WSR 6-24-13

Disclaimer: These aren’t official translations, nor are they anything more than scanlations. If at all possible, buy the original manga when it comes out or otherwise support the mangaka by buying the volumes in the original Japanese if you really want to give the most direct support. Know the difference between piracy/theft and sharing without personal profit.

Short introduction: this is my attempt to get back into blogging after about half a year hiatus. Instead of current events or comic movie reviews, I’m getting into my real passion: manga. Specifically shounen manga are what I’ll be giving mini recaps of every week. I may add a series or remove one, but for the moment, we’re going with Magi, Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Toriko and Fairy Tail.

Magi 186

This arc is probably nearing its ultimate battle, since the mysterious “Father” entity worshipped by Al Sarmen is said to be coming, as soon as those tendrils with hands on them touch the ground, guided by the “medium” of the Magoi and Black Rukh generated by the magic furnace of Magnostadt.

The history that Gyokuen brings up about how long that furnace of Black Rukh has been running means that Al Sarmen probably infiltrated the kingdom relatively soon after it was created, following the revolution that took out the previous rulers of Mustas’im, which they also likely had a hand in causing. She says Ithnan was responsible indirectly for the furnace and, while criticizing his methods of infiltration, which were less direct than Gyokuen’s, she praises him for setting things up so that the “Black Spot” could come to be. The first time we heard about the Black Spot was when Aladdin had his flashback regarding Alma Toran, I think, realizing the great catastrophe that could happen to this world which happened in the past to Alma Toran.

The scene shifts over to Alibaba, Aladdin, Kouha and Kouen plus his Household members. There’s a bit of tension, since Alibaba is considered a protégé of Sinbad, but Alibaba confronts Kouen squarely and the two seem fairly even tempered. Alibaba tells him that he came to save Kouha. Kouen lets Alibaba be so up front because, in his own words, Alibaba already lost his kingdom, Balbadd, so his shame balances out any sort of dishonor he might’ve done to Kouen, since he’s close enough to the Emperor, Gyokuen, that he might as well be the ruler.  He thanks Alibaba for protecting Kouha.

Kouen is a strong King Candidate, holding the most Djinn, 3, next to Sinbad’s 7. He and Alibaba fighting eventually would be awesome, or more likely, Sinbad.

Aladdin and the others see the sky start turning black over Magnostadt and Aladdin remembers the memories of Alma Toran and their tragedy, trying to stop Kou Empire from moving. They refuse, so the Magi is forced to manifest Kouen’s Djinni to tell the story, which concludes the chapter. Seeing more Djinn is nice, since we haven’t seen one since Kouha’s Djinn was revealed in a short flashback. These three are pretty cool, especially the dragon one

A flashback about the history of Alma Toran would be nice. This arc has already had one flashback, but it was character centered. This one is more about the lore of the series that we don’t know as much about. Aladdin was referred to by the Djinn as the reincarnation of Solomon, which is one of those things fans are still speculating about. The Japanese could be translated a few ways, but reincarnation is the most common. The other rendering would be reflection, which I feel might be truer to what is the case. But he couldn’t be his reincarnation, unless being reincarnated negates your previous identity, since Ugo was supposedly Solomon’s Djinn and he didn’t recognize Aladdin as Solomon.

Either way, looking forward to exposition about the utopia Solomon came from and Ithnan backstory too.

Naruto 635

Last time, we saw Kakashi and Obito fighting, seemingly impaling one another, but it’s revealed that it was just a fight of genjutsu. The real fight starts and Kakashi thinks on Obito’s resemblance to Naruto, their resolves the same, but Obito having changed. The flashback to when Kakashi and Obito were part of Minato’s genin cell is a nice emphasis on the parallels to be made between Kakashi/Obito and Sasuke/Naruto. The fight almost follows the flashback’s version to a tee at some points.

Kakashi emphasizes that he’ll become Naruto’s shield, protecting him from Obito’s influence, I suppose. He doesn’t want Naruto to become like they have, betraying the promises they made each in their own ways. Naruto going against protocol and trying to save Sasuke instead of killing him as a traitor as most ninja are expected to do is something Kakashi admires in him.

