Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #32

If Kishimoto sticks to his guns, this will be the last proper chapter of Naruto manga that we ever read, and it was lovely. Kishimoto has gone on record as saying that after this miniseries and his involvement with the Boruto movie, he will not draw anything more regarding the Naruto world.  Though I would in no way be disappointed to read a Boruto series, especially with Kishimoto firing on all cylinders right now, I think this is the right decision.

Naruto's legacy really needed no final flourish: we knew he would be with Hinata, we know he would be Hokage, we knew his son would be a little dick, and we watched him rise to the status of savior well before the series' 700th chapter.  Sasuke's legacy needed to have the same kind of significance as Naruto's, since half of the series was pretty much his.  But wrapping that up needed to be done with an eye towards the things which made Sasuke... well, Sasuke.

And there is a panel where Sasuke does the famed Itachi forehead-touch to his daughter, and I started bawling: this is what Itachi wanted.  This panel, of all the panels Kishimoto has drawn in this miniseries, finally puts a period on the end of not only Sasuke's story, but Itachi's story, as well as the tattered legacy of the Uchiha.  All Itachi ever wanted was for his brother to have a chance to live a life in the Leaf free from the Uchiha bull shit.  But freeing Sasuke from the Uchiha nonsense was impossible to do: Sasuke himself had that Uchiha hatred running in his veins.  To see that Sasuke finally worked through that hatred after hearing the words of the First Hokage, to the point where he could find the love at its foundation and continue the Uchiha bloodline with the birth of Sarada-- well, nothing could possibly make Itachi happier.

In other news, One-Punch Man is getting an anime, and I am very interested to see how that goes for two reasons.  First, it is set up to be absolutely excellent: the series' creator, known as "One," has put together a gorgeously detailed and terrifying series with intentionally boring-looking and humorous Saitama at the center.  If the anime can carry the humor and involves the same level of detail as the manga, it will be a smash hit.  Second, the anime is set up for a disaster: One-Punch Man's publishing schedule has been fairly inconsistent and often quite slow: very few animes that out-pace their manga have lasting success.  Either way, this series has grown on me, and any time a series this popular and peculiar gets an anime, it's something to keep an eye out for.

Probably as big of a moment as the defeat of Doflamingo happened in the aftermath of the final battle of the Dressrosa arc: Issho bowed at the feet of King Riku and apologized for the world government's de facto sanctioning of the terrible things Doflamingo did.  This will likely be the moment we look back on as we inevitably head towards the dissolution of the Shichibukai.  The future in One Piece is now much more interesting.  The World Government obviously maintains a vested interest in hiding the events that lead to its rise to power in order to maintain that power.  But Issho is the type of figure we have not yet seen reach his full potential, and he now is singularly obsessed with making sure the world government flies straight.  Though I don't think this will lead to an alliance with Luffy, it does add an interesting new dimension to the conflict between the pirates and the government.

Food Club and Academia were both excellent this week, and I think it's safe to say that Naruto leaves Jump in the capable hands of a mostly-strong list of titles.

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Score: 4/5

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Weekly Shonen Jump #32 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 7/6/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #31

The Dressrosa Arc of One Piece, for all intents and purposes, is over, as the Naruto mini also nears its end in this short issue of Weekly Shonen Jump. I think My Hero: Academia has a lot of potential, despite being consistently inconsistent and filled with a good deal of cliches.  Look, we're living in the age of superheroes: origin stories, training montages, fights, power-ups, etc.  Manga is no exception, and Jump will always have some series carrying the torch that DBZ lit.  Soon (maybe?) Bleach will no longer light that torch (not that its flame hasn't been... meager).  Naruto pretty much doesn't carry that torch anymore.  One Piece is setting a new, different kind of standard, while staying true to a lot of the otherwise cliche elements that make a superhero series great.

