Issue 17 Votes!
1. Ichi the Witch - Gosh I can only imagine how this will hit in the anime if the music is anywhere near what they used for the newborn scene in FMAB. Not at all something I expected to see in Jump but done quite masterfully. Not to mention fleshing out a fantasy setting to the point of explaining how doctors can use magic to rotate a baby around in the womb mid-labor like it’s gmod is both hilarious and crazy creative. Ichi feels like a dog that sees his owner’s baby for the first time, and the Jikishirone dap was elite. No notes.
2. Akane-banashi - Somehow this series is a masterclass on baiting me into thinking “wait are they actually trying to turn this into a romance?” and then immediately subverting that. I do really love their relationship though, the way they’re driving each other and how they bounce off of each other so well, they’re really starting to become comparable levels of shonen rivals that we usually expect from our Naruto/Sasuke archetypes (Sorry Hikaru/Karashi, you’ll need to settle with being each others’ rivals). The dance was an amazing precursor and I can’t wait to see how the different interpretations of God of Death pan out (not to mention, the long-awaited glimpse of Issho’s work that will come after all of this to give a sense of what the true final boss is like).
3. Nue’s Exorcist - While some could say there’s a lot of tropey or over-convenient stuff happening here, I’ve kind of learned to have the mindset surrounding Nue that this is just the nature of the series; the damsel who is facing some form of distress will be saved, the character who we care about that’s in some form of moral peril will find a way to be redeemed, and Gakuro will not lose any of his girls. I personally enjoyed the unexpected severing of Soranaki’s personalities, and while I think the Gekka transformation felt a little too free the way it was right there (perhaps just due to circumstance, I guess Gakuro earned it by severing Soranaki), I do really like how Gakuro functionally failed to save the day in the immediate moment and needed Soranaki to step in and protect Gekka. This tells me that Gakuro, despite his rampant emotion-driven powerscaling, has more growing to do still if he wants to protect everyone, and I suspect Soranaki will show him some of that in the remainder of this fight. I do hope and expect that good boy Soranaki will die once the space beast Soranaki is defeated, much like how we saw Suzaku was slain even after we were able to warm up (heh) to her.
4. Under Doctor - Good backstory to have, and surprisingly brutally realistic moment to see. I do feel like the our-timeline surgery got shafted due to seeing the one in the past take place, but I still think this was a pretty solid chapter and reprieve from the finger-poking action, which I suspect will probably be back next week.
5. Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi - I’m impressed in the immediate moment with Bubsy’s death (assuming it sticks) and the fact that even super cocaine Shishido doesn’t seem to have done much of anything to Bobo is a good sign this is gonna be an earnest slap fest. Kiyoshi aurafarming and being coated in sweat bullets at the same time was a great maintenance of the whimsical nature of the story, even in a deadly moment.
6. Witch Watch - I’m really glad Keigo and Nemu found their way to each other before the fighting started, and I’ll be curious to see what role Nico plays in this weird ball interaction between Morihito and Shikimi. I’ll also be curious to see what Hibana does amidst all this, as she is the villain’s emotional centerpiece in terms of “we need to save her”. Eager to see what this final conflict will taste like.
7. Someone Hertz - Just always a pleasure to see these dorks bumbling around, and we got some great solo Mizuo content, something which we haven’t gotten to see a ton of yet. Using the radio show to find each other again was pretty comical, and the fact that they were just vibing to jokes during the big stereotypical romantic fireworks was great.
8. Blue Box - Taiki reminding everyone that it’s possible to be on top of business and still make time to love your partner. A lot of funny moments here, and using the call-back setting to make a verbal analogy tying into the series’ title is a very reasonable maneuver.
9. Shinobi Undercover - For the size of the arc as a whole, the burden in Kasasagi’s heart of a hopeless situation and being given the strength to escape it was done at a good and slow pace to get here, so I’m very much looking forward to the dialog next chapter. Hibari yoinking one of Yodaka’s moves instead of unlocking her kekkai like Umineko did is pretty funny too, not to mention how caught off guard by it the clan head was, like these ninja clans really wanted these arts buried for a reason huh.
