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Derek Bown

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: November 4, 2013

November 12, 2013 by Derek Bown Leave a Comment

We’re finally caught up for the most part, minus this one which will be a little late. I apologize for the long wait on these reviews, but hope you were able to enjoy them as they came out. In the meanwhile, let’s talk manga!

One Piece Ch. 726
I’d feel a lot better about completely calling the identities of Ricky and the Toy Soldier if it weren’t completely obvious in hindsight. Perhaps a better twist might have been having their identities switched around. I suppose now the question is whether or not Oda is getting predictable and if that’s a bad thing. Personally I don’t mind it too much, it makes me feel clever when I call twists, just as long as Oda manages to get back into the swing of things and doesn’t make every twist feel like it was telegraphed several months in advance.

And yet, this chapter was great not only because the reveals were fun despite being easy to call, but because we’re slowly learning more about Dresrossa and how all the plot threads tie together. While we don’t know everything yet I can tell that the climax will certainly be satisfying.

One Piece

Toriko Ch. 256
I find it odd how suddenly Midora, the shadowy antagonist for most of the series, could possibly become a protagonist based on hints from this chapter. If this really does happen then I must say that is a pretty unique development. Antagonists becoming heroes isn’t all that unusual, but the big bad of the entire series, not just a single arc, becoming a hero is not very common at all.

What confuses me is whether this true enemy spoken about is supposed to be the new group, or if this is a fourth group. Either way, it looks like Shimabukuro is branching out in an attempt to find new story threads and so far it looks pretty promising.

Naruto Ch. 653
This chapter…was odd. On the one hand we’re resolving the big issue of Obito. On the other hand everything that was said has basically been said throughout the rest of this arc, we barely had any new information. In which case it might be a good idea not to reveal information needed during the climactic scene earlier in the series. And perhaps try to avoid finishing every single arc by having Naruto talk everyone down. It gets dull.

World Trigger Ch. 37
This series has definitely been growing on me more and more. The overall story for this chapter was good enough, but it’s all the character moments that really make this manga a little more worthwhile. Kitora is easily my favorite character in the entire series based on her personality ticks alone. I loved seeing her reaction to Osamu being praised or berated. And the scene with Chika was great with how it gave the director fellow more of a personality. Overall this series is turning into something that just might be worth your time, just be aware that the first thirty or so chapters is a bit of a slog.

World Trigger

Bleach Ch. 555
Why doesn’t this chapter look familiar? It’s almost as if we’ve seen this exact same thing more than once before in this series. We usually figure that the hero will arrive on time, but if you do it more than once then there is no tension whatsoever. And are we worried about someone dying before Ichigo can arrive? Not really, it’s not like anyone important has ever actually died in this series. If Kubo is taking that perception and turning it against us by actually having permanent deaths in this arc then I think this series just might end on a high note. As for this chapter it’s nothing new and my hopes aren’t high for the rest of the series.

Bleach

Nisekoi Ch. 97
Whatever is wrong with Marika we don’t know yet. Really getting tired of these false cliffhangers. A good chunk of this chapter was really funny, but there were plenty of moments that dragged towards the middle. I actually put the issue down halfway through this chapter just because the dramatic moment in the ferris wheel dragged too much for me. But, that happens at times with this series and I imagine we’ll get back to basics next week.

One-Punch Man bonus chapter
If you’re one of the people that thinks it’s not possible to write a good Superman story, then I challenge you to read this chapter of One Punch man and tell me if it’s impossible to write a great story based around an all powerful being.

The problem I find most of the time is that people don’t realize that there is more to writing than any kind of physical threat. If you think that problems need to be solved by punching and a story about someone that is the best at that then I’m afraid you don’t know how to actually write. For example, what about a story involving Superman trying to pay his rent now that journalism is in the decline. Sure it doesn’t use his powers, but it could make for a very satisfying story. Which is, after all, what this chapter is. The focus isn’t on the villain, the focus is on the tension between the superheroes and the cops, and the resolution of this tension is what makes the chapter so good. Saitama punching the monster is a tertiary concern and we don’t even get to see it. Because One knows that good stories don’t always end with a villain being punched. Sometimes the meat of the story lies outside the physical violence and can be found by sidelining the character that can punch very hard for a little bit.

And thus, Saitama has become one of my favorite heroes.

One-Punch Man

Blue Exorcist Xh. 51
Can we please agree that the scientist is unnecessarily creepy and never let him be drawn again? Please?

I enjoyed this chapter because it did a good job of setting a very unsettling tone throughout the entire story, while also keeping things ambiguous. Is Shima really a traitor? Probably, but there’s enough doubt there. Why is Kamiki acting like everything is her fault? What is really going on? I’m asking plenty of questions and I feel that’s crucial for a good story. So overall a well crafted chapter even if it has a character in it that should never have been designed. I mean really, could Kato try any harder to make this guy unlikable?

Blue Exorcist

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 38
I’m amazed at how fast this battle is moving. It really goes to show that the Dragon Ball manga really does move at a faster pace than the anime, because what we’ve done in a couple chapters took what feels like years worth of episodes in the anime. I’m definitely getting back into this series after approaching it with a “Been there, done that” attitude.


This week had some amazing chapters, and some mediocre chapters. But the amazing chapters really did stand out much more than the bad ones. Do you agree? Were they good or not?

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps Tagged With: bleach, blue exorcist, Dragon Ball Z, Jako The Galactic Patrolman, naruto, nisekoi, One Piece, one punch man, toriko, world trigger

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: October 28, 2013

November 6, 2013 by Derek Bown 2 Comments

Naruto

Naruto Ch. 652
Please take a good close look at the following image, people that still like Naruto. Take a good long look and realize what your manga about ninja has come to.

Naruto Tug of War

That’s right. The climactic battle has come down to a tug of war. I have no words. And really, anything I say couldn’t possibly convey exactly how ridiculous this manga has gotten more effectively than that single image from the chapter.

I probably would read a tug of war manga if that were a thing, but I came here for ninja battles, not a giant tug of war for demon energy. And if it feels like I’m saying tug of war too much that’s because it’s a silly name and I want to be sure that everyone realizes how ridiculous it is to finish off a battle with a tug of war.

Tug of War.

Bleach Ch. 554
The reveal that apparently Quincy have some kind of super powered form aside…actually, no let’s not put that aside. That makes no sense whatsoever. With the Arrancar having a different form made sense, their entire powerbase was based on changing shapes. With the Soul Reapers it made sense because the concept of swords changing shape was introduced very early on in the series. So of course they’d have an ultimate form. But with Quincies there is nothing about their power that suggests they would have any kind of ultimate form. Their power lies in gathering and manipulating spirit particles, they get more powerful by getting more spirit particles. So how are they suddenly able to take on a more powerful form?

And I know that most of the powers in this series have some kind of power up form, but with the Fullbringers it worked because their introductory arc introduced everything there was to know about their powers. But the Quincies have been around since basically the beginning of the series. So to suddenly change their powers like this is just jarring.

Though, I do love Komamura’s new armor, and I love seeing Shinji get the better of Bambieta using just his Shikai. It may be OP, but I gotta love seeing someone that doesn’t rely on their bankai all the time.

One-Punch Man Bonus Chapter
This was a pretty pointless chapter, and that’s what made it so much fun. You could probably call this series “The Daily Lives of Superheroes” and fill it with a bunch of inane events that would still be plenty fun to read about. In fact, I’d love that idea, taking the concept that Saitama is unbeatable and instead just show his daily life with the monster attacks being incidental events. Which is what this chapter basically was. So more please.

World Trigger Ch. 36
I would complain that there was far too much explaining in this chapter, except the payoff was worth it. I would love to see more intelligent fights from battle manga, since I get tired of the old “I’m more powerful than you, but now you are more powerful than me oh no!” that too many manga resort to. Show me some clever strategery and I’ll be happy. I may still hold a grudge for almost thirty chapters of pointlessness, but if I get more battles like this one I might just consider forgiving the terrible start this manga had.

World Trigger

Nisekoi Ch. 96
I do hope that the twist next chapter isn’t that Marika is sick. Because we already know that. It’s not like it’s some kind of surprise, so trying to pull a dramatic reveal on information we’re already aware of would be a major faux pas.

As massively non-pc as someone like Mikage would be, I get a good laugh out of her antics. And of course Tsugumi manages to be the butt (or bust?) of the joke once again. Though I did like that she complains about this and previous bad touch situations.

Chitoge’s reaction to Raku and Marika’s supposed relationship was of course perfect. The only way it works is that Chitoge actually tries to be cool about it at first, assuming that it’s just another one of those weird situations they get into. It isn’t until after she’s convinced that the relationship is real that she overreacts. After so many other manga go the easy route of “misunderstanding then punching” it’s refreshing to see some characters act a little more genre savvy.

Seraph of the End Ch. 3
We’re just three chapters in and it’s official. I hate this manga. I hate how it keeps trying to justify the bland high school setting, I hate how it acts like it’s post-apocalyptic but insist on keeping the trappings of the most generic shonen manga. I hate that the main character goes beyond shonen enthusiasm and becomes a legitimately stupid character. Characters like Naruto, Luffy, and Goku may have their stupid moments, but they back it up by actually being intelligent in fights. This guy, I still refuse to waste space remembering his name, is just flat out stupid. The worst part is that he’s apparently not supposed to have the “I’m an idiot shonen hero” gag going on. And yet, somehow we end up with a character who is legitimately worse than the dumbest of shonen heroes.

And what’s up with the “Virginity is bad” junk? Is that the creative team just trying to be edgy? Or hip and with it? Either way it’s an attempt at humor that falls as flat as the rest of this series.

Oh, and look there! The kid who was bitten by a vampire in the first chapter came back as a vampire and we’re supposed to be surprised!? It would take a five year old reading this manga to be surprised by that twist. Literally the entire world knows that if a vampire bites you, you become a vampire. How is this meant to be a surprise!?

And why has he aged? Vampires are dead! They cannot age! Even Twilight got that part right! (Mostly) You hear that manga? Twilight did a better job at writing vampires than you are!

Seraphs End

Toriko Ch.255
I’m legitimately surprised Ichiryu is alive. I thought for real that he was going to die, especially after all the buildup the past several chapters. But, other than that twist the rest of the chapter mostly just shows people dealing with the meteor spice, and for the most part it looks like everyone will be fine. Still, a very fun chapter.

Toriko

Dragonball Z Ch. 37
Goku continues to win, breaking the chapter by chapter flow that we’d established prior. Which works well because it allows the reader the illusion that the battle may be over soon. Which of course we know is not true, or at least those of us reading this series for anything but the first time. I have to continue wondering, why is Goku’s Kamehameha yellow when the one in the anime was blue?

Dragon Ball Z


So with three chapters in, what does everyone think about Seraph? Let me know in the comments if I’m overreacting or if it’s not pissing me off enough.

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps Tagged With: bleach, blue exorcist, Dragon Ball Z, Jako The Galactic Patrolman, naruto, nisekoi, One Piece, one punch man, toriko, world trigger

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: October 21, 2013

November 4, 2013 by Derek Bown Leave a Comment

October 21 CoverAnd here I was looking forward to another hilarious chapter of Seraph of the End. But, unfortunately, this new series is a monthly in Japan that has been going on for a couple months. So in order to stretch it out a bit WSJ will be giving us two chapters a month until we’re caught up. Between this series and One-Punch Man, which is also off this week seeing as we just caught up, it feels like WSJ has heard the complaints that some series aren’t doing well because they didn’t start at the very beginning. They’re definitely trying out new ways to make sure we get the whole story, rather than starting at the most recent chapter and then looking the other way as some readers go read scanlations of what came before. But, this has me worried because while this can work for monthly series there still isn’t any clear way to start a weekly series that has been going on for more than a few chapters. And considering how often new series get cancelled I think that the staff at Viz might be a little gun-shy where brand new series are concerned. Besides the series that have been ongoing and everyone has read scanlations for anyway I’m worried that we won’t be getting many more WSJ series added to the magazine.

I can understand not wanting to put effort into something that might get cancelled anyway, but I read this magazine because I like WSJ. To have so many monthly series from different magazines is a bit worrisome. I’m hoping we don’t go the route of making this magazine nothing but monthly series. While they are easier to start from the beginning, and have often been going for a while, I’m afraid that WSJ won’t be WSJ anymore if this goes on for too long.

Cross Manage Special Bonus Chapter
I could go on a rant about how angry I am that this series was cancelled. And I would be well justified, after being reminded of how much I love this series it would be so easy to get back into a rant mode where all I focus on is that we probably won’t be getting any more of this series. But, like the mature and well adjusted adult I am (please don’t listen to the podcast where we review the last chapter, it will contradict what I just said) I’m going to instead focus on the chapter itself.

First off, you’ll probably like this chapter a lot more if you like the main pairing, and they’re innocent enough that it’s hard not to like them. But even if you don’t care for them you’ll still have plenty to enjoy in this little story set in the middle of the final chapter. Everything we love about Cross Manage is here, the characters, the jokes, and just the overall good vibes the series gives off. While it didn’t focus on lacrosse as much I don’t think anyone will be too worried about that. The sport, after all, isn’t the main reason we came to love this manga in the first place.

All in all it’s a satisfying, if bittersweet, goodbye. Cross Manage had so much potential to live up to, and Kato clearly had the skill to make this one of the great series. But instead, because we are forced to live under the whims of the Japanese votes we have lost a series that made a big impact with western audiences.

Now someone please help me make some noise about this series, let’s start a kickstarter, or something to get the funds together to just straight up pay Kato to write more chapters.

Cross Manage

Bleach Ch. 553
Aaaand suddenly it seems like the Quincies will all be taken down very easily. Don’t you just love convenient plot developments in shonen action series? Never mind the character actually in the battle figuring out how to overcome their enemy. Let’s have a mad scientist just pull the solution out of his ass. Now that’s some good writing!

We’re probably going to be doing this back and forth chapter to chapter for a while now. I’m giving it two more chapters before I’m walking. I don’t mind the typical back and forth, but I would like it to actually be interesting. Fight scenes have a certain flow, and for the most part the conflict between characters has to remain very personal. Only rarely can an outside force influence the fight in a way that doesn’t feel lazy. This is not one of those times.

Naruto Ch. 651
If ever there was a time that the terrible “Believe it!” catchphrase would be appropriate, this would be it. It would be terrible, but it would be terrible in an appropriate way. It certainly wouldn’t be any worse than telling Lee, who can’t use ninjutsu of any kind, “You can do it!” when he asks if he can actually control the rasengan Naruto made for him. I know that at times writers may ignore logic, hoping that the emotion of the climax will be grand enough to avoid any probing questions. But that only works for me if you happen to be writing Dr Who and your composer is good enough to leave me in tears and unable to question your logic.

