some more things

Weekly manga roundup (also! last week!)

Fairy Tail chapter 166 - Um I dunno, Gildarts is pretty cool. Good that we're getting more development into this whole dragon plot but I'm worried the story is becoming too convoluted? It doesn't seem like he has a concrete sense of the world and what he wants to happen in it yet. Still pretty cool though, good art as always and such. 7/10

Fairy Tail chapter 167 - Whatshisface's whole thing with the cat is kinda funny. Don't know what to think about this new arc. Maybe give Gerard a rest? Some good scenes though aw poor Wendy, aw poor Happy, and what the hell are those cats baby dragons or something I don't really get it nor am I really supposed to. Pretty decent, I dunno. 7/10

Bakuman chapter 69 - Aw poor Nakai and everybody else actually. Looks like Nakai's gone for good. Oh well. His character was kinda getting out of place, what with his non-endearing-ness etc. Funny scenes with the marriage plotline, kinda a shame that will be put on hold? Or maybe it would be lame. Pretty typical Bakuman stuff of "realistic" levels of failure which is good and dramatics and such. 8/10

Bakuman chapter 70 - Ooh stuff's getting crazy here! Rivalries, schemes! And the conflict with Miura is brought to the coolest possible conclusion: HEAD EDITOR LECTURE. Good to see all these characters getting involved, but I hope we don't get too overloaded to the extent that some get neglected. 9/10

Naruto 478 - OK so Itachi was an illusion, I guess that's better than the alternative but still really stupid. Clones/illusions/anything else to build "suspense" is the worst part of Naruto. At least the worst parts of the fight scenes. "Is it a clone or isn't it?" is not a suspenseful conclusion. It is just a stupid guessing game. "What will these established characters do to each other with their established and not stupid abilities" is suspenseful. You essentially have to feel you're assured of certain things, then you can start predicting and actually getting excited. With Naruto, you never know what things are actually important and which things are just LOL IT WAS AN ILLUSION FIGHTING AN ILLUSION. This is not leaving the reader guessing. This is leaving the reader pissed off. Do you guys remember the early fights in Naruto? Where the attacks made some amount of sense? And the switching with logs and stuff happened fast and was kinda neat? If Kishimoto made the Zabuza arc now, it'd be twice as long, with two nonsense attacks per page, and every chapter ending with "oh man X has Y on the ropes" and the next one starting with "BUT Y WAS A WATER CLONE" or "BUT THE SHARINIGAN DID SOMETHING ELSE THAT IT HAS NEVER DONE BEFORE". ARhgzrgjeshkzwg I do kinda like the mythos still though and I am interested enough in the overall story to struggle through this mess. 4/10

Naruto 479 - OH BOY ANOTHER GUESS WHICH ONE IS THE REAL BODY. Ok that's enough getting mad about Naruto geez. 3/10

Bleach 388 - Stupid powerlevels stuff, Aizen isn't that impressive really, trying to keep track of who is more powerful when is pointless, etc etc. Some scenes will be good for shippers but I don't care about them. Aizen's rambling philosophy is... I dunno, I guess a little atypical. But I remember him being more badass in earlier arcs, now he's just kinda Sephirothy and we all know that's been done to death three or four times. And oh boy big spread with everyone in the end. Kubo poses everyone so stiffly. I think that's a big problem with letting people fly, you get in the habit of letting everyone go all fashion model all the time. That's why it looks so dumb whenever he's making them attack or move or whatever. Or even when he's just making them float there. 3/10

Bleach 389 - OK this is a bit more like it. Actually most of the chapter was really poorly chosen dialogue. And most of the fights were bad. But uh. Aizen's conversation with captain ice guy can't remember his name is kinda interesting but maybe it could be a bit less forced. Also everyone mobbing Aizen while Ichigo waits to attack is at least a newish way to have a fight but he'll probably present it in the same old fashion. OH WELL. Better than I expected? 4/10

Beelzebub 44 - OK so Furuichi's pretty funny most of the time. Big monster, head stuck in bars. I guess I can't complain. New plot elements but... who really cares? 6/10

Beelzebub 45 - Yeah, this I like. Bun plot advancement or trying to get a set of logic that makes sense for the manga. I just hope they don't try to explain this or anything. Giant monster baby... penis. Sure. 8/10

Neon Genesis Evangelion 84 - Good fighting, Misato death, both done well. Not sure how I feel about Shinji yelling at the Eva like that. I guess it actually makes sense. I can't keep how it all works straight. Maybe things are getting drawn out too much but I probably just think that because I think I know what's coming. Great stuff as always though re: art, suspense, timing, I mean come on it's Evangelion, you know what level of quality to expect. 9/10

One Piece 570 - Pretty typical war chapter in that a squealed like a little girl several times and was left in awe of all the really cool things happening but the fact that we've made little progress again and it ended with yet another "Luffy is about to have a showdown with X character that is way more powerful than him but he will just avoid it somehow" kinda stings a bit. Still. 8/10

One Piece 571 - Oh geez, now this is something. Garp's inner conflict = cool. Luffy dramatically jumping onto the platform = cool. Sengoku's power? Maybe a little underused still, but something. Something that is cool. Mr 3 is the executioner, yet another crazy mystery to be solved in a very cool way, developing his character for a very cool reason into a very cool guy? Cool. Kizaru sniping the key? Not really that cool... Oh well. Ace at the end? Oh god. So cool (ironically i.e. he is actually on fire). 9/10

Other manga stuff: I have been buying manga a lot lately because I think it is something pretty darn cool to collect. I never really get tired of rereading a good series, and there are few situations where I don't feel like reading it. I'm buying all the One Piece as it comes out, plus the collected 3 packs because I don't have a lot of the earlier volumes. I'm also getting Pluto and 20th Century Boys as they come out. The latter I've read online, but the former I'm actually reading through as I get them, usually only one or two chapters a day. I have to say, it's a pretty cool way to do it, and I'd be tempted to do it more often if the temptation to read ahead online wasn't so painful. Great series, too.

Other animu stuff: I kinda gave up on Sora no Woto for a few reasons: 1) Waiting a week I think would start to bug me if I was only sorta interested, I'd rather marathon it and 2) I used up most of my bandwidth for this month and 3) my computer is having issues with .mkvs lately. Kinda sucks to be late to the party with it, but oh well.

Music stuff: new Four Tet album is great. Haven't listened to new Magnetic Fields but I am excite. I also made a list of my favorite songs of the 2000s but I am still working on it.

Other stuff: Hopefully I will buy a new computer soon?

Also Ulililia news, something about Pokemon, some interesting things out of my life but I think I have written enough stuff no one cares about and no one will read today lol.