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Zettai Karen Children 210
I find it harder and harder to come up with anything to say about this series. I blame this on the series.
A battle of bladders? What the hell is this?
Can’t stand non-chapters like these. Literally nothing of consequence happened. A fight continued to not happen, two guys continued to run away from things, and people continued heading in a direction.
Final Flash: If you can’t be bothered to write anything interesting, I can’t be bothered to comment.
Fairy Tail 177
I can tell from the cover page that I’m not going to have many nice things to say.
Impossible to take any of this action seriously.
Huh. So those were his parents. Neat.
Final Flash: In the conversation with episode 101 of Naruto.
Defense Devil 41
It’s amazing how this art manages to be incredibly detailed yet easy to follow. Some series (Trigun Maximum, for one) have so much detail that it overwhelms the eyes.
Sweeper alert! Further proving the infatuation mangaka have with the term “sweeper.”
Oh dear. A pig.
“I must wear evil cutie makeup” – This may be profoundly ridiculous, but at least it’s honest. Better than dark fantasy series pretending to be legitimate while leaving a trail of glitter all over the place.
The car’s name is “Jody” when the license plate clearly says “Zodi”? Really, I Eat Manga? I have my doubts.
(Oh, by the way, start your KITT references now.)
The car is also perverted and makes bad puns? The hood skirt-flip was amusing, but this could become tiresome.
“GILTY”? Come on, even if that was in the original (which it is), fix it.
Go-go-gadget ridiculous car chapter.
Final Flash: Overall, displeased with the car. Not a good fit in this series.
Lock On! 5
Looks like Bleach is getting some competition for worst Shonen Jump art. These backgrounds, these buildings, these character designs…
Yamato may be generic, but he’s proving to be a more interesting character than Utsuru.
All the drama of Utsuru’s speech is wiped away by the photography references. Photography is not a good backdrop for this type of story.
Resolution within one chapter, and now they’re probably going to be standard schoolkids-series buddies.
Final Flash: Maybe the series will improve once there are enough members to start the club… if the series hasn’t been cut by then.
AR∀GO 12
I don’t know, I’d say “Orca of Oppression of Revolution” is just as catchy as “Seth.” Might want to rethink that.
This is just about the right time to introduce a longer storyline.
It’s also the right time to explain Patchman’s powers further. Arai seems to have good pacing so far.
Unrelated to the series itself: I love Trinity BAKumA for releasing this (and Sket Dance, whenever they do), but their font choice for Seth’s speech is poor.
Even the devil comes from the talk-too-much-and-lose-your-chance school of villainy.
Final Flash: Good fight and good exposition.
Bakuman 78
All marital issues should be solved with rock-paper-scissors.
Top-left panel of page 5 is amusingly reminiscent of Death Note.
Miyoshi, everyone wants to play Quoits.
(Yes, I had to google Quoits.)
Wow. I had Yamahisa pegged as a shady character, but that was a pretty great speech. Too bad it didn’t go over well with anyone but me, it seems.
Miura: Learn something.
The shock reaction running joke is hilarious.
Mashiro finally displaying confidence in wanting to quit is a great step forward for the series.
Oh wow. What a last page.
Final Flash: Every change of direction this manga takes is a fresh, exciting step forward.
Code:Breaker 81
It’s a little cheap the way The One Being Sought always has another power handy. Now he’s Diavolo and Wolverine?
“Presser” is a bad attack name.
Code:Names? Uh-oh. That’s the sign of the next major series of fights. I never like when enemies are prefaced like this. At least these won’t all have Spanish titles. (I hope.)
The Seeking One, is it? That sounds a little less cool. Too bad.
The direction this chapter is going, by humanizing The Seeking One, is making me worry that we have another Itachi on our hands, i.e. the credible villain the series has built up since the beginning is actually a good guy (… well, kinda) and other, stronger people are the real evil ones.
“Deep Presser” is even worse.
The two-page spread is pretty cool.
The second two-page spread is even better. Itachi scenario avoided; this storyline has a little similarity, but is far better.
Final Flash: Mixed feelings about this climax, because of the foreshadowing of the Code:Names, but overall, the fights were good.
Mahou Sensei Negima! 283
“We’re in the middle of an extremely serious situation right now, and I really don’t think it’s the time [for a fan-servicing bath scene]…” – Negi, reading my mind
I need to verify whether or not you’re a fake, so… let’s have sex? Good plan.
