Currently Running Manga Discussion

[LumRanmaYasha]

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I dropped Naruto for a good while after that arc. I came back around when Naruto met his mother and learned how she and his father died and stuff and then him meeting dark Naruto and that whole bullshit, then I fell out of the series again after that. This time for a longer period. I believe when I did come back, it was around when Naruto learned of the war and left the training island with Killer Bee. I kept up with it from there for a while, liking some things like B and A's backstory, disliking others like the whole dumb shit with Gaara fighting his dad (so, so pointless), and then I read through all the gaps I missed, which I honestly might as well not have because nothing that I missed was important in any way whatsoever (the shit with Kakashi vs. Zabuza and Haku in particular pissed me off because it just repeated the same points already beaten over our heads in their arc proper, dammit). When Madara first showed up he was kinda cool, especially with that whole meteor thing he did, but that was probably the last thing I really liked in any way in the series that didn't immediately get ruined later on. Because then we got Itachi and Sasuke vs. Kabuto. Which sucked. And then we got the reveal Tobi was Obito. Which sucked and stopped the story dead with more flashbacks for weeks. Shit like that.

Flashbacks. Oh my god, flashbacks. You know what Naruto was really bad with? Flashbacks. They showed up at inappropriate times and stop the story dead for weeks if not months, and often tried to justify why the character is how he is but in really stupid and contrived ways. They are all super emo flashbacks where the character goes through something tragic and immediately becomes evil. Obitio's was probably the worst. I remember in the WMR episode where they read that chapter they didn't get why Obitio didn't just ask Kakashi why he killed Rin instead of making assumptions and becoming evil. Yeah, why didn't he? Fuck Obitio. Fuck the attempts to redeem him at the end of the series. He fucking started the war arc. Oh my god, Naruto, he fucking killed your fucking parents! He shouldn't have got a redemption moment. Neither should have Madara. And Orochimaru and Kabuto should have suffered consequences for their actions. OH MY GOD THE VILLAINS IN NARUTO FUCKING SUCKED AND I HATE THEM. I HATE THEEEEEEEMMMMMMM!!!!!!

But I think what I dislike the most about the direction of the series was how the premise completely changed. Originally, Naruto was the story of an underdog with a big dream. About a kid who was looked down and discriminated against, and wanted to prove himself, and gain the respect and admiration of the people around him. But as the series went on, Naruto stopped being the underdog. He became the messiah. He became uber perfect, he became vastly stronger than anyone else in the series, and became the only person who could basically do anything at all. He became a savior, and later, he became the chosen one, a child of destiny, someone who was always destined for greatness, and not about someone who worked his ass off to earn the respect and attention he so longed for. The destruction of that fundamental premise, and how Kishimoto kept beating it again and again how amazing super sugoi he was (and how Sasuke was as well), destroys the series for me completely, because for me, that was the hook and appeal of the series at the beginning. And so many other things like that were destroyed. Teamwork was established as being important early on, and you can make the argument that it was in the final fight with Kaguya to some extent, but overall the series dropped that aspect, and within the teams itself, there were always characters that simply did not have drive, purpose, or development unlike the other teammates, and these characters were by and large female, which was incredibly disappointing. The dark nature of the world was undermined time and time again. Jason Thompson pointed this out well, that basically, no good institutions or characters could ever be at fault for anything bad that ever happens in the world. It always has to be a product of some misunderstanding or the work of some completely one-dimmensional pure evil being the audience doesn't need to care about, and that became frustrating to see time and time again, and as I said before, characterized the flashbacks in annoyingly similar ways. And another thing that always bugged me was how there was this huge cast of characters, but so few of them ever did anything or were useful or had focus in the series. And even the ones who did, like Kakashi and Sakura, had incredibly unsatisfying character arcs and felt more tacked on than anything as the series went on and the only two characters ever allowed to do anything important became Naruto and Sasuke. So, so many things accumulated over the years that broke my ability to enjoy the series, and soured my opinions on what I used to find enjoyable as well.

I honestly don't know what to say about those final years, much. After I picked the series back up that last time I didn't drop it, at least for not months at a time, again. I thought, I came this far, I might as well read this damn thing through to the end. And, we all know how things turned out. You can fucking read my write-ups for the series that I did every week since this February to see how my thoughts on it became increasingly bitter from my initial approach of fair optimism (which is why I tried to like what was likable and rate it more favorably towards the beginning than I did as the weeks went by and the fucking Kaguya twist happened). I just read it for the sake of reading it in the final three or so years. I just wanted to see it to the end. And, well, I did.

