The new One Punch Man from Murata-sensei turned out to be revisions to chapter 99 through to 102 for the next tankobon. We knew at the end of the last volume that his decision to change the design of Doutei-kun’s cockpit would mean a huge amount of work, but I didn’t expect THIS much. I wouldn’t talk about just art fixes, but this was a major story rewrite. Unlike most of the Western fandom, Child Emperor is one of my favourite characters, and this is a way more interesting angle, with Phoenix Man taking him to a metaphysical world to talk about him having darkness within him a couple of times – including in penguin mode. Some interesting foreshadowing, and having Saitama involved definitely improves this whole fight. I laughed at Dotei-kun’s first blunt response (DASASUGIRU!), but what really made me laugh was him TOTALLY misunderstanding Saitama’s sign language. Saitama tries to tell him he’s being loud and to keep it down, which Child Emperor manages to interpret as ‘I don’t want to hear that I’m bald so don’t say it!’ I love One Punch Man.  How much strength Child Emperor drew from Zombieman’s words was also super-sweet, I’m interested if this means Phoenix Man can come back since he just ended up little chick-man, I like how Saitama being there increases Child Emperor’s suspicion of Genos (since he was meant to be excluded) and if we get more revisions on this kind of scale, I won’t mind the main story getting a little delayed. Though at the same time I kinda miss some elements of the original fight, and how Dotei-kun took care of it himself … I’m kinda glad I got to read both.

One Piece 981: Not only was there a nice colour frontispiece this week, we had Luffy on the front cover too. And it looks like we might get Luffy and Zoro dealing with Apoo after all. They’ve been given a strategy to deal with him, and we got the obvious sight gag of our smart characters reacting. Made me laugh, at least. Otherwise, mostly set-up again. This arc has had a bit too much setting-up now, I reckon. Still, Chopper got into an interesting scrape and an old familiar face showed up for the first time in a while, sending Big Mom’s kids blasting off agaaaaain …

Agravity Boys 23: I’ve been expecting this for a couple of weeks, but now we finally go back to Monica, who we knew would be holding a grudge. Geralt used Chris’ picture so the dance of mistaken identities kicked off right away. As usual there were a few laughs. I liked Saga’s extremely poor excuse. And of course Grislow showing up at exactly the wrong time to hear the worst possible lie. As expected this is a superb comedy of errors, and though I still find Monica’s … somewhat exaggerated design a little … erm, would excessive be the right word? Yeah. Excessive definitely covers it.

Chainsawman 72: Time for a trip to Hokkaido, it seems. I liked the fast cut to the poor cat getting an interesting pet-sitter, and his glib response to what omiyage he wanted. It’s kind of nice to see these guys get to relax a bit on the journey, and Power of course acts like a little kid. Like a little brat, I should say. And there’s something oddly poignant about Denji and Power being so obstreperous that Aki was distracted from the usual flood of bad memories when visiting the family grave. It’s such a dark idea that somehow it strikes me as very, very sincere. And then by the end I was laughing at the look of pride on Power’s face when the cooking she and Denji produced proved truly disastrous.

My Hero Academia 274: So Shigaraki knows where to go to find Midoriya. But I still don’t think this is going to be our final showdown. I really like that good ole Kacchan not only figured out what was going on but goes with Midoriya. I guess I’m starting to get why so many people ship them.

Moriking 7: Bless Shota, being worried his pet beetle is going to be taken away. Still, I feel like police in Japanese media may not inspire as many cries of ‘ACAB’ as those in other parts of the world right now. Though one did attempt to shoot an unarmed man who seemed suspicious because he seems so foreign and different. Maybe Moriking is a deep, meaningful allegory after all. Luckily he got a chance to show his amazing abilities and good heart and got thoroughly accepted by the police. If only real life worked that way when armed police drastically overreact, eh?

Haikyuu!! 396: Colour pages here too! The thing I like most about the popularity poll is seeing everyone back in pre-timeskip mode. I miss Noya. At least we know he isn’t dead now though, which I honestly started to suspect before he showed up. I liked the clash of players with a strong desire to be the strongest here. And Hinata shows off some ambidextrous skills. As the final lines note, we’re almost at the end of this journey now. And I have to say, it’s time.

Time Paradox Ghostwriter 4: Very like Boku wa Beatles, Teppei now feels obliged to bring the work he stole into the world where otherwise it won’t exist. The assistants look like a lively bunch, and it’s no surprise the true author – from another timeline – is among them. I quite like the dynamic they’ve set up. Not sure about where we go now, though. I like that his guilt is why Teppei is tortured to extreme perfectionism, but by the end it was just obnoxious.