And I’m afraid that, “You can do it!” is not a valid explanation. It’s barely even a proper sportswear slogan.

Naruto

One Piece Ch. 725
The thing about One Piece is that a lot of times we’ll figure out what’s going to happen in advance because of the hints Oda drops. So the fate of the losers of the tournament is not a surprise. And yet, somehow, it’s still satisfying. I think that can be chalked up to the characters. If you have good characters you can get away with a lot. And Oda has some of the best characters, even those that are bit players at best.

I enjoy Rebecca’s fighting style, it’s a lot smarter than just saying “She’s really strong.” Turns out she actually isn’t very strong, she just knows how to fight smart. And this is the first time we’ve seen a character that is able to win despite not being overpowered. It’s nice to see that Oda can write a woman that is a good fighter in a clever and unexpected way. Now if only he’d give Nami and Robin some good fights again.

Speaking of which, I think Nami has become Doflamingo’s most dangerous opponent. All it would take is him chasing them, and her dispelling all the nearby clouds right over the ocean. He falls, he drowns, end of story. Well, end of his story, not the end of One Piece’s story, since there is so much more beyond Doflamingo to discover, even if he is one of the more interesting elements of the story.

The big question now, though, is what exactly are Violet’s intentions? She’s last seen heading back to the palace, was she just playing Sanji really, really well? Or is there some kind of unfinished business she must resolve before she can make her escape? I’d like to see her still be on the side of the villains. Her turning against Doflamingo was too easy, and it would make a great twist to have her still be evil after what we thought was a sincere turn.

The question, ultimately, is what do you think? I could be completely off base about this chapter and my predictions. If so, let me know.

One Piece

Toriko Ch. 254
This chapter gave us a slightly better explanation for why Midora is evil. It’s still glossed over for the most part, but at least it gives a more emotional reason, rather than the clinical “And now he’s evil because he is sad.”

I keep forgetting that people in Toriko can recover from the most outrageous injuries. When Ichiryu was first injured I thought he was a goner, but now it turns out he actually healed himself. I knew he could do that, I just keep forgetting because it’s actually kind of silly. But even Toriko characters have their limits and it looks like Ichiryu is finished, overpowered by Midora’s dark gourmet cells. We pretty much figured that Ichiryu wouldn’t survive this, but I still look forward to seeing where the story goes from here now that this flashback within a flashback is over.

Nisekoi Ch. 095
Now we’re talking. Nisekoi‘s biggest strength is its characters and the comedy derived from them. So chapters like last week’s do more to hurt the series rather than strengthen it. A character like this one, while not completely original, is a step in the right direction. Basically take the perverted old man and make him a teenaged girl. Quality.

The idea has been done before, but not in many series that are freely available in the West. A good example of the character type is Kaoru from Psychic Squad, a series about espers that is sadly not available as a manga over here, but the decent anime series adaptation has been brought over by Sentai Filmworks. Worth a look if you have the kind of money Sentai prices require.

But Nisekoi has skirted the lines of being derivative before. Major elements of the series are inspired by earlier harem comedies like Love Hina and Ranma 1/2, but I’ve found that they’re incorporated so well that it never stands out as an egregious issue, and since nobody really knows about Psychic Squad but me there won’t be many people calling “foul” on our new character.

So enjoy your new Nisekoi, with all the inappropriate comments being spouted by a teenaged girl.

Nisekoi

World Trigger Ch. 035
This chapter wasn’t bad. But it was mediocre, which is a bigger crime in my book. Besides being reminded that Osamu isn’t a good fighter we didn’t learn that much new, even though the majority of the chapter was explaining how the chameleon trigger worked. Granted, Osamu learns about Jin giving away his black trigger, so we might get something interesting next chapter as Osamu asks for one more round.

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 036
I find it odd that I enjoyed this chapter, when earlier I was complaining about Bleach doing the old “first they win during one chapter, then they lose during the next, and back and forth, etc, etc”. Yet somehow it works here. Probably because DBZ was the first manga many read that introduced this formula. And in this case it works because we saw Goku train to use the Kaioken and in this chapter he overpowers it at great risk to himself. There’s tension, possible consequences, all things that Bleach is missing.

I think I may have found out how to review this series, by comparing it to current Bleach chapters. After all, Bleach is called “DBZ with swords”. So let’s see what the original can teach us about how to write a fight scene.


Again, this was a good week where the good chapters clearly outweighed the bad. The return of Cross Manage, even for just one chapter, lifted my spirits immensely. I may not enjoy next week, with One Piece being off (according to the translator), but who knows, maybe some of my least favorite series might surprise me?

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps Tagged With: bleach, blue exorcist, Dragon Ball Z, Jako The Galactic Patrolman, naruto, nisekoi, One Piece, one punch man, toriko, world trigger

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: October 14, 2013

November 3, 2013 by Derek Bown Leave a Comment

October 14 CoverWould you believe me if I told you writing the introduction to my reviews is the hardest part? Well it is. When reviewing the actual chapters I have something to base my comments off of. But when actually writing an introduction I have to chose either something from the chapters to talk about, or just think of any random thing. And after doing a couple of reviews one tends to run out of things to say. So the clever writer will make a big deal about how he has nothing to say in an attempt to fill up the space with text that everybody skips over anyway. Thus he creates the illusion of having written a full review, with an introduction, middle, and conclusion, when in fact all he did was prattle on about how terrible a writer he actually is. And by making it a dense section of text he deters even those readers that read the entire review. Thus, the deception is cleverly put into action.

Only one thing could stop me now, if for example I wrote a second, shorter paragraph that is easier to read where I admit to the deception. Hence prompting readers to take a closer look at my first paragraph.

One Piece Ch. 724
Well, Sanji got beat like we expected, but at least he didn’t look like a complete clown. We already have two literal clowns in this series, we don’t need a formerly badass character joining their ranks. And while we had already figured out Doflamingo’s power we get the first official confirmation from Oda that his power is in fact string based. We also get an explanation of how he can “fly”. While I’d assumed that he could swing from his strings, it wasn’t clear how he was able to do that over the open sea. And it turns out that the way he does it would put Spider-Man to shame.

While Law declares the alliance broken, and it may be tempting to think he’s doing so out of his own convenience, keep in mind that he had a chance to denounce Luffy and his crew at a very convenient moment. Instead he stuck with them and I think that his intent is mostly to protect them. Partially because he doesn’t plan on living beyond this moment most likely, and he needs them to continue the plan, but I still think that a part of him has grown fond of the crew and wants to keep them safe. Now the question is, what exactly did Doflamingo do to Law thirteen years ago? Oda is too good a writer not to have it be connected to the Riku dynasty, if it were a separate even then the arc would be just that much clunkier. Chances are high that Law was a former member of the Riku dynasty.

One Piece

Seraph of the End Ch. 002
So our main character is being forced to attend high school in order to make friends? Because he doesn’t work well with a team? I’m not even going to bother learning his actual name, because I’m just going to be calling him Twilight Sparkle for the rest of this series’ life.

And is it just me, or does that seem really lazy of a military organization to send one of their operatives, no two of them actually, to a regular high school? Aren’t there team building exercises they could do within their own organization? Or are they so underfunded that they have to outsource to the local high school? And if the local high school has the funding to teach people about teamwork but these vampire hunters don’t, then how do they have the resources to fight vampires?

This might actually explain why they didn’t bother saving any of the children being held by vampires. I mean, obviously budget cuts were made and sacrifices were unavoidable. Why else would a group that clearly can take out vampires with ease not be flushing that underground city out?

But what really get me is that this series was sold to me as a post-apocalyptic vampire story. And what do we get? High School. Gosh darnit Japan you couldn’t help yourself? You just had to make it about High School somehow didn’t you? I think the phrase “having your cake and eating it” as nonsensical as it may be, applies here. I mean, really? We went from apocalypse vampires to High School setting within two chapters? That’s almost phenomenal really.

And the main drive of this chapter is made completely irrelevant by the end, when Twilight Sparkle makes a friend and qualifies for the elite vampire hunter unit. What do you want to bet this plot point never comes up again? In which case, wouldn’t it have been easier to just introduce his friend in a different way? There’s no good way around this. If the High School remains a plot point I’ll be pissed because it’s such generic garbage. If it never comes up again I’ll be pissed because this chapter wasted our time. Well done, Manga.

And for those of you that get the Twilight Sparkle reference, here’s another one for you:

Dear Princess Guren,

Today I learned that friendship is important, even if my new friend is clearly going to be the most annoying character in this series.

Oh yes, I also learned you should get bent.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

Naruto Ch. 650
I recall that at some point something happened in this chapter. But I can’t remember the details. I should probably write these reviews right after the chapters come out. Except I know for a fact that I wouldn’t remember any of it better then! All I can remember is this vague sense that nothing new was learned, rather something I’ve already known for years was emphasized. Which would be all good and fine, but I just can’t get over how little of an impact this series is leaving! On the plus side, thanks to the Shonen Jump Podcast I’ve learned that the war has been going on for 150 chapters. For the record, the war officially started with volume 55 of the manga. Which was published back in 2011. This has been going on for almost two years. For the record, the series is 651 chapters long. This war has taken up almost a whole sixth of the series. Even more if you consider that there was a 50 chapter lead in to the war. This makes me sad.

Naruto

World Trigger Ch. 034
While I’m still not a World Trigger fan I do enjoy Kitora as a character. She’s had some badass moments and this chapter actually had some funny moments. Sure it was a typical “This girl has a crush” trope, but Kitora’s reactions are so out of the ordinary that I can’t help but enjoy her. And the fact that she doesn’t turn Osamu in for not defeating the Neighbor he became B Rank for. Rather she just uses the information for her own validation. She’s glad her initial read of him was right. She doesn’t turn him in, which is what I would have expected from a character like her. Which is what makes her that much more enjoyable.

I also appreciated Chika’s scene at the end. It was amusing. And there is my biggest problem with this series. It has potential, and plenty of fun moments, but there are some major, major flaws that mask the good moments.

Bleach Ch. 552
This arc has done nothing but retcon the entire series. And in places where it doesn’t need it. We don’t need another reason for the Quincy to hate Hollows. The death of a family is a perfectly valid reason for someone to become villainous and vengeful. Just ask Kishimoto. And I have a problem with the statement that the death of family members isn’t enough to inspire the kind of hatred the Quincies have for Hollows. I beg to differ. If some kind of monster ghost killed my family I’d be enraged enough to destroy them all. Kubo is just complicating his series where it isn’t needed. And that alone is a massive shame.

One-Punch Man Ch. 029
Nice to see this series can expand its humor beyond “He’s strong.” Here the joke is “He’s completely out of place.” And sure a part of the joke is that all these elites are looking down on Saitama when he could beat them all. But if nothing else this chapter was great for world building. Nice to see all but two of the S Class heroes.

One-Punch Man

Nisekoi Ch. 094
While Haru wasn’t unbearable this chapter, I would have liked it a lot more had she not been the focus. Please stop trying to cram her down our throats Naoshi. You’ve got plenty of great characters, so please stop trying to force this one on us. The chapter was plenty enjoyable, but I just can’t get over the fact that the whole chapter was focused on a subpar character.

Toriko Ch. 253
While the backstory has been excellent, I don’t think it has built proper motivation for Midora. The motivation may be there but we don’t actually get to see the moment when Midora turns evil. It’s covered in one of the montages, but because we don’t actually get to see the moment it doesn’t have any kind of emotional impact on us. Considering that was the point of the backstory I can’t help but feel let down. At least we get an explanation for how Froese came back from the dead, and why her first picture in the manga showed her with long hair. Overall a good backstory, but a bit lacking towards the end.

Toriko

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 035
Don’t get me wrong, I like Dragon Ball. But what can I say beyond, “They fought and it’s fun to look at.” There really isn’t much else to it. At least right now.


While most of my comments are negative, I did enjoy this week. If nothing else One Piece was great, and Seraph of the End was the source of much hilarity. So tell me, two chapters in, what do you think of this new series?

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps Tagged With: bleach, blue exorcist, Dragon Ball Z, Jako The Galactic Patrolman, naruto, nisekoi, One Piece, one punch man, toriko, world trigger

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: October 7, 2013

October 27, 2013 by Derek Bown Leave a Comment

October 7 CoverIt’s always interesting to get a new series in Weekly Shonen Jump. Though in the case of monthly series the experience is altered a little bit. Rather than spending every week wondering if the series will get cancelled, we find ourselves not even considering that because there are already several months worth of chapters that have been published in Japan. But, as Cross Manage proved, just because something hasn’t been cancelled in Japan yet doesn’t mean a Western audience will like it, and vice versa. So let’s take a gander at the newest series and the rest of the issue.

Seraph of the End Ch. 1
If this magazine was aimed at adults there is no way a series like this would fly. And considering how many adults read the magazine (unless I’m the only one) then I can’t say this series will be very well received. Why? Because for starters the creepy overtones I got from the one vampire made me think we needed to get Chris Hansen on standby. Now there’s a manga idea, “Chris Hansen: Pedo-Vampire Slayer”. And then there’s the climax of the chapter where a baker’s dozen’s worth of children get massacred by one of the vampires. Now, if any of you didn’t feel uncomfortable during this segment then I must ask you to stay well away from my family.

The idea of children fighting vampires had potential, uncomfortable potential, but still potential. But that is immediately undermined when at the end of the chapter we discover that not all adults died. Only those in Japan apparently. So the first promise the series makes is already broken. I can’t say I hold high hopes for the rest of it.

Worst of all is the tonal shifts. I admit to not knowing many orphans, but I refuse to believe any of them could talk about how their parents died, often in horrible ways, with any kind of smile on their face. I call all kinds of bullshit on every single element of the main character’s backstory. This is a problem throughout the whole story, where we switch from typical shonen enthusiasm to incredibly dark events. It’s just that one scene in the orphanage encapsulates the entire problem. I know manga likes to make these kind of tonal jumps, but it doesn’t always work, and in this case it most definitely doesn’t work.

I’m probably being harsher than I need to be, but that tends to happen when I’m made to read the wholesale slaughter of a bunch of twelve and youngers. I may not have my own children, but I’m certainly at the point where I feel protective of those hobbit sized humans. So this was not the best way to endear a new manga to me.

