This issue includes chapters for One Piece, Blue Exorcist, Bleach, Black Clover, One-Punch Man, Toriko, World Trigger, Nisekoi: False Love, Food Wars!, My Hero Academia, and Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign.. This issue also includes the second chapter of D.Gray-man (which is the current title to be featured for the “Jump Back” initiative).

For the series that carried over from previous issues I’ve read, I tried to put a little more focus in my write-ups about the progression of the story from the previous chapter. I will warn you that these write-ups will more than likely contain spoilers.

I only started reading Weekly Shonen Jump back in late February/early March of 2014, which means there’s a number of series published in the magazine that I jumped in the middle of. Since then, I’ve been able to start reading older chapters of some of the titles, but I haven’t managed to do this for all of the titles yet. Because of this, there may be times I might inadvertently include incorrect information in the write-ups. If you see something in a write-up that’s incorrect due to my having not read earlier chapters of a series, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know. Not only can I correct the incorrect information in the write-up, it will also help provide information for me to have when reading future chapters of a series in Weekly Shonen Jump.

Of course, you can always check out Weekly Shonen Jump for yourself by subscribing to the digital publication at VIZManga.com.

One Piece CH:796

It’s now three days since the conclusion of the fight on Dressrosa, and Navy Headquarters is wondering why Fujitora isn’t seizing Luffy and the other pirates. He explains it all comes down to the dice roll, and each day, Luffy was won the roll. Meanwhile. rumors swirl that Riku will return to Dressrosa’s throne. We then see that Luffy is awake now and eating up a storm. While he does, they talk about various rumors they’ve been hearing about Rebecca. It’s revealed that Kyros started the rumors so it wouldn’t be revealed that he is Rebecca’s father. Kyros gets a call from Leo, who says that there’s movement from the navy tent and that they think this location may be in danger soon. We see that the roll of die was not in Luffy’s favor this time. Luffy and the others are given directions where to go in order to try to make an escape.

So it looks like we’re not entirely done with Dressrosa yet. However, it looks like the stage is being set for Luffy and his crew members who still remain there to make an escape. So it looks like last week’s chapter focused on the crew members who went ahead on the Sunny. But since the focus was all on Dressrosa in this chapter, there was nothing at all about Kaido and the war that he’s planning to launch. I’m guessing we need to see Luffy and his friends escape from Dressrosa and catch up to the Sunny before we can truly get the next story arc underway.

Blue Exorcist CH:070

Yukio is wondering what powers are at work in his eyes, and he realizes the commonality between the two times those powers manifested themselves. Meanwhile, the students at the cram school have found a balcony where they can overhear the teachers talking in an assembly. Mephisto addresses the crowd, and it’s revealed the exorcist exam will be taking place in a month and a half. He also announces a powerful helper has been sent to the cram school. As this person is introduced, a hobgoblin colony appears. After the hobgoblins are defeated, the helper is introduced as Lewin Light. We then see that the classroom that Lewin is teaching in is packed with people. But as the lesson goes on, people leave because they don’t seem to like Lewin’s teaching methods. But after class, Lewin asks some of the students for help, and that seems to be where the real lessons begin. During this, Ryuji starts admitting to Lewin that he’s lost his ambition to be an exorcist, and then Lewin shares why he became an exorcist. After this, Ryuji asks Lewin to make him his apprentice.

This chapter spends a lot of its time explaining that there aren’t enough exorcists to take care of all the demon activity that’s been erupting lately, which provides needed information as to why the exorcist exam has been moved up. We’d seen Lewin in an early chapter, but this one really establishes him as a character. He ends up being a teacher who doesn’t necessarily use regular methods to teach his lessons. However, his unorthodox teaching strategies seem to be reaching his students. He especially made a lot of strides with Ryuji.

Bleach CH:638

Mayuri learns the creature’s name is Pernida Parnkgnjas. Mayuri complains it’s too long and since he discovered the creature, he has naming rights. After a few moments, the creature seems to realize that it’s been insulted. The creature then gets upset and attacks, and what happens fascinates Mayuri. And Mayuri surprised the Quincy creature by using a Quincy air treading technique in order to avoid the creature’s attack. Mayuri seems to have gotten the upper hand and secures a sample from the creature, and the creature tries to take over Mayuri’s body. Not surprisingly, Mayuri figured out a way to keep that from happening.

This chapter focuses exclusively on Mayuri and the Quincy. And of that focus, we primarily see Mayuri and his reactions to what’s going on. I just hope this battle with this Quincy doesn’t take too much longer, though. Just when it seemed like the story had been going somewhere not too long ago, it appears to have gotten stuck again and is spinning its wheels. Sigh.