Academia is slowly developing its own quirks (pun intended), and I like that.  Midoriya figuring out part of his powers based on microwaving pastries for his eccentric teacher is a nice little quirk (pun not intented) that lends a lot of character to this series.  Midoriya is not dumb like your typical Goku, Naruto, or Luffy: he's actually a much better student than all of them, ironically lacking only the physical intelligence that the rest share.  I see Midoriya, along with a handful of other characters in this series, as fitting into a new, more modern and nuanced standard of Shonen hero along with characters like Soma and even Saitama.

I don't think I ever processed the fact that The Seventh Hokage and The Scarlet Spring was only going to be ten issues.  I don't think I wanted to admit to myself that new Naruto was going to end: I have been thrilled with Kishimoto showing that he understands his characters and his series so deeply.  And damnit, I missed Orochimaru.  All that said, I really am disappointed, because it seems like this miniseries is essentially serving as the gateway to the world of Boruto.

There is a big rant bubbling under the surface here, so I'll try to keep it brief.  One of the things that Toriyama ruined after the Cell Saga of DBZ was making the series star Goku instead of handing the reigns over to Gohan.  Gohan got his moment in the sun at the end of the Cell Saga, but pretty much got completely neutered for all of the Buu Saga.  What I'm sort of disappointed by is the fact that I want more Naruto and more Sasuke; but, I'm asking for something I don't really want.

Kishimoto needs to move forward with this series.  He needs to let the original 700 chapters of Naruto stand as a completed monolith to the characters I love, and he needs to make new characters to love, for readers old and new.  If I'm really allowed to be disappointed about anything, I think it's the fact that we aren't getting more Sarada or Cho-Cho or robust, menacing villains.  But, he's got plenty of time for that.

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Score: 4/5

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Weekly Shonen Jump #31 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 7/1/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #30

Jump has its ebbs and flows, but it's hard to feel disappointed with an issue in which One Piece has reached or is just about to reach the climactic moments of the most entertaining arc since the timeskip.  The thing that will make Dressrosa stand out for me as an arc in this post-timeskip world of One Piece is that it held true to Oda's method of making protagonists stand against villains for deeply personal reasons while successfully raising the stakes.  One Piece has never been without its personal, character-driven drama: it actually makes the Anime unwatchable for some people, something I struggled with in a handful of early arcs.  Oda's great success here is that the fate of Dressrosa was several degrees removed from the main crew of the Straw Hats. The destruction of the city was not only made deeply personal to the reader through the story of Kyros and the connection between Law and Doffy, though: the fate of Dressrosa and the pirate alliance that formed to save it are major signals of where this series is headed.  Much like Kishimoto achieved with Shippuden, Oda has loaded the front end of his post-timeskip world with lore that will unfold in the end-game of the series.  Dressrosa takes this a step further, preparing the reader for the big, bad, high-stakes world of the real Grand Line.

Naruto was not quite as exciting this week, and even though it was a great chapter, it felt a little slow since the family themes at hand are just so damn obvious.  It's hard to really pitch that as a criticism: Kishimoto is so good at telegraphing nuanced looks at how we define love, family, and friendship, that sometimes his chapters suffer from a character taking the time to sit us down and explain things.  With the wacky way that genes work in Naruto, it still remains to be seen what Sarada's mom situation really is.  The mere possibility that it might not be Sakura was an effective opening to explore parent-child relationships: I just didn't really need Naruto to sit Sarada (and me) down and explain how this theme tied back to the original series.

The only thing making a splash in this issue, aside from Luffy's giant haki-inflated fist, is a rare one-shot, Folie A Deux from American writer-artist team Bikkuri and Rem.  I confess that I found the art a little hard to follow.  Characters and details were occasionally impressive; other times, the dark, twisted style of the comic could not get out of its own way in order to efficiently present what exactly was happening.  Where the art sometimes succeeded, the manga presented a world that posed too many questions and did not even feign to answer them.

