Issue 39 Rankings:
Tier 1 (Great):
1: One Piece #1191 – When the world needed him most…Afro Luffy returned (in a colour page). Anyway, interesting that Luffy seems to be being kept alive simply by Gear 5, he can even fool himself into thinking he’s eaten with it. He’s in for real pain when he undoes it lol. I quite like Imu’s new form, much more “Satan” like, though I still think I prefer his previous look. I wonder how many forms he has? I’d guess 1 more if he operates on Zoan rules, but maybe he doesn’t. Hajrudin my goaaatt!! It was a sneak attack and didn’t do anything and also Imu still countered but still! It’s better than nothing! He even participates in a triple attack with no Conqueror’s Haki lmao. I’m gonna guess this is nothing but a last gasp counter attack from the heroes meant to, narratively, stall Imu because I doubt this injures Imu for long…or at all, shit, he looks like he’s preparing to counter already in the last panel of his lol. Good chapter!
2: Shinobi Undercover #94 – Kawasemi basically going “yeah that was yours, but I’m gonna kill you now so it’s mine” was a pretty cool villain line. Yeah, like I said when he first appeared, this rose villain (who’s name is now revealed to be “Sazanqua”, which is very Bleach arrancar sounding just without the usual double letter those names had) is pretty cool, I really liked the panel showing Umineko dodging Sazanqua’s attacks. And he’s the opposite of a berserker who regains his calmness when he smells blood, interesting lol. For some reason I imagine this villain with Kenjiro Tsuda’s voice. And oh my word, hello there Yuzu. A new villain enters and she’s hot…damn. And a boxer! That’s cool. And we get the name of their group? I think? Or just what they’re individually called – Narehate. They have devices on them that let them control the Primal Kekkai they pump into themselves. I love character introduction chapters like this a lot, not gonna lie, especially when they’re done well. Suzume finally goes all out! We had hints that she was holding back this whole time of course….I do wonder how this newly revealed power relates to her stretching abilities though…maybe extending the bones? I’m guessing those blades are her bones anyway, which is pretty metal, very Kimimaro from Naruto…she even kinda gives herself an oni horn lol, badass. And a bonus that you rarely see – the girls seemingly aren’t fighting each other, it’s two women vs men fights lol. Very good chapter.
3: Akanebanashi #219 – Oh man Zensho is good…I mean of course he is, he’s one of the Arch 4, but I still hoped maybe he was a bit shit at it but nope lmao. He’s basically done the Rakugo version of Clone Jutsu. WAIT! He is kinda bad? He’s trying to play it serious but they all think it’s a comedy! Like a comedic actor trying to do a serious drama role! He’s like the Buggy of the series, but only if Buggy was a Yonko from the start! Wait wait, this is actually really interesting. Shit, I’m interested in Zensho as a character, nooooo!! I actually can’t wait to see where this goes lmfao.
4: Ultimate Exoricst Kiyoshi #105 – Once again, the Scarface homage for the colour page goes hard. Hahaha, The Devil Clash Boyz is so cheesy, I agree with Akari, but pretty expected for teenage delinquents lol. They even added a Z to the end for extra cheesiness. Kiyoshi is kinda in heels…kinda fits ngl. Anyway, blocking Kitano’s attack with a cool pose was funny. I have to say, they’ve only been around for one chapter but I quite like he DCB crew, they’re endearing, good intro for them tbh…hopefully we learn their names and they’re actual characters rather than just being there and that’s it lol. I quite liked this chapter, good fun all around.
5: Ichi the Witch #95 – Still a bit weirded out by Amadoro’s green hair lol. Hey how did Hakari grab Gokuraku’s arms when he was being held? Anyway, he kicked Hakari through the head, so at least he went for the kill lol. Gokuraku being a cyborg means we can get some real gruesome shit going on like…when he literally rips his limbs off to escape Hakari, damn lol. Hopefully this means Gokuraku isn’t out for the whole arc now…it just bloody began lol. Hakari hates Witches so much he can even resist Golconda, even for just a minute, impressive levels of hatred. Deconstruction Majik makes sense based on what we’ve seen…their trial seems not combat based, so someone who isn’t combat based can acquire him…Kumugi it’s your turn!!!! Hakari has flexible limbs! LMAO at the ending part, fuck even Dess and her power is useless when hit by Hakari’s Deconstruction huh? Pretty OP….Kumugi please, look at the level up awaiting you!
Tier 2 (Good):
Kagurabachi #129 – Shit’s so hot it made the rain hot? Wow. My cat kept being annoying and kept trying to destroy things as I read this, so my thoughts are a bit scattered lmao. The eye of hope panel was REALLY well done, so pretty. Nice chapter.
