Issue 49 rankings:
Tier 1 (Great):
1: One Piece #1197 – Holy peak. Sanji finally has Conqueror’s Haki! You can really tell Oda like drawing Sanji when he’s like this btw, he looks so cool lmao. Sanji continues to acknowledge his self sacrificial nature and dubs himself Luffy’s shield whilst Zoro can be his sword, plus one of the few times he actually calls Zoro by name. Also him becoming stronger offensively by boosting his defence is peak, now if people attack him he can basically parry with insane defence and hurt his opponent. Perfect for him! Also Killingham’s Omen armour actually looks really cool lol. Shame Sanji has shattered it and his legendary weapon to pieces!
2: Witch Watch #268 – Leave it to Miharu to come up with a plan! Working backwards is good way to do it. Well, but at the end of the day they still need a plan to somehow get Miharu to Roswitha so he can divert her power for a moment. Nico to the rescue! And makes a kid laugh! Which actually slightly weakens Roswitha. Ohhh so she’s powered by fear, that makes complete sense and also is why Shikimi put on such a show about her revival. I actually really really like this. It’s actually kinda “One Piece” lol. Nico uses all the silly spells she’s used throughout the whole series in all the silly SoL parts and chapters and is easing the fears of people all around the world watching. Which in turn, weakens Shikimi/Roswitha. This is a perfect way to join the more serious side of the series with the more goofy side! Bravo! Fantastic payoff.
3: Akanebanashi 228 – Nooooo, the light in Akane’s eyes is gone!! The horror. Look what the rise to the top has done to my girl! That panel of her looking at Karashi is creepy as fuck….i never thought I’d be creeped out by Akane lol. She’s also not wearing her earring! Goddamn this show is sleazy. I mean it kinda makes sense for them to do, but also fuck you lol. Akane will MAKE them listen to and acknowledge her Rakugo, that I have no doubts of. But how will she do it? She might tell a very serious story and make them stop laughing all together? That’d be the best way to do it imo.
4: Ichi the Witch #104 – Well….that looks fucking sick? Insane new form. Ugh Hitsugi is still happy at the end result of Dess using all the Human Hater Majiks she promised to not use. So in a way, he still has a “win” over her now. The Kagura Orochi spell was especially really cool, or hot I guess since it’s a fire based spell lol. Anyway, from a reader’s perspective, seeing Dess going all out like this with the one mission of protecting Ichi is pretty cool, I hope at some point in the future we actually see her go all out in this form against someone/something that can actually fight back/make her use it for a longer period, since I assume Ichi is about to snap her out of it. She shouldn’t hurt Ichi if we take her at her word, but also she might count subduing Ichi as protecting him, soooo…guess we’ll see!
5: Greykeith #8 – Who is this little cute pumpkin kid lmaooo. Aww he wants to kidnap Greykeith lol. But he ended up getting lost and so accidentally…kidnapped himself? Kinda? Ahhh the universal language – manga! It always works lmao. Aww I feel bad for Pumpky, he just wants to read his manga! 2000 volumes is an insane amount btw loool what the fuck. Awww this chapter is so wholesome! I love the scenes of Pumpky and Greykeith reading the manga together, it’s so cute! Ohhh so the undead that are born of dead humans were created by a mistranslation of a book, so it’s no wonder they hate translators. The Grave Ward looks cool from a distance, can’t wait to see it up close! I love Halloween-y supernatural things.
Tier 2 (Good):
Shinobi Undercover #103 – Lol Fukuro is so corrupt but at least she admits it. I quite like Fukuro, she’s straight to the point no bullshit and I like how she approaches things. She also takes Yodaka to Kawasemi’s transport truck but it blows up. Inuwashi is conveniently there to save him though! Annndd right as I was thinking it was convenient, Kawasemi reveals to Yodaka that Inuwashi is with him. Very interesting, and even more interesting that Yodaka knows this but Inuwashi doesn’t know he knows, or so I presume. I will say though, I’m not sure if Kawasemi saying Inuwashi is with “us” or not means “us, the Fugitive Ninjas” or “us, me and you, to protect Aoi”. It feels like it was vague on purpose and can be taken either way, which is a good narrative choice because even though we now know Inuwashi is a “traitor” we still don’t know if he’s actually “bad” or not. Kawasemi then basically goes into a coma, so he’ll definitely be back later in the story, probably as an ally. Looking forward to it! The fugitives also set a deadline – 20 more days till their plan reaches fruition. Exciting chapter!
Sakamoto Days #281 – Aww Sakamoto getting fighting influence from his daughter is very cute, it’s like the final form of his “Jackie Chan” fighting style lmao. Oddly emotional, I guess everyone can relate to the nice things in life; the small things. Sakamoto says goodbye to his former assassin self and it definitely feels like the fight is over now right? If so, very good final fight to leave us on that returns to the series’ roots and strengths.
Kagurabachi #137 – Ohh, Rokuhira and Chiaki were wedded. Nice? I mean, it’s under weird and unfortunate circumstances, but still. Anndd she’s pregnant! We’re speeding through it all huh? Chihiro my boy, you’re nearly here! Well, give or take 9 months. Akemura being so excited over his birth is bittersweet giving the current present day ongoings of…you know, him trying to kill him lol. Talking with, or seeing visions of, your unborn child and him literally telling you his name is a new one lmao. Kinda trippy. Getting some Attack on Titan vibes, a bit. I wonder if she’s literally talking to him from the future (or rather, Chihiro is conversing with her from the future into the past) or if they somehow literally converse? Is she actually still alive in the present and the vision she saw was them literally talking? Or maybe it’s just “talking” in the sense of “the spirits told me” type stuff, a dream sequence kinda thing. Interesting.
