Whew! A bunch of stuff came in at once, so I'll go ahead and divide this into the completely new stuff and the next entries in the series that I'm continuing to follow.
New Series:
Cardcaptor Sakura, Dark Horse omnibus version, vol.'s 1-4 (complete): Well, this series had a bit of a rough start (both in artwork and in story), not really starting to pick up until quite a ways through the first omnibus; there were definitely some elements that could have been fleshed out a lot more; and there were a couple of
other elements that the story could probably have done without (or at least done in a slightly better way).
Even so, however, by the halfway point I had been quite drawn in, and I can see why it's one of the classic magical girl series. It was certainly worth a read for me.
Continuing Series:
Gin no Saji, a.k.a. Silver Spoon, chapter 58: [spoiler]ROTFL at the (overkill) teamwork to put a stop to that kid before he could tag along.
Very cute interruption anyway, though, and LOL at everyone's reactions because they immediately realized what was supposed to be happening. Also, Hachiken and Mikage having the same wish (and what that wish actually was) was perfect.[/spoiler]
Zetsuen no Tempest chapter 20: [spoiler]Oh dear... I already felt sorry for the poor kid who has the Zetsuen tree's magic, but this chapter made me even more sympathetic.
It's not like he
wanted to have that power. At least they're treating him well right now, though.
Also, nice little ironic meta reference to the story when Samon and Mahiro were talking. Plus, LOL at the first part of Hakaze and Junichirou's conversation
-- and a great "holy crap!" twist to the last part!
I totally did not even think of that. And with magic already shown to be able to cross time... yikes.
Can't wait for more![/spoiler]
Vampire Knight vol. 15: Well, I haven't quite known what to make of this for a couple of volumes now, particularly in regards to what on earth is going on in Kaname and Ichijo's respective heads (though I do have at least somewhat of a guess as to the former).
However, I'm not counting that as a bad thing (yet), since this is obviously a slow-burning arc, and I'm keeping hope that things will be explained eventually.
Since Ichijo has always been my favorite character of the series (with Aido coming in at second), I was glad that there was finally a little development on the stuff with him in this volume. [spoiler]In fact, I'm seriously impressed by Ichijo's mental resistance to Sara, despite the fact that she's a pureblood *and* he'd taken some of her blood as well!
And, actually, Aido had a couple of really nice moments in this vol., too. So that's all good.
[/spoiler]
Kimi ni Todoke vol. 15: Wow, the stuff with Ryu and Chizuru's childhood was pretty touching. And that was quite a good cliffhanger, too (seriously can't wait to see how she responds to that!).
And last but not least,
Bakuman. vol. 16: [spoiler]Ha! Excellent twist there-- I definitely did not expect that to be Nizuma's answer. And I liked how that arc ended, too-- it was more realistic that way. I'm quite enjoying the respectful and genuinely friendly rivalry that Nizuma and Mashiro/Takagi have.
Also, Nanamine is totally behind the whole veteran resurgence in this new arc.
And finally, just on a design note, I thought it was a pretty neat little artistic touch how Nizuma's image was actually wrapped around the cover, purposefully obscuring the logos and stuff on the back (especially since it also fit well with the talk of color-page gimmicks and etc. within the volume itself).[/spoiler]