Currently Running Manga Discussion

[Spark Of Spirit]

Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #5-6 (January 4th, 2016):

One Piece (Lead CP)
1- Assassination Classroom
2- Haikyu!!
Vanguard of Archer (One-Shot, Center Color, 49 p.)
3- Hinomaru Sumo
4- Samon the Summoner
My Hero Academia (Center Color)
5- Toriko
6- Mononofu
Black Clover (Center Color)
7- Kochikame
8- Straighten Up! Welcome to Shika High's Competitive Dance Club
9- Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma
10- The Mishaps of Kusuo Saiki
11- World Trigger
12- Gintama
Buddy Strike (Not ranked)
13- Nisekoi
14- Bleach
Chronicle of Isobe -Life is Hard-

[Pharass]

Recently, I made the decision to drop the following titles that I had fallen behind on and had not read for some time :

Assassination Classroom
Toriko
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic

Despite possessing some decent characters and story-arcs, neither A.C. nor Toriko managed to sustain my interest in the longer run. As for Magi, my interest in it waned considerably after

Spoiler

Gyokuen was killed off

[close]

and besides, after the Magnostadt arc, I kind of felt that I had seen the best that this manga had to offer.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I agree on AC and Magi (though the latter I'll probably still come back to since apparently it's in its final arc). I really tried to get into AC, but the characters and style of humor just aren't my cup of tea. And I feel pretty much the same way as Pharass about Magi. I feel like it started to lose a lot of momentum after the Magnostadt arc.

I haven't read any of Toriko, and only watched a few episodes of the anime, so I don't currently have an opinion on it one way or the other.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I have absolutely no idea what's going on right now in Toriko so I can only imagine what long time fans must be thinking. But it's also apparently near the end anyway.

As for Magi, I always liked it more when it was about adventure and not as much when it fell back on politics and war. We haven't really had a pure adventure fantasy series in a while that was as good as Magi at its best, but for some reason the story kept veering back into war over and over again and it just wasn't as interesting as the exploration, the battles with pirates and bandits and the like, the dungeons, and the fights against the bad guys. Of course, that might just be me.

AC, I tried to get into several times. I just couldn't. It's not my thing at all.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Honestly, I actually liked the politics and war in Magnostadt better than the adventure aspects of the series. I mean, I love adventure stories, but the ones in Magi always came off to me as good, but not memorable like early Dragon Ball or One Piece.

That said, the way politics and war was handled after that arc was quite frankly rather absurd, and beyond that surprisingly boring, IMO.

[VLordGTZ]

While it certainly had its problems early on, I actually really enjoyed the Kou Empire Arc.  I'd go as far to say that I enjoyed the latter half of the arc even more than I did Magnostadt.

I haven't read too much of the AC manga (I'm planning to catch up since its ending soon), but I watched the first season of the anime and loved it.  I can certainly understand people not liking it if they can't get into the humor, though.

[Spark Of Spirit]

This week's issue consisted of only four series, so I'll list the way I ranked them here.

Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation
One Punch Man
Blue Exorcist
Seraph of the End

M&R is a series I've never actually read before and I quite enjoyed reading the first chapter. One Punch Man was longer than the last four chapters put together and was its usual typical goodness. Blue Exorcist, I might still be lost in, but it was an enjoyable read. Seraph was as poorly written as ever though apparently the anime was just as stupid and everyone is complaining about it, which I find utterly hilarious. And what a moronic ending: "Here's a random three month time skip after our characters got away some how and now we're ending the chapter." It's a mess that makes no sense at all.

Well, it was a free issue, so I can't complain, but it was a pretty good read anyway.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm not sure if anyone's been reading it, but Saint Seiya's official sequel, Next Dimension, is entering its "current season's" final arc now.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #7 (January 18th, 2016):

Haikyu!! (Cover, Lead CP)
One Piece (Not ranked. Was absent in issue #51)
1- Black Clover
Hinomaru Sumo (Center Color)
2- Assassination Classroom
3- Straighten Up! Welcome to Shika High's Competitive Dance Club (23 p.)
Food Fighter Tabelu (Special Chapter, Center Color, 24 p.)
4- My Hero Academia
5- Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma
Samon the Summoner (Center Color, 24 p.)
6- Gintama
7- Toriko
8- World Trigger
9- The Mishaps of Kusuo Saiki
10- Mononofu
11- Bleach
12- Nisekoi
13- Kochikame
14- Buddy Strike (First ranking)
Chronicle of Isobe -Life is Hard-

Crap. I wanted Buddy Strike to do better. It probably won't get axed on the first go around, but I really hope it can do better. The first few chapters were real well done. I think this is the first time Black Clover has hit #1, though. Good for it. I'm hoping it was for the current arc we're in because it has been much better than the invasion mini-arc.

[gunswordfist]

I'm not sure if anyone's been reading it, but Saint Seiya's official sequel, Next Dimension, is entering its "current season's" final arc now.

I wonder how good this manga is.

