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Torture Princess: Fremd Torturchen, Vol. 1

By Keishi Ayasato and Saki Ukai. Released in Japan as “Isekai Goumon Hime” by Media Factory. Released in North America Yen Press. Translated by Nathaniel Hiroshi Thrasher. I do try not to be glib in my reviews too often, but I will admit it was tempting to have my entire review of this volume be “Loved the princess, hated the torture”. Honestly, it was a surprise to many people that I started this at all, given my wariness of overly dark and bloody titles. But I was on one of my “read the first volume of everything” kicks, so I worked my way through it. It was difficult at times, I will admit. The torture is no lie, and this isn’t even the pointless “torture them to get information” that…

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Manga the Week of 5/29/19

SEAN: 5th weeks are always awkward, aren’t they? Bookwalker has the 9th volume of The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress. Cross Infinite World has another done-in-one light novel with Another World’s Zombie Apocalypse Is Not My Problem!. I haven’t read too many CIW titles, but I always enjoy them when I do. Denpa has a 4th volume of Inside Mari. ASH: Oshimi’s manga are always a fascinating mix of compelling and uncomfortable. SEAN: From J-Novel Club, we have Demon King Daimaou 11, Der Werwolf 4, and Invaders of the Rokujouma!? 21. Kodansha has a lot of titles. A whole lot. The print debut is I’m Standing on a Million Lives, which we’ve already seen digitally. It’s an isekai, which may explain why it got a print edition, and runs in…

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Urusei Yatsura, Omnibus 2

By Rumiko Takahashi. Released in Japan in two separate volumes by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Camellia Nieh. UY gets a bit of a reboot about a quarter of a way into this omnibus. The cast is streamlined, with a lot of the alien girls after Ataru vanishing (some will be back – Benten, Oyuki – and some won’t – Kurama), and Megane and his three friends also vanishing from the manga (the anime will keep them around, for good and ill). In their place we get Shutaro Mendo, and he immediately shows us that he is going to be a main cast member fot the long haul. Indeed, after Ataru, Lum and Shinobu he’s the biggest member of…

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Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll Do Anything to Become a Librarian!, Part 1: Daughter of a Soldier, Vol. 1

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 digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof. There are people who read books about characters who are transported/reincarnated to another world in order to see fantasy battles, game-style powerups, harem antics, and a lot of plot packed into the first volume of the series. And I am here to tell you that those people should run screaming from Ascendance of a Bookworm, which I loved but is the very definition of “slow buildup”. In a way it’s sort of like Mushoku Tensei, in that a “loser-ish” protagonist is killed and reincarnated as a small child. But Rudy is born with lots…

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Bookshelf Briefs 5/21/19

Anne Happy, Vol. 9 | By Cotoji | Yen Press – This is the second-to-last volume, but while there are a few hints of plot (Hibari’s family is lampshaded a bit), for the most part it’s devoted to another test of “happiness,” this time by a VR environment that causes everyone to resemble children. Given our main cast already know each other and are pretty good friends, the stakes are honestly pretty low, and there’s a bit less “everyone is useless” here—I don’t even think Botan coughed up blood once. It does make it feel like this is a series that needs to come to an end, though, which is why it’s good that it’s about to. If you’ve been following Anne Happy, this is a pleasant enough volume, and…

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Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro, Vol. 7

By Satoko Kiyuduki. Released in Japan as “Hitsugi Katsugi no Kuro – Kaichu Tabi no Wa” by Houbunsha, serialized in the magazine Manga Time Kirara. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Sheldon Drzka. It is always lovely, especially in this age of experiencing media whose endings turn out to be trainwrecks, to see a series get it absolutely right. Everyone who has been reading the Kuro books should be absolutely satisfied by this ending, which wraps up everything we’d like to see and is probably the closest to a happy ending that this series was ever going to get. Indeed, this is lampshaded by a dream sequence showing us the Golden Ending of sorts, with Kuro cured and back to working for Sen, and you realize that…

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Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 1

Snow White with the Red Hair, Volume 1 by Sorata Akiduki The “two volume” rule for judging manga series is something I tend to stick by because sometimes it takes six or seven chapters for a series to come together. In the case of Snow White with the Red Hair, the first volume is charming, but I was left a little confused about what the storyline would be to carry this series for 20 volumes. I’m assuming that this minor quibble will be cleared up with the second volume, or if not, it will continue to be a great slice of life series about herbalism with occasional low stakes kidnappings. The woman with the red hair is actually not a princess at all, so the “Snow White” of the title…

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Kokoro Connect: Clip Time

By Sadanatsu Anda and Shiromizakana. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Molly Lee. Well, I did ask for more wacky school antics in this volume of short stories, so you can’t say I didn’t bring it on myself. This is definitely a volume that gets better as it goes along. The first story, where Inaba decides to help out two teachers in a secret sort-of relationship by publicizing it over the entire school, is the sort of plot that made me think “and then the club was disbanded and Inaba was expelled”, which didn’t happen. The chapter where Yui gets confessed to by a girl and dates her alternates between trying its best to handle the subject properly and making stupid “OMG,…

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In Another World with My Smartphone, Vol. 14

By Patora Fuyuhara and Eiji Usatsuka. Released in Japan as “Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson. Well, you can’t blame the author for nothing happening in this particular volume of Smartphone. it’s very plot-heavy, with the Phrase coming up front and center and Touya also finding out that he’s going to be getting a lot more responsibility pretty soon. What’s more, the Reverse World gets another look-in, and that and Touya’s world may soon be much closer to each other than is really comfortable. Indeed, some of the Mutant Phrase (the ones influenced by the God) are now invading that world as well, and it doesn’t have its own Touya to come in and save…

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