Beware, this post contains spoilers! Short reviews will be ordered by which I think people would be less upset with accidental spoilers.

Shinigami no Ballad

Chapter 1

Shinigami aren’t a particularly new concept if you’ve been around the animanga sphere, but this seems to be a cute concept. This first chapter gave an ‘episodic’ vibe since the story was started and wrapped up within it. Hopefully, it has actual story arcs. I plan to give it a 3 chapter test (since this seems to be a “monthly magazine” chapter length). If the manga is still episodic by then, I will drop it.

My predictions: Guy who could see shinigami will run into more trouble and require help from the white shinigami girl. They may or may not fall in love.

Bloody Junkie

Chapter 1-9 (Fin.)

After reading the Let’s Play of Dangan Ronpa, I started to notice the popularity of “fight to the death” style plots. These all start to feel the same, but what sets a series of this typing apart is how it handles the characters. If the characters aren’t memorable and fail to make you sympathize with them, the story will net out to be average at most. Unfortunately, since the series seems to have been designed to be shorter (and was canceled early), it lacks this distinction.

Series Verdict: It’s incomplete, and average at most. I don’t feel like I wasted my time completely, but I certainly could have gone without this series.

Shingeki no Kyojin / Attack on Titan

Chapters 70-81 (Caught Up)

So it seems like they’re finally getting into an ending stretch to this manga. (Or are they…?) Stakes are higher now, given humanity’s actual last non-wall defense is at risk of dying. I’d rather see this end faster rather than a slow death, but given how much money the manga has been making, I’m not very confident in this. Introducing new titan abilities (such as Reiner’s, conveniently explained by Bertholdt) at this point seems to be a waste of panels… unless the story gets dragged on longer as well. I’m disappointed in Isayama for not

My predictions: Erwin and Hange are dead, so next up will be Levi. Eren, Mikasa, and Armin will step up and take their places. We will never know what is in that basement (at least until another few years in our time pass).