Seraph of the End

One Piece Ch. 723
Oh One Piece, at least you only mentally scar your children instead of outright murdering them. Sadly there are only so many ways I can say this series is awesome without growing repetitive. Perhaps that’s why so many reviewers, and I myself, fall into the routine of writing bad reviews. But don’t think I’m trying to put a negative twist on a great series by trying to find some kind of fault with it. Even if that fault is me complaining about how I can’t find any fault with it. Okay so that may actually be me trying to do what I said I wasn’t doing. But can you blame me? Most of the time One Piece is so perfect and I’m such a fanboy that I’m probably the worst person to be analyzing it.

At least this chapter finally gives Sanji a chance to show his badass self. Even if we all know he’s going to get his butt kicked next chapter. But with plenty of comedy, and a great climax I have to say that One Piece is as amazing as ever. But when one always excels it becomes harder and harder to stand out. And I fear that One Piece has been at risk of this for the past couple years. We’re so used to expecting amazing things, and while One Piece has been amazing it feels like it hasn’t exceeded any expectations it’s just been meeting them. And as much as I love this series it feels like the chapters just continue to be amazing rather than wowing me like they did a couple years ago.

Naruto Ch. 649
Oh Naruto, you’re my favorite series that I don’t actually like. Why? Because I can find so many things wrong with every single chapter. Usually. Sometimes you just bore me and I can’t find the will to even bother complaining. This week I don’t have as much material, but there are a couple bones I feel the need to pick.

It constantly surprises me how big of a fanbase this manga continues to have, despite the fact that Kishimoto has shown himself incapable of writing characters beyond their base stereotypes. Such as several chapters ago when Ino showed that she’s just as terrible a character as she was at the start of the series. Maybe even more so. Don’t get me wrong, stereotypes can be very useful, very powerful tools. The thing is that when writing characters you need to expand beyond the initial stereotype, not constantly bring it back to that original stereotype without any further development. For example, when the Mizukage was introduced her gimmick was that she was an unmarried woman approaching middle age who just wanted to get married, and was very sensitive about the subject, to the point where she would make threats against people for the most innocent of comments. Not the most progressive portrayal but amusing enough. Any other writer would use that character trait as a bouncing off point towards character development. Maybe she would find a man, maybe she would realize that she didn’t need a man, maybe she’d realize she liked women instead. Or maybe she’d come to realize that real relationships take a lot of work but are ultimately more rewarding than the fairy tail romance she’d built up in her mind. But since this is a shonen action series and not a romantic comedy, that would never happen. So instead she’s the exact same character she was before. Why do I make such a big deal about this? Because with her comment about not being married this chapter I once again am reminded that Kishimoto does not write character traits, he writes gags that are confused as character traits. Rather than actually giving us any kind of satisfying development his characters stay in the same limbo they were at their introduction and we end up with nothing but a bunch of uninteresting characters cracking unfunny jokes.

Fortunately Shikamaru still has a semblance of a character and is actually undergoing some growth. And I’m not about to cry sexism since so many of the female characters remain unrealized, because Kiba shows us this chapter that he hasn’t developed in the slightest either. So yay, some semblance of equality, even if it’s equality in mediocrity.

Naruto

Bleach Ch. 551
You know, it doesn’t make villains any smarter when they point out the abject stupidity of the protagonists. The whole “You should have taught this skill to others” isn’t so much a keen villainous insight as it is an exercise in the basic mental faculties of any human being whose brain is still capable of breathing. And Nanao is supposed to be one of the smart ones! And here she didn’t consider that maybe, just maybe this ultimate barrier spell would be useful elsewhere as well. It’s really hard to root for the good guys when I’m too busy praying they don’t accidentally hurt themselves with the swords they’re carrying. The intelligence displayed by these characters would make me think twice before letting them have safety scissors let alone weapons.

And of course rather than building up the tension for a bit longer we discover that Urahara has a way to win back their bankai. Well isn’t that just convenient.

Bleach

Nisekoi Ch. 93
Whether you like this chapter depends entirely on what your views are in regards to female stereotypes. Are you the kind that becomes enraged when a girl worries about her weight? Possibly consider avoiding this chapter. Unless you like getting angry, like me. If you don’t mind it then read on. It’s plenty funny and plenty cute, but not the most outstanding chapter in this series. Though the punchline at the end of the chapter is well worth the chapter.

Toriko Ch. 252
The majority of this chapter is made up of small montages. While these are enjoyable enough I can’t help but feel like this is all something that needs to be expanded upon. And maybe if we were living a couple decades in the past we’d get a full flashback. But for now I guess I can just look forward to the anime expanding on everything that happened in this chapter.

Though I have one complaint. Under what circumstances is it realistic for a starving person to have the gall to ask for better food? I know there are some people out there with an amazing amount of gall, but the segment where Froese was feeding the hungry felt so unrealistic it dragged me out of the story. And I know, I know, there’s plenty of other more unbelievable things happening in this series. But for the most part they make sense in the context of the series. But what cannot be treated subjectively is how people act. Even in the most outlandish series there needs to be some sense that people still follow understandable human logic. And a starving person asking for better food just doesn’t make any sense.

Toriko

One-Punch Man Ch. 28
The one thing I really appreciated in this chapter was the end. Saitama getting promoted was all good and fine, but I’m glad to see that Mumen Rider made another appearance, possibly as a future friend and ally of Saitama. I’m partly glad that my earlier prediction was right, but for the most part I just think he’s a fun character that I hope we will get to see more of.

World Trigger Ch. 33
Well, at least this arc isn’t a straight up tournament just yet. By which I mean at least the candidates aren’t all just fighting each other. That would be cliche and boring. Too bad most of this chapter is spent explaining things with very little actual payoff. This series has been somewhat getting better, but it’s far from being any kind of favorite of mine. It’s just really dull, and I’m pretty enraged that the series is doing so well in Japan when better series have been cancelled. No, I don’t ever intend to let Cross Manage’s cancellation go.

Blue Exorcist Ch. 50
I have to give Blue Exorcist props for pulling off a character betrayal while retaining that character’s personality. It’s so easy to have an established character turn into a traitor and then completely change their personality, turning them into a total villain. Shima on the other hand is still the same person he was before, he just has different loyalties now.

Shiemi being a bad cook is a manga trope, but at least in her case it makes sense. Too often the joke is played as “Look at these people putting disparate ingredients into their food!” in a way that makes no sense whatsoever. Any intelligent human being knows that you don’t put curry powder in cookies! But rather than mix ingredients that clearly don’t go together Shiemi tries to make healthy food and ends up making it really bland. That works for me because it’s more realistic than mixing ingredients that clearly don’t belong. \

Dragonball Z Ch. 34
I must confess. Dragonball Z is not the most engaging manga to be writing about. Let’s just say Goku and Vegeta fought and leave it at that. Though, it is worth pointing out that this chapter we get to see the first part of Goku falling so in love with fighting that he makes terrible decisions in the future.


And that’s our reviews for the week. Some decent chapters, but nothing that really stood out. Though, once again, that might have something to do with my unreasonable expectations.

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps Tagged With: bleach, blue exorcist, Dragon Ball Z, Jako The Galactic Patrolman, naruto, nisekoi, One Piece, one punch man, toriko, world trigger

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: September 30, 2013

October 15, 2013 by Derek Bown 1 Comment

September 30 Cover PageAll I can say is, “Yowza” this was one heck of a week to be a manga fan. Even the series I don’t like didn’t do anything beyond continuing to be disappointments. It’s so rare to see everyone in top form that I can’t remember the last time this really happened. And, now this is the exciting part, we’re getting a new series next week. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a brand new series so I’m not even going to bother trying to guess since I don’t know what the most recent series are.

Huh, guess that isn’t a great thing to admit as a self proclaimed expert on shounen manga. Well then…

World Trigger Ch. 032
This chapter raised my “cancellation alarm” (Trademark). Not necessarily because it’s been dropping in rankings (which it hasn’t, I’ve given up trying to understand the Japanese readers), but rather because of the pacing. This time around we skip right forward to the Border recruitment tournament. I still think this is a terrible idea, but World Trigger has been doing pretty well the past couple weeks so maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised. But considering even seasoned writers have trouble making tournament arcs interesting I’m not holding my breath here.

World Trigger

Jaco The Galactic Patrolman Ch. 11
You don’t have to be a Dragon Ball fan to enjoy Jaco. But this chapter you really needed at least a working knowledge of that legendary manga series. I’m impressed that Toriyama kept all his references in the bag until the last chapter, and while I loved seeing how it all ties in to Dragon Ball I have to say it served the series overall a lot more by letting it stand on its own. I’d heard the rumors that Jaco was a Dragon Ball prequel, but even so the reveal was well done and exciting. I got chills when Jaco described the invading alien.

The one problem I have is that since Tights is revealed to be Bulma’s older sister we now have to wonder why she was never mentioned in the main series. Of course she was never mentioned because Toriyama hadn’t invented her yet. Which makes introducing a character with such a close relation to one of the main characters in the “sequel” series a tricky endeavor. Sure it can be fun, but we’re always left wondering after that, did Bulma just hate her sister? Is that why she never talked about her?

Speaking of which, why is Bulma so much more competent in one chapter, and as a five year old, than she ever was in Dragon Ball?

Nisekoi Ch. 092
Well, I called it. It’s not official, but all hints point towards another girl being introduced. On the one hand I trust Naoshi to get it right. On the other hand I don’t think another love interest is what Nisekoi needs right now. Maybe the next girl turns out to be the girl Rakku made his promise with, but she’s forgotten and ends up having the hots for Shu instead. Now THAT would be a twist.

Other than that I can’t say this chapter was all that great. There wasn’t that much comedy, and the focus was on just wrapping up this last arc and introducing a new twist into the plot. Though it did make me look up if children actually changed their eye color, which it turns out does happen but usually it goes from light to dark rather than the other way around.

One Piece Ch. 722
Some weeks I find myself with little to say because the manga I talk about has little substance. This week I’m having the opposite problem. I’ve got so much I want to say, but I can’t figure out how to say it without making this review three times the length it should be and half as coherent as it needs to be. I guess a chronological approach would be best, and while it isn’t my style to talk about everything that happens in a chapter I might have to make an exception this week.

First off, I loved seeing how Luffy’s beef with the people yelling at Rebecca because of what her grandfather allegedly did. And while I do think we can be trusted to remember that Luffy doesn’t like being judged for what his grandpa did without the need of their faces in the background, I love how this is one of those rare times that Luffy goes beyond his happy go luck persona and actually gets invested in someone’s backstory. Usually we never get to really see Luffy react to someone’s backstory, since he tends to either wander off or fall asleep. What this means about Rebecca’s future in the series I can’t comment, but when you consider that we didn’t get to see him react like this to say, Nami’s backstory, perhaps it might be significant?

Cavendish gets his moment in the sun, and while his character building isn’t as awesome as Bartolomeo’s he still gets enough added to his basic persona that he’s a lot more interesting than some main characters from other series that I could mention but won’t.

Zoro’s comment to Sanji when Violet comes back is priceless. And a sign of excellent writing, since it was set up months ago.

Brooke has been getting some great moments the past several arcs, to make up for missed chances before the crew was split up I imagine. This chapter also features the best skull joke I’ve seen out of the entire series.

And of course, Doflamingo’s reveal. While we knew the basic idea behind the founding of the world government, actually getting even a single page tease of what happened during the void century is enough to have me go into a fanboy frenzy. There was much flailing of arms after this chapter.

One Piece

Toriko Ch. 251
I couldn’t shake the strongest feeling of deja-vu this chapter. I don’t know why, but for some reason I swear I’ve seen this chapter before. Or something very similar to it. But, that aside, while there wasn’t much action this chapter I think I liked this one a lot more than most of the chapters I’ve read recently. I’ve got something for backstory, and seeing Acacia for the first time was brilliant. It’s also nice to see that Shimabukuro is feeling comfortable enough that he’s actually drawing more women.

Naruto Ch. 648
Sir Isaac Newton? What are you doing in Naruto? Wouldn’t it be amazing, if Naruto turns out to be a sequel to Vision of Escaflowne? All would be forgiven then.

I may love backstory, but I think Hashirama and the other Hokages are starting to outlive their welcome. I’ve said the same thing about the series as a whole, and this chapter really didn’t do anything to change my mind. But it wasn’t the worst chapter of Naruto I’ve ever read. But it didn’t really give me anything I haven’t seen before. What would it take to make me love Naruto again? Well, a complete 180 in the direction the manga is taking might be nice.

Naruto

One-Punch Man Ch. 027
This was easily the most heroic thing I’ve seen from any hero. Including most mainstream western superheroes. And even though it’s something as mundane as lying to protect others, the reaction from the crowd makes it all the more heroic, even if Saitama doesn’t actually care. Though the crowd is getting on my nerves. They make the people of Springfield seem reasonable. And what is it about even the most blatant parody of a Neet Otaku that pisses me off?

Bleach Ch. 550
So far so good. A bit formulaic, but at least Kubo is determined not to make the battle too easy for the Soul Reapers. But, because I feel Bleach still isn’t anywhere near where it was at its peak I can’t really lavish any praise beyond mentioning that it isn’t doing anything wrong. Which seems like poor praise for a series that used to be my favorite.

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 033
The best thing that ever happened to the character of Nappa was Dragon Ball Z Abridged. Still, coming back to the original version of the character is a bit disappointing. I still like Dragon Ball, I’m not the biggest fan, but each chapter is still very enjoyable. It’s just that right now the chapters are good, but without anything major that really needs to be discussed.


Aside from some great chapters, the big news is definitely the new series coming out next week. And while the Shonen Jump Podcast hinted at what it could be, I don’t think we have enough information to decide what it is. While it may be a brand new series, which currently running series would you like to see in WSJ?

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps Tagged With: bleach, blue exorcist, Dragon Ball Z, Jako The Galactic Patrolman, naruto, nisekoi, One Piece, one punch man, toriko, world trigger

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: September 23, 2013

October 1, 2013 by Derek Bown 1 Comment

Cover PageHey kids! Do you like rants!? You do? Well lucky you because we’ve got another classic comedy moment this week, all thanks to Kishimoto-sensei!

Fortunately everything else was actually okay otherwise I might have lost it this week.

Jaco The Galactic Patrolman Ch. 010
I was right about the rocket going down, not so much about Pants (or whatever her name is) dying. But I guess I should have expected as much, this is, after all, Toriyama, the man that figured out a way to kill every single one of his characters and bring them back anyway. I guess I was just hoping it would go a darker route. Still, with this being the second to last chapter of the series I still find myself more or less at a loss of what to say. I guess I enjoyed that the detective turned out to be reasonable, so at least we don’t have to worry about an irritatingly stubborn kind of antagonist. And I do admit that Jaco’s line at the end of the chapter was the best thing in existence. But, am I the only one that remembers there was supposed to be an upcoming alien invasion?

