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Based on its position in the WSJ weekly rankings and a couple of (probably baseless) rumors on Twitter, Ball Parade's days in syndication may be numbered. That's a shame, because beyond its middling first few chapters, this series strays just enough from the clichés that plague most sports manga to offer a unique and fun experience to subscribers.

Though based around the usual stock characters — a hyper-analytical but unathletic catcher and his hard-headed but loyal pitcher — KBP takes the trope of a gifted battery lifting a bottom-of-the-barrel team to the Koshien tournament (i.e. Big Windup, one of my favorite baseball titles) and pushes ... it to extremes. After a failed tryout at a powerhouse high school, our two protagonists enroll at an institution whose baseball team has failed to attract a single member. It's up to our heroes (and the team's fanned out manager) to do the work of recruiting at least seven other players in time to actually participate in the regular season.

It's thanks to this unconventional plot device that KBP feels more like a slice of life manga than a sports series. Instead of facing off against formidable opponents, the short story arcs follow the club members as they track down talented misfits whose personalities have turned off other scouts. Nine chapters in, this has proven to be a fun, heartwarming formula that is helped by Ashibi Fukui's charming character design. It's nothing groundbreaking, but KBP is done well enough to keep me looking forward to each new chapter. Hopefully it sticks around long enough to complete a few more mini-arcs.

Bone Collection's negative reception and ultra-short run in WSJ only made me want to try it more. I liked its promotional artwork and synopsis well enough. Could it really suck enough to get axed in 4 months?

Short answer: yes. It's not the worst manga I've attempted to read, but it's disappointing. Any interesting dynamic we'd get between its central boy/girl duo is squashed due to their entire fighting style being both an asspull and an excuse to turn Bone Collection into an ecchi-lite production. When the humor and action are both uninspired, it fails doubly.

Unfortunately, the plot makes things even more confusing. There's no ... clear motivation for any of the characters, and the series seems to change on a conceptual level each chapter. Arcs bleed into arcs, entire structures of exorcist society and introduced and scrapped, and the entire thing ends in a massive timeskip. And that's all in 2 volumes! Some of the character designs are cute, but that doesn't save this joint. The currently-running Witch Watch, however, borrows a similar dynamic between protagonists and makes it work much better as a comedy/SoL production. Perhaps Bone Collection could've leaned into the laughs a little more.

Of Shonen Jump's next generation, Mashle makes the best use of the standard 19-page serialized format — though that's to its advantage and detriment. I started Mashle the same week the series turned a year old, and doing so has clearly demonstrated its progress from a cut-rate gag manga to a story with glints of greater potential.

The expository half of this manga's run to date was a pretty tough sell for me to read in chunks at a time. While Mashle's influences are clearly worn on its sleeve, the line between clever parody and shameless rip-off is blurry in the initial chapters. Its riffs on ... the Harry Potter series fall into the former category, poking fun at JK Rowling's wizarding world while faithfully adapting its atmosphere and style to a new format. The art style and deadpan humor borrowed from One Punch Man and Mob Psycho, however, feel like a blurry daguerreotype of a concept that's already done better. ONE is a fully-fledged auteur at this point, and swiping both his minimalist character design and penchant for overpowered/underenthusiastic heroes is bound to fall flat.

Thanks to the novelty of Mashle's "anime Hogwarts" concept, I pressed on despite an underwhelming first impression. I'm glad I did. Just when the joke that Mash can easily best the antagonist of the week with a couple punches wears thin to the point of monotony, its world and cast of characters opens up significantly. Sidekicks Lance and Dot are really funny takes on cliche Shonen backstories, and the design of each villain is so well-done that I'm always looking forward to seeing the newest configuration of their mage lines. Mash may be a line-for-line redraw of ONE's Mob, but I've come to appreciate the development of Hajime Koumoto's spindly art style.

With more attention being paid to the supporting cast, Mashle is growing from one-note filler to a fleshed-out world full of different ideologies, approaches to magic and levels of ability. If Koumoto spends more time exploring Mash's surroundings and less time wailing on his enemies, it'll be more entertaining (and funnier) for it.

(Review up to ch. 39, score subject to change)

I've fallen a bit out of touch with what's new in manga and anime over the past couple of years, so I decided to cop a subscription to the Weekly Shonen Jump app to get an overview of up-and-coming series. I already have a few ongoing series on my radar, but I started with Unluck x Undead at the suggestion of a friend. Sure, it's another shonen joint about eccentric, superpowered demigods, but I was intrigued by its central concept of Negation. The abilities of UxU's protagonists subvert the laws of universe, which can be a help ... or a hinderance depending on their user's creativity.