Hunter x Hunter #418 – Tserri’s ability is frightening. Even if he can’t directly interact with anyone within the 10 seconds, the whole “getting an object before they get it” thing can be used for some proper mindfuck stuff lol, especially since everyone still sees Tserri as where he was before/when he used his ability. Annndd immediately it’s used to fool Benjamin lmao. Also Tserri in normal civvie clothes is kinda funny. Theta is very very interesting, could she actually see him and is playing along for some reason? Or maybe just faintly sense his presence? Is it because she was marked by his Beast? Tserri kinda falling for Theta is weirdly endearing, just a little bit though, also really humorous that out of all the things to nearly snap him out of Zetsu, it was that lmao. Mighty fun chapter, really engaging, Tserri is just really amusing to watch.
Someone Hertz #46 – Ah the school festival. A classic “trope” or rather event in SOL/Romcom series. Anyway, all the outfits were cute! I especially like the Tsuchinoko one lol. Lmao at Mimei being lowkey excited that he’s doing something “bad” but it’s not even that bad lol. Aha they pretended to have their own Radio Show, how cute. Mizuo you can’t hide those red ears of yours!! Nice chapter.
Under Doctor #29 – “If I don’t, who willllll?!?!” sorry that phrase always reminds me of Goku in Movie 13 when he used Dragon Fist lmao. Damn is that pose by Kusumi even possible? Lol. Haiji thinks he can fool me, he only offered to help Shuli so he’d help with the cleaning up, I’m on to him! Hmmm some Haiji past lore, and some characters we can meet (besides the guy he’s trying to save who we’ve met ofc). Shuli aiming to become the second best doctor in the world is admirable enough, though I hope at some point he gets the drive to even surpass Haiji! But it’s a pretty good starting goal for someone who had nothing anyway lol.
Witch Watch #259 – Kanshi being called the most powerful Tengu of the modern day, yessss, praise my boy more! Holy moly, I forgot all about Ran lol. Not sure how I feel about side characters getting involved in the final fight this late on, feels like it should maybe just be left to the main characters to deal with, but I trust Shinohara to execute it well! And two Oni fighting side by side IS something I’ve wanted to see, so hey. Plus the double page spread of Ran’s attack looks cool asf. Also despite Ban telling Nico to stay back, she is obviously going to be the main threat against Shikimi at some point. She’s the literal modern day Witch of Thousands. Even if it’s through all the silly spells she’s used in the gag chapters throughout the series, I expect her to play a big role in the fight and will be disappointed if she doesn’t lol.
Roku #19 – Oh right, the washing machine! Wait, before that, LMAO at the title page. Anyway, surprisingly they left the washing machine alone and just fixed it normally, I thought for sure they’d add some wackiness to it (maybe they did and we only find out later? Lol). Johann being jealous and the guys for getting praise for fixing something was humorous. The double page spread of the bbq was bizarre, in a good way. On one side I felt super relaxed looking at it and then on the other side….i mean look at everyone, it’s quite a mishmash of unique people gathered here lmao. Even Johann participated, on his own but still. Them teaching Altra a bug exploit in the game was cute and their reaction to Sachiko not knowing what a text was is hilarious…poor guys found a new answer to the “the worst she can say is no” meme lol. Wonder if his grandma will ever actually come home lol, is she just stuck in the hospital forever? Actually, seeing how this series deals with curses and spirits etc I have a not so fun thought that she’ll pass at some point and they deal with that, ugh. But for now, fun times with Roku being able to share friend groups! Good thing this is a comedic manga (for the most part) or the science club would be dead at the end there lol.
Hal Formula #10 – Miharu has that crazy look in his eyes again! The image of Miharu catching up right behind Hinokura was cool, like a JJK character sneaking up on someone lmao. It’s funny I read this and Animal Signal right after each other, so I got a double dose of Lions in my WSJ lol. I totally get Miharu’s feeling of progression here, doing stuff he wasn’t able to do before. And so the biggest obstacle of many sports appears – mother nature. Let’s see who has the luck!
