Naruto 659 - though it ended with the focus on the giant silly monsters (one of whom to be fair the entire series began with, albeit less silly at the time), the most formidable bad guy finally getting some dominance made this chapter not too bad. I just hope the build-up doesn't end with severe disappointment. 

 One Piece 732: some action! Franky gets a chance to shine against difficult opponents, it seems. This arc is possibly the most complex yet in terms of set-up, and no more yet on where Big Mama is headed. I'm really enjoying the ride - as usual. 

One Piece 731: Well, assuming that it's the boy with the goggles on his top hat from the flashback, I wonder what this new turn-up means for the current mission and for the team dynamic. We shall have to see!

Naruto 658: more big silly monster stuff - but with recent Kishimoto, I think I should just be pleased he's not ending it after the first co-ordinated attack. 

One Piece 730: Back sooner than I anticipated thanks to Jump’s rather odd dating system! And a cracking chapter – some short but impressive fight scenes and a new character on the scene that if I’d really thought about I could have predicted appearing here but who came as a pleasant surprise to me. Glad to see that there’s not going to be too long a break.

Naruto 656-7: well, one of the two baddies of the season did indeed turn out to be as much of a wet blanket as feared. Deeply unimpressive. Thankfully, yes, Madara is still around and can be the series’ main antagonist after all.  

One Piece 729: Boo, another hiatus coming. But an exciting chapter, with the unreliable Straw Hats obviously now choosing to do things more directly, but that likely making all of Law’s efforts and sacrifice for naught. Intriguing.

Naruto 655: Yup. That really was it. That was all it took to avert the huge disaster building, and while Madara may be doing something impressive of his own, he certainly wasn't there to influence the master plan. So horribly lame. I just want to make it to the end, really. I'm not sad that a hiatus has kicked in until January...except that it only drags out the title's run longer.

One Piece 728: tying up the loose ends of last week's chapter about the history of the country the crew have now found themselves in, the stage is now set. As such, the chapter was a little dull, but there ought to be a lot more action coming now.

One Piece 727: a bit of backstory slightly awkwardly inserted, this chapter nonetheless had a satisfyingly devious idea behind it, and a series of shadowy figures to make us curious. Not a great chapter, but fairly interesting.

Naruto 654: that really had better not be it. If the way this crisis was averted was for Naruto to have a vague chat with the bad guy, induce a flashback, basically said ‘That little dead girl you used to like would be so disappointed in you’ and then everyone worked together on a big tug of war, it will truly be the low point of Naruto. Madara, you better have something decent to follow this crap up with. 

Yotsuba 85: a quiet sort of chapter setting up the arrival of a new character next time. Scared Yotsuba was cute, though, and her little riddle was hilarious. 

Naruto 651-652: this is all looking like a stupid end to an arc. Naruto waves a magic wand and pulls out the vital chakra that makes the baddies’ plan work. Of course, Madara is still around, but if things come to an end based on the events of these chapters, it will make for one hell of an anticlimax. 

One Piece 724 had the arc go in an unexpected direction – after DoFlamingo proved his sheer power, Law’s intervention has split the crew in half. Will be very interesting to see what will happen to the two divisions next.

Naruto 650 was largely various ally characters showing that they are doing something useful, and then a single rather bewildering clash between Naruto, Sasuke and Obito, during which Kakashi sets the groundwork for another baddy to reform after hearing Naruto’s noble words. Yuck. What’s Madara doing? 

One Piece 723 moved along at a brisk pace. It’s a bit of a shame that even post-time skip, the crew members on the boat are considered weak, while Luffy, Zoro and Sanji remain the formidable ones, but it does allow for some awesome entries.

Naruto 649: I remember a time when Naruto could convey things without outright stating them. That’s past – but it was quite nice in the second part of this chapter to have all the different factions coming together.  

One Piece 722 was very interesting – more focus on Cavendish means that Rebecca is no longer the only realistic candidate for victory in Luffy’s plot, Brook got a nice little double-cross in and the main group is getting bigger and bigger with the little fairies. I’ve been engaged throughout this arc, and it’s still in the building-up stage.

Naruto 648 started with Sasuke going into action with a silly made-up way for him to use senjutsu inserted, and then everyone standing around going ‘WOW SO POWERFUL, WHAT POTENTIAL’ yet again. Then came the cheesy contrivance of everyone being able to see a flashback – but at least the arrival it heralded was a neat moment. On one page of 20-odd. 

