights, and the WWII labor camp flashback arc is excellent, IMO, but the vast majority is just too much of the same formuka. Nothing is Naruto or Bkech levels of bad, but it feels derivative of what the series had already done better in its best days, aside from a couple of arcs that pick up the pace (and currently we seem to be in one of those arcs, thankfully). So trust me, it's really not worth all of the time. If I were so inclined, I'd say that the fights with Sawamura and Woli were pretty good, and Itagaki's rookie tournament fights were entertaining as well. Other than that, there's not too much else noteworthy, aside from Aoki and Kimura's always hilarious shenanigans, which is one of the few things that I never got tired of.

Well, Naruto is finally over, and it was basically everything that everyone already predicted. For chaoters like this to work, you actually really have to care about the characters after having seen them developed after so many years, which would make the ending seem bittersweet. As most of this manga was shit, the epilogue just felt like a fanfiction. I'll admit that the sentimental side of me appreciated the callback to the very first chapter, but that's about all that really stood out to me. Well, that and the Straw Hat Pirates logo painted onto the Naruto face statue's forehead, which was a neat little One Piece reference, even though Ruouni Kenshin still did it first. That was probably my favorite thing about the final chapter, actually. :P

Anyways, this series is finally behind me. I....can't say that it will be missed.

It's cute that both Naruto and One Piece referenced each other in their latest chapters. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2014-11-06/one-piece-manga-sends-off-naruto-with-a-classy-secret-message/.80738)

Anyway, the final chapters were basically what I expected...except even more hilariously dumb than I thought it would be. I probably would have liked 699 a bit if everything that came before it wasn't so terribly written, but that 700th chapter was like some shitty fanfic-y a teenage fangirl would write. Much like how the Kaguya twist reminded me how the villain twist in InuYasha was so much better, this just reminds me how much better InuYasha's ending was too. Couples got together in that series...but there was, like, genuine build-up and development on all of them in the final arc of the series. Even outside of the fact Kagome and InuYasha's relationship is basically the crux of the final encounter with Magatsuhi and the Shikon Jewel, Miroku and Sango's relationship was also heavily focused on and they promised to marry each other before heading off to the final battle with Naraku and stuff, and it played a part influencing their decisions in that final battle, and them being married with three kids at the end of the series came across as legitimately earned, unlike this stuff. Like, no one here genuinely had a romantic relationship, outside of fan shipping, so Kishimoto was basically giving the shippers what they want here without real justification to do so, and the way he executed it was in the most predictable, lame way possible. Well, at least it's over with, though. Can't complain about not having it around anymore.

Later when I feel up to it I might write something about my overall history and thoughts on the series. Probably not today because I'm busy, but sometime when I get the time. On that note, we still on for writing about how crappy the final arc was, E-k? I probably won't get the time to until mid-December, though.

Y'know, thinking about it, that final chapter had like a ton of plot holes. Like, where the fuck did Orochimaru and Kabuto go? They're still alive and about, but we didn't see them in the final chapter. And what about Karin? What, am I to believe she just gave up on Sasuke like that? In that case, where the hell did she, and Jugo and Suigetsu for that matter, go? In fact, did we see Sai in the last chapter? Where's he? I dunno, it's odd that Kishi neglected to mention the fates of these characters at all, when he did for a lot of others.

Definitely, though I don't have much time either. I'll have to keep anyng thing that I write fairly brief and to the point.

And as for the whole couples thing, it really does bug me how bad most shonen are at portraying them. Like, with Naruto and Hinata, there was literally no chemistry between the 2 characters. It was established since early on in the series that Hinata had a crush on Naruto, sure, but over 700 chaoters they barely ever interacted with each other or even built up the pretense of a relationship. The fact that they have to use the final movie to expand on that is a failure of Kishimoto's own writing. It's the same with Sasuke and Sakura, with the former absolutely never showing any romantic interest in the latter, but just because Sakura had a crush on Sasuke, to the point of being flat-out pathetic after he went rogue, Kishimoto made it a thing.

And I'm not accusing only Kishimoto of doing this, as other shonen mangaka are guilty of that as well, but since Naruto is the easiest current example to use, I can't help but target it. Honestly, I'm not even a big fan of romance stories and could completely do without them if they aren't done well, but if mangaka insist on putting themin their stories, than at least actually show some semblance of what a relationship actually is, rather than just sticking 2 characters together by the end because they "make a cute couple" or some shit like that.

Quote from: Cartoon X on November 06, 2014, 11:56:02 AMY'know, thinking about it, that final chapter had like a ton of plot holes. Like, where the fuck did Orochimaru and Kabuto go?They're still alive and about, but we didn't see them in the final chapter. And what about Karin? What, am I to believe she just gave up on Sasuke like that? In that case, where the hell did she, and Jugo and Suigetsu for that matter, go? In fact, did we see Sai in the last chapter? Where's he? I dunno, it's odd that Kishi neglected to mention the fates of these characters at all, when he did for a lot of others.

Just because I'm a nitpicky ass-hole (and don't pretend like you're not :D), I should point out that those aren't technically plot holes. A plot hole is when a two or more events within the same established continuity don't add up due to stark contradictions. Like, one event makes another one impossible within the context of that universe, but both still exist anyways, thus creating a sort of plot paradox, or as it's more frequently referred to, a plot hole.

In the case of those other characters, those are simply unanswered questions, but since they are unanswered, it can't be claimed whether or not any of that I formation, if ever revealed, would contradict the epilogue of the story. Most likely you're just meant to assume that all of those characters and their stories got resolved off-screen, which I'm sure that we both agree is absolutely lazy writing. However, on the flip side, do we really even care? I mean, would you REALLY want to read even more chapters of this shitty manga giving closure to shitty characters that we never even cared about in the first place? :sly:

Oh, and also, Sai can be seen standing next to Ino in one of the panels. I guess they became a couple? It makes about as much sense as any other randomly stuck together characters in this epilogue.

Yeah, as far as battle-shonen go, I can probably name all the romantic relationships I thought were well done/liked on one hand. Outside of battle-shonen, though, I can think of many well-written examples, but battle-shonen series just don't handle these things well most of the time, from what I've seen.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on November 06, 2014, 12:04:21 PM
Just because I'm a nitpicky ass-hole (and don't pretend like you're not :D), I should point out that those aren't technically plot holes. A plot hole is when a two or more events within the same established continuity don't add up due to stark contradictions. Like, one event makes another one impossible within the context of that universe, but both still exist anyways, thus creating a sort of plot paradox, or as it's more frequently referred to, a plot hole.

In the case of those other characters, those are simply unanswered questions, but since they are unanswered, it can't be claimed whether or not any of that I formation, if ever revealed, would contradict the epilogue of the story. Most likely you're just meant to assume that all of those characters and their stories got resolved off-screen, which I'm sure that we both agree is absolutely lazy writing. However, on the flip side, do we really even care? I mean, would you REALLY want to read even more chapters of this shitty manga giving closure to shitty characters that we never even cared about in the first place? :sly:

Oh, and also, Sai can be seen standing next to Ino in one of the panels. I guess they became a couple? It makes about as much sense as any other randomly stuck together characters in this epilogue.

Well, you know what I meant.  :P

Orochimaru was the freaking main villain of this series for the first half of it, and his influence was very important in the grand scheme of things in general. It bothers me that we wouldn't see what they did with him now that this shit is all over. Kabuto, as well, was basically equally as responsible for the war as Obito was, so it annoys me that we don't see what happened to him either.

Like, in InuYasha, we never find out what happened to Koga after he had to give up on fighting Naraku, but at least he got closure to his character arc and his relationships with other characters. I admit Kabuto did get an actual resolution to his character arc, but Orochimaru, Karin, Suigetsu, Jugo, etc. never got real closure to their stories, Kishimoto just forgot to show what happened to them, and that's what bugs me, because he set up that they were going to actually do stuff only for them to be completely forgotten after the Kaguya twist happened.

And Sai was an important character for a good chunk of this series too. I always hated the shit out of him. Still, the fact that he doesn't even have a speaking role in the final chapter and gets randomly paired up with Ino, who I don't believe he ever even had an legitimate interaction with, in one throwaway panel, is fucking dumb.

I agree that it's really bad to leave all of that stuff out from a writing standpoint, but I'm just saying that with all of the problems this series already had, combined with the fact that I never liked any of those characters to begin with, I'm more indifferent to their exclusion than ticked off about it. At the end of the day, even if their character arcs did get concluded, it would still be utter shit, and would force me to sit through even more of this manga. So, in that regard, I'm simply just glad that this whole thing has been put behind me all the sooner.

Also, you know how I was complaining about Naruto and Hinata being a couple even though they barely ever interacted with each other over the course of 700 chapters? Guess what I just realized? They didn't even interact at ANY SINGLE POINT in the FINAL chapter! We're just supposed to assume that they are together, but even in the very end, Kishimoto doesn't actually show them even on the same page, let alone the same panel. The same goes for Sakura and Sasuke. Well, if nothing else, at least he is consistently bad at writing romance....and writing in general.

Seriously, though, this is just as bad as the Digimon Adventure 02 and Harry Potter epilogues, except those ones hurt to watch/read more because the series that they were concluding were actually good, for the most part. Over here it's definitely bad, but I must admit that it's "hilariously" bad, so that may be the only perk to this final arc being as big of a POS as it was.

This has made my day  :lol: : Jason Thompson attempts to read all of Naruto in 48 hours (part 1). (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/house-of-1000-manga/2014-11-06/naruto/.80741)

I can't wait until he gets to the Shinobi War and has to endure all that shit. I hope he gets uncharacteristically infuriated. The only truly spiteful review he ever did was for Usagi Drop, so that would be a treat.

Goddamn, that's got to be the most sadistic thing that I've ever seen a fan of manga do, and that's saying something. I'll bookmark it for later.

Anyways, reflecting on this and other less than stellar endings in manga have inspired me to make a top 10 list of manga/anime endings that I actually really liked and felt did their respective series justice. Here is what I came up with:

10. Yu Yu Hakusho (anime)- An epilogue that's actually not cringe-worthy for a change.

9. Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket- It may be cheating considering how short this series is, but a great ending is a great ending, all the same.

8. Monster- While not necessarily perfect, for a series as well-written as this one, to pull off such an ending without disappointing any of the readers was nearly impossible, and somehow Urasawa still managed to do it, even if some ass-hats still love to complain about it and, in the process, miss the point of the ending, and the entire point of the series to begin with.

7. Trigun (anime)- Vash carrying Knives off slung over his shoulder is class.

6. Puella Magi Madoka Magica- That last episode really is pretty heartwarming (and the epilogue doesn't kill it depending on how you interpret it).

5. Rurouni Kenshin (manga)- Another one of the few times that an epilogue actually turned out to be really satisfying, and the actual conclusion to the final arc itself was brilliant.

4. Cowboy Bebop- The ending everyone praises, and while we all love that last shot of Spike, it's really the intensity of the The Real Folk Blues 2-parter that makes this ending so good.

3. Slam Dunk- That last shot, man, that last shot.

2. Ashita no Joe (manga/anime)- The iconic scene that everyone praises Cowboy Bebop for, but which this series did decades before it ever even existed; though this last fight itself is also super climactic and excellent.

1. Death Note (manga)- Yep, still my favorite in terms of pure satisfaction.

There are other endings which I enjoyed as well, but these are my favorites.

Good news, everyone! http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/11/07/naruto-manga-sequel-coming-in-2015

Old news, friend! And it's only a mini-series! And of course there will be spinoffs upon spinoffs for one of the biggest anime/manga franchises of all time! But who cares! I don't care! The main series is done, kaput, over! I DON'T HAVE TO READ IT ANYMORE! So...MEH!

So it looks like J.C. staff will be doing the Shokugeki no Soma anime. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-11-09/j.c-staff-food-wars-shokugeki-no-soma-anime-casts-yoshitsugu-matsuoka/.80833) They haven't done anything good in a long time, but I think their production values are solid enough. None of the people working on the show leave me particularly excited, though, but I'll wait and see how it turns out.

