Mag Talk Weekly Shonen Jump (2026) - News and Discussion!

[Shinuki no Reborn]

Moderator Notice:

WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP THREAD RULES​

#1. No fights or personal insults.
#2. No bait or troll comments with the intention of being annoying or starting serious heated discussions, if i notice it's a continuous behavior, i will warn the user or delete the comment.
#3. No toxic attitude towards series, no one is obligated to enjoy any series and it's totally fine to criticize what you don't like, just avoid posting gratuitous hateful or toxic comments about X or Y series, if i notice this behavior, comments will be deleted.
#4. Don't bring politics or off-topic stuff to the thread, this is about Weekly Shonen Jump magazine and mangas, so keep any conversation about topics that aren't related about anime & manga outside the thread.
#5. Don't post news about series from other magazine or publishers in the WSJ thread, post in the series own thread, but it's fine if you're mentioning other series or magazine to express a opinion or reflection about Shonen Jump.
#6. Any tweet, specially japanese, about news, update or some interesting thing about the magazine or series has to come with a text of what that tweet means and also be on topic, if not it's going to be either deleted or i will edit the post.
#7. Refrain from self advertising or advertising Youtubers videos in the comments.
#8. Constant fanart posts just for the sake of praising a favorite series is prohibited, this rule doesn't apply for official art by Jump artists posted on social media, they're fine to post.
#9. Don't discuss or hype chapter spoilers before Sunday release, only comment if is related to a series surviving status and do it only inside the spoiler tag.
#10. Regarding rule #9, an exception will be made for when we have new series, in this case, spoilers will be allowed only for the first 3 chapters of a new series for the users who are interested in knowing informations and details about the new series, these spoilers will obviously be kept under tags to protect anyone that doesn't want to be spoiled, so don't worry about it.
~ Shinuki

I hope everyone reads the rules and use it as a guide to behave well in the thread, thanks!

 

[Shinuki no Reborn]

Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #46 (2026)
00. Shinobi Undercover (Cover & Lead Color Pages, Spin-off Manga, 2nd Anniversary)
01. Akane-banashi
02. One Piece
03. Sakamoto Days
04. Me & Roboco
05. Ichi the Witch
06. Roku's House of Oddities
00. Someone Hertz (Color Page)
07. Witch Watch
08. Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi
00. The Ura Files (Not Ranked)
00. Banchoism (One Shot by Sai Koroko, Color Page, Golden Future Cup 2026 #3)
00. Under Doctor (Color Page)
00. Graykeith: Translator Daemonica (Not Ranked)
09. Nue's Exorcist
10. Animal Signal
11. Kagurabachi
12. Class 2B Hero Destroyerz
13. Cannon Master
14. Hal Formula

Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #47 (2026) - Information!
Nue's Exorcist (Cover & Lead Color Pages)
Akane-banashi (Color Page)
Me & Roboco (Color Page)
The Young Witch and the Teacher (One Shot by Isshin Mineuchi, Color Page, Golden Future Cup 2026 #4)

 

[DVL101]

Thinking back, and reading other people's thoughts, I could see why people don't mess with 2-B's humor, but I think it's reductive to call it just poop humor, it's just very Japanese biased.

There's the Tsurutaro joke that I think actually echoes back to the Gintama Urashima Taro arc where once they enter the ryuugujou, you've got Zura and Gintoki start bickering with each other, and it goes into a joke about table tennis that keeps on escalating, and if my memory serves me right the whole thing is a whole word play that rhymes, and at the end of it they start fighting and I do think they name drop a boxer that may have been Tsurutaro? Regardless there's no way for the average reader to laugh at that beyond the running joke of him being brought up.

When he goes to the black board to write the solution to the equation only for it to end up as わかりません written out of equations, the impact is really softened when you can only write 'I dunno' at the bottom right corner in small

The whole Doraemon thing is so funny though, it's just a culture check that many who haven't grown up on Doraemon so they won't laugh a bit but, the reveal of him looking that age into him going "I was the same age as Nobita" and it cuts to him next to a bunch of elementary school students, and then the bully goes "You wouldn't look the part if you aired right after Shin-Chan" and then it loops back to Doraemon with the bully accusing him of selling gadgets that Doraemon wouldn't ever touch, and then the big G name drop. To me that's the best page of the chapter but to some others they see Nobita being namedropped and they don't get it at all

It's just typical Sorachi, sometimes as a westerner it flies right over your head, you might not get it when it's a parody of Conan and the shadow criminal thingy but maybe you grew up on Heidi and that one Gintama episode where he pushes Heidi into the ravine (I think that's what happens) is the funniest thing lol. And like it's all very surface level in the end so you don't need to be an expert to get it. I watched the Sket Dance crossover which is a parody of the One Piece / Toriko episode and beyond the whole set design looking very Toriko and them looking for some random food item that happens to be a Devil Fruit there's nothing Toriko (or One Piece) to the whole thing, your viewing experience doesn't fundamentally change if you know the thing being parodied in depth.

