Currently Running Manga Discussion

[Spark Of Spirit]

I think he could make good one shot stories that run for a volume or two before ending.

Sure would work to his strengths, too.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It would probably do him better to just stop doing weekly serialized manga altogether, and instead just release complete graphic novels at his own pace. It would certainly suit his intermittent writing style far better. He's an incredibly popular mangaka in Japan, so I doubt he'd have a hard time finding a publisher. And of course, even if his content output was low, his wife will be raking in big money in royalties thanks to the new Sailor Moon anime, so the guy will have it made either way.

[LumRanmaYasha]

This week more than made up for the disappointing chapters from last time.

All You Need Is Kill chapters 15-17 - The final chapters of AYNIK were great. The fight between Rita and Keiji was expertly drawn as were Rita's final moments, effectively sentimental. Obata did great work with this series throughout it's run. Overall I enjoyed the story. It had some unsatisfactory individual chapters here and there, but as a whole it's a strong story. I think I liked the movie even better, though, since it added more layers of characterization to Rita and Keiji/Will (admittedly the movies' versions are like totally different characters, but still). The ending of AYNIK is much better though, in my opinion. I just think everything made more sense in the way things turned out, and while the movie's ending is convenient for the sake of a "happy" ending, the film's ending is more solemn, as a sacrifice has been made and the war is not yet won.  I thought both were fun experiences, though, and I'm glad I kept up with this manga as it came out to get suitably hyped for the movie.

Assassination Classroom chapter 90 - This chapter spotlights a character I didn't even remember, Isogai, who is apparently a Ikemen, a perfect gentleman. Unfortunately his job in a host cafe has been uncovered by Asano and his lackeys in Class A. If the Principal finds out then he's going to get expelled, but Asano agrees to look the other way if Class E wins the Boutaoshi at the school athletic festival. And not only are they outnumbered, but Asano has called in the FOREIGNER SQUAD, 4 super tall super buff international exchange students looking to get rough and rowdy! I laughed at that reveal. Lots of good humor in this chapter, really. It'll interesting to see how Class E will overcome opponents who bought outnumber and overpower them in the Boutaoshi game.

Attack on Titan chapter 58 - Great action in this chapter with Levi's battle with Kenny the Ripper and his goons. With the plan busted they've got to make a hasty retreat. The ending of the chapter is surprising, since it seems that Reiss is apologetic for what he did to Historia, but this could be some sort of trick to make her and Eren drop their guard. Certainly, it's a twist that I'm interested in seeing developed next chapter.

Bleach chapter 584 - Bazz B shows up and screws over the Sternritter quartet in a needless betrayal just so he can fight Ichigo himself and claim the glory. Then pretty much every Quincy left shows up (including the Sternritter quartet), each one of them aiming to defeat Ichigo themselves. Ichigo obviously will not be fighting an 8 against 1 because there are so many characters Kubo needs to cram into the story like the Fullbringers, Squad Zero, and Grimmjow and whatnot but this setup means that should happen soon so at the very least the series is getting closer and closer to finishing. Meanwhile Juha Bach is doing something that somehow will make Uryu and guy who's name I don't remember one with him, somehow. As far as Bleach chapters go, this is inoffensive. Basically it's just more set-up and some decent humor bits. It's not exactly good, but this is Bleach, and I'll take chapters like this over shit like the Gremmy fight any day.

GTO: Paradise Lost chapters 1-5 - I wasn't planning on keeping up with this after reading the first chapter a few weeks back, but then I said...why not? Keeping up with one more manga isn't gonna hurt me none. I didn't like the first chapter because of shitty translations but...Onizuka in prison. That's an inspired idea with promise. But then the second chapter came out and...it turns out this series is going to be a flashback to show how Onizuka landed in prison, and is otherwise basically the same damn thing as the original GTO manga. Except now Onizuka is teaching Class G, which is a super top secret class for IDOLS that somehow was never mentioned before in the original manga despite it being a part of the school and apparently famous teen celebrities attending it. It's an absurd premise that really pushes my suspension of disbelief, but the worst part about it is that it is a frivolous gimmick since the end result is the same exact kind of shenanigans that happened to Onizuka before when he was teaching regular students. The manga so far is just going through the motions, doing exactly the same kind of stuff that was already done before and better in the original manga, and is hence really, really boring to read. Maybe it'll get better as it goes along, but these first 5 chapters did nothing for me.