Naruto Ch. 647
For everything that Kishimoto does to make me maybe like Naruto again he then ruins it all with his awful sense of comedy. I’m almost speechless at how horrible his humor has gotten. What exactly was supposed to be funny about Karin’s scene? Here we had a decently tense scene and what does Kishimoto do? He brings his second worst character back and has her think something perverted. The world is about to be destroyed, this is no time for misplaced comedy. He keeps doing this too. Kishimoto used to be moderately funny, but it’s like he lost his mind. It’s almost like he became a father or something and lost all sense of humor. As all fathers inevitably do.

Is his editor not doing his job? Or is his sense of humor just as bad? At what point does any professional with a working brain think, “Hey, this tense moment? Let’s screw it up with bad comedy.” It probably wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t Karin, who has become a poster child for everything wrong with Kishimoto’s writing. She was the first girl to escape from the dreaded “Sasuke Crush Syndrome” and the first character who actually went from “Well this is a stereotypical waste of space” to a character I actually kind of admired for finally learning that Sasuke is a raving lunatic. So what does Kishimoto do with her? He goes on to show that apparently Sasuke is so irresistible that even his attempted murder victims can’t help but fall in love with him again.

Naruto

What is going through his mind that makes him think this is okay? Sasuke would be perfectly fine, if he were a completely different character, but how exactly are we supposed to take anything he does seriously when women are falling for him left and right and won’t leave him be even when he tries to murder them. This isn’t a well written character, it’s a stinking harem series protagonist.

The rest of the chapter doesn’t even matter, because all I could think about was how terrible Kishimoto writes Karin and how he apparently has lost all understanding of what humor is. Reading this series is like reading something written by a space alien. They clearly are trying really hard, but they just don’t understand humans and can’t properly represent them in writing.

Toriko Ch. 250
Well then. I guess it doesn’t count as cannibalism if you feed your young to pigs and then eat the pigs, rather than just eating the young yourself. I…wow…yeah…

What is up with Toriko and randomly getting far darker than a series with such a goofy premise has any place being. Granted, I loved Midora’s back-story, it’s certainly unique, but I can’t focus on anything but this image of babies being fed to pigs. I…jeez…

I do like the explanation for how Midora’s power works. It’s not a, “I have this power because.” It actually ties in to the ability he’s already displayed. Which is solid writing. Now if only I could get that image out of my head.

Toriko

One-Punch Man Ch. 26
This is turning out to be the goriest week for shonen manga. First we’ve got pigs eating babies, and now Genos pretty much must have lost all his biological components to that acid.

I appreciate Mummen Rider’s scene. It may be mimicking previous scenes from this arc, but in this case I think it works better because we got rid of any illusion that “determination will win the day”. It’s very clear he’s not going to win this under any circumstances. And yet he fights, and this makes him even more sympathetic. I can only hope that he becomes the third member of Saitama’s group. He just seems like he’d be a lot of fun.

One-Punch Man

World Trigger Ch. 031
Aaaand I’m starting to hate this series again. Sure there were some good moments, such as Director Shinoda’s declaration, and the fact that he’s apparently the only sane person there. But anytime Kido does anything I keep thinking, “Why hasn’t the board removed him from power? The man is obviously imbalanced, somebody impeach the guy before he blows up a town!”

Pretty much most of the problems this series has can be symbolized with a picture of Kido’s face. The guy is obviously an antagonist, but he’s in a position of authority in what is clearly a militaristic/corporate setting. Do we not think that Bill Gates would have been kicked off the board at Microsoft if he’d decided to send a hit squad after the Genius Bar in the local apple store? There are just some things that don’t work in the real world, and the more a story relates its events to the real world the fewer leaps of logic and plot holes there can be.

Nisekoi Ch. 091
Yeah, uh, amnesia does not work that way. I’m pretty sure you don’t forget everything from the time you had amnesia when you remember everything before that. Well, I guess it works to further confuse the readers about what exactly happened in the past. As long as this series goes back to being funny I won’t complain. For someone that prefers a different girl with Raku this kind of chapter can be tedious or frustrating. Speaking as someone that prefers most of the girls over Chitoge I have to say this wasn’t my favorite chapter. And yet, it’s not like those Ryoga/Akari chapters from back in the day when I was reading Ranma 1/2, in that I can actually tolerate Chitoge’s presence and even enjoy her most of the time. So kudos, Naoshi, you’ve created my least favorite character and yet you’re able to keep me from hating her. Not sure how you did it, but you did.

Nisekoi

Bleach Ch. 549
Dammit manga artists, stop murdering/maiming children! First we got Toriko and now we’ve got this chapter. I may not have my own kids, but I’m certainly old enough for any violence against children to make me very uncomfortable. So please, knock it off!

And what exactly is up with Soi Fon mastering the Shunko because she doesn’t have her bankai? She specifically said, the first time she used it, that she doesn’t like her bankai because it’s the exact opposite of how she likes to fight. How exactly would having her bankai to rely on keep her from training her preferred method of fighting when she never wants to rely on it in the first place? It’s like a fist fighter not practicing his best punch because he has a knife to rely on. Sure a knife is more powerful, but if he’s better with his fists and prefers using his fists why would having a knife keep him from practicing his punches?

I understand what Kubo is doing, he wants his characters to find new power without relying on their trump cards. But Soi Fon is not the character to do that with, because she never relied on her bankai in the first place. In fact, why was she one of the ones to pull out her bankai during the Quincy invasion?

At least the Quincy aren’t going down so easily. Sure I’d like to just get to the conclusion of this series, but I’d prefer if we do it right rather than rushing through everything. So for now I’ll sit here, judging every move Kubo makes as if he were a beginner. Because there is a point where an experienced creator starts getting lazy and making rookie mistakes. If he can avoid those we might actually remember this series fondly after all.

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 032
Well, Nappa’s served his purpose and now it’s time for the main event. Nappa may not have been a very interesting character, but I always feel a bit of regret that he didn’t stick around for longer. Vegeta is fun and all, but I would have loved to have all the three Saiyan characters stick around together. It could have been a wacky sitcom.

Though, to be fair, most of my wish to keep Nappa around revolves entirely around the DBZ Abridged version of his character.


Not a good week to be a manga child. Not sure where the sudden violence against children is coming from, but let’s hope it doesn’t repeat next week. Besides that, the chapters were mostly okay to not so great. There was still enough to enjoy, but more than a few series chose this week to show off their weaknesses.

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps Tagged With: bleach, blue exorcist, Dragon Ball Z, Jako The Galactic Patrolman, naruto, nisekoi, One Piece, one punch man, toriko, world trigger

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: September 16, 2013

September 22, 2013 by Derek Bown Leave a Comment

September 16 CoverIt’s a hard thing, to be set in an opinion and then be forced to change it. Why do you suppose there is so much resistance to all the social change we’ve gone through recently and historically. People are creatures of habit, and when they are set in their ways of hating a specific thing it will take a lot to break them out of their rut.

And no, I’m not talking about Naruto. Read on to find out what I’m on about.

One-Punch Man Ch. 25.2
It’s not hard to create a “cool” character. What is hard is creating a character that stays “cool” while getting his butt kicked. Granted, Genos gives as good as he gets (which is one of the secrets for maintaining a character’s cool image even in defeat), but he gets beat up pretty good and I think it’s clear that he won’t be the one to finish this fight.

What amazes me about this series is how much I’m enjoying it despite it being a fairly shallow premise. We don’t know much of anything about this threat, and yet it’s being played completely straight. The setup was literally just, “And then some monsters came out of the ocean.” Why are they invading? Who knows, but it’s awesome anyway. It’s the mark of a great series when I’m able to read it and notice the flaws but dismiss them because the rest is just so well done.

Bleach Ch. 548
Kubo has this odd habit of trying to make Omaeda, a character that was basically the butt of a joke, a sympathetic character. I’m not sure how to feel about that because I like my comedic characters and my dramatic characters kept separate. And yet, somehow it works for me. He’s not my favorite character, but I find that the tonal dissonance in how he’s written actually works in a strange way.

Hitsugaya, fan favorite that he is, actually has a pretty good fight this chapter. It may seem a bit short, and the “science” behind it is questionable at best, but I like to see more intellectual combat in my shonen action. I can only take so many “the strength of our friendship gives me power” climaxes without wanting to tear my hair out. It’s good to see Rangiku back in the series too. She was always a favorite of mine (not just for the reasons you may think), mostly because she’s another one of those gag characters who gets serious moments that work. For some reason. I’m not sure why, but somehow Kubo can pull it off.

Naruto Ch. 646
Methinks Kishimoto has been reading the Bible. And he’s managed to adapt the story of Genesis into his story without completely missing the point. Sure there aren’t very many tailed demons in christian canon, but at least the basics of the story are used in a way that is far more respectful of the source material than one tends to see in manga. It’s a shame that all it really does for the story is convolute the whole thing more than it needs to be.

I really can’t say anything but, “Why is this fight still going?” We finally see some progress with the Infinite Tsukoyomi being set up. But this all could have been done in a quarter of the time we’ve spent. I’m sticking it through because for some reason I’m still curious about how Naruto will end, but by this point I’m just looking for material to complain about online.

Naruto

One Piece Ch. 721
What!? A dead mother!? Such a thing has never been done in One Piece! Oda you edgy devil!

Sarcasm aside, I think One Piece has desensitized me to tragic backstories. Rebecca’s backstory is par for the course for One Piece. That of course means that it’s good, just not the best I’ve seen in this series. I do have some theories about the toy soldier and Ricky the gladiator. I’m pretty certain that one of them is her grandfather, and one of them is her father. I don’t know which of course, and it’s not like I’m going to be the only one to draw that conclusion from this chapter but I still feel like throwing that idea out there.

The idea that Rebecca is being forced to fight because of her family could explain why she fights in a scale-mail bikini. Doflamingo is probably forcing her to wear the outfit to humiliate her. Or Oda just likes drawing fanservice a lot more than he used to, but I like my explanation too.

One Piece

Nisekoi Ch. 090
It’s been a while since the mystery of Rakku and the girls’ past was brought up. And this chapter gives us more hints than we’ve gotten in a while, including the bombshell that Chitoge probably isn’t the girl that Rakku made a promise with. This doesn’t mean they won’t end together, and I’m still wary about the Love Hina route this story might take, but I’ve missed the wrenches Naoshi used to throw into the story.

The standout this chapter for expressions and reactions was definitely Ruri. Her face when the keys are brought out may be the more subtle of her expressions, but I loved it the most.

Jaco Ch. 009
Well, I was right about the rocket crashing. But I’m probably wrong about whatsherface dying. Oh well. Not much else to really comment on this chapter, except that Jaco revealing himself is a bit surprising. The plot really started moving after several chapters that felt far too slow. I guess we really do only have a couple chapters left. We’ll see how things go.

Toriko Ch. 249
What I love most about Toriko is that Shimabukuro takes the time to actually think through the implications of the powers he comes up with. Of course making abnormal movements of cells the norm would wreak havoc on the automatic processes of the body. Fortunately Midora isn’t going down as easily as we thought, and the fact that he can keep up with Ichiryu promises yet another grand fight. The pacing was a bit off this arc, but as of late it’s been moving along quite nicely, switching between scenes where needed. I expect this fight will be a couple more chapters. Hopefully it won’t overstay its welcome like Toriko’s fight.

World Trigger Ch. 030
Yes. I didn’t hate this chapter of World Trigger. And this is the first time that I not only didn’t find anything to complain about, I actually was able to look at the chapter without prejudice. It’s still not a great manga, but the fight was competent. And that alone is promising. I give credit where due, and the fight in this chapter was well paced and well thought out. Kitora is definitely turning out to be one of my favorite characters for this series.

World Trigger

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 031
I really wish we knew more about Saiyan society. This chapter hints a bit at it, with Nappa mentioning being nobility. There’s so much more I’d like to know about the Saiyans, but I already know we won’t be learning much more from the manga. And even the anime doesn’t go that into depth.


This was a good week. The chapters were, for the most part, enjoyable. At the very least the good outweighed the bad by a considerable margin. I think, as usual, One Piece was my definite favorite this week. But World Trigger showed the most improvement, so I’m definitely open to the idea of not hating it.

Which was your favorite this week?

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps Tagged With: bleach, blue exorcist, Dragon Ball Z, Jako The Galactic Patrolman, naruto, nisekoi, One Piece, one-punc man, toriko, world trigger

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: September 9, 2013

September 18, 2013 by Derek Bown 6 Comments

September 9 CoverIt’s strange, even though I haven’t really been missing Bleach, seeing it back in the lineup makes everything feel right again. I think we’ve gotten a glimpse of what life will be like post-big three, and I must say, I don’t care for it. What will I do without the top three most popular shonen manga to either love or hate? What will my life become? These are all things worth considering, leave your survival strategies in the comment section. But for now, let’s talk about the manga itself.

Bleach Ch. 547
Well, Bleach is back. Can’t say I really missed it all that much, even though my manga reading life did feel a bit emptier without it. Bleach, and Naruto, and I have a bit of an abusive relationship. They give me nothing but pain and I just can’t quit them. Bleach has the upper hand in that it hasn’t actually done anything to hurt me, rather it’s like being in a relationship that you’ve grown tired of, but you aren’t ready to quit because your partner still knows how to function like a human being and hasn’t done anything to royally piss you off.

Sure there’s some misplaced comedy, and the idea that the Quincy were hiding in Soul Society all along is pretty ludicrous, but whatever. At least Bleach doesn’t force characters I hate down my throat. Rather it forces characters I don’t care about down my throat. Which is still annoying, but not as rage inducing as what other series I’ve read do.

One matter of note is that having gotten another good look at Ichigo’s sword I have to wonder why Kubo keeps designing swords that look like they would be incredibly uncomfortable to use. His swords don’t even have hilts, they’re just pieces of the blade that happen not to be sharp. But they still have edges that look like they would dig into your skin quite painfully after a while.

Bleach

World Trigger Ch. 029
Anytime I find myself thinking, “This chapter of World Trigger wasn’t so bad” I have to remind myself that it’s taken twenty nine chapters to do what most series would do in one or two. The “moderately interested” stage of manga reading should not take several months to kick in. So, even when it gets a little bit interesting I remember that World Trigger took forever just to be competent. That doesn’t bode well for any actual future enjoyment.

