Currently Running Manga Discussion

[LumRanmaYasha]

Haven't been able to comment on Jump in a while, but since this is a rare free day, I can give brief thoughts on some of the series:

My rankings this week:

The Promised Neverland
Toriko
Food Wars!
My Hero Academia

IMO, The Promised Neverland's off to a pretty strong start. An intriguing horror-mystery premise akin to the dystopian future of H.G. Well's Time Machine with likable and sympathetic characters that I want to see survive and am interested in seeing how. Still a lot more it needs to do in terms of fleshing out it's characters and world and whatnot, but the art is multi-faceted and can charm or horrify on a dime, and the writing so far is solid and doesn't draw too much attention to the fact the premise is familiar. The ending of the chapter made me want to read more, as a first chapter should, and I'm interested in seeing how the story unfolds.

Toriko continues to be pure insanity, and I'm loving every page of it. Neo is plowing down the Eight Kings and Acacia and Pair are getting ready to complete his revival, and Starjun is barely holding on in his fight with Joie. But it looks like the calvary is about to arrive as my man, Midora, is free from the can and ready for a rematch! Man, am I hyped for that! These last few Toriko chapters have really been getting my blood and adrenaline rushing when I read them. The series might be sprinting to the end, but damn has it been making the most of the time it has left to do some crazy shit.

Food Wars! - I haven't been feeling this Advancement Exam arc so far, since it feels rather unbelievable that the examiners couldn't create even harsher conditions to crush the resisters or simply choose not to pass them for some frivolous technicality. But I really like how creatively Soma and co. made use of potatoes to create a satisfying pasta dish that looks and sounds so delicious reading about it; it was a really clever way of making use of their limited resources and use them to their advantage. I also like how the linchpin of the chapter wasn't Soma executing this idea, but how the entire resistance group has learned and taken to heart what Erina has taught them and have taken their cooking skills and know-how to the next level as a result. Erina has really supplanted Soma as the MVP of the series, this arc especially, and her defending and her confidence in the abilities of her friends feels really satisfying given her character arc through the series. It's only fitting that she's leading the charge against Central and her father, and I'm really excited to see where this role of her will take her and what she will do when she and Azami next meet face to face. That's long-term stuff, but in the short-term I'm definitely interested in who Central (I'm assuming) is calling in for backup now that the resisters have passed the second phase. It's cool that the resistance has laughed off Central's attempt to fail them so far, but now it's time for them to face a bit for of a challenge and struggle a bit, and I hope that's what in store next.

My Hero Academia - It was nice to see Hatsume again, and I'm hoping this isn't the last we see of her and she'll have more prominence going forward. She's a fun character, though some of her shtick in this chapter got tired after a while. The big takeaway of the chapter, however, is Midoriya realizing a way to use One For All in a way wholly his own, creating a new special move based on kicking rather than punching. That he demonstrated while protecting All Might was just a fantastic passing-of-the-torch moment that pretty much single-handedly made the chapter for me and cements Midoriya as my MVP for this week as well. Really excited to see him explore the new possibilities in kick-based techniques.

It's hard to believe the next chapter of Bleach is the last just based on the end of this chapter. He's going to have to cram so much denouement into it that there's no way any fan of the series will get the closure they would have wanted. He brought this upon himself, but it's too bad the series' fans have to suffer for it. Maybe Jump will let him rewrite the ending in the future like what Hiroyuki Takei did with Shaman King.

Didn't expect Viz would run Love Rush! as a Jump Start considering their experience with E-Robot. Then again, they'll be needing new content to run with two of the regular series finishing up next week. Odd that they didn't promote that next week would be the finales of Bleach and Nisekoi, though. I understand why they downplay it in Japan, but the U.S. Jump has usually handled it differently when it comes to big series.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Now that you mention it, it's weird that they didn't advertise the end of Bleach and Nisekoi. That's two of their ongoing popular series ending next week (and dropping a chunk of the reason people subscribe) and they didn't say anything. Both series ending is kind of a big deal, not to mention what they're going to replace them with.

I'm hoping these new Jump Starts don't take precedence over the older series. We don't know how long these starts will last, but Kimetsu no Yaiba, Straighten Up, and even Haikyuu, are series will mostly likely be running for a while. I'd like to get one or two of them before we jump straight into these new ones.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The current arc of Food Wars! is really boring so far. Why would the author deliberately waste time with filler battles in which the conflicts are over almost as soon as they begin? Instead of making six phases where the first two or three phases are a joke, make three phases where all three tests are incredibly tough. And it wouldn't hurt to have some balls and at least fail out some of the minor characters in order to cement just how tough the rebels have it. Having everyone pass the first two phases with ease, even while having Erina's lectures to go on, only further discredits the notion that Azami and his administration are some breed of political geniuses and a major threat, which I've seen people claim to defend that character. Currently, Central as a whole just comes off as unbelievably incompetent to me, and that's clearly not the intention here.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #36/37 (August 10th/17th, 2016):
WSJ Cast (Cover)
One Piece (Lead CP)
1. My Hero Academia
2. Haikyuu!!
Nisekoi (CP, END)
3. Black Clover
4. Gintama
The Promised Neverland (CP)
5. Yuna of Yuragi Manor
6. Hinomaru Zumou
Boruto (CP)
7. The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.
Bleach (CP)
8. Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Souma
9. World Trigger
10. Kochikame
11. Kimetsu no Yaiba: Blade of Demon Destruction
12. Samon the Summoner
13. Straighten Up! Welcome to Shika High's Competitive Dance Club
14. Takuan and Batsu's Daily Demon Diary
15. Toriko
Chronicle of Isobe -Life is Hard-

You didn't read that wrong. Bleach didn't end. It's being given an extra chapter after all.