But yeah this is to say that I, as a definite 2-B enjoyer so far, I understand why someone would think it's the worst thing in the magazine the same way someone maybe doesn't mess with Roboco who happens to be in my current top 3-5 (depends on how you categorize stuff like HxH and World Trigger) - I think that if this is your first time reading Sorachi, the delimiter on whether you're likely to enjoy it if you keep on reading or not, happens to be the jokes like the shoulder pad one from chapter 1 or the brain recycle bin from this chapter.

 

[Shonenfan]

I’m an American yet I find sorachi hilarious. Does this mean reading manga at such an early age has made me part Japanese in humor???

 

[tirakai]

I speak Japanese and live in Japan, I get the references.

But a full half of the chapter was just toilet jokes.

 

[Shonenfan]

Oh, so there's hope for this one....

It’s tough. The cracks in it are really bad. Like I said in my previous post you quoted, the ethos is really good and after the resolutions you grow a bit with the characters. However it was really weak getting there.

UD author needs to get better at setups and pacing. These next arcs that get longer need to have more intruige. To me the best way to do that is to show how big and cool world is and a lot of fun creative setup and foreshadowing. Set the seeds for both mysteries and future so we theory craft.

Also have some creative and interesting plot beats. It’s been mostly UD is needed, UD arrives, 9/10 really sad but decent person, either UD does the surgery and there is action after or UD is interrupted before surgery, UD fights the villain, good emotional catharsis. I’d also say they need to make the medical ails feel real and untreatable. Don’t tell but show.

In terms of rope, I think this is an Otr situation where it’s king of the heap and will likely only survive the first axing.

 

[tirakai]

For me, I think Under Doctor is weak at action, but pretty good at everything else so far. The drama and the emotional side is good, but it has to trudge through action to get there which is hurting it.

 

[DVL101]

I speak Japanese and live in Japan, I get the references.

But a full half of the chapter was just toilet jokes.

Yeah, I mean, I get it if you struggle with stuff like the Jugem arc in Gintama, this is probably the closest he's gone to that since doing that exact arc, I think it's mostly just, compared to what he did with the monkey where the two sole jokes were basically, him having long name and him throwing shit, here it's way more un-lazy Sorachi where you've got plenty of non toilet related humor.

FTR I wasn't even replying to your take in specific, obviously I'm not able to churn out a whole wordsalad in 5 minutes.

For me, I think Under Doctor is weak at action, but pretty good at everything else so far. The drama and the emotional side is good, but it has to trudge through action to get there which is hurting it.

Yeah I agree, pretty impressive how the author managed to get such a strong payoff after I felt as if he was losing himself earlier on when he leaned into the action to such a degree, when, my read is that, the author is probably below average for a rookie when it comes to drawing action scenes, feels like he blew his load in the plane during chapter 1, past that the art kinda lacks the impact he wants.

I’m an American yet I find sorachi hilarious. Does this mean reading manga at such an early age has made me part Japanese in humor???

Did I really say something that sounded like that, I mostly just wanted to explain some of what made me laugh since most of the people who I think are new to Sorachi (Like they've actually voiced that fact) are kinda left on an island because of how large of a percentage the references were for this chapter.

 

[monstera11]

What time (JP time) is the jump direct today?

--- Double Post Merged, Apr 27, 2026, Original Post Date: Apr 27, 2026 ---

I speak Japanese and live in Japan, I get the references.

But a full half of the chapter was just toilet jokes.

Can you please vote for Kinato

 

[shillin65]

What time (JP time) is the jump direct today?

9 PM / 21:00

Thinking back, and reading other people's thoughts, I could see why people don't mess with 2-B's humor, but I think it's reductive to call it just poop humor, it's just very Japanese biased.

