One Piece 980: As expected, the action gets started with a bang. Zoro was hilarious, telling Luffy off for something while doing the same thing much worse. Some of these minor adversary characters look pretty interesting, and Eustass Kid springing into action with his spectacular ability is always going to be pretty cool to watch. I would have liked to have seen how Luffy would deal with Apoo’s tricky ability without any help, though.

 Agravity Boys 21: Another great chapter. Though it didn’t tie in with the immediately preceding ones at all! Also good for this manga to show that it can be funny even when Chris isn’t at the centre of the story – he appeared here, but mostly to just be the outraged tsukkomi, or straightman character. But somehow this competition of who knows Geralt the best was absolutely hilarious, from the mercurial judging to the random questions from the ‘glasses’ category. And the ending to it was oddly touching. Totally inconsequential, very silly, but extremely entertaining and well-done. This continues to be the best gag manga I’ve read in a very long time. What have I read that’s funnier? Maybe Azumanga Daioh? Yakitate!! Japan?

Boku no Hero Academia 272: Yup, like I said last week, Shigaraki waking up here is going to really bring the action to a head – but it also gives a heavy impression of the series reaching its endgame. Just like Tanjirou and the Hashira and his other comrades clashing with Muzan is clearly where Kimetsu no Yaiba reaches its climax, Midoriya having a big showdown with the empowered form of Shigaraki could be where this title ends. On the other hand, with Midoriya-shounen only just getting to grips with new powers from his One-For-All predecessors and plenty more possible character arcs for the ensemble, we might see the battle end with no clear winner and this could be no more a final showdown than Naruto fighting Orochimaru was. We’ll see. Probably BnhA will continue for a few more years, that’s my gut feeling. At the very least, this story development is a devastating blow for the heroes. Fs in the chat for Crust.

Moriking 5: Yep, just as I thought – a gag manga with ridiculously overblown battles. Man, I’m getting a lot of points in the ‘told you so’ chart this week. Well, it was one or two panels that were overblown, but give it time, it’s clearly going in that direction. I enjoyed Oka’s display of power, and then Moriking’s very silly yet very serious response. This is a neat parody, complete with the wonderfully cheesy post-battle dialogue, but it maybe wasn’t all that inventive or original. I wonder if Oka will be a powerful ally in future?

Time Paradox Ghostwriter 2: Another colour page, eh? Very extravagant! But I feel this was the right way for the drama to go. He gets another copy of Jump from the future – and has to confront the fact that he didn’t come up with the idea in a dream, but totally ripped it off. Now, though, he assumes that because he published the story and it will no longer be possible to publish it in the future, he must be in a divergent timeline and can continue – and yep, the manga has ‘time paradox’ in the title, after all. This is actually very similar to Boku wa Beatles, the quirky little manga I’ve been reading about guys who travel back in time and start releasing Beatles tracks as their own – very similar moral conundrums are raised. Though here I guess we just have to take the word of the characters that the manga in question is that good. Not that many manga, even classic ones, are that good when they first start out, after all. But that’s just what we have to accept for the sake of the story. And already, his misdeeds are catching up with him. I’m interested to see next week’s confrontation. And of course the mangaka whose future work Teppei is ripping off is a real beauty. Of course.

Chainsawman 70: While it’s characteristic of Chainsawman to end things very quickly and simply, and actually a positive of the writing most of the time, I feel a bit short-changed here. Denji wins his fight but it’s largely a pyrrhic victory because this is just one of the many Santa Claus dolls in a vast network. But another of the enemies of the arc comes and sorts out that problem that would be impossible for Denji, and then Makima just has to sort them out. And while I guess it’s possible they’ll survive and return, that’s not really the Chainsawman style. While I did love the way Santa Claus was dealt with and the absolutely wonderful idea that when all the knowledge of the universe is poured into your mind, all you can think about from then on is Halloween – that’s just a brilliant piece of absurdist, macabre, twisted thinking that I love. It’s absolutely some of the twisted conceptual thinking that makes this series special. But it’s part of a cheap set-up that I disliked, which has left me feeling a bit dissatisfied. Things are just gonna go back to normal next time, after we saw these absurd levels of power on display. How much more can the dial really be turned up from here?