Black Clover CH:025

Inside the castle, a three-dimensional model of the noble realm is created, and it includes the voices of the people at the scene and their magic levels. With this, the nobles start trying to figure out how the attack was carried out without them noticing. They are also trying to come up with strategy. Asta, however, wants to simply rush out and help. Asta’s new rival, Leo, decides to follow Asta into the battlefield. After they leave, a strategy is formed with the remaining people in the castle and they head on their way. As the enemy leader starts taunting a little girl, Asta jumps into the action.

This chapter is basically establishing this new threat, as well as the strategy that the Magic Knights plan to employ in order to protect the capital. For the most part, there’s not a lot of action until the very end, when Asta jumps in to save the little girl. This is essentially a chapter to establish what’s going on and how the action will happen, and it looks like the real action will start taking place in the next chapter.

One-Punch Man CH:048

Garo talks to a boy who has a hero guide with stats and asks to borrow it for a week. The boy says no. After flipping through the book, Garo goes on his way. But before he goes, he says he’ll be back to look at the book again. We then see Saitama talking to a hero in the hospital who was injured by Garo. Saitama realizes that before long, Garo will likely be coming after him. Saitama then goes to see Charan-ko, and says he’d be interested in training under Master Bang. Charan-ko gives Saitama a ticket to enter a martial arts tournament, and suggests he watch that to see a variety of styles. Saitama is told not to take his place in the match, but it appears Saitama isn’t listening.

So it looks like this chapter is setting up two things. First, a way for Garo to get information on more heroes to hunt down. The other seems to be setting the stage for Saitama to enter a martial arts tournament. So it appears that One-Punch Man will soon have a focus on some martial arts, especially in the realm of a competition. I wonder if this competition will be as interesting as the Tenkaichi Tournaments that appear in Dragon Ball.

Toriko CH:334

Yuda and Condor, the two competitors in the cookoff, are headed straight for the Soul Furnace. But it turns out they end up on the Seesaw Kitchen, and it’s a competition to see who is faster at preparing ingredients and off-loading them onto the plate, in order to avoid falling into the furnace with their kitchen. If you fall in, you die instantly. This competition also involves having to navigate inside a unique space where gravity pulls in different directions. Yuda works at figuring out how to prepare the leafish, since he’s never prepared one before. As he does, he has a flashback to when he was younger and training under his master and how he went on a training journey. As part of the training, he took on his own apprentice. We see that an event happened on that journey that shook him to the core. But just as it looks like Yuda’s kitchen will fall into the furnace, the seesaw stops. He does something unexpected that seems to turn things around. And it appears that Yuda may have won right at the end of the chapter.

This chapter focuses on Yuda and Condor’s cookoff competition, but it also provides some backstory for Yuda as well. But this backstory ends up being very important for showing what ultimately happens at the end of the chapter. I appreciated seeing how the chapter ended, because I was think Condor was very condescending and full of himself. But now that this part of the cookoff is over, I wonder who will be competing next.

World Trigger CH:112

Osamu finds himself in a fight against Sumiharu, the gunner for Ninomiya Squad. Shiori tells Yuma to meet up with Osamu. But before he can each Osamu, Yuma is stopped by Shinnosuke from Ninomiya Squad. But it turns out Shinnosuke isn’t his opponent; Masoto from Kaguera Squad is. During his battle, Osamu has a flashback ro advice that Jin had given him in the past. In the battle, Osamu uses the advice that Jin gave him. But when it looks like Osamu’s opponent will defeat him, two members of Azuma Squad jump in. And then members of Ninomiya Squad also arrive where Osamu and the others are. It appears that the Azuma Squad members have set their sights on Ninomiya Squad. Just when Osamu thinks he’s in the clear, a sniper shoots him. This causes Osamu to have to bail out.

This chapter is pretty similar to the other chapters that have covered the B-Rank Wars up to this point. During the battles, the story is interrupted by the commentators explaining things. Most of the time, there also seems to be a flashback thrown in for good measure. But the ending of this chapter was actually quite surprising, because Osamu had managed to avoid having to bail out in the previous B-Rank battles that he participated in. So how will the rest of this one progress with the main character actively participating?

It should be noted that World Trigger will not appear in Issue 39, but is scheduled to return in the August 31 issue.

Nisekoi: False Love CH:181

Marika begs Raku to love her, but just as Raku is about to answer her, she collapses. Honda arrives, and she says that she is the one appointed to be Marika’s caretaker by her mother. Honda forces her to leave and tells Raku to forget about Marika as quickly as possible. The next day at school, Yui has to announce to the class that as of yesterday, Marika has changed schools. She explains that Marika is returning her home in Kyushu for health reasons. Raku tries calling Marika, but her number is no longer available. Later, we learn that Onodera tried going by Marika’s house, but no one was there. Right at the end of the chapter, we see Raku calling someone.