The two have a final clash, both fatally stabbing the other. But Obito retreats back to where Madara is.

Madara, meanwhile, is getting bored and realizes Obito is nearly dead, so with his control over Hashirama’s cells in Obito and his immense chakra reserves, he forces him to use the Rinne Tensei ability. Madara apparently planned to kill Obito off and resurrect himself for real and become the Jinchuuriki of the Juubi, which differs from Obito’s plan, since this doesn’t seem to actually enable him to do the Infinite Tsukuyomi. I’m guessing Madara never planned to go with his plan from the start, having his own goals in mind. Or he could be doing the Infinite tsukuyomi himself as the Juubi Jinchuuriki

Obito’s reaction seems to imply that he didn’t want to do this, but Madara is literally forcing him to do the seals and such, which isn’t fully explained, but I think it has to do with a few things, one of them being the possibility that the Zetsu clones are still inside Obito and enable Madara to control him that way with special jutsu.

People have been speculating that Obito would use Rinne Tensei in a gesture of kindness, but it seems like Neji and others who died will remain so and only Madara will be the one to come back, unless Rinne Tensei is unable to specify a target and can revive anyone in a certain radius, in which case, Neji’s death would seem pretty pointless.

All in all, this is certainly a new development, though the involvement of the four Edo Tensei revived Kage will be important as well. Minato in particular will be pertinent, since he has the other half of Kurama’s chakra in him, so giving it to Naruto would make him even stronger than he was before when he dominated Kurama with his mom’s help.

Hashirama fighting Madara on par would be nice as well, since they both, at least in their initial forms, have near infinite chakra. Madara making himself alive and the Juubi’s Jinchuuriki would give him a slight advantage, but this is assuming he can control the power. The Juubi also has to fully manifest, I believe, but that’ll happen soon. All the potential events have me eagerly awaiting next week.

Bleach 543

Continuing right where things ended before: at the Vandenreich headquarters, we’re told that Uryuu has been selected to be Juhabach’s successor, which is met with shock and a bit of anger by the Stern Ritter.

An odd point that Juhabach states is that Uryuu is the sole Quincy survivor. So that suggests at least 2 things. 1) Juhabach doesn’t recognize Ryuuken or the like as true Quincies for some as yet undetermined reason. And 2) the Vandenreich as a whole are not true Quincies either. So they’re mixed blood? Or, like the Arrancar, they were given quincy powers by Juhabach? It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for Juhabach to do this, given that he’s the first of his kind, but that many soldiers seems a bit crazy. I guess all the power he stole he could’ve distributed. More likely, though, is that he recruited spiritually aware individuals and trained them, giving the most power in the form of the Letters, called Schrifts in German, to those he deemed the strongest.

The dissent against Uryuu’s being the next King is further voiced by a group of Quincies. We get a lot of letters revealed, which is nice, since some of these characters have been around for a bit. We still don’t know a few, like the old man who shot Shunsui’s eye out.

The defunct leader, Bazz-B (previously rendered as Busby by translators), goes off to confront Juhabach. But he’s stopped by Haschwald, full name Jugram Haschwalth. I honestly preferred the rendering of Haschwald, but these are in English, technically, so that’s how Kubo wanted them to be spelled. Bazz-B says that everyone expected Haschwalth to be the next in line and they’d have accepted that. Haschwalth says that he won’t question Juhabach’s will, as he has too much respect for him.

Bazz-B then makes to fight Haschwalth and take his position, but another member comes in, with an especially long name: Askin Nakk Le Vaar. He breaks up the fight, noting that another Stern Ritter, Yajiuma, has been watching the whole situation, probably ready to report the insubordination to Juhabach at a moment’s notice. The two then separate, Askin saying that if Haschwalth fought, he would become “poison”. The exact meaning is uncertain here, but he refers to Haschwalth as the “Next King”, so it’s possible that fighting like this would just make him seem petty, since Juhabach doesn’t like fighting either.