There's the Tsurutaro joke that I think actually echoes back to the Gintama Urashima Taro arc where once they enter the ryuugujou, you've got Zura and Gintoki start bickering with each other, and it goes into a joke about table tennis that keeps on escalating, and if my memory serves me right the whole thing is a whole word play that rhymes, and at the end of it they start fighting and I do think they name drop a boxer that may have been Tsurutaro? Regardless there's no way for the average reader to laugh at that beyond the running joke of him being brought up.

When he goes to the black board to write the solution to the equation only for it to end up as わかりません written out of equations, the impact is really softened when you can only write 'I dunno' at the bottom right corner in small

The whole Doraemon thing is so funny though, it's just a culture check that many who haven't grown up on Doraemon so they won't laugh a bit but, the reveal of him looking that age into him going "I was the same age as Nobita" and it cuts to him next to a bunch of elementary school students, and then the bully goes "You wouldn't look the part if you aired right after Shin-Chan" and then it loops back to Doraemon with the bully accusing him of selling gadgets that Doraemon wouldn't ever touch, and then the big G name drop. To me that's the best page of the chapter but to some others they see Nobita being namedropped and they don't get it at all

It's just typical Sorachi, sometimes as a westerner it flies right over your head, you might not get it when it's a parody of Conan and the shadow criminal thingy but maybe you grew up on Heidi and that one Gintama episode where he pushes Heidi into the ravine (I think that's what happens) is the funniest thing lol. And like it's all very surface level in the end so you don't need to be an expert to get it. I watched the Sket Dance crossover which is a parody of the One Piece / Toriko episode and beyond the whole set design looking very Toriko and them looking for some random food item that happens to be a Devil Fruit there's nothing Toriko (or One Piece) to the whole thing, your viewing experience doesn't fundamentally change if you know the thing being parodied in depth.

But yeah this is to say that I, as a definite 2-B enjoyer so far, I understand why someone would think it's the worst thing in the magazine the same way someone maybe doesn't mess with Roboco who happens to be in my current top 3-5 (depends on how you categorize stuff like HxH and World Trigger) - I think that if this is your first time reading Sorachi, the delimiter on whether you're likely to enjoy it if you keep on reading or not, happens to be the jokes like the shoulder pad one from chapter 1 or the brain recycle bin from this chapter.

TBH a lot of the fun in Gintama (for me at least) came from not understanding references and just rolling with it; it not making sense somehow made it funnier

 

[Dongus]

I'm generally alright with all the chapters I read this week. Maybe except Sakamoto Days which is still looping around battles with barely any progress. Like I forgot why everyone's fighting.

Class 2-B Hero Destroyerz is very wordy but I still appreciate the humor. No self-respecting Southeast Asian would not be able to recognize Nobita unless they're aged fifteen and below. Like c'mon, how is the sad backstory being undercut by the fact that the Kamon looked like a 30 year old thug at 9 years old not absolutely hilarious? That's insane. That's the kind of whackjob humor I'm all about. It's a bit of a flashback chapter that reiterates more on Kamon, and with the toilets backing up, I'm expecting a third character to show up to complete the trio. Maybe someone from the other world who turns into an otaku because it suits Sorachi's type of humor to have this sort of character.

Roku's House of Horrors is having a two hit combo with two good chapters back to back after a derisive beginning. I think the issue was just the bloated cast that gave very little leeway to give the characters and chemistries any breathing room. With a Johann focused chapter, we get to see his princely persona captivate the masses and his stubborn personality at play. With a Sachiko focused chapter, we get to see how she interacts with the MC over manga and how it makes him feel, and how she turns into a stacy when she's near the school. The gags hit much better, and there's room to further that "What curse am I?" storyline when you separate your attention from the cast.

Honestly, I would've STARTED Roku's House Of Horrors with this chapter, albeit stretch it out with more gags and just framed it as a "Me and My Shy Ghost Girl Roommate Who Becomes A Stacy When She Comes To School" kind of story, and slowly added the other curses over the course of the manga. It's a much more digestible concept when you only have one character to focus on and her one gag is easily applied to hundreds of situations. And Atsushi Nakamura's artwork is at that level where he can sell a manga on character designs alone. It's really a case of having a buffet when just the main dish is enough.

Drawn To The Fire speedrunning to the first match by quickly introducing the opposing team is a smart idea in my mind. Ain't no battle shonen gonna avoid playing games till they get axed (Nine Dragons Ball Parade my beloved). I think the humor's still onpoint, and there's a good flow to how each of the rivals seem to contrast the leads in certain ways that help sell the idea that they'll be a major threat. I'm balling with it.

