Currently Running Manga Discussion

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's worth mentioning that I actualky kind of enjoyed the most recent Magi chapter. Aladdin's conflict with Judar is much more interesting than the one between Alibaba and Hakuryuu. With Judar, as a Magi born just like any other, he was meant to have a greater importance of helping people in the new world. Yet he hates the idea of his life goal and destiny being decided for him, so in his rebellious nature, he actively tries to fight against it. He extends his hatred towards Aladdin for whom he perceives to be a little goodie-two-shoes who's just doing as he was ordered to. To this Aladdin reveals that he never even initially knew what the purpose of a Magi was. He was never given any orders or even told anything about his purpose when he was sent from AT. For the longest time he just wandered the world, had adventures, made friends, and had the freedom to choose his own destiny for himself. The theme here is choice versus destiny, and I believe what Ohtaka is trying to get at here is that despite what some characters believe, they always have a choice. Of course, I could be wrong, but it seems pretty clear to me. It could be more nuanced, sure, but I'm fine with what we got.

This brings up another point from an earlier discussion with CX. When I compared this manga to ASOIAF, it wasn't to say that I expected the same level of nuance from it. Rather, in cases like Alibaba's rule over his Balbadd, I just wanted Ohtaka to tackle the issue in the first place, rather than change the subject abruptly. The obviously 1D correct Alibaba vs. the obviously 1D incorrect and musguided Sasuke 2.0 is not an interesting conflict. I don't care if the subject matter is not as in-depth as a book series or show meant for adults. It can be appropriate for a level suited to its much younger target demographic, yet still interesting for adults, as many other shonen series have been. My standards really aren't that high at all.

I'll even throw the AT arc a bone, here. My reason for not enjoying it was that it failed to make me really care about the characters. That said, the concepts and issues that it tackled were legitimately interesting. Solomon didn't want to rule for a good reason, but was pressured into it. Yet despite being a good person, it didn't mean that his rule was infallible. As he probably knew would eventually happen, he made certain decisions that turned out to have massive negative repercussions, putting him at internal conflict not just with his own subjects, but even with some of his closest friends. Now, if the characters had been more fleshed out and had a bit more to their personality, I probably would have loved the arc, but as it stands, I found the execution to be lacking, but the backbone for greatness was still there. Now, Magnostadt is an arc that really managed to get both elements right, and that's why it's awesome.

So, no, my relatively recent distaste for Magi has absolutely nothing to do with me just turning on the battle shonen genre and being a snob for ridiculously high quality. On the contrary, Magi is one of the few contemporaries that I was enjoying because it's a battle shonen but does something a bit different to make it stand out as unique. I've simply been disappointed that the series hasn't been capitalizing on the more interesting story developments that were being built up, which are the same types that worked for it in the past.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I have to say, I really enjoyed the first Magi anime (haven't seen the second yet) but one part that struck me as forced was Alibaba not being made king.

Yes, I know that he's one of the main characters and a king can't just go off adventuring, but everything in the arc was about him growing and understanding the way the world is and what he could do to better it. A lot like Aragorn in LOTR, actually. So, everything in the arc logically is pointing toward Alibaba being the one to grow up and stand for his people which finally peaks when he takes down the assassins and faces his half-brother in the assembly. This is a really good build-up to a quite obvious conclusion (I don't say that in a bad way, because foreshadowing is good, there was a lot of it up to this point) thematically. The boy who ran away and nearly lost himself to despair was helped back on his road by his new friends and finally grows into the man he is capable of being.

Then he says he doesn't want to be king and wants to make it a republic because he saw it happen at some place the audience has never seen.

Now, far be it from me to criticize republics and praise monarchies, but this was not hinted at whatsoever in the story. The whole reason Alibaba didn't want to be king was because he didn't know how to be one and thought his people deserved better-- ironically, great aspects of being a king. Not once did he ever hint at his reason for not wanting to be a king was because of political preferences. It comes out of left field and feels forced in order to have Alibaba continue to tread water for a while.

I like Magi from what I've seen. It's a good adventure story. But I do wish it would stick to adventure style plots of just stopping the bad guy. It's better when it's straightforward. Now, I haven't seen season 2, so I could be wrong, but I actually liked the series when it played it straight. It was good at it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It actually does a surprisingly good job at dealing with moral and political conflicts in the Magnostadt arc, IMO, while still being a fun story. Actually, come to think of it, Magnostadt is sort of like a better version of the Three Kings arc from YYH, with each main character backing a different faction, while trying to prevent an impending war, but this arc actually goes in the direction that I wanted to see from the Three Kings arc.