To be fair, this chapter, on its own, was enjoyable. A lot of my hatred for this series stems from the fact that I apparently have a hard time letting go of grudges. At best all I can say about World Trigger is what I’m saying about this chapter, “It wasn’t awful, but I’m not expecting anything from this series.”

One Piece Ch. 720
Eiichiro Oda is a master of a character writing style that I started practicing a couple years ago. The method involves taking character archetypes and stereotypes and then adding a contradictory element to them. I haven’t exactly mastered it yet, but Oda is the writer I look up to most for this method after this chapter. Already Bartolomeo was a fun character, but to find out that he’s a massive Luffy fanboy just made him shoot up in my One Piece character rankings.

Rebecca was less impressive, she does reveal more of the underlying backstory for this arc, but as far as characters go she follows the vein of most women in One Piece that aren’t main characters. She’s not a bad character, but she’s not very interesting. The fact that she spends most of the time almost completely naked (I refuse to consider that outfit actual clothing) would be a good foil to build upon, after all the scantily clad female warrior is a trope in and of itself. But taking that archetype and making her just a normal One Piece girl doesn’t quite do it for me. I’m open to being surprised, after all One Piece is nothing if not surprising, but for the moment I’m not a huge fan of Nami 5.0…I mean Rebecca.

One Piece

Toriko Ch. 248
What sets Toriko apart from most other battle series is Shimabukuro’s willingness to use real science/theories in his fantasy world. After amping them up to one million of course. Maybe the Square Root Law is a real theory (don’t ask me, I don’t do statistics), but I’m pretty sure we can’t use the ten percent abnormal movement of our cells to fly. But it can be done in manga, and that’s why I love manga so much. It doesn’t have to follow normal rules like other forms of fiction do. It can do what it wants, when it wants. It’s a sign of how clever the whole idea is that I ignore the man with the giant tongue to talk about it.

Naruto Ch. 645
As I’m writing this I have to go back and reread chapters to remember what happened. I don’t need to do that with Naruto because I know for a fact it won’t make any more sense the second time around. Here’s the problem with Naruto right now. It isn’t even that Sasuke is in the story. It’s that things are happening. But none of them carry any weight. The scale has gotten so ludicrously large that any escalation leaves me cold. Sure my attitude is influenced by past chapters, but it really is a problem that this series has gotten to the point where nothing that happens will be seen as important. A formerly somewhat important character dies? Who cares, it was only Neji, we’ve all forgotten about that now.

Please, Kishimoto, just finish this so we can see Naruto and Sasuke have their final battle. And please, stop it with the inappropriate comedy. You stopped being funny years ago.

One-Punch Man Ch. 025
There wasn’t any comedy this chapter, and it’s a sign of how talented these creators are that a series based on a single gag has grown so much. The action is amazing in this chapter, and the rising conflict is exactly what I expect from an action series. It’s a shame that a comedy series is doing a better job of it than certain action series are.

Then again, plenty of action series are trying and failing at comedy while this comedy series is trying and succeeding at action. Huh.

One-Punch Man

Jaco The Galactic Patrolman Ch. 008
Now this chapter I liked. Granted it was because I was reading a lot more tension into it than was actually there, with the possibility of “insert article of clothing name here” dying during the rocket launch. But beyond that I can’t say I’m a huge fan of this series. I’ve heard rumors of this actually being a prequel of Dragon Ball, which honestly makes no sense since the overall level of technology in this series seems a bit higher than it did in Dragon Ball. Though I could be remembering things wrong. Either way, I’m hoping things turn out the way I expect since that will help raise this series’ stock in my opinion.

Blue Exorcist Ch. 049
Methinks someone is taking some liberties with Hebraic/Christian mythology. I know this may come as a shock, considering this is a manga we’re talking about, which tend to usually be so faithful to the source material they are cribbing from, but I’m getting the sneaking feeling that the author only knows a bunch of names of demons without knowing who they actually are. Wondering what I’m talking about? Well, for one, suddenly Mephisto is also Samael, but most egregiously, Lucifer and Satan are now different characters. To put that into perspective for those of you that weren’t dragged to Sunday School every week, and then didn’t spend a chunk of University researching the Hebraic roots upon which most Christian mythology is built upon, Lucifer and Satan are the same person. Lucifer, the Prince of Light, was Satan’s pre-fall identity. And Samael is an early name given to Satan in Hebraic lore. While Mephistopheles is highly suggested to be yet another name given to Satan. So it’s three different people, all of which are actually supposed to be the same person.

Blue Exorcist

As for the material in this chapter itself. It was okay I guess, but I’m a little peeved that we’re entering a rescue arc. Nothing wrong with rescue arcs per-say. But it’s still been incredibly overused. It’ll take a couple decades of nobody ever using a rescue arc again for me to not immediately say “Oh jeez, not another rescue arc.”

Nisekoi Ch. 089
Amnesia is a tired old trope. But I like what Nisekoi is doing with it here. We get to see a wrench thrown into the usual antics of the characters, and we’re getting the promise that this arc we’ll get more of the past. The series is still funny, though there are some latent issues slipping in here and there. Mostly with Rakku’s reaction to Tsugumi pulling a gun on him. “Girls shouldn’t use guns”? Yeah, that’s a can of worms I don’t think should be opened. But, latent sexism aside, this series continues to be funny, just in a slightly more haremy way than I was hoping for.

Nisekoi

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 030
So the line was “Over 8000” all along? My whole life is a lie! Anyone know what the proper number is, because I’m really curious now. My theory is that 8000 is the original number, but that the english anime changed it to 9000 to avoid the consonant sound at the end of eight and make the line flow better. Still, we’re coming to the Goku and Vegeta fight soon, which should be plenty fun.


I hope we get a new series in WSJ soon, because at the moment it feels like most of what we get is getting a bit stale. I’m hoping for another Cross Manage or another Barrage, only this time I hope for a series that actually sticks around. What do you think the new series should be? Action? Adventure? Romance? Comedy? Or a bit of everything?

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps Tagged With: bleach, blue exorcist, Dragon Ball Z, Jako The Galactic Patrolman, naruto, nisekoi, One Piece, toriko, world trigger

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: July 22 – September 2, 2013

September 15, 2013 by Derek Bown Leave a Comment

July 2 CoverWell, it’s been a while. I have to apologize for my long silence. Personal circumstances and a stressful stretch of months at work made it very difficult to get anything done outside of waking up, going to work, coming home, playing video games until I pass out, and then waking up to start it all over again. Now, to some that second to last part might sound like I was just being lazy. And yes, there was a certain element of laziness involved. But it was less motivated by being a slacker, rather it was because nine to eight hours a day working customer service will drain the desire to do anything, even something you enjoy, out of anyone.

But, with no real change in my situation in sight, rather than just give up, I’m going to just suck it up and pick back up where I left off. I love writing about manga, and if I don’t share my opinions here, then where else can I go that people will actually listen when I go off on an incoherent rant about Naruto, Bleach, and World Trigger?

Obviously covering the past month plus in detail would take too long. So instead I’m going to give a quick recap of what I’ve thought of the past few weeks of manga before getting back to producing this column at a weekly rate.

And because the order in which the chapters are posted changes from week to week, I will be posting my comments about each series in the order that I feel like talking about them. So, essentially it’ll be organized by what I liked most to what I liked least.

Cross Manage
It’s been a while so I can’t be certain, but I do believe I forgot to cover Cross Manage‘s final chapter. Astute readers may notice a correlation between the end of this manga and when I went on my extended hiatus. And yes, I would say that the two are connected. I really did fall in love with this series, and really do think it could have gone much further than it did. Sadly it would appear that the readers of Japan did not agree with me. And while this may just be a pipe dream, I hope that in the future our votes will matter in regards to which series will get cancelled. But, even if that does happen in the distant future, it won’t be enough to save this series.

Since it has been long enough since this series was cancelled, and my initial rage has subsided to a certain extent, I feel that now I can talk about this final chapter without making veiled and overt threats towards the Japanese readers for letting this series get cancelled.

And, like I had been saying, the ending really was satisfying. Sure there were some elements that didn’t get resolved, but it ended well by foregoing the “See, this is what you could have had route” that so many passive aggressive manga artists seem to go when their series is cancelled prematurely. As Viz brings out the digital volumes I’ll be reading the series again, so that I can at least enjoy one of the only sports manga I ever liked.

I know it’s a bit late, but please, I want to know how everyone else felt about this manga ending. Also, I feel it’s relevant to point out that I think there are certain series that have been going on for years with established fanbases that are making the rankings system extremely unfair towards new series. We know One Piece and Naruto are going to stick around, so why should anyone be voting for them? I say we need to take those series out of the voting pool, they will keep going no matter what, and open up the floor for new manga to get some votes. After all, beating series like One Piece, Toriko, Bleach, and Naruto is an insanely unfair requirement for new series.

Strong World Color Spread

One Piece
While I’ve been losing a good deal of my enthusiasm for Weekly Shonen Jump since the cancellation of Cross Manage, at least One Piece has been there for me all along (not counting those couple of weeks hiatus due to health reasons). And while the story has been great, with this last week revealing the nature of Don Chin Jao’s gripe against Garp in the most ludicrous way, I think events relating to Oda’s life have been far more significant. With his health issues it’s become clear that fans don’t mind Oda taking some time off. After all, if we have to go a couple weeks without new manga so that the series actually keeps going then that’s a small price to pay. It’s also helped to remind us that while a manga-ka’s schedule is insane and inhumanely punishing, the editors are also human and want their artists to stay healthy, as shown by how they’ve been insisting Oda take it easier and actually take scheduled breaks even after a month long hiatus.

While we love having weekly manga, I think the grueling schedule manga artists go through to provide us with manga is worth discussing. It makes the issue of piracy even more relevant, considering that so many of us are willing to take what they’re sacrificing their lives for for free. And granted there is distribution to keep in mind, after all how can one get manga that isn’t being officially translated, I think what we really need to do is spread the word about this magazine so that we not only get more series in this magazine, but so that other companies make it worth their while to start emulating Viz.

One Piece

Toriko
Toriko the past couple weeks has shown that I may not be the biggest fan of our protagonist. He’s not awful, but compared to all the other characters I can’t help but feel like Toriko is a bit…dull. This series is the definition of Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, so it’s a shame when the protagonist feels a bit samey with all the other protagonists in manga. Still, everything else has been amazing in that silly Toriko way. The power levels of the players keep ramping up in ways that sometimes make absolutely no sense but I’m inclined to forgive it because this series just does ridiculous so well.

Nisekoi
Nisekoi has been a bit hit and miss over the past month or so. I’ve been enjoying it, but some chapters were weaker than others. I particularly haven’t been a fan of the Haru heavy chapters, but there have been some great ones. The teacher leaving her job after getting married was problematic for me, but you can always listen to the podcast as to why I thought that. The most recent chapters get into the old amnesia shtick, but I find that it’s working so far if for no other reason that it’s being used to hang a lamp shade on harem series tropes. Particularly the unspoken reality that most harem protagonists would be considered scumbags in real life.

Nisekoi

One-Punch Man
The amazing thing about One-Punch Man is that it goes beyond just being funny. It has great action, and great characters. Sure Saitama is pretty one note, but he’s entertaining enough and the side characters, even brand new ones, get some pretty great moments to shine. I won’t lie, the Puri Puri Prisoner character is problematic in how it shows that Japan apparently has a ways to go in their social rights issues. Though it does make me chuckle to compare how most gays are portrayed in our media versus how they are portrayed in manga. Let’s just say that at least gays in our media aren’t being threatened with arrest for hitting on other men.

One-Punch Man

Bleach
Bleach has been off for most of the time that I’ve been gone. And no, this is not a case of correlation. I honestly could care less about this series as it is now. We’ll see where things go when it picks back up this week, but all that really needs to be said now is that this series has been dull for far too long. It better pick up with this finale, and I hope that Kubo is able to resolve things in a way that satisfies everyone. And if that isn’t possible than I at least hope he resolves everything in a way that satisfies me specifically.

Dragon Ball Z
Dragon Ball Z may not be the most sophisticated manga out there, but I can’t help but love its old fashioned simplicity. Sometimes all we need is a little punching and characters yelling out their attack names. Without all the extra complications. Granted Dragon Ball Z is hardly my favorite manga, but I really do enjoy reading these old chapters again.

Blue Exorcist
I love a good “traitor revealed” moment. And then I start questioning whether it actually makes sense. A month is a long time for me to suspend my disbelief, but we’ll see whether it actually makes sense this coming chapter. My best guess is that it’ll be a red herring. Or maybe I’m wrong and Blue Exorcist is about to be shaken up real well. Which would be really well done, considering that Kato was distracting us with the Rin, Yuki, and Shiemi triangle.

Naruto
I don’t like Naruto. I really don’t. And with so many other series to go over I don’t think it’s worth my time to list exactly why this series has been pissing me off of late. But don’t worry, we’ll go back to our regularly scheduled rants with this coming week.

Naruto

Jaco the Galactic Patrolman
Toriyama keeps saying that we probably won’t enjoy this since it doesn’t have the stuff he usually puts into his manga. And I keep saying that I agree with that statement. Jaco is a fun enough diversion, but hardly a work of art. But, considering how harmless it is I don’t see why I should waste any time complaining about things the author would probably just agree with anyway.

World Trigger
I hate this series for one reason and one reason only. It’s dull, it’s predictable, the characters are getting on my nerves. But the one reason is that I feel like this manga artist is wasting their time. So many better series have been cancelled, and this lousy series can’t be bothered to actually make an effort to stop sucking. And even when it does try to get some kind of direction it’s in a direction that was overused a decade ago. And even the fight scenes, while competent at places, spend most of the time being dull. It infuriates me that this series is still going when I can think of at least two that have been published in this magazine alone that should have kept going.


And that catches us up. Look forward to more consistent releases as I put my big boy pants on and actually get stuff done despite my work schedule.

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps Tagged With: bleach, blue exorcist, Cross Manage, Dragon Ball Z, Jako The Galactic Patrolman, naruto, nisekoi, One Piece, toriko, world trigger

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: July 1-15, 2013

July 22, 2013 by Derek Bown 1 Comment

July 15 CoverIn case it hasn’t become painfully obvious, my writing time is currently dependent on how busy work is. For the foreseeable future I’ll have to write these as a bi-weekly or tri-weekly column. It all depends on how things go at work during the week.