Hunter X Hunter chapter 343 - Kurapika. Is. Back! I already talked about this chapter in this thread earlier, but I'm glad to have Kurapika back in the story alongside Leorio, and Pariston and Ging's conversation was excellent as well. And since the owner of Kurta clan's eyes is the 4th prince of Kakin who will be journeying on the Dark Continent voyage, Kurapika's personal arc should get resolved in this one, which I'm looking forward to. The next chapter will probably feature Gon and how he'll figure into the arc. I'm looking forward to when the gang finally reunites again.

Kuroko no Basket chapter 265 - Akashi game is off and his teammates can't hope to play against Seirin effectively without him, allowing Kagami to gain momentum and Seirin to close the gap to only two points behind. However, at the end of this chapter it seems that Kagami is tried out while Akashi has calmed himself. At the beginning of the chapter it seemed like his two personalities were conflicting inside his mind, and it seems that now that the old Akashi has resurfaced, and thus he probably can utilize his second skill that has been hidden thus far. A solid chapter and I enjoyed it. I know that Kagami will probably be forced to open the second door of the zone to counter Akashi's second skill to win the match and whatnot, and I'm not particularly looking forward to that, but this chapter actually did a good job making me care about Akashi and this game which is something that I haven't been able to say for most of this match, and I enjoyed it.

Magi chapter 228 - Solomon's forces invade the capital, and find that Arba has already brutally murdered Elder David...which is disturbing and behavior that further reinforces my belief Arba is Gyokuen. But, it turns out Arba hasn't really killed Elder David. Nope, he saw this coming and he and his forces aren't in the capital at all, and are attacking the rebels' home base and all it's innocent inhabitants. Worse, Solomon's group is trapped in the barrier surrounding the capital with no way to escape. So, they're screwed. No doubt they will find a way out, but whether they get back in time to safe many innocent lives is another story.

Naruto chapter 680 - Naruto can fly now, I guess. Outside of that there's some attempts to be sentimental and stuff that completely falls falt and I guess Kaguya is trying to return the chakra flow in the world back to her since all chakra in the world was once hers and everything. This Kaguya stuff is just...I have no clue what to feel about it. Again, I just can't even care about any of this. I can't even get mad anymore. It's all a wash now. I do wonder how long this battle will drag out, and if Madara will screw over Kaguya from within her and come back (a la the Kishin in Soul Eater or Naraku in InuYasha).

One-Punch Man chapter 48 - Awesome action scenes as usual. Saitama bouncing off of the Moon to return to Earth without even being fazed was epic, not to mention his barrage of normal punches pummeling Boros. I guess the series can't be called "One-Punch" Man anymore.  If only the chapter was longer, but greatness like this makes the waits worthwhile.

Rin-ne chapter 188 - This chapter is just a means of getting Matsugo acquainted with the rest of the main cast and establishing some character dynamics to play with in his future appearances. And it worked well. Matsugo has good chemistry with Ageha and that lead to some great bits here. I also like his black cat Kuromitsu. I hope she gets more fleshed out along the lines of level 6 Kurosu in future appearances (there needs to be more chapters featuring the black cats in general). Overall I thought this was a fairly amusing chapter and welcome the addition of Matsugo as a recurring character. I also appreciate that Takahashi has written a good gay character, which is frankly rare is shonen manga in general. Hopefully the joke in this chapter that Matsugo wants to get in Rinne's pants isn't abused since the character has a good personality that is not defined by him being gay, and good chemistry with both Ageha and Rinne. I guess I'll have to wait until his next appearance to see.

