The 7 Day Boy Hop

Every week I will go through each Weekly Shonen Jump title (with the exception of Fullmetal Alchemist) that I am currently reading and give my opinion of this week's chapter along with my predictions for next week. So I will say this once, and only once:

SPOILER ALERT: This post may not be suitable for people who have not caught up in Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, and any other manga titles that will be discussed in the following paragraphs. If you value your innocence, close your browser now.



One Piece: A Luffy and Ace flashback arc...this was certainly unexpected. After the death of Whitebeard and the reality that One Piece exists, the gears have certainly shifted with these recent chapters. Now don't get me wrong, these are neat and insightful scenes into Luffy's past, being the main character of the series I feel that I know the rest of the Straw Hat's way better than the captain.

Seriously though, One Piece feels like anime's version of Lost. I fell in love with the series, with the CP9 arc being my favorite storyline. Recently though, I've been wondering...what the heck is going on? The crew is STILL missing and the last arc went on for way too long, at least for my tastes. At this point, I'm just reading One Piece out of obligation. I watched the 1st season of Lost and thought it was brilliant! I never continued my venture into that mysterious island, but my friends tell me to save myself the trouble and avoid the rest of the series.

Next Week's Forecast: Ace will save Luffy and we'll see what exactly is going to happen to all that money Ace has been saving up. My prediction is that his friend will betray him.



Bleach: So Aizen gets rocked by Urahara. Half of the chapter was Kido chanting, ending with two big explosions. At this point, everyone knows this is not the way Aizen is going to go down. Dying by his OWN reitsu? Urahara didn't even use his Bankai yet, so obviously Aizen will come out of the smoke unscathed.

Bleach has turned into a guilty pleasure for me. I'm strangely attracted to the fight scenes and power-ups in Bleach, but the story is so bland as of late. As much as I love my Shonen-style tournament arcs, current fights in Bleach are literally moving 5-10 minutes in time per chapter. I think Aizen has been developed as too much of an "uber" villian that the only way he could be defeated is through some ridiculous power-up by a character (Ichigo).

Next Week's Forecast: Aizen will walk out of that puff of smoke only to be in his perfect or near perfect form. His explanation will be that the reitsu that imploded in his body was his "old" reitsu and that he's now surpassed that power capacity. I also still think Gin will betray Aizen, he's too dedicated to Aizen and his cause to be completely evil. If Gin betrays Aizen, it will be obvious to Aizen because he knew it was coming...

Stay tuned for my thoughts on Bakuman, Naruto, Psyren, and Lock-on!