The chapter ends with Uryuu and Juhabach having finished a ceremony which endows Uryuu with his new power and his Schrift, which is “A”, the same as Juhabach. People have probably already been speculating about a lot of the new letters, even As Nodt’s, which wasn’t officially revealed. But the obvious meaning of the “F” Schrift is Fear. In the case of “A”, I’d go with Almighty or something to that effect, since Juhabach is considered almost a god in the Vandenreich to everyone else.

The question still remains as to why Uryuu defected and joined the Vandenreich. Obviously a conflict will come out of this, but will it be between Uryuu and Ryuuken first? Or will there be a skirmish between Uryuu and Ichigo first to show off his power? Ryuuken is one of my favorite characters, but I’m getting the feeling he may be easily defeated by Uryuu. Or if he manages to even remotely best Uryuu, Juhabach will make him seem like nothing compared to the original Quincy. More speculation than anything, but I look forward to new developments.

One Piece 712

We start with a flashback to Sanji and Violet, revealing she was a spy for the Doflamingo family. With her Goggle Goggle Devil Fruit she can see into people’s minds. Sanji insists that she isn’t really evil, that she’s being manipulated in some way, which turns out to be the case as she tries to look into his heart, seeing nothing but his perverted thoughts. Her men move to kill him, but Violet protects him, holding them off so he can escape and tell the others that Doflamingo didn’t really step down from the Shichibukai.

It’s cool that we have Sanji both being a womanizer but also possessing perception that sees through a woman’s act of trying to seem different than what her heart says.

Violet’s ability also allows her to make her tears giant…whales that attack, which was unexpected, but it’s Oda’s style. She uses her power to then communicate her memory from that morning about Doflamingo’s revelation. CP Zero (Full name Cipher Pol Aegis Zero) tells everyone that the report that Doflamingo stepped down was a “mistake” (likely falsified) and that a corrected report will be issued later today. But they say everyone should just behave as normal.

Doflamingo’s connections appear to be very deep, able to use Cipher Zero, since they report directly to the World Nobles, the Tenryuubito, not the Marines. They’re as close to the World Government as you can get, since even the Shichibukai report to the Marines primarily, if I understand correctly. The nature of the Tenryuubito’s political power is a bit uncertain to me, but I’d assume it comes close to the Gorousei in the World Government’s highest echelon.

Even Fujitora is surprised that Doflamingo’s supposed defection was a lie. Robin appears and tells Law that they can’t escape with him, since they’re underground with the gnomes.

But then Doflamingo appears, along with Fujitora, the three converging together. Law is incredulous that Doflamingo could’ve done this, but remembers Vergo telling him that Doflamingo’s past is mostly unknown to Law, especially when he was Joker. According to Law, only someone with connections to the World Nobles could’ve done this, which makes sense since CP Zero is involved. 

The fact that this whole plan was just to fool Law and the Straw Hats makes it seem pretty insane, but Doflamingo’s involvement in this hinges on Caesar, since without him, the Smile product can’t be manufactured anymore and thus, as many are theorizing, he can’t continue his business with Kaidou, one of the major players in this as a Yonkou with a crew composed mostly of Artificial Zoan Fruit users.

Also, Luffy’s block in the tournament is starting, so we may get to that eventually, but I imagine next chapter is going to focus on the fight between the rogue Shichibukai, the Marine Admiral and the pirate captain making a name for himself.

Toriko 239

This chapter is especially awesome, I think. The action and the speculation are high tension this week. Last time, Toriko seemingly gave Starjun a killing or devastating blow at least. But it seems Starjun also managed to finish a Routine and slice off Toriko’s right leg. Toriko tries to counterattack, but Starjun counters faster, even burning off Toriko’s left arm (which I think he already lost way back in the Century Soup arc and had to grow back with special help from the Gourmet Revivalists).

Eventually, Toriko is beaten and burned in a pile, seemingly unconscious. But Komatsu rises to the occasion and threatens Starjun with his awesome knife that Melk the Second made for him a while back, which cuts a fairly sizeable gash in the ground. Komatsu may never be a fighter, but in his hands, that knife definitely has potential to handle some dangerous ingredients. Starjun even remarks that the knife is not meant for killing, suggesting that the future of the item is more in ingredient preparation, which makes sense, since Komatsu has never been good enough to fight with people of the level that Toriko goes up against.

