Currently Running Manga Discussion

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm hoping for Kagamigami. I haven't read Black Clover, but it doesn't really look like my thing from what I've seen.

Of course, that could change, but Kagamigami just interests me more right now.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I think both series will be fairly successful in the short term even if either one doesn't get into the english Jump. If you don't subscribe to it and are waiting for the unofficial scans to pop up, it probably won't affect your chances of reading it.

Even if either one doesn't get selected for the english Jump after the trial period finishes, if it remains popular, it could be added in later when a spot opens up (Bleach and Nisekoi might end this year, after all).

[LumRanmaYasha]

I've had a blast with Toriko's output recently. It's really pulled itself out of that low point and has become as much fun to read as it used to be at the beginning of last year. After a shaky start, the Pair arc ended great and I'm quite excited for the next one. Also, Monkey King Bambina needs to be a recurring character. He is awesome.

Now if only I could be as enthusiastic about Magi again too...

Most of what I've been reading on a weekly basis that I like has been really, really good lately. That sort of makes me more apathetic to the stuff that haven't been up to par, like Magi and Haikyuu, which come across even more boring or uninteresting to me than they would have in a less stellar month otherwise. It's more baffling/annoying with Magi, considering these fights with Hakuryuu and Judar are supposed to be intense, climactic, and desperate (especially in the two most recent chapters that came out today), but they've just felt too rushed and messy to leave much impact. Disappointing, considering how excited I used to be about the series a year ago.

Nothing was said about which of the recent Jump Start series will be added to Viz's Jump this week. Maybe they'll announce it in the next issue? Really hoping they choose Kagamigami - I've honestly missed reading it these past few weeks.

[LumRanmaYasha]

A new promo for the Yamda-kun and the Seven Witches anime has come out.

Not really digging the emphasis on the ecchi. It's in the manga, yeah, but the anime seems like it'll be over-doing it too much and detract from the story. At least I know the premiere date now, April 12th. But are they really only giving it 12 episodes? Why not do two cours and adapt the entire Seven Witches portion of the series, which ends at a great stopping point? Unless they plan to rush through everything (which I really hope they don't), they are probably only going to get up to that Future vision arc, which is a pretty big arc for that point in the series, but leaves the story incomplete. But the fact that all the original seven witches are shown in the promo art, and Noa and Rika don't appear until after that arc, makes me even more confused at what they're planning to do. Best case scenario they are giving it split cours, and will adapt that whole section of the series at an appropriate pace. But if they are Tokyo Ghoul-ing this thing...bleh. At any rate, my excitement for the adaption has definitely been shaken and I'm more skeptical, but hopefully it'll still be well-made.

[LumRanmaYasha]

A new promo for the The Heroic Legend of Arslan anime has come out.

Those production values look pretty great. This should be a well-made adaption, and hopefully more engaging than the source material has been at times.

[Markness]

I agree on Toriko, Cartoon X. It's been a fun ride, especially compared to how One Piece and Magi have been lately. The former just can't seem to go anywhere and the latter just feels like everything has been tacked on. I can't even read Bleach anymore but when you have Nanatsu no Taizai and UQ Holder! making waves, do you really need Bleach?

[LumRanmaYasha]

I honestly wasn't digging the current arc when it started last year, mainly because Shimabukuro overused the whole "Toriko and co. get horribly mutilated but somehow survive" trope a time too many with the most inconceivable explanation yet, and the characters felt too overpowered, but it surprised me how quickly I've become excited to read it again since the fight with Bambina started. It's been a non-stop ride of over-the-top action-packed goofy fun since, which was always the appeal of Toriko for me, so I'm feeling very good about the series again and optimistic that the next arc will keep it up.

I'm fatigued with the Dressora arc in OP at this point. It's gone on so long, and has juggled so many subplots (some of which, like Rebecca's and the Tontatta's, I ultimately grew irritated by), that I just want to see something else from the series at this point. That isn't too say there haven't been great chapters and moments in this arc, or recently. I actually really loved the chapter where Luffy was forced to beat Bellamy down into unconsciousness, and the recent chapter where the fight with Doflamingo has become more intense and personal on Luffy's part thanks to both with what happened to Bellmany and now that Law has been severely injured as well. But still, the sooner this arc ends and we can get away from Dressrosa, the better.

With Magi, the whole business with Hakuryuu essentially turning into Sasuke 2.0 left a bitter taste in my mouth, and the rushed pacing and fight-focus nature of recent chapters has not done anything for me, since everything's happened too fast to have much tangible tension. What's been happening in the series recently hasn't been bad, but none of it leaves much impact on me due to how much more interesting and exciting so many other manga I've been keeping with have been lately.

I've had some mixed feelings about Sins output recently, but I do think the current arc is still in set-up mode. I've really liked the last few chapters, so I'm hoping to see some great stuff from the series when this arc really gets going.

The only reason I bother with Bleach at this point is to see it through to the end. And though big stuff has happened in recent chapters (Ywach killed the Soul King, Aizen came back, etc.) knowing Kubo he'll still drag the series out for a while yet. Right now I don't see it ending before the end of the year, at the earliest.