Under Doctor has a good chapter again... When it stops doing action. So we kind of have stretch of shitty chapters to end with the doctor drama we were promised. Honestly, I've been watching some Black Jack and I've come to understand that the "doctor battle shonen" just doesn't even need the battle parts to be viable. Black Jack had a lot of bits where it's clearly not realistic medical stuff, and most people would chide it if Osamu Tezuka wasn't actually a doctor and they're not so shut the fuck up. Lots of hocus pocus outright sorcery going on there, but it used its medical setting to tell human dramas and touch on emotional storytelling, which we just don't get enough of in Under Doctor because he has to fight Maxell's katana kicks. The ending's fine, you'll always be in pain, but if you bagged three baddies, you can deal with it. But like, the journey to reach there is stale bread, and I think telling a more grounded story about emotional pain despite invincibility would've held a greater impact. I genuinely think the action parts are preventing it from reaching its true potential.

Kinato's Magic was pretty bad when the bad guys attacked and Kinato went full Deku. But his characterization took a massive hit too when he got all fired up. I get that shonen MCs gotta be like that, but I think those scenes would've worked much better if he spent it trying to save civilians instead of chasing the baddies. Really bad impression. So a slowdown chapter works fine, and I see Linae brings a lot to the series' humor. I think her lack of presence slowed down the hilarity of the series and AYO what the hell is that nurse doing. Going into a training arc is an absolute death sentence, but at the 13 chapter mark, it's grounds to believe the series isn't set for a U19 if it can do a training arc around the period of time it should be gearing up for cancellation. ..."After all, nobody's better at handling mana than those women." Ayo, we dumping this brat into a buncha amazons? Kento Amemiya, even if you get hit with the axe, you are my dawg.

Alien Headbutt has been lacking in the kind of zaniness I expect out of a series called Alien Headbutt so I appreciate the ridiculous idea of converting the family's pet goat into some girl that headbutts the MC. It's still not out there in terms of how weird things can be, but it's a start. I really would've liked if the series was more funny. The stressful aliens vs humanity storyline isn't the impression a name like Alien Headbutt gives. The goat girl brings some funny headbutts, which we really could've started with.

Nue's Exorcist shows that Gekka is too dishonorable to be a Jedi and too much of a bitchass to be a Sith. We really doing Trakata strats here? It's fated that she would take the L though, being the strongest means that you're liable to get beat to show much stronger the enemy is. As for what happens next, I'm fully expecting Kasha to go, "Become my wife and I will spare Gakuro and the others." and she agrees, then the main fight is a crash the wedding sort of bit. I'm getting VERY used to Nue's brand of romance and action interweaving at this point.

I'm a bit dry on Kagurabachi's current fightings because I'm a lot more interested in Rokuhira's history than the fights. I think fights are a huge waste in a flashback arc because we ultimately know the bad guys get nuked to oblivion. Maybe it's just to highlight how strong the islanders were which necessitated the forging of the blades, but at the same time, we kind of already know that too. Nice meteor drop though. Shinobi Undercover is the true Naruto successor because we're gonna talk no jutsu this bad guy who is clearly messed up in the head. He's a bit too strong though, so I expect him to die upon redemption to set up the next major threat. Ichi The Witch went who's the traitor, only to go, I'm the traitor. It's so anticlimatic and skips over an entire mystery arc that I can't help but believe that there would be a second traitor just for the surprise.

Votes:
1) Nue's Exorcist
2) Akane-banashi
3) Roku's House Of Horrors
4) Shinobi Undercover
5) Class 2B Hero Destroyerz

 

[Kiaida]

Going into a training arc is an absolute death sentence, but at the 13 chapter mark, it's grounds to believe the series isn't set for a U19 if it can do a training arc around the period of time it should be gearing up for cancellation.

Red Hood had a training arc around the same range, heh.

 

[FantasticFootno]

I'm a bit dry on Kagurabachi's current fightings because I'm a lot more interested in Rokuhira's history than the fights. I think fights are a huge waste in a flashback arc because we ultimately know the bad guys get nuked to oblivion. Maybe it's just to highlight how strong the islanders were which necessitated the forging of the blades, but at the same time, we kind of already know that too. Nice meteor drop though.