Oh, and the first Assassination Classroom anime trailer featuring actual animation has come out! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d7Xh4p7Ca4)

...Not terribly impressed. I never liked Seiji Kishi's style, and it really seems like it works against the series here. The bold lines in particular give everything a static look, making it unbelievable the characters are moving, and existing in the environment around them. It's a total clash of aesthetics. And the actual animation itself looks really limited, which is disappointing, because a character like Korosensei has so much mileage to get out of with expressive movements, and Yusei Matsui takes total advantage of that in his manga. There were only a few scenes shown here, of course, so maybe if I see more I can get a better grasp on it, but right now, it doesn't seem like this will turn out all that well. That's a shame, since this could have been such a fun watch, and Classroom really needed a great anime to become a hit overseas. But maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit, and the first ep will prove me wrong. But I certainly have less expectations for this than I did before.

Hey, you guys want to look at something neat?

Shueshia has put a digital copy of the Naruto's debut issue in Shonen Jump online. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-11-09/shonen-jump-posts-naruto-entire-debut-issue-online/.80838) Now, I know that nobody here cares about that, but the issue was also the same one that included Rurouni Kenshin's finale, which, I'm sure IS interesting for people on this board. The chapters of the other series in it are also neat to look at. It's worth a flip, especially just to see where Jump was back then and compare it to how it is now.

I have to be honest in saying that I don't think that writing villains is a particular strength of Ohtaka's. Her 2 best ones so far were Cassim and Mogamett, IMO, particularly because they were actually 3-dimensional characters, but even then I found them to be severely lacking in personality. Cassim was often either obviously deceptive (though that was when he was at his best) or irrationally angry. Mogamett was also either very angry or super nice. We never got to see him at any real conflict with himself until the end, and there his personalities were black and white, with very little gray in-between.

Most other villains in the series, as sinister as they can be, are honestly very one-note. I remember how Gyokuen didn't seem the least bit distraught by The Medium being taken out, which most people seem to interpret as her being a great villain who has everything under her control, but personally I can't stand that "all according to plan" sort of demeanor. I find villains most interesting when they are either on a level playing field with the heroes, or if they have a clear sense of conflict with what they are doing, like Meruem from Hunter X Hinter. I just don't get that from the villains in amagi, which IMO is the manga's biggest weakness.

I. Only mention this because in the last few chapters we've been spending time with Hakuryuu and Judar, and I've honestly been bored by it so far. Both have the potential to be really interesting, as the backstory and motives are clearly there, and they could be really 3-dimensional anti-heroes since they hate Al Thamen as well, but also don't want to be on the side of the other kingdoms, making them a solo duo out for their own gains, and not on anyone else's side. It's just that the potential feels wasted because they are just showing the evil sides of themselves rather than the actual relatable motives they have for doing what they are doing, which would make them more interesting characters. With Judar, we've had hints at his backstory, but we haven't h the full story revealed to us yet as to how he turned out like he did. On the other hand, we have Hakuryuu's whole backstory, yet while that should make his character more sympathetic, Ohtaka sees fit to give him the Sasuke buzz-kill complex and just have the "everyone is my enemy" attitude, which doesn't even make sense because at least his sister would probably support him if he wasn't irrationally evil about all of this and if he could convince her of the truth of how their father and brothers were really killed, which he hasn't even tried.

The bottom line being, though, that these characters SHOULD be more interesting than they currently are, and certainly have the means to be, but Ohtaka is disappointingly going down the predictable route with them as she honestly does with most other villains in the series. I do still like this series on the whole, but I've always wondered what it is that stops me from outright calling it great, and to me this is one of the bigger factors that's holding it back from its full potential as a series.

Now, don't get me wrong. While I find most of the villains to be lacking compared to everything else in the series, I still don't think anything about them is outright bad. We're not talking anything anywhere even close to Naruto's Black Zetsu and Kaguya level's of terrible, or even any of its other villains. In fact, the closest thing we ever had to a well-written villain in that series goes as far back as Zabuza, who got killed off early, and then he's followed by Orochimari, and even Magi's worst villains are written better than he is. Still, if in terms of depth if I were to compare any of them to a Togashi villain, or in terms of just raw personality if I were to compare them to a villain from Dragon Ball, One Piece, or JoJo's, I find that they fall a bit flat for me, which is a real shame.

I do agree that how Ohtaka has been handling Hakuryuu and Judar in the recent chapters has not been well-done, and the chapters themselves have been rather dull. I really am not fond of this Sasuke-like direction Hakuryuu is taking, and for him to just turn on his friends and family as his enemies so easily like that was just not executed well at all (and I said as much in my summary for that chapter). It just seems like Ohtaka took what could have been a character who would go against his loved ones and the world for the sake of pursuing his own ambitions but didn't have anything against them either (like Midora in Toriko), for the sake of a character who is just irrational and insane about it, which I feel very disappointed about. I'm hoping that he doesn't devolve into truly Sasuke-esque territory, but the direction his character has taken has made the last few chapters a bit frustrating and meh to read for me.

Yeah, and I'm pretty disappointed because I really thought that Ohtaka was setting him up asan anti-hero of sorts. Like, when he killed that Umm Madaura, it was a dark turn for his character, but not a full-on heel turn. It caused dissonance between him and the main 3, but it didn't put them in direct opposition either. I liked the idea of him going on his own, aiming to take out the their common enemy, but going about it in a way that the main characters just couldn't stomach since it involved becoming cold-blooded killers. It'd also be interesting to see Al Thamen getting opposition form someone who. Was out for blood, which for once would put the villains under some serious pressure, while also keeping a conflict there for the heroes as they'd want to be able to redeem Hakuryuu to his former self. I actually am fine with him teaming up with Judar, as I thought that it's be great to see how Judar could manipulate him and bring out his dark side in stark contrast to how the other 3 brought out his good side, and we did get a little bit of that, but it hasn't received as much focus as I was expecting. I'm hoping that future chaoters can remedy this, because I'm seeing some seriously wasted potential, here.

So, apparently Rin-ne has a super important announcement next week. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2014-11-10/rumiko-takahashi-rin-ne-manga-has-super-important-announcement-next-week/.80867) Also, the domain name anime-rinne.com (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2014-11-11/domain-anime-rinne.com-registered-before-rin-ne-manga-announcement/.80896) was registered two weeks ago. I'm pretty confident this means that Rin-ne is finally getting an anime. Though I contend that it's the weakest of Takahashi's major works, I do still enjoy reading it, and in the right hands an anime version could be a lot of fun. I wonder if they'll get Kappei Yamaguchi to play Rin-ne?  It'd be amusing to see him play yet another Rumiko Takahashi lead character.  :D

I picked HnI back up (finally) and I'm now 1,000 chapters in. The last few fights were so disappointingly boring, but the manga has had some interesting developments since I started reading it again.

For one thing, I like how Mashiba was pissed at Kimura for half-assign his last few matches, which he feels makes him look bad since Kimura nearly beat him during their title match. Meanwhile Aoki went in to fight the guy who brutalized his rival, the former champion of his weight class, and in turn got brutalized himself, yet he claims that he's happy that he now has someone big to overcome in his weight class, just like how Ippo has Miyata and Itagaki has Imai.

Also, Vorg's world title match is surprisingly good so far. This one hardly had any buildup to it. But for a relatively minor character, he's always entertaining to watch. Speaking of which, it got me thinking of my top 10 favorite fights from this manga. Here's what I have come up with:

10. Miyata vs. Mashiba (RK Tournament Semi-Finals)- Making this list made me realize that. Miyata kind of sucks for being Ippo's rival. He was entertaining enough in their spar, but to me this is his only stand-out official match in the series so far, probably because Mashiba is just such an effective heel.

9. Kimura vs. Mashiba (JLC Title Match)- Despite being a comedic side character for the most part, this match gave him his chance to shine, and he proves to be a very compelling boxer when he gets serious. It's just too bad that he's releagated to being a joke character most of the time. Also, once again, Mashiba is just a great opponent to go against. He makes any match that he's in more entertaining by his presence alone.

8. Kamogawa vs. Anderson (Post-WWII Era Flashback)- Probably the closest that this series ever gets to an Ashita no Joe style fight, this arc was great, and this fight was a perfect way to cap it off. It really shows you how bad-ass Kamogawa was back in the day, which is why he's so highly respected among this colleagues as a trainer.

7. Itagaki vs. Imai (RK Tournament Finals)- Generally I'm not much of a fan of Itagaki, but his Rookie King matches were quite good, and this one in particular was well-done, with lots of build-up to it that ended up paying off.

6. Mashiba vs. Sawamura (JLC Title Match)- This is quite frankly a type of match that we really need more of. I love it when 2 heel personas go up against each other. Of course, going into this match, Mashiba comparatively comes off as a baby face, but I love how Sawamura's constant fowls bring out Mashiba's bad side, and he's back to being as dirty as he ever was, leading to the most unclean match in the entire series, and it's all the more entertaining (and somewhat more hilarious) for it.

5. Ippo vs. Sawamura (JFC Title Match)- Sawamura is also of course a great heel in his own right, and his match with Ippo brings in a level of intensity that the series had been lacking for several matches before this fight took place.

4. Date vs. Martinez (WBA FC Title Match)- Up until recently, Date was the only person to have ever defeated Ippo in an official match, so he was already established as being insanely strong. However, Ricardo Martinez is this manga's equivalent to Jose Mendoza, and any AnJ fan would know what that means. The clash between 2 seemingly undefeatable figures for the world title is easily one of the best confrontations that this series has ever had to offer.

3. Ippo vs. Date (JFC Title Match)- Well, I already spoiled the outcome of this match, but it is so well done that even knowing that fact doesn't hurt the impact of this fight. It's a devastating blow to Ippo's confidence, yet when he (and us as the audience) look back on it, the fight that he put up was clearly on a level good enough to take down Date had he not let himself get so mentally psyched out by an intimidating opponent. On the plus side, though, it prevents Ippo from ever getting cocky as a boxer, and even gives him someone to respect and look up to for the future.

2. Takamura vs. Hawk (WBC JMC Title Match)- Easily the most violent match in the series, this one just has so much at stake that it had to be this good. Bryan Hawk is by far the cruelest heel ever featured in this manga, and the fact that Takamura himself is a violent brawler makes the heated confrontation between the 2 of them the most perfect match-up that you could ask for.

1. Ippo vs. Sendo (JFC Title Match)- I already talked about this one on my favorite manga/anime fights thread, and I still consider it to be one of the best physical fights that I have ever seen in the medium. It just has so much heart to it, and the battle is so even,h matched that it never gets boring for even a second. The tables are always turning, and there's always a surprise that keeps the match feeling unpredictable until the very end. The anime version in particular is great for the animation and its use of music.

Overall, while this series has its mediocre to bad fights, it had a ton of great and memorable ones as well. It's also one of the few battle shonen/sports series that is good at making fights not involving the main character just as interesting (if not more so) than any of the actual main fights. In most other shonen, that usually just comes off as filler, but in this manga I actually tend to care about many of these matches.

Since I refuse to spoil myself on the latest Silent Voice and Fuuka chapters before I do this, I better stop dawdling and sum my thoughts on last week's stuff up already:

A Bride's Story chapter 41 - Most of this chapter was just very, well, cute. Enjoyably so. It's just so very rare to just see a celebration of friendship, especially female friendship, like this in manga, and it's interesting that there was this legit cultural practice in some arab cultures where adult women basically swore to be "best friends forever,' pretty much, and the moments between Anis and Shirin and their ceremony, with everyone being so supportive of their friendship and getting into planning and making everything go well together, was just, for lack of a better world, adorable. And then the ending of the chapter. Hmm...can't say I didn't expect something like this to happen, but I imagine it would be pretty devastating for Anis' husband to die, if he does. What I imagine is that this will force her to reexamine her relationship with him, and might put a strain with her pact with Shirin, somehow. That seems like the most likely direction, but I have a feeling Mori will do something I won't expect, like she always does, so I'll just have to wait and see.  :sweat:

A Silent Voice chapter 60 - Aw...so Shoya ended up making Shoko feel wary about moving to Tokyo, and he feels so awful about it. And he just keeps wondering: What am I going to do? Not just with this situation, but with his life. It's re-enforced during his meet-up with his Nagatsuka and co., where they all have plans for the future and, while not all them know what they want to do in life, they are going to do what they want to do. (On that note, I love how Mashiba doesn't dissuade Kawai from following him to the same college he goes to and how nonchalantly he says he likes her...third best after children. And then Nagatsuka's like "ah, she's pretty high. I like kids too." That was a wonderfully funny moment.) But, what does Shoya want to do? That's what he's trying to figure out. For so much of his life he was just miserable and going through the motions. Then he finally found purpose in making amends with Nishimiya and helping her find friends and being a friend to her. But that job's done now. She's found a goal and is ready to move on with her life, and Shoya needs to find one too. But right now he feels he's held her back by making her reconsider her decision to move to Tokyo. And so that scene with Yuzuru...man, it's just so nice to see how their relationship is now compared to when they first met, and how they both feel about Shoko's decision: sad that she would be out of their lives for a bit, but at the same time knowing that it's for the best she leaves to do what she wants. And so Shoya sends a text telling her to go for it after all, and Yuzuru plans to work hard to make sure her sister wont stay behind because she's worried about her. And so what does Shoya do now? What does he become now? That's the question the final two chapters should be sure to answer, and I can't wait to see what it is.