[Spark Of Spirit]

That was a great issue this week. Every series was a pretty good read and several had surprising twists. So it might make my ranking look strange.

My Hero Academia
World Trigger
Food Wars!
Black Clover

Wow, a lot happened in this chapter of MHA. The villain attack has lead just about everyone off in different directions and Midoriya is about to fight a villain on his own with no help on the way. On top of it we get to see some new powers as well as a few good beats of comedy. MHA at its best. I really can't wait to see what happens next week.

World Trigger deals in these kinds of multi-tiered battles a lot, but its very rare that we get to see all the top attackers together in a battle. Not to mention we still don't know what Jin is up to and what the goal of the enemy's attack is. Hopefully Ashihara is feeling much better and can continue to keep up his schedule because WT is a great series for weekly reads. I also have a feeling this battle is going to have major repercussions for the series eve if the good guys win.

Food Wars was a chapter of reveals, but they were good reveals. Now that the cat is out of the bag for Erina that she knows who Soma's father is, things should be getting more interesting.

Black Clover has just been really good at what it does during this small arc. It's been action packed, but its been character focused as well, making it a solid read every week. This chapter has kept up its pleasant streak.

I'm disappointed I can only rank 4 because One Punch Man deserved a ranking too, but I just enjoyed the other 4 slightly more. Great week!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Azami fits under the "please notice me, senpai" trope. It is now impossible for me to take him seriously, anymore....

Also, I hope the reveal isn't a fake-out here. People have pointed out how Erina's lack of a distinct reaction may indicate that she didn't completely here what Soma said, and it makes no sense for the author to keep dragging out that plot point after sitting on it for 100+ chapters already.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Azami fits under the "please notice me, senpai" trope. It is now impossible for me to take him seriously, anymore....

Also, I hope the reveal isn't a fake-out here. People have pointed out how Erina's lack of a distinct reaction may indicate that she didn't completely here what Soma said, and it makes no sense for the author to keep dragging out that plot point after sitting on it for 100+ chapters already.

I'm think this is going to be a way to bring his dad in to the story in a big way. But Erina really should know by now. It's a secret not really worth hiding since all it does is prevent character development which Food Wars doesn't usually like to prevent except in her case. But since she's been going through a lot this arc I do hope it is for real now.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Others have pointed out a valid criticism for this reveal, though. Erina still has yet to "openly" acknowledge and show respect to Soma as a chef. If she develops enough to do that after the reveal, then there's a good chance that one could argue that she learns to respect and accept Soma's way of cooking just based on who his father is, rather than learning to respect him as a worthy cook based on his own merits. If not handled properly, it could cheapen her character development. If she still initially lacks acknowledgement of Soma after finding out this information, and it just serves as a catalyst to pay more attention to him and gradually learn to accept his way of cooking, then her character development can come off as much more natural.

On another note, I'm almost caught up with or finished with (the Wikipedia page still says it's ongoing, but it's also on its final volume, so it's pretty much done at this point) Wolfsmund. It has definitely been an interesting read. Unlike most manga from the Historical Europe genre, this story is decidedly small in scale and doesn't attempt to be grandiose in its narrative, but there's certainly nothing inherently wrong with wanting to tell smaller stories (in fact, some of the best stories ever told are short enough to be finished within an hour or less). However, this series does feel awkward for the first third, with its lack of focus on any particular plot-line, and feels more like an anthology of interconnected short stories that don't all add up to something. When it gets past chapter 10, though, it finds some footing and becomes a fairly engaging read. That said, this is one of those manga that will piss you off if you hate to see good guys get trampled on over and over again before something finally goes their way. It's also completely unrestrained when it comes to gratuitous scenes of sex and/or violence, but it's hardly the worst thing that I've seen from the comic book medium, in that regard.

If nothing else, it's an interesting experimental piece for a short story. If the whole thing had played out like the first several chapters, then I'd probably question whether I wasted my time with it or not, but given how it has turned out up to this point, I can at least call it a worthwhile way to pass some time by. It's definitely not for everyone, though. I would be interested in checking out past or future works by this mangaka, though, to see if he can do better than this. There's definitely some potential based on what I read.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #8 (January 25th, 2016):
Gintama (Cover, Lead CP, 12th Anniversary)
1- One Piece
2- Assassination Classroom
Black Clover (Center Color, 24 p.)
3- Haikyu!!
4- My Hero Academia
Renai Haitatsu Tatsujin Posuo (One-Shot, Center Color, 35 p.)
5- Mononofu
6- Toriko
7- The Mishaps of Kusuo Saiki
8- Hinomaru Sumo
9- Samon the Summoner
10- Bleach
Ano Musume wa Yariman (Special Chapter, 15 p.) (Original series published in Jump+)
11- Straighten Up! Welcome to Shika High's Competitive Dance Club
12- Kochikame
13- Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma
World Trigger (Not ranked. Was absent in issue #52)
14- Nisekoi
15- Buddy Strike
Chronicle of Isobe -Life is Hard-


Not looking good for Buddy Strike.