Currently Running Manga Discussion

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Really strong chapters from Food Wars and My Hero Academia this week.

Tsukasa challenging Soma to a shokugeki is something that has been foreshadowed ever since the Food Festival arc when when Kuga had a flash-back to Tsukasa accepting his challenge (before Kuga had actually attained his own seat in the E10) and utterly defeating him in the process.

Let's get this out of the way: Soma is ridiculously OP compared to most shonen protagonists in competition-based manga, but part of that is because he was always challenging people either beneath or equal to his level of skill. The only actual student that he's ever lost to so far is Hayama Akira, and Ryou is the only one who he's ever tied with. He's pretty much beat every other challenger who's come his way that wasn't an adult. Due to that, Soma is clearly written to be rather arrogant and quite a bit overconfident. I believe that he's clearly not ready for someone of Tsukasa's caliber, though, and will have a similar experience to Kuga in that he will be completely crushed (unless someone intervenes and stops this unofficial shokugeki from taking place). Now, how he will react to such a defeat may differ based on his character, as he has been crushed by adults before and while he gets visually upset, he is certainly never broken by the experience. But what excites me is that if he loses to another student by such a high margin, it may knock some sense into him and help with his character development, perhaps making him a tad more humble and less full of himself. More than that, though, it would be a very interesting and unconventional story-telling angle to have Soma forced to work for the enemy against his will, and start to see things from their point of view while comparing it to his own. There is a lot of potential for great story-telling here. Hopefully the mangaka can capitalize on it.

My Hero Academia was pure hype. As Desensitized already called out last week, Bakugou's behavior is not actually villainous, but rather it is clear evidence that he wants to be the greatest hero more than anyone else. It shows how good of a writer Horikoshi is when what someone like Desensitized analyzes about one of his characters is actually accurate, as confirmed by Mr. Eraserhead who basically says the same thing, rather than his thoughts on the character being mislead by the author just pulling things out of his ass, as in Sasuke....

I also like how this manga doesn't shy away from the politics of media, with how UA has gone hot under fire from the press basically trying to destroy their reputation due to the incident at the forest resort where the villains broke past their security with ease, causing several injuries and a kidnapping. Also, kudos to Bakugou for actually being smart and realizing that he has the advantage in this situation, since the villains clearly can't kill him being that they want to use him for something. Of course, there's no way he has a chance against several top-level villains at once, even if they are holding back, but I appreciate that he's actually clever enough to figure out his own situation and what he's capable of doing. Midoriya and the rest of the group are getting closer to making their move toward rescuing Bakugou, but not much happened with them this chapter. However, we did get the reveal that All Might and the other top heroes who aren't directly tied down by the UA-media debacle are ready to storm the place, so this should lead to an interesting clash when the Class A group arrives as well.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Kodansha USA is planning to release Vinland Saga Book 8 this fall and a 35th anniversary manga box set for Akira ( in hardcover and right-to-left) next year.

Glad they're continuing! Though after this they probably won't be able to publish any more volumes for a while since they'll be about caught up with the japanese releases.

In less savory news, this tweet from Dark Horse recently came to my attention...

[Markness]

Time to come up for air now. They just don't seem to care about either series as well as Eden.

[VLordGTZ]

Kodansha USA is planning to release Vinland Saga Book 8 this fall and a 35th anniversary manga box set for Akira ( in hardcover and right-to-left) next year.

Glad they're continuing! Though after this they probably won't be able to publish any more volumes for a while since they'll be about caught up with the japanese releases.

In less savory news, this tweet from Dark Horse recently came to my attention...

At this point, I think Vinland Saga's future releases are pretty secure since Kodansha will only need to release a volume per year at most from now on.

I'm kind of hoping that Dark Horse has just not planned dates for any new Drifters and BBB releases yet rather than them dropping releases for the series altogether.  It's would be strange to stop releases especially for Drifters since it isn't very long and the anime is coming out pretty soon.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Sales could only have gone up for BBB since the anime came out. I can't see it being canceled now.

[LumRanmaYasha]

You'd think, but they tweeted that back in January, well after the anime had ended. Hopefully they'll resume releases eventually, or the license will be picked up by another publisher. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

It took me a while, but the latest WSJ review is finally up! In this week's issue, Jack gets smacked, Yaoyorozu talks economics, and Korosensei lucks out at the races. Also, gasp, could it be? Osamu was actually useful in a fight? Huzzah! Oh, what a joyous day to be a member of the Unofficial Osamu Fanclub! All this and more, After the Jump!

[Spark Of Spirit]

Good stuff as usual, but I don't think Shigaraki is Bakugo's dad. I think it was Shigaraki saying "father" at the end, for some reason we haven't been shown yet.

But this was a great chapter this week which actually confirmed what I'd been thinking about Bakugo for a while now. It looks like Horikoshi puts A LOT of thought into his characters, which always makes this so much fun to read every week. And I'm very excited about what's to come next since just about every hero introduced so far is about to join in on the attack.