Ambiguity in a one-shot is necessary, but it doesn't have to be a necessary evil.  Ambiguity can (and should) be leveraged to awesome effect in one-off stories.  Random example: one of my favorite episodes of television is "Midnight," from the Fourth Series of new Doctor Who.  Sparing all the details, the villain in the episode is never revealed: it has its evil-yet-fleeting impact on the characters and then vanishes into oblivion.  Folie suffers from too much world-building and not enough real character exploration.  Any amount that we do delve into the characters is just a lot of posturing and power-flexing.  It's hard to care about the Jack-the-Ripper-esque mystery or the 19th century underground Wonka-style elevator because the manga never gets off the ground before jumping into the action.  The synopsis of the one-shot did more to explain the story than the story ever achieved on its own: that's a no-no.

Of course, independent of any concerns for quality, there is an open and interesting question as to whether or not work such as this actually deserves to be called manga.  I don't want to get too far into it right here, but it's a question worthy of consideration.  A medium with a particular cultural heritage is beckoning to people from far different backgrounds.  The question, mainly, is whether creating manga is just like creating "comics" with a different name but with an eye towards a particular style; or, must creators pay their dues in order to truly create manga?  If so, while Folie, for instance, certainly aims at a manga style, it falls short of the same quality as other titles.  On the flip side, as manga becomes internationally-renowned, this creative team has shown that it can win competitions on the world stage.

It’s hardly a make-or-break distinction, but I still think it’s an interesting one.  It’s hard to tackle on this side of the ocean since, in many ways, if there is an issue with assigning the term to certain works, it’s an issue of appropriation.  My two cents on the issue (which is definitely worth less than two cents) is that if a Japanese-run manga anthology with one of the harshest editorial policies known to man thinks that a title warrants inclusion in its ranks, then that title is manga.

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Score: 3/5

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Weekly Shonen Jump #30 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 6/22/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: Naruto 700 +7

CALLED IT! Okay, so it probably wasn't that hard to figure out: our mysterious Uchiha friend is a former Orochimaru experiment.  That does not make it any less fantastic that Orochimaru and the Taka are being brought back into the fold.  I thought one of the strongest aspects of early Shippuden was Sasuke assembling the Taka (which he called “Hebi,” at the time, I believe).  Jugo, Suigetsu, and Karin are inherently interesting characters with unique abilities.  More importantly, they all tie neatly together around a central character, Orochimaru, who is by far the most interesting villain in the entire series.

Kishimoto is showing his maturity as a writer both with his own characters and with his willingness to explore philosophically provoking themes while demonstrating that he is not afraid to inject humor to break up some of the tension.  As I have said before, Naruto is nothing if not an exploration of older generations passing down a will and a purpose to the younger generations.  Contemplating the austere, sort-of-depressing biological nature of genetics via the Shin clones provides a stellar contrast to the ever-present theme of lineage in Naruto. 

And Chocho?  Name me a better character than Chocho right now.  You can't.  A father and daughter are reunited for the first time in years and Chocho is trying to help one of the greatest Ninja of all time smooth things over by giving up her bag of BBQ chips.  She meets Orochimaru and blabs about how she can't figure out whether he's a man or a woman, much like I could not figure out when I first started reading.  I confess that I'm still not really sure.  Since Naruto himself has to act like Hokage most of the time, it's nice to have some silly comic relief breaking up the already intense drama of these early chapters.