Something I feel I should mention, is that when the series came back to Toonami in November 2012, I tried watching it, wanting to see if it held up for me or not. The first episode did. I still think it's very strong. But immediately the week after that I had to turn the channel. That episode, if you recall, was the very first episode of Naruto I saw, and as a kid I liked it. But I couldn't stomach it anymore. And then I tried, weeks afterwards, but nothing grabbed me, could make me rekindle the times where I did like the series. In fact, I just found that the series was never really that great to begin with. I'm looking forward to seeing why RolloT likes the Zabuza arc so much in next week's WMR, because honestly, I think it's a mostly boring and standard shonen arc. Same with the Chunin Exams. Search for Tsunade I tried again and I still think it's pretty solid. Everything else after that my opinions half not changed on and they are strongly negative. At one point I did like this series. I remember liking the series. But as it went on it became boring, then it became annoying, and before long it became offensively bad, then boring again, then surreally bad, then it just ended and I was like..."hmm, okay, guess we're done here."

I think most of my distaste for the series is more aimed towards the uber fans who still to this day hype it up as great shit, where I honestly see just shit. And though I use strong words like "shit" to describe this series derisively, and have at times raged about what I hated about it, and openly celebrated the announcement of it's ending, you know, if I step back and really think about how I feel about the series, I don't think I actually "hate" it. At least, not to the same extent as I hate other bad anime/manga series like Bleach and Fairy Tail. Overall, It's really just kinda "there" for me. Even when I liked it, it was just kinda there. I watched and read it because it was enjoyable enough, but I was never passionate about anything in it to a strong extent, unlike how I felt about pre-Arrancar arc Bleach. There were many, many frustrating and bad moments in the post-timeskip parts of the story, but even then, very little actually makes me particularly angry rethinking about it, and honestly, so much of the series after the timsekip, honestly, after the Search for Tsunade arc was just really forgettable to me more than anything else. It's not a got-to series for me to deride or make fun of, and it never was. I feel that as the years go by I'll mostly just not really think about it, provided that the internet and anime fandom lets me.

That was a long ass retrospective, but to sum up: I never loved Naruto. And while at times I hated it, but with it done, I feel mostly indifferent to it. But it was a part of my life for over 9 years, which is half of my life so far overall. So it did have an impact on my life, and particularly what I like and don't like about anime/manga series, at the end of the day. It is going to be weird not keeping up with it anymore, at least for a little while. I don't like basically 3/4ths of the entire series, and that's being generous. There were some really awful moments in it's run, and I don't feel the good outweighed the bad, and I can't really enjoy the good much anymore either. But, for better or for worse, it is a series that gave me a lot of memories, and many of them are fond memories of my childhood. And I can't knock the series for that. On a biased level, I wouldn't recommend the series to anyone at all. I don't like it. I gave it a score of 1 on MAL. But, I can admit that there was good in here, and that good did impress and entertain me quite a bit when I was a kid, and gave me some fond memories. Thinking about and writing about those memories rekindled nostalgic days of carefree worries and innocence, a time where I could sympathize and be invested in Naruto's flawed, sometimes annoying, but endearingly ambitious and optimistic attitude and the more impressive elements of it's story. It might not be a good series, but it was an important one. Not just in the way it influenced other anime/manga series, but how it affected people who were just getting in anime/manga like I was, and helped us become fans. It was the Dragon Ball Z for a whole generation. Maybe two. So, I don't regret experiencing this series, because that would be to regret all the good memories I have because of it and I would have missed out on an important part of anime/manga history if I hadn't read it. I do regret that it never lived up to it's potential as a series, though, and became the way it did, when it could have been something much better. I also lament how it's basically single-handedly responsible for the silly anti-shonen bias among western fans, which I've always found rather dumb because seinin, shojo, and josei have it just as bad if not worse, but that's a rant for another time. Kishimoto is apparently writing the mini-series himself and it's actually running in Jump, apparently, so it's not quite over yet. But he's moving on after next summer, and I am too. I will continue to seek out and read good, quality manga series, ones that can fulfill the promises and potential that Naruto couldn't keep. I will move on from hating a series that doesn't need to be hated quite as much as I used to think. Naruto is over. Done. Finito. It was a part of past, and it will always be, for better or for worse. But unlike most of the villains in the series, I'm not going to dwell on that fact. I'm just going to move on with my life, as I continue towards my goals and dreams. And, while this might be cheesy to say, there is not a more perfect note I think I can leave off on beyond this one, simple phrase. "Believe It."

[LumRanmaYasha]

One last thing I might as well do, though, is give my ratings for every arc in Naruto like how we've done before with series like Yu Yu Hakusho and Dragon Ball. I just went through explaining basically how I feel about every arc in this series, so you'll have to forgive me for not repeating my points again.