Toriko chapter 281 - The stuff with Burachi and the Daruma Hermit was absolutely hilarious. And Melk the 1st is back too! I wonder if he'll help out Toriko and the crew capture Air. I guess we'll see if he tags along when he explains how he survived next week. Also great in this chapter was Toriko recounting his meeting with Midora, and noting they are nowhere near his level, and fighting him shouldn't be their priority anyway. I always appreciate how level-headed Toriko is compared to other contemporary shonen protagonists. Overall, another really entertaining chapter with great hilarious parts and further plot advancement. With Toriko, I'd expect no less.

Rankings:

1. All You Need Is Kill - 10/10
2. Hunter X Hunter - 10/10
3. Toriko - 10/10
4. Attack on Titan - 9/10
5. Magi - 9/10
6. One-Punch Man - 9/10
7. Assassination Classroom - 9/10
8. Kuroko no Basket - 8/10
9. Rin-ne - 8/10
10. Bleach - 6/10
11. GTO: Paradise Lost - 6/10
12. Naruto - 4/10

I am extremely satisfied with this week of manga. The majority of these chapters were highly entertaining and pleased me on many levels. If only every week can be as good as this week. Looking forward to several new chapters this week, and hopefully, like these ones, they don't disappoint.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just caught up with the manga, which wasn't hard considering that it's only about 30 chapters ahead of where season 2 of the anime ended, and these chapters are short. I'm not a fan of long flash-back arcs (Remembrance is like THE main exception), but this one has gone kind of up and down for me. My main issue, though, is that the author decided to include it in the middle of an arc where tension between the 3 major empires of the story is as high as it's ever been. So, it's  hard to get invested in another story when you want to focus on the one that you were already reading. That said, this arc has had its moments.

As for chapter 229, I came to an odd realization: this series has a thing with displaying a lot of dead bodies as burnt corpses. Seriously, what's with that? Also, how was the kid even able to have enough strength to talk in that state before dying (yet everyone else was apparently long dead)? Yeah, I know, shounen logic, I shouldn't think too hard about it. Putting that aside, it was a good chapter, though it was all kind of expected. I'm assuming that Setta is dead as well, which would be yet another heavy blow to Solomon's team. Not to sound like an ass, though, but it was pretty stupid of the to only leave one capable magician behind to defend their home city. Obviously they considered the possibility of an attack, which is why they even left Setta behind in the first place to guard it, but if they thought that much into it, I think it should have been obvious that you'd need more than just one capable guy there if there was an attack to begin with. But, like I said, it's a shounen manga, and at that it's a flash-back arc that's specifically about how Solomon fucked up and how not to do it again, so I can't really fault it too much for that.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Naruto kind of desensitized me to flashbacks interrupting the middle of an arc when they weren't wanted, so I'm not really bothered by how long the Alma Thorran arc is taking, especially since I find it a fairly interesting story in it's own right. I am wondering how long it will last. At the pace it's going, I could see it going to the end of the summer and I'd be ok with that, but I would like to go back to the story as soon as fall begins.

Also, how was the kid even able to have enough strength to talk in that state before dying (yet everyone else was apparently long dead)?

Yeah, I thought that was too overdone and a rather cliche way to illicit sympathy, but I did find it interesting since in the Sinbad's Adventure manga Falan is a member of Al Tharmen, and losing her kid in this fight might have been what made her turn against Solomon (though I wonder if this incident is also why Ithnan eventually betrays him too, or if there's something else that makes him later).

I'm assuming that Setta is dead as well, which would be yet another heavy blow to Solomon's team. Not to sound like an ass, though, but it was pretty stupid of the to only leave one capable magician behind to defend their home city. Obviously they considered the possibility of an attack, which is why they even left Setta behind in the first place to guard it, but if they thought that much into it, I think it should have been obvious that you'd need more than just one capable guy there if there was an attack to begin with.

The way I see it, Solomon didn't think that David and his forces would predict when would they attack or find out where their home base is with a large force of magicians, since they figured that most of his forces would be concentrated in the capital where they would be fighting, which is why they felt that Setta would be enough to handle any attacks on the home base since they didn't think there would be a large force of magicians, much less headed by David himself, attacking it. It was a mistake of underestimating his enemy and overestimating the soundness of their defensive strategy, and it suitably cost them.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I caught up with three more manga in the last week: The Seven Deadly Sins, Shokugeki no Souma, and Magi: Adventure of Sinbad. As such, from now on I will be including them in my weekly recaps as well.

