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!