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Score: 5/5

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Naruto 700+7 Writer/Artist: Masashi Kishimoto Publisher: Viz Media (via Weekly Shonen Jump 29)

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #26

Devily Man tries its hand as this week’s “Jump Start” and it is miles above its only competition, Straighten Up.  As much as true-to-life (ish) mangas are riding a wave of popularity for the past few years, I can’t imagine Straighten Up will beat out a series as clever and quick as Devily Man.  I also don’t expect Straighten Up to stick around to long over in the Japanese line-up, but that’s a much harder prediction to make and Jump in Japan has the resources to reach niche audiences, even with dance manga.  Devily Man features a pathetic, pure-of-heart devil who sells a special power to evil people in exchange for half of their salary for the rest of their lives.  The power in question: contact with the hand of another person reveals to the user every bad thing that person has ever done.  The power is used deftly by our co-antagonist, a small child, to blackmail the shit out of people into doing whatever he wants.  As much as I love the premise and the simplicity of its execution, it’s going to be a challenge for this manga to really go somewhere.  We’ll see where it’s at in a few weeks. I thought that this was one of the most visually stunning chapters of One Piece that I have ever read.  The entire Dressrosa arc has been a flourish in character design and the city itself has come alive in its shift from quaint town to ominous evil superstructure.  What really grabbed my attention about this chapter, however, was the organized chaos of these layouts.  No other mainstream mangaka has ever been anywhere close to Oda’s level in terms of putting massively popular stories on a page, and this chapter is a testament to that fact.

The other awesome aspect of this week’s One Piece is exemplified by the way that Oda is able to drive tension by delegating the epicness of an arc’s climax to character’s other than Luffy.  This is a manga about his entire crew and everyone that they come across.  It’s one thing to see that featured in stellar, always unique character designs; however, it’s another level of storytelling entirely to bench your main protagonist and put the fate of an entire city on everyone else’s shoulders.  Naturally this is a major feature of Shonen tales--lord knows it added hundreds of episodes to DBZ--but Oda doesn’t make it feel like a mere trope.  One Piece feels like it’s everyone’s story.

And, of course, Naruto, Food Wars, and Academia were fantastic.  We went over 300 pages again this week and none of the stuff that I usually read felt even a little bit like filler.  Seeing Naruto casually interact with Kurama while shepherding around Sasuke and Chouji’s daughters was pretty awesome.  Seeing the alarming capabilities of the mysterious Uchiiha foe is even more awesome.  It’s looking more and more like this has to someow involve some long-lost Orochimaru weirdness.  I have no idea how this could be anything else.

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Score: 5/5

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Weekly Shonen Jump #26 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 5/25/2015 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #25

I’m moving across the country this week, so I’m just going to hit the high points.  I’m also going to include my review of this chapter of Naruto. Seriously, I’m half asleep in this hotel room after twelve hours of driving, but looked forward enough to Weekly Shonen Jump that it was easy to stay awake to read the issue.  Naruto is starting whatever story arc Kishimoto has in mind, and though I was wrong with my prediction that the hooded figure would be a Taka member, I was completely right that Cho Cho is fantastic.  My favorite part of the chapter, other than Cho Cho trying to kick some ass, was the way Naruto handled his encounter with the mysterious Uchiha.  Young Naruto was always clueless: Hokage Naruto sees a mysterious sharingan user—something that shocked literally any reader of the series—and just sort of smirks it away.

One Piece is finally set up to get nasty.  Luffy fell out of fourth gear and now needs ten minutes to get back to using Haki.  Doffy is going to mess a lot of people up while they buy Luffy time: the ensuing massacre looks to be the climax of this arc.  I have a feeling Sabo may be the person not to survive.

And on the cover this week was Academia and my goodness this series is clever.  The current tournament occurring in the series is directly reminiscent of the Chuunin exams from Naruto’s past and the execution is right on par.  I love looking at this series, the drama is varied and relatable, and the fights are more thoughtful than most of the other series out there right now.  The final match in the tournament is about to happen between two fighters who have been beyond unbeatable: it should be great.

