[Manga Chat]

[dr. b 496]

Gonron Egg is over after 21 chapters. Ah well. It’s sort of a non-ending, but I kinda like that the author didn’t try to cram the whole thing into one chapter. I can use my imagination. 
 

Akane-banashi # 200 — Zensho is such a knob  Akane and Kaisei aren’t getting tripped up over petty shenanigans though. I am hyped for the upcoming chapters. 

[Psycho666Soldier 294]

Hell has frozen over

Spoiler

 

 

[dr. b 496]

 

 

Yuri will probably say something to Loid along the lines of, "Thanks but this never happened!" immediately after they get out of there  

[dr. b 496]

And now The Mage Next Door is over. Oh well. It was a fun little series while it lasted IMHO but I guess it wasn't popular.

 

Akane-banashi # 201

She's off to a great start. Almost seems to easy   

 

Ichi the Witch # 77

Introduced a new character that I don't have a very good first impression of  Hopefully that gets better.

 

Sakamoto Days # 254

I knew he was going to pull it off somehow. "No grudges." Shishiba is a badass  

 

Kagurabachi # 117

Last couple chapters have revealed so much about the background of the story. Fascinating stuff. The current arc is sort of like a prequel. The action is about to get crazy and I am here for it  

[Psycho666Soldier 294]

Ok, been a bit quiet from me in here, though I'm caught up on my usuals now other than some of what happened this week, but I had to comment on Kurumizawa #18

 

Spoiler

I was honestly kind of really digging the idea that Hata had become a worse monster than Kurumizawa, but seeing the last couple pages of this chapter where we found out it was all a ruse had me so hyped! He's still our precious boy, just fucking crazy in a genius way

 

I've also been reading the new series Haunted Peak. I'm not 100% how I feel about it yet, I think the chapters sometimes leave off on awkward spots, but I'm pretty intrigued to find out what the heart of the mystery is

[dr. b 496]

That was a great twist in Kurumizawa's Folly! Totally had me going. Good show, Hata.

 

I am loving the last couple chapters of Akane-banashi. Her performance of God of Death has been absolutely captivating  

[dr. b 496]

Randomly decided to start reading Black Clover a couple days ago because I noticed it finished recently. ~10 chapters in and I am pretty hooked. I never watched any of the anime so I'm going in blind. I am very curious to see where it goes and how the story and world evolves. Tempted to Google spoiler-free reviews of the ending, just to get a feel for what fans of this series thought of the latter parts and end... but I will resist that urge for now to avoid ruining anything for myself  

[Psycho666Soldier 294]

Oh man, I honestly love the Black Clover anime. It's like...not the most original, but it has pretty incredible pacing and the characters are so endearing. I've actually been playing around with going through the manga so I can actually finish it, so maybe I'll try to catch up with you 🤔

[dr. b 496]

The first few chapters go at a really fast pace! But it didn't feel wrong or too fast. Just refreshingly quick to get to the point. You go from meeting Asta, to him getting his grimoire, to him being asked to join the Black Bulls in like 3-4 chapters, then he's already heading off on his first mission. In other titles, that whole 'pass the test' trope would perhaps get stretched out over several chapters. You always know the main character is somehow going to scrape by one way or another. I appreciate the Black Clover author fast forwarding past that stuff. 

[Psycho666Soldier 294]

The most recent Spy x Family was pretty hilarious. Maybe the first chapter in a while where some of the last few pages had me giggling out loud while waiting to pick up sushi

 

Sakamoto Days #257

Spoiler

Enjoyed the action in this one for how much tension it had at points. I was curious who was gonna be the save at the end, but wasn't expecting the archer guy from the prison arc! I low-key thought he was gonna be gone for good, so that was a pretty nice surprise

 

Akane-banashi #204

Spoiler

It's been such a joy seeing how Akane has evolved over time, both her performances and her attitude about them. It's really cool seeing this out of body perspective while she's giving the performance. I'm pretty stoked to see how the climax of the story rolls out.

 

[dr. b 496]

Sakamoto

I totally didn’t expect for Tenkyu to re-appear in Sakamoto Days, but I’m all for it! He was an interesting character so it’s smart to give him more time. This week’s chapter (258) was great  

 

Akane #205

If choppy waters ruin the end of Akane’s performance, I’m going to be very annoyed  

 

Witch Watch #121

Wolf noooooooooo

 

The last few chapters of Kagurabachi have been so good. Revealed a lot of background to the story that I had been wondering a lot about. Wicked action as well. 

Slowly chipping away at Black Clover (at chapter #40 now) and still really enjoying it. I’m just past the part where the bad dudes attacked and Fuegoleon got wrecked by them. Dang. 

 

[Psycho666Soldier 294]

Man, I'm up to Chapter 17 in Black Clover now and the art and paneling is out of this world. The anime has some stellar episodes with great animation, but as a whole it does NOT do the manga justice 

[dr. b 496]

13 hours ago, Psycho666Soldier said:

Man, I'm up to Chapter 17 in Black Clover now and the art and paneling is out of this world. The anime has some stellar episodes with great animation, but as a whole it does NOT do the manga justice 

I am enjoying the art style a lot. Quality stuff. I'm at chapter 40-something now. Asta, Gauche, and the Sister are trying to rescue the kidnapped children from Sally and her goons. Now the apparent leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun has shown up so it's going to get serious  Probably going to binge a bunch of chapters at lunch break today to see what happens.