If you were to ask me to list the top 5 weekly manga I've been the most excited to read these days, they'd be (in rough order):

1. Shokugeki no Soma
2. Assassination Classroom
3. Gakkyu Hotei
4. World Trigger
5. Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches

There's plenty else that's been strong lately as well. I think this is going to end up being a great year for manga overall.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Magi actively pisses me off because it bothered to take the time to set-up really interesting potential future story-lines, and then just wastes its time on this crap with Hakuryuu which it didn't even spend adequate time building up. It feels like I've missed essential parts of his character arc in terms of how he went from where he started to where he currently is, and that just comes off as bad writing to me.

One Piece's current arc has been dragged out so long that even Oda seems to be tired of it! With the exception of some chapters here and there, the manga has really been lacking the sense of passion and drive that made pre-time-skip arcs so genuinely entertaining. You can tell that Oda doesn't have his heart completely in the series, right now.

[LumRanmaYasha]

One Piece's current arc has been dragged out so long that even Oda seems to be tired of it! With the exception of some chapters here and there, the manga has really been lacking the sense of passion and drive that made pre-time-skip arcs so genuinely entertaining. You can tell that Oda doesn't have his heart completely in the series, right now.

Eh, I disagree about that. If there's one admirable trait I felt every chapter of this arc has had, it's the visible effort on Oda's part to make this feel like a big and exciting story, to the point where he's been overdoing things to it's detriment. Oda seems to be working hard and putting as much effort as he's always had, if not more so. It's just the messy nature of how the arc has been written has lessened the effect of some moments that should feel much more impactful, imo.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yes, clearly he's working hard, but so is every mangaka. It goes without saying. By saying that there is not as much heart in this current arc as earlier stuff, I mean that nothing has come close to stuff like Arlong Park, Drum Island, Enies Lobby, Thriller Bark, and so on. I don't even mean in terms of story quality. I mean in terms of caring about the characters and their plight. I was invested in the Straw Hats throughout all of those arcs. I can't bring myself to care about any of them here. Oda spending so much time on an elaborate plot is actually sort of the problem. He's taken away time from developing characters to do so, and what we get is lots of repetitive jokes that stereotype them rather than expand them.

With Luffy beating down Bellamy, I just wasn't feeling it. I should have felt the tension and anger right alongside the character like I did in previous arcs, but Oda either didn't spend enough time to properly develop Bellamy's face turn and the mutual respect formed between him and Luffy, or he's spent too much time on other sub-plots that by the time we get back to Luffy's peril, I've completely lost my drive or reason for caring because that gap in time caused a disconnect with the momentum of that story-line and corresponding character development.

That's what I mean by a lack of passion. The story-line specifically for Luffy in this arc is fine, in and of itself. It's the sense of genuinely caring about how said story will effect the character in question (or vice-versa) which is what's lost on me. And that's how I feel about every other character in this arc. Once this arc is over, Oda really needs to take some time to properly reconnect both himself as a writer and his readers as an audience with the Straw Hats, again.

I kind of wish he'd do something on the level of how he caused a rift between Luffy and Usopp in an earlier arc. Not that exact thing, obviously, but something to re-establish both a sense of connection and chemistry between the crew.

[LumRanmaYasha]

With Luffy beating down Bellamy, I just wasn't feeling it. I should have felt the tension and anger right alongside the character like I did in previous arcs, but Oda either didn't spend enough time to properly develop Bellamy's face turn and the mutual respect formed between him and Luffy, or he's spent too much time on other sub-plots that by the time we get back to Luffy's peril, I've completely lost my drive or reason for caring because that gap in time caused a disconnect with the momentum of that story-line and corresponding character development.

That's what I mean by a lack of passion. The story-line specifically for Luffy in this arc  is fine, in and of itself. It's the sense of genuinely caring about how said story will effect (or vice-versa) the character in question which is what's lost on me. And that's how I feel about every other character in this arc. Once this arc is over, Oda really needs to take some time to properly reconnect both himself as a writer and his readers as an audience with the Straw Hats, again.

But on the flipside, I personally did feel for both characters in that chapter and enjoyed the payoff of that subplot as it had been built up. I have been able to care about many of the characters and their stories in this arc. I don't think Oda has stopped caring about those kind of things, but his way of executing it hasn't always been effective in this arc because he's been trying to do too much. From the way you've described it, I feel it's more of a matter about you losing interest in what's been going on in the series recently, rather than Oda losing interest in it himself. I think he cares about the series just as much as he's always been, it's just lately he's been prioritizing and focusing on some aspects of the series moreso than others, to mixed results.