So much dialogue for a scene with a half-naked girl in chains.
Kissing solves everything. Oh, sorry. “Pactio.” By the way, why aren’t there hundreds of Negi cosplayers at anime conventions? It’s the perfect excuse to run around and try to kiss as many girls as possible. Just draw them a card and apparently they’ll be satisfied.
A new harem member! I’m relieved. Negi was running low.
Final Flash: Whether or not you like this storyline, you can’t complain about the pacing. The series is progressing through important storylines much more quickly than most current series.
MiXiM☆11 88
Not a flashback! This is a better start than recent chapters.
So… yeah, of course Ichimatsu is going. It’s a shonen action series. The protagonist will always ignore warnings. That’s what was so painful about those long flashbacks: They were obviously irrelevant.
“Stewm” is such a terrible name.
Short chapter, and absolutely nothing happened. How many pages does it take to ignore a warning and start a fight? I’d say three, at most. Not fourteen.
Final Flash: Maybe the fight will be good. I have no expectations going into it.
Lock On! 4
I don’t care how many different ways you draw them; speed lines are not proper backgrounds.
Everything about this series so far has been distinctly mediocre. The beginning of this chapter is no exception.
Here’s some guy who seems like a delinquent. I bet he’s not such a bad guy.
I know our main character has some ability related to the eye under that Akito/Agito-ripoff eye patch, but that back flip is just ridiculous.
Huh. That’s not exactly the twist I expected out of Yamato, at least.
Final Flash: This series has a long way to go to escape early cancellation.
Beelzebub 53
What an amazing cover page.
What is Oga doing? Weird.
Damn, I love Oga’s creepy face. Two pages, no less. And a Baby Beel creepy face! Excellent.
Of course Kunieda misunderstands. So cute.
Evil grin dodge! This is a fun chapter.
He got the answer right! I’m actually laughing audibly.
An interesting development on the last page, too.
Final Flash: Fantastic chapter. All my disappointment at the abrupt ending of the Demon World arc is gone.
Naruto 487
Did Sakura finally admit to herself that she’s useless? That’s quite the achievement.
Sasuke, continuing his descent into terrible villainy. Not in the “his actions are heinous” way, but the “this character is horribly written” way.
Sakura: Worse than useless. Actually a detriment to her own team.
I was just worrying about the lack of rap.
I don’t mind several Akatsuki members, but I really don’t care about Zetsu.
Oh wow. There’s a face we haven’t seen since… well, since the series was good with any reasonable measure of consistency.
Final Flash: Not looking forward to any of this Zetsu/Kisame/Bee business, but the last page could prove for an interesting future.
Bleach 396
Byakuya drinking Starbucks. Wow.
… actually, can I read that series instead?
It’s Ichigo! I wonder what move he’ll use.
Oh, he used his one move. Neat.
Ichigo looks unbearably lame with the Hollow mask.
Whoa, a black background! In my best J.R., “Business is about to pick up!”
You have to be kidding me. Everything according to plan? This is absolutely pathetic.
Final Flash: I would say “this series can’t get any worse,” but I know I’ll be proven wrong. Still, putrid. Colossally poor. Maybe I should read Incarnate instead.
Psyren 111
Whoa. Impact right away. Pretty cool, though I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking of Wild Wild West a little bit.
Unless I’m forgetting something major, this is a vastly different Psyren. Interesting.
Is Kyle ever not awesome? I wish he was part of the main group. In fact, I’m just going to consider him a main character.
I still like Melchsee’s Door, even if it might make Ageha a little broken.
Fist-bumping: It’s never cool.
Final Flash: So far so good, this trip to Psyren.
Fairy Tail 176
More focus on talking cats. Hooray. That’s all this series needs to improve.
So… we had a talking cat. Then a cube guy. Now a cube cat.
Exactly what kind of a hand motion is Nadei making on page 9?
An entire town full of talking cats. What little respect I had for this series and its author is evaporating with each new page.
I guess that hand motion is Nadei’s trademark. Sure, whatever.
 Nadei (Fairy Tail) |
 Gecko Moria (One Piece) |
(Okay, okay, I’m trying on that one.)
Someone we thought was good is actually bad! But they’re still good! But… they’re supposed to be bad! sigh.
Nope, sorry. A talking cat’s tears earn no sympathy points.
Final Flash: I remember being excited at the very beginning of this arc, when the Fairy Tail guild house disappeared. How stupid I was.
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