Cannon Master #9 – Ever since Kid Buu, I’ve been wary of child sized villains in manga lol. The new demon’s Cannon looks cool. Rather anticlimactic how it just disappeared, but at least we have some mysterious goal they’re chasing. A Humanoid-Regilith, a….Regioid? I feel like Regoid would flow better? But Regi kinda has to be in the name I suppose. Oh, the “mystery” over what Ur is lasted for far less time than I thought it would, but it makes sense, no use hiding it and dragging it out and I think most readers sussed it out already, more or less. The Reigoid, Sadoh, looks pretty cool actually, I really like how non-human their face looks. Ur though, looks way more human, so clearly he is like some more advanced version of them? Or just has more humanity to him at least. Either way, this Sadoh kid is clearly being set up as Ur’s rival/foil. Oh I guess it wasn’t that anticlimactic after all, since the arc is still continuing lol, I thought they’d just leave and that’d be it. But it’s smart for them to attack whilst lumbering along with refugees. This is a fun setup for the arc, they need to find the imposters quickly. Good chapter!
Tier 3 (Ok):
Me and Roboco #294 – Ah a Promised Neverland parody chapter. Yo that meat joke is out of pocket lmao. Roboco lowkey looks cool dressed like Isabella lol.
Sakamoto Days #272 – Since when could he use multiple personalities at once? Lol. Nagumo taking out one of his eyes was nice. I don’t have much to say about this chapter tbh lol, but hey Sakamoto is conscious again!
The Promised Neverland Special Chapter – Ahh the return. For one chapter anyway. I’ll be honest, It’s been so long and my memory is so bad that I can’t remember anything about Ayshe or if she was even a character in the series….I THINK I vaguely remember something about a girl with dogs?? Uhhh...sure? So this one shot doesn’t mean much to me unfortunately BUT the art was still pretty nice as ever. I will forever lament how they fumbled this series, had potential to be goat tier, but ah well.
Nue’s Exorcist #158 – Gouging out your eyeballs to gain clones sure is a way to do that. The art for this chapter was pretty sick tbh, Gakuro’s Soul Armour looks cool as hell. Zenno being front and centre of Gakuro’s memories next to Nue feels silly…actually hell, he’s not even NEXT to Nue, he looks like he’s in FRONT of Nue, he’s the closest to Gakuro lmaooo…he’s not THAT important and has never been presented as that important either to the story or to Gakuro personally. He could have been, but he isn’t lol.
Class 2-B #17 – Well I assume the stats are just for a gag and not actually legit lol. Good parody party they formed, in terms of looks at least, they pass lol. Ohh randomly we meet another Hero…he kinda looks like a Saiyan from behind lol.
Drawn to the Fire #18 – The line breaking going from page to page is pretty cool. Yeah I don’t have much to say about this tbh, the art is nice and that’s about it lol.
Animal Signal #11 – Immediately hit with a cool looking character lol. And damn, she has abs for daysssss…nice. Ahem. Anyway. We got a nice little ranking pyramid, only 7 Three stars huh, defo characters to be introduced later as the typical “captain type” characters lol. Even in non battle shounen they can be present! Might be my favourite chapter of this series so far, it didn’t have much in the way of animal stuff but it was nice character and character dynamic building between the two. And of course, Leona is hot…..i swear that isn’t the only reason!
Kinato’s Magic #28 (FINAL) – Yeah so this is over. All the villains got beaten pretty easily of course and Dua was “redeemed” pretty easily. Obviously we didn’t get the proper time to build up to this so it feels silly, but what else can we do? Lol. You can see parts of where the author would have liked to go if given more time, Kinato and Zeo’s rivalry, Kinato getting that ball device as a weapon etc. and has a “to be continued” type ending. This series was a bit of a shame, I really really liked how it was in the beginning, I thought we were getting a big sprawling grand adventure series, but it just kinda floundered. For me, two big things against it – 1. Even though the art was good, it was mostly shown off during action scenes. Which is fine of course, but if you’re an ADVENTURE series, I want you to also show off your artistic skills with the world and environment as well. I can’t for the life of me remember a single visually interesting location we ever saw. Compare it to something like Cannon Master for example, that series has had loads of cool looking places already. And 2 – Even though I love me some muscular/fit women (lol), separating Kinato from the rest of the Guild for a whole arc was a mistake. The series should have focussed more on the guild members first and developing them and their relationships with each other rather than abandoning them for a whole arc for characters that weren’t going to be mainstays even if the series did continue. The Majo Clan stuff should have come later OR taken more guild members to the Majo clan arc with Kinato. Like…Linae for example, we went back to the guild and boom she had learned how to fight offscreen but why not take her to the Majo clan arc and have her learn to fight from the LITERAL ALL FEMALE FIGHTING MASTERS?!?!? Anyway, overall this was better than their previous series for sure, a step in the right direction, but overall it’s also potential squandered. I look forward to their next work!
Overall I had a good time with the mag this week, a very strong issue imo!