Introduction Arc - 7/10
Land of Waves Arc - 8/10
Chunin Exam Arc - 8/10
Invasion of Konoha Arc - 8/10
Search for Tsunade Arc - 8.5/10
Sasuke Retrieval Arc - 6.5/10
Kazekage Rescue Arc - 6/10
Sasuke and Sai Arc - 5/10
Hidan and Kakazu Arc - 6.5/10
Itachi Pursuit Arc - 3/10
Invasion of Pain Arc - 4/10
Five Kage Summit Arc - 1/10
Confining the Jinchuriki Arc - 5/10
Shinobi World War Arc - 3/10
Ten-Tails Revival Arc - 2/10
Final Arc - 1/10

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Hot damn, that's one big-ass write-up!

I probably agree on most if not all of what you said, but I don't have the time to read all of it, yet, so I'll comment more specifically on it later. That said, I do agree with most of your ratings, with the exception that I'd probably rate the Zabuza arc a tad higher and the Chuunin Exams a tad lower (if only because I can't help but compare it to the vastly superior Hunter Exams arc).

As for recommending it or not, I think the guy who does the House of 1,000 Manga said it good as well, in that Naruto at its best is still a bit too familiar territory for anyone who has just read far too many shonen, but ironically, those who haven't read or watched that much from the genre will have a significantly better chance of enjoying it. I'd just tell them to be weary of its massive quality drops, and probably say that it's a low priority read to other, better shonen if they really just want to get into shonen in general, unless they're someone who just feels obligated to read this massively popular series, but in that case you don't even need a recommendation in the first place.

Also, while I stand by what I said with KnB about the good outweighing the bad for me, and thus it's worth recommending because a lackluster ending doesn't kill the many good parts of the story (which I'd argue were both better than average and comprised more than just half of the series) for me, and while I would apply the same logic to Naruto, naturally, it still doesn't hold up because, at its best, I could still think of plenty of other shonen that do what it tries to do better. A world with harsh realities to it and tough decisions to make? Hunter X Hunter easily does it better, among other battle manga. Interesting battles with good strategy is what you want? Yu Yu Hakusho, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Hajime no Ippo, and various others have your bases covered better than Naruto does, IMO. Do you want more meaningful character development and nuanced emotional depth to the events that occur within the world that these characters inhabit? Rurouni Kenshin and Ashita no Joe are among the kings of that kind of writing quality within this genre.

And mind you, that's only when taking Naruto's "strengths" (it's best points) into consideration. My point is that, at best, it's pretty average, and not as cutting edge as people make it seem like it is, because quite frankly taking the nostalgia goggles off shows you that it never really was that great to begin with. But all of that matters little, anyways, when you get to talking about just how much of the series downright sucked. While I'd say that more than just half of KnB was good, let's just go with what CX said and say that only the first half was worth reading. Even then, that's over 100 chapters that are consistently good and very engaging, even if you've read better sports manga (which I did, considering that I had already completed Slam Dunk before I even heard about this manga). Meanwhile, Naruto's first (and better) part isn't even consistently good, and has some pretty bad writing in between some of the more decent arcs that the series has to offer. That said, on the whole, I could get behind saying that part 1 isn't bad, and probably worth reading if you want just a decent, alright shonen to read. But part 2 has so many bad parts that literally the only thing that I could justify recommending it for would be just to see the unintentionally hilarious parts of it from how terrible it is. Unfortunately, more often than that it's just convoluted and boring, so either way it's a slog to read.

Basically, my recommendation would be, if the series sounds like something that you would like, go ahead and read part 1, and then read part 2 until you feel that your interest is starting to decline, and then just stop reading from there, because I can assure you that the series isn't going to get any better again, and will in fact just infuriate you with how much lower it continues to sink from that point on.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Also, it's only fair to mention that I used to be a huge fan of Naruto back when it first aired on Toonami. Back then I didn't know much more about anime beyond just what aired on Toonami, and even then, I, unlike CX, really was a fan of action shows, so I was super easy to impress and basically had no standards when it came to this genre. And to Naruto's credit, even taking that into account, it was still a ton of fun in the beginning.