Assassination Classroom chapter 106 - I'm loving the depth being added to Irina's character, and showing her mixed feelings about what she's doing but doing it because she feels she HAS to reclaim the bloodlust she once had and return to that world, believing that she cannot continue to live a happy, carefree life with Class 3-E, and that has dulled not only her skills, but her sense of self as a person. And I appreciate how Korosensei reinforces that Irina IS very skilled, and very dangerous, and while the students have come a long way and may, at some point, started to consider Irina in somewhat mocking terms, she is still above their level, and not someone they can outmatch the way they are now. And I also love Karasuma's part of the chapter, showing how skillful and experienced he is, even on a borderline superhuman level, and there was just a lot of great action, and great humor, in this section. And then the ending of the chapter, with the students feeling down and saying "we can't measure up to these guys" and Korosensi basically saying "yes, they are strong. So what are you going to do? You can't just become suddenly stronger nor can you just give up and die. But there is something you can do; there is a way for the weak to fight." And so that gives them an idea of how they can use their own skills, their own concept of assassination, to give themselves a fighting chance and throw a wrench into God of Death's plans. Just a really well-written chapter with a lot going on and so many great character moments. AC has been on a roll with this arc and every week just keeps getting better. I can't wait to see how Class E manages to outwit God of Death and where Irina's character arc goes from here.

Attack on Titan chapter 63 - You know, that scene aside, this wasn't a merit-less chapter. There were, in fact, a lot of good developments on Eren's front with the backstory about Historia's sister and how Eren's dad apparently killed her (and most of the rest of her family), and how that may not be the complete truth, as Eren sees a flashback of events eerily similar to what he's seeing before his eyes now, which brings into question whether Reiss is who he says he is and pretty much confirming that he is basically manipulating Historia into order to get her to steal Eren's power for his purposes. Beyond that, we have some decent talk of the ramifications of the coup on Pixis' front as well as suspicions about Kenny the Ripper and the secret behind the Ackername surname and family line. But, of course, for all the good there was in this chapter, THAT scene had to also be in here. It's like...AOT has these moments like that where it does something so unbelievably stupid and dumb that it completely undermines my ability to take it seriously and hampers my enjoyment of it. It don't get why that was even in there. It's not funny, and it certainly doesn't portray the good guys in any manner of a positive light. If it were not for that one scene, I probably would have rated this chapter a lot higher. But, again, some good stuff was in here, and there are definitely a few developments that could lead into some interesting things down the line, that I'm curious to see developed in future chapters.

Bakuon chapter 9 - So, helmet-girl apparently was a former student of the old motorcycle club who supposedly got seriously hurt or something in a race, and this chapter was basically her meeting with...I forget what position she has, but an old fellow club member who is now a teacher, and basically her involvement with the club means it can be formed now. I believe this is the first time I have talked about this series in these recaps, and basically, while I'm not a fan of these sorts of "Cute girls do some activity cutely" like K-On and stuff, this one got me interested on the premise and with some genuinely good humor, and the first volume of chapters was pretty enjoyable. This chapter, though, kind of misses the mark for me, as it felt much more like one of those cgdcac kinds of chapters and repeated some overused jokes and was kinda boring and forgettable as a result. I hope future chapters are more entertaining, but for the first one in...three months or something, I was pretty unamused with this 'un.

Bleach chapter 604 - Why the hell is Bazz B still alive? Sternritter N died instantly when he got hit with the light, but Bazz B is holding on like it's nothing. Anyway, I guess this chapter is setting up Shunsui and maybe Byakuya heading to the Soul King's Palace to help out, which sorta makes sense but also doesn't because you'd think they'd be so much weaker than Squad Zero's guys they couldn't do that much, but this is Bleach so it's not like I ever expect power levels to mean shit. So, anyway apparently Ywach's goons are stronger now and they kill...what was his name again. Meh, I don't care. Basically Ywach is out of the tree barrier thing and now going to fight with the captain of Squad Zero which is totally something we should care about because the captain of Squad Zero is totally someone who we have come to care about through the course of many chapters and really invested in his story and stuff. Should it be a surprise that Bleach was the most worthless, shitty, worst chapter I read last week? The answer is no. In any case, maybe this fight will at least go by quickly. Oh, and some people are speculating cloak guy is going to turn out to be Aizen. I will not be surprised if that turns out to be true.

Boku no Hero Academia chapter 6 - Ah man, this is another great chapter. Midoriya can't use his power effectively yet, so he ranks last in all the activities, even though others had at least one they excelled at. So it all boils down to the ball toss, but the teacher sees through his inability and steals his quirk, telling flat out he can't expect people to come his aid again if he cripples himself like in his last attempt and if he can't learn to use his power efficiently and effectively he should give up being a hero. So the guy recognizes his effort, but doesn't have any expectations of him. But Midoriya thinks about this, and figures out a way he can use his full strength and still move, by concentrating it all at the last second into a single finger and flicking the ball like that, and because of that toss, he is able to avoid being last place, and shows he can use his power in a way that wont require other people to help him out if he gets hurt, and impresses his teacher as a result. A really, really well-done chapter, one of those kinds of chapters where you can't help but go "YES!" and really feel happy for the character accomplishing a goal like this. This continues to be a really enjoyable series and looking at the rankings it seems that it's made a great impression in Japan as well, and I'm really hoping it keeps up this momentum.

Detective Conan chapters 909-910 - So this case has a supernatural bent to it involving the japanese mythological creature the Katamanchi and it has Heiji involved. The first chapter was more amusing for me because Conan was basically trolling Heiji through the chapter and they were being all skeptical if this would be an interesting case and stuff, but I'm not really feeling this one otherwise. I kind of have a feeling who the culprit is too so it's just not that interesting a mystery, imo.

Fuuka chapter 38 - Ho man, this was a sad look at Yuu at his lowest point after Fuuka's death, wandering aimlessly, ditching school getting into fights, completely at a loss at what he should do. My favorite part is when Mikasa finds him laying in a gutter, beaten up, surrounding by trash, and just hugs him, crying about he doesn't know what he can do after having his best friend dead and his other best friend in so much pain. Just a strong, well-done emotional moments. Fuck them fair-whether fans, the mangaka is handling this right, imo, and I really want to see where's he's taking this story and what he does with it.

GTO: Paradise Lost chapter 15 - I guess seeing asshole idol boy having things seemingly crash down for him is sort of amusi-nah, I just can't bring myself to care. Such a forgettable and rote chapter, and there is just nothing I feel like mentioning about here. Let's move on.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan chapter 17 - So Narsus and Daryun are looking for information on the masked man...and they find him...and they fight...and Masked Man gloats about killing Daryun's father and that pisses him off so he slashes off his mask...and...he kind of looks like Daryun with a scar. Um...there were some amusing bits to this chapter...but this whole confrontation with the Masked guy seems too quick and I just don't care. Meh.

Magi chapter 245 - Hakuryu and Judar infiltrate and brainwash a base of soldiers in a totally not-villainous way. I just...can't get into this stuff with Hakuryu and Judar. The later is simply underdeveloped and the former is just taking a worryingly Sasuke-like approach to things, and while some of their political-ish maneuverings and strategizing is somewhat interesting, just something about the execution, and the somewhat messier art as of late (at least imo), is just sucking me out of the experience and making these chapters feel "off" to me. I honestly want to get away from these two at this point, and we've only spent 5 chapters just focused on them so far, so this isn't boding well, but maybe things will pick up soon.

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad chapters 39-40 - Uh, Sinbad and co. go to this country that doesn't do business with outsiders, they learn they can get an in if they make connections with the kingdom's knights, they meet the son of the head one and wow him with their stories of the outside world, and then at the end of the chapters the kid is like confronted with his father about being irresponsible or something and his little brother is apparently...I forget who, but Vlord tells me he becomes one of Sinbad's subordinates in the future so I guess he's important. Um, if you couldn't tell, I sort of found these chapters kind of dull and a little boring, but, uh, the end promises an interesting development and it should get more interesting going forward.

Naruto chapters 699-700 - I already basically said my thoughts on this last week, so no need to go over all that again. But, one thing I just noticed, is that behind the mountain that has all the kage's faces on it in that last two page spread, if you look at the back, you can see what is a modern city, with skyscrapers and everything, in the background. So, apparently, Naruto exists in the modern world. I guess this sort of explains why they had movies in that first anime movie and stuff, but otherwise, nothing about that adds up to me. So all the ninja just obstained from using mechanical weapons and vehicles and stuff, because I'm assuming if there are fucking skyscrapers in this universe there should be automobiles and guns and stuff. I mean, that whole thing confuses me more than anything else. Also, I don't see many people noticing it. Even the WMR guys didn't notice it. I mean, I can't be the only one who's noticed that, right? Uh, anyway, who cares, fuck this series, blah, blah, blah. I still need to write my overall thoughts on the whole series proper, but man these recaps are long now and I'm tired, so I'll save that for another time.

One Piece chapter 766 - Oh man, Law really fucked up. Of all the people he could have gone to for help, it just happened he stumbled upon Vergo. Sad. And now Dolfamingo's arrived and has used his string cage thing so nobody can leave the island. Corazon basically knows he's gonna die but apparently he feels he can get Law to safely before he does, and until the bitter end he's going to make sure Law remembers him by showing him a smile. I personally love how his smile so awkward and painful, to the point it turns around and becomes almost amusing. Considering that Law's Heart Pirates' Jolly Roger is shown to have a very smiling face, I'm pretty sure that this is the reason, and it's interesting to see how much Corazon really influenced Law and how much of this Oda must have had an idea for when he came up with the concept for Law's character. I'm amusing that the next chapter will be the end for Corazon and then the chapter after that will be the wrap-up, but this has been a really great backstory doing everything a good OP backstory should - develop/give new understanding about certain characters, flesh out the world, and tie things together in an interesting way. Definitely some of the stronger chapters of this series as of late.

Peephole chapter 46 - Oh shit, looks like I was right and Kurosu is going to have to make his first kill if he's going to get out of this mess. Unless Miyachi somehow shows up suddenly, but I kind of doubt that. This is a pretty do or die situation so how this is gonna go down has me really curious, especially in terms of what this might mean for Kurosu's development as a character (lol, to think I would say that about a series like this  :D ).

The Seven Deadly Sins chapters 101-102 - Basically wrap-up chapters, some nice moments between certain characters here and there. The biggest developments are Merlin rejoining the team, Gowther and Guila becoming an item (for some reason), and the big one - Ban leaving the Sins. Presumably, because he doesn't want to deal with the temptation of trying to kill Meliodas to revive Elaine, but yeah, interesting development. Obviously, Ban won't be gone for long, if he goes at all. What I'm expecting is that the next arc of the series will be more focused on Ban, actually, and I definitely would be game for that. Will be interesting to see how things go from here.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 93 - A transitional chapter, but one that definitely has me pumped up to see the clash between Soma, Akira, and Kurokiba, and the mackrel dish idea seems great. Since the ingredient is something that suits the strengths of all three, how they make variants of the dish, ones that they believe will totally top their competitors, is going to be curious to see. Much like the characters themselves, I'm pretty excited about the showdown, and really looking forward to it. 

Shonan Seven chapter 4 - I'm genuinely enjoying the direction the series is taking now. I'm actually interested in this four-way friendly rivalry and the fact glasses punk guy is being targeted by those asshole punk dudes. I mean, I'm still a ways from being at the point where I remember characters names and stuff, but I enjoyed reading the chapter at the very least, which, for a modern Tohru Fujisawa, is definitely a step up, so hopefully it keeps it up.