One Piece Ch. 712-714
Oh Sanji. Sanji, Sanji, Sanji. You used to be so cool? What happened man? Now you’re just the butt of jokes; sure I laugh at those jokes every time, and maybe a little part of me thinks it’s karma for your womanizing ways, but even I wish for a return to the Mr Prince times. Still, you manage to shine a little bit, but only after Violet looks into your mind and is horrified by what she sees. And considering she can read minds I imagine she’s seen some pretty perverted stuff. And somehow your sincerity brings her over to your side. I’m not sure if you’re really smooth or you just got lucky for once in your life.

What’s been great about One Piece these past few weeks is how much ground has been covered in the story. Splitting focus between multiple story lines is not an easy task, and most manga authors avoid it as much as possible. And yet, somehow Oda manages to do it not just chapter by chapter, but page by page in each individual chapter. He even manages to bring back old characters like Noland. And astute readers, such as the gentlemen at the One Piece Podcast, will notice that the seeds for the current arc were planted even so far back as the Skypiea arc. And there’s really nothing quite like one chapter ending with possibly one of the funniest faces in One Piece, and another ending with one of the many “most epic One Piece moments.” Luffy punches out a giant, what more do you want from your manga? (Please leave all answers to that question in the comments section.)

One Piece

Naruto Ch. 636-638
I’ve found that a lot of my time commenting on Naruto is spent referencing all the terrible stuff that has happened before the chapters in question. And in a way that is supremely unfair. After all, I dislike being judged for the deeds of my ancestors, so who am I to hold what came before against the most recent chapters?

Is what I’d love to say, but let’s be honest here. Once burned twice shy, and this manga has burned me multiple times. So already it’s impossible for me to really get invested in anything that happens in this series, because I know full well how bad things can get in this series. And even if I am able, with the most supreme of efforts, to forget everything I’ve disliked about this series in the past, I still find the recent chapters dull and uninspired. I could talk about specifics, but why bother? Everything is summed up in the most recent chapter; a chapter so rote and by the numbers that I’m amazed it was penned by the author of one of the most popular manga in the world. So the big event this most recent chapter was based on? The villain gets stronger. Shock and awe! I’ve never seen this exact scenario played out even as far back as say…JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (and even before that). “But wait,” you might say, you hypothetical reader, “It’s not about the events, it’s about how they are portrayed. After all, originality died a long time ago. To really be great one must do what’s done before but do it better, or in a slightly different way.” Unfortunately neither of those happen. The reveal that Obito is now more powerful is as generic as it can get. I honestly think this series should have ended a long time ago, it’s just being stretched for time because someone in Shonen Jump is afraid of what will happen if Naruto ends at the same time Bleach is wrapping up. Well, I can tell you something that’s worse than this hypothetical eventuality, what we’re getting right now. There is nothing worse than a creatively bankrupt piece of art. Of course it’s impossible to separate manga from their commercial nature, but there is room to allow for decisions motivated by artistic integrity rather than a business committee. Ultimately consumers will react to great art, it’s just unfortunate that turning out a bunch of garbage and some good stuff is more economically sound.

One-Punch Man Ch. 021-023
Thanks goodness for series where sometimes the artist just decides, “Forget actually having a story, I’m going to spend an entire chapter drawing each and every exact motion my characters are making.” Sure it may not make for the longest read, and sure it may mean we get less story than in a chapter of Bleach, but the last thing I feel like doing is criticising the one shonen/seinen manga that is trying something different. Are some of these chapters a pain to read on a phone? Most definitely, but when I get around to reading them on my computer there is nothing better than how meticulously Murata captures motion in his art.

One-Punch Man

Toriko Ch. 239-241
There’s a stark difference when we move from Toriko and Starjun’s fight to the events in the coliseum. I may love Toriko, but he is not necessarily as interesting as pretty much every other character in this series. It’s when we focus on the next big reveal that this series really shows its strength. And of course, after a brutal two chapters, where the lines of reality and fantasy are blurred (though I could have sworn they were blurred long ago, Toriko is confusing when it comes to what is a physical manifestation and what is a metaphysical representation of a concept), we get a reveal that Shimabukuro knows how to draw women. After years of nothing but butch men and mostly butch women I’m amazed to see that Shimabukuro has finally gone outside his comfort zone and drawn a conventionally attractive woman. Though this latest reveal, that Froese was a woman, has shown a possible trend. I’ve been noticing that a lot of the cooks paired with gourmet hunters tend to be women, once again casting doubt as to what Komatsu’s gender was originally meant to be, or if perhaps there’s some gender role commentary going on here.

Toriko

Cross Manage Ch. 039-041
Cross Manage has managed a three week streak (not counting the weeks before of course) of absolute excellence. And now, with the end of the big game upon us, I find myself still wondering whether this series will be ending soon or not. Had they won I would have considered that the final nail in the coffin. After all, who ends a sports manga with the heroes losing to their big rivals? Possibly a genius, because the fact that they lost the game doesn’t mean that there will ever be a rematch. Whatever comes next, even if this series meets an early end, it has been handled so well that I’m certain whatever comes next, and however this series ends, it will be perfectly satisfying. I’ll still be enraged that the youth of Japan are incapable of recognizing true quality, but I’ll try my hardest to convince myself that this series has done everything it set out to do.

World Trigger Ch. 020-022
So we finally learn something about Yuma. Finally we get to see his back story. Keep in mind that for twenty chapters he’s more or less been the focus and we know nothing about him or his goals. And here we are twenty chapters in and we don’t exactly have a goal, but the author has admitted that he needs a goal. Too bad that goal he finally decides on is awful. And not just awful, awfully derivative. I won’t say that someone dipped into someone else’s creative well, but I have to say, this whole concept of a three man team competing against other three man teams to rise in the ranks of their organization sounds awfully familiar. I know I may be coming across as being impossible to please, but when we go from having absolutely not direction to having terrible direction then I have to put my foot down. This idea of a tournament, which is already a terrible idea no matter who writes it (minor exceptions apply), but for a series so early on to suddenly jump into a tournament is absolute lunacy. And if nothing else this series feels like its wasting the golden chance it’s been given. Shonen Jump is not an easy magazine to get into or stay inside. You’d think that anyone who finally manages to work their foot into the door would realize how lucky they are and not waste their time throwing the laziest tropes in the game at us.

What makes it worse is that there is some legitimately entertaining character work in chapter twenty two. There’s definite skill going into this manga, that skill just isn’t being applied where it should be. And even though I enjoyed the latter half of chapter twenty two, it doesn’t undo the rage I felt reading the first couple pages.

Nisekoi Ch. 080-082
Nisekoi continues to be funny, though the addition of fanservice in two of the three chapters these last three weeks makes this a bit of an uncomfortable set of chapters to read for older fans. Of course, they’re not real characters blah, blah, but yegads it feels so weird reading a series where one is reminded that the target audience is considerably younger. Not like that’s ever stopped me from enjoying a comic or cartoon before, but one does not like to be reminded of one’s age. Good thing the fanservice is not the only reason for these chapters. They also happen to be just as funny as any of the chapters preceding them. And in some cases they are even funnier.

Bleach Ch. 543-545
Sometimes I feel like a failure of a reviewer when I read Bleach and, when I try to actually review it, I can’t remember what happened. Well, after I blame the manga for that and not myself, I strain and I strain and I manage to remember a little bit of what happened these last three weeks. Mostly questions. Questions that I can’t help but ask. Such as, “If this woman brutally murders hot guys instead of having sex with them, why hasn’t anyone realized that maybe her room is the last place any horny guy should be going?” Is nobody in this army asking what’s happened to Private Hans? Isn’t there a commanding officer of some kind that might wonder what happened? No role call? Anything? Not even rumors about the crazy woman calling men to her room and then they never appear? Seems like the kind of gossip the new recruits would need to hear about. Just because WE didn’t know about her habits, doesn’t mean the entirety of the Bleach universe does not know. Things can exist before we see them. Some might even say that in order to write a good story one MUST do this.

It just goes to show, how little Kubo cares about his human characters, when it took me a couple seconds to realize the strange guy asking about Ichigo was Keigo. Maybe a smaller cast for your next project, Kubo-sensei? Something a little more manageable perhaps? Or you could do as Toriyama did and do professional character design for a while.

Bleach

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 022-024
Good old Dragon Ball Z. Sometimes all it takes is some mindless action to cool down after a long day of raging and commenting on other manga. Just this once, I think I won’t bother commenting on these chapters, and instead just let the good old action tropes of the past soothe my soul.

Blue Exorcist Ch. 047
But not for too long. We’ve got one of our monthlies to talk about. Of which I will say this, it’s amazing how enjoyable a series can become when one abandons the discipline of shipping. In the past perhaps I would have raged about the lack of any satisfying romantic development. But instead I will just enjoy the cute moment between friends and siblings, and the fact that this chapter reminds me of how importance friendship is. Sure romance is good and all, but not at the cost of other relationships. Love triangles may be fun and all (for some, I hate them myself), but sometimes it’s better to just focus on what really matters.

Jaco The Galactic Patrolman Ch. 001
It’s amazing how an old veteran can come on to the scene and show all the rookies how a first chapter should be written. Our characters have been introduced, and we’ve gotten two sources of conflict and plot. One of our main characters has a goal, and the other has been exposed to the variables he needs to determine his own goal. Will he work to save the world, or let Jaco destroy it? Considering that the character in question is a grumpy old man, I can’t say which way he’ll decide. Sure the humor may fall flat at some points, but Toriyama himself says some people are either too young or too not-Japanese to get it. And I’m perfectly happy with that, all I need is a first chapter that actually does what a first chapter should do. Take notes, World Trigger.


If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives. Or go directly to the last few episodes, Episode 054 – July 1, 2013 – The Portrayal of Overweight People in Manga | Fairy Tail Vol. 9 and Episode 055 – July 8, 2013 – The Top Five Old People in Manga | Fairy Tail Vol. 10.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps Tagged With: bleach, blue exorcist, Cross Manage, Dragon Ball Z, Jako The Galactic Patrolman, naruto, nisekoi, One Piece, toriko, world trigger

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: June 24, 2013

July 1, 2013 by Derek Bown 4 Comments

WSJ June 24 TitleA bit late, but not three weeks late. I count that as progress. What I don’t count as progress, or at least not major progress, is the headliner chapter for this week’s issue. But, let’s dive straight into it shall we?

Naruto Ch. 635
I’m a bit conflicted about this week’s chapter of Naruto. On the one hand it’s good for the story that this isn’t Sasuke’s ultimate redemption. One of the biggest promises made by the series was that in the end Naruto and Sasuke would have a final showdown. It’s hard to do that satisfactorily if Sasuke were redeemed the way we thought he had been. At the same time I’m glad that Sakura hasn’t fallen back into her old habits with the return of Sasuke. The fact that she’s clearly lying to herself about being glad that he’s back is interesting, and promising for her character development, something that I’ve felt has been missing from this series for the past several years.

On the other hand, this chapter isn’t all that great. It’s confusing, some of the art is just weird, and the mood shift is so drastic I tend to focus on that more than I do on how promising these developments are for the series as a whole. If I had anything to say about Naruto—and I do in fact have a lot to say about it, but if we were to narrow what I was to say down to one thing—it would be that this series has been clumsy. It’s been clumsy for many years, ever since the start of the Kage summit.

In the early years this was a great series, but it didn’t take long for certain problems to start cropping up. The series was still enjoyable all the way past the timeskip, and even beyond the timeskip in places. But the attack of Pein against Konoha, and the disappointing way that Kishimoto handled characters like Hinata (which has not been redeemed in the slightest by these past few chapters) were monumental in forming my decision that this series isn’t that great. And that’s not to speak of the years wasted following Sasuke as he does absolutely no growing and all his powers are just given to him by virtue of his ancestry and by necessity of the plot.

But these past few years, and I do mean years, that we’ve been focusing on the Ninja War have been atrocious. Even when the focus is put on characters I want to read more about, it’s been done so clumsily that I can’t see anything this series does as just another bid for time. We all know Naruto won’t be cancelled. Kishimoto knows this, and judging by the quality of his manga at the moment I’d say that while he has an ending in mind he’s stretching it as far as possible. Why? I can’t say. But I’ve got the sneaking suspicion that somewhere in the line, whether it be Kishimoto himself or the editorial department, someone has been sacrificing quality in favor of more money. After all, they’re clearly scared about Bleach and Naruto ending. With two of the big three gone and only one replacement, what does their magazine have? And thus they sacrifice quality and we’re left with manga that we used to know and love but now wish would just go away.

It’s kind of like The Simpsons in that regard.

Oh, and let’s not forget the infantile character interaction between Karin, Suigetsu, and Orochimaru. I think I don’t even need to comment on that one, it speaks for itself. But I will say that I think Kishimoto has either lost his sense of humor or is writing to a much lower age group than he thinks he actually is.

Naruto

One-Punch Man Ch. 020.2
I absolutely love the way Murata draws gadgets in this series. First it was Sonic’s exploding Shuriken, and now it’s Golden Ball’s slingshot. He keeps drawing things that I really, really want. With this chapter we get a look into what the monsters as well as the heroes think about Saitama’s neighborhood. Nobody quite knows what’s going on, but he’s risen to the level of an urban legend. And somehow, even though we know Saitama is the good guy, even though most of the time he’s drawn so plainly, somehow he still manages to be the focus of the most terrifying panel of the chapter. And we still get to see that One can write jokes about Saitama’s power level without growing stale. Though there is a slight hint of, “Okay, we get it” with the overall concept, but in the end I find myself just enjoying this series.

One-Punch Man

World Trigger Ch. 019
I normally don’t let art quirks bug me. But I’ve had enough. The duck faces from Yuma were bad enough, but now we have ANOTHER character whose thing is making duck faces! Is this Ashihara’s concept of the height of comedy? People making duck faces? The kid who writes axe cop would tell this guy, “Dude, come on, it’s not that funny.” The thing about World Trigger is that Ashihara has a lot of good ideas, and he is skilled enough to pull off some nifty scene transitions. The problem is that he isn’t quite skilled enough to bring across ALL of his ideas properly. Sure having a Capybara in his series is kickass, but so what? Without the skill to tell a coherent story, and the wisdom to stick to conventional tropes where necessary (such as actually bothering to give your characters motivation), then all the clever ideas and moments of talent won’t amount to much. I don’t see this series going anywhere, but I think we can expect Ashihara’s next work, or event he next after that, to be something to look forward to. As long as he can recognize his failings and work to adjust them. If he can’t do that, then I don’t expect much from him.