Guardian of the Witch 17: decided not to leave this one til last this time. This chapter was all the fun of a 30-minute transfusion. Yay. Again, the fact nobody follows wicked orders just feels like weak world-building because there’s no reason we should be persuaded that in normal circumstances everybody is just fine with this horrific system. Claude managed not to die and the main trio just walked out of the situation, apparently. Because apparently the authority figures can just be defied and tied up and there are no consequences. I’m just surprised the manga is continuing. Cancellation soon, I’m sure.

Dr. Stone 153: The humour here felt really off, almost like this was a fan doujin rather than the actual manga. I still don’t like this arc, and I don’t know why Xeno is giving our heroes time to prepare. It feels a bit artificial that this has become a capture-the-king set-up, given Xeno should just be able to massacre the other side, but I’m interested in what little Suica’s role will be!

Bone Collection 6: What happened to Pino? Guess they left her unconscious in the woods. Later on she gets dropped back into the action. Rude. I guess showing the heroes are only using a fraction of their potential helps with the problem I had yesterday, but honestly I’m losing interest in these characters and this scenario. It needs some heart, and pronto.

The Promised Neverland 180: I’m a bit conflicted. I don’t know that the story can end in a satisfying way if Emma and the rest aren’t reunited, and at the same time I’ll be annoyed the promise is meaningless if they do. I guess them being reunited by Emma remembering nothing and them having to rebuild their bonds will be a decent balance but that strikes me as a bit awkward too. Being with this old man who lost his family to war, it’s all feeling a bit contrived, and similarly to what happened with Mama a few chapters back, how artificial it all feels is stopping me feeling any kind of emotional resonance. I’d love to believe that Shirai-sensei can write a satisfying ending but I don’t feel we’re on the right track yet.

Shingeki no Kyojin 129: I really liked the double-page spread, with the stillness of Armin and Connie in shock in the foreground, the perhaps slightly out-of-proportion-with-Armin boat dividing the space, and the chaos in the background, which the two bottom panels are clarifying. I don’t really get why this Odiha place won’t have been destroyed by the Rumbling already, but there’s a new plan in motion. I kinda wanted Armin to be involved but I guess he has to recover. So instead it has to be lil’ Falco to the rescue. He has probably the goofiest Titan, maybe after the Cart, and Gabi stops that pesky Floch. The Cart titan is helping too – AS EXPECTED OF PIECK. Is that still a meme? I’m gonna say that’s still a meme. Fandom meme. Two of the old guys – who if I’m honest I occasionally mixed up - get to make a standard grand gesture, and generally we’re on to the next stage of the story. This little plane raid subplot ended up surprisingly interesting. What’s next?

One Punch Man (webcomic version) 126-8: I love when One retroactively puts characters that first appeared in the manga adaptation back into the webcomic. Great Philosopher looks just wonderful in his style. I’m pretty interested to see what One does with the Neo Heroes now that they’ve gone public. And whether Saitama will care. At all. At the moment he’s just protesting about his uncool name. The Neo Heroes send out their best so of course they show up the mediocre members of the Hero Association, though it was interesting to see Dotei-kun (Child Emperor) impressed by the tech and yet again suspecting Bofoy of having dubious intentions. Relying on tech usually ends badly in manga. Such an illustrious title as Boruto has recently been exploring that idea. But I liked how not every single neo hero was successful. This will all obviously end in a showdown and I’m pretty interested to see how things will escalate. But so far we’re still laying the groundwork. I’m sure it will pick up soon – and hopefully Saitama will get more involved in the next few chapters!

Agravity Boys 22: Not sure about that no-context opening. But the higher being is here, so the chapter will probably be a lot of fun. OR IS HE? OR SHE? OR OTHER? That’s a very strange shape for the higher being, and I love the resentment when they don’t realize the different. I normally hate meta-humour in my manga, but somehow them even missing the differently-shaped speech bubbles made me chuckle. Chris loving to sing heavy metal just makes him even more the perfect being, and the higher being getting so upset at being left out and replaced was strangely adorable. Though his wrath was pretty horrifying, I must say. The punchline was pretty obvious but I laughed nonetheless. A lot of fun, as always.