As for Alibaba, to be fair I think that it would've been interesting to see him try to set up a republic but discover all of the problems and challenges in converting his people from an age-old government system to a brand new one that has no guarentee to work. That said, keep in mind that the plot which you were talking about wasn't completely dropped. In this case it's put on hold for a plot point that was actually built-up. Remember how the former King of Balbadd had promised to wed a princess of the Kou Empire and add Balbadd to their territory via a marriage alliance (which flat-out had to be done in order for Balbadd to survive, since the kingdom was in a shit-ton of debt)? Well, Alibaba taking over and making Balbadd a republic pretty much throws that out the window, so as a consequence the Kou Empire would see Alibaba backing out of a previous engagement (even if it wasn't originally his engagement) that was promised to them as an act of war, and of course Balbadd is in no shape to fight, so Sinbad wisely advises Alibaba to leave for now so that he won't be executed and let the Kou Empire peacefully claim Balbadd so that there are no needless deaths. The plot wasn't dropped, but just put on hold for surprisingly well-written and well thought out reasons. Alibaba and Aladdin will have to figure out how to work out a new deal with the Kou Empire. On top of everything else, it's great world-building for the series.

Now, having said that, when Ohtaka comes back to this plot and drops it again for no good reason, then THAT's when I lose my shit and start criticizing her writing.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Well, I'm certain to enjoy season 2 more since I liked season 1 quite a bit. That was pretty much my only quibble with the season, but if you say it is built into something else, I'll happily put it aside for now. It was quite an enjoyable watch. It actually reminded me of something I'd watch on Toonami back in the day. I'd sure like to see where it goes next.

Seriously though, the second OP and ED were nowhere near as good as the first ones. Shame they changed them.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

None of the OPs are as good as the first one, IMO. They are serviceable, but the first one got me pumped for each episode, and I never skipped it.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I actually quite liked this week's Kagamigami. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it was my favorite chapter in this week's issue of Jump. It's a very simple chapter that isn't too revealing of character or story or anything, but it was just really fun and funny and made me like the characters a bit more. I think the series' best element so far is the female lead, Mako. She was easily the most entertaining part of the first chapter for me and was even more so in this one. So long as she continues to be prominent and has an active role in the story, the series could grow on me.

Black Clover's debut chapter was pretty good too. Nothing exceptional for a first chapter for a shonen manga, but it hit all the right notes and presented the characters and story in an enjoyable manner. The main character is a little too reminiscent of Naruto, so that makes me wary a bit, but the art is great and the world and the best friend/rival character seem intriguing. Though it had all the expected cliches, it somehow felt more fresh than the first chapter of Kagamigami to me, which is a good sign of enjoyability for now. Optimistic on this one.

As I thought, this new arc in Food Wars! is going to provide good development for Arato. This chapter was mostly focused from her perspective and coming to learn the ropes of working in a busy kitchen and become more self-confident after her loss against Hayama. Still, I can't imagine that there won't be nothing to challenge Soma himself in this situation, so what will be the real challenge for him and Arato in this arc is going to be interesting to see.

I've grown fonder of the first chapter of Boys Over Flowers Season 2 after re-reading it and having read the first few chapters of the original manga. While it isn't nearly as good a first chapter as the original series', I still think the characters and the concept of the conflict is going to be a lot of fun, and should make for an enjoyable read. And having enjoyed what I've read of the original so far, I'm looking more forward to reading it.

Assassination Classroom ended the conflict with Principal Asano wonderfully, in a way that felt appropriate for what we seen and come to learn about that character, and I appreciate how he was able to come out of this arc a more likable and sympathetic character without having to do a complete 180 in terms of his behavior and thinking (though he will be more amicable towards Korosensei from now on). But I have to say, the plot is really taking no breathers. Both Class E's grudge with Class A and the Principal's antagonism towards Korosensei has been resolved, and it looks like Shiro and the God of Death will be returning to the story in the next arc (which will presumably start next chapter). I appreciate that it's not wasting time dragging out the story, but it makes me wonder just how much of it is left at this point.

The newest Rising of the Shield Hero chapter felt rushed, and from the comments apparently it is in terms of adapting the light novel. Wonder what's up with that. If this chapter's any indication, that'll only be a detriment to the quality of the manga going forward.

For some reason Crunchyroll only uploaded half of the new Seven Deadly Sins chapter, so after the first 12 pages (which are spent just going over the results of the character popularity poll), you only get 4 pages of the actual chapter proper. They've been making mistakes in formatting the latest Sins and Fairy Tail chapters frequently as of late, and it's rather annoying to see.

The latest Fuuka was a jarring one. I's a flashback showing how both Fuuka's actually met each other a few years before the beginning of the series. It's cute chapter, but the placement of it within the series seems odd, as it's breaking up the tension of what's happening in-story right now. If it was meant to be a special chapter, then it would have been better to make it the 50th chapter, instead of the 51st. It just strikes me as odd.

