THIS WEEK IN MANGA: second post

hello and welcome to the second post of THIS WEEK IN MANGA! we have a lot to cover this week so lets get down to the meat of it. first up is our old friend fairy tail.




PREVIOUS CHAPTER

natsu, lucy and their cat partners adjust to life in the world of edoras.



FAIRY TAIL CHAPTER 171: FAUST

after escaping the fairy hunters, natsu and lucy explain their situation to the alternate fairy tail. they are surprised to learn this fact but believe them nonetheless. E-lucy is of course surprised to see her younger counterpart is younger than her. natsu then asks if they could get directions to the capital. lucy explains that they have to find their friends before they are turned into pure magic.

E-lucy and the others explain that the king of edoras is unbelievably powers and that since magic in their world is so scarce, he hordes it all to himself. thus, he sent out a decree that all mage guilds be disbanded. those who resist are crushed by his magical militia, with only E-fairy tail left. so far, they have lost over half their members, including their master, forcing them to consistently run. natsu, despite the danger, surprises them with his resolve to save his friends.

cut to the royal capital, E-erza and the magic hunters marvel at the size of the lachryma that was created from the town and from the original fairy tail. bryo, the chief of staff asks erza if she will have any more trouble capturing the last remaining guild. she says nothing as her team mates assure him that their "goddess" will end them. pantherlily, the first division commander, orders them to be silent as he doesn't like their noise. as he leaves, hughes states that panterlily isnt happy with the arms race. we also learn that their country has conquered most of edoras.

coco, the assistant chief chef of staff, informs the king that the extraction of the magical energy from the crystal will begin in 4 days. the king, faust, says it's insufficient. she explains that the amount of magic from the town and guild will keep edoras' energy reserves full for ten years. faust proclaims that the energy of edoras must not have limits.

else where, the fairy tail group sets off to the capital, which will be a five day trip by foot. natsu tries to catch a frog but runs into its mother. natsu tries to battle it but is stunned to see his fire magic isn't working, forcing them to run. just then, E-lucy appears and using a light whip, defeats the giant frog. lucy and happy cheer as "scary" lucy saves them as she screams at them for calling her that. charlie asks why she is there. she says that its too dangerous for them to be wandering around, her eyes seem to be drifting back to natsu for some reason. she decides to help them since without magic, they are sitting ducks.



THOUGHTS

I am really enjoying this arc so far. seeing the alternate versions of the guild is ever so entertaining. the mage hunters seem to be a formidable lot, especially panterlily. he also seem to be the more reasonable of the bunch. king faust just looks like a dick to me. like he doesn't care about who he hurt as long as he gets his power.

also, i'm interested in what E-natsu. it seems his guild is surprised at how natsu acts, especially E-lucy. there seems to be a romantic undertone with her interactions with lucy. hopefully, we'll see what happens.



well, time to move on from wizards to ninja. lets break into naruto.



PREVIOUS CHAPTER

the battle between sasuke and danzo comes to a end as madara plans his next move.


NARUTO CHAPTER 482: ONCE MORE


we open to naruto awakening from his fainting spell a few chapters back. he asks yamato where kakashi and sai are.

cut back to madara and sasuke, standing over danzo's lifeless body. he says he will take shisui's eye and tells sasuke to go back to the base and rest. he explains that despite his best efforts to hide it, he is at his limits, having used so many high level jutsu in such a short amount of time. he reasons that sasuke's vision is going much faster than he thought and that he wouldn't be in any shape to face konoha.

back with naruto, yamato tells him that they are heading back to the village on kakashi's orders. naruto wordlessly picks up his tool pouch and stands up. yamato holds him down with his wood jutsu, saying that kakashi will take care of sakura. naruto agrees and says he will go back to the village once he gets some rest.

elsewhere, sai's clone continues to stop sakura's group from facing sasuke. he creates snakes from his drawings to stop them. kiba says he understands why kakashi doesnt want them facing sasuke but he doesn't want to let him go again. the trio charges him but all are stopped by sakura dropping gas bombs on them. she heads on alone, leaving the boys out-cold. sai informs kakashi of the situation, who is somewhat impressed by her skill.

meanwhile, madara beings to teleport himself and danzo's body away. he advises sasuke to kill karin if she isnt useful to him any more, adding that she knows too much about them. sasuke comments coolly when did they become allies. madara just laughs as he vanishes. karin goes into a flash back of when she was in the forest of death for the chunin exams. she was left alone by her team and is attacked by a bear. just then, sasuke attacks and defeat the bear, noticing that she too had a earth scroll. the girl looks for her glasses to see him clearly as she comes back to the present as both past and present sasuke tell her "see ya".

madara is able to remove the eye from danzo but learns that he crushed the eye before he died.

yamato asks naruto if he's ready to go but he says he needs more time. unknown to him, naruto was able to get a kunai from his pouch and has dug a hole in the floor while under the covers, meaning that the one in bed is a clone. the real naruto, in sage mode, is running through the forest, tracking kakashi's chakra.

sasuke prepares to finish off his former teammate when he's stopped upon hearing the voice of sakura, who finally catches up to him. she thinks that sasuke looks so different from the last time she saw him while karin wonders who she is. sasuke asks her what she wants, to which she answers that she's come to join him and leave konoha.