Rozen Maiden II 46-47: Nooooo Suigintou! Don’t take it back! Good thing you let Souseiseki do one last thing, and it doesn’t look like it will be over any time soon. Unwound World Jun seems to be effective at helping his younger self, but they’re still a way off reviving him…and it was nice to see Hinaichigo back, at least for a little while. Poor Tomoe. 

Naruto 647 was a bit better than recent chapters, cheesy inspirational speech and all. Now that the bad guys are actually a credible threat, things are more dramatic, the notably-absent characters have made a return, and Sasuke is finally doing something other than watching other people and going ‘Huh, they’re powerful now.’ 

One Piece 721 was indeed a flashback, though not the one I expected and thankfully looking to be consigned to the one chapter. It was a bit of a tearjerker, but too brief and centred on a character we haven’t yet built up much of a bond with, s basically I just to get back to one of the main action strands.

Naruto 646 has revealed that the big thing that the good guys will need to stop is a giant flower with an eye in it. So business as usual in Naruto. At least the baddies are finally looking formidable, even though the good guys falling victim to them are doing so in a very 80s cartoon withering-away manner. 

One Piece 720 was a thoroughly silly chapter, which is great – a prospective tough opponent is actually a Luffy fanboy, bowing a head in gratitude led to some very serious consequences, and at the end Luffy was introduced to another of the country’s dark secrets, which looks likely to bridge into a flashback sequence. Hopefully it won’t be a dull one.

Naruto 645 made me amused that for all the hype around Sasuke returning, he has basically just stood about for the last month, and where Orochimaru is I do not know. The ‘Naruto is stupid’ gag at the start did nothing for me, and nor did Naruto and the once-fearsome Kyuubi’s manzai act. There was some blatant retconning with what happened with Pein, and more double-page spreads of silly monsters. Well, at least the bad guy is finally hurrying things along. 

One Piece 719 was a satisfying chapter. It was simply devoted to ending the fight, with a few pages of throwaway, extremely silly flashback, with its real ending only implied (though very probably we’ll see it bourne out later), and the tournament arc proceeding nice and swiftly. Fun, silly and light, yet leading somewhere, it’s everything One Piece should be.

Naruto 644 was a whole chapter to say ‘we used our haxxx chakra to teleport everyone’. Yay?

One Piece 718, after a week off, was cute and finally brings most of the characters back together. There’s some silliness going on aboard the Sunny, and Luffy is still occupied – and blowing his cover in a big way this time – but it’s getting good!

Naruto 643 was again a little embarrassing. Fist bumps. An extra immense source of chakra duplicated when a corpse was reanimated with a dead man’s soul. And a giant blobby flower about to kill all the heroes. Let’s get the arc finished eh?

One Piece 717 was plenty of fun – some development for most of the little parallel stories, some great scenes with Luffy and a bit of a dark edge to these ‘toys’.

Naruto 642 had a horrible lull in the middle where people spoke about how useless they are, and then the key to beating the ridiculously powerful baddie turned out to be absurdly convenient for Naruto. Meh. Again, I’m left cold. 

One Piece 716 seemed slow at first, but it was all a build-up to the typical absurd-level-of-power bathos that Oda does so well. I was chuckling at the end, and am very keen to see how it goes on. Silly but fun chapter!

Naruto 641 had a lot of people standing around going ‘well, this is absurd and we’re so insignificant now’. Which kinda makes me totally detached as a reader, too. And the big build-up to a body-switch trick? Underwhelming too. 

One Piece 715 made its tournament more interesting with some additional silly characters. Another break next week, but I'm enjoying this. 

Naruto 639 - another uninteresting chapter, stressing how powerful this boss is. Yeah yeah. Get on with it.

One Piece 714 put a lot on hold, which was a shame, but we caught up with Brook, Chopper and Nami on the Sunny-go, where an enemy with a very weird ability is rampaging, and Luffy at least got one fun moment at the end that makes me want to read more. 

Naruto 638 was basically everyone standing about saying that the latest power-up from the bad guys was a big, scary one. Yup.

OP 713

One Piece 713 was a fantastic chapter! It had some brilliant over-the-top action from Law and co, the recurring and brilliant background joke of all boys finding the sight of robots absolutely stunning - while any girls accompanying them shoot them dirty looks - and a brilliant scene with Usopp that got funnier and funnier until his utterly perfect final expression.  