Gotta agree here, we're reaching PART 5 of this confrontation and I cannot find myself to care. Its neat, the action is always neat, but I do not care about any of the (non-shiba) characters fighting here. (And even then I'm not the biggest Shiba glazer so he can't even carry me through this) Get me back to Rokuhira, Rokuhira was actually entertaining. This is becoming a slog. Oh wow the super evil guy is ultra strong and we clearly gotta make the swords to stop him? And these random new charaters we were introduced to are losing???? Hokazono is getting hardcore lost in the sauce here.

 

[KyuKyu555]

My votes for Issue #21 of 2026:
1. One Piece 1180
2. Blue Box 239
3. Class 2-B Brave Destroyerz 1 - New Series!

4. Roku’s House of Oddities 3
5. Akane-banashi 203

6. Shinobi Undercover 78
7. Drawn to the Fire 2
8. Witch Watch 244
9. Sakamoto Days 256
10. Alien Headbutt 11
11. Hima-Ten! 87
12. Ichi the Witch 79
13. Under Doctor 13
14. Someone Hertz 30
15. Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi 89
16. Kinato’s Magic 12

It’s been a while since Ichi wasn’t in my Top 10. Also the new batch managed to get in my Top 10 this issue.
The chapters in my Top 10 ranged from really good to great to really great. While 11-15 ranged from really good to pretty good to good, with Kinato being the only one that gets good enough.

 

[KrenKren]

I think the mentality of 'we already know how it ends so what's the point' is pretty lame when you consider the arc has war in the name lol.

Like yeah we should probably see first contact with the Mikaboshi and learn their perspectives, given that's basically what part 1 spent its whole runtime hammering in, and hey if we get a cool fight along the way I'm all for it

...I have nowhere else to slot this in but I like Yoshinojo a lot.

 

[Wookitake]

Me and some friends could not agree less with you two. We are loving this arc. The fights have been great, getting to know what transpired before the war is nice, the origins of the conflict, the importance of the Soga Clan, the inspiration/source of the Magatsumi's powers/Malediction...lots of interesting points. And some aura farming too. I'm enjoying it a lot.

The Irishima Talks flashback might end in the next chapter with the death of the 3 others besides Shiba. And then let's see how Hokazono will proceed. We probably will see how the EB were first forged, but I highly doubt we'll get to see them forging every one of them.

The key points for the flashback from now on are: the forging of the 1st EB (important for Chihiro's reforging of Enten+Cloud Gauger; the forging of Magatsumi (and its connection to the Mikanoshi heirs); Chihiro's Mom's demise (how she was killed by, probably, the Mikaboshi). I don't think we'll have all of Akemura's turn during the war, otherwise this flashback arc would be too long. Maybe some day we get a spin-off detailing *all* of the rest of the war. I don't think we'll get it now. We'll get a ton, but not all of it.

 

[Aqyurs]

My heart's not really in it this week, so no long thoughts or in depth analysis.

• Class 2B is still pretty enjoyable, but it probably needs to introduce its Shinsengumi soon. What got Gintama through its shaky performance at the start was its strong characters, so Sorachi needs to start assembling the likeable cast he's known for.
• Drawn to the Fire continues to be good, but not sure if its setting itself up for success. Just being good isn't enough to justify surviving in Jump, especially with sports series. If I wasn't extremely biased towards basketball, I don't know if I'd actually care if it got to tell a complete 100 chapter story instead of a mostly complete 20 chapter story.
• Roku was again really funny this week. I get the need some series feel to introduce every main character at the same time if the selling point of the series is how wacky the cast is, but it really only has any impact if you already like the huge wacky cast. So going down the line one by one is probably the better way to introduce a giant wacky cast. Of course you run the risk of maybe taking too long to give a focus chapter to the character that was the most popular or anticipated, but that's less of a problem if you write other good characters that people fall in love with anyway
• I don't talk about it much these days, but I still really enjoy Someone Hertz every week. I do wish we got another goal to work towards right now. It doesn't even have to be the Listener Koshien. It could have been something like this live event in this chapter, anything that can last for like 5-10 chapters. Anything that can actually the status quo of Mizuo and Mimei's relationship, even if it's only temporarily.
• Hima-ten!'s a great series every week. Going to be pissed when it gets relegated to regular color page for its anniversary this year.
• I missed this Kinato. The series is way less interesting if it's taking itself seriously, but if it's working towards an ending, these moments will probably become more fleeting.
• Alien Headbutt. Yeah. Sure. I just don't care man. "We need to make all this end well. We can't let it end here" said by the goat who got turned into a girl for no real reason other than the author thinking, "fuck it, we ball," is one of the less subtle axed messages I've seen an axed Jump manga say lately.

