Saint Young Man 26. So the holy beings are Bond fans, eh? The otter was a surreal touch, but I chuckled at how Jesus worries about fanfares beginning films, because his angels get overexcited. And bless God not being able to text very well!

Genshiken Nidaime 101-102: I have to say, I’ve started really not enjoying this Madarame harem. It’s gone a bit far to really be believable, and has reached the awkward stage, especially with Madarame leaning towards Haato. I like Haato a lot and want him to be happy, but I think neither he nor Madarame see the other as a real person. So perhaps this change of direction with the cabaret club and Sasahara’s sister will head in a good direction. We’ll see.

1/2 Prince 60-61: Looks like translation is in full flow now! There are actually 8 more chapters already translated. This will do for now, though: there’s been a pretty major turn in the plot and what seemed like a double-chapter, so it felt like a natural place to stop. After looking more like Link than ever before, Prince confronted the Dictator for Life, and found he was being controlled. After the most homoerotic scene yet. Conveniently – given it really gained him nothing – the true bad guy revealed himself, but the main characters were sent out of the game again. We had the fun of seeing lots of minor characters’ real-life faces, which would have been better still if, y’know, I could remember who half of them were. 

One Piece 755: The Franky fight was both horrifying and hilarious. Can two people with more bizarre ideas about romance and manliness ever come together? The Tontatta are proving tough little nuts, too, though their gullibility remains a very funny thing!

Naruto 687 was just awful. A horrible attempt to make the audience sad at a character’s death, when it’s been coming for weeks and he lost all our sympathy long ago. The schmaltzy afterlife scene was just embarrassing. And the worst part? People considering the past make me remember how the title used to be good. 

One Piece 754 was hugely fun. Zoro being awesome, the stupid badly-drawn ‘escape sparrow’, Luffy being dumb and Bartolomeo being hilarious. More than any other arc, I think I’m gonna miss these characters if they stop being part of the story. Even Cabbage!

Naruto 686: Noble sacrifice #6243469. Eh. This whole battle is just too bizarre to be interesting. Why is her gravity limited to just this? Why can’t it just kill them all instantly? Apart from, of course, that not making a good story.

Hunter x Hunter 348 revealed yet more characters in this arc that’s already so complicated in the exposition phase. I am loving the anime so much right now that I’m prepared to let Togashi go where he likes with this, but I really hope he doesn’t end up unable to finish this. The tension with the zodiacs at the end was great, though. Needs more Leorio! 

HunterxHunter 346: Though not a whole lot happened, the cliffhanger promises interesting action. It will be fun to see what happens with Gin and Pariston, especially if they cooperate in some way. I also enjoy how Leorio and Kurapika have taken the boar and rat places on the Zodiac. I’m not that invested in Beyond or on the trip to the New World, but I’ll definitely stick around for the interesting characters.

Naruto 684: This had a vague hint of the old ‘clever plans and tricks’ Naruto, but none of the effect because frankly it was a bait-and-switch: they tell us Naruto can only cross dimensions if his main body goes, but then his main body didn’t go. 

One Piece 752: boo! Another hiatus! The attacking DoFlamingo turning out to just be a thread clone felt like a bit of a cop-out, but after all the arc would have been cut short otherwise. Just seems like it didn’t need to have been included at all. Still, that was more than made up for by the rest of the chapter – Luffy making a ‘shortcut’, Robin and co getting involved, and most of all a flashback of Trafalgar Law as a kid. Aww!

Naruto 68 remains at a scale bereft of human emotion. I was remembering how Naruto’s strengths used to be ninja with limited powers coming up with ingenious ways to beat one another. Now it’s god-women stepping in and out of space-time portals and sending the whole world to attack Naruto. And I mean the fabric of the planet. What a shame. As for whether Sakura will become useful? Wlell, she’s a chakra tank to facilitate others. Does that count?