Assassination Classroom chapter 91 - Asano's plan seems to be partly based in revenge, but more based in his desire to ensure the status quo and his own goal. He wants Class E to lose so badly in the Boutaoshi that their short-term academic performance will suffer as well, and with mid-terms the next week, that will ensure that only Class A students take the top 40 slots while class E gets low results. Getting top high-school athletes from around the world to transfer into his class just for this is overboard, but he clearly doesn't want to take any chances, and the more crushing Class E's defeat the better. Interestingly, at the end of the chapter Class E takes the defensive right off the bat and Asano decides to go for it, but Nagisa and Karma, unquestionably the most skilled male assassins of Class E, are noticeably not part of the defense. While Asano is distracted they'll no doubt try and stealthily knock down Class A's pole, but since they aren't nearly as physically strong as Class A's foreign transfer students, I'm curious to see just how they will pull it off.

Black Butler chapter 94 - Looks like Sebastian's had enough of Ciel's whiny amnesia bullshit and is just going to eat his soul now since his refusal to do his duties is a violation of their contract. I'd loved to see the look on some fangirls face when Sebastian starts to pull Ciel's soul out into some black void or whatever. But, of course this series is far from over yet and Ciel will probably become his normal self again before his soul is devoured and whatnot.

Bleach chapter 585 - So Juha Bach's plan was that once Ichigo went to the Soul King's Palace and came back, there would be a 6000 second dimensional gateway portal open for him to invade it? This is basically Aizen's plan in kidnapping Orihime in Hueco Mundo all over again: lure the heroes to one location to distract them while he goes to a different location and traps them there. It was convoluted and lame before, and is no less now.

GTO: Paradise Lost chapter 6 - In GTO, Onizuka's "lessons" were all appropriate trials relevant to what those students were going through or did to him or another student. Now he just throws frogs on girls and spreads rumors about people having an embarrassing skin rash. Onizuka's trying to make them get rid of their high and mighty act, but unlike several examples I can remember from GTO, I fail to see how these methods are going to humble these students. This feels like Onizuka's trademark crazy shenanigans without the method that made them so endearing, and it doesn't help that these students' problems are either retreads of stuff already seen in GTO or cliche highschool tropes. At the end of this chapter a student comments that Onizuka might make life more "interesting," but until this series stops mimicking GTO's surface formula and really understands why it worked and how to make Onizuka's shenanigans mean something instead of just being random wackiness, it'll just be a lame retread.

Hunter X Hunter chapter 344 - It seems Kurapika has collected several more of his clan's eyes since we've saw him last, and the Prince holds the last of them. When he does get the last ones, though, what will he do? He doesn't believe he has a home or people to go back to. Telling was how distant he seemed to Leorio when they were talking on the phone. I feel that Kurapika's experiences have made him alienated from everything outside of his ambitions, including his friends. It will be interesting to see how he interacts with Leorio when they are reuinted in person again. This chapter was mostly about Ging convincing the rest of Beyond's group to accept him as their no. 2 by giving them money and promising not to force them to listen to any of his commands over Pariston's if they so wish. The rest of the chapter is him basically explaining all the dangers in the Dark Continent and more backstory on the original expedition there, including the locations of the 5 Calamities. The most interesting thing is at the end where he brings up that there was a pioneer 300 years ago who went to the Dark Continent and wrote a Journal, the second half of which is missing, and Ging's reasoning as to why is that the writer, Don Freccs, is still alive and still writing it. Interesting. Looks like they'll be searching for this guy when they go to the Dark Continent. Assuming he is still alive, the dude has to have some reason for staying there 300 years. Aside from all this, I have to wonder what's up with Gon. He seems to have lost his "aura," which might mean he's lost his ability to use nen. I hope we'll see what's up with him next chapter.