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Score: 4/5

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Weekly Shonen Jump #25 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 5/18/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: Naruto 700+2

Kishimoto didn't waste any time blowing our minds: there is at least one other sharingan user other than Sasuke (and other than Sarada, who hasn't manifested it yet) and the person pulling the sharingan user's strings is cloaked in an Akatsuki uniform.  Shit. The balance that Kishimoto is already starting to strike with these chapters is impressive.  The interactions with kids have all the charm of the original pre-time-skip Naruto series and now we get to see our favorite characters playing all the grown-up roles that used to be reserved for guys like Jiraiya and Kakashi.  On top of all that, he's bringing back Orochimaru into the fold to see if he has anything to do with the mysterious sharingan user, and let's be serious: we all want more Orochimaru.  He was probably the best villain in the series and if I was disappointed with any aspects of the series' end, it was how Orochimaru just kind of acquiesced to what the good guys were doing.

My gut is telling me that the person cloaked in the Akatsuki uniform is one of the Taka: either Jugo, Karin, or Suigetsu.  It was unclear at the end of Naruto what kind of plans Suigetsu and Jugo stumbled into when they found one of Orochimaru's lairs.  It could be the case that they saw his plans to resurrect the Hokage again, but that was never explicitly said.  Unless I'm forgetting how they finished off that plot point, it could be that one of the Taka discovered plans to manufacture more sharingan users, which is something Orochimaru obviously had interest in since his life's obsession was arguably the greatest sharingan user of all-time, Itachi.  The Taka are also completely unaccounted for at the moment, and the presence of one of its members would tie directly to Sarada's search for Karin, who she believes to be her real mom.

It looks like next week Naruto is going to talk to Orochimaru: you have no idea how much I cannot wait for that.

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Score: 4/5

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Naruto 700+2 Writer/Artist: Masashi Kishimoto Publisher: Viz Media (via Weekly Shonen Jump 24)

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #24

As was expected given the axe dropped on a few titles abroad, Weekly Shonen Jump added some titles in Japan and so now we're getting a new round of "Jump Starts."  The first one this week is Straighten Up! Welcome to Shika High's Competitive Dance Club. Um.  Well, other than the long, inconvenient title, I have a feeling this series isn't for me.  There's a load of coming-of-age stories in Shonen anthologies (because of the demographic they're catered to, natch), but when things are too explicitly... high-school-ish, I just don't know how I can enjoy the story.  You certainly don't have to identify with every character in every story; I think that's a bad argument.  I do think, however, that sometimes the entertainment value of a story is purely derived from whether you do, in fact, connect with what's happening.  The only time this doesn't happen is with a gimmicky premise, or one with a lot of fighting or adventure or whatever.  Look at Naruto: I don't identify with ninjas or with having a demon fox spirit inside of me; but, I find war interesting, and the exploration of the relationships between students, teachers, and just the pure mechanisms by which action takes place in the series hold my attention.

By contrast, when your series is pitching me about dance in high school because the main male characters are interested in being "accidental lucky perverts" I kind of have to get off the train.  Obviously this all comes crashing down when it turns out that dance is about more than just copping a feel and is actually one of the most rigorous and demanding things you could do with your time if you take it seriously.  But... well, I just don't care.  We'll see how this series stacks up against Devily Man.

What can I even say about how amazing One Piece is right now?  Luffy is still locked in fourth gear, but who knows how long it will actually last.  Doffy has shown that he can actually turn things other than his body into strings and has started converting entire buildings into large strings for his defense against Luffy's relentless bouncing assault.  Riku has informed the people of the city that the end is near, which was a great dramatic way for Oda to signal to the reader that this is the climax of the arc.  I'm still worried that somebody is going to die, and I think now that Doffy is literally up against a wall, with this newly demonstrated ability to turn entire buildings into strings, he is going to lash out next chapter.

And who could forget about Bleach?  Everyone and their mother is coming back from the (sort of) dead, ever-so-conveniently just in time for the end of all things!  Woohoo!  I think it's a mistake to take all of Kubo's messing around seriously at this point: I'm just going to enjoy the return of Grimmjow, who has one of my favorite character designs ever.

I review Naruto on its own (which I will continue to do because IT'S BACK!!!) and even though, for me, Naruto alone justifies the cost of this volume, with normal weeks at Jump nearing 300 pages, it's sort of hard not to justify the cost most weeks.