Naruto 637 had some very rushed final pages, but was pretty good overall. Tobi not useless, the various hokage showing their stuff, and the inevitable Japanese progression from huge monstrous blob that everyone fears but won't actually be the main threat to attractive human powered-up by the massive blob, which is always the last boss but at least easily battled. It's a formula!

One Piece 712: a bit of a slow chapter, and Sanji’s side story was same-old-same-old, but the snippets at the end presage some exciting things – Luffy in the ring and Doflamingo on the scene. Bring on 713 please!

Naruto 636 was fairly infuriating, in fact. The half-decent cliffhanger last week? On page one Kishimoto goes ‘Oh, it was only an illusion’. The rest of the chapter is spent with cheesy flashbacks getting back to the exact same point, only with Kakashi in a much better position, and then back at the main action we move to a new power that suggests the whole battle with Kakashi was strategically a very dumb move from the antagonists’ point of view. Another bad chapter. 

Naruto 635: In a week without new One Piece, it seems Naruto was able to have a few extra pages, and benefited from a little extra meat. Despite lame attempts to inject some humour and the awkwardness of translating anything about wind into English, the Orochimaru section was a little on the daring side for Naruto and pretty compelling, the scenes with Team 7 were at least spectacular, the other kages got a brief moment of looking very impressive – and a single page cliffhanger in Kakashi’s story is perhaps bringing the inevitable, but it’s nonetheless fascinating to see unfolding. 

One Piece 711 got exciting again - Law's fallen into a trap, that awesome old blind marine is making his move with Doflamingo also inbound, and most of the remainder of the crew have gotten involved with these cute, extremely gullible little Lilliputian-types. Shame there's another break next week. 

Naruto 634 managed to pick up, too, with the summons actually making for some well-drawn action sequences for the first time in a while. Plus I am curious to see what the former leading adversary brings to the fold - this is where we see whether or not he's really to be redeemed!

Naruto 633: If I’d given it some thought, I’m sure I would have seen this little reveal coming, as it makes logical sense, but eh. The chapter by and large was pretty dull – a succession of characters who once seemed so likeable and are now so peripheral showing off dumb and half-baked new powers. Chouji grew really big and was used as a yo-yo. Uh huh. 

One Piece 710 was a bit of a set-up chapter, with some kinda unimpressive stuff about monster fish to liven the pace. It was overall not a very entertaining chapter, but we’ll finally see those little thieves and what Law is plotting. 

Naruto 632: Sakura has caught up! Except she hasn’t, she can just punch really hard and still need rescuing. Derp. 

Half Prince 059: unfortunately, the translation group working on Half Prince has badly stalled lately, so we won’t be keeping up with the Taiwanese releases by the looks of things. But this chapter reminded me of the beautiful art, drama, action and silly fixation on its main character’s beauty. I do hope I get to see the story to its conclusion.

Soul Eater 106-110: Wow. So much happened in these five chapters that I regret not reading them as they came. Crona, apparently transformed by madness into a glove puppet, got put into a helpless situation but has more story to be told yet. Kid discovered the obvious truth about the Kishin but also powers up – and the aftermath of that with the onlookers was one of the most beautiful images in manga, with the fact that it had one of the stupidest characters witnessing it only making it stronger. I think I got something in my eye at that point! I had to hastily scratch it! It’s amazing how far the central characters have come in this story, and they all looked amazing here. I want to see the rest of this animated, and suspect its end is nigh.

Naruto 631 had some big hitters arriving, and Sasuke dropping a bit of a bombshell. I must say, I’d expected a big confrontation between Naruto and Sasuke as the end of the series (before inevitably they got over their differences and reconciled, possibly after some great sacrifice), but it looks like that won’t happen after all. On one hand, that’s a little disappointing. On the other…well, the series will end sooner. 

One Piece 709 had the amusing but ultimately quite predictable end of the brawl – though I have to say I did suspect Bellamy would pull something out at the last minute. Seems like we’ll be segueing into some backstory about the country now, though. I want it to get to Luffy’s part!

Naruto 630 had a little more going for it than previous chapters, but is still languishing in cheese. Kakashi’s stupid lectures circumvent any possible interesting issues about illusions being better than reality, and the latest huge fireball makes me long for the days when Naruto fights were about silly but clever plans to outwit the opponent, explained at length afterwards. Still, interesting pieces just got moved to the board, at least. 

One Piece 708, after a bit of a break last week, was lots of fun – half the chapter about Luffy causing problems and being totally unable to tell a convincing lie, and half about the strange bunch of contenders in the ring – and as expected from Oda, those misfits, who seemed so peripheral and inconsequential a few chapters ago, are abruptly becoming very compelling to watch – I’m looking forward not only to seeing how Luffy will fare, but to seeing how the current clashes will conclude.