Toriko chapter 300 - I really wish the 300th chapter of Toriko would have been a fantastic one that I could praise and praise ...but...this...wasn't...very...good. It was, actually, insanely disappointing. They defeated Goritarus so easily, that I have to wonder, like Bambina herself, why I should care? And it seems so meaningless. They seemed to struggle against that gang of lower ranked monkey mooks before, but they beat an Instructor class warrior like he's nothing in a single chapter? Doesn't make any sense. Really, the characters are just too fucking strong now. It's the problem One Piece has had since the timeskip. In fact, this chapter made me think of how Toriko might be falling the way OP did after it's timeskip, since both had their most fucking amazing two years of their runs before it, but after it they both started to decline. I'm really disappointed about this, because starting this year off, things were looking bright for the series, and they continued to be until around the whole mess with the Heracles fight and everything after, where I've been feeling the series has been a bit "off" ever since, just like I have with OP after the Sabody Reunion arc. This chapter just makes me worried about the direction the series is taking now. Like RolloT in today's WMR, I also feel that Toriko's been "forgettable" as of late. Not that anything has been bad, necessarily, but that it's not been doing anything impactful and the pacing has just been so all over the place, and this chapter was just the last straw for me about that. Toriko was, by far, my favorite currently running manga in 2012 and 2013. Now, I wasn't reading that many manga before this year, but still, it was great those last two years, but this one has just not been up to par at all. I'm really hoping the series gets back on track, and doesn't end up like OP is now, or how most other battle shonen series seem to go after their timeskips, because that would be a damn shame.

Oh, but there was one notable thing I found interesting in the chapter. Sunny's hair apparently can absorb and spit out the essence of the things that it eats, and when Sunny is giving the explanation about that, we see a close up on his hair, and we see TOMMYROD'S ANGUISHED FACE IN IT. Holy shit. I thought he just died, but NOPE! Tommyrod has basically been suffering in pain in Sunny's hair without the relief of death. Fuck. Sunny... you are one cruel bastard. Who would have guessed.  :sweat:

World Trigger chapters 56-60 - LOOK WHAT GOT UPDATED! So yeah, looks like more WT scans are coming in. Last I checked they're at chapter 68 now. There's 82 chapters so far, so that means the gap should hopefully be closing soon if they keep it up. But, I'm only going to take into account the chapters I read last week. And...well, I enjoyed them. A lot of very interesting developments and good strategizing on the heroes' part. The main thing that keeps me from getting to into what's going on, though, is that a lot of the characters I still can't get into because there are so many of them and only a few are established. But, you know, there is a lot of neat action and some good character moments in these chapters and the development that Osamu might die if they don't change the direction of things adds even greater personal stakes to an already high-stakes affair. I'm sure I'll be able to get more into it as the arc goes on, the villains get more established/fleshed out and the focus narrows to the most important characters. The WMR guys promise this was a great arc for Osamu's character arc in particular, so I'm definitely looking forward to that, at the very least.

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 10/10
2. A Bride's Story - 10/10
3. Fuuka - 10/10
4. Assassination Classroom - 10/10
5. Boku no Hero Academia - 10/10
6. Shokugeki no Soma - 8/10
7. One Piece - 8/10
8. World Trigger - 8/10
9. The Seven Deadly Sins - 8/10
10. Shonan Seven - 7.5/10
11. Peephole - 7.5/10
12. Detective Conan - 7/10
13. Magi: Adventure of Sinbad - 7/10
14. Magi - 7/10
15. Toriko - 7/10
16. Attack on Titan - 7/10
17. The Heroic Legend of Arslan - 6/10
18. Bakuon - 6/10
19. Naruto - 4/10
20. GTO: Paradise Lost - 1/10
21. Bleach - 1/10

Yeah, so, lots of just okay, mediocre, and bad stuff this week. But still, five 10/10 worthy chapters in a single week isn't a common occurrence, and those were some damn fine chapters I tell you what, so, I'm not too bothered by the meh stuff. But geez, some series just are not doing much for me recently. Though, at the same time, others are doing a heck of a lot, so it all balances out, I guess. Really, though, it's also going to hurt to lose Silent Voice next week, since it's pretty much been the best thing I've been reading every week since I started keeping up with it. Even though that's only been around four months, things just won't feel the same. Still, there's plenty to look forward to right now, so hopefully those series can just keep it up.

 Jason Thompson tries to finish all of Naruto in 48 56 hours part 2! (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/house-of-1000-manga/2014-11-13/naruto-part-ii/.80991)

I haven't read it yet, but I love how he begins the article:

Quote"The situation is just like that of vomiting."
—Killer Bee

SPOILER: I couldn't do it. I couldn't read all 71 (I mean 72) volumes of Naruto in 48 hours. I dropped volumes, I blew past the deadline, I ended up a ravaged shell of my former self. The following is the tale of a man who read too much Naruto...

:lol:

I love this particular bit from that write-up:

QuoteLike Naruto himself, Kishimoto is so serious and earnest about the morality of his world, if he was rewriting Dragon Ball he'd probably give Vegeta a long speech in the Cell Saga about how he feels bad about killing so many people and it was all because the Ginyu Force picked on him when he was younger.

His overall thoughts on the manga were actually more positive than negative, though. That is to say that he's not a big fan of it, but he doesn't view it as a bad manga, either. That said, I think the fact that he marathoned it so fast gave him little time to truly think about and critique what he was reading. He does acknowledge how much the Shinobi War arc drags on, but it had more problems than just being too long, and he disappointingly skips over making fun of many of the more questionable writing decisions towards the end.

Overall, though, it was entertaining to see someone attempt a feat like this, but personally I'd love to see someone who has read it properly manage to tear the manga to pieces by picking apart every big issue that plagued it during the later years of its run.

So, I tried picking AoT back up now that I've taken a 1-year break from the manga to let some more material come out, and....I just can't get into it. I read chapter 51 and tried to get invested, but I just got bored out of my mind. I'm still planning on catching up to it again, but I really have nothing in this manga that I'm attached to or invested, and the fact that I'm actively trying to establish that in the first place is very telling of its quality, or lack thereof.

I think it's biggest problem is that it's so utterly devoid of any real personality. What I mean by that is that the characters are all pretty 1-note in their ambitions and mannerisms, and that leaves nothing there to distract you from the dips in quality when the story is moving along at snail's pace, and especially when you have instances of flat-out bad writing that you have to endure.

In this week of manga, the Monkey King Bambina plays skipping stones with a mountain and Hakuryu somehow continues to break out of binding curses with the hax power of sheer hatred:

A Silent Voice chapter 61 - Such great character resolution here between Shoya and Ueno. First Shoya revealing that he's decided to stay at home and work to take over the family business. Then Ueno telling him that Shoko also wants to be a hairdresser. Tying things together with the beginning of the series with Shoya learning that it was Shimada and Hirose who rescued him, which segues way into Ueno finally apologizing to Shoya for turning on him and bullying him when they were kids, which leads into Ueno acknowledging her own self-hatred for her actions and her inability to like Shoko even after everything that's happened, which leads into Shoya acknowledging what happened to him that caused him to get estranged from his old friends was his fault, which leads into Shoya encouraging Ueno that because she recognizes her faults she has the ability to change herself...oh my god so perfect. Just perfect. And then everybody graduating, Shoya saying his farewells to Nishimiya...yeah everything was just fantastic here. So, so, so satisfying. I will be so sad when this series ends next week. At the same time, though, I'm looking forward to it, because after all of this, the conclusion is bound to be very, truly satisfying.

Assassination Classroom chapter 107 - Phenomenal chapter. I LOVED the insight into Erina's character we got here: her past, her upbringing, how she came to be how she is, why she thinks the way she does, and her regrets. And a strong moment between the students and Karasuma, encouraging him to forgive and rescue her because she missed out on her childhood and thus is still underdeveloped emotionally, and thus deserves another chance at life and to grow as a person. Karasuma's line to Erina at the end of the chapter, and the students outwitting and escaping the God of Death's trap...just excellent, excellent stuff. Man, Classroom has just been killing it lately! I've been loving this arc, and cannot wait to see how Class E escaped the God of Death's trap and how they will defeat him in the upcoming chapters.

Bleach chapter 605  - So we go from the best two chapters of the week to the worst. Sigh. Well, um, Bleach. God I barely remember what even happened in Bleach. Sigh, guess I'll have to re-read it. Nyuh...okay, I'm re-reading the chapter now. Mmm. Okay, so Kyoraku and Ukitake are talking about cryptic bullshit. Ukitake did something that's going to help, I guess. Kyoraku is going to the Central 46 for some reason. Okay, prediction: he's gonna ask them to bail Aizen out of jail so he can help them take out the Sternritters. Calling Aizen being involved with this somehow. Because really...when has Aizen not been involved with something the Central 46 did? Seriously. Hmm, I sorta like this effect Kubo did on this page I'm on where he made the black space look like it was ink from Ichibei's brush. That's kind of a less bullshitty way to waste ink than how he normally does it. So Ichi...you know what, fuck it, I'm not going to bother remembering his name. I'm just gonna call him beard guy from now on. So beard guy fights with giant spirit hands or something. Somehow it takes away Ywach's voice...because. Well, at least Ywach is actually showing some sort of surprise/struggle fighting this guy. Aizen beat everyone with just a smug smirk on his face. This at least sort of makes Ywach look like he has weaknesses, which sort of makes him less boring. In theory, at least. Um, so, Ywach uses his arrows to rebound from the smack down he was given, and I guess this means shit's got real or whatever. So...uh, yeah, this was a chapter. Stuff sure did happen. I'm soooo looking forward to the continued battle between these beard guys. Truly, I am. ...Are we done here? Please, let's talk about something good...

Boku no Hero Academia chapters 7-8 - Yeah, now here's what I'm talking about! This series continues to be incredibly entertaining and refreshing in execution. I love how they are immediately addressing the tension between Midoriya and Bakugou, with Midoriya already having the confidence to say to him "look, I'm just as worthy of being a hero as you are. No matter how much you put me down or insult me won't change that. I am not going to give up," and doesn't shy away from engaging him in a fight during the training exercise when Bakugou attacks him. I also love how they subverted the cliche that Midoriya's costume would be lame, instead showing the weight, reasoning, and logic behind his choice and having people acknowledge and like his costume's design with no one belittling it or putting it down like what might happen for some tepid comic relief scene in lesser manga. Overall, the characterization, development, and plotting of this series continues to be strong and makes me eagerly anticipate the next chapter(s). Wow, I must say, this series has had one of the strongest starts of any battle-oriented shonen manga I've ever read! I'm very impressed, and hope it continues to impress going forward.

Fuuka chapter 39 - While it seems odd to me that Fuuka's parents wouldn't clean the blood stains from Fuuka's headset, the development for Yuu in this chapter as he has to confront the reality that Fuuka is dead and gone now and that he misses her, FINALLY crying for her, was very, very potent and well done.  The end of the chapter, with the original owner of Yuu's bass coming back, is an interesting development, and is sure to push this series into a very promising new phase.

Hinomaru Zumou chapter 7 - I love the practicality of Hinomaru's advice, and how he was able to pick up on what Ushio and Yuuma's missteps were and tell them how to focus on their strengths in order to win their matches. This lead to some great moments for their characters as well as confidence builders, and allowed their team to be respected and recognized by the others as a force to be taken seriously. Very good progression of the story here and the final scene with Hinomaru and Munechika's tense conversation with each other makes me eager to see if they really will be able to face each other in the finals after all. After a few "meh" chapters, this series seems back to showing it's promising potential and I hope it continues to successfully establish a good foundation for it's story as this first arc continues.

