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.