10. Sakamoto Days - I love seeing this relationship Shishiba and Osaragi have where they’re fighting for each other and they’re also both kinda only fighting because they don’t want the other person to be lonely. Like they are both one conversation away from fully quitting the assassin life but since neither of them is gonna admit they wanna do it it just continues to extend their contract. I imagine once this whole battle is over we’re likely to see them chilling out though, perchance running one of Sakamoto’s chain shops? Not sure how comically reductive of a character outcome that would be but it would be hilarious to see Shishiba in a retail outfit and set a precedent for Sakamoto hiring a lot of ex-assassins who are trying to escape the biz.
11. Me & Roboco - The way this reads like the most gripping psychological thriller is hilarious, and some of the faces are genuinely novel for Roboco’s standards.
12. Hima-Ten! - These last few chapters have done leaps and bounds for Kanna’s character and I’m actually loving the role she’s playing in terms of just busting down walls and saying things/getting people to say things they would otherwise shy away from and regret later. I only hope this doesn’t get spun into another chest-flashing show at the end like it did last time.
13. Hero Girl and Demon Lord Call It Quits - This was a really whimsical time, and I think I was genuinely surprised by seeing the Demon Lord’s smile. My whole perception of him and his emotional complexity got turned on its head just from seeing him go from his usual monotone face to that slight smile that emphasizes the tired bags in his eyes and the awkward hesitance in the expression surrounding expressing laughter/joy. He definitely feels more human after this chapter, and I suspect that feeling will increase as the remaining chapters go on.
14. Kinato’s Magic - This definitely ramped up the overall tone of the series, as we’re actually getting human vs. human social conflict now. Also in a situation where the Hero is basically fighting the local government already, not to mention the rival guild, though I suspect these early-game rivals won’t be quite so antagonistic to our guild for too long, save for a normal superficial/business-oriented shared antagonism that is bound to happen with guilds.
15. Alien Headbutt - That is a reasonable way to make someone other than the main character sustainable as a fighter in this escalating alien conflict, I suppose. The panel was actually quite jarring, but I can tell our protagonist has an impressive amount of optimism in him. I can’t say I can say the same for this series’ survival though, looking at the ranking for next time… which I assumed was gonna happen, but oh well. Maybe a cancellation notice will spur the mangaka to just kill Tatsumi and go full dark scifi for the back half? Who knows.
16. One Piece - How did this get down here? This was a fairly good One Piece chapter by all metrics I care for. I guess this week was just that peak… but, we got a tease of something bizarre with Choppers ability, which might confirm some theories that have been floating around for several years now. We also have the stage set for what is likely going to be a very chaotic time between Luffy, Loki, and Imu-nko, so it’ll be exciting to see how big a scale that covers and where it leaves us in terms of what to do after this arc.
17. Mage Next Door - It’s a pretty stock standard chapter, to be honest. Big bad shows up, says we can’t hold hands and be happy, and good guy says we can be friends. I guess that makes sense given that we now know this series is ending in 2 chapters, but it leaves me with very little to talk about.
18. Gonron Egg - Okay Ohma’s design implies one of 2 things. Either he absorbed energy from Gonron and that influenced how he came out, or he stayed way too long in the egg and that ended up messing with his head so much that his hair came out just as chopped and egg-shaped as Gonron’s did. I get designing a character transformation with aspects of the form we recognize from them (the hair eye was kinda cool lowkey) I don’t think every animal that hatches from an egg has some defining design feature that resembles an egg. If Tanizaki finds a way to do manga work again I really hope he strays from this hairstyle specifically.
So yeah, basically everything but the bottom 2 was great. Hard to beat this issue for sure, this the kind of issue I’d be compelled to buy at some point. Been a while since I’ve done a full issue review too, that felt nice.