Bleach Ch. 542
The interesting thing about Bleach is that sometimes it will clearly contradict itself, but then after just a moment of thought the answer will present itself. Sure Kubo had said that Kyouraku and Ukitake were the only ones with double Zanpakuto, and sure he broke that with Hisagi, but when Ichigo gets his double Zanpakuto it works because at the time Kyouraku and Ukitake were the only two that had double Zanpakuto. And it makes sense for Ichigo to have two blades like that, considering that we’re going with the idea of his powers being split between his Hollow plus Soul Reaper powers and his Quincy powers. Though with all these redesigns I feel that Kubo has lost the iconic look that so many people associated with his series. And by this point I think a lot of people will be turned off by the constant design changes. Here’s hoping that Kubo can end Bleach soon and then move on to design his next series.

Bleach

Nisekoi Ch. 079
Not only do we finally move away from Haru, but we focus on one of my favorite characters, Tsugumi. The main draw this chapter is getting some more backstory, developing Tsugumi in a very needed way, considering she’s the odd one out from the childhood promise group. While it may feel like any development between her and Raku is wasted space since it’s clear who he will end up with, I still feel that the journey more than makes up for knowing the destination. And of course we get to see Onodera at the very end for the final punchline.

Cross Manage Ch. 038
If this series gets cancelled I will lose all hope in the youth of Japan. I know that at it’s hard to appreciate literary and artistic quality at a young age, what with all the media aimed at you being all vampires and kissing and stuff (I don’t know, I don’t pay much attention to YA anymore). But it takes a special level of dense not to get why this series needs to keep going. It’s a comedy, it’s a character piece, it’s a surprisingly great sports manga, AND it’s a drama! What more could anyone want? The only thing missing is a battle for galactic peace or something. Granted the sensitivity of this series may be a bit more shoujo, but considering that most of my issues with shoujo lie with the art styles and the focus entirely on romance, I consider Cross Manage to be the series that takes the good from shoujo and wraps it in a familiar shounen package. With Misora’s injury all the heavy drama from the first chapter comes back, but this time we’ve had thirty-seven chapters to get to know the characters. Combine this with Kaito’s raw skill for drama and suddenly this series keeps getting more and more compelling. I still don’t know how it end, but now we have an added dilema on top of the possibility of losing the game.

Cross Manage

Toriko Ch. 238
Well, if Cross Manage didn’t give you the raw violence you wanted, then here’s Toriko to the rescue. While the past few chapters have been a bit too much violence with little more substance, I think that this chapter was really aided by the addition of the visualization powers. Essentially we get to go far more violent than either Toriko or Starjun could survive, allowing for the most brutal fight this series has seen in a while, or that Jump has ever seen. And of course it’s supplemented by the fact that they all really are taking major damage. Not much substance as far as the story or characterization is concerned, but it had plenty of well drafted violence. And sometimes that’s just what we’re in the mood for.

Toriko

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 020
Finally we move from the training arc to the actual battle. While the training didn’t take nearly as long as it would have in the anime, stretched into weekly segments it took long enough. But, even though we don’t get that much fighting this chapter, it clearly shows why so many remember this series so fondly, and why it’s considered a classic shonen battle manga. The action is just well rendered and badass. The story behind this manga may not be the strongest, but there’s a reason it’s the strongest in fight scenes.

Dragon Ball Z


Just as a reminder, for any newcomers, I haven’t been reviewing Yugioh Zexal mostly because there is no way I could have fairly represented it. Most of my comments would have been along the lines of, “Card games are dumb, I don’t get this series.” It doesn’t help that I haven’t been reading it from the beginning, and really the only way I could have is if I’d either bought the digital volumes or pirated the series. Neither of which I feel inclined to do for the latest incarnation of a series I haven’t followed since season two of the anime.

And for this week’s question, would you like me to spend more time discussing the specific events of the chapters, which would include spoilers, or do you prefer my relatively spoiler free format that focuses entirely on discussion? My theory is that anyone reading this has either read the chapters and wants another opinion, or they’re deciding whether to read it and won’t appreciate spoilers. Let me know in the comments which you think would work better.

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives. Or go directly to the last week’s episode, Episode 052 – June 17, 2013 – The Top Five Sexiest Manga Characters | Fairy Tail Vol. 7.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: June 3-17, 2013

June 19, 2013 by Derek Bown 13 Comments

June 17 CoverBig news this week, Nisekoi will be getting an anime. Perhaps a bit early, but I think we’ve got enough stories to cover several episodes, and at the very least this means Nisekoi isn’t going anywhere. It’s a big milestone for the series, considering how many new manga can’t last in Weekly Shonen Jump. Fingers crossed that the anime is well made and Nisekoi keeps going strong for however long Komi Naoshi wants.

Because of schedule conflicts the past two weeks I wasn’t able to get around to reviewing the latest manga chapters. Rather than have three reviews go up in close proximity to each other I decided it might be better to go ahead and combine them into one. To keep things simple I’ll be writing about the last three weeks’ together.

Nisekoi Ch. 076–078
Taking three weeks before commenting on any of the most recent chapters has actually worked to my advantage as far as Nisekoi is concerned. When Haru, Onodera’s younger sister, was first introduced I thought that she was the kind of character who was typically annoying but in this case was handled well enough in order to not be annoying. Three chapters later, I found that she was fine for two chapters, but in the third chapter she became quite infuriating. I blame most of this on the fact that she’s been the sole focus of this series for three chapters in a row, and I have not been able to read much of anything about any of the characters I’ve grown attached to.

Nisekoi

Chapter 78 was particularly egregious in this regard because none of the other characters besides Raku makes anything but a token appearance. Granted, it was interesting to see the situation from the point of view of an outsider, but three chapters focusing on one character alone is a bit much—especially when that character is brand new to the series. Ultimately I think the biggest problem is that Haru has been around for most of a month and we haven’t seen any change in her. She’s just as frustrating as she was in the beginning. She has a few small moments, but after three weeks of putting up with her it’s not nearly enough. And of course, character development takes time, but I would prefer to have that time be split between chapters featuring the characters I already like.

Bleach Ch. 539-541
Bleach is an interesting example of a retcon that in a strange way is actually working. I had a lot of questions about the retcon in chapter 541, but ultimately I found those questions answered by the chapter itself. And granted, I don’t buy for a second that Kubo planned the reveal regarding Zangetsu any earlier than maybe a year or two ago. But he is able to manipulate his story well enough that the new elements slide into place where we didn’t even realize a piece was missing. Could the story have worked without that missing piece? Absolutely. But what we’ve learned the past three chapters fits well enough that it doesn’t disturb the overall story too much. And considering how low Bleach has dropped at times, even mediocre heights achieved later on seem better by comparison.

Bleach

Ultimately, Bleach hasn’t been amazing or even great by any stretch of the imagination these past few weeks. But it’s been a lot better than it was during the climactic battle against Aizen, or even the Fullbringer arc, and sometimes when you’ve been hurt enough even the absence of more pain feels like kindness.

What I’m trying to say is that I think Bleach gave me Stockholm Syndrome. And speaking of Stockholm Syndrome…

Naruto Ch. 632-634
I think the biggest problem with the last three weeks is how it feels like we’ve gotten payoff we never deserved. Or the story is trying to elicit a response it hasn’t done the groundwork for. I admit that I enjoyed the combination attack in this week’s chapter. But I can’t help but imagine how much better this would be if more time had been spent actually redeeming Sasuke, rather than making him worse and worse before finally having him flip flop back to the side of good.

That continues to be the biggest problem I have with Naruto. Sasuke’s turn feels more forced than ever. This should have been a good moment because it’s been a long time coming. But rather I feel that, like his powers, Sasuke has once again been given something he did not work for. His eyes give him all his power, his natural aptitude gives him his fighting prowess. And the author just hands him his redemption without making Sasuke suffer for it. If someone turns bad, really bad, to the point where they’ve not only attempted murder, but actually succeeded on more than one occasion, then they need to work in order to redeem themselves in the eyes of the other characters. But when such a character has spent an inordinate amount of time making sure the readers were well and pissed at him, then he needs to work doubly hard to make any kind of redemption actually be satisfying. I for one continue to be of the opinion that Sasuke is an awful character who is made worse by the fact that he hasn’t had to work for any of the good that’s happened to him, and he’s as bland as bland can be.

Sai’s reappearance reminded me how much better a character he was. I just wish Kishimoto could actually see when he makes good characters and when he doesn’t. Ultimately, though, most of these chapters are about action and the action is a lot of fun. Even Sakura gets to do something. Which hardly seems like a fair trade. I’d rather she have been doing things the entire series. But even then she reverts back to her pre-time skip personality the moment she starts ignoring Naruto in favor of Sasuke. It’s a real shame to see a character that had grown so much in the early chapters after the time skip revert back to the infuriating character she was before.

But, as I said, Stockholm Syndrome, these chapters weren’t the worst this series has thrown at me. And some of the action really was awesome.

Naruto

One-Punch Man Ch. 018-020
These three chapters emphasize that One-Punch Man isn’t just about comedy. It’s about great comedy and a world that is actually really interesting. The latest chapter especially emphasizes that the people in this series act like real people. Monsters constantly attacking? Time to move away. It stands out as a subtle bit of satire of the superhero genre while posing as world building. Even just the simple act of turning what should be an exciting adventure into the equivalent of a day job is hilarious in its own way. Not the funniest chapters of One-Punch Man, but still worth a read.

World Trigger Ch. 016-018
World Trigger manages to introduce some interesting elements, but ultimately it fails to engage. Those interesting elements should have been introduced more than a dozen chapters ago, at this point I can’t see the series surviving much longer. Characters are confusing, motivations are confusing, the whole conflict is confusing, and ultimately Jin is the most interesting character but with this cast that’s not hard.

Toriko Ch. 235-237
The amusing thing about these past three chapters of Toriko is that while a good chunk of it was action as normal, the other chunk made me really think about gender roles in manga. Were Komatsu a woman, there would be an outcry over the way he is treated in the story. He’s there to be saved by Toriko, there to give him strength. Since he’s a guy that’s an odd, yet new and interesting approach. If he were a woman it would be the same tired old trope. And while I’m amazed at how obvious the “Not Gay”s are in this series, I get a chuckle at the homoerotic subtext that refuses to be the sub in this relationship.

The fighting is pretty standard, but I was amazed how an entire chapter was dedicated to a new fighting technique for Toriko. That concept did not need that much space. Ultimately I feel that the fight is par for the course, and might be buying for time in a few places. But, events unfold that promise some much better chapters later on.

Toriko

Cross Manage Ch. 035-037
If anyone doesn’t think this series is amazing then I’m afraid we might have to take a look at your “Can Recognize Amazing Entertainment” gland——don’t wiki this, just trust me, it’s a real gland. Not only are we left in the dark as to the outcome of this match, but in the latest chapter we get what is possibly one of the best scenes in any manga I’ve read in months. At first it may be confusing, but once you read over it you slowly start to get it. The confusion you felt at the awkward transition mirrored the confusion the characters felt as they noticed more and more people were looking away from where the ball was in play. Then the moment of horrified realization, emphasized by the perfect rendering of the expressions on the characters’ faces. It’s been a long time since anything in a manga sparked such an emotional reaction from me.

Cross Manage

And then, once you’ve had a moment to sit back and take in what happened, an event that came out of nowhere, you realize that since chapter one this eventuality has been foreshadowed.

Though it does feel a bit like a desperate gambit to get people interested in the series. Because after what happened this chapter, there is no way the series could end within the next few weeks and actually be satisfactory. Before now a win or a lose could have led to a satisfying early conclusion. Kato could have played it safe, written in a way to end the series safely. Instead he decided to go for broke, give us an event that needs far more than just a few chapters to be concluded satisfactorily. I pray that the risk he took resonates with readers and we are able to see this series go on for many more chapters.

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 017-019
With these chapters the long training arc came and went. Ultimately I feel I can’t comment on them that well because they’ve been in my brain for so long I can’t really muster up any kind of initial reaction. Ultimately I’d have to say that these chapters are good, but not amazing. There’s a definite sense that were Dragon Ball Z being published today it probably wouldn’t last for very long. But, one can’t analyze it like that since this series has been around for so long that it’s unfair to comment on it as if it were a contemporary of current series. This was one of the series that a lot of shonen manga owes many elements to. And in a lot of cases they improve on those elements. But, in the end, I’m glad we finally get to the actual fight against the Saiyans—s lot faster than we would have gotten to it in the anime too.

Dragon Ball Z

One Piece Ch. 710-711
Chapter 710 of One Piece was okay. It wasn’t amazing, but it was at standard One Piece quality. After such a long break it was wonderful to finally get a new chapter. Chapter 711 (heh) on the other hand was a lot more fun. From the twist at the very end, to the scene with Zoro and the hint that maybe these toys aren’t quite what they seem. Or, Rebecca has a bit of an interesting kink. Either is possible really.

But the standout of this chapter was how little time it took for me to make a boob joke to myself after discovering that the name of the little people was “Tontattas”. Yes, I’m a terrible person, but I would like to point out that Oda decided to name them this after he had them climbing all over Robin, who I might add has been pinned to the ground with her…tontattas (sorry)…prominently displayed. I know there was no way for him to realize that both “ton” and “tattas” were a proper word and slang respectively, so let’s just call it an act of providence that provided us with the best unintentional pun in all of One Piece.

Also, is it just me, or does anyone else think that Oda might have macrophilia? First we have Aphelandra the amazon using her bossoms to block Luffy’s escape, then we have Luffy using Shirahoshi’s…great reefs…as a trampoline, and now we have Robin sewn to the ground in a scene reminiscent of a much sexier Gulliver’s Travels, while the Tontattas climb all around the inside of her dress. And that’s not even getting into all the other woman of larger size than normal. Or the fact that “normal size” is incredibly subjective in One Piece. Think I’m wrong? Discuss in the comments section. Let’s start the weirdest discussion this website has ever seen.

One Piece

Rurouni Kenshin Final Chapter
What can I say? This project felt unnecessary, it messed with established material that was already good on its own. But in the end the worst crime is that apparently even a teenage girl can survive a sword through her chest as long as it misses her heart. Never mind the fact that she’d have bled to death by that point. AND she only managed to survive because the way her would-be assassin held his swords was stupid. I’m not sure if it’s some weirdly meta commentary about style over substance and practicality in manga, but Watsuki pointed out why his idea was stupid all on his own. At least this manga did one thing right, it made me realize that maybe I don’t want a sequel to Rurouni Kenshin like I thought I did. I dread how much more ridiculous an actual in canon sequel would get. Once you have a skinny business man lifting and firing a gattling gun you’ve got nowhere else to go but down.