As for this week rankings, I have no idea what happened. But I don't like it. At this rate Toriko is sure to go with the next new serializations, and I think Takuan and Samon might join it. But that is the lowest ranking for KnY and Straighten Up so far.  I hope it's not a sign of things to come.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Magi is now officially half-way through it's final arc. Which means it'll probably end in less than a year.

I really ought to catch up soon. I've been behind on most of the stuff I follow that doesn't run in the english WSJ recently, but Magi started it's final arc with a strong set of chapters and I've heard that things have just kept getting better.

[Markness]

The last handful of Magi chapters have been pretty decent.
I'm glad to see Alibaba and Morgiana coming together in love, especially after it was implied she got with Hakuryuu. Alibaba went through a lot to make it back to Earth so he deserves a break.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm really eager to see how the license exam is going to work in MHA. Especially with Midoriya's new approach to his quirk. Also interested in seeing just who some of these new heroes are and what they can do. There was a lot of really good set up this week.

Also, what was with both Bleach and Nisekoi having ten year time skips? Is this a new ending theme for WSJ series?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Dragonball also had a 10 year time skip for its final chapter. Naruto's was more than 10 years later. Several other series have had time skips of large chunks of time leading up to their final chapters. It just seems to be a rather common trope of lots of long-running shonen manga, so it isn't really that much of a coincidence or even that surprising if both Bleach and Nisekoi ended that way.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I finally caught back up with Magi after taking a break for it from a few months. My feelings on the current (and supposedly final) arc are rather mixed. On the one hand I truly do admire how atypical it is in going against expectations. Rather than being an action-heavy series of set-piece battles, it's a battle of wits as the protagonists are attempting to live in this new world and establish a balance between the merchants and traders of all countries. It fully embraces this world's politics, which is something that I've wanted to see from this series for a long time. Additionally, aside from Arba, the other main "villain" of this arc, while misguided, clearly isn't evil in his own right and to his credit has done some real good for the world, despite his ideals also obviously having some long-term negative reprucussions.

That said, if I had to label my problem with this arc that holds it back from greatness in my eyes, it'd have to be that there is a serious lack of any real tension or emotional stakes for what's clearly building up to the climax of the series. It feels like David is about to make his move soon, and will manage to either physically return in some form or at least successfully release Il Illah. Yet, nothing that I've seen so far really gives me any sense of what the weight of the approaching threat is. In that regard, I still strongly feel that Magnostadt was the best story arc of this whole series. It managed to find that perfect balance of everything, whereas this arc excels at some aspects but falls short with others, IMO.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Kimetsu no Yaiba is getting a V-Comic!

Hope that's a sign of things to come. The series has a lot of potential.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I quite enjoyed the first chapter of Astra Lost in Space. It feels like there's a lot of potential here.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #38 (August 24th, 2016):
Love Rush! (Cover, Lead CP)
1. Haikyuu!!
2. One Piece
Bleach (CP, END)
3. Hinomaru Zumou
The Promised Neverland (Not Ranked)
My Hero Academia (CP)
4. Black Clover
5. World Trigger
6. Kochikame
7. Kimetsu no Yaiba: Blade of Demon Destruction
8. Yuna of Yuragi Manor
9. Food Wars! Shokugeki no Souma
10. Samon the Summoner
11. Straighten Up! Welcome to Shika High's Competitive Dance Club
12. Takuan and Batsu's Daily Demon Dairy
13. The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.
14. Gintama
15. Toriko
Chronicle of Isobe -Life is Hard-

The Bleach announcement was a live action movie. Thankfully, no sequel manga was announced. So celebrate. Bleach is over!

Looks like it was a fluke ranking for KnY since its back in its usual range. But I'm gonna say that Takuan and Batsu is the next series to go. There are no more series to hold it back from last place except series already on the way out. Samon seems to be taking hard hits recently. I'm not sure what's going on with that one.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Togashi and Kishimoto were interviewed about things and the like. The former wants to make a card battle manga after HXH ever ends.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Kishimoto reads his favorite mangas/films again and again such as "Akira", "Ghost in the Shell", "The Usual Suspects", "Forrest Gump" and "Little Miss Sunshine".
Togashi's favorite film is "Alien", but the film he watches most frequently is "Prince of Darkness" by John Carpenter. He also likes "28 Days Later".

Damn. Bros' got good taste in movies.

Figures that Togashi would list all horror movies.

Kishimoto is cheered up by watching the trailer of "DmC Devil May Cry" again and again.

WTF? THAT'S the DMC game that lifts his spirits? Well, it does fit his cheesily pretentious style of story-telling, so I suppose that it makes sense....

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Togashi and Kishimoto were interviewed about things and the like. The former wants to make a card battle manga after HXH ever ends.

He already did a card battle manga in Hunter X Hunter itself with the Greed Island arc.

Though, I can imagine a full-fledged one done by him being a bizarre mix between Yugioh and Saw.