Soul Eater – The Gathering Storm

Maka is slowly turning into something out of Touhou.

With Maka and crew finally making their way to the moon, Kidd’s team returning after meeting up with the society of witches, Crona having traveled here to find the Kishin, and Excalibur doing something somewhere, the conditions of this arc are quickly turning into something very much like a final battle. I knew this whole encounter on the moon would be very important in the grand scheme of things, but since Maka and Crona were away from that battle, it was difficult to imagine this as anything conclusive. Now things are slowly resembling a scenario I’ve seen several times before at the ends of shonen, which is where every available character gathers in one location to brawl until one side runs out of guys.

Catching Up on Things – Seven Posts in One

So my exams for this year have finally ended, and now I’m free from all that stuff for another few months. Now all I have to worry about is my GPA and work and my website and countless other things. I suppose this is what being an adult means. Well at least I can be an adult and still enjoy manga the way I do. Since I’ve had difficulty talking about the most recent manga chapters lately, I thought I would make a post briefly discussing the things I might have blogged about had I not been busy. These won’t be as long as my normal posts, but I thought I should do a little catching up regardless.

One Piece – Caesar Clown’s Playhouse

His favourite song is Jumpin' Jack Flash, in case you were wondering.

Enemies in One Piece tend to fall all over the morality scale, from honorable soldiers like Smoker to professional killers like Rob Lucci to complete sadists like Moria. What I found interesting about Caesar Clown (aside from the name, of course) is that he’s managed to convince people he’s much more honorable and less insane than he really is. Listening to Brownbeard talk about him, you would almost think he was a decent guy with a passionate love for science. Of course one look at him shows that he’s every bit as insane and sadistic as the term “passionate love for science” would imply. This series used to tiptoe around the use of drugs and WMDs, which makes Clown’s behaviour feel all the more extreme and cruel. I honestly think all of Luffy’s training will have been worth it just so we can see him punch this guy in the face properly.

Current Manga Rankings – 2011 – Part 2

15. Rosario + Vampire II

What a long, awkward trip it’s been. I remember back when I started this manga and it was just another boring harem series with various random monsters to fight. Since then it’s grown up into a surprisingly well done series about the relationships the previous series began, and it manages to provide a good amount of depth to what were previously uninteresting characters. It even manages to make the action more interesting, since it’s no longer just Inner Moka stomping on everyone. I’ve actually started looking forward to the newest chapters, which I would never have expected at first.

Soul Eater – Chapter 93

"Why did you think a big balloon would stop him?" "Shut up! That's why!"

I think I mentioned this on Twitter, but seriously, whose idea was it to bring Stein this close to the largest source of concentrated madness in existence? That’s just a natural disaster waiting to happen.

I’m very concerned for what’s been happening with Stein lately. He’s always seemed like a ticking time bomb, and it looks like that’s about to go off any moment now, assuming it hasn’t already. What I’m really concerned about, though, is not so much the effect it will have on the other characters so much as what it will mean for the current large battle. Right now we have half the main cast fighting the Kishin’s soldiers, one or two of the high-ranking clowns and Justin Law, and we haven’t even reached the Kishin itself yet. Where does an out of control Stein fit into all this?

Soul Eater – Chapter 90

This ship holds all the answers.

We’re just now starting up the journey to fight the Kishin on the moon (those of you who aren’t caught up with the manga think that’s a joke, don’t you?). Everyone, save Maka and Soul, is gathering together to invade his lair and put a stop to this madness once and for all. The characters involved all have this sense of impending doom, to the point where several of them have written their wills in the likely event that something bad happens along the way. And personally, I can’t help but wonder how this arc is going to turn out, since I’m fairly certain that before the end, someone we like is going to die.