Magi chapter 246 - I would probably be more into what's been happening if Hakuryuu wasn't so...well, angry about everything and somewhat cartoonishly villainous in his personality. The actual strategies he and Judar are employing are interesting in of themselves, but the fact that the characters employing them feel so shallow now really takes away my ability to get invested in them. Not to mention that the whole scene where Kouen's trap is activated and attempts to force Hakuryuu to give up on his hatred, except Hakuryuu is able to break out of it's control because "OMG HIS HATRED IS SO GREAT IT CANNOT BE ERASED" or some shit like that also happened like literally TWO CHAPTERS AGO and seems completely redundant and pointless as a result. The end of the chapter has Gyokuen smirking, making me think that what's happening is to her favor and works towards her grand design, somehow. I wonder if her goal is akin to Medusa's from Soul Eater in terms of using her child as a vessel to carry out her ultimate goals, and like Medusa, she would actually be willing to sacrifice her life and die for the sake of that. In this case, Gyokuen would allow Hakuryu to kill her, and somehow, this would trigger him completely falling into depravity, and fulfilling her goals in her place. It would be an interesting route for the series to go, but if it causes Hakuryu to devolve into a more one-dimensional character, I wouldn't be for it at all. Depravity doesn't quite work the same way Madness did in Soul Eater, in any case, so a turn like that might not work out quite as well as it did there. In any case, the next few chapters seem like they'll be building towards the confrontation between Hakuryuu and Gyokuen. Part of me feels that might be too quick, but at the same time I feel I'll find that more interesting than this build up to it, so by all means, I'd take it.

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad chapter 41 - I enjoyed Mistoras' motivations as well as the fact that he can walk the walk and is prepared to risk his life in order to gain the freedom he wants. I also like how this throws a wrench in Sinbad's plans, since the connection he's made would become useless to him regardless of the outcome of Mistoras' duel with his father. Very curious into how he'll be able to turn this situation around to his favor. I also enjoyed the reappearance of Yunan in this chapter, which sparked an interesting conversation that hints at Sinbad's ambitions, and his lack of fear to engage in conflict in order to win his goals. Some good stuff here, and ones that leave me much more favorable on these developments than I am on it's mother series.

One Piece chapter 767 - One curious thing to note on the very front page of this chapter is that the indication seems to be that Trebol was the one who gave Doflamingo his powers and told him about Haki, and it was around this time that he met Vergo, who quickly became his subordinate. I really do love how that front page ties into developing Corazon's motivations and highlighting his own death in this chapter. Corazon in general had a lot of great lines and moments here. In particular, I loved how he communicated so much of his final words in a way that seemed like it was addressing Doflamingo, but were really meant to be heard by by Law, and serves as both apologies, encouragement, and parting words to him, all at once. In general that scene between Doflamingo and Corazon was just a very, very well written sequence. Oh, the heck with it, this chapter was very well written overall with a lot of great moments. I personally love the timing of Corazon's death, where he passed away just as the marine battle ship fired it's canon, which drowned out Law's cry of grief. Very good moment there. Overall I was very impressed with this flashback and it has probably been the best stretch of chapters One Piece has had all year. I'm actually disappointed it's over and we have to get back to the main story now. Still, really great stuff that really did wonders for fleshing out Law and Dolfamingo's characters. I hope that the developments and connections we saw here will tie into the resolution of the current conflict in a meaningful way, and perhaps close the arc off on a high note, which could do well to mitigate some of it's failings.

Peephole chapter 47 - Well, it's good to see Kurosu show some balls...much good it's doing him. Kinda odd that the police woman has shown up so quickly like this. How did she find them? For that matter, does her appearance mean Kurosu won't make his first kill after all? Hmm...a lot to speculate about this development. It could be that she'll be put in danger and Kurosu makes a kill in order to save her life, which would somewhat absolve him of blame because it would technically be a form of self-protection and doing it for the sake of saving a police officer's life would cut him some legal slack.  Dunno if the story will take that route, but could be an interesting turn if it does happen. Also, the appearance of the body collectors makes me wonder if that crazy transvestite artist we saw back 30 chapters ago will be making his/her reappearance sometime soon. That was a humorous character, so it might be nice to re-add him/her back into the story.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 103 - Mainly another wind-down chapter, most of the focus being on introducing the gang's new outfits and such. The end of the chapter is what promises a new transition in the story, and is just an excellent conversation between Ban and King. With the Fairy King's Forest destroyed, how, exactly, does Ban plan to go there? And what do they mean that the next chapter will see "the return of the Fairy King?" Very interesting questions that seem to put this arc off to a promising start, and certainly, the fact that it promises to focus on Ban and King, my two favorite characters in this series, is definitely something that makes me look forward to it even more.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 94 - The difference between Soma and Kurokiba's familiarity and ability to pick out high quality ingredients, especially when it comes to seafood, was explored here and does a great job of putting Soma in the underdog position while thoroughly entertaining with some good tension and tips on how to distinguish the quality of fresh fish. It seems that Soma is actually, gasp, worried about his chances, which has never happened before, at least in the sense it's presented here. Of course, knowing Soma, he is sure to find a way to take advantage of his own skills and work hard to prepare for the final match between the three of them, and I'm curious to see what his plan for doing that will be.

Silver Spoon chapter 107 - Friggen' hilarious chapter. Wow. I was dying of laughter pretty much all the way through. What was the best part? Ah, can't decided. It's gotta either be the whole part where everyone's like "oh no, they discovered it's the glasses!" and Hachiken's despairs losing his only real advantage to riding that horse, or the Equestrian Club's motto and the first year's being freaked out that their class has to do it too when their time comes. And on a character level, I love Hachiken's recognition of why he joined the equestrian club in the first place and what it means to him, and his attempt to do his best in order to help his team, acknowledging his weaknesses as a rider but carefully planned in order to give his team the support they need to have a good score overall. Really, really great chapter here and one that reinforces just how much I really love this series.

Space Brothers chapter 239 - Really great chapter with all of Mutta's friends congratulating him and wishing him luck as he finally goes to head out into space at long last, with the reappearance of several old and familiar faces that were really satisfying to see again in the way they did. Next chapter should be truly excellent, as finally, at long last, Mutta will be going to the moon.

Toriko chapter 301 - Half the chapter is spent showing Bambina take a giant mountain and throw it across the globe, and showing it come back around as nothing but a pebble. There is some plot development in a very tense conversation with Kaka, hinting she might not have the most benevolent of motives after all, which Coco seems to pick up on, and the end of chapter with them arriving at that tree. I really feel the pacing of Toriko has just been really wonky lately, which makes it hard to grab onto what's happening in this current arc. Still, while the stuff with Bambina seemed pointless and time-wasting, the development with Kaka is genuinely intriguing, and might turn into an interesting development in the story, particularly if it turns out she's affiliated with NEO or the Bishokukai, or even just has her own ambitions. So there are some promising things to take from the chapter, but overall, I just felt it was rather weak, especially in comparison to the bulk of chapters other series had this week.

Watamote chapter 68 - Hmm, how to talk about a chapter of WataMote. There were many different bits in here, few of them connected, so there's no real "story" to comment on. I guess my favorite parts here, though, were Tomoko feeling uncomfortable when her classmates start talking about an anime she knows and hearing an anime theme play over the morning announcements, her confusion at the fact the manga series she's reading is on hiatus ("The author has back pain!?!"), her getting excited to go the public baths but ten three hours later feeling too tired and lazy to bother, and, possibly the best part, when Tomoko manages to name her character in a game "cockz" and proudly texts her brother about it and waits for a reply. Some very good segments in this chapter, and honestly, there hasn't been a WataMote chapter that focuses on short vignettes like this in quite a while, so it was a very enjoyable change of pace.

World Trigger chapters 61-73 - Wow, lots of chapters updated this week, and there was some strong story progression in them, showing the Border agents employ interesting strategy and tactics to outwit and defeat these stronger humanoid Neighbors, and even succeeding in killing a black trigger user. Osamu got a very great scene where he protected Chika's trion cube and escaped from Haidren, who himself is a promising antagonist. The old guy and hothead young Neighbor who is interestingly refereed to "lord" also had some good moments and the fight between them and Jin and Yuuma is very interesting, though we only saw the beginnings of it. Jin's statement about the "lord" being abandoned by his allies is also something very curious, and I wonder how that will come into play later on in this arc. Overall, some very enjoyable developments in these chapters, that makes me curious to see how the rest of this arc plays out and how it concludes. And with these many updates, I'd hope that we'll be fully get caught up with the backlog of this series by the end of next week as well.

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 10/10
2. Silver Spoon - 10/10
3. Assassination Classroom - 10/10
4. Fuuka - 9.5/10
5. World Trigger - 9/10
6. Boku no Hero Academia - 9/10
7. One Piece - 9/10
8. Hinomaru Zumo - 9/10
9. Space Brothers - 8.5/10
10. Shokugeki no Soma - 8.5/10
11. WataMote - 8/10
12. Magi: Adventure of Sinbad - 8/10
13. The Seven Deadly Sins - 8/10
14. Peephole - 8/10
15. Magi - 7.5/10
16. Toriko - 7/10
17. Bleach - 1/10

Overall, a very strong, very satisfying week of chapters. Many of these chapters really make me look forward to the ones coming next week, and since that will be a week including the conclusion of A Silent Voice, it just might prove to be another winner.

You know, at this point, I'd just settle for Hakuryuu pulling a John Wick or Taken and just getting into grudge fights with people who have royally pissed him off, and raise hell on Al Thamen. Would it make for good writing? No, it would be shallow as hell. Would it be more entertaining than an arc about him basically becoming Sasuke,  which is what we're currently getting? Hell yes.

Yup, a Rin-ne anime has been confirmed and is coming next spring. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-11-15/rumiko-takahashi-rin-ne-manga-gets-tv-anime-next-spring/.81078) Not surprised, and it's about time. I wonder how long they plan to make it? I think using a two-cours model is preferable than making it a long-runner. The bigger question, though, is who'll be doing it? What I would really love is for it to go to a good team and studio that really fleshes out and expands on it's strengths as a comedy and does a good job exploiting the solid characters and their interactions, like the Ranma anime did at times. A straight adaption would just be kind of boring, especially because the source material is only somewhat amusing at best as it is. I really think making it a more wacky slapstick comedy akin to Ranma, or even better, Urusei Yatsura, would make it more entertaining to watch. In any case, I'll keep tabs on it. It's a Rumiko Takahashi series, after all. Even though Rin-ne is easily my least favorite work of hers, there's still a fair bit of enjoyment I get from it, and I do think a good anime adaption could prove to be a very fun watch if done right.

I've also been keeping up with My Hero Academy for the past couple of weeks. I didn't mention anything about it because I wanted to read enough chapters to formulate a solid opinion on it first. I think it's safe to say that it's a good manga, now, or at least so far. I like how it seems to pay tribute to American style superheroes, both mocking and celebrating them, while also making for a great comedy that you could only see done in Japan, and specifically in manga form. I couldn't invision an anime capturing the raw, hyper energy of this manga, just like how Dr. Slump works far better as a manga than as an anime.

If I had just one gripe so far, and it's a minor one at that, it's how wildly inconsistent the character designs are, so far. That said, it's really early on in the manga, so that's to be expected since the artist is still experimenting with designs for the characters, but I swear that he can never keep the main character at a specific and consistent height. In some panels he's a total shrimp, and in others it's like he grew twice his original height. Even for a comedy manga such as this one, it's really jarring to make such a transition.

Overall, though, it's the best currently running comedy manga that I've come across so far.

I don't think Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academy is meant to purely be a comedy series. At least, not any more than, say, One Piece is meant to be. I'd consider it an action-comedy, as of now, with leanings towards becoming a more serious story as it goes forward. The core story seems very character driven and has been emphasizing the emotional growth of Midoriya, so far. With the set-up and the way things are structured I'm pretty sure it's meant to become a more serious manga in the future. In a sense, I would compare it to One-Punch Man (another manga about superheroes, though seinin), which is a series where many events and actions are played for comedy, but as it continued forward showed more signs of developing a more character focused, and somewhat serious story. In fact, I also find it comparable to Assassination Classroom as well, which started out like it would be a sort of episodic comedy, but as it continued developed an overarching story with many serious elements and interesting character development. These series never dropped the comedy element of them, of course, but at the same time they are no longer defined simply by those elements. What the direction this series will go, of course, remains to be seen, but right now I feel it will lean towards being an action series as it goes on, especially considering the mangaka's previous work, Barrage, was similar in tone, and though short lived, showed to evolve as such during in it's short run.

As far as my favorite currently running "comedy" manga goes, mine is easily Princess Jellyfish, which is my favorite currently running manga period, followed by Silver Spoon.

Quote from: Cartoon X on November 16, 2014, 01:16:52 AMI don't think Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academy is meant to purely be a comedy series. At least, not any more than, say, One Piece is meant to be. I'd consider it an action-comedy, as of now, with leanings towards becoming a more serious story as it goes forward.