Kuroko no Basket chapter 266 - This chapter tries to give Akashi a developed backstory to explain his motivations and behavior up to this point, but the thing is, this is all stuff we could plainly see in the Teikou arc, and it didn't need to be spelled out for us again. However, the chapter serves it's purpose at showing Akashi switch his two personalities, and return to the game as the basketball-loving athlete he used to be. We didn't need a whole chapter for this considering how superfluous the content and explanation of Akashi's personalities are at this point, and as payoff this moment falls flat to me, but at this point I can welcome it since it's a sign that this game will be winding down, and hopefully, maybe become a bit more interesting now that Akashi obnoxious and pretentious personality is no more.

Magi chapter 229 - So Solomon acknowledges Ugo as the most powerful magician in all of Alma Thorran. That was kind of a nice moment. More interesting is the consequences of Solomon's fuck-up, in that everybody back at the home base has been brutally murdered. I thought the scene with Falan's kid was overkill, and a bit cliche, but interesting nonetheless considering that she is a villain in the Adventure of Sinbad manga, which means that, like Ithnan and Gyokuen (who I'm like 99% is Arba), she betrays Solomon at some point, and this event might have been the catalyst for that betrayal as well as a general rift in trust between Solomon and many of his comrades. I'm hoping to see if this idea is correct, and expanded upon, as this arc continues.

Naruto chapter 681 - Black Zetsu flat out says in this chapter that he is responsible for manipulating the entire history of the Naruto universe, even going so far as to change what actually happened in recorded history to suit his long-term agenda, an extremely convoluted plan that basically amounts to him being a whiny little child wanting to resurrect his dead mommy. This is a far worse bullshit than Aizen having manipulated Ichigo's entire life in Bleach, because this means that the entire history behind the Naruto universe resulted from Black Zetsu alone, and that no one else's accomplishments were truly theirs as they were all pawns in a complicated, long-term scheme. And while Naruto screams out in this chapter that Zetsu is not responsible for the history of ninjas or whatever, everything he says in this chapter shows that basically anything significant that happened to anyone important was a direct or indirect result of his manipulation. This is a pointless development that serves only to undermine the entire mythology of the series' universe and further dampens the credibility and tension of this climactic battle (need I remind everyone Kaguya was first mentioned only 8 or so chapters ago?).  I was going to give the series a full read through when it finished, to really evaluate how it stands as a whole, but I no longer see the need to do that. This single chapter ruins the integrity of Naruto's already problematic and misguided storyline, and I just do not see how this series can be salvaged at this point. 

One Piece chapter 750 - The way the last chapter ended I thought we were going to learn Law's backstory in this one...but instead, it's basically more fighting and running, needless "believe in Luffy" speeches that add nothing to the story, and then set-up for Sabo fighting Fujitora. I simply didn't find any of it very interesting, and though I would like to look forward to Sabo v. Fujitora, the series hasn't made me really excited during it's recent fight sequences and I can't muster hope this will be any different. Just a dud chapter, unfortunately.

The Seven Deadly Sins chapter 81 - So all this time Gilthunder has been manipulated by a demon that has been possessing Margaret, forced to go along with Hendrickson's ambitions in order to protect her. But now that Meliodas has destroyed the demon, Gilthunder is freed from this burden and can fight back with his hero against Hendrickson. Good stuff, and a real turning point in this battle. With his back against the wall Hendrickson is going to need to fulfill his ambitions quickly. Or, perhaps he's more than a match for Gilthunder and the severely worn out Meliodas by himself. He isn't a Great Holy Knight for nothing, after all. I guess we'll just see how all this unfolds in the next chapter.

Shokugeki no Souma chapter 74 - Leave it to this series make a turtle burger look like the most delicious sounding thing ever.  Seriously, I almost wanted to eat one myself after reading this chapter. Arata is certainly a skilled to make such a unique burger that not only stimulates someone's sense of tastes, but their sense of touch as well. However, it looks like Hayama's burger will be even better. I expected as much (also, this is a cooking manga, the one who goes shows their dish first loses 80% of the time), but I do wonder how his dish will stimulate the judges' tastes better than Arata's dish. Should be interesting to see the spice master apply his skills to a simple burger.

