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.

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.