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.