Bone Collection 4: from a really unique series to one really struggling to stand out as anything but generic. Still, it’s an enjoyable read. It amused me that Rino is just carrying a picture of Paira around, that’s how much she hates her. But compared with just how clever Agravity Boys is with maximizing the comedy of each new event, or how flat-out absurd Moriking is right from the description of the premise, Bone Collection struggles as a comedy. But with Abe, apparently extremely powerful, already on the scene and witness to Kazami’s crime, this might be more compelling as a drama, and after all, One Piece does dramatic storylines with a very comedic tone brilliantly. Perhaps Bone Collection can go in that direction.

Dr. Stone chapter 151: Hmm, I still have the same qualms I had last week. I really don’t like it when a new character can do everything that makes our hero special, but better. And that’s clearly happening here. They look so ridiculously villainous, too. I wonder if the fact they’re speaking English here will be remembered or not. I quite liked the primitive polygraph test and how that played to Gen’s strengths, but I’m really not sold on this arc yet.

Haikyuu!! 394: One of the real strengths of Haikyuu!! is that Furudate-sensei really knows how to give characters quirks and idiosyncrasies that are believable enough to be realistic. It’s a real trope of anime and manga that everyone has to have their key character points and be easy to understand, but when it’s subtle like Sakusa just liking to see everything seen through to the end and done neatly, with the proper preparation and the proper execution, it just works. But that’s not to say it’s necessarily that interesting. I’d actually say this chapter focusing on Sakusa was pretty boring. Elegant, but dull.

The Promised Neverland 178: someone asked me what I meant by the loose ends still left in YnN, and the two big ones were Emma’s promise and what bearing it had on the story overall, and then what they were going to do once they were in the human world, which after all supported this status quo where human children were raised as cattle and brutally murdered, the key hook the whole series was hung from, to use a maybe slightly unfortunate phrase. Then there are small nitpicks like where are all the numerous rebels amongst the demons there would inevitably be and was there seriously nobody who would take up Ratri’s cause once he was just talked out of his life’s work in a few panels by Emma? Well, this chapter dealt with the big ones, at least. The promise, well, it apparently was perfect with no need for quid pro quo, but I’m hoping there’s actually some twist to that. And now they’re in the human world, actually arriving in New York of all places, and the story isn’t over yet. I really am hoping for one more arc confronting the morality of this world, rather than a few easy wrap-up chapters. Everything has been way too convenient basically since the confrontation with the Queen, and for me at least, the rushed and unconvincing way this has been wrapping up hasn’t sat well at all. But there’s still hope for a satisfying ending, and I’m going to withhold judgement until I see where this goes.

Majo no Moribito 15: Always the last thing I read – totally taking the place of Samurai 8 at the bottom of the pile. There’s always something off about this series, something that feels amateurish. Claude flattened Fafner and then he just got back up again somehow, in a tiny panel that was very confusing in terms of why Claude allowed him to stand. Fafner had no counter to the gravity attack, but Claude just didn’t use it again and then the fight got interrupted. Seems like a really cheap way to get out of writing yourself into a corner. And the very premise at the core of this story seems faulty – the protector has to kill the witch when she’s too close to turning into an unstoppable evil, and one of the very first duos the heroes come across have the same moral qualms. Maybe we can just about accept that they only doubt because of the influence of the heroes, even though Claude didn’t really get much opportunity to be influenced, but can we really buy that this kind of rebellion doesn’t happen all the time when pairs who have bonded over months or years have to turn on each other? It seems like it would be happening very frequently, if we’re honest. Majo no Moribito stands on flimsy world-building, has next to no humour, average art, a poor grasp of fluid motion, a generic world and characters that aren’t especially interesting. Honestly, I don’t think it deserves to have shared pages with Kimetsu no Yaiba at all, and if it doesn’t improve drastically soon, I can see it getting cut before too long.

