Claymore 123

Miria, Deneve and company continue fighting the awakened Hysteria.

Gotta love the fist-raising flying pose.

Summary:
Helen, Tabitha and Anastasia are left trying to hold off Hysteria. Miria is watching the battle from the ground and notes that Hysteria can fire the spikes (which are connected to a rope) to propel herself high into the air but once in the air she cannot move upwards again. Yuma and Cynthia spot the injured Deneve, but Deneve tells the two to tend to Nike and especially Dietrich who is hurt bad and can't regenerate very well because she is an offensive type.

Back to the battle, Helen swings and misses, and Anastasia gets hit and is pinned to the ground by Hysteria's legs. Hysteria tells the warriors that she will spare whoever pulls out the sword lodged in her neck, but if no one takes the offer then she'll kill everyone. Miria watches the situation and realizes even the team of Northern Survivors who are at least as strong as the single digit Claymore aren't enough to take down an Abyssal One. Miria then gets the idea to go all out and awaken in order to take down Hysteria, but Deneve talks her out of it and invites her join the fight with her humanity intact. Deneve then shows Miria how to use Anastasia's hair threads to "hover" in the air and the two come up with a plan to turn the tide of the battle.

Meanwhile, Nike (who regenerate part of her right arm with Yuma's help) agrees to pull the sword out of Hysteria's neck. Nike slowly pulls the sword out and slices off the leg that has impaled Anastasia, and Deneve and Tabitha rush in to get Anastasia away from Hysteria. Nike is left to face Hysteria, but Hysteria keeps her promise and ignores Nike to go after the other warriors. Miria confronts Hyseria again, and the two have a race in mid air with Miria frequently changing directions and Helen using her extensible arms to interfere with the spikes that Hysteria is firing into the ground to anchor herself. Back on the ground, Anastasia is concerned that even Miria with her speed won't be able to outrun Hysteria forever, but Deneve points out that Miria is trying to lead Hysteria into the battle between Cassandra and Roxanne.

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The battle against Hysteria continues, and it looks like even the Northern Survivors with their greater skill and numbers aren't enough to stand against the power of an Abyssal One. So instead, Miria and company are trying to lead Hysteria into the grudge match between Cassandra and Roxanne probably in hope that Hysteria will get snagged into the battle. If that happens, Miria and team can let the three monsters sort it out themselves at least for the time being. It sure sounds simple enough, but leading Hysteria into the middle of the big fight and getting out alive won't be nearly so easy. If the plan is successful and the three resurrected start fighting each other, I wonder if their yoki will force Clare and Priscilla to come out of their slumber. Hopefully that's what Claymore is building towards.

One Piece 655

Luffy and friends venture onto a dangerous, closed off island.

Coincidentally, 2012 is the year of the Dragon.

Summary:
After emerging from underwater, the Straw Hats find that the nearby sea is on fire and any sea creatures unfortunate enough to be in the water have been cooked. The crew then receives a distress call on the Den Den Mushi from someone on the island of Punk Hazard who screams about being in a frigid environment and getting stabbed by samurais. There is only one island nearby behind the burning sea, and despite the suspicious circumstances and the fact that no log poses point to that island, Luffy decides to go and try to save whoever was on the call.

Meanwhile near Raijin Island, Smoker has been listening to the distress call from his tapping Den Den Mushi. Smoker thought that the Straw Hats would come to Raijin Island because the log pose shakes the most violently in its direction, but after hearing the call Smoker tells his crew to head to Punk Hazard which is inhabitable and closed off because of something that happened four years ago.

Back near the burning sea, the Straw Hats draw straws to determine who joins Luffy in the landing party, and Usopp, Robin and Zoro "win" the draw. Nami creates a cloud bridge to get over the flames and Luffy's party venture to the island via the Mini Merry. After Luffy's party leaves, Nami notes that the clouds on the other side of the island looks like those of a frigid winter.

Upon arriving on the island, the landing party finds that the island has been cordoned off by a giant chain linked fence with a Marine/World Government sign telling people to keep out. Luffy and comrades of course ignore the warning and venture inside, and the hot temperature force the party remove some of their clothing. The group finds the ruins of some sort of base and Robin and Usopp find the place suspicious. The group then sees the skull of a gigantic humanoid, and to their surprise they see a real life dragon who in turn asks the Straw Hats who they are.