Naruto 629 was another dumb chapter – Naruto still protects everyone while they tell him how wonderful he is, and Kakashi attempts the usual Naruto staple of talking some sense into a bad guy and making them totally change their ways. Luckily this time it was Kakashi who had a flashback – thankfully a miniature one – and it didn’t work. And that was it. 

Mario: Prelude and one-shot: Kishimoto has mentioned Mario again and again while Naruto has risen to be arguably the most successful – and then most decried – shounen of the last decade. He was always keen to bring out the sketch of his Italian-Japanese hitman, which always to me came over as being eager to show his versatility. Yes, he drew his hyperactive ninja boy, but he also drew this gritty young mafia killer surrounded by skyscrapers. Mario never made it as a series – or at least, hasn’t yet – but this week it was a one-shot in Jump.

It was also just about everything I expected. Kishimoto tries too hard to be gritty and hard-hitting as Mario tricks and executes friends, shows his vulnerability in front of his mother’s grave, meets a female hitman and hears the oh-so-grown-up story of her getting sexually abused until she lashes out, then gets her mixed up in some nasty business, framed and eventually rescued. It’s all so cliché and obvious – and the characters aren’t likeable at all. The first chapters of Naruto are mawkish and sentimental, but at least they are likeable. This…well, I think there are reasons it never got serialised. 

Yotsubato! 84 was a simple one, with only one real chuckle for me – when Asagi tries to guess what the second rock is – but it was cute nonetheless. I wanted to see a little more from the camp site, but I guess it’s run its course. 

One Piece 702 was largely another minor character scuffle - not a very interesting one – but I did enjoy the cliffhanger.

Naruto 628 moved back to the main action, but other than Madara sensing Hashirama, was mostly just everyone saying how wonderful Naruto was for tiring himself out protecting others. Dull!

Naruto 627 was a whole lot of pages about not much, but I have to say, I am enjoying the idea of this lot joining the battle. It feels like this is all leading away from the Naruto/Sasuke confrontation so long expected, but we shall see.

One Piece 705 was mainly little snippets of the various crewmen, mostly with mini-cliffhangers attached. I was amused throughout, including with the puerile jokes based on perverted Sanji and Brooke, and I like how the marines are coming across. 

Yotsubato! 82: at last! A nice long chapter! It was great, too – I don’t know how some kids having a curry, walking in the woods, having a barbeque and going to bed can be so incredibly adorable, but it was. Miura having a plate was adorable. Yotsuba fanning the fire was adorable. Ena lecturing Yanda was adorable. And everyone in their sleeping bags were adorable. I need more Yotsubato! in my life. 

One Piece 703: a fun chapter. I got the giggles when Luffy tried to enter the tournament incognito then began writing down his own name – only to enter with a hilarious variation on the theme.

Naruto 625 continues the flashback – I’m glad it didn’t end quite so abruptly as I thought it would, but I’m not sure anything much more needs to be said here. Madara’s thought processes really don’t make much sense either – he’s progressively being made less formidable by this filling-in of backstory…and that’s a shame. 

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Micro Series: Rainbow Dash was something of a damp squib, trying too hard and missing the mark, sadly spoiling all its good ideas with poor execution. There will definitely be parts of the internet up in arms about the ‘pandering’ of double rainbows and brohoofs, with a panel about ‘anonymous meanies’ almost certainly aimed at them and thus confirming their theories, and the only reference that really worked was the most subtle – the Bowie reference, which after all has quite the precedent in the show. The main problem, though, was that the story idea was poor, the idea of emotional manipulation was muddy and has been done before, the epilogue part had pacing that was all over the place and antagonists were random and a poor fit for the established universe. A swing and a miss.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic 04 actually had some similar problems with being a bit too close to Internet culture, especially with ‘Le close’, phasing that is one of the more annoying expressions stolen from 4chan and used too much by Redditors, thus disowned by the original users. The horror film references that followed were better, but also seemed to be trying too hard. Luckily, the main comic series has a much more interesting story, better pacing, far more interesting art and better overall humour to fall back on, and thus this was not the same sort of failure as the mini-series. And I have to say, Scootaloo talking about how nice it would be to have a big sister will always make my heart melt.

Plus the cover with Spike and the birthday cake is my favourite of any of ’em yet.  