You spent a whole lot of energy writing all of that when you could've just left it at this.

And yes, I'm not an idiot, it's a battle manga waiting to happen, but I'm primarily reflecting on the first 8 chapters, which are undeniably more focused on comedy than serious genuine moments, of which there have been plenty, but even many of those are presented in a comedic, over the top tone so far.

But seriously, do I really need to put a disclaimer at the end of every post addressing how it's "not exactly" fitting the exact wording that I'm using to describe it and that I'm aware of that to avoid getting the "well actually" responses from you for every other post that I make? Because you have a habit of doing this pretty much all of the time. :humhumhum:

Rin-ne confirmed to be a 2-cours, 25 episode anime! (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2014-11-16/25-episode-rin-ne-anime-brains-base-staff-visual-unveiled/.81091) Brain's Base is doing it! Great! They're really suited to the kind of sweet but also wacky comedy series like Rin-ne are, and the animation should be really solid! What's even better, Michiko Yokote will be in charge of the scripts. She has had experience working on Rumiko Takahashi anime adaptions before with Ranma 1/2, and wrote the script for Urusei Yatsura OVA 12 - "The Obstacle Course Swim Race," my FAVORITE episode of the Urusei Yatsura anime!  :swoon: Wow, this is actually sounding like it could be really, really enjoyable adaption! Especially if they play up the wackiness like was done in Ranma and that aforementioned UY OVA. Yeah, so I'm actually rather excited for this now, and I'm looking forward to it. I think this really could have the potential to be a really great show, especially if they can remove some of the weaker bits of the original manga and replace it with more of the good-old fashioned Takahashi-style craziness.

New promo for the Shokugeki no Soma anime! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae31R4z-UAM)

Dang, I must say, they've done a fine job making that food look as sexy delicious as it does in the manga. The aesthetics of the show, as well as the bits of animation shown here, is in general pretty great looking. The seiyuu doing Soma also sounds fine in the role, from what was heard here. This definitely is looking like it'll turn out to be a really good adaption, at least from a production standpoint. I'm hoping we see another trailer with more animation and featuring some of the other characters sometime soon.

A Silent Voice is getting an anime. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-11-16/a-silent-voice-manga-has-anime-in-the-works/.81109)

Yes.

YES.

A thousand times, YES! It certainly deserves one, and to be seen by a wider variety of people. I think it speaks volumes that this manga, which is only a little over 60 chapters long and just finishing this week, and had been in serialization only for a little over a year, and was never one of the most popular series in the magazine it ran in (in Japan, at least), still has had the popularity and support in order to get an anime version of it made. I'm so happy for it. It's an incredible manga, and in the right hands, I'm sure it will be an equally incredible anime.

So, I now I've got Stardust Crusaders season 2, Durarara!!x2, the Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel movie, Soma, Lupin blue jacket, Rin-ne, AND A Silent Voice to look forward to next year? I gotta say, 2015 is looking like it's going to be a great year of anime.  ;D

I read the final chapter of A Silent Voice.

I almost cried.

Beautiful ending. Amazing manga. The best I've ever kept up with. One of the best I've ever read period. I'm going to miss it. I'm going to miss it so, so much.

I really hope the mangaka comes out with a new work of equal quality, if not greater (if that's even possible), soon. She's a fantastic storyteller, and god knows I want more of what she's got to tell.

I also enjoyed it. Best manga I've read all year.

(And in case you're wondering, I caught up to it over the past 2 weeks).

I'm glad to see you enjoyed it.  :)

On the subject, it looks like the mangaka, Oima, while haven't decided anything definite yet, wants her next work to be a sci-fi fantasy. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-11-18/a-silent-voice-author-oima-wants-to-draw-sci-fi-fantasy/.81177) While I have would loved to see another "slice-of-life" from her, I'm all for it. It'll be interesting to see her apply the skills she's demonstrated in ASV to a whole different genre, and it could turn out fantastic. I'm definitely keeping an eye and ear out for whenever her next work begins serialization (hopefully it's soon!).

In less exciting (aka not at all exciting) news, Kishimoto says he'll begin his next non-Naruto work after next summer. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-11-19/masashi-kishimoto-to-start-work-on-next-title-after-naruto-after-next-summer/.81192) I mean, at least he isn't going to beat his hit series into the ground like certain other mangaka (cough, Konomi, cough), but yeah, after the shit that was the last few years of Naruto, I don't have any expectations for it either. I will probably check it out for the sake of it, though.

Oh what the?...Kodansha has delayed the release of Vinland Saga volume 6. (http://www.rightstuf.com/cgi-bin/catalogmgr/wpqiqJhhsDLa7MtPAY/browse/item/103273/4/0/0) Before they had it listed to come out on January 6th, but now the date is TBD.

Ack, that sucks. Not that I don't understand. Their releases have basically combined two of the japanese volumes into one, and there are only 14 volumes of VS so far, so after the next two books they won't have anything to release for a long time. I hope they don't delay this back too far, though. Still, this is not nearly as ridiculous to me as Dark Horse delaying the release of the Astro Boy omnibuses and briefly listing a release date of 2027 for some reason. I swear to god they better figure that shit out early next year... :srs:.

Honestly, Oima could do a battle Shonen for all I care, and she'd still probably be able to make it so character-driven and nuanced that it manages to deconstruct the genre and put most other modern series in the genre to shame. My point being that, I think she just has the talent to write well in the first place, so whatever genre she does, I'm sure that she can pull it off extremely well.

As for A Silent Voice, I really do like how this manga never took the easy way out of any situation. It could've easily turned into a generic and uninspired PSA, but much like another excellent slice of life manga, REAL, it's just so much smarter than that. Probably best of all is that it doesn't portray any single character as 1-dimensional. Just because someone is a bully doesn't mean that they are pure evil. It's also very realistic and never over the top with how it portrays the bullying. I can say that with certainty as a former victim of bullying, myself. That said, this manga really is about more than just that, and as a general coming of age story, it's among the best that I've seen.

This is also one of the very few manga that I'd have to struggle to find anything wrong with. I'm not saying that it's perfect, because to me there is no such thing, but I would REALLY have to go out of my way to try and find something wrong with it or that I don't like about it.

On a much more minor note, there is one little touch toward the end of the manga that I really appreciate. It's at the film festival where they get judged super harshly. First of all, whether intentional or not, I'll admit to laughing at that scene at how absurdly over the top the judge went in terms of insulting everyone involved with the film, and then how everyone was angry about it but also came to the conclusion that, in the end....yeah, it did kind of suck for how cheaply and quickly slapped together it was. That just really got a chuckle out of me. But more than that, it would've been so easy to have them make it far in the film contest as just a way to lighten up the mood toward the end of the manga. However, I hate it when series portray some other field as not that big of a deal and show someone excelling at it when they weren't even serious enough about it to begin with. This scene showed how harsh that field is, but still managed to lighten up the mood for me with how comical all of the character reactions were to it.

So, Weekly Manga Recap did their Naruto retrospective, (http://blip.tv/hilarios-productions/weekly-manga-recap-naruto-retrospective-7111241) talking about what they thought worked about their series and what didn't, and I found a lot of the points they made to be very valid, especially when it comes to what brought the series down over time (i.e. the overt focus on the rivalry between Naruto and Sasuke, not making use of secondary characters well, undermining the teamwork dynamic established at the beginning of the series, brushing off the idea of a harsh reality to the ninja world previously set up, not following through on set-up character arcs or plot threads, etc.). It's really a good listen from people who have been keeping up with the series for a long time and talking about it for their podcast weekly over the past 4 years. If you are looking for them to completely tear into and bash every single thing wrong with it, you'll be disappointed, because they take a more unbiased, "objective" approach to evaluating it, but all the same these guys have never hold back how much they hate certain parts of this series or harshly criticizing it's flaws before or now either. The conclusion they reach is basically that Naruto is a really frustrating read overall, but it's not necessarily a bad manga. They think the first part, the pre-timeskip part, is solid enough to check out that they would recommend it to someone who had never read the series before, but beyond that, they would leave it up to people's discretion because it's all downhill from there. Which, I feel is a fair stance to take on the series as a whole.

As for myself, I've always been someone who's opinion on a series is affected by how it stacks up overall, with a lot of emphasis on it's later parts and ending if it's a story-driven series. When a series has a really bad ending or final stretch it can really break a series for me and sour my impression on the parts I used to enjoy about it. I've mentioned how I just can't say I like KnB because of how utterly frustrating and disappointing the second half of it was. And to use a non-anime/manga example, even a show I really used to love, How I Met Your Mother, was really destroyed in mind after that finale, and while unlike other stuff I've mentioned here so much of that series entertained me that I just can't ignore how much I enjoyed it before, all the same, I cannot rekindle the same passion for it I once had either at all. As such, with something like Naruto, where so much of the series in it's second half was really terrible to me, though not necessarily to the point where I got infuriated like with Bleach, Fairy Tail, and even parts of KnB, but all the same really bad parts and moments, I just can't even look at the good parts about it and say I'm very fond of them at all. But, I have decided that doesn't mean there is necessarily nothing to offer anyone in the series, at least for someone just getting into manga. Last week I had this whole debate with E-K about whether KnB is worth somebody's time or not, and thinking on it, I think I was wrong in my position. I still don't think of it as a "good" manga, by any means, but if someone did want to read it, there is really no harm in checking it out and seeing if it appeals to you. It's never offensive at any point, at the very least. And so, while I'd definitely call it a worse manga overall, Naruto is the same way. You might as well read part of it and see if you like it or not. In any case, you might as well have an opinion on it, since it's one of the most popular and influential anime/manga series ever now. So, I actually do agree with the WMR guys' stance on recommending it, because it's basically a "might as well/no harm done" kind of thing.

In any case, the WMR guys' retrospective reminded me I was planning to do one myself earlier, recounting how I got into the series, why I liked it, and how my opinions on it changed over the years, but then totally forgot about it. Even though it's been two weeks since the ending, I guess it's better late than never to do one now. I'll see how much I feel like writing about it in a very loose stream of consciousness sort of way, at the very least.

Well, so, where to start? I guess at the beginning of when I even became aware of Naruto's existence. I remember Cartoon Network was doing this summer preview special they aired at certain points on Memorial day in 2005. They highlighted all the shows, movies, etc. that would premiere on the network later that summer and early in the fall. There were segments focusing on certain blocks. Fridays had one, Miguzi had one, and of course, Toonami had one.

I had only gotten into anime - well, not even anime. I still didn't even know the term, much less distinguish between them and other animated series. I was more getting open into watching more action series. I have mentioned this time and again before but when I was a kid I was thoroughly uninterested in action series, but had a few exceptions over the years, and when I finally got into Dragon Ball through the final episodes of GT earlier in 2005 I became obsessed with that series and everything related to it. This got me to actually pay attention to Toonami, which I never cared about before beyond watching reruns of Batman Beyond, Hamtaro, and The Powerpuff Girls and then later Megas XLR, Samurai Jack, and Teen Titans (as you can see, there were some exceptions to my anti-action series bias). Getting into Toonami exposed me to other series that piqued my curiosity and I felt like trying out to see if I could find anything else as appealing to me as Dragon Ball. Yu Yu Hakusho left before I really could watch more than the last half of one episode (it was the fourth episode, fyi), but it was replaced by Zatch Bell! which I immediately became a fan of because of it's balancing of comedic and serious moments and the strong dynamic between it's too leads. One Piece replaced GT in May and I was skeptical of it but after watching the first two episodes I enjoyed them, and checked them out for a few weeks later before I sort of just fell out of it for a while until the fall. But in any case, through Toonami, I was finding action series that challenged my preconceptions of what action series were; not just stories about superheroes and the like but also could be very diverse adventure stories with lots of comedy, which appealed to me.

