The "My Doctor" theory/ trope: a blog entry on Weekly Shounen Jump manga

I mentioned in my last blog entry (The Wonder Woman special), something I described as "The "My" Doctor trope". Basically, to clarify, the trope refers to the point in a series where somebody really gets into it, or where a series has various versions (for example Dr. Who and each individual Doctor being someone's "My Doctor", hence the trope name).

My next few blog entries will be variants on this theme. In this blog entry I will be looking at some of the Shounen Jump manga I have read, regardless of if I still like them or NOT cough Naruto and Bleach cough. This is about the points at which I began to love them. 

Ah Naruto, how much I used to love this series! My interest spiked when a friend of mine lent me his English subtitled dvds of the series years ago. I really started to like it pretty much at the exact point Jiraiya appeared, and from then on became a hardcore fan. At this point in time in the series Naruto was given the power to control his fox chakra so the first time he first got a handle of his real strength, rather than when Orochimaru weakened him by messing up the seal on his stomach.

Bleach is well known for starting to hit its peak of awesomeness during the Soul Society story arc. Personally within that arc I really started getting into Bleach when Kenpachi first appeared, as shown in the panel above. Most shinigami don't seem to have an aura of death even though they are death gods, but Kenpachi certainly does! 

Oh Tommyrod, you creepy fucker! I was a fan of Toriko at the first chapter, a brilliant series in concept and as an actual series. However it really started to show its potential in my opinion when Tommyrod appears and fights Toriko during the Century Soup arc. He is in personality and appearance kind of a cross between Cell from Dragonball and Hisoka from Hunter X Hunter, which makes him a fantastic villain!  

D.Gray man became more than just great and into an amazing series quite early on,  the appearance of the Noa Tikki Mykk (the one in the very middle of the image above holding the butterfly) was the earliest point it started to approach my so called gods tier. My gods tier is the level at which where a series starts to go beyond the realms of 10 out of 10 into the 11 out of 10 range. The series either became truly great at that volume he appeared, or soon after when the Noah Family gathered for the first time in the manga soon after. 

Oraoraoraoraora! The famous battle cry of the third generation Joestar from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Jotaro Kujo. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is one of my favourite manga ever, but Part 3 (the introduction of Jotaro) is where it really gets awesome, when Stands are introduced. 

If Yu-Gi-Oh had been more like this and like it was during Millennium World arc, YGO would easily be in my joint first favourite #1 manga alongside One Piece, Hunter X Hunter and Dragonball. However it still was awesome enough that I had to have One Piece and Hunter X Hunter share the number one spot with Dragonball, I changed my whole ranking system just so YGO will always remain my second favourite manga!

Yami Bakura is the greatest tactician I have found in manga so far. The other YGO villains, great though they are, seem petty in comparison. 

Here is the Genei Ryodan.

This is them again but looking more mysterious. 

And there's the chibi cover volume of them, volume 12 of Hunter X Hunter. I love the Genei Ryodan. They are in part what makes Hunter X Hunter such an amazing manga and anime. They are my personal favourite criminal organisation in manga and anime, and that means something since anime and manga have great examples of excellent "evil organisations".

 I used the word criminal rather than evil in this case as an exception. Why? Because most criminal organisations in anime and manga are portrayed as just evil, but badass collections of people in a group to further their own goals. 

With a certain exception, the Ryodan are ultimately all about the collective goal. Yes they are a bunch of murdering thieves, but they are more than that. If they were in Eastenders, they may say "It's all abaaaaht the faaaaaaamly." They are a family, a band of people who formed bonds because they survived together. They played a massive role in helping HxH become my joint favourite manga and even joint first with my top anime. Might even blog about that after this series. 

I love battle shounen manga, but this battle is one of my favourite battles of all time, never mind just in One Piece. It's where One Piece really starts to show itself as one of the greatest manga series ever. On top of that, Arlong has a formidable flag. 

Pretty awesome AND badass. But that just makes Luffy even more awesome!

Now the best for last. My original number one ranked manga. Here is where it became the first number 1. Let the image speak for itself, and if it does not I might have to come back to it as a separate blog entry. Dragonball. 

With that I conclude this entry on the "My Doctor" theory/ trope series of blog entries. I will pass you over to my regular guest now. As Shenron said in the Dragonball dub: fare thee well!

Thank you Geordie Green Lantern! Today I approve of Weekly Shounen Jump manga.