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Score: 4/5

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Weekly Shonen Jump #24 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 5/11/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: Let’s Eat Ramen and Other Doujinshi Short Stories

If there’s one thing I really enjoy food wise its ramen. Meaning this was an easy sell for me. In fact the only thing that could have made the reading experience better was probably eating ramen at the same time. Can we all just pause for a ramen break? No? Okay I’ll just get some on my own. Let’s Eat Ramen is a collection of short stories from creator Nagumo. The title story is definitely one of the best as it follows the character Saeki who is a young girl obsessed with ramen and wants to try all kinds, but is afraid to. Mainly because as Nagumo explains it’s a male dominate cuisine and so this young girl doesn’t want to sit in a ramen house surrounded by older men all by herself. As she’s attempting to work up the courage to go in by herself she runs into a classmate that coyly helps her by going in and eating with her. The catch is that once his good deed is done Saeki shows him a book of a 100 ramen places. After that they become ramen eating buddies.

The story is only three chapters and it doesn’t really have this big conclusion. It’s just a quick and cute story about a girl who loves ramen, but you do get a sense for her character. You even get a sense of the relationship/friendship developing between Saeki and Hozumi. Nagumo manages to create a world around these characters that feels very real and well developed.

What really needs to be praised is the artwork. My goodness are these three stories absolutely beautiful. The rest of the book is still good looking, but the Let’s Eat Ramen chapters are by far the best. The detail that Nagumo puts into the line work is outstanding, but it’s the grey scale that’s truly impressive. You can practically see the color it’s that in-depth and hell it may be a converted page, but that doesn’t change how clean and detailed it looks.

The next story I’d like to cover is set in high school. I wish I could read the name, but the font was too bubbly though it could be “Urameshiza.” Again I could be wrong on that title. The story follows a girl that’s watering flowers at the school one day when another girl in a swimsuit freaks out on her. She’s startled by her being down there and thought she might have been a ghost.

A complex friendship begins and the story will make you wonder if one of these two main characters are in fact a ghost. Throughout the course of the story though a friendship is built and the characters grow to understand each other. It was a really intriguing story and even though it felt obvious to me what the answer would be there were still some swerves along the way that elevated the story.

Again the art was wonderful and while it wasn’t as detailed with grey scale as Let’s Eat Ramen, it had a wonderful style and look to it. That’s definitely something you could see and tell about each story that they all had their own style and while overall you could see hints of an underlining style it wasn’t something like you see in the States of an intentional style and look.

With each story being so short it makes this book hard to put down. Not that I was trying to, but the cool thing about short stories is that you can stop at some points and start again. Almost savoring the book here and there rather than needing to blaze through it all. Still though, I blazed through it all because I really enjoyed the variety of stories. There’s friendship, there’s food, there’s yuri elements and they’re all united by fantastic art. Art that frankly puts a lot of “professional” work to shame.

Another side effect of these being short stories is that it makes for a great place to start reading manga. If you never have before this is the perfect sampling of several genres and really an introduction to the style of storytelling you’ll find. Now… can we seriously go eat ramen?

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Score: 4/5

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Let’s Eat Ramen and Other Doujinshi Short Stories Writer/Artist/Creator: Nagumo Aji-chi Publisher: Gen Manga Price: $10.95 Release Date: 8/18/15 Format: Trade Paperback; Print