[Psycho666Soldier 294]

1 hour ago, dr. b said:

I am enjoying the art style a lot. Quality stuff. I'm at chapter 40-something now. Asta, Gauche, and the Sister are trying to rescue the kidnapped children from Sally and her goons. Now the apparent leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun has shown up so it's going to get serious  Probably going to binge a bunch of chapters at lunch break today to see what happens.

You're probably only a couple chapters away from one of the coolest fights in the series. When I saw the anime episode, my jaw was dropped for like 3 minutes lol

 

I'm on Chapter 28 now, so I'm catching up!

[dr. b 496]

I read up to chapter # 62. That was pretty epic stuff! Yami against Licht, Gauche swooping in at the last second, then the Third Eye showing up. (I am going to have a lot of trouble remembering names of all these characters..!) Dude with the Copy Magic is going to be a problem. I'm at the underwater temple part and stopped reading just before the battle royale was about to start. Looking forward to reading that today!

[dr. b 496]

Wolf

[Psycho666Soldier 294]

One of these days maybe I'll catch back up on the Witch Watch manga

 

Akane-banashi was great as usual. I predict she won't beat Kaisei, but based on Issho's reaction, she's gonna get what she wants anyway.

 

Something I loved about the newest Sakamoto Days is the way everyone was talking about how Shin influenced them, and the brother assassin dude saying "Shin must be some guy," kind of cemented that he's already living up to Sakamoto's legacy..I thought it was a really touching moment, knowing how much that means to Shin.

[dr. b 496]

You gotta get back on the Witch Watch train eventually. It's been great lately.

 

I'm not super sure what will happen in Akane-banashi, but what you're thinking sounds very plausible. Kaisei's performance is going to be very good, I'm sure. But Akane has already piqued Issho's curiosity for sure. 

 

Totally agreed re: Shin in Sakamoto Days. His growth and character arc have been amazing throughout the series. Definitely a "student becomes the master" type of scenario. Starts as a sidekick and practically has become the main character at this point. Obviously Sakamoto is still the true MC, but Shin is trying his best to steal the show! I'm loving it.

 

I'm up to # 83 now with Black Clover. Didn't read much over the weekend. They're just about to go to the Forest of Witches to try to find a fix for Asta's cursed arms. Curious to see how that plays out

[dr. b 496]

Akane-banashi # 207

A very satisfying finish - and reaction - to Akane's God of Death. I loved this chapter. Problem is, Kaisei appears ready to take the stage and somehow outdo Akane  Very curious to see his God of Death over the next few chapters. I hope his performance gets as much time as Akane's did and isn't just glossed over. 

 

Sakamoto Days # 260

No big comments, just want to give Shin some more props. You got this, buddy!

 

Spy x Fam # 135

This situation that Loid's gotten himself into    I love drunk Yor but Director Wilker has perhaps stolen the spotlight in this chapter. What a goofy old dude  

[Psycho666Soldier 294]

Akane-banashi #207-208

Yeah, that was a great performance, and the realization that this is the first time she's been able to properly go all out with no restrictions hit hard. Even if Kaisei Ani-san wins, the way the pompous crowd went from not giving a fuck to treating Akane like a legend was so nice to see.  Was also nice to see Kaisei seem somewhat unsettled for the first time in the most recent chapter. It almost made me have sympathy for him enough to cheer him on to win

 

Sakamoto Days #261

I'm not sure if the last couple pages were intentionally sketchy or if dude ran out of time, but it still worked for the kind of style he does. Also thought the idea that Tanabata used his guitar to recreate the exact same pitch frequency as any given attack was a pretty cool concept. I don't have perfect pitch, so I could never lol

[dr. b 496]

Agreed on all points! 

 

I'm glad the author mentioned the fact that this was Akane's first chance in a long time to just do rakugo without some special condition. Never would have occurred to me  

 

The lack of polish in the last few pages of Sakamoto Days' most recent chapter was very noticeable but I didn't hate it either. I wonder if they decided to change some details at the last second, which required new pages to be created. Or some pages got lost to a technical snafu. Who knows. Maybe the author just didn't budget time correctly and this was the result. I've seen this phenomenon a handful of times in Kagurabachi, although it's been weeks and weeks since the last occurrence. Togashi was pretty notorious for submitting stuff looking like that to make the deadline back in the bad old days as well. I'd love to have some new HxH chapters someday...  

[Psycho666Soldier 294]

Sakamoto Days is definitely one of the few manga that can get away with it because it already has a pretty gritty and sketchy style. I appreciate that Yuto Suzuki(finally looked it up again) always focuses on maximizing the FEEL of a panel. It's not necessarily about perfect art, it's about cool angles and poses, breathtaking action shots, and weighty moments that you let linger.

 

I feel like if Undead Unluck suddenly looked like that, it would be really jarring 

[dr. b 496]

Yeah for sure, the "rough panel" look blends in better with certain art styles and would stick out like a sore thumb in other cases.

 

Other stuff...

 

Kagurabachi has continued to be really great lately. This one has been rapidly rising up my personal power rankings  

 

Miharu and Ban are in a bit of a bind in Witch Watch, and I'm very curious to see how they get out of it (Ban is so useless  But maybe she'll miraculously do something good). This whole arc on the cruise ship has been really really good. 

 

I'm up to # 135 in Black Clover; they've just finished the Royal Knights competition and the squad is heading off to storm the Eye of the Midnight Sun's hideout. I'm really curious to learn more about Licht and the elves. Stuff has been alluded to but not really addressed directly/thoroughly. I want to know the history and backstory in a lot more detail!