Currently Running Manga Discussion

[LumRanmaYasha]

That's understandable. As for myself, labeling it "below average" didn't exactly mean I felt it was "poor." It just meant, well, I found it below average in comparison to what I know the series can be capable of and in comparison to how entertaining I found it's output overall. As I said before, the only Jump series that I thought was of really poor quality and truly bad last year was Bleach. And with Hunter X Hunter, I consider it a series that's best read when you can read an entire arc in one go rather than see it develop on a weekly basis, since it can be so inconsistent chapter to chapter, but when taking it in on the whole all the elements of the story and character development add together to be something really great. That doesn't mean I think Togashi shouldn't still try to be more consistent and have the earlier chapters in his arcs be better reads on the first time through, though.

[LumRanmaYasha]

For some reason Crunchyroll only uploaded half of the manga that they are supposed to put out today, but haven't put out the other half they should. No explanation as to why either. And I KNOW those series aren't just off this week because I've seen the new Fuuka chapter uploaded on scanlation sites. Goddamit Crunchy, making me wait to read the latest Yamada-kun...

[LumRanmaYasha]

Okay, so NOW they're up. It's still very unusual that they were six hours late with them.

...not a fan of the new development in the latest Fuuka chapter, btw.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It doesn't seem like you've been all that into it for a while. Has the author not managed to keep up quality or is he not taking advantage of his shocking turn?

[LumRanmaYasha]

Has it seemed that way? I've been enjoying it fairly well for the past few weeks, and I wrote rather positively about it's output in december in the manga roundup I posted on the blog. If it sounds like I haven't been very high on it as of late, I'd say that's more because other series I've been reading have just gotten me more excited to talk about, rather than me losing interest in it.

But yes, I do think the mangaka hasn't taken advantage of the shocking turn as well as he could have. The main thing being that the story has been moving a bit too fast for my liking. I would have liked to see more time spent on Yuu coping with what happened and it taking more time for the band to get back together than it did. That isn't to say I didn't enjoy the chapters that we got, but I definitely think some potential was lost in rushing the recovery phase to finish in only 10 chapters. With this latest development especially, I feel that the mangaka has succumbed to the fan backlash and is moving the story in a more "safe" direction, which does disappoint me. I have heard mixed things about the mangaka's previous works, and I've read some comments that the most recent development is reminiscent of something that happened in one of his earlier manga, so I can't say I'm not a little wary of how the series will progress. For the moment I still find it pretty well-done and enjoyable, but I just hope my intuition that the mangaka has decided to play it "safe" from now on turns out to be a false alarm and the series remains an interesting and well-written read.

[LumRanmaYasha]

The next set of new Jump series are coming. One of them includes a new series by the creator of Psyren. I still haven't finished that series, but I liked what I read of it well enough. It'll probably end up being the Jump Start that makes it into Viz's Jump, so I'll keep tabs on it.

[LumRanmaYasha]

It looks like Vagabond is finally back from it's year-long hiatus. Noice. I'm glad I timed catching up with the series as well as I did. Hopefully it doesn't go on any long hiatus' again.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I was caught up to the series for quite a while, but I forgot a lot of stuff from the beginning which I read years ago. I think that I'm going to start re-reading the series from scratch when I have the chance.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The next set of new Jump series are coming. One of them includes a new series by the creator of Psyren. I still haven't finished that series, but I liked what I read of it well enough. It'll probably end up being the Jump Start that makes it into Viz's Jump, so I'll keep tabs on it.

I'll keep an eye out for it. Psyren wasn't the most original series or anything but compared to most battle manga now it was far better. A detective style should be a good fit for him.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I literally just gasped when I saw that the new Vagabond chapter had been translated. Wasn't expecting to see it this soon (especially after going months without updates for Vinland Saga), lol.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Read the new Crunchyroll stuff that came out yesterday and today. The development in Fuuka turned out not to go in the direction I thought it was going to (at least not yet), which quite pleases me. I really like the idea of the new Fuuka just being a rival rather than a romantic interest and I hope it stays that way. The other conflict introduced in this chapter seemed kinda rushed, but I liked the idea behind it and how Yuu handled the situation. It was a good character moment, and next chapter should be a good comeback moment for the band as a whole.

A pretty dark thing happened at the end of the new Space Brothers, which if it really goes in that direction probably will have a damaging effect on Mutta, so that should be interesting to see develop. But of course Yamada-kun just hands down stole the week again like it's been doing lately with another hilarious chapter and great plot development and character moments. Alongside the good stuff that came out of the Jump series earlier, this week has just been killer so far and February looks to be continuing January's hot streak. Speaking of which, I should probably get on finishing writing the roundup for last month...

[LumRanmaYasha]

Hell hath frozen over.

I guess everything must come to an end, but wow, that was a series I thought would continue even after the mangaka died.

[Avaitor]

Whoa. Never thought I'd see the day.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Admittedly, Saito seems to intend to end the series around the 200th volume, and the series is only at 185 or so volumes right now, so it probably has a few years left before it actually ends.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That has inspired me to maybe finalky check out this manga at some point in the future if I can. I doubt that I would ever read it all, but it may be interesting to have a look at.