Hiya, friends! First of all, a thank-you to all of you who have clicked “like” somewhere on my blog, as Curiously Dead Cat hit 200 ‘likes’ this morning! And a special shout-out to Irina, one of the first aniblogger friends I met when I started back in December, and who was responsible for “like” #200!
Now onto the sauntering:
Really diggin’ this week’s My Hero Academia! Midoriya tangles with a villain who is on his way to attack UA—admittedly not the most dangerous villain we’ve seen in this series, but it offers the perfect opportunity to showcase Midoriya’s growth as a character. Comparing the shy, low self-esteem kid from the beginning of the series with the way Midoriya handles the unexpected in his encounter with Gentle (see, I told you he wasn’t a particularly dangerous villain) is a delight.
Ziga and Promised Neverland made an interesting pair, coming back-to-back in this issue. Last week I drew parallels between the two, and this week both of them featured a two-way hunt between the young human protagonists and the monstrous antagonists, with a dose of unusual weaponry. Ziga featured some interesting twists but still hasn’t shown any special je ne sais quoi that sets it apart. Promised Neverland continues piling plot development upon plot development, in a calm-if-suspenseful installment in its current adrenaline-pumping “hunt” arc. We also got one interesting piece of information, if you’ve been following the PN fan conversations: One of the “demons” remarks that the brains of humans raised at Grace Field are “delicious”. This seems to lend credence to the idea that the creatures find intelligent brains somehow tastier, though why is anyone’s guess at this point.
Robot x Laserbeam, the young golf shounen manga, ventured into the grey area between natural talent and Naruto-style ninjutsu today as Robo’s opponent copied Robo’s previous swing by smelling the path of Robo’s ball through the air. I’m sure this is a deep metaphor for something, I just have no idea what.
In Black Clover, the world continues its spiral into destruction (at least as far as Asta and his friends are concerned). I don’t want to give any spoilers, but guys, it’s pretty good!
We Never Learn, pedagogical rom-com, took a step back towards its roots today by beginning the chapter with some educational theory. See, that’s the kind of stuff I liked about it in the first place. (What, that’s just me? Oh.) Anyway, I felt the quality of this week’s installment was a cut above how the series has gone recently: this chapter omitted the cliche, coincidental and, um, compromising hijinks so common of late and stuck to a short tale about Nariyuki and his teacher that was sweet in its own right. (And not in a creepy teacherXstudent way. Well, not too much, anyway.) The only major problem that I can see is that it doesn’t do anything to further the plot in any way. And that’s been true of a lot of the recent chapters: Whatever their individual merits, they’re just standalone episodes that don’t seem to be making progress in any direction (except growing Nariyuki’s harem). Nisekoi, the masterpiece of the genre, had plenty of episodic stories but always moved forward, too. (Ship Chitoge! *salute*) WLN has yet to really get serious about its comedy.
In Boruto, the most recent fight reaches its climax. And—it’s cool! They also defeat the big bad (who gets his redemption moment) only to have a bigger bad appear—on a giant toad summon. (Remind you of anyone???)
Noah’s Notes, one of the three new jumpstarts, wrapped up its trial run this week. They are drawing some really strong parallels between Dr. Noah and the biblical Noah. In both cases, the world is heading towards a cataclysm that will wipe out (nearly) all of the human species, and the Noah figure is leading the small group who actually knows about it, and trying to save humanity. There was also the usual fun snark between Dr. Noah and his student Mirai. I enjoyed this chapter, which ended with a bonus: An enemy! It turns out that Dr. Noah has a nemesis: The Knights Templar! I totally called it beforehand, too. 😀 If you read it and liked it, be sure to vote in this week’s WSJ poll to encourage the magazine to pick it up long-term!
Dr. Stone was great this week! As Senku and his friends race against time to build walkie-talkies in a stone-age world, Senku takes a moment to invent—cotton candy! And the chapter turns into a parody of Food Wars!!! Man, it was priceless!
Also featured this week were One Piece, Food Wars!, Hunter x Hunter, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc V. I tried to read HxH, but the series keeps striking me more and more like a textbook from a college physics course for which I am lacking more than a few prerequisites. With, however, some entertaining diagrams along the way. I flipped past Yu-Gi-Oh, but paused to note that it went full-blown mythic with a world-tree, Adam, Eve, and stuff like this: “Yusho Sakaki noticed the power of G.O.D. and used the World Illusion to turn back time.” I’m sure that would be a spoiler, if I had any idea what it meant.
Out of curiosity, are there any other Jump fans out there? If you’ve not read it, I encourage you to at least check out the freebie manga on their site! They have some goodies like, e.g., the Juni Taisen manga, which I find more compelling than the anime (though unfortunately “Rapture” doesn’t play when I start reading a chapter!).
Have a great week, folks!