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Micro Series: Rainbow Dash was something of a damp squib, trying too hard and missing the mark, sadly spoiling all its good ideas with poor execution. There will definitely be parts of the internet up in arms about the ‘pandering’ of double rainbows and brohoofs, with a panel about ‘anonymous meanies’ almost certainly aimed at them and thus confirming their theories, and the only reference that really worked was the most subtle – the Bowie reference, which after all has quite the precedent in the show. The main problem, though, was that the story idea was poor, the idea of emotional manipulation was muddy and has been done before, the epilogue part had pacing that was all over the place and antagonists were random and a poor fit for the established universe. A swing and a miss.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic 04 actually had some similar problems with being a bit too close to Internet culture, especially with ‘Le close’, phasing that is one of the more annoying expressions stolen from 4chan and used too much by Redditors, thus disowned by the original users. The horror film references that followed were better, but also seemed to be trying too hard. Luckily, the main comic series has a much more interesting story, better pacing, far more interesting art and better overall humour to fall back on, and thus this was not the same sort of failure as the mini-series. And I have to say, Scootaloo talking about how nice it would be to have a big sister will always make my heart melt.

Plus the cover with Spike and the birthday cake is my favourite of any of ’em yet.  

One Piece 702 was a bit confusing in the middle, where it seemed it would follow Zoro but instead followed Luffy and Franky, and it seems a tournament arc may be about to start, but things have still moved neatly to a place where I’m interested to see what will happen. A decent transition chapter, and the old man (presumably another of Doflamingo’s kin) is certainly a very interesting little enigma.

Naruto 624: I have been very down on this flashback arc, and the way it was shoehorned into the story, but I’ve finally warmed to it – just as it ends. It brought nothing new to the story, and feels less like a clever statement on history always repeating itself than just an author with only one idea he keeps rehashing, ultimately giving the impression that the whole of the main story could have been condensed to the handful of chapters this arc has been afforded. But there’s a glimmer here of what used to make the series something special. And it’s a basic affection for characters with simple, childish attitudes that may seem naïve but actually just have a much clearer view of right and wrong than those around them. 

One Piece 701: Apart from the slight toe-curling sensation of seeing a very well-drawn sink-hole (made by gravity) in the wake of the news a few days ago of an American man being swallowed up by one along with half of his house, this was an interesting turn for One Piece. We’re going to be seeing another very odd country, but there can be no lack of seriousness at the same time, which is where the genius of Oda lies. I have to say, though, even though the whole crew spent the timeskip powering up and becoming self-confident, they’re slipping back to old overpowered/weakling roles.

Naruto 623: Hmm. Nice art this week, but I’m still just feeling this is a load of dusty old ideas that is bringing nothing new to the Naruto universe – itself old and dusty by now – and as with so many other franchises making what seemed like a long-established culture as young as a few decades (see Star Wars).  

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic #3: the interesting arguments were solved a bit too easily with everyone saying sorry without actually coming to understand the situation, which was a shame, and the mallet space jokes went too far, but this comic continues to be very entertaining by doing its own thing emphatically and rambunctiously. It's daft and funny and very boyish - lots of monsters and falling off cliffs and fuzzy creatures getting splatted and jokes about burps. Being so different from the series is what makes it work.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Solo Spotlight: Twilight Sparkle: these little side-stories look to be weaker than the main title, which makes sense - though one has to wonder why these writers and artists are published when there's amateur art on the internet that does the same thing much better. A pleasant enough little story about Twilight meeting a frosty librarian and coaxing her out of her shell through their mutual love of books, it had a highly predictable twist and a cute saccharine ending, but it was drawn very sloppily and could have been one of a million throwaway works of fanfiction, so felt...well, redundant, really.

Naruto 622 continued a childhood flashback - with the same tired themes as the whole series. It was dull and predictable, despite such weighty concepts as the slaughter of child soldiers and deaths in the family. If this were chapter 1 of a new series I would not be continuing it. That said, it does have the potential to go somewhere interesting.

One Piece 700 was a chapter like pretty much any other, moving the story along. Some single panels were absolutely brilliant though – especially one with Buggy. 

Naruto 621 was a bit disappointing, when I thought this flashback would be excellent. The scale of the battle got far too silly, with lots of mountains getting sliced with an art style that just barely manages to stay more cool than the worst excesses of Dragonball Z (though I did like the many-armed Buddha, something that would have been more at home in HunterxHunter), and then segued to what looks like it’ll be a very by-the-numbers childhood flashback I can’t say I care much about.

