One Piece 810: more backstory. So Jack left the island because of what Luffy was up to, and many were saved thanks to Chopper’s medical skills? Fair enough. I imagine there’s more to see yet, including why Jack died, but I’d rather be back to the meat of the action. 

One Piece 809 – aw, another break? Didn’t care much for this chapter anyway. Short and without much meat!

One Piece 808: fairly interesting, this flash-back, but it’s just an appetiser and I want to get to the main course!

One Piece 807: a good idea to have some more of the current situation before dipping back into a flashback. Quite an enjoyable chapter with the different exaggerated reactions. 

One Piece 806: Hmm, the twist here was handled a bit clumsily but the story overall has gotten more interesting. Plus a cliffhanger that will surely lead to a long flashback. Kind of want to get on with the main story, but I am curious as to what unfolded with the other half of the crew. 

One Piece 805: a set-up chapter that was fairly interesting, but oddly enough had its information presented in a bit of a dull way, which is unusual for Oda. Usopp’s complaints were repetitive, the new character introductions uninspired and if the jokes about what Luffy calls Law worked in Japanese, they were strained in English. 

One Piece 803: Hmm, I didn’t expect the Mink tribe, though it’s not as though it’s the first time anthro-style creatures appeared in One Piece. We’ll see where this goes! 

D.Gray-Man 220: Back to being at best semi-coherent. Mana is in the Earl, and is not the brother of Nea but one and the same person split in two, and destroyed his face and identity after getting angsty that being the Earl would mean he had to destroy his identity…? Eh. I don’t think Hoshino is winning back many fans here. 

One Piece 803: a nice busy chapter – a shame there’s a break next week, but I liked the set-up here. I’m a little sad Bartolomeo’s stepping out of the series now, presumably for a long while, but we got a few last laughs out of him. It was nice to see a battle set up between the Revolutionary Army and Blackbeard that might not involve the Straw Hats at all, and the little snippet of Buggy was great. This transition has been done well and I’m interested in what’s coming next. 

One Piece 802: it looks like this arc is going to be mostly comedic, with Bartolomeo’s very silly crew, a silly ‘son of whitebeard’ coming to confront Luffy with his money-hungry old mother in tow, and a strange new setting. I look forward to how it develops. 

Yotsubato! 89: There aren’t many Yotsubato! chapters I feel are a bit of a dud, but this is one of them. I quite liked the futon bit, but the chapter didn’t flow, most of it wasn’t funny or cute, and even Yotsuba’s interactions with Yanda seemed off. A bit of a shame, but I’ll still always be quick to check out new chapters.

One Piece 801: the kind of chapter I wanted last week! The tension with the Marines wasn’t so interested, but the last part of the chapter with new bounties and Bartolomeo’s always-hilarious fanboying reaching amazing new heights was brilliance. His ship really made me laugh. 

One Piece 800: I did wonder how Oda would get around Luffy’s obvious aversion to organising like this, and this worked pretty well, and had some nice triumphant moments. The question is – where does the story go next?

One Piece 798: this was a bit of a slow chapter, setting up what the little Tontata had done to help, but then we got Admiral Fujitora doing something impressive, immediately undermined by Luffy being very, very Luffy – which is just another reminder why this is as successful as comics get. Nowhere else so perfectly mixes bathos, comedy and the impressively grandiose.  

One Piece 797: makes sense Luffy would want to do this for Rebecca. Overall, though, not a very interesting chapter.

One Piece 796: Good to see where the crew are, but the way the chapter was set up, despite the unexpected appearance of interesting post-timeskip Marines, kinda dragged. Is this treading water a little for an impressive ch.800?

One Piece Party 002: wait, was that a joke about Chopper not understanding a sexual predator coming onto him? Creepy gag. I liked Kaku playing with Chopper, but otherwise this was another lame and redundant gag manga that gets cheap laughs out of a series that’s already genuinely funny – so what’s the point, really?

D.Gray-Man 219: wow, DGM is back at last. It had gotten extremely confusing. And haha, I thought this chapter was going to conveniently start with a recap or some clarification of recent events. Instead it jumped right into incredibly bizarre new territory. The Earl and Allen have both completely changed, though the Earl’s true identity is much older and stranger, and in general the Mana/Nea storyline is in a whole new territory of what-the-fuck?