My first impression of the series was the frenetic pacing of its first few chapters, which rarely lets up. There's very little in the way of exposition and world-building, which means by the time you've reached the fifth chapter, you'll get the gist of the story, the cast, and the stakes. It's a welcome alternative to a cookie-cutter backstory and one-by-one introduction to characters, and the dynamic between protagonists Fuuko and Andy is original enough to create interest off the bat. As the pair are adults, we're spared your typical high school setting and puerile antics for a more complex relationship with romantic tension that's directly linked to their powers.

Unfortunately, because UxU never really lets off of its plot-driven gas, Fuuko and Andy feel wooden as individuals. The latter's design is generic, and his overconfident veneer is only occasionally removed via an artificial plot device. Fuuko's the more interesting protagonist on paper, though as other reviewers have suggested, we could spend more time getting to know her better. Shonen jump already has a dearth of multi-dimensional female protagonists, and having Fuuko play sidekick is a wasted opportunity. She's also the butt of some ecchi gags leave a bad taste in my mouth. Luckily, UxU gets significantly less horny as the story progresses: it's better for it.

Where the series succeeds is in its willingness to take wild risks and flirt with meta-referential humor. The central conflict between the union of Negators and God itself leads to an onslaught of ridiculous plot twists (including the earth expanding into an entire galaxy, each country occupying a different planet), and the weirdness of it all is a running joke in the story. Where I've left off in the series, our heroes are in pursuit of a mangaka whose writing has predicted the events of the story thus far — which may explain some of the existential confusion that I've experienced while reading. It's not as successful a deconstruction of shonen tropes as, say, Mob Psycho 100, but I've found UxU to be pretty promising. I forsee it continuing to improve as it goes on.

“Subdued” is one of the last words I’d usually attribute to a shonen/adventure anime series, but summer season standout Mob Psycho 100 exudes more than enough coziness to earn the descriptor. From the show’s diluted color pallet to the ovoid curves of its Schulz-ian character design, there’s enough invitation to ease comfortably into each episode while still having room to enjoy its supernatural subject matter and decidedly unsubtle sense of humor.

Conceived by One, (the pseudonymous creator of One Punch Man), Mob Psycho stems from the mangaka’s penchant for overpowered protagonists whose respective crises of confidence often trump their limitless physical abilities. In the case ... of the former title, One Punch Man’s Saitama is a veteran vigilante superhero. Able to decimate any opponent with a single swing, he grows weary of effortless victory and sets off in search of a worthy challenger to little avail. For the latter series’ titular Mob, a lack of assurance is the only obstacle standing between his current self and his boundless potential. Despite harboring a mastery of psychic powers, we find out early on that the Salt Middle School student works part time as an ill-paid assistant to quack clairvoyant Reigen. Unable to recognize his boss’ obvious ineptitude, Mob seeks training and counsel from Reigen, who in turn happens to be a decent mentor. Aside from the unfortunate fact that he’s exploiting the kid’s power for profit, Reigen espouses a philosophy of humility and pacifism that his pupil takes to heart: even when provoked, Mob refuses to uses his extrasensory abilities.

He’s content to lead the quiet, overlooked life that he’d afford subtracting his powers – though metaphysical intervention could help him pass a test or catch the attention of a crush, he remains firm in his abstinence from warping space and time.

Though One Punch Man is an immensely enjoyable watch in its own right, it amounts to little more than a cosmic punchline with a 5-hour setup. Mob Psycho packs just as much self-aware fun as is predecessor, but does so with a greater sense of sincerity. Mob may be able to accomplish any task he can (literally) put his mind to, but his self-doubt is humanizing.

Aesthetically, Studio Bones skillfully balances professionalism with the lo-fi clumsiness of its source material. Though I would have enjoyed a bit more evidence of One’s rough, childlike artwork, the characters in Mob Psycho exude a warm sense of simplicity. They may resemble cut-and-pasted Habbo Hotel avatars with minor variations in hair or shape, but it is this subtlety that brings out the cast’s individual personalities more than great detail might have.

The most pressing issue I have with the series lies in its main theme. Its cluttered J-Rock bombast clashes with the soundtrack’s Animal Crossing sense of off-kilter twang. Luckily, the math-rock riffage of Mob’s credit roll, accompanied by some lovely penciled animation, makes amends for the disappointing opener.

Though not in my usual anime wheelhouse, Mob Psycho is an adventure series done right: light on the action, heavy on character development and world-building.

Story: 7
Art: 9
Sound: 6
Character: 9
Enjoyment: 10
Overall: 9