So by the time May came around I was already watching most of the block week to week. Hence, when I saw the Toonami segment of the promo, I was really excited, because they were hyping up new shows coming to the block that seemed really interesting to me and stuff that appealed to my sensibilities. One of these, and the one I was most excited for, was Bobobo. I saw the clips, heard the description, and I was sold instantly. It was going to be an irreverent and bizarre parody of action shows (now I recognize it was parodying battle-shonen specifically, but again, didn't know any of these distinctions back then), and I was going to love it. And then the second of the new shows that had me interested was Naruto. Mainly because it was about ninjas, and that seemed like it could be interesting, because the only show I had seen about ninjas before was TMNT 2003, which I didn't personally care for at the time, but this series seemed like it was going to take a more serious approach to things. That said, unlike Bobobo where I was dying waiting to hear about when it would premiere, I kind of forgot about Naruto until, like, the week before it was going to premiere, and I saw the promo and was like "oh yeah, THAT" and then immediately after was like "but where's BOBOBO dang it?!?"

Still, I was definitely really interested in checking it out. I hadn't really expanded my horizons, so to say, since may so the only non-superhero action cartoons I was watching were DBZ reruns (and loads and loads of videos and manga volumes I repeatedly checked out from libraries), Zatch, and OP, and I wasn't even paying attention to the latter much yet, so this was definitely something I thought would be well worth seeing. As it turned out, though, there was a neighborhood potluck that weekend, and though we didn't go, I was still tasked with bringing something to it and so I had to rush and do that, and stay at the party for a certain period of time until people were done with the dish (I think we contributed a potato salad, not quite 100% on that though). So, I actually didn't get a chance to watch the very first episode when it premiered. I did, however, catch the second. I remember sitting on the bed in the guest room, eating slices of a Costco-bought frozen pizza, watching that episode and enjoying it quite a bit. I liked Naruto's spunk and in that particular episode I liked Konahamaru's story and how Naruto helped him out. At that time, Naruto seemed like a very likable but rebellious character, which contrasted with the carefree attitudes of the main characters in the anime I had been watching up until that point, Goku, Zatch, and Luffy, and so seemed a bit refreshing as a result. So I had a good first impression of the series from the onset. I was like "this was a good show!" and "I'm going to enjoy this!" Ah ha ha, how little I knew of what was to come, but that would still be a few years down the line.

I watched the next episode the week after, liked it and the dynamics between the characters established. I didn't find the toilet humor very appealing but it was nice seeing a main character who could be poked fun of, since I hadn't seen that before, but still be sympathetic. I didn't know what to think of the other characters yet, but they seemed interesting. Sasuke seemed most so because of the fact he seemed to recognize that though Naruto was a goofball he had suffered through a lot of hardships and did not write him off or disrespect his efforts to become recognized or make friends, and there was hint to more depth to his character. Sakura struck me as someone who might grow to care about and respect Naruto over time, but I always really disliked her obsession with Sasuke in early episodes, and how she just seemed to be a token female character with no real ambition or purpose. I would sort of change my mind on her in the spring, but in the long run and looking back on things, yeah, I don't think she ever evolved out of that. In fact, neither Sasuke or Sakura ever became very good characters or really matured in any significant, meaningful way. We give Naruto a lot of flack for being kind of annoying, and while the series never had him evolve out of his idealism, he's certainly wasn't an idiot or impulsive after the timeskip like he was at the beginning of the series. He actually did mature in the way he carried himself if not his ideology, and while I don't like the character I do respect that aspect of his growth. I cannot say the same for Sasuke and Sakura. For every step forward their character development took, they always seemed to take yet another step back as well.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's keep it linear here! Okay, now, I didn't actually watch the following two episodes featuring Kakashi's introduction. My family went to a lot of parties with friends on weekends back in those days, so I did usually miss out on Toonami a lot of weeks, though I tried recording stuff most of the time, though I didn't always watch them. I did see those episode a bit later. Cartoon Network had already started rerunning the series pretty early into it's run, two episodes around noon on Sundays, so those episodes reran in...I want to say January, so I saw them then. Kakashi seemed interesting; though seemingly aloof and nonchalant about things he was a character who has personally experienced a lot of hardships and seen many of his friends die, and his lesson was to teach Team 7 that they were a team and they need to be committed to each other, but also that there is a harsh reality to the ninja world, and they will have to face tough decisions, and they will see friends die. Now, this ended up being bullshit as it turned out, but like RolloT said in the WMR podcast, this harsh tone was interesting and really characterized early Naruto. Sure, the characters wore bright colored attire and there was a lot of humor, but many aspects, such as how Zabuza became a ninja, by having to kill all of his fellow students when he was just a child in a death match, and how his experiences ended up effecting the way he operated, Haku's cruel backstory as a victim of prejudice and his own father turning on him and killing his mother and trying to kill him out of fear for his abilities, Gaara's similar backstory about how he was ostracized like Naruto as a child for being Shukaku's jinchuriki and how his father eventually tried to have him killed by the hands of his own uncle who up until that point was the only other person who loved him, but then revealed he always held a grudge against him for being responsible for the death of his sister this whole time and how that turned him into a cold, bitter, violent person, you know, all of that really reinforced that the way of the ninja was harsh and cruel, and this world was harsh and cruel, and the characters would have to fight against a lot of prejudice, hardships, and see much death and bloodshed as they matured into capable adult shinobi. Obviously, that didn't last after the timeskip, but that element of the series was really appealing to it early on.

In any case, though, I think I watched the first few episodes of the Zabuza arc but then fell out of the series sometime late October/November, at least after the first fight they had with him and the introduction of Haku. I caught the New Years Eve marathon later, though, so I saw the episode where Naruto let the nine-tails' power influence him and defeat Haku, and then Haku's sacrifice to allow Zabuza to try and get a fatal blow on Kakashi. Overall, though, I missed most of the arc in the first airing and am pretty sure I only saw all of it when the series started airing weekdays at 9pm later that summer. I believe it was that summer, at least. I remember eating char-grilled fried shrimp, fries, and rice while watching the episode with Haku's backstory and I'm sure that was the summer where we had that "phase" where we rotated home-made fried food into our dinner rotations. Not necessarily relevant, but those are fond memories, you know. I also remember my mom watching the first episode of the series with us when they first started airing it on weekdays at the 9pm timeslot and saying "hey, that was pretty good" and then she watched episodes of it with us a few times after that. My parents don't like cartoons much, my mom in particular only liked Looney Tunes, but she liked Naruto and that was the only anime my mom ever liked and in general one of the only cartoons I watched as a kid that she liked at all period, next to only Justice League and The Simpsons Movie  (and the movie ONLY), I believe. Odd.

I keep digressing, it seems. Okay, to get back on track, in February came the Chunin Exams. I was up on it from the get-go and this was the point where I started to watch every Naruto episode week after week and try not to miss a single episode. I think this is where the series started to pick up for me, largely because of the set-up. I liked the new characters and the emphasis that Team 7 would need to work as a team in order to succeed here, as well as the fact that their rivals are by and large more skilled and resourceful than they were, and that they were at a disadvantage because they were still a young team, compared to others, which had already been in training for more than a year. I also liked the first round, the written test, and how it was a matter of strategy, trying to weed information out from rivals who did have the answers, and was a test for cunning, resourcefulness, and dedication. The Forest of Death basically tested your survival skills, and if you died, you died. That's the harsh reality of being a ninja and you just had to deal with that. In that portion of the series Orochimaru was introduced and Kabuto was expanded upon as an important character, his connection with Orochimaru highlighting him as an antagonist, but possibly not totally loyal to him as well (which ended up being resolved shitty in the Sasuke and Sai arc, but, whatever). Orochimaru was great at the start. He was creepy, sinister, dangerous and deadly, and had strong connections to other characters and a force to be reckoned with and taken seriously, a dark shadow looming over the remainder of the exams. I liked that. His first appearance also forced Sasuke out of his comfort zone. It made him afraid and lose his composure. Which led to what I think might be one of the most powerful moments in the series - where Naruto steps in and takes charge in the fight, makes a reference to what Sasuke said before to him in the Zabuza arc when he was the one who froze up and didn't fight back, and basically gets his ass handed to him by Orochimaru, forcing Sasuke to step in and try to fend him off by himself, ultimately failing but impressing Orochimaru and deciding to use him as a pawn, marking him with the curse seal, which would manipulate and effect Sasuke's volatile emotional state in later portions of the arc.

So there was great development for Sasuke here, but what about Sakura? In the aftermath of the conflict both Naruto and Sasuke were out cold and when Dosu and the Sound ninja team came to kill them she was put in a dangerous situation. Rock Lee came to help her, but then he was beaten the shit out of, and then eventually Sakura had to make a decision, go out of her comfort zone, and start to rely on herself and take charge in order to survive and protect her teammates. I LOVED this moment. Sakura always seemed like she would be this useless female tag along character, but here she was showing growth as a character, making it seem like she would really try and fight on par with Naruto and Sasuke for the sake of her friends and teammates, and the connection and backstory she had with Ino was explored here and the way other characters were incorporated into this conflict but the focus still remained on her growth as a character really impressed me. I think this was the moment that really got me more invested in Naruto beyond the casual interest and enjoyment I had in it before.

One thing that really sums up how cool this series seemed at this time was the long promo Toonami ran for it at the time, to promote the "second season" of the show (what they were calling the episodes that premiered in March 2006 onwards). (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmTwmIW1dA4) That shit was hype. It still is hype. Even though I no longer enjoy or like the series, this promo still stands among my favorite all time Toonami promos.

Now the third round of the Chunin Exams was just an endless string of one on one fights, a lot of them between not terribly established characters, but there were a lot of great moments here. Sasuke controlled his anger and was able to defeat his opponent in spite of the pain of the curse seal. Naruto got a chance to show he was not just a loser and make an underdog victory against Kiba. Sakura and Ino ended their rivalry and Sakura showed she was no longer afraid to get involved in a serious fight. Shikamaru impressed with his strategy against that sound ninja chick. Shino's fucked up bug powers and the fight with Zaku is probably one of the most memorable moments in the series, because just when you think Zaku had an ace up his sleeve, Shino reveals he had two and destroys the fucker. Hinata and Neji's fight did well to characterize and establish both characters and give Naruto a worthy and personal opponent to fight in the next round of the exams. And, of course, Gaara and Rock Lee's fight was intense and brutal, leaving Lee crippled and establishing Gaara as not completely invincible, but a might dangerous, merciless foe which would make anyone who goes up against him really have to fight for their life. I'm not a fan of traditional fights, nor endless strings of fights for the sake of having fights. These kind of things are what made me uninterested in most action series as a kid. But Naruto got a lot of mileage and character growth out of this section of the story, and so while I did become uninterested as this part dragged and dragged through the summer, I still appreciated a lot of things here.

In the fall of 2006 came the episodes featuring Naruto's training, introducing Jiraya. And...this is where I kind of fell out of the series for a while. Like I said before, while I appreciated the character development in the third stage of the Chunin Exams, it was just endless fight after fight and I've never and still and not interested in plain old traditional fights like that, so I did lose some interest in the series compared to the fascination I had towards it earlier in spring. So, I kind of just didn't watch much of the series for a while. I saw Jiraya's introduction and the episode where he summoned Gamabunta, and then one filler episode which I remember solely for a very solemn scene where Sakura and Ino see a despaired Lee try to move and train but fall down in pain distraught. Depressing. So I actually missed Naruto vs. Neiji at that time, and didn't get to see it until the Naruto Hundo marathon in August 2007, but as far as that goes, the message about drive vs. destiny was very powerful, with the idealistic dreamer Naruto proving to the cynical destiny-driven Neiji that destiny means jack shit, you can fight against it, and make you own path in life. While at the time that was a good moment, needless to say, when we get into the whole shit about how Naruto is a child of destiny and was destined for greatness that keeps getting hammered into out heads time and time and time again post-timeskip, it rings hollow. Worse, this was the moment that really set in motion Kishimoto's tendency to not have the world of Naruto be totally cruel for our heroes, explaining Neji's fathers' death as a decision of his own, not a decision forced upon him by the Hyuuga Clan. Even as a kid, I really was not fond of this explanation. I felt it completely undermined the tragedy of Neiji's character as well as the message delivered in his fight with Naruto. I think this was the first big indication of many similar poor writing decisions Kishimoto would employ as the series went on.