Boruto 44-46: Really? Space aliens? I didn’t realize I’d missed two months of Boruto, but I’m not exactly desperate to check it out. And now that I have, urgh, it’s not that I wish I hadn’t, but I can’t get past the fact that they’re revealing that the antagonists here are evil aliens from space. Because without that, if they were just regular baddies who were sucking out all the chakra of the world for their own purposes, that would have been fine. Other than this one detail, this wasn’t a particularly bad scenario. I even like how we had a betrayal and the guy making all these ninja devices defecting, if I didn’t particularly like his hostage-taking. I like his design and how ordinary he looks. I’m kind of interested in how his robot uses techniques like Jiraiya’s. But I just can’t get over the space aliens angle. The Naruto universe just isn’t goofy like Dragon Ball’s. And I guess it’s a bit of a microcosm for Boruto in general. There are plenty of things done right by the spin-off, but it’s always outweighed by the big, glaring problems it always puts right in the middle of everything.  

Kimetsu no Yaiba 205: The last chapter. This was actually in last week’s Jump, but I’m slipping it in now because, well, it was the last chapter and this was a great series. I’ll probably make a full video about it at some point, but it didn’t feel right to not include it. This was actually a very interesting way to do an epilogue chapter in a way that gives a happy ending despite how much tragedy we went through to get to this point. I’ve got a lot I want to say about the series overall, which in storytelling terms was a very simple one, but this particular chapter was just such a nice way to end everything. Through reincarnation we could see so many familiar faces and it almost feels like everyone got their happy ending. Being less than charitable, you could call this cheesy, but maybe because of the emotional rollercoaster of the final confrontation, I for one am happy to let it slide. A fantastic manga in the end, and I hope to see the rest adapted to anime form.

Kuroshitsuji 164: Quite the change of pace. Most of this chapter was Mei-Lin’s transformation from a raggedy assassin everyone thinks is a boy to a much more feminine maid. Including getting her glasses. Can’t say it was that engaging, even with the seamstress’s extrovert personality, but as a breath of relief after a pretty intense flashback full of assassination attempts and kids getting thrown off the top of buildings, it was welcome. Will we go back to the present day after this?

Dr. Stone 150: Like I kind of expressed in my thoughts about Haikyuu!!, I really don’t like it when a manga introduces an adversary who just does what the main character does in similar circumstances, but better. Even if the hero manages to overcome their rival, they just no longer seem unique. I don’t know if that’s what’s happening here, there may well be a twist like the Americans are being guided by an AI or have reference materials to follow. We’ll see.

Bone Collection 3: This manga continues to swing between unfunny boob jokes and genuinely funny gags. I liked the easily-bribed headmaster and Rino’s weird reaction to this absurd situation. Their confrontation was kinda funny but as a gag manga, this is totally getting outclassed by Agravity Boys and Moriking. We’ll see if a more serious challenge from this Abe character makes the series a bit more compelling.

The Promised Neverland 177: From what I’ve seen, others in the fandom are actually moved by this situation but it just seems way too contrived to resonate with me. In other circumstances I could see this same situation having a high impact but it was just set up in such a fake way. I think the character was a good one and did get redeemed even if a lot of her more sinister behaviour was just skipped over but this was just too rushed and artificial for me.

Majo no Moribito 14: Okay, almost nothing happened here. Yes, there was a fight scene, and I guess there was a deeply unimpressive new power revealed in the flame shield, but the attacks from the current adversary character were the same as before and compared with the inventive and quirky fights that the best of the Jump titles constantly put out.

Agravity Boys 20: Aw, I thought this was going to be a boring chapter but it was great. Of course, Chris showing up instantly dispelled that first impression. And now for the first time we’ve had a reason to pay attention to Luo and found out he’s super strong. I absolutely loved that the way this was demonstrated was through classic wrestling moves. Nakamura-sensei has such a great grasp of comic timing. Of course, Grislow still having the wrong idea about Chris is wonderful. There’s something that doesn’t feel particularly woke about the comedy of misgendering people, but hey, it worked for Shakespeare, it’s a staple of anime and manga humour, it’s not as though Chris is anything other than a cis male so it’s simple a case of the humour being that Grislow is so dead wrong, and hey, it’s just really funny and cute. Tie in some callbacks to last chapter and I really enjoyed this. I’m glad Luo is substantially more interesting now, too.

