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.