THOUGHTS

first and foremost, WTF, kishimoto?! i mean, he's spent the last few years expanding upon sakura's character. in part one, she was perhaps the most hated character in naruto: whiny, weak, useless and shallow. in part 2, she's become strong, reliable, powerful, and less whiny. now for her to do something like this? she has to be lying, because otherwise, it makes no sense.

sasuke is still a dick. i mean, really, there isn't much to like about him anymore. he's just a dick who just likes revenge. seriously, naruto. he's beyond saving at this point. although, i did like the page comparing his past self with his current self. you can tell how evil he looks.

also, kudos to naruto for putting one over on yamato.



next up, lets see what ichigo and the gang are doing in bleach.


PREVIOUS CHAPTER

its the end of aizen...........................or is it?



BLEACH CHAPTER 392: THE BREAKING GLACIERS

we open with ichigo watching as the captains seemingly kill aizen. he tries to remove toushiro's sword from his chest but unable to. the vice captains realize that they finally defeated aizen and cheer. as iba and kira look on, hinamori, gets up and begins to walk away. shinji says that the battle is finally going their way as he cases a eye on gin. just then ichigo screams at them "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

to their horror, especially toushiro, aizen's body turns into hinamori. shinji quickly turns down to "hinamori", just in time to see it turn into aizen, who cuts down iba and kira with a smirk. he yells to aizen when he made the switch. he explains the power of kyoka suigetsu power of absolute hypnotism is to control all the senses and create illusions at any given time. shinji says he knows that and says he asked when he made the switch with hinamori. he replies with the question, why did he think he wasn't already using kyoka suigetsu? toushiro frees hinamori as she weakly asks why he did that. the young captain flies into a rage as he attacks aizen. but before the others could stop him, aizen strikes down all four captains.



THOUGHTS

seriously, i wasn't expecting this. i thought that aizen would no sell those attacks and just pwn the crap out of all four them but i didnt expect this. but it does show off how foolish the captains were in thinking that aizen wouldn't be using his sword's ability from the start. i mean, its friggin aizen. he's got more sense than that.

so now it leaves only ichigo, unohana and yamamoto as the only ones who can stand a small chance against him. but ichigo already knows he's no match, unohana's is healing the injured and yamamoto is MIA. where the hell is old yama? well, we are gonna have to wait two weeks for those answers.


now for the big guns, one piece



PREVIOUS CHAPTER

akainu goads ace into a fight, which turns out to be a fatal mistake on ace's part.


ONE PIECE CHAPTER 574: THE DEATH OF PORTGAZ D. ACE

we open with everyone on the battlefield and watching around the world shocked as ace's body falls to the ground after being punched through the stomach by akainu. the pirates open fire on him but the admiral's DF powers protect him from harm. he comments that ace is still alive but barely and prepares to finish him off when jimbei steps in to block his attack. marco orders him men to get his handcuffs off as akainu tells jimei to stop interfere, since as a former warlord, he know how powerful he is. the fishmen says that since the outset of this battle, he knew he would probably die and that if he can buy them even a little delay, then he'd gladly give up his life. meanwhile, sengoku holds down garp, who tells him that he better keep him down or he'll kill the admiral, who he calls sakazuki.

akainu prepares to attack but is stopped by vista and marco, who is now free and able to use his DF powers. he feels annoyed that he must now face haki users. vista regrets that he couldn't do more to help ace while marco wonders how they could let this happen.

luffy holds up ace, his hand covered in blood. ace says he's sorry that he didnt let luffy save him properly. the other pirates yell for a doctor as one races to ace, but he says its no use. ace says that akainu burned up his insides so he knows that he's dying. luffy refuses to accept this, saying that ace promised him he wouldn't die. he says that if it wasn't for the "sabo thing" and having a brother, he wouldn't have any reason to live. he remember back when he was a kid, how people would wish for his death since he was the son of the pirate king. he says that he will miss a person call dadan and that he feels like a idea for dying like this. he tells luffy that his only regret is that he will never see luffy achieve his dream but he know that luffy will do it. he wondered why he was born or why he lives as that was his truth goal as a pirate. he tells luffy to tell the old man and his nakama thank for loving him even though he was the son of "demon". then, he falls over to the ground as his vivre card burns into nothing.

with the memories of his mother, his brother and his life as a pirate, portgaz D. ace dies.

the last scene is over ace's dead body on the ground, with luffy's face frozen in a silent scream.



THOUGHTS

damn. i mean damn. amongst one piecee fans, there is a inside joke: "no one dies in one piece, except in flashbacks." but for oda to do this and with such a popular character as ace shows that he is masterful writer. seeing ace's memories of being hated for his blood shows his motivation in wanting to understand the meaning of his life. i didnt think oda had the balls to kill off ace, since he loves all his characters but i admire the guts it took to do something like this.

and luffy's face in the end speaks volumes. sometimes, a silent scream is louder than a normal one. luffy seems to have snapped and now, i dont envy the beast that akainu has unleashed.





and with that bit of sadness, we come to the end of this week's THIS WEEK IN MANGA. tune in next week for more manga goodness.