It seems like fate (or perhaps hitsuzen)
that I should get volumes of the holy trinity of Weekly Shonen Jump titles at
the same time, right? So naturally, I’ll review them all in the same post!
Review warning: Post contains
spoilers for Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece's latest volumes. Read on with
caution!
Naruto volume 54
Author: Masashi
Kishimoto
Viz Media/Shonen Jump
192 pages
Viaduct To Peace: Naruto and his team
engage in an intense battle with the Akatsuki organization as both sides seek
the power to determine the future of their land. Internecine fighting weakens
the Akatsuki, but will their dark forces sideline Naruto?
Maybe the previous
volume set my expectations too high, but this latest book was only pretty good.
Considering how much is going on at this point in the story, however, ‘pretty
good’ isn’t good enough.
For a story that should be going full-steam into an
oncoming ninja war, it’s being hampered by a bloated cast and too much going on
at once. Kishimoto is having a hell of a time juggling all his characters and
plot threads, and it shows.
Having said that,
there are quite a few things to love about the fifty-fourth volume of Naruto.
Really! Like the fight between Gai-sensei and Kisame. It’s been a while since
we’ve really seen Gai-sensei fight, so seeing him beat the lights out of Kisame
was nice. And then – bam! – flashback time and suddenly we are given a view of
Kisame we’ve never had before. Flashbacks are probably the best part of this
series, highlighting one of Kishimoto’s strengths: giving characters necessary
layers through looking at their past, especially if they are coded as villains.
For example, the
flashbacks with Konan and her team were absolutely lovely and heartbreaking at
the same time. And those little frog suits were adorable. That last shot of the overgrown headquarters with the
three tiles was just . . . guh. No words.
However, the rest of
the volume seems really messy. A ton of characters pop up to take a piece of
the action while Naruto is shuffled to the side for his own protection. That
doesn’t really work, considering Naruto is supposed to be the heart of the
series. As a denouement for an all-out ninja war, the rushed pacing and frenzy
of characters puts a damper on what could have been a terrific collection of
chapters.
Bleach volume 38
Author: Tite Kubo
Viz Media/Shonen Jump
200 pages
Fear for Fight: The Soul Reapers must
guard the four pillars that are protecting Karakura Town from destruction at
the hands of Aizen's minions. Standing guard are assistant captains Yumichika,
Kira, Hisagi and Ikkaku! But when Ikkaku goes down, will Karakura Town fall
with him...?!
Bleach was actually worse than Naruto by comparison. It was
such a ‘meh’ volume, I can’t think of much to mention about it. The problem is
that it was nothing but fights. Nothing
but fights. And you might think that works in a shonen series, but not when
there is any plot advancement to be seen because of said fights.
Yes, we had
one pillar collapse. Yes, we’re seeing a lot of Aizen’s Fracciónes get in on
the action. But that is about it. And that’s not much to stretch across one
volume of manga.
There are a lot of
new, second-tier villain types now running around, all with exotic-type names
and I frankly can’t keep track of them. Besides, knowing Kubo, we won’t have
much time to get to know them before Seireitei’s finest blows them away.
Speaking of which, we’re also seeing a lot of new ban kais and hados/kidos that
happen to perfectly combat their handler’s combat partner. Like how Kira’s hado
makes things heavier as he slashes – like his enemy’s wings! How serendipitous.
Still, reading
Madarame and his Division squabble over his failure to keep his pillar standing
up was actually pretty nice. I do enjoy reading division dynamics play out on
the page, so Madarame and Komamura’s conversation was a breath of fresh air in
a hopelessly lifeless volume.
We can go back to
Ichigo’s fight soon, right? Or maybe do some serious plot hurrying up? Because
at this rate, I’ll be out of community college by the time all of Aizen’s
cronies are defeated.
One Piece volume 60
Author: Eiichiro Oda
Viz Media/Shonen Jump
208 pages
With
the epic Paramount War now over, the scene shifts back to when a young Luffy
first met Ace. Luffy, Ace and their friend Sabo get into all types of trouble
as they grow up in a tumultuous time. Then, back in the present, Luffy will
need to find the strength to recover from the loss of his brother.
And
then we have the sixtieth volume of One Piece – which was absolutely wonderful. After some lackluster volumes
of shonen, Oda brought exactly what I needed at the right time. The previous
volume brought along the end of a great war as well as an era in the golden age
of pirates. With this volume, it is the beginning of a brand new era – with pirates
like Luffy at the very forefront of it all. The greatest tragedy of it all, of
course, being that it came out of the death of two great men: Whitebeard and
Luffy’s own brother, Ace.
But
before we can get to this new era, Oda walks us through the rest of the
flashbacks concerning Luffy, Ace, and their childhood friend Sabo. These
chapters aren’t arbitrary looks into their pasts; they bring some real context
to their lives as well as upcoming events. Plus, wee Luffy is just adorable as
a bucket of kittens. Rubbery kittens, that is. But if Luffy and Ace’s story
doesn’t at least pull at your heart a little¸
you are probably a robot. And not the good, Franky kind (okay, he’s a cyborg,
but whatever).
Then we
get back to the present, in which the gears of the world are already moving
even with the absence of Luffy, who is still hidden away of the island of women.
His realization that he is not alone even after the death of Ace and that he
still has his straw hat crew. Speaking of his crew, we get to see what everyone’s
been up to since they split up several volumes ago. I think my favorite ‘post
time skip’ characters right now are Usopp and Nico Robin. And Franky, just
because. Although I really hope Usopp loses all that extra weight soon, or else
they’ll be using him as a cannonball. Whoops.
So,
here’s why Oda does denouement volumes better than Kishimoto. Despite his huge –
and I do mean huge – cast list, I was
able to follow the story more with One Piece than I was in Naruto. Plus, Oda is
doing a better job developing his verse’s politics and world-building. And now
that Luffy has made a bold statement ushering in a new era of piracy, one can
only imagine what kind of world Oda will be introducing us to in the next
couple of volumes. Something spectacular, that’s for sure.
And to
think, Eiichiro Oda is only halfway done with his planned story. Wow.
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