One Piece 794: hiatus next week? Boo! And this chapter, focused on Sabo, had nice parts but was a bit long-winded. 

One Piece 793: Nice focus on the Marines and some snatches of the other supernovas. A good aside chapter, answering some questions I wanted answering, but it left me hungry for more. 

One Piece 792: Some fun moments in this chapter with Sabo and unexpectedly fun gestures from Admiral Fujitora and King Elizabello II. Ahaha, Elizabello II. What a wonderful name!

Naruto 700+10: pretty weak. Aborted its only interesting element for a more pat ending, ie Sarada’s parentage. Hope no kids with stepmothers were personally invested. Also was a huge anticlimax. The only part I liked was Kabuto. 

One Piece 791: ah, the payoff chapter! Lots of yelling and fist-pumping and crying. Plus falling over. Feels good!

Naruto 700+9: after slow-moving chapters, suddenly one jumping to the thick of the action. Oh well. While it wasn’t anything special, and action chapter with some action from Sarada isn’t at all bad. Sakura failed to really do anything, though, which is a shame. 

Naruto 700+7, mostly a dull chapter with far too much sententious cod-philosophising, it had two interesting parts, the reappearance of Orochimaru, young as ever, and the very simple solution to the mystery of parentage with its interesting aftermath. It felt like treading water so that this highlight could be the cliffhanger, but I’m interested in the next chapter now. 

One Piece 789: a countdown chapter, with a gesture of self-sacrifice, which I suppose neatly led to a cliffhanger. Would have preferred more to have happened, though, especially with no chapter next week.

Naruto 700+6: Sakura finally did something useful! A generation later. And even ended up in the most interesting position at the end of the chapter. Not even as a damsel in distress!

Naruto 700+5: well, what subtlety there was in the first chapters has fizzled away. And the bad guys of this mini-arc are too plain-looking to be very exciting.

One Piece 788: Awww, not a whole lot happened, but this kind of huge communal effort leads to the sort of uplifting moment Oda does so well – and the blind admiral looked awesome. And the Tontatta so cute!

Naruto 700+4: Naruto himself got to show off a bit, which was nice, but really it was the ending, with father not recognising daughter, that made this chapter, as well as reminding me that Kishimoto is actually excellent at drawing body language.

One Piece 787: the tension has returned with this chapter, even if it still feels like a shame it went at all. But one thing’s for sure, the new cast from the coliseum are too awesome to just throw away. I hope a lot of them stay in the manga in some form!

One Piece 786 was appropriately enough a bit of a deflation. Of course the fight couldn’t have ended where it did, and I like bringing Jesus Burgess into it (along with Sabo finally doing something again) but the pacing felt off, here.

Naruto 700+3: bleh, I’ll never get used to adult Naruto. At least Boruto is basically just Naruto again, even if he’s barely in these extra chapters. Chou-Chou’s Anna-san no Omame schtick got old REALLY fast, too. 

Naruto 700+2: I did enjoy the spin-off’s unexpected premise, but now it’s settling into the same familiar routine, with a bit of fairly amusing comedy about someone with a delusional self-image. I’m still curious as to where this will go. 

One Piece 785: a chapter to build tension, I very much doubt Luffy has won this battle, even with Gear 4^th. Honestly, I’m more interested in what Franky has planned. Still, some very nice moments here indeed. 

Yotsubato! 87: Azuma is so good at just making little embarrassing situations so funny. Poor Fuka. And finally we find out Koiwai’s first name! Now, how long will it be until the next chapter? A year?

Ichigo Mashimaro chapter ??: Hiccupping chapters - a bit of an homage to Azumanga Daioh, but brilliantly subverted.

Volume 7 4-koma – Mio’s strategy to avoid capoeira kicks is definitely something special.

Alien chapters – where does she get all those costumes? Bless Matsui, though. Very derivative of Danbo, but oh well. 