One thing I wholeheartedly agree with is that I do think that the Straw Hats have lost a lot of chemistry with each other since the time-skip. I've complained about this several times now, but I really feel that close sense of family that they had in previous arcs just hasn't come across thanks to them being split up and focus resting on other supporting characters, and Luffy is the only Straw Hat that really feels important to the story to me these days. It just feels like after writing only Luffy for over 2 years, Oda lost his sense of how to write the other crewmembers as equal players, and so now in the current arc we've has half of them written out of the story again for over a year at this point. Oda really needs to find a way to give all the Straw Hats something genuinely meaningful to do in each arc again, and balance their focus with that of the supporting characters like he was able to do in pre-timseskip arcs.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, one thing that I came to realize is that the big pay-off scenes are a very good indicator for how much I personally enjoyed the arc. When Luffy stamps Arlong through an entire tower, punches the shit out of Crocodile through layers of ground and bricks, has Usopp burn down the World Government flag, flat-out obliterates Rob Lucci in the very moment he slips up and leaves himself vulnerable due to underestimating Luffy, and in general just great dramatic scenes like Whitebeard's epic speech in Marineford, I get an overwhelming sense of a "fuck yeah" feeling, like I genuinely feel rewarded for making it this far with this character. I felt similarly when other Straw Hat pirates achieved their own great personal achievements in the past.

What became clear to me is that those monents were not simply great on their own. They were in fact a reflection of the culmination of how great the story and characters leading up to that point were. When the story and characters are weak, like in Fishman Island, then the resolution will do nothing for me. Case in point: Luffy and the Straw Hats annihilate Hodi Jones and the New Sun Pirates, and my reaction can be summed up as "....I wonder when Hunter X Hunter will come back from its hiatus." In other words, it'll be interesting to see how I feel when Luffy finally defeats Doflamingo.

Perhaps it's wrong to say that Oda doesn't care, but I'm just not feeling it is all. That doesn't mean that I don't care. On the contrary, I wouldn't have stuck with the current run of the series for so long if it didn't mean so much to me in the first place. It's just that I'm getting impatient a bit, and really want to see Oda get the ball rolling on the main story again.

I remember how well the Whitebeard War Saga set up Blackbeard as one of the ultimate villains of the entire series. I remember feeling that I would be so satisfied to see Luffy finally pay him and Akainu back for what happened at Marineford. I just hope that when we finally do get to that point several years from now, those will be more rewarding moments that were well worth the wait.

As for the chemistry thing, easy fix: less new supporting characters in future arcs, more odd tag-team mash-ups, as opposed to one-on-one fights. Remember how fun the Chopper/Usopp or Usopp/Zoro pairings were? I'm still waiting on Usopp/Sanji and Chopper/Brook, among other things, myself.

[Markness]

I don't know what the general view of Akame ga Kiru! is but I enjoy it. It doesn't reivent the wheel but it does some things a lot better than Bleach and Fairy Tail. The jagged and razor sharp art style reminds me of Needless, Night Raid isn't a Cannon Fodder team, the pacing is nice and smooth, and there is no plot armor for the protagonists.

Toriko's been taking some notes from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure lately. The crazy poses, battle introspection, crazy expressions, and the way Komatsu was revive all bring JJBA to mind.

And yeah, Cartoon X, I am sure great things will come from NnT. I read an interview with Nakaba Suzuki and he talked about growing up on Dragon Ball and wanting to draw a manga that will make people wish the following week would come sooner. I think he's achieved that with NnT since I am always wishing the week would go faster since I have become really attached to the characters. I would like to see some YuYu Hakusho type fights between the Sins and the Ten Commandments but since the latter outnumbers the former, it's more likely we'll see team battles.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I've always felt Toriko was a cross of One Piece-esque adventure and world and JoJo's-esque stylization and action. All in all, it feels both modern and old-school when it comes to battle-shonen, which is part of what makes it stand out compared to most of it's other contemporaries, imo.

[LumRanmaYasha]

New promo for the Rin-ne anime, featuring the opening song.

I don't think all of the shown visuals are strictly from the opening; many seem to be bits taken from the show itself. The actual opening will probably have some different scenes. In terms of color, art, etc. the show looks pretty but the actual animation is subpar, much like Assassination Classroom. This might make or break the show depending on what parts they decide to prioritize adapting. As for the opening song, well, it's hardly a "Lum's Love Song" or a "Don't Make Me Wild Like You." It's an average J-pop opening like what InuYasha's first opening was like, though I like it MUCH better than "Change the World" (I can't stand that song). It's decent, not special or great, but Rin-ne is neither of those things either so I guess that's par for the course.

One thing I find really interesting about the opening, though, is that it features Sakura's two friends prominently. They aren't really more active characters compared to other school friend characters in Takahashi's previous works (Kosuke in UY, Akane's friends in Ranma, and Kagome's friends in IY), so the decision to spotlight them is curious. My guess is that they might be given more prominent roles in the anime adaption, perhaps more fleshed-out as characters with more active roles in some stories, akin to what was done with the Stormtroopers in UY. Anime-expanded/exclusive characters in Takahashi anime adaptions have worked out great in the past - Megane was unquestionably a great addition to the cast in the UY anime and Sasuke was a fun character with a great dynamic with Kuno that really improved many of his storylines (as well as make for great anime-original episodes). Treating Sakura's friends in such a manner would be cool and potentially make the school-based stories more interesting thanks to the additional character dynamics to play off of (5 instead of just 3). Of course, I'm probably overblowing this and they wont be any different from how they are in the manga, but it's something I'd like to see.