One Piece 978: of course we need the one-on-one opponents for this arc lined up. They don’t seem that interesting but they haven’t had much time to develop, of course! Some new outfits (good for selling figures) and a lovely setting. So Japanese-themed that it almost seems like what a foreigner would dream up, cramming everything in!

Agravity Boys 18: I really love Agravity Boys. Nothing’s made me laugh so much in ages. Some nice art this chapter too, with the alien architecture. I laughed affectionately at the way they didn’t find Chris pretending to be a girl funny at all, and loudly when Baba said the vase he was conned into buying fitted the décor of his room. A good new comedy of errors has been set up with this mistaken identity business, and while I may not think giant boobies make for a good design, I’m keen!

Moriking 2: This might make me laugh even more. And now the drama has been set up – assassins and over-dramatic battles are sure to follow. The father made me chuckle quite a bit, and the situation is just so gloriously absurd.

Haikyuu!! 391: Kinda nice to see Miya get encouragement from his twin and, indirectly, old captain. And there was some nice dynamic art this chapter. But I can’t get used to him being on Hinata’s side, and pinging the set back to his serve again was confusing – but maybe that’s just some quirk of volleyball I don’t understand.

Chainsawman 67: some incredible art in this chapter. This series is so underrated. Some very powerful beings are fighting right now and I wonder how much bigger this title can get. I don’t imagine Denji will have a morality crisis here.

Dr. Stone 148: Moving the plot on briskly as ever! I wonder if any living humans will be encountered on this excursion. And I guess the break last week means lots of the mangaka had time to produce some really nice art. The combat team are pretty cool – and was that Ginro, getting to look awesome just for a moment?

Majo no Moribito 12: I’m kinda irked that this manga, of all manga, is the one where there’s a character trope I’m using myself in my book. But at least this set-up is on the interesting side now that the heroes want to win these new adversaries over rather than just defeating them. Probably the best chapter so far – but this is still a very mediocre manga.

Kuroshitsuji 162: Toboso is uniquely good at almost getting British high culture right while missing just slightly. That food looks incredible and everything is pretty accurate but having a chicken salad on the side of oxtail stew, placed up above the wine glass? Unheard-of, haha. Even with a master dipping his bread in his stew! Despite myself, I became invested in this flashback of the ‘Owl’ and take Mei-Lin rather more seriously now. Plus as always, the art is just beautiful. Even if I didn’t feel the need to track down the manga for a couple of months, leading me straight to …

Kuroshisuji 163: again, the details, haha. Commendable to know tea could be sourced from Harrod’s in the late 1880s. But I seriously doubt a good member of an aristocrat’s staff would mention the place the tea was bought. But what proportion of this Japanese manga’s audience would quibble over that? And yay, Finnian showed up, my favourite character! He’s such a ray of sunshine, even when he’s … disturbingly … psychopathic … Anyway, I look forward to more with him included. I’m still just a little sad we’re unlikely to get this kind of flashback telling his complete story, though.

Shingeki no Kyojin 128: fantastic chapter, which I’m surprised by. I thought stalling out with a complicated raid on a building after everything that’s happened was very underwhelming. But they did it in a way very close to how I was thinking would be a good strategy (even if it failed) and then there were some really emotionally heavy moments at the end as our supposed good guys have to accept that if they’re going to change this situation they have to murder their former friends and comrades. Pretty heavy stuff, mixed up with some impressive action. SnK has become a step above the rest.

D.Gray-Man 235: Man, it’s been a long time since I read the last chapter. Where were we? I only remember the nice cover art last time. Oh yes, we found out the world the Noah remember is probably our one, which is a bit jarring for me. And this one was quite affecting. Poor Allen. The original Allen, I mean. This is some tragic backstory and it’s always been one of the strangest quirks of this quirky series to set so much of the foundational story in a circus, but I’m on bored for it. I guess Allen gets his name next chapter – which will be out in a few days.  

One Piece 977: Yeah! This is why I was looking forward to the flashback being over. Seeing the main characters in action, and it finally being confirmed that Jinbei is going to be a full member of the crew (as long as he makes it through the current adventure) is pretty satisfying. Now I wonder who the neatly-matched-with-our-heroes adversaries will be this time? All new characters, or perhaps some returnees? And just who is Kaido’s son? Intriguing! Break next week, though.

Agravity Boys 17: Hmm, this chapter didn’t make me laugh like the others. It was an exposition chapter, with an attempt to make the guys acting like cartoon gangsters carry all the comic relief and it didn’t work so well. Hopefully we’ll be back with another hilarious situation soon.

Chainsawman 66: This has got a bit too wild and trippy for me, though characters using one another’s names was at least welcome. Using the Hell Devil seems a bit absurdly OP and I can’t see why it wouldn’t be used over and over again. Still, Denji is back in action and defending Makima against a terrifying foe. I wonder if this will ever see an anime adaptation. Sadly, it’s probably too explicit – which remains kinda weird to say for a Jump manga.