Review: Weekly Shonen Jump #22-23

Weekly Shonen Jump will be off next week because of Golden Week over in Japan, so this week's issue is being billed as issue 22-23, despite being a normal sized issue.  Of course, even though it's *only* over 200 pages, it's certainly still worth your attention: Naruto is back with a mini sequel series Naruto Gaiden: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring (which I am covering separately because NARUTO'S BACK!!!), and Luffy is setting a new precedent in One Piece by going into Fourth Gear. FOURTH GEAR!!!  Oda deserves massive amounts of credit for how freakishly creative he is, but one thing that people not privy to One Piece may not know is that this creativity is most effective when it extends to the weirdly specific battle mechanics of Luffy and his friends and foes.  Super Saiyan in DBZ is just an awkwardly "Aryan" rage-fueled punch-fest, and Sage Mode in Naruto is slightly more explained but still pretty much magic; but, Luffy's way of escalating fights in typical Shonen style is actually given a naturalistic explanation.  Luffy's gears involve him exploiting the properties of his rubber form using tension, air, heat, and pressure to create a serious problem for the people messing with his friends.

Okay, okay: so Haki isn't exactly a naturalistic explanation and is pretty much a magical force that everyone in One Piece has access to.  And Haoshoku Haki is even rarer and seems to be the exact kind of power thingy that I was just jabbing at DBZ and Naruto for.  But it's not as if what makes Luffy's gears special is the Haki: the Haki gets thrown in as an additional element, but it's not the most important one.  By far the most interesting part of Luffy, other than the fact that he is currently bouncing around Dressrosa like a toy beating the absolute shit out of one of the most powerful beings on the planet, is the fact that he integrates immensely powerful techniques with the really stupid fact that he is made of rubber.

And herein lies the absolute genius of Luffy as a character: his rubber power is supposed to be stupid.  I think sometimes that even big fans of One Piece forget that this power is supposed to suck ass.  The first thing Luffy does when he gets this power is get abducted and almost drown, a series of events which results in Shanks losing a damn arm.  But from day one Luffy has been showing that because of his brash, prototypically brave but stupid Shonen mentality, he can turn this inherently pointless ability into one of the greatest weapons in the world.  It sends a message that is important but goes overlooked: what makes Luffy great isn't the fact that he ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi.  What makes Luffy great is the fact that he is great in spite of eating the Gomu Gomu no Mi.  And, if you really think about it, the whole point is that this little stupid kid would do absolutely anything to be the Pirate King, rubber powers or no.

I am going to go out on a limb and make an unfortunate prediction: someone is going to die in this final battle between Luffy and Doffy, and we're not going to like who it is.  My first guess is Law, and I know it's the most obvious guess, but that's simply because it would make the most sense.  I usually don't like putting story predictions out there like this, but this is a really pivotal and interesting time in One Piece:  as was pointed out this chapter, what the Straw Hats and the revolutionaries are doing in Dressrosa is going to change the landscape of this world for better and for worse.  People are going to realize that the government's association with certain pirates is incredibly dangerous for them, and the government is going to crack down on pirates and exercise its authority over civilians more than ever.

In any case, the reason I think someone has to die in this fight is because Luffy really is kicking the absolute shit out of Doflamingo right now.  And it seems like Doffy's only out is that he will have to put Luffy in some kind of compromising position.  Zoro, who is really one of the biggest heroes of this arc, has a plan to take care of Doffy's birdcage; but, Doffy is by far the evilest dude we have encountered in this series, and if he would kill an entire island over being minorly inconvenienced, I do not want to see what kind of shit he will do when he is backed into a corner.

Luffy's Fourth Gear and the return of Naruto alone make this a stellar issue.  If I get a chance, I’ll gush about Food Wars next week.  It’s a crazy-exciting time to be reading Jump.

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Score: 5/5

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Weekly Shonen Jump #22-23 Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: Viz Media Release Date: 4/29/15 Format: Weekly; Digital

Review: Naruto 700+1

I like Naruto.  Okay, I fucking love Naruto.  The very first thing I wrote as a Bastard was about the end of Naruto, and I was practically too emotional to sputter anything out about the series. Part of what made it so easy to let go of a series that had been a part of my life every week for six years was the surprising announcement that Kishimoto would continue to draw an extension of the series: Naruto Gaiden: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring. Of course, I'm not sure why I was surprised.  People from the outside looking in might just look at this and think that it's indicative of a generation of stories that have relied on prequels, sequels, remakes, and spiritual successors.  But if there is one thing that Naruto has always been about, on a deep level, it is the acknowledgment that the next generation has to carry the torch and, at the same time, the previous generation's impact cannot be overstated.