Stealth Symphony chapter 16 - Jig is crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy. And dangerous. And a dragon. That's basically what this chapter is about, and it wastes no time hammering that in. It's kind of a left-field plot development, and I can only assume the series really is close to cancellation, and this is the direction it's taking to tie up loose ends. I did think the scene where Alice goes into his apartment building and sees he scribbled a bunch of crazy shit on the walls pretty fucked up, and the scene where he briefly recognizes Troma, and becomes remorseful, but then quickly becomes insane again was pretty well done too. Overall, though, I'm just kind of confused at this direction, but like a train wreck, I can't help but wanting to see where it's going.

Rankings:

1. Hunter X Hunter - 8/10
2. The Seven Deadly Sins - 8/10
3. Magi - 8/10
4. Shokugeki no Souma - 8/10
5. Assassination Classroom - 8/10
6. Kuroko no Basket - 7/10
7. Black Butler - 7/10
8. One Piece - 6/10
9. Stealth Symphony - 6/10
10. GTO: Paradise Lost - 6/10
11. Bleach - 5/10
12. Naruto - 1/10

Not very happy with this last week of manga. 7 out of 12 of these chapters were mediocre or worse, and among the good ones, though I certainly enjoyed them, there weren't really any standouts. I hope for more entertaining chapters this week.

[Spark Of Spirit]

That Naruto reveal is the equal of a certain reveal in the Yu Yu Hakusho manga that the staff wisely never brought over to the anime.

I know some writers thing this is clever, but its actually quite terrible writing. You're undermining your story for the sake of shock value that's, at best, paper thin. All in order to "surprise" fans. I've never met a fan who legitimately enjoys such twists, and there's a reason for that. Because it's deceptive of the author and disrespectful to the story and universe.

[LumRanmaYasha]

It's worse in this case because Black Zetsu basically has manipulated not only the entire story of Naruto, but it's entire mythology and history as well. Basically, all the culture and every conflict ever mentioned in this story was fabricated all in order to fulfill Zetsu's objective, which was simply just to revive Kaguya, a character that, again, was only first introduced in the series 8 chapters ago with no hint of whatsoever beforehand, and has now replaced Madara, who, while not a particularly amazing character, had hundreds of chapters of build-up and a genuine charisma, as the main villain of the series....because.

There's no reason for any of this stuff to be happening. It feels like Kishimoto was just bored of Madara after having the battle with him dragged out for over literally 100 chapters, so he thought up of a "shocking" new twist that he felt would liven up the story, but instead, it just completely removes any tension this conflict has since, unlike Madara, Kaguya is a barely established and one-dimensional character, and with this twist, he's now undermined the entire story of Naruto as a whole. It's baffling, really.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That Naruto reveal is the equal of a certain reveal in the Yu Yu Hakusho manga that the staff wisely never brought over to the anime.

I know some writers thing this is clever, but its actually quite terrible writing. You're undermining your story for the sake of shock value that's, at best, paper thin. All in order to "surprise" fans. I've never met a fan who legitimately enjoys such twists, and there's a reason for that. Because it's deceptive of the author and disrespectful to the story and universe.

That's the same reason why Angel season 4 is trash. I absolutely HATE it when a series makes it so that everything that happened within its entire Universe (or even just a single story arc, for that matter), was under the complete control of the villains. It not only ruins the rest of the story, but even manages to undermine anything that it may have done well earlier in the story. It should also be noted that if you really scrutinize earlier story arcs when twists like these are revealed, that those arcs just don't line up with what the twist is implying, proving that the author just came up with it on the spot.

Seriously, it's beyond me how this manga is still popular. Kishimoto is a hack writer. He always has been.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've been reading The Adventures of Sinbad. It's a fun spin-off/prequel to Magi, so far, and I prefer it to the early parts of Magi which I found to be kind of boring until it developed a more fleshed out world and characters.

