WSR 7-22-13

Disclaimer: These aren’t official translations, merely scanlations. Buy localized or original manga to support the author if at all possible. Know the difference between piracy/theft and sharing without personal profit.

I decided to add a new series, though it’s possible it may be cancelled abruptly, unlike the more popular series I cover

World Trigger 23

The main trio of Yuma, Osamu and Chika has aimed to become A rank in the Tamakoma branch of Border, but before that, they have to climb the ranks, starting at C Rank, B Rank their next goal. They’ve decided their roles in terms of their Triggers, but now they’re getting training from A rank Border members, thanks to Jin’s assistance as an S Rank member.

Osamu starts with his mentor, Kyousuke, asking about how the room they’re in is so huge, Kyousuke explaining that they use the Trigger technology to create space, most of it being used for the sniper room Chika’s training in. He emphasizes that Triggers are more than weapons, they’re the basis of the Neighbor civilization.  The training starts, scenes changing to Chika training with Reiji, who gets her started with hitting a motionless target and then has her practice making the shots, saying she should be done in about 2-3 hours.

Yuma is training with Konami and the two of them are bickering as usual. Yuma’s asked to pick a Trigger and he’s worried about being too strong even with a normal Trigger, but Shiori reassures them they’re in a virtual battle room, so it’s simulations of the Trigger power. Yuma says that if she beats him, he’ll respect her, but if he beats her, Konami agrees to call him by his real name. She emphasizes that she’s been in Border longer than Jin, which is impressive, even though Jin has a Black Trigger, so he’s already far stronger in some ways, even if he isn’t as experienced as Konami is.

We return to Osamu, exhausted from his training and Kyousuke a bit skeptical whether Osamu is really B class (he was promoted under pretenses that he had saved people form Neighbors before, so he’s probably still C rank level for the moment) Konami and Yuma return from their training and it’s revealed 9 out of the 10 matches were won by Konami, Yuma only managing to win once, which makes Osamu amazed at how powerful Konami must be, though Yuma isn’t quite used to Border Triggers yet. Osamu and Kyousuke decide to continue training as well.

Back at Chika’s training site, Reiji returns from security, which likely took double the time he told Chika, if not a bit more. He finds her still shooting and she seems to have lost track of time. He’s astonished, thinking she must have a huge amount of Trion to be able to shoot for the better part of the day,

(I know the picture is bad, but I had to splice raws, so deal with it)

The chapter ends with a gate opening, but this time, instead of a Neighbor, a ship appears in the Border Headquarters and the Kido branch administrators of Border come, saying their top teams have arrived.

Not sure what could be coming, but I’d guess it could be S rank teams or other A rank teams. They seem to have come from the Neighbor world, so that’s something as well.

Magi 190

We’re still on Kouen as he is back in Astaroth Djinn Equip, destroying more and more Black Djinn, the others watching agape. Alibaba even thinks Kouen might actually have his mind set on destroying ten thousand of them.

We see Kouen go back to the lava flow and replenish his magoi, Scheherazade amazed at the tactic, while Aladdin says it’s too dangerous, that Kouen keeps putting himself in mortal danger. But Koumei says that’s just how his brother is. Alibaba thinks back to when Kouen used Phenex to heal Kouha and concludes that Kouen must be the kind of person; no matter how much they’re hurt, he’ll help people in trouble. But Koumei responds that it’s not like that. When Kouen has the look on his face of madness, of obsession and fixation on his quest for knowledge, something changes about him. We see Kouen speaking harshly to all the Black Djinn, looking deranged as he tries to finish the battle so he can achieve what he desires. And what he desires is to speak with Aladdin. Kouha agrees with Koumei that publically Kouen cares about the empire, but privately he is a person with a lust for knowledge.