Boku no Hero Academia 271: Yes, I’m now up-to-date with BnHA, so I can talk about the latest chapter. And we’re in a really exciting spot – it almost feels like this is the climactic arc too, depending on whether Shigaraki actually wakes up here. Tokoyami is up there with Froppy for favourite minor characters in this series, so it’s nice to see him rush to Hawks’ aid and as soon as he showed up last chapter I got worried he’d be the big casualty of this arc, which would be pretty tragic. There’s something fundamentally funny about diffusing the tension of the moment by cutting to Giant Lady’s giant, uh … booty (not my words), but I’m definitely invested in the outcome of this battle. If Gigantomachia is going to join the battle after all, and especially if Shigaraki wakes up, this is going to be bad news for our heroes.

Moriking 4: Here we have a new character introduced, Oka Makiri. I like her hat – but with it and the gloves, I’m suspecting she might be a rival for Moriking. Oh okay, a few pages later, that suspicion was confirmed, so I suppose it wasn’t really meant to be a huge mystery. Of course Shoko just happens to meet this enemy while working at Gusto, err sorry, Gus-Cho. Not much of a confrontation, more of a verbal smackdown, but I’m oddly eager for more.

Chainsawman 69: A simple battle, but Denji being simple is if anything the charm of this series. I guess this extremely powerful being was overcome with a tug-of-war and sheer perseverance. Not the most inventive or enjoyable chapter, but one that makes sense for Chainsawman.

Haikyuu!! 393: Eh, a Hoshiumi chapter. I never liked Hoshiumi or how his presence in this story consistently made Hinata seem less unique and interesting. It was quite funny to see Bokuto read so easily, though. And not for the first time this game, I’m a bit annoyed that people are treating fairly basic feint strategies and reactions to them as super elite-level.

Time Paradox Ghostwriter 1: another new Jump series, starting with some nice colour pages. This is a weird setup almost like Stein’s Gate getting smushed together with Bakuman – a young aspiring mangaka starts receiving copies of Jump from ten years in the future. I rather like the art, which is a little reminiscent of Bakuman’s Takeshi Obata, my favourite manga artist since his work on Hikaru no Go, my favourite manga. I like Teppei, a good-hearted guy, and as Bakuman showed us, manga about the process of publishing manga are pretty interesting. Though I have to say I was wondering how Majou no Moribito got through this rigorous process. I’m not sure the kids reading this are going to be that moved by the idea of a guy in his mid-20s failing to succeed in his field and coming close to giving up, but hey, it resonates with me and it’s not as though only kids read Jump these days. Teppei gets a copy of Jump from the future, thinks it was a dream and rips off the story he read in there and loved – and now will have to deal with the consequences. Pretty interesting stuff – I’m curious to see how this will be developed!

One Piece 979: Another set-up chapter, not the most exciting or amusing but I’m still grateful we’re out of the long flashback sequence. There were some laughs seeing Chopper get excited about being able to command a tank and how well the more sensible members of the Mugiwara crew know the less sensible ones. I’m interested in Kaido’s big announcement and whether his son is someone we already know well, but more interested in the chaos Luffy is bound to cause here.

Agravity Boys 19: I still read this title “A-gravity Boys” but I suppose I should say it more like how the katakana suggests. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I’d tune in for Chris’ streams. And it’s good to know that in a far-off world many many years from now the streaming will be very much Nico Nico Douga-style. He’s pretty much exactly the kind of character I like and his first stream was adorable. I may not care too much for maid outfits – that’s a pretty Japanese thing I’d say – but I almost want a whole series about Chris’ misadventures as a galactic livestreamer. I guess last week’s new character needs to get involved here, though. It’s pretty fun that this kind of manga is in Jump. Hope it’s popular and has a long, long run.

Yotsubato! 108-9: Yanda and Yotsuba’s frenemy dynamic is definitely the best thing about this manga. And there’s a lot that’s good about this manga, which is still consistently the sweetest and most adorable thing around. Yotsuba’s methods to persuade others were adorable. Generally I need to check more often if there’s new chapters of this wonderful series.