Someone Hertz #55 – Oooh, the duo look snazzy in their restaurant attire, ngl! Bro, Mizuo’s big ass Zeff-esque chef’s hat is killing me. Though I guess it’s not as big as Zeff’s lol. Once again, someone else sees that they’re basically a married couple already before they even do lol. A nice little chapter that shed more light on how Nachi got into the radio stuff. Even though Mimei and Mizuo didn’t actually learn of anything they could use for their own Mon-Mid submissions lmao.
Under Doctor #38 – Sick colour page first of all. Fuck, that page of FF launching himself at Haiji and biting him is terrifying lmao, how did Haiji not even flinch? Quite a devastating technique to finish FF off, bro gave him the Zoro/Kuma treatment (I’m making a lot of One Piece references this week lmao, oops). Fuck, the VNL is that terrifying that this guy is gonna kill himself because of the failed mission? Despite Haiji’s best efforts, he does in fact kill himself…dark. But he leaves behind the name “Snake Whisperers”. Looks like we finally have a group of antagonists to go against? Ominous. This seems like it could be a turning point for the series. I’m actually kinda excited, it’s done a good job of setting it up imo.
Roku #28 – Roku is still disturbed, understandably so. Poor guy man. Aww, I’m glad they had this big talk! Big ups to Altra for getting Roku to speak to her. It must be really sad to remember that you’ve been murdered, also kinda trippy too. But like Sachiko says, she probably also has some good memories buried within her as well! So she wants to uncover all of them, the good and the bad. And they can go back to talking about manga!
Kiyoshi #114 – LMAO, Kiyoshi just making them smaller so he could reduce them to freaking dust is pretty funny, even Kunikara didn’t expect that. Though at least he’s amused by it. I like that Kiyoshi is actually standing his ground, hell he’s got the advantage even. That’s how it should be! But Kunikara activates an Underworld Gate Technique that he probably got from making a deal with Rushihara. And he says some stuff about realising you can’t protect everyone, so the obvious conclusion here is he felt guilt over his whole squad being murdered and it turned him to the dark side in order to gain more power. Hitsugi has also come across Iefuda, shit. I want to give Hitsugi some credit and say he probably realises something is up with Iefuda but if he doesn’t, Iefuda gaining his appearance would be pretty bad.
HAL Formula #19 – Kiryu caught up quickly! The tsunami visual for Kiryu relentlessly chasing Miharu is pretty cool and fitting. Eventually he just lets her pass him, which is probably for the best, no shot you can keep that up for the rest of the race. Letting her take the lead and then taking it back makes more sense. The lion emerging out of the deer is surprisingly horror-y for this series lol. This series is really good, just unsure how long of a life it has in the mag.
Animal Signal #20 – Roga and Shion are a fun duo. Like Tsubasa says, they get along super well, even if they themselves deny it lmao. Uhhh….Shion, I don’t think you could beat him whilst bondaged up lol. Scorpion guy being so confused at them was great. Wow them taking out the scorpion guy was pretty cool. In the end they both agree to train Tsubasa. I have to say, Shion’s way of defence is probably better for someone who doesn’t have the body of Roga and can go on the offensive all the time lol.
Nue’s Exorcist #167 – So Kyokotsu is actually Shiroha’s brother, Kazuto…OR at least is harbouring his spirit or something, which explains why he was always pretty protective of her. Nice. Since he came high on the poll, the author might as well put him to use! Lol. Anyway, the Fujino family stuff continues to be probably the best part of this series imo, it’s pretty good (kinda reminds me of how the Todoroki family stuff was the best stuff in MHA imo, family drama seems to be my thing lol).
Tier 3 (Ok):
Me and Roboco #303 – Ahh Ruri’s rebellious phase. Poor Gorilla lol. Turns out she’s in her rebellious phase because WSJ won’t let her serialise a series as a kid lmao, honestly fair, but Second Year tells her they just want her to mature as an artist and live as a child first. Good mentor. Also there was an Ashita no Joe reference in this chapter, rest in peace Chiba Tetsuya.
Ruridragon #53 – Even this series has the “demon within” trope lol. The phone call was nice, it’s good for Ruri to get some normality during all this and to also keep up with the going-ons of her friends. Chill chapter.
Class 2-B #26 – Ah, so they did in fact just go back to their school, nice. Ngl I completely forgot about the Narasaki subplot up till now lmao. His ability is very useful, so useful in fact that it seems broken lol, there MUST be some kind of limit.
Cannon Master #18 – Pretty much copy and paste from the last few weeks. Sick action, good character design and so on. It’s clear it’s been axed and the author is just using what he has left to show off how well he can draw battle scenes, which I’m all for. The switcheroo between Ur and Bharat was really cool as well. Gonna miss this series tbh.
The Ura Files #9 – Oh god relying on Takada? This will surely end well lmao. LMAO at the way Kibitsu and Takada were drawn as they asked to talk to Onigashima, I always enjoy whiplash art like that. Another Ashita no Joe reference in this week’s Jump! Cute chapter, I’m not entirely sure now if Onigashima actually has feelings for Kibitsu or not. It could be she does and doesn’t realise it yet, orrrr she doesn’t.
Very very good issue of the mag imo, several things like Kiyoshi, Shinobi and Kagurabachi could have all make it into the top 5. Enjoyed pretty much all the chapters this week!