That said, it's the massive over-praise that this series got, combined with how I grew to realize the stagnant development of the characters and how generally unlikable they were when you really got down to their core characteristics, personalities, and motivations, that eventually soured my whole opinion on the series. So, I was certainly able to take off my rose-tinted glasses of the early days of this series, but still, I won't ever deny that I too was once part of the massive Naruto craze in North America when it was a brand new thing. In fact, I STILL own the Leaf Village head band prop, as well as the first 9 volumes in English from Viz, and even volume 33 in original Japanese (which I bought from a con, along with the first Japanese volume of Death Note). I will still probably keep them as a time capsule for the shit I used to be into, as well, but my point is that as someone who lived in a family who never had that much spare money to spend, I definitely had to be really big into something to bother spending the money that I was allowed on it.

My, how the times have changed.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Since I was a fan of this series, at one point, I also did consider buying volumes of the manga and dvd sets at certain points, and did buy some. The first piece of merchandise of the series I bought was a dvd featuring the first few episodes of the Chunin Exams arc, which I gave as a gift to Vlord, who then immediately exchanged it the next day for something else (don't remember what, though). The only other anime merchandise I bought was the first movie, which I'm not sure why because I don't think I was ever that big on the movie, but it came with a mousepad and that was neat I guess. As far as manga goes, I have an ani-manga based on that movie, and volumes 27 and 28, which as you know is the final volume of part 1 and the first volume of part 2, respectively, and in that sense "neat" volumes to own. I also have the english Shonen Jump volume that features the first half of the Itachi return portion of the Search for Tsunade arc, which was the last part of the pre-timeskip series the english Jump published before it skipped ahead to the post-timeskip stuff, and since that is a part of the series I still think holds up well, that's also pretty "neat" to have.

And yeah, much like most people who soured on the series, it really was the combination of people over-praising it and how the series strayed from it's initial premises and stagnated that really turned me off on it after a certain point. The fact the series continued to get worse, and frustratingly so, is what turned that passive indifference into a more active dislike, and at times, loathing.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, if what Judar said at the summit is "true," then supposedly they'll manage to "kill" Gyokuen in this fight, but I still don't believe that she'll actually be dead. She's too big of a villain to be killed off this soon (I mean, I'd at least expect her to last up until close to the end of the manga), so perhaps she'll make it seem like she's been defeated as part of some master plan. Honestly, though, I think I like that development even less, because as stated on another thread, I absolutely hate villains who seem like they have every single possibility planned out in advance, which is more ridiculous than legitimately threatening.

In all honesty, I'm not a big fan of her as a villain to begin with. The backstory of her as Arba was somewhat interesting, but as I've stated previously, her heel turn felt unnaturally quick, and while it may have been subtly hinted at during that arc, she just didn't feel fully fleshed out enough to me. As Gyokuen, she's even more 1-dimensional so far, though, and simply just being unphased by anything seemingly going against her plan because she's apparently got a master plan feels more contrived than legitimately interesting, on her part. At this point, I really just want to see someone wipe that smug, undeserved grin off her face for once.

Putting that aside, her psychotic smile in this week's chapter needs to be made into a regular smilie on this board. That in and of itself was just priceless.

[LumRanmaYasha]

In this week of manga, Timmy draws Osama Bin Laden telling terrorists to go learn how to fly airplanes and Gyokuen makes creepy smiling faces a lot. Oh, and that manga about that bullied kid and deaf girl or whatever ended too:

A Silent Voice chapter 62 - And so it's come to this. The final chapter of A Silent Voice. Man, what a ride. What a wonderful ride. I started keeping up with this series right when the chapter where Shoya fell and became injured after stopping Nishimiya from committing suicide happened. That was really good timing, because I basically was able to see how the entire last act of the story, the part where every major character reflected on their actions, who they were as people, and what they wanted out of life, and how they all came together as a group of friends united by one goal, and how they all grew as people from this experience, as they head out towards adulthood and whatever future awaits them. Every week was a great and enjoyable surprise as each character got dissected as things slowly came together and the layers behind each character was exposed and developed. I had no clue where the story would go, but the way things were handled didn't disappoint me, and overall, out of the 19 chapters I read each week since I caught up on the series, 15 of them were my #1 favorite manga chapter of the week, and even in the weeks they weren't, they still were 10/10 chapters and in the top 3. And, as a whole, the series was just that well-written and strong throughout the course of it's run. It was like few manga I've ever read or kept up with, in tone and content, and for what could have just been a lame PSA or serviceable love story, it was so much more than that; a great coming of age story, as well as a look on people who were victims of bullying, suffering from disabilities, among a myriad of other topics.

