Instead, there is manga. Chief amongst which is new HunterXHunter, chapter 313. It feels as thought Togashi is bringing this arc to an abrupt end very soon, which is a shame because after all it has taken so many years to write, but despite that very little happened in this chapter. Maybe the new anime adaptation will revitalise him. I can only hope so. I’m too emotionally invested in Gon for all the mysterious backstory about his father never to end up with good closure.

Catching up with Fairy Tail, which has been repetitive throughout the Edoras arc, but is still a lot of fun. Just…better in small doses. I suppose I should really continue the anime, which has gotten remarkably far through the manga material now.

Read the latest Bakuman last night, too – chapter 144. I would have preferred our heroes figuring out what is going on to just being shown, but at least it gets things moving. I don’t know where this is going, but we’ve had the message of ‘one or two creative minds doing something they believe in always outdoes hollow committee-created writing’ hammered into us now, so I’m unsure what this new iteration will offer.

New manga! One Piece 636 had some very funny moments, especially with Franky’s silly new creations, but the best part was the three most formidable Straw Hat Pirates in the final few moments. But where will the arc go to build on this?

Naruto 552: At least these chapters are mitigating the disappointment of Itachi’s final appearances a little, even if it’s in such a daft way that it hardly helps. On the other hand, it’s a bit rich having Itachi of all people lecturing Naruto about relying on others and not shouldering a huge burden on his own. At least a throwaway line at the end acknowledged that.

The…special chapter of Rock Lee’s Springtime of Youth, featuring lots of naked Gai jokes (in SD style) was…disturbing.

Jump

One Piece 635 was of course pure fanservice, what the whole arc – indeed, everything since the time skip – has been building up to. The Straw Hats show off their new powers, and of course nothing can stand in their way. Oda as usual knows how to mix the awesome with the absurd in perfect measure, and the result is a payoff that deeply satisfies. Next: the boss.

Naruto 551 slipped, after a few strong chapters from the ailing title. The pacing was all over the place. There are great elements at play here – Naruto more powerful than ever before, the 8-tails and even Itachi, still in action. But the huge beasts and summons have long looked daft in action, Naruto being dumb with what techniques to use fell flat, and as for Itachi giving an explanation, finger raised and all, on the brink of death was funny in all the wrong ways. Anticlimactic.

Rock Lee’s Springtime of Youth 4 remains a guilty pleasure, extremely silly and puerile but brilliant in its way. This time, the humour revolved around kancho, and would no doubt have been even more disturbing if I were not already familiar with the concept. It was exaggerated until funny, though, and Tenten makes an undeniably great tsukkomi.