 

[FantasticFootno]

I think the mentality of 'we already know how it ends so what's the point' is pretty lame when you consider the arc has war in the name lol.

Like yeah we should probably see first contact with the Mikaboshi and learn their perspectives, given that's basically what part 1 spent its whole runtime hammering in, and hey if we get a cool fight along the way I'm all for it

...I have nowhere else to slot this in but I like Yoshinojo a lot.

I sort of feel like the more we learn about them the worse the actual story has gotten, but thats neither here nor there. A lot of the time Hokazono takes what seems to be an interesting or complex situation and reveals that actually it isn't actually that, its just a pretty basic setup with some enticing set dressing.

 

[Dongus]

I think the mentality of 'we already know how it ends so what's the point' is pretty lame when you consider the arc has war in the name lol.

Like yeah we should probably see first contact with the Mikaboshi and learn their perspectives, given that's basically what part 1 spent its whole runtime hammering in, and hey if we get a cool fight along the way I'm all for it

...I have nowhere else to slot this in but I like Yoshinojo a lot.

I mean, I get it, but a fight needs to have stakes. The foregone conclusion that the war will end later down the line with the Malediction all but sets in stone that they're not winning this. The how isn't really interesting. Like, it could've ended with the bad guy's head floating, then immediately cut to Shiba describing the events in the aftermath and it would've been worked just as well. Showing how the squad struggles and pretending they've got any hope at all to win this is a lot of filler to me, and it REALLY does not help that we just got introduced to half of them when the fight started.

Me and some friends could not agree less with you two. We are loving this arc. The fights have been great, getting to know what transpired before the war is nice, the origins of the conflict, the importance of the Soga Clan, the inspiration/source of the Magatsumi's powers/Malediction...lots of interesting points. And some aura farming too. I'm enjoying it a lot.

The Irishima Talks flashback might end in the next chapter with the death of the 3 others besides Shiba. And then let's see how Hokazono will proceed. We probably will see how the EB were first forged, but I highly doubt we'll get to see them forging every one of them.

The key points for the flashback from now on are: the forging of the 1st EB (important for Chihiro's reforging of Enten+Cloud Gauger; the forging of Magatsumi (and its connection to the Mikanoshi heirs); Chihiro's Mom's demise (how she was killed by, probably, the Mikaboshi). I don't think we'll have all of Akemura's turn during the war, otherwise this flashback arc would be too long. Maybe some day we get a spin-off detailing *all* of the rest of the war. I don't think we'll get it now. We'll get a ton, but not all of it.

See all those things are what I WANT to see, but it's been a few weeks of a fight that I care little for, with characters I've just met, which is taking attention away from all the background details I REALLY wanna see come to the forefront. Hell, we don't even get much of Shiba's background either, and it's like, his arc.

 

[Subarashiii]

I don't know how to do Twitter links as an embed but one of the advertisements for Kagurabachi Vol 11 says 4 million copies in circulation btw.
Ah ok just pasting seems to've worked fine.

 

[WyldViolet]

My thing with Kagurabachi, especially this arc, is I really like when it focuses on lore/plot, and much less when its simply action. Like, I was adoring this arc up until the fight began. Loved the creepy mysteries of the island, and the political drama playing out. There are times where the fights can feel really engaging, but often it just can end up feeling like noise to me.

 

[Subarashiii]

I kinda can see both angles here, although obviously kinda slow initally I really liked those first few chapters of the arc getting to see everyone's personalities bounce off one another outside the context of combat, getting loads of details of the world of sorcerers before the war, so having a 5 chapter fight that despite enjoying it for lore and story as much as the coolness of the fight is kinda jarring and I do hope to see some of the initial five chapters tone and pacing return with everything from Irishima haunting their actions moving forward.

However on the hand, I see this arc being generally long to answer most of the pressing questions we had about this era of the story so I expect that it'll be a mix of what we've gotten in this first volume of content around the arc. I don't doubt it'll return to the pacing and character moments of the first 5-ish chapters when called for since the secondary (if you consider Shiba the main POV of the flashback anyhow) main character of this arc is Kunishige who isn't a combatant so most scenes with him will at worst be interspersed with ongoing action elsewhere and at best be totally devoid of it for character work reasons. I do see this mini arc on Irishima ending within a chapter or 2 max though so the ratio of fight:action hasn't really hit me (I think it's 5 pre Irishima and 4 post the beginning I think?) all too hard.