And this final chapter was a fantastic way to end that story. I noticed some people didn't like the ending, but these people seemed to only be reading this manga for the romance between Shoya and Shoko. Which was really missing the point of the manga to begin with. Not to say that they didn't grow a romantic interest in each other as the series went on, but that wasn't the focus of the story or the most meaningful aspect of their relationship with each other. Shoya and Shoko were both people who, at the start of this series, felt alone, a burden on others, and people who might as well not even exist and thought their families would be better off if they were. But through each other they found someone who cared about them and would reach out to help them. They found other people who befriended them and cared about them as well. They became even closer with their own families. And they bettered themselves as people. Shoya became more open and able to talk with other people after having been ostrachized from them for so long. Shoko gained more confidence in herself and learned that it's okay for her to prioritize what she wanted to do and she wasn't just a burden on other people. Shoya and Shoko helped each other grow and mature as people. They helped each other find reasons to go on, and find things they wanted to do and goals they wanted to accomplish. They gave each other a future. So the last page of this manga, the two holding hands and going through those doors together, though uncertain of what lies in store for them, is purposeful; it symbolizes them embracing the uncertain future that lies in store for them with confidence, which they can do because each is there for each other. That, to me, is a far more emotional and meaningful reflection on the nature of their relationship than a mere kiss could be, and is much more in line with what this story was about and what it represented, and what these characters went through and what they mean to each other. It's a well though-out and strong ending that closes this series off on all the right notes, and there is really few ways I could see it being improved on that aren't superfluous.

A Silent Voice was a fantastic manga. With the series over I can say that it is easily one of my favorite manga. I got so much out of this story, it's themes, it's characters, and the experience of reading that last third on a week to week basis and the overall quality and construction of the story was tight and well-executed through and through. I applaud it as one of few manga, especially nowadays, that could tell a story so untraditional and un-mainstream like this, and not only have it be quite successful on the sheer grounds of it's quality, but also know exactly when to stop, and to have a direction and conclusion it worked towards not dragged down or stretched out for the sake of extending the series past what it needed to. Few manga simply end telling a complete story in such a short amount of time and with no extraneous parts like this, especially these days, and that just makes this series stand out even more. I love this manga, and it's going to be a bit of a downer to no longer reading it every week now, but all the same, I'm glad it came out the way it did and ended the way it did too. I look forward to reading Oima's next work, and I hope it comes soon. And if you haven't read ASV yet...seriously, do it. You'll enjoy it.

Assassination Classroom chapter 108 - Yet another fantastic chapter! I expected the nature of Class E's strategy to make it seem like they had escaped the cage, but that didn't make it any less great a reveal and shined well on their ingenuity. I felt Irina throwing the collar into the cell was a disguised move to help them, or give them a chance to escape, and sure enough, it does allow them to disable the collars around their neck. Wow, though, Nagisa really is in a slump. He is clearly shaken up by being utterly defeated by God of Death, and this is sure to lead into some interesting development for his character, either later in this arc or in the future. On a plot level this was just really strong, but the gags here were great too, mainly Irina's line about getting a nose bleed looking at Karasuma's "nice" body. Speaking of Irina, I really liked Karasuma apologizing to her for not being compassionate enough and telling her that he and the students really do need her in their lives, and then her line to God of Death when he comes up to her and is all like "oh hey, sorry for almost getting you crushed to death. That's just how things go, right" by responding that she's "a bitch who moves on to another guy right away," which is timed perfectly with Karasuma getting the jump on him and grabbing his back and plummeting both of them down into the water shaft...just a great "fuck you" scene and really satisfying to see the God of Death get screwed over like that. And apparently the God of Death is a real sicko who peeled off his own face so he could better wear disguises and masks. Wow, this guy is HARDCORE. And now Karasuma and the God of Death should be engaging in one heck of a fight, and man, I am pumped to see it. Just another killer chapter of Classroom.

Billy Bat chapters 126-127 - Kevin's search for a successor has been fruitless, and he's had a roadblock in writing the next story now that Billy isn't talking to him anymore. Not to mention Audrey is being a bitch by announcing on television that he won't be retiring and his search for a replacement is just a rumor. Man, she honestly resembles her father in some ways like this, but as Kevin says to Chuck, they aren't "slaves," not to her or the Bat, and they should have the freedom to do what they want. But whatever problems Audrey might be causing, a solution seems to have appeared. Timmy, the kid that Kevin met a while ago, has grown up and fulfilled his promise by writing a manuscript for a Billy Bat comic to show to him. Kevin is excited, thinking that his Bat is the genuine article, but Chuck and Devivie are a bit skeptical because, well, his Bat is a little too cute. Timmy himself kind of seems like a shifty bastard, mumbling to himself like that. But his comic lines up with the comic Kevin was just writing, so it would seem he can speak to the Bat. Except we check in on Jackie, who is being pestered by Billy to find Kevin to warn him about something, and distinctly tells her she is the only "receiver" he can talk to right now. Which, to me, indicates that Timmy ain't speaking to Billy at all. Nah, either Timmy is just weird and awkward and by total coincidence came up with a story about a guy who looks exactly like Osama Bin Laden telling his grunts in what seems exactly like Al Queda that they need to learn how to fly airplanes so they can drag America down into hell, or he's talking to the bad Bat, the evil Billy Bat. And if that's the case...uh oh. What does Billy want Jackie to warn Kevin Goodman about? Which Bat does Timmy speak with if he speaks with one at all? What is Kevin Yamagata searching for in his elusive travels across the world? The answers to these questions are more will be revealed...whenever Billy Bat gets updated again. Maybe.