As Starjun turns around, the form of Toriko’s intimidation seemingly appears behind him and as Starjun quickly turns around, it’s disappeared, as if it was an illusion. But Toriko is still alive and after coughing up some blood, he takes on a more demonic face, his sclera becoming pure black, giving his eyes a very frightening appearance. And the last page ends with Toriko’s inner demon seemingly taking literal form and punching through Starjun.

Starjun’s reaction prior to this was as if it was something he’s seen before and is shocked that Toriko has managed to unlock the power.

I’m thinking the ability of Toriko might be something all of the characters with Gourmet Cells may be able to do. Or it may be even more specific to those who learn Routines and thus focus their wills to superhuman levels and manifest greater and greater power in the form of seeming bloodlust that people have to dodge or risk being cut in half or incinerated.

The future of this series might become a bit absurd, but this is a series that has introduced the concept of believing something strong enough to make it reality and the fans accepted it fairly easily. This series has people fighting giant beasts and learning abilities like mastering the art of eating food to make their techniques stronger and more efficient. There’s also the very ability to keep the energy of food longer so you can survive on the food you ate for months if you got enough calories from it and being able to heal someone from being bisected at the waist with special adhesive aloe and gel. I think this next development; bringing out inner power in the form of a physical entity, not unlike JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s Stands or the Bankai in Bleach, is fairly typical of shounen, though the way Mitsutoshi will explain it is likely to be unique to the series he’s built from the ground up.

I’m looking forward to this, even though I imagine there’s going to be a tactical retreat on the side of the Bishokukai, probably due to Neo’s influence as a third party in this skirmish during Cooking Fest.

Fairy Tail 337

Last week, we had a big reveal about the nature of time travel in Fairy Tail. If the method by which time travel was achieved is destroyed, it cannot be used in the future and anyone brought from the past or future disappears. So with Natsu and Atlas Flame crashing Motherglare and Future Rogue (like Future Trunks from Dragon Ball Z?) into the Eclipse gate, everything starts to go back to how it was.

But before Future Rogue fully disappears, he tells Natsu that what made him get sucked into the shadows and his darkness was the death of Frosch in a year. Natsu insists that he won’t die and Future Rogue leaves him with a determined statement to make sure his present self protects Frosch. If it wasn’t for Ultear’s intervention a few chapters ago, things probably would’ve gone pretty bad

It’s emphasized that none of the Dragon Slayers could even kill one of the dragons, so I imagine more special training is at hand for the Dragon Slayers in particular, especially Rogue and Sting, since I don’t believe they have Second Origin like Natsu, Gajille and Wendy all do, if I recall correctly. Laxus’s powers are technically artificial, but he and Cobra also need this advantage, though it’s possible there will be more special techniques revealed, like what Wendy trained in from Grandeeney.

I don’t want to say I hate Fairy Tail by any means. It’s a great series, but it does feel a bit predictable at times. I imagine Mashima will surprise me, since this time travel thing came out of nowhere. I’d still rank this chapter as the lowest one, not only because it comes out later, which can’t be helped, since it’s in a different magazine, but because the progression feels stilted in a way, like we linger a bit too much on the characters. I think it can be done well and Mashima isn’t bad in that regard.

I’m admittedly not the hugest literary critic, so I may be way off base in this assessment. But all I can say is that I don’t get the same enthusiasm I do with Bleach or Toriko or Magi. It’s technically run longer than Toriko or Magi, but I guess the story being told just isn’t as cool by comparison. The fact that the lore is developed so slowly, focusing on action scenes that, while cool, seem to have no real challenge in them, is probably a big part of my lack of fandom compared to the series I take up more space per page in going over the chapter.

If we had to judge by sheer length, I clearly enjoyed Magi and Bleach this week, Toriko and Naruto performing good as well. One Piece has such a huge universe, it’d be hard to analyze everything, but I also took a break from One Piece, so I’m admittedly not as familiar with the progression of the story overall as I am with any of the other series that I’ve read pretty much entirely from the beginning.

So until next time, keep reading!