With the way this is written, it appears that Marika has potentially been written out of the series. However, it appears that Raku and and the others may be working on tracking her down. After hearing about Marika taking medicine and suddenly being whisked away, I guess it isn’t surprising that Raku is concerned. While he knows he doesn’t feel about her the same way she feels about him, he still wants to be friends. So it’ll be interesting to see whether Marika really ends up being written out of the series for good, or if this is another “psyche” moment by Komi.

Food Wars! CH:130

Soma and Subaru work together to get through the line that’s building up at Soma’s stand, even though more and more people are lining up. And Megumi is able to give personalized service to customers who are taking their seats. Later, the Home Cooking Society brings their whole collection of traditional paper lanterns for Soma to use at his cart. But it suddenly starts getting harder to Soma and the others to keep up. Mito arrives and says she’ll focus on the pork buns so Megumi can focus on customer service. And then other students start arriving to help out as well. At the end of the day, Kuga learns his booth came in second place in Central Campus and that Soma came in first place.

So this the chapter where Soma officially turns things around. And when Kuga comments on how Soma had built it up over the course of the four days, I thought that was an interesting observation. It also makes sense once you think about how this story line has progressed. At this point, I expect that the school festival arc will be wrapping up sooner rather than later.

My Hero Academia CH:054

Ida realizes how short-sighted he’s been, and he has a flashback of talking with his brother when he was younger. After this, Ida finds the strength to stand up and he starts to join in the fight. But Ida discovers his reciprocating engine’s broken, so he asks Todoroki to freeze his leg without blocking the exhaust pipes. The chapter ends with Ida launching an attack on the Hero Killer.

This chapter places its focus on Ida and how he’s coming to realize how stupid he’s been acting recently. Over the course of the chapter, he realizes that he needs to rely on help from his friends in order to take on the Hero Killer, and that perhaps trying to go after vengenance on his own isn’t a good idea. With the way the chapter ends, it’ll be interesting to see how this battle will continue, and whether or not Ida will have some success with what he’s trying to accomplish.

Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign CH:036

Mika tries to flee with an unconscious Yuichiro, but Mika doesn’t have enough blood to get very far. He tries to wake Yuichiro up, because he wants to be able to tell him something before he loses his life and sanity from losing so much blood. Mika sees a child nearby and intends to drink their blood, but before he does, the child calls him a monster. Mika is so taken aback he lets the kid go. We then see Yuichiro communicating with his Demon Weapon, Asuramaru. During the conversation, Asuramaru tries to tempt Yuichiro into becoming a demon. Yuichiro then regains consciousness and sees Mika nearby. But Mika is at a point that he’s so desperate for blood that he begins to attack Yuichiro. When he sees how much Mika is hurting, Yuichiro offers his blood to him. But Mika comes to his senses before he takes Yuichiro up on that offer. Mika says that he hasn’t had human blood yet, and if he takes even one sip of it, he’ll turn into a vampire forever. The two get into an argument. Yuichiro says that no matter what Mika is, they’re still family. The chapter ends with Mika taking Yuichiro up on his invitation.

This ended up being a very intense chapter of Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign. And the focus was specifically on Yuichiro and Mika. The tension was intense in this chapter, especially once Yuichiro and Mika have their argument. Even though this focused a lot on talking, the rising tensions was enough to keep my interest. In some respects, I was surprised by how the chapter ended, but in other respects, I wasn’t. This is the type of reaction that we’ve come to expect from Yuichiro when it comes to the people that he considers to be family.

D.Gray-man CH:002

This chapter sees Allen heading toward the exorcist headquarters. As he travels, he encounters a boy named John warning people about akuma, and they don’t believe him. A guy who the kid claims is an akuma says he’s playing around. But after the others leave, Allen comes over and declares that this man is actually an akuma. We learn that John’s father is a scientist at the New World Alliance. When John pesters Allen with questions about being an exorcist, Allen tells him it’s better to not let his curiosity go any father. But John doesn’t like hearing this. When John returns home, he finds he has a visitor named Leo. As they visit, the audience sees a hint that something is wrong with Leo. At the same time, Allen shows up at John’s home. Allen sees Leo and realizes he’s an akuma. Allen tries to warn John, but he doesn’t hear him. Leo leads John straight to Millennium Earl. John learns that Leo died on the day of his mother’s funeral, and Allen arrives on the scene right at the end of the chapter.

After the first chapter established the concepts, charatcers, and world of the series, this chapter jumps right into getting Allen on his way to to exorcist headquarters. But there is a stop along the way, as we see here, that allows the audience to formally be introduced to Millennium Earl. This chapter also establishes the public’s reactions to the akuma. It looks like next chapter will likely resolve the story line with John, and it might also see Allen continue on his journey.