Black Butler chapter 99 - Green Witch decides to live, Sebastian is one hell of a butler, and the maids were german soldiers all along. Boring chapter outside of the middle where Sebastian screwed over that old woman and set fire to the lab, but not really a bad one I suppose. Just was kind of a wash.

Bleach chapter 606 - The beard guys fight and it doesn't matter because even though it seems like Hyo...Hyoso...god I can't even bother remembering his name. It's almost december and the guy is fat and has a long beard, so I'll just call him Santa for the hell of it. Anyway, Santa seems to be beating the shit out of Ywach now, but this is Bleach, so, y'know, this isn't going to last. Especially since Ywach is all like "ha, you think I'm at a disadvantage, FOOL! I'm a main villain in Bleach! I have the power of HAX DUES EX MACHINA BULLSHIT! WAHAHAHAHA!" Like, seriously, we all know how this fight is going to end. I really just do not care about Santa at all. Ho ho ho go die and let's get this other with.

Boku no Hero Academia chapters 9-12 - I thought these were excellent chapters. Midoriya stood up to Bakugou but didn't forget his objectives and he and Uraka really did execute some good teamwork to outwit Bakugou and Iida. While Bakugou's overly exaggerated hatred and angry personality seemed too overdone for my tastes, I appreciate the attempts at explaining why he resents Midoriya so much, as well as the conclusion where Midoriya reveals his powers aren't innate but he will make them his own and become stronger than him, which both gives Bakugou some more confidence as well as fires him up to not let Midoriya get better than him in the long run. The newest chapter was also well-done to establish the character of Iida a bit, develop a relationship of respect between him and Midoriya, and make him seem like a more notable character than previously and one to look forward to seeing utilized in the future. The ending of the chapter does indicate that a major conflict with real super villains should take place soon, and that should prove to be an interesting conflict. This series continues to make a solid impression as it continues developing into it's own, and these chapters were some of the most promising yet. I look forward to more.

Fairy Tail Zero chapter 5 - Overall this chapter did a decent job developing Zeira's character and motivations and expanding on the characters of the bandits, but that fucking scene were Mavis and Zeira were taking a bath in the river like that was another one of Hiro's god awful attempts at lollicon and immediately focres me to knock this down a few grades. It's not terribly offensive compared to stuff in the main series, though, and at least the core story developed here was interesting, with Blue Skull being shown destroyed by that dragon skeleton thing. Wonder what happened there.

Fuuka chapter 40 - An overlooked voice message left by Fuuka has reignited Yuu's desire to play and not give up the bass! Will he be able to convince Niko to give it back to him? Will he get the band back together? Probably. But still a really solid and well-done chapter moving this story in a strong direction.

Hinomaru Zumo chapters 8-9 - Hinomaru and Munechika duke it out! Both have been inspired by each other to become better Sumo wrestlers, and now they get the chance to fight each other in the ring! But, while Hinomaru has a lot to prove, and has a strong thirst for victory...one that Munechika lacks! Munechika was only looking to fight a strong opponent, not driven to win against one. And against Hinomaru's bloodlust, he's completely outmatched. Will Hinomaru win using his long-developed skills, or will Munechika be able to turn the match around? Strong character driven chapters with great action, and really making me more and more interested in the direction of this series.

Joshi Kausei chapter 24 - A really cute and funny chapter that sees Shibumi really enjoy and try to seek out volumes of a manga she's really gotten into. Just a nice little story and one of the stronger ones to come from this series for the past few chapters.

