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Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire, Vol. 5

By Hayaken and Nagu. Released in Japan as “Eiyu-oh, Bu wo Kiwameru tame Tensei su. Soshite, Sekai Saikyou no Minarai Kisi ♀” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mike Langwiser. I am deliberately not reading prior reviews of this (which I normally do), because I know I will be typing the exact same goddamn thing again. There’s just no avoiding it. So here we go: This series only has one joke. It’s STILL a good joke. That said, the dichotomy between Reborn to Master the Blade as amusing reading about a meathead and her slightly less meathead sister and Reborn to Master the Blade as a dark fantasy with a lot of casual death is widening, and it does not always mesh together well….

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The Manga Review, 6/24/22

Hi, all! Its been a relatively slow news week manga-wise and a crazy week for me work-wise, so I’m going to dispense with the snappy introduction and get right to the links! As always, if there’s a great blog, podcast, or YouTube channel that you think should be featured in The Manga Review, leave a comment below or contact me through Twitter. Your suggestions have already helped me make this a more inclusive and representative space, so keep ’em coming! NEWS AND FEATURES The folks at J-List have posted a thoughtful article explaining the steps the United Workers of Seven Seas will need to take in order to unionize. If you don’t know much about the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and its role in “mediat[ing] between the employer, union,…

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Slayers: Hatred in Selentia

By Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis. At last, I have something to talk about. That is not a good thing. The Slayers novels are fast-paced, action-packed, have some interesting fantasy plotting, and Lina and Gourry are fun, but let’s face it, the reason this series is beloved is that the anime took the characters and fleshed them out, made them human. Character development and deep emotional pain is not something that Kanzaka specializes in or is good at. And that’s going to be a problem with this book, whose second half relies entirely on the death of a beloved character and said death driving another character to an extended murder spree, one…

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Manga the Week of 6/29/22

SEAN: As June winds to an end, manga companies are watching closely, because July means the start of a new fiscal year. What manga will balance their books? ASH: So many calendars to keep track of! SEAN: Airship has some new print volumes. We see Adachi and Shimamura 9, Classroom of the Elite 11.5, Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells 4, and Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs 6. Digitally, we see an early debut for The Case Files of Jeweler Richard (Housekishou Richard-shi no Nazo Kantei), a mystery light novel series for women that has already gotten an anime. It is another of those series I say is “not BL, but BL-adjacent”. MICHELLE: I was…

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Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll Do Anything to Become a Librarian!, Part 4: Founder of the Royal Academy’s So-Called Library Committee, Vol. 7

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof. Each of the parts of this series expands and builds on the one before it. We begin with Myne pretty much confined to her tiny home and the immediate area around it, and this expands when she starts doing her paper thing and meets Benno. Then we expand into the temple environment, where we see our first exposure to the religion of this world, Myne’s role in it, and noble society, where there is a chasm so great that Myne has to die and Rozemyne has to be born in order for the plot to…

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Forget Being the Villainess, I Want to Be an Adventurer!, Vol. 3

By Hiro Oda and Tobi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijou wa Boukensha wo Kokorozasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Kim Louise Davis. One of the gimmicks in My Next Life As a Villainess is that every reader laughs at Katarina continuing to prepare for her own doom, as they know that if she’d just relax and enjoy life with her harem, everything would be fine. Of course, later volumes show that’s not actually true. One of the things we’ve seen about villainess novels is that the narrative does not like being flouted, and will do its very best to make sure our villainess dies as she’s supposed to do. And few series have quite gone as hard about it as Forget…

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You Like Me, Don’t You? So, Wanna Go Out with Me?

By Kota Nozomi and Azuri Hyuga. Released in Japan as “Kimitte Watashi no Koto Suki Nandeshou?” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Tentai Books. Translated by Noor Hamdan. After getting a very old series licensed by J-Novel Club (When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace), Kota Nozomi now has a more recent series out over here, one tying in to the current trend of “relaxed, sweet and syrupy teen romances”. The artist may also be familiar to readers, having done illustrations for Our Crappy Social Game Club Is Gonna Make the Most Epic Game. And the plot is, of course, very familiar, as the whole point of this genre is to give the single teenage mane a book to read that will make him sit up and think “yeah, that…

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Sword Art Online: Progressive, Vol. 8

By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul. (This review spoils the end of the book, but I’ll wait till after the cover art and summary to do so.) For the most part, Sword Art Online is a cash cow. What this means, especially now that Kawahara is no longer relying on rewriting his webnovel, is that he is free to do what he wants and take all the time he needs without real fear of being cancelled. Now, this can be dangerous, and the series risks becoming a bit TOO meandering. But it also means that he’s happy to set up a bunch of stuff, lead us towards resolving it… and then kick it up…

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Otherside Picnic, Vol. 7

By Iori Miyazawa and shirakaba. Released in Japan as “Urasekai Picnic” by Hayakawa Bunko JA. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann. If Otherside Picnic is a series about ghost stories and legends, and going to another world to explore and confront them, then the series had to, at some point, deal with its own self-made ghost. Satsuki Uruma has been a part of this series from the very beginning, but we’ve never quite met her. Her presence has been felt, though, both from the impact her life and death had on Toriko and Kozakura and also because the Otherside has used her presence and likeness to hunt and destroy Sorawo. In this new volume, Sorawo finally meets Satsuki and has a conversation with her, and…

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