Currently Running Manga Discussion

[Spark Of Spirit]

They could add New Prince of Tennis. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

Jump Back.

The direction is awful, the dialogue literally narration with no characterization, and that messy early '00s art style that instantly turns me off still . . . turns me off. I thought maybe reading it again after so many years might change my opinion, but it really doesn't. It's one of the worst first chapters to a popular manga I've ever read. Really can't stand it.

Unfortunately, it looks like they're prepping to add it to Jump again. Couldn't they add something, anything else? Straighten Up? Haikyu? Best Blue? . . . ANYTHING ELSE?

I don't have quite as negative an opinion of the first chapter as you do, but I'll share my fleshed out thoughts in the issue review. Though suffice to say, it does not hold up for me.

The fact DGM chapters will only published 4 times a year now makes it's potential addition slightly more tolerable and forgiving then if it took up a weekly or monthly spot. But yeah, not very enthusiastic about that prospect. It just makes me more frustrated they haven't shown sign of adding AssClass yet - it's become Viz's second highest selling Jump title this year, so what's the hold-up? SU!'s promising popularity also makes me sad they don't seem to want to run it either. It might not be as mainstream-friendly as Black Clover, but the chapters I read of it showed more potential for a standout, quality manga in the longterm, imo.

They could add New Prince of Tennis. 

"You still have a ways to go." (shudders)

Luckily, I don't think POT was that successful for Viz, which is why they haven't already licensed the sequel series. And thank god for that!

[Spark Of Spirit]

Pretty sure the anime bombed on Toonami, too. To be honest, I've never understood the popularity of that series. As far as sports manga/anime, it's not even B-Rank.

As for DGM, just, like, the writing, man. The cheesy way the cross killed her. The dialogue almost entirely exposition and yet is still convoluted. The way the main character doesn't stick out at all. I would expect far more from a series running in the most popular Shonen magazine than that under-cooked mess. Guess I've never understood that ones popularity, either.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I used to like D. Gray-Man, but I got tired of it really fast.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Pretty sure the anime bombed on Toonami, too. To be honest, I've never understood the popularity of that series. As far as sports manga/anime, it's not even B-Rank.

The appeal was mostly the pretty boys. POT's popularity came almost entirely from it's massive female readership. I'm not even exaggerating that - Viz even acknowledged that themselves in their "about the mangaka" section (aka the first page of most Jump series volumes) for the series.

Admittedly, both Kuroko and Haikyuu had/have a nearly 70% female readership to them as well, but at least those series have/had legit good writing in them (to a certain point, at least). Being fair, POT has it's moments, nice art, and some good characters, and I find it enjoyable as a guilty pleasure to some extent, but it's writing was mediocre at best at the start and quickly managed to devolve into total asinine shit before too long. The fact it got as big as it did is just embarrassing.

As for DGM, just, like, the writing, man. The cheesy way the cross killed her. The dialogue almost entirely exposition and yet is still convoluted. The way the main character doesn't stick out at all. I would expect far more from a series running in the most popular Shonen magazine than that under-cooked mess. Guess I've never understood that ones popularity, either.

I have some thoughts on why it became popular. Again, I'll share these in the review.

Personally I thought DGM was decent through the Noah's Ark arc.

Then Johnny became a main character.

...Need I say anything more?

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yes, attractive characters tend to be the selling point for a lot of series. Particularly one modern genre above all. Unfortunately storytelling takes the backseat a lot among such fans.

But I guess that's why something like Eyeshield 21's popularity surprised me so much since it was basically the anti-POT of the time. This despite the only real difference between the two (other than quality) was that Eyeshield had fun with what it was doing. And I actually enjoyed it.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I still need to finish E21. I've put it on hold for so long. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

Oh, I keep forgetting to mention this, but Weekly Manga Recap set up a patreon last week. To my surprise, they've already surpassed all three initial stretch goals and could potentially reach the fourth before too long too. I'm very happy for them as a fan of the show, and this should hopefully make doing it more financially viable for them.