Shikamaru vs. Temari was great that made Shikamaru become my favorite character in the series instantly. Then the Invasion of Konoha happened and lots of shit went down, and I thought it was quite well done, with everything involving Gaara feeling really big to me and the fight between Orochimaru and Sarutobi being really intense, dark, personal, and ultimately, tragic, ending with Sarutobi's death, which I was shocked by at the time because I wasn't used to seeing real lasting death for a major good character at that point in time. The Resurrection technique should have tipped me off, though, that death in Naruto is no less cheap than it was in Dragon Ball, except worse because Kishimoto wants you to take Naruto seriously. I got to tell you, there are many moments in Naruto and other series where I lose interest/passion/enjoyment in where the events of what is happening in the story feel so out of place, odd, or bizarre that I get this strange feeling that I guess the closest way to describe it is "surreal." When the Third Hokage was brought back to life with the Resurrection technique and meets with Orochimaru and Sasuke alongside the other Kages but he and Orochimaru barely acknowledge each other or their history with each other at all...it's stuff like that in series like Naruto and Bleach and shit that really destroy the good portions of their series for me, because they completely undermine what I got out of them and makes it hard for me to enjoy them ever again to the same extent or at all.

For the moment, though, the death of the Third Hokage and the whole conclusion to the Invasion of Konoha felt like a really big deal, and I thought the series could only get more interesting with the focus shifting on finding a new Hokage and rebuilding the village. The Search for Tsunade arc, while partially a training arc, is possibly the only arc in the series I still like as much as I used to when I was a kid. The core events of it, Naruto trying his hardest to master a difficult skill to catch up with Sasuke, and finding a creative alternative to his incapability to do it the traditional way, Tsunade's personal character arc as she regains the faith she has in people and becomes willing to take on responsibilities and stop wallowing in booze and gambling, the relationship between the three Sanin and their clash in the climax of the arc, etc. I think all of it was really strong and don't feel any of what I enjoyed in it was undermined in later portions of the series. At most, Tsunade just didn't get much of a chance to do anything impressive in later parts of the series, but she never became a bad character, unimportant, or useless either.

This was also the point where Toonami, well, really Cartoon Network, was REALLY pushing the series. This was the point where they would have endless marathons every few weeks, gimmicks like triple premieres one week and stuff like that, and when I guess Naruto had officially, truly become BIG in the U.S. Everyone in school knew of it. Most liked it. It was not uncommon to talk about it. There was merchandise in stores. CN took every chance they could to rerun it in any time they could, pushing reruns into Miguzi's hours even though it never actually became a part of Miguzi for some reason (it had it's separate bumpers, somewhat Toonami-related because the symbol was in the bumps but at the same time never acknowledging it as related to Toonami in the bumps itself). So at this point I was aware at how big Naruto had become. At the same time, by this point, I had been reading the One Piece manga through the volumes as well as watching the subbed version of the anime, and was a much bigger fan of that series. I liked Naruto fine, but I was not in love with it like other people seemed to, and was sort of annoyed when people praised it but didn't seem to give OP enough respect. So, even back then, I was already on the "OP is the best of the big 3" bandwagon, though I didn't hear of the term "big 3" until 2010 or even get into Bleach until that year either.

In any case, for the time being Naruto was pretty good and it was doing really good commercially. Unfortunately, Toonami was not. That october Toonami was cut down to two hours in favor of giving Goosebumps more reruns, the same week as the last episode of Bobobo aired. And, after that episode, what did they replace the series with. Reruns of Bobobo? No, which pissed me off, because they never fucking re-ran Bobobo at all. Seriously, it was literally the only Toonami-exclusive show on the block in it's final years. Anyways, so not that, but did they bring Zatch Bell back after it was suddenly yanked from the schedule earlier that February? No, which pissed me off, because even though the series had been added to Jetstream that March, there was still a year before they'd get to any not shown on television episodes. No, instead of replacing Bobobo with another show, we got a second new episode of Naruto instead. So, the two-hour long Toonami was basically only comprised of three shows; an hour of Naruto, FUNi's newly re licensed dub of One Piece, and Cell Saga episodes of Dragon Ball Z.

I didn't hate that lineup back then though I'd certainly have no interest in it now, but realy the main thing that bugged me, of course, was that half the block was Naruto and it was being reran so much outside of that. I also honestly just never really thought much of the Sasuke Retrieval arc. The set-up was strong, the concept was interesting, I like the development for Sasuke's character as he fell to the dark side (the last time I would like anything about Sasuke, as it would turn out), but overall the arc did not leave much of an impression on me and I skipped a lot of the episodes first time around. Why? Okay, so you know how everybody who praises this arc loves how unique and varied the fights are and shit. Yeah....no, that just did not do anything for me at all. First off, I just did not find the fights interesting. I did not find the villains interesting, nor did I find what the characters were going through in those fights particularly meaningful (and they ultimately weren't), and the very concept of one one-on-one fight after the next, when really, when you think about it, is stupid since they should have just banded together and taken out each of the sound 4 individually as a group, was repetitive and really hard for me to care and get invested in. To say less about the bullshit that a group of genin with an inexperienced leader were tasked with the job of tracking down dangerous criminals and a rogue defector, or the out of nowhere dues-ex machina interference from the Sand Village siblings which completely undermined Kiba and Shikamaru's fights completely. I did like Rock Lee and Gaara's fight against Kimimaro, though, because Rock Lee had a lot he wanted to prove now that he was recovered, Gaara wanted to make amends for what he did to him, and Kimimaro was a very interesting and surprisingly three-dimensional character with unique, and unsettling, powers, and the conclusion of that fight was unsettling, intense, and bittersweet. But outside of that, I wasn't impressed with anything else in the arc, and honestly, I just wanted to get to the confrontation between Naruto and Sasuke. Which, I do feel was very personal, very potent, and well-executed. And the promise of the growth of the characters after the timeskip had me hopeful for good things to come. Boy was I wrong on that.

I actually started watching Shippuden from the very first episode that came out in Japan, a whole year before Toonami would finish the Sasuke Retrieval arc on U.S. tv and two and a half years before it came on U.S. television through Disney XD. In fact, I watched that entire final filler arc of the first anime leading up the the premiere of Shippuden. I wasn't really afraid of spoilers, and I already knew about Sasuke's defection and shit. As a kid I had a fair amount of tolerance for filler...but good lord, even back then, I thought Shippuden was slow and draggy as fuck. I was honestly baffled that so little happened in the first few episodes. Later, I distinctly remember two episodes that were aired as a "special," which featured Naruto transforming into his four-tailed form, and literally, all that happened in those two episodes was that. Everyone commenting on "holy shit Naruto is transforming" while Naruto transforming. That was it. That took two episodes. It still baffles me thinking about it. So, the point is, I had already experienced the Sasori and Sasuke & Sai arcs by the time the series finished airing canon episodes on Toonami. Then Shippuden immediately went into filler. And I was like, "the fuck, you had 85 fucking episodes of filler to buffer between the two shows and dragged shit out for a whole year, and now you are doing a bloody filler arc?" And I tried to watch it but couldn't get interested. So I actually stopped watching Shippuden, outside of an episode here and there, for a long time. I tried watching some filler episodes of the first anime on Toonami, and I don't think I hated many of the episodes I saw, but yeah, that shit wasn't good so I stopped doing that as well. Basically, by that summer, I kind of had stopped watching any version of Naruto completely.

As for the first two post-timeskip arcs...wasn't impressed by them. Honestly, what happened in them is such a blur to me. I've even seen some of the eps randomly in the lobby of my college while I'm making dinner saturday nights, and I still can't remember anything particularly interesting or notable. I do remember how I thought it was weird Naruto somehow seemed to lose all the spunk and personality he seemed to have before, how cool it was Sakura actually seemed to be doing stuff anc active in stuff (which didn't last), and how I did not care for Yamato and Sai, at all, and how I thought it was so strange Sasuke had basically become this unfeeling, unemotional, distant dick. It would have been an interesting direction to take if Sasuke wasn't in the limelight as he would be later on, but a somewhat enigmatic, mysterious, fallen figure who's intentions and loyalties continued to be unknown, but he basically just became emo, and this was when I would start to dislike him, a dislike that would soon turn to hate.

I think I picked it up again when Viz announced that they would be legally streaming episodes of the series. Simulcasting episodes of the series the day after they aired in Japan. Now, this was a hella big deal. Viz was the first company I remember doing this, and Shippuden was the first series I remember this being been done to. This was what ended up getting me to pick the series back up again. So I ended up catching the Hidan and Kakazu arc, which, I mean, was great as a character arc for Shikamaru but not that interesting for other characters (Kakashi has some good moments here, though, especially in his final words to the dying Kakazu where he tells him that it's time for the young to take charge and Kakazu was a fool to try and cheat death). I was super disappointed Ino and Choji got the shaft and not much development even though Asuma's death should have meant just as much to them, and Naruto's training and creation of the Wind Shuriken Rasengan or whatever it's called was pointless because he could never use it again, so...yeah, had mixed feelings on that one. Then some filler arc happened and I stopped watching again, but then the infamous Sasuke-focused Hunt for Itachi arc happened and boy oh boy did things really go downhill from here. First off Orochimaru, at the time one of my favorite characters in the series and one of my favorite villains in an anime, was killed off unceremoniously and underwhelmingly. Then we got introduced to Suigetsu, Jugo, and Karin, who aren't terrible characters but never ever got to do anything interesting in the series at all (you know how stupid I though it was that Suigetsu didn't even get to fight his idol, Zabuza, when he got revived with the Edo Tensei in the Shinobi World arc? Such a missed opportunity there), and Sasuke, holy shit, Sasuke just became insufferable in this arc and I could not get into his story or root for him as a character at all. A bright spot here was the short aside where we saw Jiraya fight Pain, which was pretty interesting and ended sad, but Sasuke vs. Itachi...do I even need to mention how that was one of the worst and most disappointing fights in anything ever? Not to mentioned Tobi's reveal and the whole bullshit retcon that Itachi was a martyr somehow and Sasuke for some reason just trusts the guy and swears revenge on Konoha and...holy shit did the series just turn bad here.

I'll also mention that I did try watching episodes of early Shippuden again when they came to Disney XD, but never really could get into them or motivated to watch it regularly. When it was on it's last legs on that channel, during the Hidan and Kakazu arc, I did watch all of that, mostly to see how Disney would edit Hidan's ceremony and things like that, but in the process mostly reinforced how mixed that arc really was, and mostly leaning more negative than before.

I followed the series sort of on and off around this point, seeing stuff like Sasuke vs. Killer B and then how Naruto reacted to Jiraya's death, and that last thing was the last I watched of the anime until the early few episodes of the 5 Kage Summit arc. By that point, though, I had switched to experiencing the series primarily through the manga. You'll notice that even though this is a manga thread most of my reflections so far have been about the anime. That's because that's how I first experienced most of the story for, I'd say, 4 or so years, and my opinions on the same arcs in the manga were not different than the impressions I got from the anime. But I was reading the manga. I did it on an off since 2006, not in order or anything but just reading random volumes time to time when I wanted to and felt like it. Ultimately, just by doing this, I got caught up on the series in manga form. But by that point I was far from enthused on Naruto, though, so I wasn't actively seek out to read it or watch it or anything. I just checked in on it every now and again. As a consequence, I actually never read the Invasion of Pain arc in it's entirety for a few years, but safely to say, the deus-ex machina that concludes it and ruins all the sacrifices and consequences characters' actions had during the course of that arc makes me quite dislike that arc on the whole. But, the arc that I started keeping up with the manga with was the 5 Kage Summit arc. And while there were parts to it I did find interesting, this arc demonstrated some of the most infuriating and unlikable actions Sasuke ever does in the series, has a lame as hell resolution to the whole Danzo subplot, as well as Naruto's unrequited crush on Sakura and Sakura's crush on Sasuke, among other things. But what really broke me and made me mad was how the arc ended and then how Sakura was all like "oh, I can't keep up with them, I'll just stand out of their way" basically after her (stupid) attempt to kill Sasuke failed and how Naruto was still insisting he was going to save Sasuke even after all the horrible shit he does. He fucking murders innocent people in this arc. And then by the end of the series people totally forget about this and totally forgive him with no repercussions whatsoever. God fucking dammit.

That was it. That was it folks. That was the arc that made me legitimately hate Naruto. Now, I had already disliked and was unimpressed by a lot of the series before this, but it was that arc that firmly, utterly, totally made this series complete shit in my eyes. It made me hate the characters, it made me hate the direction of the story, and worse, it made me unable to enjoy what I could enjoy about it's earliest portions of the story. And boy, did it just get worse, and worse, and worse from here.