Magi chapter 247 - Hakuryuu and Judar begin their fight with Gyokuen. Their plan to have her own subordinates vaporize her fails because Gyokuen is hax and she uses what I guess was one of Sheba's old borg techniques to protect herself from their attacks and then she starts to beat the shit out of them and smile really creepy grins again and again because in case you somehow forgot Gyokuen is one crazy psycho bitch. The action in this chapter was fine and fairly intense but I can't say I find it terribly impressive either as of yet. I love me some crazy faces and expressions but they they didn't do much for me here. But Judar giving her the finger in those panels where they were explaining how Hakuryuu brainwashed her drones was humorous. That scene where Hakuryuu just walked past those two official guys and they couldn't stop him because they didn't even believe in their own words on why they should stop was kind of a good moment too. Overall, though, wasn't feeling this chapter as much as I'd have liked to, but it definitely was a more interesting one than the last few weeks.

One Piece chapter 768 - "Hey, remember the plot? Remember where everybody is and what they are going? No? Well here's an entire chapter devoted to re-establishing just that!" That's basically what this chapter was, and it was pretty meh. The most worthwhile things were the parts focused on Law and Doflamingo, particularly Law revealing to him that he too is a D and that he will pull the trigger that Corazon couldn't, but otherwise, it was kind of a waste and fairly boring.

Peephole chapter 48 - Aw snap, the policewoman was so savvy the pyscho was like "fuck it" and now the whole cult has ganged up on her. She doesn't seem too worried about this, though, so maybe she's got something planned, but the build-up and tension to the last page was fun.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 104 - A great chapter that gives some downtime to have Ban and King talk with each other as they supposedly head towards the Fairy King's Forest, culminating in the reveal that, indeed, it has been revived, thanks to Ban in fact! And not only is King now reviled as a traitor for not being there when the Forest was attacked and Elaine sacrificed herself, but Ban is the new Fairy King in place of him! DUN DUN DUN! Oh man, how will this affect Ban and King's friendship, and how is this going to play into whatever this new arc will be about? I dunno, but I'm really liking this direction, and excited to see.

Shokugeki no Soma chapter 95 - Soma is rarely at a disadvantage as daunting as the one he faces now. Both Hayama and Kurokiba are so skillful in picking out and preparing high quality fresh fish that they are simply on a whole other level. And as such, they don't even see Soma as a threat or rival, and are only concerned in taking out each other. Soma is not just being underestimated here, he is being completely ignored. And Soma knows he doesn't have the time to match their level of skill when it comes to this, but he has to make a successful dish and needs to spend time think about his idea properly. So, it seems he's come up with an alternative! He's asking Ibusaki and Sakakii for help, and considering that they are skilled at smoking and fermenting respectively, I wouldn't be surprised if he wants to borrow those skill sets to help him draw out the best flavor of the fish on a comparable level to a perfectly fresh one. How will Soma utilize both of their skills to help combat against Hayama and Kurokiba? What dish is he planning to make? Whatever it is, it will surely be something surprising.

Toriko chapter 302 - So Pair is the Monkey King's Balls after all. Okay. In any case, at the end of the chapter, Bambina appears! That was...quick. Mmm. Really hard to get excited here. Should have been more time and build up to this. They should have fought the other instructors and gone through more. Perhaps they won't start fighting immediately, but eh, still, the pacing just feels so rushed right now. It's just hard to grasp and get invested in what's going on recently. Well, we'll see, I guess.

World Trigger chapters 74-79 - Strong chapters here, with Yuma having to take desperate measures to take out Visa and go out to help Osamu before time is up, and Miwa fights a hard fight with Haidren, and Osamu ditches his trion body in a last ditch effort to try and get Chika's cube to safety and now has to take on a dangerous plan in order to help win the day. Strong developments here that seem to be closing this arc off on a promising note. I look forward to seeing the conclusion to all this in the next few chapters, all of which, presumably, should come next week, and possibly catch us up.

Rankings:

1. A Silent Voice - 10/10
2. Assassination Classroom - 10/10
3. Billy Bat - 10/10
4. Boku no Hero Academia - 9/10
5. World Trigger - 9/10
6. Fuuka -  9/10
7. The Seven Deadly Sins - 9/10
8. Shokugeki no Soma - 8.5/10
9. Hinomaru Zumo - 8.5/10
10. Peephole - 8.5/10
11. Joshi Kausei - 8.5/10
12. Magi - 7.5/10
13. One Piece - 7/10
14. Toriko - 7/10
15. Black Butler - 6/10
16. Fairy Tail Zero - 6/10
17. Bleach - 1/10

On the whole, I would say this was quite the strong week of manga. With what had essentially been the default #1 series of the week now gone, I no longer have a weekly manga that I can always expect to be great every week either, but I could see a few series currently in a strong place develop into that role for me if they can keep up their pace. Who knows? But either way, with ASV over, I'm also down a weekly Crunchyroll manga, which makes it a good time to start getting into Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches...which has been quite enjoyable so far! I hope to get caught up shortly. In any case, a good week of manga, a great ending for A Silent Voice, and hopefully next week will be similarly enjoyable.