If Shigaraki is about to get something from All For One and its corresponding to this raid, I think something bad is going to go down, especially since there seem to be multiple targets. I'm also betting we'll meet the traitor here, if there is one, due to how much opportunity this would be to take down a hero or two.

It's a really apt chapter title, that's for sure.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I interpreted it as Shigaraki addressing his dad as well. Great write-ups, though.

I like every Jump series that I'm currently following these days, with the exception of Nisekoi which I really have a lot of personal peeves about. But hey, at least the people who are enjoying it are enjoying it, so it's still getting its job done.

Black Clover has been showing more promise recently. Up until now, it's been on the same level of quality as Haikyuu for me. Fun for what it is, but ultimately very generic and fairly predictable. But the recent developments in the past few chapters hint at more interesting story-lines and character development to come down the line. The potential is there, but it's up to the mangaka to deliver on that potential.

[Spark Of Spirit]

This week's issue was really good, even I understood the significance of the end of One Piece's chapter.

My rankings would go like this:

My Hero Academia
World Trigger
Food Wars
Black Clover

What I especially appreciated about the last three was the comedic timing. The final moments of World Trigger were awesomely hilarious, Black Clover's twist from what could have been a typical beach episode into plot (Yami's appearance was so well timed) which was a very smart writing choice, and Food Wars had some really good moments, my favorite being when Soma wondered if all chef's are self-centered egomaniacs to which the story instantly cuts to Erina. Very funny stuff this week.

But all four of my top chapters were all highly enjoyable, each series at the best of its abilities. They were almost all set-up for reveals next week, but that didn't make them any less fun to read.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Good stuff as usual, but I don't think Shigaraki is Bakugo's dad. I think it was Shigaraki saying "father" at the end, for some reason we haven't been shown yet.

Yeah, I should've looked at the panel more carefully. The font for the dialogue in those panels was clearly different than the one used for when Bakugo was speaking, and the latest chapter pretty much confirms that the two don't have a previous connection. Though, that means the implication is that the hand Shigaraki always has on his face is his father's, since he's looking at it when he's saying the line and it's a direct response to it being blown off his face. I'm really curious to see what the history is behind that, and why Shigaraki wears his father's hand over his face if that's indeed whose it is.

This week was another really good issue. Definitely one of the funniest in a while too. Should be a lot of fun to write up.

[LumRanmaYasha]

In case anyone here was interested in some WSJ back issues from 2014 or wants to catch up on Hunter X Hunter's Dark Continent arc legally...



I bought the bundle and there's some neat extras included in those issues, particularly the Rurouni Kenshin Shishio spin-off/gaiden and one-shots from the Blue Exorcist and Psyren mangakas. Just wish they didn't skip the issues HXH was absent, but it's rare enough they ever sell back issues this far back to begin with, so I'm happy to take what I can get.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, I got them mostly for the extras you mentioned. Since HxH going to be running, might as well read the DC stuff and catch up as well. Not that I'll be very invested. I'm pretty much disconnecting myself from investing in it until it's done.

[Rynnec]

I've detested Blue Exorcist since day 1, but I always did find Shura to be one of the few things I enjoyed about it, glad to see she's getting some development.

The reveal in this weeks Bleach has been theorized for ages, as far back when it did a similar thing with Starrk and Lilynette and possibly even farther back then that. Kenpachi's Shikai and Bankai look pretty cool and I'm looking forward to see more of his Bankai.

The thing that's bugged me about Seraph the most is the main character himself. Guren, Shinoa, anyone would have made for a much better protagonist than Yu, who has generic shounen hero written all over him. I guess I'm concerned about Mitsuba's fate...but mostly for shipping reasons.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I've detested Blue Exorcist since day 1, but I always did find Shura to be one of the few things I enjoyed about it, glad to see she's getting some development.

I admit, I wasn't looking forward to catching up on it since I didn't like the anime. In fact, I probably never would've read it if I didn't want to properly analyze it for these Jump reviews (same deal with Seraph), and while I found the first fifteen or so chapters to be a slog, the series honestly really picks up at the point the anime and manga diverge, and while there have occasionally been some frustrating moments, I really do enjoy it now. I'm glad I gave it another shot.

The thing that's bugged me about Seraph the most is the main character himself. Guren, Shinoa, anyone would have made for a much better protagonist than Yu, who has generic shounen hero written all over him. I guess I'm concerned about Mitsuba's fate...but mostly for shipping reasons.

I agree. What particularly bothers me about Yu is how he made a total 180 in personality so quickly at the beginning of the series. He started off being a broody, anti-social loner, and then at some point just suddenly started exposing how awesome friendship is and being inappropriately cheerful and optimistic. He feels like two separate characters that somehow got switched with each other and the author just didn't notice.