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I'd say that's a pretty good start to the Straw Hats' next adventure. Deserted/cordoned-off island with some sort of mysterious history, surrounded by a sea of fire and with samurais and dragons is just the kind of fantastical and dangerous place you'd expect to see in the One Piece Grand Line region. Smoker had the right idea thinking that Luffy would go for the most dangerous island, but he didn't expect the Straw Hats to go off course. It looks like Smoker is still in the picture though despite not being in the right location, and so the Straw Hats and Smoker's G5 Marines will probably some time during the next story arc.

In the meantime, Luffy's landing party will have to first deal with the dragon which appears to be sentient and able to speak in human-tongue. I wonder what are the chances Luffy will try to beat the dragon up lol.

Naruto 572

Naruto and Kurama team up against Tobi's tailed beasts.

Little Kurama shedding a tear... weird.

Summary:
Naruto and Kurama counter the combined tailed beast bombs of the other beasts with their own giant tailed beast bomb. The two attacks create a huge explosion, and Naruto/Kurama uses the smoke to grab the stakes on Tobi's beasts with Kurama's tail-arms (each containing a fox mode Naruto shadow clone). Naruto wants to pull all the stakes out at once, but suddenly he is transported into an inner dimension again. This time, all of the remaining beasts and their jinchurikis are present and none of them are bound by chains. Even Son Goku and his jinchurikis appear, and all of the jinchurikis and beasts pledge support to Naruto. While watching Naruto, Kurama takes a trip down memory lane where the Sage of the Six Paths held an assembly with all nine of the young tailed beasts. The Sage stated that he won't be alive for long, but he tells the beasts to search for the right path and eventually become one again. Kurama believes that maybe this day has finally come.

Back to the real world, Naruto pulls out the stakes from the remaining beasts and Tobi has to suck the beasts back into the cursed statue. Having met with the other tailed beasts in the inner world, Naruto now has even more confidence.

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Naruto and Kurama defeat Tobi's puppets and Naruto gets more knowledge (and perhaps power) from the other tailed beasts. Kurama shows himself as the most powerful of the beasts as he and Naruto countered the combined attack of five other tailed beasts and then pulled out the control rods. Everything went so well that half of the chapter was spent in the inner world where Naruto learned the proper names of all of the tailed beasts and made some stupid jokes (and then got made fun of). I suppose the inner world stuff with all the beasts and jinchurikis pledging support was necessary, but the flashback with all the baby tailed beasts around the Sage of Six Paths was a bit weird. I certainly didn't expect to see the beasts in their kid chibi forms and I thought Kurama shedding a tear was funny. The whole thing felt out of place to me. I thought the beasts would be somewhat hostile to the Sage since he was the one who formed them from the Juubi, but it sounds like the Sage was more like a father figure to the tailed beasts. Maybe this is all to go with Naruto's central message of that everyone can and should get along or something along those lines.

Anyways, Tobi loses the puppets, but he still has the Cursed Statute and probably some other eye hacks if he chooses to continue the fight. We'll see if Naruto received any additional power-ups from his meeting with the tailed beasts.

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE 16

The war between the Federation and the Veigans continue 25 years after the battle at Ambat.

Is that Mount Fuji in the background?

Summary:
In A.G. 140, 25 years after the battle at Ambat, the war between the Federation and Veigans continue and the Veigan agent Zehearte Galette and his superior plan to move onto stage 2 of their Eden Plan. The now 39-year-old Flit is a general in the Federation and is still determined to defeat the Veigans who has refused every attempt for peace talks. Flit gets a day off from his duties and decides to return to the space colony Tordia to check on his family.

Acquiring target... love interest identified.

Flit has got the style going on these days.

At a school in Torida, two members of the school Mobile Suit club are confronted by three bullies, but club member Asemu Asuno shows up to help his fellow club members and the fight is then broken up by a teacher. Asemu and his two friends return to their warehouse to work on their mini-mobile suit for an upcoming competition, but there is a problem with the arm programming. The school cutie Romarie and her two friends come to check out the commotion. Romarie seems interested in the club's work, but her friends aren't so enthusiastic and gets her to leave. Afterwards, Asemu gets a phone call from his dad Flit who has arrived in the colony. The Asuno family (Flit, wife Emily, Vargas, Asemu and sister Unoa) has dinner together to celebrate Asemu's 17th birthday. Flit gives Asemu the AGE device and explains that Asemu should use the device to protect the things he holds precious. Flit also states that he will recommend Asemu to go to a military academy and tells Asemu not to slack off on his studies.

No, it's not the keys to the convertible, but it's something even better.

