Currently Running Manga Discussion

[Spark Of Spirit]

Speaking of Jump, a year's subscription is currently on sale for $19.99. The deal ends on the 31st of January.

I just extended my membership.

[Pharass]

Saw that Comixology had volume one of A Silent Voice for sale and having heard a lot of good things about it (both from here and elsewhere), decided to pick it up. It certainly lived up to my expectations, with believable and well-written characters and plenty of emotional sucker-punches. Great read and I'll definitely buy the next volume.

Edit: When I wrote this post I wasn't aware that the manga apparently finished its run last year, meaning that it doesn't really belong in this thread. My apologies.

[Spark Of Spirit]

This week's Jump rankings:

Assassination Classroom (Cover, Lead CP)
1 - One Piece
2 - My Hero Academia
3 - Hinomaru Zumou
4- The Disaster of PSI Kusuo Saiki
5- Straighten Up! Welcome to Shika High's Competitive Dance Club
Haikyuu!! (CP)
6 - Black Clover
7 - Gintama
Crematers (CP, One Shot)
8 - Samon the Summoner
9 - Food Wars! Shokugeki no Souma
10 - Mononofu
11 - Kochikame
Buddy Strike (Not Ranked)
12 - Bleach
13 - Toriko
14 - Nisekoi
Isobe Isobee Monogatari


Looks like fans aren't enjoying this arc of Food Wars, either. Hopefully now that the Eizan stuff has been dealt with he can go back to more creative stuff.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

If I'm not mistaken, aren't all WSJ rankings based on the results from 7 weeks earlier? If so, those results are for Food Wars chapter 141, rather than last week, so if fans didn't enjoy this arc, rankings would reflect that for at least the next 7 weeks.

[VLordGTZ]

Jump Festa has announced a new D. Gray-man anime.
I guess anime viewers will finally get to witness the growing amount of bullshit and nonsensical plot points. 

[Spark Of Spirit]

Gintama is officially nearing the end. The last arc starts next year.

Looks like it might be quite a few series ending next year with Gintama, Toriko, Nisekoi, and Bleach all coming to a close.

[VLordGTZ]

Bersek is going on hiatus again, but NBC Universal has green-lit a new anime adaption!
Rumor is that it won't be a re-adaption of Golden Age this time.  Since this is being produced by a different company, I hope that the production quality will be better than Studio 4C's Golden Age Films, and its terrible CG scenes.

[gunswordfist]

I was just about to post this. Also, is there any Berserk anime worth watching besides the original series (which I still need to complete)

[Spark Of Spirit]

Rankings this week:

My Hero Academia
World Trigger
Yu Yu Hakusho
Nisekoi


I gotta say, Gauche has got to be the most irritating character in Black Clover by far. What a total turd. On the other hand it was a pretty good set of chapters this week. Food Wars dealt with the ending to this arc, Bleach showed Ichigo again for the first time in forever, and Black Clover has been benefiting in the recent chapters by making you actually care about the characters not dying. Except Gauche. But that's the character's fault, not the writing. Oh, and Toriko just finished that ridiculously convoluted flashback which should be good for fans more clued in to what's going on than I am.

MHA looks to be pitting the villains against our newly trained heroes (4 against 40? Are they crazy? With those odds against them the villains better have a good plan.) and World Trigger's battle is heating up. YYH's chapter is the one where Kuwabara is taken over by Yusuke, but I gotta say that the anime did make this part feel far more vital than the manga did, but it's still a fun little chapter. Nisekoi apparently just let the cat out of the bag and now we know who Raku really likes which means this is probably the final part of the series we're entering.

Great issue this week.

I was just about to post this. Also, is there any Berserk anime worth watching besides the original series (which I still need to complete)

The only anime out there covers the Golden Age arc. This anime will be the first time anything else has been adapted, and then there are the movies with the awful and pointless CG. You might as well wait for this series to come out.

[gunswordfist]

I had no clue. I also was wondering if they were going to start at the beginning like HXH 2011 did. I'm lookin forward to this more since I can hopefully watch the original series and then this without missing much story.

[VLordGTZ]

If they do start at the beginning of the manga, they'll probably just skip the Golden Age arc and go straight into the Conviction arc right after Black Swordsman.  Golden Age has already been adapted twice, and, even though it's the most popular part of the series, I honestly don't expect there to be another re-adaption of it for a while.

