Naruto 620: Much as I have decried Naruto for the last three years or more, and horrible as it is to have to force flashback-storytime into the story after making the characters desperate to rush off to war, I’m quite enjoying this latest bit of zombie-time. More than when they first appeared, the Hokage are showing their absurd power even without fighting, and Orochimaru is finally transcending being made a joke for so long. Finding this surprisingly enjoyable. 

One Piece 698 wasn’t action-packed, but it had a lot of progression, and a cliffhanger appearance of a very awesome, familiar face. Glad this isn’t the end of Smoker, and very interested to see what affect Law’s bargaining has had…

Naruto 619 was actually my favourite chapter in a very long time, because it was so wrong. These greats of the created mythos just stand around chatting and picking apart the stories that have underpinned the main characters’ actions for so long now. It was strange, and varied, and compelling – everything Naruto has not been in a very long time.  

Soul Eater 105: So begins the battle with Crona, who pulled a variety of weird, often wonderful faces, many of them looking like a puppet. Such an odd and brilliant antagonist. I only hope some of the old complexity of feeling returns.

Soul Eater 106: Aww. This isn’t progressing as I wanted it to. Maka and Papa solved things a little too easily, so to power Crona up to answer that, we’ve had to see a transformation to a different antagonist altogether. Shame! But at least it leads back towards a final reunion.  

Soul Eater 103: Oho! I rather regret having left it a good few months before resuming reading Soul Eater, as at long last this arc is getting to what it’s been promising – and all of it at once. The Kishin finally appearing has been remarkable in a number of ways, and the art that came with it was some of the weirdest I’ve seen in any mainstream comic. And not only that, but in the final panels, Crona has finally reappeared to play his (or her) hand – whatever that may be!

Gopher’s reaction faces continue to be a riot, too – a subtle, contextual bit of comic relief.

Soul Eater 104: An escalation, as well as a brilliant bit of comedy antics with teleportation. It’s looking increasingly like Crona’s arc here will be the one that will bring the manga as a whole to a close, and honestly that works very nicely to me. It’s great to see Crona back in action, and not as I feared just as a disembodied head. The chapter is also a reminder that Maka is perhaps a unique example of a female shounen protagonist who is defined more by that role than by her gender, which is excellent in terms of progressiveness and makes her very interesting. Great chapter. 

One Piece 697 had two elements: sending the kids and marines away, which came with a slightly awkward but also somewhat touching bit on the awkward way the Marines have to see the Straw Hats are much better people than most of their superiors, yet it conflicts with their loyalty – and Trafalgar Law’s plan regarding Doflamingo, which has him with the upper hand for now. Quite fun!

Naruto 618, to its credit, at least diverged from that irritating and prolonged battle to follow Sasuke and Orochimaru, and what they were doing actually turned out to be quite interesting. More silly zombies, yes, but ones we’ve seen before. 

One Piece 695: the whole crew turn out to show off, and do it in style against enemies who didn’t even have a chance against Frankie alone. A little Bambi vs Godzilla but still highly enjoyable, and I loved the frames of the boys reacting with delight to the ‘robot’ and the girls being totally deadpan. And it looks like the action will go up a notch in…

One Piece 696: End of a One Piece arc must mean a party, and I loved Law’s face. The talk at the end of it also hinted for the first time at how One Piece might finally end: with Luffy confronting Shanks. But it’s a long way off. At least four ‘emperors’…and probably the World Government itself come first.

Naruto 616: That, ladies and gents, is what you call an ass-pull. Naruto went through the crowd powering everyone up with high-fives. Yes, really. Kishimoto has long lost the touch of how to be inspirational. The goodbyes from parents to children were also very forced and artificial. The only interesting pages were at the very start, away from the main action.

Naruto 617: enemies and former enemies praise Naruto for surpassing people. We’ve seen this a dozen times already.

Yotsubato! 83c: the third part of the camping chapter was very simple – the girls have fun in a hammock then try to cook curry – but still one of the most fun snippets I’ve ever enjoyed. Yotsubato! Is just great manga. I love watching Miura do just about anything, bless her long socks, and the bratty Ena was cute too.