[LumRanmaYasha]

This reminds me I need to get around to reading Please Save My Earth sometime.

[Pharass]

I have to confess something: I haven't read a single chapter of Naruto. I know the gist of it and who some of the characters are, but that's it. I know that I probably should check it out at some point, considering what a huge title it is, but somehow, I've never gotten around to it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Honestly, you're not missing much. If I were to be a tad less biased than I usually am towards this series, part 1 is a pretty decent if standard shonen that just happens to get way more praise than it deserves. I mean, its got some good points, but doesn't really do anything in particular that I can't name at least one other series that does that particular thing better. Still, the overall quality is alright, for the most part.

Past the time-skip, though, the quality ranges from mediocre to a convoluted mess. To its credit, it tries to be much more ambitious with its story-telling, but IMO the execution is abysmal.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Last friday I decided to finally check out Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, and I got caught up to it by Monday. I didn't expect I would read through it so fast, especially since the chapters take a fair amount of time to read, but once I started I couldn't stop. The humor is hilarious, the characters are funny and surprisingly layered and well-developed, the romance aspects are handled really well, and the story is really interesting and keeps you on your toes in a good way. I really got into to it quickly and pretty passionately to the point I would yell out things and comment things as I was reacting to events in the story, and when the humor was really funny, physically react to it too. So, as you might guess, I really like it a lot. So much so that I've already re-read a third of it. It's a really fun, very well-written series that really surprised me for how well-done it is. I look forward to keeping up with it from here on out.

And now it's getting an anime adaption.

Goddamn, 2015 just keeps looking to be a better and better year of anime each passing day. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

The Top Selling Manga of 2014 list is in. The top ten for this year were:

1. One Piece - 11,885,957
2. Attack on Titan - 11,728,368
3. Haikyu!! - 8,283,709
4. Tokyo Ghoul - 6,946,203
5. Kuroko's Basketball - 6,729,439
6. Naruto - 5,505,179
7. Ace of Diamond - 4,681,031
8. Magi - 4,657,971
9. The Seven Deadly Sins - 4,633,246
10. Assassination Classroom - 4,622,108

Here is last year's list for comparison.

Observations:

- I'm overall not surprised by the top 10, in terms of which series are in it. I am surprised a bit by Haikyu!!'s rank at #3, but it seems on it's way to taking over for KnB as Jump's second highest selling manga for a while.

- One Piece barely managed to hold it's spot at #1, but Titan came very close to dethroning it. I would not be surprised if it does manage to overtake it next year.

- While both OP and AoT did not sell nearly as much as they did last year, in general, manga sales are up across the board.

- Magi's sales are noticeably down this year. Perhaps japanese readers became frustrated with the Alma Thorran arc as much as the western audience seemed too.

Overall it looks like a lot of series are going strong commercially and manga sales did better compared to last year. The most notable thing for me is that Jump has lost two of it's biggest sellers in the past few years with Naruto and Kuroko, not to mention HXH and classic JoJo's didn't make the cut this year and Toriko dropped off for whatever reason as well. Haikyu!! and Assassination Classroom are selling well and will likely continue to do so, but I'd have to think that Jump is really fishing for new hits to fill the void their ended hits have left. I think Boku no Hero Academia has good prospects considering it's rankings in the magazine  so far and the sales of the first volume, and maybe Soma will shoot up with the anime next year. Overall, though, 2014 was a pretty good year for manga, and with another slew of new anime adaptions of popular ongoing properties coming next year, 2015 might turn out even better.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The only thing on that list that surprises me is Ace of Diamond, but I suppose that the currently running anime has helped to boost the sales of the manga. Still, I wasn't aware that it was so popular, but I guess that Japan just loves baseball.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I'm probably not going to find time this week to write my recap for last week's chapters, so here's just the rankings for now.

1. Assassination Classroom - 10/10
2. Girl May Kill- 9.5/10
3. Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches - 9.5/10
4. Fuuka - 9/10
5. Toriko - 9/10
6. World Trigger - 8.5/10
7. Boku no Hero Academia - 8.5/10
8. Magi - 8.5/10
9. Orange - 8.5/10
10. WataMote - 8/10
11. One Piece - 8/10
12. Shokugeki no Soma - 8/10
13. Space Brothers - 8/10
14. The Seven Deadly Sins - 8/10
15. One-Punch Man - 8/10
16. Detective Conan - 7/10
17. GTO: Paradise Lost - 5/10
18. Bleach - 1/10

It was a pretty strong week, overall.