[Spark Of Spirit]

This week's Jump rankings:

One Piece (Cover and Lead color pages)
1 - Assassination Classroom
2 - Haikyuu!!
Zenei no Archer (CP, One Shot)
3 - Hinomaru Zumou
4 - Samon the Summoner
My Hero Academia (CP)
5 - Toriko
6 - Mononofu
Black Clover (CP)
7 - Kochikame
8 - Straighten Up! Welcome to Shika High's Competitive Dance Club
9 - Food Wars! Shokugeki no Souma
10 - The Disaster of PSI Kusuo Saiki
11 - World Trigger
12 - Gintama
Buddy Strike (Not Ranked)
13 - Nisekoi
14 - Bleach
Isobe Isobee Monogatari


I'm completely stunned at Samon's success. Unless it improved 1000%, I really have no understanding as to how it has managed to outrank so many better series. On the other hand, it's nice to see the rankings shift around so much these days meaning there isn't a clear candidate for cancellation like there has been the last several times. With Nisekoi, Gintama, Toriko, and Bleach, nearing their end, maybe we won't have a cancellation for a while. That certainly would be nice if Jump could lax itself on finding something to cancel all the time.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I recently caught back up with the manga for Baby Steps. The scans are WAY behind the Japanese releases (like 100+ chapters), and only 15 chapters came out in English this year in total.

Anyways, this is a series that I was unfairly harsh to way back when the anime started and I gave it an overly negative review based on the first episode for the seasonal anime clusterfuck (I was also a bit unfair to Ace of the Diamond as well, but to be fair that one gets pretty tiring eventually, anyways). I was kind of going through a snobbish phase with sports manga/anime and judging them for what they didn't do rather than how they appeal to their target demographic. I have long since grown past that, though.

This series is no masterpiece by any means, but I do admire how it is rather cleverly written to avoid many tropes that so many other shonen sports series follow, especially when it comes to winning. Even in manga that I enjoy like Hajime no Ippo and Food Wars, the MCs rarely lose anything major. In Baby Steps, wins never come easy and each match is a huge struggle. After 250+ chapters, Maruo still hasn't overcome any of his main rivals or even won any major tournaments. He has lost several big matches, even though he's also defeated several other high-ranked opponents. What keeps it interesting despite all of this is how the mangaka clearly portrays his growth in skill and confidence over time. While it's harshly realistic that after only two years of experience he wouldn't outdo the best players of his generation who have played their whole lives, it's still really rewarding to see stuff like him go from being crushed by the No. 1 ranked player in the Jr. Division to then playing an extremely close match against him a year later (in the manga's time-line) and gain his acknowledgment.

[VLordGTZ]

Yesterday, I finally caught up with the Detective Conan!   The Rum Arc has been quite interesting so far.  While there are still no leads on Rum's identity, there have been some major hints as to who Mary is and her connection to Sera and Conan.  Considering how long the Bourbon arc was, I don't expect this storyline to end anytime soon, but I'm certainly looking forward to how it develops further.   

[Spark Of Spirit]

First issue of the new year! Here are my rankings!

My Hero Academia
World Trigger
Yu Yu Hakusho
Black Clover

MHA has a tendency for doing things out of nowhere while making complete sense and this is one of them. Last chapter I mentioned that a handful of villains against over twenty opponents was a bad idea and then right away we learn here that there are actually TEN villains. Not only that, they picked a quite opportune time to strike. Without any back up, the heroes are already at a distinct disadvantage. World Trigger has just gone all out on these fights and we still don't even know what the invaders want. I hope Ashihara is feeling better now that he's out of the hospital and starting a fresh arc that the series continues on this path. YYH's early chapters have always been very cute. If it were up to me, the cries for a new anime adaption would be answered with an OVA of these early chapters instead. Black Clover's current little arc has been a big step up from the recent arc and this chapter has been focusing on putting context into an unlikable character which gives me hope that Tabata has learned a lot about characterization since this has come naturally to this arc.

Other chapters were pretty good except Bleach which once again has another fight that isn't over. I also still have no idea what is going on in Toriko but I thought he was done with the flashbacks and narration. Apparently not. Shame it'll be off again next week but at least a bonus issue with the monthly manga should be a nice filler for the next issue.