Currently Running Manga Discussion

[Rynnec]

I'm hoping Mayuri loses this fight, which seems likely since he's apparently revealed his trump card already. It'd make sense too, since Kenpachi and Byakuya have a few losses under their belt now, it's time for Mayuri to get taken down a peg or too, which has been a long time coming.

[LumRanmaYasha]

There are a lot of questions as to Pernida's origins and why it would ally itself with Ywach that seem to indicate it'll be sticking around as a relevant character for a while yet, so Kubo might surprise and actually let Mayuri lose for once. I guess we'll see, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Nice job! Here are my comments on each chapter this issue:

As of now, I'm pretty lost when it comes to One Piece, Toriko, and Blue Exorcist, so I can't comment on them until I'm less jarred.

I was unaware that Kubo made Uryu a villain, though. Considering how wasted he was been since Soul Society like every other non-Soul Reaper, I guess he figured he had to do something with him. It's funny that you say that about Mayuri, but it's true. He's more of a villain than Aizen or anyone else in this story and yet we're supposed to root for him. Warped.

Black Clover is a fun fantasy series so far, being that we don't have any that aren't Seinen or basically JRPGs in every way except that you're not playing it on a screen. But I still haven't hooked on to any character yet and the whole "arrogant rich guy" cliche party didn't add any wrinkles to any of them. I do hope the characters change a bit soon, or grow in some way, but as of now I'm reading for the art-style, the fantasy, and the action. It's greatest weakness right now is characterization. Not that that makes it bad, because it's not, I just hope it can hit that next level soon.

One Punch Man is One Punch Man. I don't really know what else I can say about it other than it is funny and has some pretty good characterization despite its simple premise.

That was such a heartbreaking chapter of World Trigger, though. I did hope he would at least get SOME hits in before being sniped out, but I guess it was too much to hope for him to be on that level yet. But if you think about it, he's already come far. His jump from C to B rank and then up to the upper levels of B was all earned, and he improved tremendously. To make it to A rank is going to take much more work. That said, I think this match will end really tightly, probably with Yuma, Azuma, and Kagegura in a three way scramble. The only reason I don't think Tamakoma will lose yet is because of Jin's bet, but that might be because he knows what will be asked of him. So who knows? Man, it sucks that we have to wait an extra week for the next chapter.

Nisekoi benefits for actually allowing the story to move. Outside of Kimagure Orange Road and School Rumble, I've never been a fan of romance manga that stick to repetitive gags instead of moving the story along. That's probably why I liked Maison Ikkoku so much. I'm hoping it continues on this path because it makes it much more engaging to read between the battle manga and more straightforward comedy series.

I've been watching the Food Wars! anime to help myself get into the manga better, and some few jarring usages of pointless ecchi in the early episodes aside, I quite got into it. Not only is it a pretty funny series, but the characters all come into their own, the dramatic cooking battles are engaging, and the art style is sharp. This chapter really showcased all those qualities while keeping the general story going. It's not exaggeration to say that this is one of my favorite series to read every week. I could go for more Takumi, though. He is by far the funniest character.

But the crowning jewel this week is the chapter of My Hero Academia. Not only for both Midoriya and Todoroki shining as the heroes we knew they could be, but also for Ida finally fighting for the right reasons instead of the wrong ones. His backstory with his brother highlighted just how weird he was even then and how normal his brother was, but also further highlights how absolutely loopy Stain is. He thought THIS was a hero worth culling? Sure he wasn't as noble as All Might or Midoriya, but he still wanted to do the right thing anyway. This solidified MHA to me as one of the best currently running manga, especially in the battle shonen mold. I'm glad Horikoshi finally achieved the success I knew he was capable of back when he started and I hope he continues this streak with MHA. Kind of disappointed you didn't include that final page in your page of the week. That was my highlight of the issue, honestly.

Then we come to the turd of the week. Seraph of the End was stupid. Even stupider than usual. Monstrously stupid. Yu knows what vampires are like, he knows once you turn you don't come back. So he encourages his friend to become one of those things, lose his humanity forever, and kill more human beings that he doesn't want to kill instead of doing the only merciful thing you can do to someone trapped as vampire and kill them like EVERY VAMPIRE STORY EVER WRITTEN. Because he sees his friend, who is already turning into a monster and will not be able to turn back, as family, he gives him the exact thing he needs to become that monster. And he's supposed to be the good guy? His sociopathic tendency to ignore Mika's VERY REAL problem of becoming a monster with stupid humor and six year old logic makes him extremely unlikeable. His belittling of Mika's dilemma, his suffering, and his last moments of waking thought, all because of his after school special version of family is so incredibly poorly written that I have to wonder why this is even popular. Unlike Bleach which turned awful with bad writing and is at least readable, this is a misfire on every level. Now if Yu was a villain, this chapter would work. But he's the hero. There is no chance I'm ever rooting for this idiot after this abomination of a chapter.

