OH MY GOD IT'S SANJI'S DAD. *Ahem*, sorry. Whole Cake Island is fraught with weird, almost fairy-tale like dangers, but the most awesome thread going in One Piece right now is easily the exposition of Germa 66 and the Vinsmoke family. Sanji has always been a compelling character; for years, I've been turning people onto One Piece and insisting that the point at which they'd be able to figure out whether it was for them was the arc in which Sanji is introduced. But this is one of the many things Oda does incredibly well: he is able to emphasize that each person has their own set of stories that make them unique, even if they may come from a family with so much baggage that it has a mythology of its own. Our family's and their legacies can shape our place in the world to some extent, but that never ceases the potential for us to have our own adventures. That's like, the cheesiest thing I've written in ages, and I completely blame Oda for being so good at communicating life lessons with cartoons.
The current My Hero Academia chapters felt like a break from the action and, as usual, Horikoshi still found a way to use them as an opportunity to develop his already stellar roster of characters. While the characters all see each other's new dorm rooms and rate them, it emerges that Tsuyu felt guilty for not being on board with the rogue Bakugo rescue that the students performed. And this is one of the things that really sets Horikoshi apart. There's an explicit pluralism in his work, a real sense that a lot of people have a lot of different opinions and ways of doing things, even when (and perhaps especially when) they are on the same side. Be the characters evil or on the side of justice, there are a lot of ways to approach both. Having Tsuyu voice her concerns and be met with forgiveness by her classmates is a great way of demonstrating this, and showing that what's most important when people have differing ways of doing things is for them to fucking talk.
Bleach has finally revealed the moment long-time fans have been waiting for: Aizen has been released from the bonds keeping his soul pressure in check. It's pretty late in the game for this moment to feel as dramatic as it might have before Kubo went off the rails, but it's still a huge moment nonetheless. The visual contrast between neat (like, OCD neat) Aizen and bold, flowing, heavily-inked Haschwalth is yet another example of Kubo demonstrating his game is at its peak. We're talking hundreds of chapters worth of material and within a single page Kubo contrasts these two hulking villains. It looks like it's going to be everybody vs. Haschwalth, and I can't wait to see what Kubo does with it.
Food Wars has its first quasi-romantic moment between Erina and Soma and I was a complete sucker for it. For the first time I'm realizing I can't wait to see where their relationship goes, despite the fact that I'm really just in it for the food. Black Clover continues to be excellent with one of its most visually striking chapters yet, as the young Black Bulls all push their limits against the strongest opponent in the series to date.
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