Frustrated with the lack of progress he’s making, Kouen calls Alibaba over, ignoring his own request and just snatching Alibaba up.  Hakuei then says Kouen was thinking things might go out of control if he continues like this, so instead he’s asking for Alibaba’s help, replenishing his magoi as well with the volcano flow, since they use the same type of Djinn. Aladdin is then astonished to see two Extreme Magic being cast at the same time. Even Scheherazade hasn’t seen such a thing and while Hakuei and the others are worried, 

Koumei says they have to keep the Black Djinni away so they can finish their spells, since if the casting circle is damaged, the spell won’t work.

Kouen’s Extreme Magic summons a series of white flaming dragons to surround the black spot, vaporizing the black djinn immediately near the defensive wall. Alibaba then starts his attack, but the wall is seemingly too strong for Alibaba’s still undeveloped powers. Kouen then has Astaroth give his flames to power up Alibaba’s spell and we see its power rapidly increase. Aladdin then notes that this is a principle of magic: if two spells of the same element are cast in quick succession, they are both stronger, which applies to Extreme Magic as well, on a greater scale.

A crack is made in the defensive wall and Kouen chides Alibaba for still being weak, which makes Alibaba put his full power into the magic, releasing the magic completely and causing a huge explosion, seemingly destroying the medium, which would put an end to the major problem of this arc’s climax. The chapter ends here.

This might be the end of the arc, but shounen manga will typically stretch this sort of thing out a bit. We haven’t even seen much more than a simple team up yet. And we still have to resolve Mogamett’s whole situation, even when we have the Black Spot eliminated.

Naruto 640

Last time Naruto and Sasuke were in danger of being skewered by Obito, but Minato was going to try to save them with his Flying Thunder God technique. This chapter, however, he realizes the mark disappeared, so he can’t get to Obito. But Naruto touches both Minato and Sasuke with his Kyuubi tendrils and allows Minato’s technique to teleport them away from Obito’s attack, impressing his father and Sasuke that he remembered that detail.

Obito then moves to attack, but fires an attack that both misses them entirely and damages his own body. Minato then thinks that since Obito isn’t synched with the Juubi, now is the best time to kill him. Minato suggests that Naruto and Sasuke distract him while he prepares his ultimate attack (which we still haven’t seen)

Obito screams at him as he also fights with his human side, remembering Rin and his desire to become Hokage. We see an internal vision where his body is being torn apart by representations of the Juubi, I would presume. And just before he’s about to be completely destroyed, his thoughts of Rin and comraderie with Kakashi and Minato allows him to finally restore control and we see a new form.

He looks a bit like a Buddhist monk, at least with the robes and the shakujou, albeit there’s some horn like growths and such. But I would have to guess that now he’s actually at what could be called the final form, resembling the Sage of the Six Paths a bit.

He cuts through Minato’s kunai and as he attacks with the special black energy, Minato manages to teleport away. But just as he thinks he’s safe, Minato realizes Obito attached a tailed beast bomb to him and it explodes, the chapter ending on this cliffhanger.

Obito seems to have had a slight revelation moment with this sudden focus on his past and then becoming a full powered Jinchuuriki of the Ten Tails. The focus on his Sharingan is interesting, though I don’t know if it will mean anything.

His level of power just jumped, from the Juubi’s raw power, to more concentrated, to full control. I almost think this went a bit fast actually and it could’ve lingered a bit more on this transitional form where Obito was losing control.

How the group is going to avoid this attack is beyond me. I would think Minato is going to use Hiraishin again or one of the other Kages might intervene. Naruto or Sasuke may have some new technique or tactic as well, but the force of this explosion is going to either severely cripple or kill whoever takes that blow in place of the others.

Toriko 243

I was slightly wrong about what happened last time. Jirou didn’t flick the Nitro, he poked it in the forehead.

We see everyone shocked and also Terrycloth and the other pets are moving as well, possibly to support him or maybe to find Toriko and Komatsu.

Jirou talks to Setsuno, who thanks him for saving her, but then his feet are bound by the roots that Teppei used. Teppei being Jirou’s grandson, he shouts at him, enraged that he’s changed sides. The shout is so powerful it impresses even Buranchi, who says no one in his village in Gourmet World can scream like that, calling Jirou one of the three most powerful people in the world (the other two being Ichiryuu and Midora, most likely).