I mean, watch Ushio & Tora and compare Ushio to Yu. Ushio is positive, but he isn't brain dead. He works for his victories by sharpening his skills, he gets scared when he thinks he might die, he cares about people WHO ARE NOT HIS FAMILY, he is stubborn only when he needs to be, and his reasoning for doing things is usually more than a one sentence quip that is static for every situation. This is the difference between a good writer and a hack who completely misreads what makes the genre so good. I will never understand why this is popular. This is one of the worst things I've read in quite some time.

Now, D. Gray-Man's second chapter thankfully helped wash the taste out of my mouth, which is ironic when you consider how bad the first chapter was. This might be because the main character was the central character and actually moved the story along and explained both his powers and the world better than anything the first chapter did. It wasn't anything great, but it was readable and modestly entertaining. After Seraph of the End, I was grateful having read it so as not to end this week's issue on a bad note.

I think my rankings were similar to yours though, I put something else at #4. Don't quite remember what I put, though.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Thanks, man. 

Yeah, I agree BC has a great world and some strong ideas, but it needs to build up and flesh out it's characters more. I'm hoping we get an arc soon that really dives deep into Asta or one of the secondary's characters and has them grow a little. The rival characters need more depth to them then they have right now, especially Leo, if we're to accept that he'll be Asta's secondary rival after Yuno; essentially the Rock Lee to Asta's Naruto.

One Punch-Man is always a fun read; there's never a bad chapter in the series, imo. The only problem with reading it as it comes out is that the chapters are often so short they can feel a little unsatisfying sometimes. Reading the series in chunks is really the way to get the best out of it, imo. Still, the Garo arc continues to be really fascinating, and I'm loving him as an antagonist as well as the subplots Saitama and Bang have going in the background, so I'm really excited to see how everything'll ultimately tie together.

True, Osamu has come a long way since the beginning of the series, but it'll take a lot more work for him to get to A-Rank level. I'm really keen on seeing how his loss in this match will shape his development in the subsequent arc. And yeah, I'm expecting that Jin knows what Hyuse'll ask of him, and the bet was a trick on his part. It'll be curious to see if that's the case, and why he did so if it is.

Nisekoi really is at it's best when Komi puts the characters in situations that have them grow, and the story progresses rather than delves in typical rom-com antics. I stated earlier that I was not fond of the series' output last year at all because it was basically an endless series of filler chapters one after another. But this year? Honestly, Nisekoi has become one of my favorites to read in Jump ever since the beginning of the year. Komi's followed up one strong story arc after another, and Yui's confession arc was just fantastic, and the current arc with Marika looks to be just as strong. I'm really happy that Komi's been focusing on the story and character development, because he really is good at telling a strong character-driven romance story, and I hope that he continues the momentum through the end of the year and all the way up to the series' conclusion.

I really wasn't fond of unnecessary fanservice the FW! anime has added to the series, as I had said so in the Clusterfuck entry for it, but I'm glad to hear that the show is still enjoyable for people and has gotten better about it as it's gone on. Do make sure to read through the entire Fall Classic arc in the manga sometime, especially since the current season of the anime will probably only adapt up to the end of the first round of it. The series kept getting consistently better up until then, but that's really where it hit it's stride and truly became one of my most favorite manga to read every week, and my second favorite in WSJ itself after AssClass (though it's very close).

MHA has just been brilliant lately, and Stain is an incredibly fascinating anti-villain with such a warped personality and mindset. I can't wait to see what the series does with him and the themes introduced with him in the future. The final page of this issue's chapter was incredible, I agree, and I had a hard time choosing between it an the WT page for my POTW, but I went with the latter since it was the most surprising moment in the issue for me and left me stunned for a moment, and I felt that just slightly edged it out. It really was a close pick, though.

Nothing more I can add about Seraph that you and I haven't already mentioned. Yu is just a terribly and bafflingly written protagonist whose hyper-idealistic shonen mindset comes across borderline sociopathic considering his circumstances, and his behavior towards Mika is totally insensitive and so tonally dissonant from what we've seen Mika go through at the beginning of the chapter that it feels like a villain's origin story rather than a heart-warming moment between family members like I'm sure it was intended. Having now read through the entire thing so far, I've found Seraph to be a consistently poorly written series, but this chapter was it's lowest point yet and was downright infuriating to read, and hammered home just how much I hate Yu as a character; he really is everything wrong with your bog-standard shonen protagonist, made worse considering his personality doesn't fit with the tone and events in his series.

Next week's chapter of D.GM should be another nice one, with some strong character moments and solid writing behind it. It'll hammer in just how pointless the first chapter was as an introduction to the series, and why the second and third chapters in this should've been combined and made into the pilot instead of it.