Meanwhile, I'm just hoping that the current Magi arc ends soon. I read chapter 230 and I just couldn't bring myself to care. It's not bad or anything, but I'm really just way more interested in where the current story is headed, and I really can't stand super long flash-back arcs that interrupt these stories. Everything that we have learned from this flash-back so far could have easily been told in less than half of the chapters that we've gotten so far. Either that, or they could have been revealed in bits and pieces as the next arc progressed in the modern timeline.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Yeah, I felt Adventure of Sinbad starts off much stronger than the Magi manga did, and I was able to get into it really quickly. It's a welcome look into Sinbad's past and I think it'll just get better as it goes along.

As for chapter 230, I'm kind of confused at what Elder David exactly wanted. He blows himself up to supposedly be one with god, but before that he entrusts his staff to Solomon, who he flat out stated he never considered his son like a page ago, because he wants to see whether humans will be able to oppose fate under his leadership? There just seems to be a big disconnect between his actions and words, and that's kind of annoying since he was the big bad of this arc thus far. Well, I'd like to think this arc is entering it's final stages now, so we'll finally see how Solomon brings everyone together under, and then how everything falls apart, which is frankly what I actually wanted to see when this arc started anyway. I'd expect this arc will continue until the end of summer, and then the main story will resume in the fall.

[LumRanmaYasha]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-06-23/domain-ansatsu-anime.com-registered/.75846

DUN DUN DUN! I knew it was only a matter of time before Assassination Classroom got an anime! The series is super popular, so I wonder how many cours the anime will last? I think the industry practice is leaning towards making seasons rather than have long-running full-year series these days, so my guess is that it'll be a good two cours to cover through chapter 73 (the end of the Island Time arc).

With Sailor Moon Crystal premiering next week, JoJo's going to be running for a year, and Parasyte, The Seven Deadly Sins, and Psycho-Pass 2 coming in the fall with AC probably following in the winter, it looks like I'm going to be keeping up with a lot of anime later this year.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Assassination Classroom anime officially confirmed.

It's also getting a live-action film. I don't think AC will translate into live-action that well, but the fact it's being made is a testament to how popular this series is right now, and it's only two years old to boot! I'm hoping Brains Base will be doing the anime, but really, I'd be fine with most anyone except Toei. I'm also happy Tomokazu Seki will be reprising his role as Korosensei in the anime. His performance in J-Stars was spot-on.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, the prince is a psychopath. It'll make it fun to see if Kurapika kills him for the eyes.

Meanwhile Gon has to deal with the repercussions of what he did at the end of the Chimera Ant arc, mainly in the fact that he can't use Nen. I like that he has to deal with these consequences, but I fully expect Togashi to give him back his powers somehow. Still, it would be nice to see him not go that route and make this consequence permanent, and still have Gon be useful despite his lack of Nen, but I just don't see that happening. At any rate it wS nice seeing Gon reunite with Mito, and admit that he didn't really want to follow Ging, but rather just wanted to find him, and after he reached that goal he realized that he didn't really care to be at Ging's side.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Considering Kurapika mentions in this chapter he was able to "persuade" two people who were vehemently against giving him the eyes without killing them, it's clear he has developed methods to get what he wants from people without needing to take lives.

I'm rather disappointed that the Prince is just some Yoshikage Kira-wannabe. Unless your psychopathic murderer just wants an ordinary life, I ain't interested, especially since quite frankly villains like these are a dime a dozen (I got serious deja-vu reading this part of the chapter). It would have been more interesting if the Prince was, like, a genuinely good person but involved in some dirty business and Kurapika was going to get morally conflicted about killing/torturing him trying to get his eyes back, or something like that. This set-up just makes it seem like Togashi is creating an intentionally despicable character just so that the audience can be satisfied once he's been taken out by Kurapika. Then again, Togashi has made seemingly shallow characters into well-developed complex ones like with Meruem, so I'll see where he goes with this guy too.

The Gon stuff in this chapter was great, though. He really has matured quite a bit since the start of the series, and, though I know it'll be temporary, it's nice to see repercussions from his actions in the Chimera Ant arc and see him adjust to his new circumstances. Ging's portion of the chapter was interesting also. Pariston is really getting screwed over now, and he's finally starting to get a little pissed off. 

Next week HXH won't have a new chapter. That was quick. At least it will be back the week after, and with a "special project," whatever that'll be.