Bone Collection 1: I’ve been trying all the new Jump manga out lately, which has been great in the cases of Agravity Boys (or ‘Aggravity’ as I should probably pronounce it) and Moriking, but disappointing in the case of Majou no Moribito. Bone Collection … I’m not sure about. Basically, monsters attack and high-school exorcists fight them. One hapless exorcist befriends a super-powerful one and can use her powers to be super-strong. My first impressions were bad - generic humour about boobs does nothing for me, and the main character has a very generic look apart from weird lower eyelashes. The gag manga tendencies didn’t sit well, but the serious side of it mostly came over as a poor version of Kekkaishi. But towards the end, as Kazami showed he’s used to defying social norms and has won over a very powerful yokai, I started to be won over a little. I’ll keep reading for a while but I might drop this. It’s certainly not bad like Samurai 8 was bad. 

Moriking 3: Let’s be honest, at least in Tokyo, nobody would look twice at someone who looked like they had a big beetle horn coming out of their hat. They’d barely look twice when he started flying. Still, I’m continuing to very much enjoy this gag manga, and once again it’s Shoko playing the straightman role that really makes this work. A fun read every week so far. Again, hope this continues a good long time.

Chainsawman 68: Guess I was flat-out wrong last time. Denji did have a crisis of conscience and doesn’t want to be a murderer. Once again, the art, fluidity and sheer macabre imagination on display here is very impressive even if for me this arc lacks focus somewhat. Chainsawman always goes at a breakneck pace, though, so I’m sure it will wrap up soon.

Haikyuu!! 392: Heyyy, a Bokuto chapter. Absolutely the best character from this manga, after Hinata. And I’m still not on board with this post-timeskip non-cute Hinata. I thought perhaps we’d go into more depth on his tendency to get tilted, but it seems he conquered that in the timeskip and is now just an outright powerhouse – while charismatic as ever.

Dr. Stone 149: As I thought last time, we’ll be seeing some human life here in the post-apocalyptic US. Most of the chapter built up to that revelation, and there was a remarkable show of hostility. But where will this arc go from here? I somehow doubt it will just be a good vs evil showdown. The last arc was a bit too much of that. We’ll see.

Bone Collection 2: I still really don’t like the main character’s design, with those weird eyelashes. But this chapter was very funny. The ecchi stuff I can take or leave but the comic timing of the Gashadokuro’s reaction to an historical image made me laugh out loud. And cutting straight from silly fight to family meeting made me chuckle too. And what an interesting way for the haughty big brother to be humbled, too. Last time, I felt like Bone Collection was a mediocre action manga with some awkward gags, but it might just become a very funny gag manga with some action scenes. I hope so.

Majou no Moribito 13: a bit of the ole talk-talk-no-jutsu. It was quite heartfelt, so even if this was yet another super-generic chapter, I didn’t hate it. I imagine having this witch actually come with the main cast will be too complicated, so she’s going to end up dying to save either our main character or, more likely, this stickler-for-the-rules guardian. Hopefully I’ll be surprised, but given the precedent set, I don’t feel it’s that likely.

The Promised Neverland 176: Nice frontispiece this week, after the break last time. I almost wish the memes about Phil being the ultimate evil of this title came true. For me, this was a bit overly mawkish and YnN has been a bit off the rails since roughly when Emma had to go and make the new promise. This almost felt like it was going to be the very last chapter, but a bit of somewhat artificial tension got added, and Mama gets to make a grand gesture. I really can’t tell if this wildly successful series is about to just wrap up or if there’s another arc to come. There’re still a lot of unanswered questions but for a series that started out so beautifully-paced and intriguing, it really does feel haphazard to me, jerking between clumsy action scenes and bathos without really giving me the impression of a solid plan. We’ll see where it goes. But it seems likely the end is nigh. If this and Kimetsu no Yaiba both end soon, there’ll be a bit of a gap in Jump for serious drama series, as most of what’s started lately has been comedy. And, I mean, Majou no Moribito just ain’t gonna cut it.  

D. Gray-Man 236: Poor Allen. He was a good boy. And our Allen attempting to understand Mana’s emotional state was oddly fascinating to read. And it looks like we’ll finally learn where Cross Marian comes into this picture. I certainly hope Hoshino-sensei gets to tell her story in full. It’s clear a lot of this was planned a very long time ago. D.Gray-Man may have a fraction of the audience it used to have when it was in Jump, as opposed to one of the various SQ magazines, but if anything it’s more interesting to me now than it ever used to be, and is just as polished and well-drawn as ever.