One Piece 699 had some amusing lowbrow pervy humour, some big chess
pieces moving about the board, and nice moments with Aokiji. The
transition between arcs has been very swift and - all credit to Oda,
as it's not something he often achieves - has kept me hungry for more.

I wonder if something huge is planned for the 700th chapter. 

Naruto 620: Much as I have decried Naruto for the last three years or more, and horrible as it is to have to force flashback-storytime into the story after making the characters desperate to rush off to war, I’m quite enjoying this latest bit of zombie-time. More than when they first appeared, the Hokage are showing their absurd power even without fighting, and Orochimaru is finally transcending being made a joke for so long. Finding this surprisingly enjoyable. 

One Piece 698 wasn’t action-packed, but it had a lot of progression, and a cliffhanger appearance of a very awesome, familiar face. Glad this isn’t the end of Smoker, and very interested to see what affect Law’s bargaining has had…

Naruto 619 was actually my favourite chapter in a very long time, because it was so wrong. These greats of the created mythos just stand around chatting and picking apart the stories that have underpinned the main characters’ actions for so long now. It was strange, and varied, and compelling – everything Naruto has not been in a very long time.  

Soul Eater 105: So begins the battle with Crona, who pulled a variety of weird, often wonderful faces, many of them looking like a puppet. Such an odd and brilliant antagonist. I only hope some of the old complexity of feeling returns.

Soul Eater 106: Aww. This isn’t progressing as I wanted it to. Maka and Papa solved things a little too easily, so to power Crona up to answer that, we’ve had to see a transformation to a different antagonist altogether. Shame! But at least it leads back towards a final reunion.  

Soul Eater 103: Oho! I rather regret having left it a good few months before resuming reading Soul Eater, as at long last this arc is getting to what it’s been promising – and all of it at once. The Kishin finally appearing has been remarkable in a number of ways, and the art that came with it was some of the weirdest I’ve seen in any mainstream comic. And not only that, but in the final panels, Crona has finally reappeared to play his (or her) hand – whatever that may be!

Gopher’s reaction faces continue to be a riot, too – a subtle, contextual bit of comic relief.

Soul Eater 104: An escalation, as well as a brilliant bit of comedy antics with teleportation. It’s looking increasingly like Crona’s arc here will be the one that will bring the manga as a whole to a close, and honestly that works very nicely to me. It’s great to see Crona back in action, and not as I feared just as a disembodied head. The chapter is also a reminder that Maka is perhaps a unique example of a female shounen protagonist who is defined more by that role than by her gender, which is excellent in terms of progressiveness and makes her very interesting. Great chapter. 

One Piece 697 had two elements: sending the kids and marines away, which came with a slightly awkward but also somewhat touching bit on the awkward way the Marines have to see the Straw Hats are much better people than most of their superiors, yet it conflicts with their loyalty – and Trafalgar Law’s plan regarding Doflamingo, which has him with the upper hand for now. Quite fun!

Naruto 618, to its credit, at least diverged from that irritating and prolonged battle to follow Sasuke and Orochimaru, and what they were doing actually turned out to be quite interesting. More silly zombies, yes, but ones we’ve seen before. 

One Piece 695: the whole crew turn out to show off, and do it in style against enemies who didn’t even have a chance against Frankie alone. A little Bambi vs Godzilla but still highly enjoyable, and I loved the frames of the boys reacting with delight to the ‘robot’ and the girls being totally deadpan. And it looks like the action will go up a notch in…

One Piece 696: End of a One Piece arc must mean a party, and I loved Law’s face. The talk at the end of it also hinted for the first time at how One Piece might finally end: with Luffy confronting Shanks. But it’s a long way off. At least four ‘emperors’…and probably the World Government itself come first.

Naruto 616: That, ladies and gents, is what you call an ass-pull. Naruto went through the crowd powering everyone up with high-fives. Yes, really. Kishimoto has long lost the touch of how to be inspirational. The goodbyes from parents to children were also very forced and artificial. The only interesting pages were at the very start, away from the main action.

Naruto 617: enemies and former enemies praise Naruto for surpassing people. We’ve seen this a dozen times already.

Yotsubato! 83c: the third part of the camping chapter was very simple – the girls have fun in a hammock then try to cook curry – but still one of the most fun snippets I’ve ever enjoyed. Yotsubato! Is just great manga. I love watching Miura do just about anything, bless her long socks, and the bratty Ena was cute too.