The next day at school, Zehearte transfers into Asemu's class. During break, Asemu and schoolmates watch as Zehearte has a run-in with the big bully and Zehearte embarrasses the bully without fighting back. Later, Zehearte passes by the Mobile Suit club workshop where Asemu and friends are tuning their suit, but Zehearte isn't interested in the club. Instead, Zehearte goes into the wooded area nearby and calls for the Veigan to start their attack. Two Veigan Dorados fly into the colony and start blowing up houses, and a Genoace II and two Shaldolls show up to fight the intruders. Asemu and friends see the smoke in the distance, and Asemu decides to ride his motorcycle back home after being unable to reach his mother by phone. On the way, Asemu spots Romarie in an area that has been hit. Romarie has twisted her ankle, and so Asemu brings her along for the ride. Aesemu arrives back home where Vargas informs him that Emily and Unoa are hiding safely in the basement. Vargas motions Aesemu and Emily to go into the barn where Flit has been hiding the AGE-1 Gundam Normal among a huge stack of hay. Vargas states that he and his helpers had been maintaining the Gundam all this time and tells Asemu to use the AGE device as the key. Asemu hops into and activates the Gundam. After the barn roof is opened, Asemu gets the Gundam to jump out and head towards the battle.

The Veigans suits are looking more ninja than before.

The new Gundam isn't ready yet, so for now you'll have to settle for a dual-wielding AGE-1 Gundam.

Asemu arrives when the the two Dorados had already defeated the Shaldolls and knocked down the heavily damaged Genoace. Zehearte is watching in the distance and reports that their target (the Gundam) has been sighted. Asemu fights the Dorados by dual-wielding beam sabers, and he manages to stay in the fight despite being inexperienced and knocked down once. Asemu creates a smoke screen using the Gundam's thrusters and this allows him to isolate and destroy one of the Dorados. The other Dorado tries to retaliate but its leg is grabbed by the downed Genoace, allowing the Gundam to step in and slice it apart. After the battle, the whole area is covered by a strange fog. Outside of the colony, Flit watches news of the attack from a shuttle.

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It's now on to the second generation of Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, and the Gundam has been passed down from father Flit to son Asemu. Flit is now a middle aged general of the Federation, and having too much stuff to do Flit decides to hand the Gundam pilot mantle to Asemu. It is kind of like handing the keys to the car to the son, but of course the Gundam is much more substantial than any car. With a mustache and goatee plus the designer suit and shades, Flit's current look reminds me of Tony Stark (or the Robert Downey Jr. version of said character), so he looks kind of cool for a middle-aged guy. As we all have guessed by now, Flit married Emily, and both Asemu and his sister Unoa inherited Emily's blond hair. Seems like green hair is an even more recessive trait than blond hair. Despite Flit not being around the family most of the time, Asemu seems to be a happy and balanced kid and doesn't have issues with Flit. Through the course of the 1st generation story, Flit developed a hatred for the Veigans, and we'll see what kind of beliefs Asemu will develop through his part of the show.

Looking at the start and the OP sequence, a number of characters from the 1st generation will return to show. Millais will be the new captain of the Diva, Dique will take over Vargas' role as the Diva's mechanic chief, and Woolf will be back as well with the addition of some manly sideburns. I wonder if any of the other non-deceased characters from the 1st generation will make an appearance though. In terms of new characters, Zehearte will star opposite to Asemu as the "Red Comet" masked ace pilot of this series, and Romarie will be the love interest for Asemu. Zehearte has the same last name as Decil, so there might be some relation there.

We know for a fact that Asemu will have a newer transformable Gundam at his disposal for the majority of this part of the series, and thus he won't be using the AGE-1 Gundam for long. The AGE-1 Gundam still has enough ability to defeat the second generation Veigan grunts, but it'll probably be inadequate once tougher opponents show up. My guess is that the AGE-1 will suffer heavy damage and will be rebuilt into the new Gundam, but they can also build a new one from scratch.

Anyways, this was an okay start to the second generation. The last generation ended on an attack on a Veigan hideout. Perhaps this part will end with an attack on a more significant target? The Veigan home base will probably be saved for Asemu's son though.

Gantz 356

Reika returns to help Kurono #2 against the big ugly alien.

One part of keeping your man is keeping him alive.

