Currently Running Manga Discussion

[LumRanmaYasha]

So it looks like J.C. staff will be doing the Shokugeki no Soma anime. 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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Oh, and the first Assassination Classroom anime trailer featuring actual animation has come out!

...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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

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. 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.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

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.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

So, apparently Rin-ne has a super important announcement next week. Also, the domain name anime-rinne.com 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. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

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. 

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

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  ).

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. 

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Jason Thompson tries to finish all of Naruto in 48 56 hours part 2!

I haven't read it yet, but I love how he begins the article:

"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...

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I love this particular bit from that write-up:

Like 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.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

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.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.