If I had to pick a favorite character in this series, I would have a tremendously hard time.  And it's not because there are a bunch of characters who are peers and all equally awesome in different ways (even though this is true); rather, it's because all of the best characters had a teacher who was way more awesome than they were.  You won't find this kind of true-to-life narrative in a lot of Western stories, and surely it falls out of a reverence for teachers and elders that is hard to find on this side of the planet.

I mean, just look at Kakashi.  If I had to pick a favorite character, like, REALLY had to, it would be him.  And even though his students are incredible, two of whom are essentially the saviors of the entire ninja world, he still looks more awesome in comparison.  Why?  Well, other than just obviously being more awesome, Kishimoto has laid out this series in such a way that it is fucking impossible to give anybody in this series credit without first giving credit to his or her teacher.  There are some exceptions here, but it's important to notice who the exceptions are: figures like Orochimaru and Deidara seem largely to be self-taught in their weirdly evil ways.  But neither of them is supposed to be admirable.  By contrast, figures like Hashirama and Madara are essentially god-like figures who founded the modern concept of being a ninja.  The difference?  The latter two are the ultimate teachers, and essentially worshipped as such.

It's just impossible to honestly say who had more of an impact between Sarutobi, Jiraiya, Minato, Kakashi, or Naruto, because none of them would be anything without the person who came before.  And with that kind of weight placed on teachers who pass the torch, The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring is tailor-fucking-made to underscore this central aspect of the series.  The generation of lovable little shits who had to save the world as they were just entering adulthood are now in charge of things, and have to pass the torch on to their own children.

Kishimoto, with this project, is acknowledging that even the most central and impactful protagonists that we come to love will eventually fade into the backdrop as the new generation takes over.  Naruto's painful and beautiful awareness of this fact of life is just one of many reasons this series is close to my heart, and the hearts of many others.

*Catches breath*

Okay, so you're probably wondering, now that the rant is over (at least, I think it's over), what I thought of this first chapter.  Frankly, I don't have much to say about it: Naruto proper ended at 699, and chapter 700 pretty much served as a flash-forward preview of the things to come.  This first chapter, cleverly named chapter 700 + 1 (not 701, smart-ass), is an extra stumble into Naruto's future, which, at least initially, is going to center on Sasuke's return to the Leaf after his foreshadowed journey abroad in Naruto's final chapters.

Obviously I love the character designs, as they have always been Kishimoto's strong suit.  Oda is probably his only superior, perhaps ever, in terms of designing memorable characters.  Cho-Cho is fantastic, Boruto is the little shit we all expected him to be, and Sarada looks to be a great addition.  Having a new Uchiha is such a powerful and important step for Kishimoto to take with this series.  Additionally, the part where she is childishly wondering exactly what the point is of having ninjas ties directly back to a crucial turning point in her father's character development.

As for her father... sigh.  I suppose some people are going to call Sasuke “emo” again for running away and traveling the world, but it completely squares with the end of the series.  Remember that him and Naruto were essentially the two biggest outcasts of the Leaf village.  Naruto, however, had the chance to show everyone they were full of shit, and finally gained acceptance after the epic Pain fight.  Sasuke never found what he was looking for.  Talking to Hashirama and deciding to protect the Leaf was obviously a hugely important step, but it was just a first step.  Even Itachi, one of the most talented and focused individuals in this series, never found what he was looking for because of what he had to turn himself into.  Sasuke is taking it on himself to finally surpass his big brother and become complete.

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Score: 4/5

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Naruto 700+1 Writer/Artist: Masashi Kishimoto Publisher: Viz Media (via Weekly Shonen Jump)