The lack of Jump this week was both a blessing and bothersome; a blessing because I wasn't behind an issue to review but bothersome because I didn't have a new set of chapters to read. I'm looking forward to monday, and I should be able to get that review out on time since there won't be quite as many series to cover as this issue had, and I won't have nearly as much complications from my other work and other priorities to deal with.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, the first three episodes of Food Wars has a lot of blatant sexual humor that doesn't fit at all with everything else and the first ED has more pointless nudity, but after that other than one joke it pretty much disappears. And the series is much better for it. No idea how much of that is in the early manga, but the anime is otherwise pretty good. The OPs are pretty great, especially the second one. That second ED is fairly disturbing, though. No idea why they based it on such a minor character, but it is pretty out there.

It's a shame there wasn't a new issue this week, but a break every now and then is fine. I do expect a four page essay on YGO for next week, however. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

The manga has it's share of fan-service early on, but it doesn't linger on it or have anything particularly uncomfortable, distracting, or frivolous like I saw in the anime. It's good to hear it pretty much disappears like it does in the manga as it goes on, since the series really doesn't need it outside of certain foodgasm moments. I've seen the second OP and ED, and I actually like them quite a bit. The first is just a lot of fun, and the second I get a kick out of because I enjoy eccentric characters like Sadatsuka and found the way they used her spying on Erina and Arato as a framing device for it really amusing. I said this before in a previous issue review, but I'm really excited at the prospects of a Soma/Sadatsuka team-up match sometime down the line. I just know that'll be a lot of fun. 

As for YGO!, who knows? Maybe there'll be so much to say about it that I'll give it a five page essay. It is the fifth installment in the franchise, after all. 

[Foggle]

As for YGO!, who knows? Maybe there'll be so much to say about it that I'll give it a five page essay. It is the fifth installment in the franchise, after all. 

I want to see this.

[Spark Of Spirit]

In my opinion, the best part of the adaption is the voice work. Soma is pretty dead on, especially when making fun of Takumi's Rival Behavior.

As for YGO!, who knows? Maybe there'll be so much to say about it that I'll give it a five page essay. It is the fifth installment in the franchise, after all. 

I want to see this.

There should be so much to write on, obviously.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Yeah, the performances seemed pretty spot-on from what I saw of the show. I really should watch some clips to see how they handled some of the other characters, Alice, Kurokiba, and Hayama in particular. Shame Mimasaka won't have a speaking role in this season, unless they add some moments with him in some filler scenes or something, since I'd love to hear what kind of voice they'll give him.

In my opinion, the best part of the adaption is the voice work. Soma is pretty dead on, especially when making fun of Takumi's Rival Behavior.

As for YGO!, who knows? Maybe there'll be so much to say about it that I'll give it a five page essay. It is the fifth installment in the franchise, after all. 

I want to see this.

There should be so much to write on, obviously.

Card games on hippos. What could possibly warrant more discussion than that? /

[Spark Of Spirit]

Just FYI, they're currently covering the prelims to the Fall Elections and Soma just fell asleep at his station. It should be interesting to see how he gets through it.

Card games on hippos. What could possibly warrant more discussion than that? /

I am really out of date with my YGO spin-offs, but does this one really take the crazy premise to an even crazier setting, or is it as boring as the older spin-offs were?

[LumRanmaYasha]

Ooh, then the next episode will be a great one for Megumi's character development, as well as a fun showing for both Sadatsuka and Arato (depending on how many chapters they adapt). I might check in on the anime and see how they handle the rest of the prelims.

I actually don't know what Arc-V is really about, but I do know that the main protagonist rides a pink hippo duel monster, which has given birth to the aforementioned "Card Games on Hippos" meme. I'm pretty much going into it blind. FTR, as far as YGO! spinoffs go, I actually liked what I saw of 5D's back in the day. It had some surprisingly good writing to it, at least in the arcs I watched. Dunno if it'd hold up for me like the better portions of the original manga do, though.

[LumRanmaYasha]

In other news, it seems that Kishimoto is planning to make a sci-fi manga as his next work. Not sure how I feel about reading another manga from the man. Naruto was bad for so many years, and just nosedived into inanity by the end, but The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring was genuinely well-done and I really enjoyed it, so I'd like to be optimistic. In any case, since it will inevitably be added to Viz's Jump when it debuts, I'll probably read it no matter what for the sake of the issue reviews. It seems like it'll be a while yet before he puts it out, anyways.

[Foggle]

Maybe it'll be a Naruto sequel where he and his friends become space ninjas...

[LumRanmaYasha]

Knights of Sidonia is ending next month.

...How? Sure, they're fighting Ochiai right now, but there are still a ton of plot threads they still need to explain and explore. Well, maybe they can tackle them all in the final chapter, which should be interesting to see.

[VLordGTZ]

Knights of Sidonia is ending next month.

...How? Sure, they're fighting Ochiai right now, but there are still a ton of plot threads they still need to explain and explore. Well, maybe they can tackle them all in the final chapter, which should be interesting to see.

It could just be an "end of part 1" type situation like how Tokyo Ghoul "ended" and then returned as Tokyo Ghoul:re