Haikyuu!! 390: Somehow, when they were schoolkids, exaggerating how cool something pretty simple is made sense. But now they’re supposed to be pros, people being super shocked that Miya can serve two different ways WITHOUT giving it away by how many steps he takes is a bit silly. I guess Haikyuu!! will be ending soon, and it’s probably approaching the right time for that. Seems wild it’s not that far off half as many chapters as One Piece now.

Dr. Stone 147: Nice chapter! Educational, showing the creators’ inquisitive minds researching this and finding out about theories the Vikings used calcite to navigate, pretty funny and then also briskly taking us to the next arc. Keen to read it!

Moriking 1: Might as well try this new gag series! A little kid’s fighting beetle metamorphoses into a handsome young man who acts like a dreamy prince. Very surreal and definitely funny. This mangaka has great comic timing – I loved Shoka going for the window. She’s a fantastic straight man for this bizarre narrative. And the bug battle, what a wonderfully silly situation. Lion King parodies don’t hurt my affection for this either. I’ll definitely keep reading.

Majo no Moribito 11: And then there’s this new title too. Definitely didn’t give the immediate positive impression of Moriking or Agravity Boys. But that said, I quite liked this chapter. They’ve stumbled upon a new witch/guardian pair, and the witch is actually very kind-hearted while the guardian is a total stickler for the rules. A much more intriguing premise than the cut-and-dry situations we’ve seen so far. So yeah, yet another chance for this title to do something good.

The Promised Neverland 175: woah, woah, wait – Lewis is just sorting everything out exactly as Emma wanted. It feels like a hurried wrap-up of the story. I sincerely hope there’s at least a bit more tension and one more powerful arc. And I guess there will be, as we still don’t know what Emma’s promise was.

One Piece 976: Oyabun!! Great to see Jinbei show up here, even if it was to deal with a relatively minor threat. And good on lil’ Momonosuke for being so bold in this crisis situation. Let’s hope the action continues to build from here!

Agravity Boys 16: Even in a chapter without much Chris, I chuckled quite a few times. The three idiots winning over the prison population was a lot of fun. But let’s get on to the time-travel shenanigans. Always fun!

Haikyuu!! 389: haha, smug Kageyama! But this just makes me feel like he’s going to be overcome in the end.

Chainsawman 65: wow, that was a massacre. I’m hoping not all these deaths stick, but I’ve been surprised when expecting that before with this title. Very inventive with the violence, I can definitely say that!

Dr. Stone 146: aww, I liked Ginrou’s little moment of surprising maturity here. I hope he can grow beyond comic relief, fun as he is in that role. Kind of weird to see alcohol celebrated so much in a Jump manga for kids, though…!

The Promised Neverland 174: hrmm, I kind of wanted Mama to be the final antagonist, but then I’d probably want her to be redeemed even if she were in that role. Guess it’ll be Lewis. This still feels a bit … adrift.

Guardian of the Witch 10: Hrmm, so I guess the training montage at least isn’t going to be drawn-out. But there was also nothing clever or convincing about it. I’m starting to feel about this the same I used to feel about Samurai 8.  

One Punch Man (webcomic)130: so it wasn’t a baseflip in the manga, merely a base raise, but this was still visually awesome. This is probably the best part of the webcomic, from here on, but now we have a huge Orochi-Psychos amalgam thrown into the mix. Snippets of the S-class getting saved were nice, especially poor Child Emperor, and we got a few snatches of Saitama too. But as usual, King stole the show, and Tareo’s reactions around him and to seeing Genos were very sweet.

One Punch Man (webcomic) 122: Ooh, now this is interesting – Amai Mask’s story has reached its logical conclusion already. But what next? What happens once Saitama is on the scene? Will Amai Mask try to defeat Saitama? Or will Saitama in some way cover for him? It’s going to be interesting to see. I hope we find out soon and not in weeks and weeks.

123: Ohhh! There were three more chapters all dropped today! This is fun. I liked how we saw Suiryuu’s sister, even though Suiryuu wasn’t in the webcomic, and suspect she’ll cause some mayhem at some point. But I want to know what’s happened to Amai Mask. I skimmed the other chapters in Japanese but I’ll wait for the translation because they’re pretty dense dialogue-wise and I’m not in a mood to concentrate on trying to understand.

124: Ahh, I didn’t get the concept of the group having bad names at all when I tried to read in Japanese. That’s a funny angle, and Saitama taking it very seriously works hilariously well. Seeing Suiryuu show up in the webcomic is interesting too. I bet he’ll clash hard with his sister at some point, which will be fun to see. And yes, the heroes dividing their power so much will make for interesting developments I’m sure.

125: Here we get a proper introduction of Blue, who I’m guessing will be a major antagonist before too long. It seems odd that these guys were all hidden away, especially the sumo guy, but it’s fun to have a new lineup of weirdoes. It was very satisfying having all these chapters to read, but I want more action from Saitama!