I’d really only intended to put this off for two weeks, but it ended up being three. My schedule is a lot more hectic that I realized. I’ll be sure to keep these posts up to date, and hope that this momentary lapse in publication remains isolated to these past three weeks.

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives. Or go directly to the last three episodes, Episode 049 – May 27, 2013 – Why Hiramaru and Aoki’s Relationship Sucked | Toriko Vol. 5, Episode 050 – June 3, 2013 – When the Main Characters Sucks! | Toriko Vol. 6, and Episode 051 – June 10, 2013 – Why Doesn’t Oda Kill Characters? | Bakuman Vol. 1.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: May 27, 2013

May 29, 2013 by Derek Bown Leave a Comment

CoverBad news manga fans. Eiichiro Oda was hospitalized about two weeks ago, and because of production schedules that means that for this week and the next we won’t be getting any new One Piece chapters. Fortunately because Shueisha gave a definitive target date for the next chapter we can assume this means Oda-sensei has recovered and will be ready to go. It really goes to show that in a statement he apologizes for not having the next chapter ready. When we read manga we need to remember that these creators work very hard. If you haven’t purchased a Weekly Shonen Jump subscription from Viz then you really should consider to do so. These creators put their health at risk to give us the manga we love. They deserve our support and the best support is financial support. We can’t really call ourselves manga fans if we aren’t willing to go that far.

Naruto Ch. 631
This was a very confusing chapter for me. On the one hand I was expecting to hate the inevitable Team Seven reunion. Instead I’m just ambivalent. I think I’ve used up my anger in other areas of my life, and can’t gather up any kind of reaction here. I guess that’s the worst thing I can say about any manga. After many years of raw emotional reactions the worst thing a manga can do is leave me with nothing to say. I mean, this is a big, big moment for the manga. There should have been some emotional impact. But there was nothing. Except confusion and bemusement. I mean…really? That’s what we’re doing with Sasuke?

Naruto

I did appreciate that Sakura has actually been brought back into the story. Though I can imagine shippers aren’t appreciating the conflicting messages. For a while it seemed like Hinata was in the lead for Naruto’s affection, but now we find out Naruto apparently has been assuming Sakura is kind of his girlfriend. Would have been nice to actually have heard of this earlier. I think that’s where most of the Naruto hate comes from. Kishimoto brings up ideas and plot threads and then ignores them when it’s convenient. It makes it impossible to make predictions. But not in a good way. It’s like being asked to solve an exam when half of the questions have been cut out. And then the first halves get taken away and replaced with the second halves. It’s infuriating.

Oh hey, Naruto got a reaction out of me after all.

One-Punch Man Ch. 017.2
Not much to say this week, since it’s the second half of a complete chapter. One-Punch Man tends to be a bit hit and miss. Except rather than being good one week and bad the next, it’s good one week and amazing the next. Which really puts everything into perspective. I can’t really complain when I don’t have an opinion one week because it was, “just good.”

Bleach Ch. 538
I know there’s a lot of Bleach hate out there right now, and has been for quite a few years. I think by this point Bleach has disappointed me about as much as it possibly could. And unlike Naruto it isn’t constantly sending conflicting messages. So I have my hopes for the series, but since my expectations are very low I can be pleasantly surprised when some chapters are not completely horrid. This chapter was interesting enough for allowing us to see many different characters. But it didn’t have one single drive. It’s difficult because Bleach has so little content per chapter that skipping around is a risky business. It takes a mostly uneventful chapter and spreads that across many different scenes. This time it worked pretty well. The small snippets we got were good enough. I particularly enjoyed Mashiro’s scene, and Komamura’s scene raises some interesting questions. Maybe now we’ll find out what exactly the deal with him is.

Bleach

Cross Manage Ch. 034
I really, really like this manga. While a lot of the information about Lacrosse we learn this chapter feels like it should have come earlier in the series, somehow it works for me that the focus for the first several chapters was on the characters. I hope after this we can get back to the other characters, but for now if this is the end for this manga I think I’ll be satisfied. But, because we can’t know if the manga will continue I really can’t predict what will happen. There are many reasons for them losing this game, and many for them winning, depending on whether the manga gets cancelled or lives on. Somehow this tension makes Cross Manage an incredibly exciting manga to read. I hope it continues, and think that the quality has improved enough that it should survive the next round of cuts as well.

Toriko Ch. 234
I really couldn’t remember what happened this chapter. I had to reread it to remind myself. I may love Toriko, but I won’t put it on a pedestal it doesn’t deserve to be on. I still love the series, but this really wasn’t a very impressive chapter in the long run. Which is a shame, since this arc has been amazing. It’s a bad sign that the quality seems to drop the moment the focus is back on the main character. I might need to think about this trend a bit more. Hopefully next week will start picking up again.

Toriko

World Trigger Ch. 015
Maybe Toriko was a bit weak this week, but at least it isn’t World Trigger. Series like World Trigger give me hope for Cross Manage. It may be unfair to cut a new series short so early on. But I can’t believe in any kind of fairness in this world if Cross Manage ends before a series as boring as World Trigger. It’s been fifteen chapters, and we have no idea what the point of this series is. Maybe having your character shout, “I’M GOING TO BE KING OF THE PIRATES!” is a bit simplistic. But at least with that we know where we stand. Here we know nothing besides the basic premise.

Okay, so there’s a war. How do we stop the war? Yuma is being hunted by Border. Is this something we should be worried about? What are the characters going to do about it? Are they going to need to protect him? Why is he in the human world in the first place? Is he there for craps and giggles? Is her running from something? Why is he the main character? Someone, please tell me! World Trigger doesn’t have a plot, it has events—unconnected events that have no driving force. Why? I’m not sure, but if I had to point my finger at the culprit, it would be the idea that shounen manga is too childish. I get the sneaking feeling that there might be some manga artists trying to make it more “mature”. And the best way to do that is to get rid of the most simplistic elements. Unfortunately that leaves us with nothing but a meandering mess of a series. Simplistic shounen writing traditions may be, but there is an elegance in their simplicity. And their willingness to actually answer my questions.

Nisekoi Ch. 075
I will always appreciate Nisekoi‘s willingness to complicate the plot. It can take the tropes of the romantic comedy drama and play with them in ways that are satisfying and sometimes unexpected. It raises questions that very clearly will be answered later. It may not answer the questions right when we want it, but at least it lets us know we will eventually get there. As far as this chapter is concerned I fully expected the new girl to be a new romantic interest. What I got instead was so much better. She might still be a romantic interest, but I hope we skip that trope.

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 016
I never really got how bad King Kai’s jokes were. I read this series in French the first time I read it. But it took the English version to show me how not funny this guy is. And it’s not a, “Oh haha look how not funny he is, that’s funny!” It’s more, “Uh…he’s not funny…and that isn’t funny.” I feel like Goku must have felt during that scene. But just imagine, what if he’d refused to train Goku in martial arts and instead insisted he become a comedian. What a different series this would have been.

Dragon Ball Z


Overall I think this week was very, “meh”. Nothing overtly terrible, nothing incredibly wonderful. We had some good chapters, we had some dull chapters. We had a couple really good ones. But nothing unexpected. Let me know what you thought of this week in the comments.

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives. Or go directly to last week’s episode, http://burninglizardstudios.blogspot.com/p/manga3-archives.html

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: May 20, 2013

May 22, 2013 by Derek Bown 1 Comment

May 20 2013 TitleIt’s actually been a while since the last time we had just a regular issue of Weekly Shonen Jump. As far as I can remember the past few weeks have included a few monthly series here and there. So I almost don’t know what to do with myself, finding that I’m back to basics this week. It’s also the first week where I find myself unsure what to think of certain chapters that I usually really like. I’ll try to do my best, but I can’t make any promises about the coherence of my thoughts, considering the current change in my work schedule.

One-Punch Man Ch. 017
Well then, if One-Punch Man is anything, it’s most certainly experimental. This was basically thirty two page spreads, thirty pages of a magazine, devoted to the most pure representation of what a fight in shounen manga should be like. No talking, just pure action, punching, kicking, laser…ing… It’s a cinematic approach that most creators don’t take because their page count is limited. But being a monthly series One-Punch Man manages to pull this off. Were I still writing my Combat Commentary column this would be a definite candidate for analysis. Still, it does run the risk of readers just skimming over it, which I recommend against, because you can’t get the full impact unless you take the time to examine each page. Protip: Don’t read it on an iphone, or any phone. Read it on a tablet or a computer. You’ll get the full effect that way.

One-Punch Man

One Piece Ch. 709
I think most everyone was at least suspecting that B block would come out the way it did. I know I for one didn’t definitively call it, but it it was one of the possibilities I thought would happen. Though, I was impressed by Elizabello’s punch. I know we were told it was powerful, but somehow just having a really big punch that could only be used once an hour didn’t seem that impressive. And yet, here we are, with him taking out all the heavy hitters of the round except one. Though it did prove the main flaw of his attack—that if someone was prepared for it and knew what was coming, or could otherwise block it, the attack loses some of its effectiveness. Now it remains to see if we get a backstory for the island, or if we move on to the next set of fights next chapter.

One Piece

Naruto Ch. 630
Will someone please shut Obito up? He’s been saying the same thing for the past three months. It’s like Kishimoto doesn’t think we have the mental faculty to understand what Obito is saying unless it’s constantly repeated over and over. Then again, and I can’t speak for the rest of you, but I’m still reading this series, so I dunno if Kishimoto would be that far off in his estimation of my intelligence.

Though, it was good to finally get a response to the repetitive rhetoric Obito has been sprouting. Especially after he went completely coo-coo bananas with these past few chapters.

The rest of the chapter was inoffensive. And I’ll even go so far as to say that I quite enjoyed Minato’s appearance at the end. Even though I knew he was coming. Though why is Naruto not surprised that his dead father suddenly appeared? Is this series going to treat death the way Dragon Ball Z did?

It was also nice to see Sakura actually contribute. Remember her? She was the female lead at one point, before she was abandoned way at the beginning of this interminably long arc. I know more chapters means more money and all that. But there’s something to be said for quitting while being ahead. Instead Naruto is going to be remembered as a good series that went quite bad for a while, became tolerable, and then became absolutely awful at the end.

World Trigger Ch. 014
Seeing as how my time has become a lot more precious to me, I can’t say I have much to say about this week’s chapter. If nothing else the fight was interesting enough. But I can’t help but wonder why we’re supposed to believe a government agency would give sniper rifles to two kids not even eighteen yet. I know it’s a trope to have kids fighting the monsters in manga and anime. But in series like Evangelion we’re given a reason why it has to be kids. It’s not exactly a good reason, but it’s a reason. World Trigger expects us to just accept that a government agency is having teenagers fight with deadly weaponry for no other reason than that’s how it’s done in manga. I’m sorry, but I refuse to accept that. Give me a good reason. Are adults incapable of producing Trion? Can they not use the triggers? I need a reason. Any reason. Even a stupid reason would be marginally better than expecting me to just sit back and accept that a bunch of kids are the most effective fighting force around.

Bleach Ch. 537
While this chapter did retcon Masaki’s death, it at least makes sense in the context of what the flashback has established. We needed to understand how she could die against an easy opponent like Grand Fisher, considering she had her own powers that could take on hollow hybrids. And if we consider that she was sensitive enough to know the kid Ichigo was going to save was a hollow, then we could perhaps assume she had some kind of power. Still, it’s clear that the purpose of it all was to make Ywatch the ultimate bad guy. And yes, in that case it’s rather clumsy. But at least in the context of the flashback it holds together. Motivations of the author aside.

Cross Manage Ch. 033
This week’s chapter was a bit weaker than the last two, but mostly just because there was a lot less focus on the action. The character interactions, and general character moments, were really strong. Ryu also just happened to give me my favorite moment of the entire issue. I have high hopes that Cross Manage will continue to do well, and increase in the rankings so we can continue to see what Kaito can do.

Cross Manage

Nisekoi Ch. 074
I’ve found that the biggest problem I have with Nisekoi is that after Chitoge fell in love with Rakku she lost what made her unique from the other girls. She’s no longer the one that doesn’t like him, she’s just like the rest of them. And as strong as the rest are, Chitoge doesn’t have much else to back up her personality. In the long run she’s just less interesting than the other girls. I think it would have served the overall manga much better to put the inevitable moment where she falls for Rakku for much later, because the overall dynamics just don’t work as they are. She’s still enjoyable enough, and this chapter was a lot of fun, but I’ve found that I tend to enjoy her moments less. Which goes to show when I compare this chapter to recent ones. And that’s a big shame considering she’s the main romantic interest. If we don’t like her over the other girls, as well handled as the romance is, it just won’t be that satisfying when she and Rakku get together. And since that’s the whole point of the story it’s a big weakness that needs addressing.

Nisekoi

Toriko Ch. 233
This wasn’t the best Toriko chapter ever. The biggest weakness is of course how much time was spent on flashbacks, and the fact that the big reveal last chapter, that Toriko was beaten, is irrelevant. It was just meant to be a shocking moment, and now we move on to the real fight. It’s weak, transparent writing, and as much as I love this series I have to call it on this one. Emotional moments don’t work if they’re obviously being written to be emotional. Still, we can’t expect every chapter to be a winner, so I’ll give it a few more before I start really laying into it. I think Toriko deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 015
Chi Chi may be one of the least liked characters of this series, but I really can’t help but feel sorry for her. Not only is her child kidnapped, but her husband has been murdered by the monster that almost murdered him before she and Goku got married. I’m amazed she isn’t traumatized by the events of the series. And of course, we get the beginning of Goku actually being a pretty terrible husband and father. Never mind that he’s leaving his wife and child behind to train, I know, I know, it’s to save the earth and all, but later on he does this exact same thing for no good reason. Still, this chapter focuses more on just blanket exposition and reminding us that Goku still has made any progression yet. But, it’s a good chapter, enough variety to make it more entertaining than some of the past few chapters have been.


And there you have it. I apologize again for this column being late, hopefully things at work slow down so I can actually get this taken care of in a timely manner. Anyone have any suggestions for blogging and working a fulltime job? Leave them in the comments, I need all the help I can get.

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives. Or go directly to last week’s episode, Episode 047 – May 13, 2013 – Gender Roles in Manga | Wandering Son. PS: We had Ed Sizemore on as a guest last week, he’s a lot smarter than us so last week’s episode is actually really good.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS, WSJA Recaps Tagged With: bleach, Cross Manage, Dragon Ball Z, naruto, nisekoi, One Piece, one punch man, toriko, world trigger

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