Yamada-kun had another solid character-driven piece this week. It seems that Kaori will become Yamada's ally and is going to be the mole in the Chess Club for the Student Council. Though, I have a feeling there'll be more to that, since I can't imagine that Ushio and Asuka just let a random girl join their club that had nothing to offer them. I have to wonder how this is going to play out.

[LumRanmaYasha]

English print release of My Hero Academia confirmed for August.

You know, this has got to be one of the quickest print debuts I've ever seen or heard of for a manga. Not the quickest, because I know Rin-ne's first print volume actually got a simultaneous release in both Japan and the U.S., but this is still pretty exceptionally fast. The series only debuted in Japan last July. Only a bit more than a year after and the first volume will hit the shelves in the U.S. I guess a lot people really are expecting it to be the next BIG thing in the anime/manga fandom.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I remember when Shonen Jump first started over here and they were advertising Naruto constantly long before it actually came out here. We've come a long way.

[LumRanmaYasha]

That's certainly true. We can now legally read entire new series just debuting in Japan on the very same day japanese readers experience them. I don't see how you get much better than that, other than a full simulpub of an entire dang magazine.

On an unrelated note, it's been two days and I still find it extremely amusing that King won the first Seven Deadly Sins character popularity poll by a landslide - over 120, 000 votes, which was nearly 4 times as many votes as what Ban, who was in second place, got! You rarely see something like that happen in these polls, especially for a character that isn't the main protagonist of the series. In general I could get behind the results, since the top three just happened to be my favorite three characters in the series, after all. It's still bizarre  that Oslo, that weird pet dog King has that has only appeared very occasionally in the series, somehow got 6th place, though. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

So, this little twist happened in the latest Assassination Classroom chapter...

Spoiler

[close]

On the one had, this raises a lot of questions towards her behavior throughout the entire series so far, since it's a very jarring twist that completely changes how to perceive her character and gives her a newfound importance in the story. I'd have to go back and see certain moments again to look at the hints for this (and there probably were). But man, what a shocker! Hopefully this'll lead into finally learning more about Korosensei's past and secrets, which I've been wanting to know for a while now.

[LumRanmaYasha]

So here's the clue given for the twist in this chapter (#128):



And what happened during Shiro's first appearance all the way back in chapter 29?

Spoiler

[close]

Dang. That is an Oda-level callback and attention to detail right there! Well played, Yusei Matsui, well played.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Well, that's three chapters, so that's the last we'll be seeing of Kagamigami chapter that'll be in Viz's Jump for a while. My appreciation for the series went steadily up with each successive chapter, and I'm honestly a bit bummbed that I won't get to read it for a few weeks, if only because it means I won't get to see more of Mako's amazingly hilarious shenanigans. I think it has potential and could get better as it goes on, so I'm really pulling for it to be chosen to be added to the lineup between this round of Jump Starts.

Speaking of which, the first chapter of Cyborg Roggy was a total bore. While it could somehow get drastically more interesting in it's second chapter, for the time being Black Clover is the only competition I really see for Kagamigami being added into the lineup, though maybe Ultra Battle Satellite will be surprisingly good when it debuts next week. Either way, Viz won't decide on a series until after all four have finished running their trial chapters, so even if they pick Kagamigami it won't be back in until late March/early April.

Speaking of, the latest issue of Viz's Jump was cram-packed (13 series!), and about 9 of them were solid to excellent this week. I'm especially looking forward to seeing the next installments of Gakkyu Hotei (SO glad I subscribed to Jump if just so I can read this!), Shokugeki no Soma, and World Trigger. Toriko has also rebounded quite nicely into a better sort of ridiculous I find more enjoyable, Nisekoi is finally doing a more serious character-development arc and is all the better for it, and while I'm not much enthused about the idea of seeing a bunch of one-on-one battles (LAME!), I liked the backstory for Todoroki given in My Hero Academia and how the rivalry between Midoriya and him has been set up. All in all, it made for a fine and fun issue to read. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

Well, looks like the Karasuno v. Seijoh rematch is over. Honestly...I thought the whole game was rather boring. Not irritatingly boring, but little about it stuck out as memorable to me. Very disappointing, considering the build-up.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It was OK. The first match was way more intense, though, especially in the anime.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Well now, Ultra Battle Satellite's first chapter was a pretty enjoyable read, and Cyborg Roggy's second chapter was much better than it's first. This was a good round of Jump Starts. I'm still gunning for Kagamigami to get in, but it'll probably be Black Clover, since the staff seems to REALLY like it if the WSJ podcast is any indication.