Boku no Hero Academia 273: As expected, the action kicks up several notches, even if Shigaraki is still far from the action. Toga has been seeming a bit outclassed lately so it’s intriguing to see her go a little crazy after what happened to Twice. I wondered last week if this series was reaching its climax, but the way Shigaraki is acting makes me feel it’s unlikely. It seems to me like he’ll retreat and Gigantomachia will be the main problem the heroes have to deal with. But we’ll see. There aren’t many more hidden cards on this table, unless All for One ends up being able to take over. Shigaraki is definitely the stronger and more iconic adversary here, though, and that flashback to one of the series’ best, creepiest moments where he met Midoriya at the mall and had his hands on his neck just reinforces that. Will Endeavor make it out of this situation? Got to say, all those family scenes raised some pretty prominent character death flags…

Time Paradox Ghostwriter 3: Hmm, this wasn’t very satisfying. There’s been a realistic feeling to what characters say and do up until now, even within a manga about future copies of Jump appearing in microwaves. But this confrontation was just too daft. She wanted him to see her nib so almost stabbed him in the eye? She just accepts they are kindred spirits so accepted they wrote exactly the same story? Mmm, it’s all a bit much. I guess she’ll be more of a rival, but now I really don’t know what interesting places the manga is going to go. I guess I’ll keep giving it a chance and find out.

Moriking 6: The chapter started off a little uneven, with the gags about Oka’s slicing powers falling a bit flat, but the girls interviewing MoriKing and him just coming out with how he’s a pet raised definitely got me laughing again. If anything, it could have been pushed a bit more. Still, I liked the chapter taking on a sentimental tone, that was pretty sweet and makes it feel like there’s more at stake than it might have, had the manga just been all gags all the time.

Chainsawman 71: Ooh colour art and a popularity poll. Kind of fun to see Angel is so high. Poor Denji is 5^th in his own manga, and Pochita makes it to number 9 despite one of the saddest things about the manga being that he didn’t make it past chapter one, at least in the form we see here. As expected, the arc just abruptly ended and we have a bit of a comedown chapter, though we’ve lost some good characters and most of the rest have lost limbs. Poison is also totally traumatized and acting bizarrely. And it was nice that Denji actually put her first and is showing just a little sensitivity. Their shower scene was once again pushing the boundaries of what it feels like should really be in Jump. Though far less so than other chapters, to be fair. At the very least, Chainsawman always feels completely different from anything else in Jump. It reminds me of certain other series that pushed what’s acceptable in shounen manga like Fire Candy and Bokurano. But it’s definitely totally singular and idiosyncratic. In a very good way. Interested to know what’s next.

Haikyuu!! 395: Hmm, an Ushijima chapter. A character whose whole personality is being the strong, silent type doesn’t make for the most exciting side story. The unsurprising revelation about his father raised a little smile but I can’t say I care that much about the big cow.

Bone Collection 5: Ooookay, so Abe’s design was basically not the design we’ll be seeing going forward. It’s a pretty girl’s technique to look that way. Throwaway gag or editorial intervention? Or maaaybe the plan all along? Either way, it was jarring. I feel like the point of the series is undermined a bit when the combined power of our heroes doesn’t actually match up to this random genius kid’s. And her being able to grant them amnesty is very contrived. We’ll see what happens.

Dr. Stone 152: Still not liking this arc. I’m not pumped for a science showdown, I’m still lamenting how the main characters have lost what makes them unique. They do still have their revival fluid as a very unique asset, but I just don’t know that this arc is going to be particularly enjoyable.

The Promised Neverland 179: colour pages here too. I actually really loved the frontispiece, with the main trio looking so peaceful with the younger kids around him, but those tattoos totally undermining the sweetness there. I’ve been pretty negative about Yakusoku no Neba-rando recently, but this reminds me of how it made me feel in the early days. And the chapter continues to answer some of the big questions I had. There does indeed seem to be more to the promise, and here we see that there are Ratri in the human world, which is a bit of a cliché sci-fi nationless world. I can let the loose ends from the demon world go. If there really is a cost to the new promise, not just Emma being separated from the others, and if there’s some exploration of the fact that these humans have been fine with the status quo so far with all the moral implications that brings, I think I’ll be pretty satisfied overall. But it looks like our final arc will be Saving Private Emma.

Majo no Moribito 16: The chapter title, ‘Last Stand’, had heavy cancellation vibes. Again, the action doesn’t seem very fluid or connected, and the dialogue is clunky. Predictably, Claude did a total U-turn and joined the good guys as soon as he saw them protecting his partner Spica. Very original. Now for the counterattack, the cliffhanger leaving us in no doubt will be a cakewalk for our heroes. Still expecting Claude to die but maybe not, since there’s probably not going to be much more of this series so they don’t need to worry about him and Spica complicating things down the line. I don’t see this getting better and if I didn’t think it would be over in a few weeks, I’d probably drop it.