Joa tells Jirou that normally a Nitro could still fight even after having its head blown off, but Jirou used the right balance of power and skill to nullify its movement, specifically with his Knocking skill.

Joa then speaks about how Acacia was afraid of Jirou’s raw power and trained him in knocking to proverbially seal away some of his power. He then asks if Jirou would like to fight one of their members, presumably Neo. Jirou nonchalantly says no by asking whether Joa’s stupid or something, looking very intimidating while doing so.

Jirou then punches the ground, using Grand Knocking, which seemingly stops the earth from moving for a second and freezing pretty much everyone in the area, preventing them from moving, but still able to speak. Zaus is amazed, observing that he pretty much paralyzed everyone on the island. Yuda even suggests he might have frozen everyone in the world, if only for a few moments. Then everyone notices a huge tsunami and tornadoes, all of this likely Jirou’s doing as well.

Joa is quite impressed and Jirou, even stuck as he is (I don’t think he moved from the spot where he was) manages to slash away with a punch to Joa, tearing away his cloak to reveal his face. And it’s actually Frohze, albeit she looks different, almost like a puppet. Not to mention she looks nearly identical to what Setsuno suggested she looked like 200 years ago.

I’m betting this revelation is going to connect with Acacia in some way, not to mention the use of the dark techniques that probably kept Frohze so youthful, using revitalizing knives.

Joa being the main antagonist of Neo makes her the 4th super powerful entity in this series, along with Acacia’s three disciples. Acacia is presumably dead for certain, Frohze having turned to the dark side at some point before faking her death in some way.

Fairy Tail 345

Erza had been turned into a child last time and we get an explanation at the end of the chapter as to how it happened (relatively). She isn’t used to her new form and falls down a hill. There’s also a few jokes about what would happen if it stayed permanent, especially regarding Wendy being taller and Jellal not being a lolicon.

Back at the fight between Fairy Tail and Sylph Labyrinth, Natsu compliments them, especially since they’re non-mages and they retort that they’re one of the best treasure hunter guilds, having won the tournament of the treasure hunter guilds, similar to the Grand Magic Tournament. They’re confident, but they apparently forgot Fairy Tail won the equivalent of the Great Hidden Treasure Tournament that Sylph Labyrinth won.

Gray reveals he stole the Moon Drip and the group passes it around, dodging attacks as they go. Happy, being the derp that he is, misses it and breaks the bottle, spilling it all. It’s revealed that it couldn’t have melted all the ice, but Natsu puts his ear to the ground, saying he heard someone’s voice and goes after it. 

He’s not sure where he’s heard it before, but he does remember it. I’m thinking Minerva, I wasn’t aware Natsu could hear that well, though I think they’ve mentioned it. He says he heard it through the earth, so it’s vibrations at that level.

Sylph Labyrinth follows as well, indicating they may become temporary allies in the future fight, though they’re also targeting Lucy’s keys.

Natsu runs into the guy who was talking to Minerva before and he uses a magic that affects Natsu the same way Erza was, reverting him to a child form. So he’s the likely culprit behind this. The manga calls it Retrogression Magic, which will be the next chapter title.

So the Eternal Flame had virtually nothing to do with the time regression, especially if you consider that any power it had would be sealed away as long as it’s frozen. My theories are usually off the cuff, to be fair, so I wouldn’t take a lot of stock in them to begin with.

We don’t know if there’re other members of Succubus Eye, Minerva’s guild, but Minerva herself will be a challenge even if this new guy is eliminated relatively quickly. Erza was the only one to seemingly stand even a remote chance in the tournament.

Sylph Labyrinth may have resistance to the magic, which would be a nice twist, and they could help, without losing their status as sort of rivals to Fairy Tail.

All in all a good chapter to move things along.