Oh, speaking of, I actually won a contest they ran a while back in conjunction with the Unofficial Osamu (really World Trigger) Fanclub and received autographed copies of both volumes of Barrage from Chris! I'll edit pics of them into this post after my phone charges. A little dissappointed that he didn't also send another installment of his World Trigger fanfiction like he joked about, though. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

Here are the rankings for the August 10th issue of Weekly Shonen Jump.

One Piece (Lead CP, 18th Anniversary)
1- Assassination Classroom
2- Straighten Up! Welcome to Shika High's Competitive Dance Club
3- My Hero Academia
4- The Mishaps of Kusuo Saiki
Kurama no Hirameki (One-Shot, Center Color, 47 p., Participant in the 2015 Gold Future Cup)
5- Nisekoi
6- Hinomaru Sumo
7- Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma
Best Blue (Not ranked)
Black Clover (Center Color)
8- Haikyu!!
9- Gintama
10- Kagamigami
11- Kochikame
12- Toriko
13- World Trigger
14- Bleach
15- Devily Man
16- Lady Justice
The Story of Isobe Isobee

[Spark Of Spirit]

Wow, Straighten Up is doing so well.

Glad to see MHA back at the top, too. Last few chapters have been awesome.

[LumRanmaYasha]

In this week of Jump, a zombie apocalypse crashes a party, Yotaro bets all his snacks on Tamakoma's victory, and a teenage boy with an inorganic arm teaches some chick that trying to bring people back to life has serious consequences. Wait, since when was Full Metal Alchemist ever in Jump? All this and more, After the Jump!

[Spark Of Spirit]

Spoiler

[close]

Gotta admit, that made me laugh quite a bit. Food Wars has been quite fun overall.

But yeah, DGM was such a stain. But then your link reminded me how little I liked Jump back then. There was a lot of battle manga, but none of them really stood out. Kinda the problem I'm having with Black Clover right now since it's so much like those manga but at least it is enjoyable as a whole and not a total thud like DGM.

I guess I gotta wait on OP since I had no idea what was going on in that chapter, but the rest of the issue was pretty good. MHA and WT are still my favorites overall.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The new MHA chapter was awesome. Midoriya, Todoroki, and Ida, were an insane combo. But is it enough to stop Stain? This guy is crazy powerful, and it's not just due to his ability.

I sure do hope this momentum continues.

EDIT: Wow, was that chapter of Seraph of the End stupid. Yes, turn your friend into a soulless murdering monster instead of letting him die. Because as long as your family is still alive, who cares about innocents? Stupid. Really, really, stupid.

[LumRanmaYasha]

MHA has just been on fire lately. I'm interested in seeing how it resolves the current fight with Stain (though I feel this arc and the character will last past it).

I got caught up with Seraph in order to start reviewing it properly, and it's baffling how poorly written it is. Not only with stupid plot points and character's making dumb decisions, but in it's abrupt tonal clashes and it's unrelenting genericness in it's story, characters, execution. I'm glad I'll only have to talk about it once a month.

On the flipside, I've been getting more into BE at the point I'm at now (the late 20's), and the latest chapter piqued my interest. I still don't think too well of it (the early stuff was such a slog to read), but it might have been better than I gave it credit for. I'll see how I feel when I'm fully caught up to it (which I hope to be before I finish this week's issue review).

Also, not surprised that Arc-V is coming next week. Yu-Gi-Oh! manga have been a fixture of Viz's Shonen Jump ever since it first came out back in '03. Still, the fact it's getting added sooner than AC or SU! ticks me off. Well, at least I'll be able to follow it since it'll start at the beginning, rather than me jumping into it at it's end like with ZeXal.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I have less than zero interest in YGO, but since it does so well for Viz, I guess it makes sense. I would much prefer Kagamigami or Straighten Up! added, but I guess they wanted a guaranteed moneymaker. Can't really blame them for that even if I didn't really want it.

At least DGM chapter 2 was less of a turd than last week's. I could at least read this one to the end without rolling my eyes. This would have made a better first chapter than the one we got.

Overall, really good issue. World Trigger sure was shocking, though. I really didn't expect that to happen so soon. Now we have to wait like three weeks to find out how this effects everything else!