A lot of decent-but-not-exceptional chapters this time around. Makes it kinda hard to rank beyond the first two.
Votes #10
1) Sakamoto
2) Astro
3) Syd Craft
Sakamoto: So he knows about Shin, but not about his ability? That doesn't make much sense. But I'm really loving the character dynamics here (aside from creepy sunglasses guy. Could've done without him).
Astro: I was kinda hoping straight man Terasu would just kick him in the **** while he was looking away showing off. But what we got was even better. Love sure is fleeting, eh?
I'm having a lot of fun with this series.
And I did NOT see that shocker at the end coming.
Syd: Should've picked a lifeboat with peddles. I'm pleasantly surprised here though. I normally don't like this kind of misunderstanding shenanigans, but this one made me laugh.
Kiyoshi: Those are some fancy demons. And some fancy preparations, too. I was wondering what they had been doing.
Ed & Al gonna be jealous
KB: I had a little trouble following the fight here and there, but overall pretty good. They don't go light on the ending flags though.
Ichi: How is she walking on those shoes... are those even shoes? And then Ichi is suddenly
The Chosen One and- well, I guess "Hate this thing" wasn't an unreasonable response after all. Are you sure it's smart to tell him this though? He doesn't seem like the type to- okay, yeah, never mind, I forgot he is a Goku-level adrenaline junkie. I feel bad for Desscaras now.
OP: How does the blindfolded guy suddenly know what the people and animals in front of him look like? Does he have some special ability or did Oda just.. forget how blindfolds work?
Luffy believes in
Shanks so much that everyone just goes along with it.
I'm not a hardcore enough fan to get much of the book thing, but it's funny that we have yet another
Chosen One playing a role in the end of the world.
KGB: So an island just
appeared out of nowhere with people already on it? I'm going to need some more explanation on that one. But it looks like it'll have to wait a bit because we're already getting interrupted. For shame.
Embers: "Stranglehold of the elites"? Dude, soccer is one of the most accessible sports in the world (aside from maybe running). That's why you never see stories about a kid from the slums suddenly being great at fencing or horse racing.
Anyway, this first chapter was.. passable? I didn't like the art style much; it looks kind of ugly and unrefined (IMHO). It bothered me less towards the end of the chapter though, so maybe it's just teething troubles, or maybe I already got used to it.
The premise was kinda cliche (and I'm wondering why he didn't just tackle the old man in the first match since they hadn't established any rules). The teacher's approach is admirable and I do like the character, but I feel like it went a little too well. If our MC was that easy to goad, surely someone would've done it sooner? And his friends are all easily convinced, too.
(Calling it now: that teacher was some super famous pro soccer player when he was younger.)
The other characters don't leave much of an impression, unfortunately. The MC is a Misunderstood Jerk with a Heart of Gold who hates losing, has a one-track mind and... what else? The more accomplished Rival is also kind of a jerk and also hates losing, but will eventually acknowledge the MC and... oh, that already happened. Right there in the first chapter. That was easy.
Barely an inconvenience All other character roles are so minor that Unnamed Spectator Girl #2 got the most lines of all of them, and it doesn't look like we'll be seeing many of them again.
I just reread the first chapter of Haikyuu and I get the comparisons, I do. But IMO, the main characters in that series were already much more fleshed out and the set-up was way more unique than anything we have here. Even the more recent Jump+ series
Rugby Rumble (which uses the same 'Big scary hoodlum goes sportsman' premise) is leagues ahead when it comes to making the characters stand out right off the bat.
Of course, it is only a first chapter. Maybe the second one will surprise us. But for now, I'm not holding my breath.
Shinobi: I appreciate the
infodump lore... and the twist... but operator voice guy comes out looking rather bad here if he thought
that was the only problem with the situation.
Akane: She seriously doesn't know what jam and coffee are..? That meeting with the little boy was cute. I expect we'll be getting more flashbacks soon for the rest of her journey.
Hakutaku: That was one of the better chapters in this series, ironically. Just watching them chat like this without technobabbel or sales talk is much more engaging. The ending itself was a bit brusk though, they should've put the girl thing a few pages earlier to make it flow better.
WW: Not that funny, but I kinda liked the group brainstorming.
Nue: Very Bleach indeed.
Himaten: Let him off the hook? You're the one that chickened out, little lady. But I guess the God of Harem Tropes dictates that the status quo must be maintained, and this series wouldn't dream of doing something original.
Chojo: I wouldn't have minded if they just left tweedle-perv that way. Honestly seemed like an improvement.
M&R: Was okay.
BB: She finally noticed
dad (I think). And I was finally feeling some of the excitement of the match... only to then drop us into another flashback, which completely breaks the tension and doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know. I was never the greatest fan of these daydreaming sequences interspersing the action, but until now I could admit they were skillfully done. This one though just felt jarring.
TES: History class, and then some 20-year-olds who used to be wise beyond their years suddenly thinking
rape is cool. Joy.
I really wish we get more of sports manga that dabbles in professional leagues instead of kiddy plaything like inter school championship tbh. Feels so much cooler and higher stakes when it is literally your job.
Like, Hikaru no Go. Or Akane Banashi
I just want cooler sports. Give us skydiving, competitive sailing, dog sled racing. The stakes are automatically life-and-death and I'm at least 200% more likely to enjoy the series if I can look at pretty landscapes instead of indoor gym #34765.
5. Ichi the Witch: The chapter is most notable for that prohecy thing and for Desscaras showing the first faint signs of affection towards Ichi. But what is most notable to me is the introduction of a Majik who possesses comatose people that must have parents worried about them…and this is accepted as if it’s nothing. Ichi should get mad at this as well as at the cruelties of other Majiks.
Well, I mean... it's not like it's likely to do much extra damage at this point. The chances of someone waking up from a coma after a decade or more are practically zero anyway (
Wikipedia gives me six people who did. Ever). Sure, it's not fun for those who knew her before, but if this thing's prophecies actually help save people sometimes I can see why they'd consider it a net benefit. (And it's a whole lot better than, y'know, taking possession of someone who
isn't mentally dead yet.)
8. Akane-banashi: It was kind of fun seeing Akane trying to live the european life. It’s also a window on how japanese people see it, with details such as finding butter on bread strange or thinking that every street is dangerous (and it is probably true expecially in big cities). Now that she’s back at home, let’s see what she treasured from this experience!
The salad bowl is so funny to me. You can practically reconstruct what happened: the mangaka was in France for a bit, ate breakfast in a hotel (hence why the butter and jam are in tiny cups instead of, y'know, a jar), had lunch/dinner too which came with a salad, and figured "Well, if French restaurants serve these tiny salad bowls with some of their dishes, it must mean French people also have them with every meal at home!" (They don't.)
Either that, or it's the kind of thing 'European' restaurants in Japan will serve you.
Which makes me wonder, do the Japanese eat the same things for every meal? Whenever I see a Japanese breakfast in manga, it looks pretty similar to a Japanese dinner. Do they not have foods you'd typically eat for one meal but not for another?
I need to ask this, I’m currently reading Shinobi Undercover and I need to know, is Yodaka autistic?
Not as far as we know. Just shy.
That doesn't mean it's impossible, of course. But he's not really showing any symptoms aside from being socially awkward (which is implied to be at least partially due to his upbringing) and his motor skills and reflexes are
off the charts, while for the vast majority of autistic people they are below average. So I'd say no.
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