One Piece 784: Doin! Doin! Gear Fourth is probably the best of Luffy’s power-ups, because it actually makes sense as a further development of his rubber-based powers. It’s also sat precisely on that perfect line Oda does so well between awesome and comical. The other ‘Gears’ felt like random power-ups. This one actually felt like development.

Naruto 700+, though just a prelude to the next spin-off – because of course Naruto isn’t really finished, was actually quite a pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect a little girl yearning after her absent father, and suspecting her mother isn’t her real mother. Much more entertaining and personal-level stuff than I anticipated. 

One Piece 782: this chapter felt a bit clunky, really, though I loved that Trebol’s secret was so simple. The flashback was a bit awkwardly transitioned and Trebol being baited to go right up to Law seemed unconvincing. Still, it made sense in story terms and Luffy is finally ready for a big battle. He’s taking on the most powerful people in his world now – how much more One Piece will there be? Well, even with the characters we already know of, it can go on for hundreds more chapters, so no real worry there.

One Piece 783: setting up the big battle...Luffy seems to have done another random power-up. And we’ll have to wait for Oda to have a break to find out what it will look like!

One Piece Party 1: well, the idea of a cute, comedic SD spin-off written by someone else worked well for Naruto. How about One Piece? I have my doubts – it’s already much more comedic to start with and the art isn’t a dramatic change in style. And, well, it was just some messy random gag story. But hey, it’s more One Piece and it raised some smiles so I’ll keep reading. I don’t see it being as successful as Rock Lee’s Springtime of Youth, though.

One Piece 781 was a great chapter. I knew that wasn’t all for Law, but it was also clear this wouldn’t be all for DoFlamingo. Luffy has to be the one to get the final fight, after all. Those panels with the two staring one another down at the end of the chapter were brilliant. Oda never ceases to impress.

One Piece 780: somehow, I can’t quite believe this is the last we’ll see of Law. Though his part in the story may seem to have been done, and that defiance of his was thoroughly awesome, I feel like he won’t go the way of Ace just yet.

Genshiken Nidaime 104-109: catching up with the Genshiken after a while. They’ve gone on a trip to Nikko, and honestly this whole Madarame harem thing is wearing incredibly thin. The real problem is through their dealings with Madarame, I’ve stopped liking just about all of the harem, even Haato. He’s the kind of character I usually love, but he’s been doing too many manipulative things and I find him pretty unpleasant now. Only Sue is still likeable, but she’s just crazy and weird anyway. In a good way! I’m much more interested in the sub-plot of drawing manga, but sadly that doesn’t take centre-stage very much. 

One Piece 779: a fun, if mostly uneventful chapter mostly having Zoro looking cool after his dramatic scene last week. Then a bit more of Luffy and Bellamy, leading up to some deliciously cheesy dialogue for the cliffhanger. 

One Piece 778: oh Zoro, you’ve come a long way! Using tactics and getting help from others! I didn’t think Pica’s powers would make for a very enjoyable clash but focusing entirely on him like this made for a fun chapter. 

One Piece 777: Lucky chapter 777! But not that interesting really. Pica’s powers are kind of excessive, so it seems odd that he hasn’t been doing this stuff all the way through this arc. Oh well, I’m sure Zoro will sort it all out soon.

One Piece 776: Nice art this chapter as Kyros gets to look badass, but it didn’t have the sheer genius of the last few.

One Piece 774: Gooo lil’ Warrior Chief Leo. Not only was his heroic entrance great (and undercut by some typical bathos), but his power was totally ridiculous too. This is the kind of thing that makes One Piece such irresistible fun.

One Piece 775: Oh god, Oda is just a ridiculous genius. This chapter was such brilliance. The ridiculous manly battle including an incredibly absurd suplex, the daft yet still touching sob story, the absolutely absurd yet still incredibly sweet reason this man wears a baby bonnet – it’s like all Oda’s talent for being both hilarious and touching and incredibly silly at the same time distilled into a single chapter. I must confess to being a little jealous of his talents. 

One Piece 773: Worth waiting for. Cavendish’s badass mode was both formidable and funny, with the usual Oda touch to the old chestnut of a man with a split personality wrestling for control. Robin reminded us she’s one of the strongest main characters, and as ever Bartolomeo stole every scene he was in.