Summary:
Kurono #2 is lifted into the air by the big alien's telekinetic powers and has his clothes ripped off. The alien's attack is starting to hurt Kurono, but Reika returns to down the alien using her H-gun. Reika shoots the alien a few more times, but the aliens recovers enough to send Reika flying with a palm pressure wave. Kurono gets back up and seeing Reika lying on the ground. As Reika recovers from the attack, Kurono tells her to leave and states that he wished he could have seen Tae one more time. Kurono then charges towards the big alien and starts hacking at the alien with his Gantz sword. Kurono slices off the alien's hand and feet, but the alien crushes Kurono with a pressure attack by looking at Kurono. Reika rushes to Kurono who is unconscious but still alive, and so Reika picks up the Gantz sword to face the alien by herself.

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Hmmm... I guess the reason why Kurono #2 went wild is because he still can't get over the fact he is a clone, so he wants to take on the big monster by himself to throw his own life away. It is kind of hard to get over the fact that another Kurono is with Tae. Perhaps Kurono decided to snap once he saw that there were tough enemies around... doesn't make that much sense, but it kind of makes sense in the context of Gantz. Anyways, Kurono #2 is knocked out at the moment, so it's up to Reika to save them both. What are the chances that Reika will end up dying to save Kurono, and how Kurono #2 will feel if Ranka does save him?

Deadman Wonderland 51

Ganta recovers, but so does Hagire.

No, you guys can't start the show without me!

Summary:
Inside Deadman Wonderland, Yosuga follows Hagire's instructions and hooks up a bunch of equipment to Hagire in order to save his life, and Hagire then proceeds to perform surgery on himself with Yosuga's help. Meanwhile back at the submarine, Ganta finally wakes up after being unconscious for five meals worth of time. Ganta tells his buddies that he feels fine, but Ganta's comrades remember that Makina had told them that Ganta's Branch of Sin is special and consumes his body the more he uses it. Ganta then calls a meeting to tell everyone what he saw from Hagire's memory when Hagire tried to download himself into Ganta's body. Ganta states that the Mother Goose system can be unlocked if the right Branch of Sin is inserted, and Ganta states that he himself is the key. Ganta then declares he'll be the one to stop Shiro.

Back in Deadman Wonderland, Shiro/Wretched Egg comes to visit Hagire while Yosuga is sleeping. Hagire promises that he'll release Shiro, and Shiro wonders whether Hagire or Ganta will fulfill her desires.

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A short chapter this time around. Both the good guys and bad guys are regrouping after the previous battle, and we are heading towards the final battle near the Mother Goose control station. As expected, Hagire doesn't die thanks to Yosuga and will stick around to make things worse for Ganta and company. Meanwhile, Ganta also recovers but the crystal in his chest is getting spreading. The final confrontation should be coming around soon, and Ganta will probably get to at least a near death state thanks to his Branch of Sin consuming his body, and that begs the question of whether or not Ganta will survive the series. I would be surprised if we didn't get a few character deaths in the final showdown. Obviously Hagire is going to die, but the more interesting question is whether if Ganta and Shiro will live through to the end.

Naruto 571

A power-up Naruto and allies continue to battle Tobi and his beast puppets.

Kurama knocks back the other beasts with his terrible roar... and bad breath.

Summary:
The five remaining tailed beasts aim Tailed Beast Bombs at Kakashi and Guy. Kakashi and Guy are about to pull their last resort moves, but Naruto powers-up with Kurama's help and bounces all of the blasts away. Tobi's beasts decide to charge in, but Naruto forms a full size chakra version of Kurama to bounce the beasts away. Kurama warns Naruto that they can only remain in the form for 5 minutes, but Naruto thinks it's enough time to find and eliminate the chakra control rods on the beasts' bodies (using a shadow clone in Sage mode). Naruto/Kurama and Bee/Hachibi engage in some melee combat with the five beasts and Naruto's Sage clone locates all of the chakra rods. Tobi gets his beasts to combine their Tailed Beast Bombs to blast Naruto and company, and Naruto/Kurama try to counter with a giant Tailed Beast Bomb of their own.

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Naruto powered up and finally he looks like he might actually be able to win this battle. It was about time that happened. The initial fox chakra mode hasn't been all that impressive especially against strong enemies. This was a decent action chapter for Naruto/Kurama to show off their new combined abilities, and next chapter we'll probably see Naruto successfully pulling off the Tailed Beast Bomb... it'd be hilarious if Naruto fails at it even with Kurama's help, but I doubt that would happen. If Naruto does defeat all of Tobi's puppets by removing their chakra rods then it'll force Tobi to retreat for the time being, but I'm hoping something not so predictable will happen... say having Sasuke show up to crash the party? Haha one can dream.